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Today I baked a cho­co­late cake for my son’s birth­day. It was exce­llent. Why? Because it was the result of seve­ral impor­tant ingre­dients. Lea­ving any of them out would have resul­ted in a cake less than great.

And your health and feel-goods as a thyroid/adrenal patient, inc­lu­ding your abi­lity to suc­cess­fully get off HC,  is like my son’s cake: a com­bi­na­tion of ingre­dients that you have to get right. Below are ten “ingre­dients” to inves­ti­gate and find out which may not be right in you for good health and feel-goods.

1) The right amount of cor­ti­sol: Too little cor­ti­sol or too much cor­ti­sol has its con­se­quen­ces. Too little results in thy­roid hor­mone still poo­ling, con­ti­nued hypo symp­toms, plus hyper in some. Too much can mean easy brui­sing, rising blood pres­sure, fluid reten­tion, a round face, etc.  And both can inc­rease anxiety, fee­ling poorly, etc.  Watch for symp­toms and com­pare your daily ave­ra­ged tem­pe­ra­tu­res. Also, have you chec­ked your aldos­te­rone?

2) The right amount of desic­ca­ted thy­roid: I have a friend who was stuck on 3 grains Armour out of habit. But she con­ti­nued to have hypothy­roid symp­toms out of habit. I finally con­vin­ced her to talk to her doc­tor. Labs sho­wed her free T3 was just a few points over mid-range, and having a free T3 towards the top seems to work bet­ter for most. So she did raise, and it finally did the trick.

3) Opti­mal B12 levels: Since hypothy­roid patients can have digestive/absorption issues, B12 levels can be lower than opti­mal. Symp­toms inc­lude fati­gue, weak­ness, fee­ling faint, breath­less, brui­sing, heart palps or others. Don’t take a chance. Get a B12 test. You want the result to be at the top of the range.

4) Plenty of Ferri­tin (sto­rage iron): Low ferri­tin means you have no iron in sto­rage to draw upon. And it also means you are pro­bably ane­mic.  Addi­tio­nally, low ferri­tin adver­sely affects the con­ver­sion of T4 to T3. Symp­toms inc­lude fati­gue, depres­sion, weak­ness, achi­ness, breath­less­ness or others.  Have a ferri­tin test.  Opti­mal is 70 – 90.

5) Good diges­tion: Hypothy­roid patients can have low hydroch­lo­ric (HCL) sto­mach acid levels. That not only con­tri­bu­tes to acid reflux because of the over­growth of bad bac­te­ria, it means you don’t absorb nutrients well (inc­lu­ding low B12 men­tio­ned above). As a result, it’s cru­cial to give that acid back to your­self.  A tables­poon of Apple Cider Vine­gar mixed in water and taken twice day helps many. Or try taking Betaine, which is HCL in pill form, or any other qua­lity HCL or diges­tive product.

6) Recog­ni­tion and treat­ment of Glu­ten into­le­rance: Some thy­roid patients lack a par­ti­cu­lar diges­tive enzyme, intes­ti­nal glu­ta­mi­nase, that helps digest glu­ten in various food pro­ducts. As a result, they don’t absorb nutrients well. Symp­toms inc­lude bloa­ting & gas, aches, stiff­ness, fati­gue, bur­ning or numb­ness in arms or legs, rashs or hives, wor­se­ned aller­gies & others. Your chance of have a glu­ten pro­blem is higher if you have Hashi­mo­tos disease. If you sus­pect a pos­si­ble pro­blem, eli­mi­nate all glu­ten from your diet. Also con­si­der having your doc­tor run a Celiac anti­bo­dies blood test.

7) Con­tro­lled EBV: At least 90% of adults have the Eps­tein Barr Virus (EBV) sit­ting dor­mant in their bodies. EBV is what cau­ses mono­nuc­leo­sis, but you don’t have to have had mono to carry the virus.  Because hypothy­roi­dism lowers your immune sys­tem, it’s not uncom­mon for thy­roid patients to have acti­va­ted EBV. I did, and my symp­toms inc­lu­ded extreme easy fati­gue, rin­ging in my ears, achi­ness and some swe­lling of my lymph glands. Some may have a sore throat return and other symp­toms.  Ask your doc­tor to test EBV. You’ll then need to ask about treat­ment options, which inc­lude bee­fing up your immune system.

8 ) Sex hor­mone balance: When your thy­roid or adre­nals get out of balance, your sex hor­mo­nes can follow suit, from estro­gen domi­nance to low tes­tos­te­rone.  When estro­gen domi­nance occurs, you can feel depres­sion, fati­gue, and sore breasts.  Low tes­tos­te­rone can equal lower energy and mood. Ask your doc­tor to test all your sex hormones.

9) Taking plenty of sup­ple­ments: There are a variety of good sup­ple­ments ever­yone with thy­roid or adre­nal issues should take for good health. They inc­lude high potency B-vitamins, Vit. C (1000 – 3000 mg. or to tole­rance), Sele­nium (around 200 mcg), mine­rals inc­lu­ding mag­ne­sium, pro­bio­tics, Vita­min D (1000 iu), iodine, and others.  In addi­tion to these, I also take CoQ10 (for heart and blood pres­sure health), and my favo­rite: a green pow­der which I stir in my orange juice.

10) Exer­cise: If you are a couch potato, you’re going to feel like one. Ins­tead, do what it takes to get moving, which pro­mo­tes all sorts of good health. If you have adre­nal fati­gue, keep it very light and easy.  If you just have hypothy­roi­dism, get out and walk.

P.S. My cho­co­late cake: I think cake mixes are just as good as home­made. I use Devils Food Cake. But the icing is ALWAYS home­made: cream one stick but­ter, add about 4 cups pow­de­red sugar, 1/2 cup cocoa, then cream or half-n-half.  Shake some sea salt in. Add two tsp. vani­lla.  Beat, beat.  Taste. Modify as nee­ded. YUM.

An intri­guing thought: what if there were lab pac­ka­ges spe­ci­fi­cally desig­ned by Stop the Thy­roid Mad­ness and all its patient-to-patient wis­dom.  Well, there are!

STTM has crea­ted lab pro­fi­les in part­nership with MyMed­Lab, a direct-to-consumer lab faci­lity which has expan­ded to pro­vide ser­vi­ces to nearly the entire Uni­ted States

This lab faci­lity pro­mo­tes the empo­wer­ment of patients in their own care, simi­lar to STTM’s focus on edu­ca­ting the patient and expec­ting a part­nership when you walk into the doctor’s office. Empowerment!

You will find a com­bi­na­tion of both in-home collec­ted tests (saliva cor­ti­sol) and those per­for­med at Lab­Corp collec­tion sites across the US.   Take a Peak: STTM Lab pac­ka­ges (be sure and click on the green What’s Inc­lu­ded icon on the lower right. You get a lot!)

Today, I came across a short sum­mary on recent study fin­dings pre­sen­ted at the 79^th Annual Mee­ting of the Ame­ri­can Thy­roid Asso­cia­tion in Novem­ber, 2008.

It sta­tes that in a study with thy­roid patients 65 and older, there was no impro­ve­ment in cog­ni­tive func­tion when a patient is opti­mally trea­ted on thy­ro­xine, aka Synth­roid, Levoxyl, Levothy­ro­xine, Eltro­xin, et al.

Gee golly.  What brea­king and cutting-edge news!

NOT.

Too bad it takes the results of a research study to reveal what has been bla­tantly obvious in patients of all ages for 50 years: thy­ro­xine ove­rall does not work and lea­ves patients with a variety of NON-improvements, as well as wor­se­ning symp­toms of lin­ge­ring hypothy­roi­dism as they age.  Duhhhh.

With recent news of Oprah’s con­ti­nuous weight gain (currently par­tially due to her fai­lure to pro­perly treat her hypothy­roi­dism and pro­bably Hashi­mo­tos (see post below this), it can make us all shud­der as we deal with the holi­days and all that great food!

I admit it: At Christ­mas­time, I LOVE the easy Gin­ger­bread Boy Coo­kies recipe I used when the boys were little, the Mic­ro­wave Fudge recipe to die for, my world famous Cho­co­late Chip Merin­gue Coo­kies which I color red and green, my mother’s won­der­ful Pra­li­nes which I occa­sio­nally try to make myself,  and Grandma’s Fruit Cake–yeah an actual fruit cake I LOVE, which I order EVERY SINGLE YEAR at this time.

And it’s hard not to gain weight! Is that you, too?? So let’s go over 6 HOLIDAY FACTS about thy­roid treat­ment with desic­ca­ted thyroid:

1) Armour, Natu­rethy­roid, Westh­roid, or any other desic­ca­ted thy­roid medi­ca­tion is not meant to be a Christ­mas weight loss pill. Desic­ca­ted thy­roid medi­ca­tions con­sist of thy­roid hor­mo­nes: T4, T3, T2, T1 and cal­ci­to­nin. They simply give you back what your own thy­roid is not giving you…the same five hor­mo­nes which give you back a stron­ger immune sys­tem, a nor­mal body tem­pe­ra­ture & impro­ved meta­bo­lism, bet­ter energy, healthier hair and skin, less aches & pains, emo­tio­nal hap­pi­ness, bet­ter lipid pro­fi­les like cho­les­te­rol, stron­ger bones…and on and on.  But even with all that bene­fit, and even though it does improve your meta­bo­lism, desic­ca­ted thy­roid is not meant to be a weight loss pill.

2) Armour et. al. can only do its holi­day job if you have strong adre­nals or ade­quate cor­ti­sol treat­ment. Because cor­ti­sol is nee­ded for thy­roid hor­mo­nes to move from your blood to your cells, you can only bene­fit opti­mally from desic­ca­ted thy­roid during the holi­days if you are lucky enough to have strong adre­nals, or if you are giving your­self back the cor­ti­sol you need based on sta­ble temps, blood pres­sure, and remo­val of most low cor­ti­sol symp­toms.  So don’t for­get that cor­ti­sol right now, and defi­ni­tely con­si­der adding a stress dose of cor­ti­sol if things get rough with the in-laws. (See Chap­ter 6 in the STTM book for even more details about sta­ble temps, blood pres­sure, and stress dosing)

3) Don’t drink that Armour down with Egg Nog! Cal­cium is a known bin­der of thy­roid hor­mo­nes in your sto­mach, kee­ping you from bene­fi­ting from some of those health-giving thy­roid hor­mo­nes.  So if you swa­llow your desic­ca­ted thy­roid, get the water.  Or even bet­ter, do it sublin­gually.

4) Don’t expect Armour to keep you from loo­king like Santa Claus: you still gotta exer­cise & watch what you eat! It’s true: the opti­mal use of desic­ca­ted thy­roid does raise your meta­bo­lism and eats those extra calo­ries up like Pac­Man.  But if you’re like me, you can still have a ten­dency to put on those love handle but­ter pounds if you eat your fill of holi­day foods.  ho ho ho. To cur­tail the gain, add exer­cise to your holi­day regime, or inc­rease what you already do. I try to aero­bi­cally walk a LOT during the holi­days. And when I’ve eaten a Christ­mas stoc­king full of goo­dies, my next meal will be nothing but high pro­tein, like  tur­key, chee­ses and nuts. Or, you can also balance your intake by choo­sing one meal a day to be low gly­ce­mic to somewhat balance out the high gly­ce­mics you know you are going to eat later. For exam­ple, I make my break­fasts only eggs and nitrate-free bacon, or plain yogurt with berries, nuts, and Stevia.

5) Buil­ding a holi­day snow­man outside?  Con­si­der an extra 1/4 grain of Armour. It’s a fact that pro­lon­ged expo­sure to cold inc­rea­ses your demand for energy, which in turn can inc­rease your demand for more thy­roid hor­mo­nes. As a result, many patients find that adding an extra 1/4 grain of desic­ca­ted thy­roid to one’s daily amount helps meet the demands of Frosty the Snow­man or that holi­day sprin­kling of lights all over your house in the cold air.  Talk to your doctor.

6) Give a gift of the STTM book to a loved one. There are other good thy­roid books on the mar­ket, but unlike all of them, this is the bible of patient expe­rience on suc­cess­ful thy­roid treat­ment. You’ll find volu­mes of infor­ma­tion that patients all around the world have lear­ned. A true patient-to-patient guide to fee­ling won­der­ful again.  Go here to order.  And the publishing com­pany is exten­ding the time you can order a book to be sent DIRECTLY to your loved one.

SECOND UPDATE as of Dec. 10^th: WHOOPI GOLDBERG has it RIGHT! Today on The View, she sta­ted that Oprah needs to take her thy­roid pro­blem SERIOUSLY!! Con­tact the View about STTM and the seriously correct treat­ment here.

UPDATE as of Dec. 10: Gail King, Oprah’s best friend, was on the Good Mor­ning Ame­rica show this mor­ning tal­king about Oprah’s weight gain and thy­roid pro­blem. She also tal­ked about how depres­sed she loo­ked.  Oprah, a huge and gro­wing body of thy­roid patients are all around the world, wai­ting to tell you what the ans­wer is.  Lis­ten to us.  We have been emai­ling you for years, and you’re going to see more of those emails. Con­tact Good Mor­ning Ame­rica here. (Then con­tact Oprah below)

Just on the stands, Oprah’s January issue of “O” maga­zine has an eye-opener: Oprah Win­frey admits that she’s now back up to 200 lbs, a con­di­tion that puts her at higher risk of seve­ral chro­nic con­di­tions, inc­lu­ding dia­be­tes and heart disease.  She sta­tes “When it comes to main­tai­ning my health I didn’t just fall off the wagon. I let the wagon fall on me.”

But what Oprah, a won­der­ful talk show host and chair­man of  Harpo, Inc, doesn’t seem to get is that the “wagon” is pro­bably a “poorly trea­ted” hypothy­roid con­di­tion, which cau­ses a lower meta­bo­lism and easy weight gain.  She even admits in the article that she deals with an out-of-balance thy­roid con­di­tion which has made her deve­lop a “fear of wor­king out.”

A fear of wor­king out?? Oprah, do you get exhaus­ted from wor­king out? Because there is NOTHING to fear with wor­king out if you are opti­mally trea­ted with natu­ral desic­ca­ted thy­roid in the pre­sence of strong adre­nals or ade­quate treatment.

Are you on desic­ca­ted thy­roid, Oprah?? Are you dosing high enough to remove all symp­toms?? Have you lear­ned what patients have lear­ned? And what con­di­tion are your adre­nals in, Oprah?? Because it’s all too com­mon for thy­roid patients to have deve­lo­ped adre­nal fati­gue from being poorly trea­ted for so long.

And Oprah, when you state that you don’t need to be thin, but do want to be “strong, healthy and fit”…the way to do that is opti­mally treat your thy­roid! We are a large and gro­wing body of patients world­wide who have done just that, and now live “strong, healthy and fit”.

IT IS TIME FOR JANIE TO BE ON YOUR SHOW, OPRAH. (Thy­roid patients even have a book you can recom­mend to others.)

Because in all due res­pect to your per­so­nal trai­ner Bob Greene and Dr. Meh­met Oz…you have YET got­ten someone on your show who can give you GOLD about the right thy­roid treat­ment.  Call me, Oprah.  Email me, Oprah.  I am wai­ting to tell you how to stop your yo-yo weight pro­blems and fear of wor­king out!  We and I have a LOT to tell you, Oprah, to stop your own per­so­nal thy­roid mad­ness. Con­tact Oprah here.

Send a mes­sage to Oprah’s best friend, Gayle King, here.  Tell her about desic­ca­ted thy­roid and YOUR story. Send Gayle to this web­site so she can unders­tand all this.