
Why is thyroid disease often overlooked?
TSH stands for Thyroid Stimulating Hormone but it is the pituitary gland that secretes TSH, not the thyroid gland. So basically it is a brain hormone, not a thyroid hormone. If you don’t get a full thyroid panel you won’t know if your thyroid is working optimally and that can be the answer to your symptoms most doctors miss. Conventional medicine overlooks MAJOR aspects of thyroid health because they only run TSH level and it will only tell you a small part of the story.
Symptoms of underactive thyroid (hypothyroidism) :
Ongoing fatigue?
General malaise and low energy?
Elevated LDL cholesterol?
Feeling cold much of the time?
Low sex drive?
Brain fog?
The outer third of your eyebrows are very thin or missing?
Severe PMS or irregular periods?
Constipation?
Anxiety or depression?
Dry skin or hair loss?
Can’t lose weight no matter what you do?
Types of thyroidism
You can have the autoimmune disease Hashimoto or hypothyroid where everything slows down or you can have Grave’s disease where you are in overdrive or hyperthyroidism. One woman in 8 of the U.S. population will develop a thyroid condition during their lifetime and up to 60 % of those are unaware that they have it. The most common form of thyroid disease is hypothyroidism where your thyroid is interactive and does not produce enough thyroid hormone. The symptoms above are some early warning signs of an underactive thyroid.
How to improve your thyroid function:
Typical conventional medicine doesn’t have the time to find out what are the triggers to a dysregulated thyroid. You can either get prescribed synthetic T4 thyroid hormones to get your levels up or prescribe anti-thyroid medications to decrease your thyroid level.
The problem is that it is just not that simple. The standard thyroid replacement is just T4 - it doesn't have a T3 or T2, calcitonin, or other thyroid growth factors or enzymes in it. Dosage levels are usually monitored without looking at the other thyroid hormones levels. How in the world can you know if someone has restored thyroid function if you're not looking at the other markers? T4 needs to be converted into active T3 in the body and if this conversion is not happening you won’t get much relief from synthetic T4 medication. It might work for some people which is great, but it might also be completely worthless for other people's thyroid symptoms. It doesn’t surprise me that so many people have persistent symptoms. It is not a matter of being right or wrong but addressing the full spectrum of hypothyroid function is key.
Your doctor’s lab reference ranges may not be optimal ranges.
Even though your test results are “normal” in the reference range and your doctor says everything looks fine they are not the optimal thyroid reference ranges. The normal thyroid test results reference ranges are too broad and often inaccurate. Many people leave their doctor's office often told their TSH is normal but they keep having symptoms. In my practice, I use a more narrow reference range - the optimal thyroid reference range I find my clients thrive on.
How to improve your thyroid function
I use a root-cause approach to treating dysfunction so that I can address the issue at its source.
I take an in-depth look at my client's history and use comprehensive lab testing to identify the factors that triggered the imbalance in the first place.
You don’t need to suffer or to feel exhausted any longer. And you don’t need antidepressant medication either. You just need to address the root cause of the problem.
If you need more information please don’t hesitate to contact me.
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