cortisol tags

Thy­roid tid­bit #1 COCONUT OIL: Thy­roid patients con­ti­nue to report that the daily use of Coco­nut Oil (extra vir­gin is good) cau­sed an inc­rease in meta­bo­lism and even weight loss in  somewho wan­ted the lat­ter. How much daily? It varies from 2 – 4 T. but be care­ful, as too much can cause diarrhea. 

Thy­roid tid­bit #2 GRASS FED DESICCATED THYROID: Are you worried what the pigs were eating before the thy­roids became desic­ca­ted?? If so, try Dr. Lowe’s Thyro-Gold, which is actually from cow who are pasture-fed. Then report back to STTM on the Con­tact Me page and tell us how it works for you as a treat­ment, or not work. I will com­pile infor­ma­tion and report it here.

Thy­roid tid­bit #3 ALZHEIMERS DISEASE: Impro­ving your thy­roid func­tion just may les­sen your chance of get­ting demen­tia. But research has also found a Lep­tin con­nec­tion: http://www.webmd.com/alzheimers/news/20091215/more-leptin-may-mean-less-alzheimers

Thy­roid tid­bit #4: ASHWAGANDHA: If you have slug­gish adre­nals and are on cor­ti­sol, adding the herb Ash­wa­gandha can be an exce­llent and natu­ral addi­tio­nal sup­port for your adre­nals. Even without adre­nal fati­gue, it’s also good in the face of excess emo­tio­nal stress, and is an anti-inflammatory.

Thy­roid tid­bit #5 REVERSE T3 – IS YOURS TOO HIGH? The body natu­rally con­verts T4 to RT3 as a way to clear out excess T4. But you can also make too much when your ferri­tin is too low, your adre­nals are stres­sed, B12 is low, in the pre­sence of dia­be­tes, and other chro­nic issues. High levels of RT3 can cause a poun­ding hear­trate, con­ti­nued hypo, and just a fee­ling that you aren’t fee­ling great yet. To learn more, go here.

Thy­roid tid­bit #6 BI-POLAR: Have you been diag­no­sed with bi-polar disease? If so, you might want to do the right tests for hypothy­roi­dism, since there can be a strong con­nec­tion bet­ween the two, and you can either be undiag­no­sed thanks to the wrong test, or under­trea­ted thanks to Synth­roid, Levoxyl, Eltro­xin or other T4-only medi­ca­tions. Read more here plus more detail in the STTM book.

Thy­roid tid­bit #7 GREEN POWDER and CHOCOLATE: Don’t like green veg­gies but want to be healthy? Look into the dif­fe­rent varie­ties of “Green Pow­der” that you can stir into your favo­rite juice or water. Read the labels, tho, and avoid those with soy. Like cho­co­late?? They now make CHOCOLATE FLAVORED GREEN SUPERGREEN POWDERS and I am a huge fan. Just goo­gle what is all in caps before this.

Thy­roid tid­bit #8 YOUR GRANDMA: Thy­roid func­tion will natu­rally go down­ward in the elderly.That’s why grandma starts wea­ring that pur­ple swea­ter in weather you are swea­ting in.  But put­ting those over 65 on T4-only thy­ro­xine is not the ans­wer, as a recent study sho­wed.  That’s why YOU AND I are lucky to be on desic­ca­ted thy­roid with its direct T3, or even those of you who are on T3 only.

Thy­roid tid­bit #9 EGGS ARE A BIT SCARY RIGHT NOW: Not neces­sa­rily for thy­roid folks only, but you should be aware that with the recent recall of huge amounts of eggs in the US, there are reports of a four-fold inc­rease in Sal­mo­ne­lla Ente­ri­ti­dis infec­tions since May 2010 because of eggs and health offi­cials fear the worst may be yet to come. Why? Because the same eggs have been used in other pro­ducts. Scroll down this page to see list of reca­lled eggs. P.S. if you get sal­mo­ne­lla and are on cor­ti­sol for adre­nal fati­gue, you should dis­cuss with your doc­tor about using OTC cor­ti­sol cream, since you may not be able to hold down the pills. 1/4 tsp equals 10 mg cortisol.

Thy­roid tid­bit #10 FLU SHOTS vs. VITAMIN D: Just when you are making pro­gress trea­ting your hypothy­roi­dism and/or adre­nal fati­gue comes the sea­son for the flu. And if you goo­gle the same same title of this tid­bit, you’ll see nume­rous artic­les about the effi­cacy of taking Vit. D rather than the flu shots.  How much? Gene­ral recom­men­da­tion are 1000 IU’s daily at the mini­mum. Others point to more. Do your research.

I recently got an email from a sweet thy­roid friend and advo­cate, Bev, aka Thyro-butterfly, whom I’ve known for seve­ral years. And Bev has had two relap­sing and unner­ving bouts with a con­di­tion that’s not com­mon but under-diagnosed: Hashimoto’s Encepha­lo­pathy. She sta­ted “I think ever­yone who has Hashi’s should know that this exists because the symp­toms are so simi­lar to severe neu­ro­lo­gi­cal pro­blems. And the treat­ment, though not curea­ble, is rela­ti­vely easy to do.…” Hashimoto’s Encepha­lo­pathy (HE), a rare neu­roen­doc­rine disor­der which was ter­med and recog­ni­zed just 44 years ago in 1966, has a strong con­nec­tion to the autoim­mune thy­roid disease called Hashi­mo­tos, or Thy­roi­di­tis. i.e.  just as anti­bo­dies attack your thy­roid, there are rare cases where it can attack and des­troy your brain cells. Having a high thy­roid pero­xi­dase (TPO) anti­bo­dies lab result  is com­mon with Hashimoto’s Encepha­lo­pathy. Those with HE can share many symp­toms, or can have uni­que symp­toms from each other. Symp­toms include:

• tre­mors (most com­mon symptom)
• lan­guage dif­fi­culty, whether spea­king, wri­ting or read (also common)
• con­fu­sion
• limi­ted atten­tion span or concentration
• poor memory and retention
• demen­tia diagnosis
• diso­rien­ta­tion
• rest­less­ness
• sei­zu­res
• con­vul­sions
• symp­toms simi­lar to a stroke
• tre­mors
• muscle jer­king
• poor coor­di­na­tion (wal­king, fin­gers, hands, etc)
• par­tial right-sided paralysis
• hea­daches
• fati­gue
• sleep pro­blems
• psycho­sis
• coma

Luc­kily, treat­ment is fairly straight­for­ward and dra­ma­tic against symp­toms: ste­roid use, which is why it’s also ter­med “steroid-responsive encepha­lo­pathy asso­cia­ted with autoim­mune thy­roi­di­tis (SREAT)”. Says Elaine Moore in her article  tit­led Hashi­mo­tos encepha­lo­pathy: A Trea­ta­ble Form of Demen­tia,  “Patients with SREAT show a good res­ponse to cor­ti­cos­te­roids such as pred­ni­sone and rela­ted immu­no­sup­pres­sants because of the abi­lity of these medi­ca­tions to reduce thy­roid anti­body pro­duc­tion and reduce inflam­ma­tion. Researchers in India report a case of SREAT that did not res­pond to cor­ti­cos­te­roids but sho­wed a very favo­ra­ble res­ponse to plasma exchange, a tech­ni­que used to remove cir­cu­la­ting anti­bo­dies.” Doses of ste­roid can vary from indi­vi­dual to indi­vi­dual, but some do well on 4 – 6 mg cor­ti­sol for a few days. Others may need more.  Remis­sion is the norm for most. You’ll have to watch for relap­ses. Since mis­diag­no­sis is com­mon, it’s impor­tant to talk to your doc­tor about this poten­tial disor­der, tes­ting, and treat­ment if you have Hashi’s and symp­toms simi­lar to any of the above. Thanks to Bev for brin­ging this issue back up. ******************************** Have you sig­ned up to be noti­fied of these blog posts? To do so, go to the left and below the links right on the Stop the Thy­roid Mad­ness blog.

It’s a con­ti­nuing tra­vesty, and you see it in patient groups.

i.e. many patients still find them­sel­ves sick and disa­bled, stum­bling mise­rably from one unin­for­med doc­tor to another…in spite of the won­ders of natu­ral desic­ca­ted thy­roid, the tes­ti­mony of chan­ged lives, the edu­ca­tion of patients thanks to the STTM web­site & book, and a small but gro­wing body of wise doc­tors who seem to be “get­ting it”,

So what’s the pro­blem?? It lays with our doc­tors and the entire medi­cal pro­fes­sion.

1. Heavy-handed con­trol over your medi­ca­tion: You go to pick up your presc­rip­tion, and find your medi­ca­tion has been lowe­red by your doc­tor without your agree­ment or know­ledge, as hap­pe­ned to Terry here (scroll down to find her post).
2. Igno­rance about adre­nal fati­gue and treat­ment: You clearly have an adre­nal pro­blem, and one doc­tor dis­mis­ses its exis­tence, another doc­tor poo-poos the saliva test, another doc­tor tells you cor­ti­sol sup­ple­men­ta­tion is dan­ge­rous, another doc­tor thrusts all his her­bal sup­ple­ments at you, another doc­tor thinks that 5 or 10 mg cor­ti­sol is enough…and on and on and on.
3. Dis­mis­sing the Ferri­tin test: You want to know what your ferri­tin is, but the doctor’s nurse unders­co­res that they’ve already chec­ked your iron levels, so there’s no need for more testing.
4. Dis­mis­sing you: You are wise thanks to rea­ding, researching and living in your own body, yet your doc­tor calls you a pro­ble­ma­tic patient on your charts, dis­mis­ses you, or gets angry.
5. RT3 huh? You have strong sus­pi­cions that your Reverse T3 is too high thanks to adre­nal fati­gue, low ferri­tin, undiag­no­sed glu­ten issues, or other rea­sons, yet this doc­tor refu­ses to test you, that doc­tor says an RT3 excess is rare.
6. Look at me! Look at me! You make an appoint­ment with that great doc who has a fabu­lous website/book and who shouts that he uses desic­ca­ted thy­roid with a big smile…yet any or all of the above and below occurs with him/her or his “trai­ned” associates.
7. Con­ti­nued worship of the TSH lab test:  Too many doc­tors still think the TSH lab test is from God Almighty. So when you finally start to feel well on desic­ca­ted thy­roid with a TSH at zero or below…WHAM…you must lower your meds because you are somehow “hyper” in spite of no symp­toms to match.
8. Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal addicts: You men­tion your lin­ge­ring hypothy­roid symp­toms, and you are ban­dai­ded with anti-depressants, anti-anxietal meds, sta­tins, BP pills, pain tablets, acid reflux pills, cal­cium for your thin­ning bones…instead of unders­tand that these are ALL side effects of poor treat­ment or undis­co­ve­red issues.
9. The country you live in: The des­pe­ra­tion of UK thy­roid patients is deep thanks to a thy­roid asso­cia­tion and a College of Phy­si­cians which tigh­tens the screws if a doc­tor dares to presc­ribe a life chan­ging medi­ca­tion with T3 in it.  Or just as frus­tra­ting, having a govern­ment which for­bids desic­ca­ted thy­roid to arrive to you in the mail.
10. Refor­mu­la­tions and Big Pharma apathy: Forest Labs tur­ned one of the most popu­lar and effec­tive desic­ca­ted thy­roid brand, Armour, into a pill with too much cellu­lose and too little suc­rose , cau­sing a mas­sive return of symp­toms in many, soo­ner or later. RLC also refor­mu­la­ted their Natu­reth­roid, and though some patients still do well on it, others do mise­rably, and we are left won­de­ring WHAT to take. (Thank God for Erfa’s Cana­dian “Thy­roid”, but will we be able to con­ti­nue with this fabu­lous desic­ca­ted thy­roid product?)

And there are more rea­sons you might want to bring up in the Com­ments part of this post.

So you see, it’s no won­der so MANY patients feel for­ced to self-treat, yet they are also con­dem­ned for doing so. I refuse to con­demn them for exactly the rea­sons above.  Petty. All I ask is that we all try to find a good doc, but it may be quite hard when you con­si­der all the above.

All-in-all, we still have  a way to go, baby, and espe­cially with the doc­tors we try so hard to get help from…but can’t.

P.S. Are you brave? Walk into your doctor’s office with the STTM shirt.

I am amazed.

The Society for Endoc­ri­no­logy in the UK recently repor­ted that taking higher doses of thy­ro­xine (which will lower the TSH lab result) may be safer than has been pur­por­ted for decades.

And how low a TSH lab result did they find to be safe? As low as 0.04 – 0.4, the research found, is still safe enough to not cause an inc­rea­sed risk of  “heart disease, abnor­mal heart­beat pat­terns and bone frac­tu­res”, aka HYPERthy­roid symp­toms.

And those of us world­wide who know about the supe­rio­rity of natu­ral desic­ca­ted thy­roid can also use these research results in our fight to be on enough desic­ca­ted thy­roid with TSH-obsessed doc­tors, who view research as the end-all to the truth rather than solid cli­ni­cal pre­sen­ta­tion, sadly. Because when we are on enough desic­ca­ted thy­roid to feel fabu­lous again with all symp­toms remo­ved (in the pre­sence of good cor­ti­sol levels, ade­quate ferri­tin, B12 and diges­tive issues), our TSH lab result is always low, aka sup­pres­sed, and without one iota of hyper symptoms.

Patients have expe­rien­tially known this truth about the lousy TSH lab test, without research, for years!

But here’s what’s mis­sing from their research:

1. Those “safe, low levels of an “ink spot on a piece of paper” do not mean the 16,426 patients they follo­wed will be without nume­rous issues rela­ted to being on a sto­rage hor­mone.  i.e. the body is not meant to live for con­ver­sion alone! A healthy thy­roid will con­vert T4 to the active T3, but it will also pro­vide direct T3 in addi­tion to the T2, T1 and calcitonin…none of which a T4-only med pro­vi­des directly.
2. Addi­tio­nally, the TSH lab test only reveals the action of a pitui­tary mes­sen­ger hor­mone called the Thy­roid Sti­mu­la­ting Hor­mone (TSH).  The lab test does NOT mea­sure whether your tis­sue is recei­ving enough thy­roid hor­mone, which is why so many patients on T4 end up with depres­sion, rising cho­les­te­rol, high blood pres­sure, low B12, low ferri­tin and many symp­toms, as well as adre­nal fati­gue thanks to the ina­de­quate treat­ment of T4.
3. Rai­sing T4 often encou­ra­ges an excess pro­duc­tion of Reverse T3 over time, which will block cell recep­tors and inc­rease the very symp­toms the researcher state is avoi­ded, as well as far more hypothy­roid symptoms.

But on the posi­tive side: this is just one more research study that ends up being on our side in our quest in teaching our doc­tors about far bet­ter treat­ment pro­to­cols. I have also inc­lu­ded men­tion of this study on the follo­wing page on STTM, where I keep a ongoing list of  research which sup­ports what patients already know by their expe­rience and cli­ni­cal pre­sen­ta­tion:  http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/medical-research/

Seve­ral years ago, a large per­cen­tage of thy­roid patients on yahoo groups like NTH were figu­ring out that they had adre­nal fati­gue, aka low cor­ti­sol, from years of adre­nals wor­king over­time due to the ina­de­quate TSH lab test, or being on the lousy T4-only medi­ca­tions like Synth­roid, Levoxyl, levothy­ro­xine, Eltro­xin, etc.

Not only does low cor­ti­sol keep desic­ca­ted thy­roid from wor­king well, it also cau­ses all sorts of angst with para­noia, depres­sion, anxiety, easy anger, sen­si­ti­vity to light and/or sounds, rec­lu­si­ve­ness, sleep issues and more.

First, patients dis­co­ve­red the impor­tance of using the 24 hour adre­nal saliva test rather than blood or urine. When low cor­ti­sol was con­fir­med, the treat­ment was using cor­ti­sol, aka hydro­cor­ti­sone, to give them­sel­ves back what their adre­nals were not, to allow thy­roid hor­mo­nes to reach the cells, and to give the poo­ped out adre­nals a rest.

And suc­cess was achie­ved! When all other issues were dis­co­ve­red and trea­ted, patients were finally able to heal their adre­nals with cor­ti­sol use, wean off, and be suc­cess­ful in their con­ti­nued treat­ment with desic­ca­ted thy­roid! That suc­cess con­ti­nues today!

Yet in spite of clear suc­cess in the treat­ment of low cor­ti­sol with sup­ple­men­tal cor­ti­sol in the correct amount for each indi­vi­dual (which can range from 15 to 40 mg gene­rally – men often need the higher end), as well as exce­llent books on the sub­ject by Wil­son, Peat­field, Jef­fries and the STTM book, patients like RD below still encoun­ter doc­tors who fill their minds with all sorts of fear and warnings:

I bought your book and later on I dis­co­ve­red your web­site which are both great. They are a superb source of infor­ma­tion and sup­port for thy­roid and adre­nal fati­gue suf­fe­rers. Thank you so much!

Per­so­nally I got adre­nal fati­gue by a sus­tai­ned lack of sleep for seve­ral years (crying babies).  I found a doc­tor who presc­ri­bed Hydro­cor­ti­sone (17.5 mg/day, 5 – 5-5 – 2.5), Flu­dro­cor­ti­sone, DHEA and Tes­tos­te­rone. Symp­toms disap­pea­red in about 2 weeks.

A first attempt to wean off after 6 months made some serious symp­toms reap­pear very quickly, so I retur­ned to the ori­gi­nal dose.

It is very stress­ful that many esta­blished doc­tors (our family doc­tor, and my wife’s thyroid-endocrinologist) are sca­ring me like hell that I am taking HC. They are saying I am des­tro­ying my body and I will never suc­ceed in wea­ning off HC.

My wife is a T4-only thyroid-patient with low-cortisol symp­toms. She also has been sca­red about des­si­ca­ted thy­roid and HC. Rea­ding your book I was howe­ver con­vin­ced she could bene­fit a lot from a bet­ter treatment…

Keep up the good work, as patients we are really left alone in the dark by our doctors…

And unfor­tu­na­tely, it’s true. Thy­roid and adre­nal patients are left in the dark by many doc­tors about a variety of issues rela­ted to bet­ter thy­roid treat­ment, adre­nal issues, low ferri­tin, and more.  So here’s where you can read more, and in turn, take this impor­tant infor­ma­tion into your doc­tors offices:

• All about the pro­blem of adre­nal fatigue
• How to treat
• Symp­toms of having an adre­nal problem
• The STTM book, which not only has more detail, but can be taken right into the doctor’s office
• Talk to other patients, inc­lu­ding a group tar­ge­ted for adre­nal fatigue

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If you mis­sed the exce­llent Part 2 with researcher Dr. John C. Lowe last Thurs­day eve­nings, you can lis­ten to the recor­ding, as well as sign up to be a Follo­wer of the Thy­roid Patient Com­mu­nity Call, here.