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Last week, I had found my blood pres­sure quite high for me! Upper 140’s and some 150’s for my Sys­to­lic, and upper 90’s and lower 100’s for my Dias­to­lic.   Stage One hyper­ten­sion!  I was pretty sure my 4 grains may sud­denly be a tad too high since ente­ring meno.  My temps and hear­trate implied that, too.

I got off Armour for two days to use up some excess, got back on one, then on 2 grains multi-dosed.  My plan is to make my way back up to 3 1/2 grains by a week or slightly more…and see.

In the mean­time, I have been using some blood pres­sure lowe­ring sup­ple­ments (high dose potas­sium, grape seed extract, Braggs Apple Cider Vine­gar in juice, more CoQ10 than nor­mal, plus my regu­lar sup­ple­ments).  I was more faith­ful to my tread­mill wal­king (thanks to an April that still thinks it’s win­ter), and medi­ta­ting. The lat­ter two defi­ni­tely hel­ped lower both the Sys­to­lic and Dias­to­lic, even if not low enough for my ideal.

For the last five days, my BP rea­dings have still been too high. All those days, I had been sea­ted on our couch. I put a pillow in my lap, laying my arm on that pillow, which meant my arm was slightly down­ward.  Some­ti­mes my wrist would hang off the pillow.

Today, I deci­ded I wan­ted to test something I have read. Namely, it’s actually quite impor­tant how you place your arm. The recom­men­ded way is pla­cing your arm per­pen­di­cu­lar to your body and at the height of your heart or a tad higher, all while com­for­ta­ble res­ting on something.  Elbow can be fle­xed, but your arm must still be per­pen­di­cu­lar to your body and about heart height or slightly higher.

Below are four of my most recent after­noon BP rea­dings with pulse: two with the Left arm, then two with the Right arm.

L:  139/106   98  (arm han­ging down and res­ting on sea­ted leg)
L:  122/88 89  (arm up, per­pen­di­cu­lar to my body, sup­por­ted by pillows)
R:  141/87     92  (arm han­ging down and res­ting on pillow)
R:  123/85 89 (arm up, per­pen­di­cu­lar to my body, sup­por­ted by pillows)

What you should note is that the first L rea­ding, and the first R rea­ding, were with the arm rela­xed on a pillow but lower than my heart.  The second of each is with the arm on two pillows, put­ting it per­pen­di­cu­lar to my heart,  with elbow fle­xed, and all of arm com­ple­tely supported.

I was shoc­ked! Put­ting my arms in what research is saying is the CORRECT posi­tion gave me much bet­ter rea­dings. I am VERY plea­sed with the 122 and 123.  Much bet­ter. And though the 88 and 83 Dias­to­lics are not to my liking yet, and tell me I need more work, the dif­fe­rence bet­ween the arm posi­tions was stunning.…as is the dif­fe­rence in what I’ve been get­ting for five days.

More info: it was brought to my atten­tion that taking a second BP rea­ding is usually always lower any­way. Ah, I thought, that’s correct! So to test this infor­ma­tion based on research, I went back last night before bed­time. First took my BP with my arm in the upper correct posi­tion. Then the second time, took it with my arm down.

138/89 (up per­pen­di­cu­lar to body; level with heart) pulse 80
146/100 (arm down) pulse 82

The second did NOT go down. It went UP! Interesting.

*Want to be infor­med of the STTM blog pos­tings?? Curious what’s on my mind? Just use the Noti­fi­ca­tions to the left at the bot­tom of the links.

**Are you in the US and want to help make sure we don’t end up like the UK, having our Armour taken away?? In the post below, I have given you SEVEN STEPS that I hope you will follow through on!  YOU can make a dif­fe­rence.

Ever heard of perch­lo­rate?? It’s a salt taken from perch­lo­ric acid, and it’s used in roc­ket fuel and explo­si­ves.  It was also once used in a medi­ca­tion to treat hyperthyroidism.

And guess where resi­dues of it are hiding? In our drin­king water and in infant for­mula. (EPA map shows where perch­lo­rate is manu­fac­tu­red just in the US — nearly every state)

In a recent article by the Envi­ron­men­tal Wor­king Group,  it’s esti­ma­ted that 15 brands of infant for­mula are con­ta­mi­na­ted with it, and two of the most con­ta­mi­na­ted brands of those 15 made up 87% of pow­de­red for­mula used in 2000…all accor­ding to the CDC (Cen­ters for Disease Con­trol and Prevention).

As bad as that is, this goes beyond infant for­mula. It’s esti­ma­ted that the drin­king water of 28 sta­tes is con­ta­mi­na­ted by perch­lo­rate, and other esti­ma­tes are 35.  In addi­tion,  the majo­rity of women who breast­feed have it in their milk.  And you can find it in water-rich foods such as toma­toes and melons, or carrots and spi­nach.  It could even be found in milk.  Ouch.

So we not only have millions of US babies being expo­sed to a toxin which can dimi­nish thy­roid health, but adults who can be drin­king their water and eating their food.

But guess what can coun­ter the toxic effect of perch­lo­rate? Iodine sup­ple­men­ta­tion, if you take enough. In spite of some con­tro­versy with the use of iodine sup­ple­men­ta­tion, this gives one pause in favor of it.

Luc­kily for all of us who know that desic­ca­ted thy­roid like Armour is a bet­ter thy­roid treat­ment, it also con­tains iodine. And some go beyond that, adding iodine to their sup­ple­ments via Lugols or Iodo­ral.  It might be worth loo­king into.

P.S. The buck doesn’t stop with perch­lo­ra­tes in our water. We could also be expo­sed to a variety of pes­ti­ci­des, che­mi­cals from depo­sed presc­rip­tion drugs, and even mer­cury in our water.  Sad.  Our poor thy­roids are assaulted.

When I  was ten years old, my mother had elec­tric shock treatment.

The memory stands out in my mind like a bea­con. And when my Dad brought her home, he took me aside and explai­ned that my mama was not going to remem­ber where things are for awhile, and we’d have to help her. That was espe­cially true with the 4-legged sewing basket.

She even­tually regai­ned her memory. But she was never again the same bright and quick wit­ted mother I used to have when I was younger.

Why was shock treat­ment done?  To coun­ter her mys­te­rious ongoing and disa­bling depres­sion.  And this was her last option.

It didn’t work.

She lived on anti-depressants, spe­ci­fi­cally a high dose of Ela­vil, the rest of her com­pro­mi­sed life.

And more than 40 years later, about a year after her death, a change in my own life with Armour hel­ped me rea­lize why she had to be depen­dent on an anti-depressant for so many years:  Synth­roid.  My mother was on Synth­roid almost her entire adult life — a medi­ca­tion, along with Levoxyl, Levothy­ro­xine, Unith­roid, Eltro­xin, Leva­xin, Nor­ton, Eutro­sig  and Oro­xine, which lea­ves nearly all patients with lin­ge­ring hypothy­roid symp­toms, inc­lu­ding one of the most com­mon one:  chro­nic on-going depression.

And a large body of doc­tors all around the world just don’t get it.

What brought this memory of my mother up in my mind? Because two days ago, I chat­ted with a gal on Synth­roid.   By all appea­ran­ces, she see­med to be doing well, as some will make you think.  She said she had enough energy, wasn’t losing her hair, and felt okay. But when I pro­bed dee­per, she admit­ted that her blood pres­sure was going too high (as hap­pe­ned to my mother on a T4-only med) and she had a pro­blem with depres­sion and was on Well­bu­trin.  Bingo.

See http://biopsychiatry.com/hypothyroidism.htm which is also here: http://www.theannals.com/cgi/content/abstract/34/10/1142

Want to be infor­med of these blog posts?? Curious what’s on Janie’s mind? Use the Noti­fi­ca­tion fea­ture on the bot­tom left of the links.

And again, on the heels of my post below about Sheila Tur­ner of the UK’s TPA (be sure and read it – good com­ments, too) comes a blog post by Dr. Richard B. Gut­ler of Cali­for­nia, an Endoc­ri­no­lo­gist (why are we not sur­pri­sed).  And his message?

1) That the NHS is correct to ban Armour

2) That Armour is a “second drug” that cau­ses harm.

3) That it’s only “fringe” patients who don’t do well on T4

4) That none of the above patients are hypothyroid

5) That they don’t feel well on T4 because of other reasons

6) The­rapy is not nee­ded if the TSH is below 10

You know what patients have a fan­tasy about, Dr. Gut­ler?? That folks like YOU become hypothy­roid and are put on T4. You’ll then have to eat dirt as you see your blood pres­sure rising, or your cho­les­te­rol doing the same, or depres­sion and fati­gue set­ting in, or your adre­nals over­wor­king, or weight gain and a host of other con­ti­nuing symp­toms of hypothy­roid while on T4. OH WAIT. Those are all due to something else. Gee, let’s put you on anti-depressants, sta­tins, blood pres­sure meds, pain meds, anti-anxiety meds since those “other” rea­sons never seem to be fixed.  OH WAIT. They DO get fixed when these same patients are switched to Armour or any other desic­ca­ted thy­roid, and have addres­sed their low cor­ti­sol or low ferri­tin thanks to years of undiag­no­sis or under­treat­ment with T4.

SHAME ON YOU.

p.s. It’s because of opi­nions like yours that the Stop the Thy­roid Mad­ness book has been sent to patients in over 16 coun­tries, so far. Peo­ple want to find out the TRUTH.

Update: you can read Sheila’s and UK-TPA’s res­ponse here: http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/uk-tpas-response-to-the-rcp/

See more from Sheila that gives UK patients hope: http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/relationship-between-the-RCP-and-MHRA/

Want to be noti­fied of my blog posts? Curious what’s on my mind? Use the Noti­fi­ca­tion method to be infor­med. Look on the bot­tom left of the links where you can sign up. )

Even 1 1/2 years ago, over 2000 pro­fes­sio­nals from a variety of dis­ci­pli­nes called the US Con­gress to end Fluo­ri­da­tion of water, citing it’s toxi­city and the decep­tion of put­ting it in our water. You can read their call to action here.

The impor­tance of this call lies in each of us with thy­roid disease, since fluo­ride is a KNOWN inhi­bi­tor of our thy­roid function.

As of Feb. 9^th, 2009, the Cou­rier Post Online of South Jer­sey has an exce­llent article on the pro­blem of our extreme expo­sure to fluo­ride.  This article cites the follo­wing facts:

1) 53 US cities rejec­ted fluo­ri­da­tion during our last Novem­ber elec­tion
2) Inges­ted fluo­ride can damage kid­ney patients, bones, the thy­roid gland, high water drin­kers, and children’s teeth
3) Stu­dies lin­king fluo­ride to can­cer and lowe­red IQ are plau­si­ble.
4) In 2007, the Bri­tish Medi­cal Jour­nal indi­ca­ted that fluo­ri­da­tion never was pro­ven safe or effec­tive and may be unethi­cal.
5) Health Canada says the govern­ment should cut the recom­men­ded amount in drin­king water, encou­rage the use of low-fluoride tooth­paste by chil­dren and have makers of infant for­mula reduce levels.

I per­so­nally made a point to stop using any tooth­paste with Fluo­ride a few years ago.  I also sup­ple­ment with iodine, since fluo­ride dis­pla­ces iodine levels. Sadly, I still love iced tea, which con­tains fluo­ride.  But YOU can avoid more fluo­ride expo­sure by fin­ding a way to get off anti-depressants and osteo­po­ro­sis medi­ca­tions which con­tain fluo­ride, and that is espe­cially pos­si­ble when you are opti­mal with Armour desic­ca­ted thy­roid in pre­sence of strong adre­nals or opti­mal cor­ti­sol supplementation.