synthroid 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.

Tonight was a beau­ti­ful night to do my aero­bic wal­king. It had pou­red this after­noon for 30 minu­tes, so the early eve­ning air was slightly cool and very clean.

And on the last leg of my jour­ney, I stop­ped and said to Car­lin as she was wal­king out of her front door “Where you have been lately? I haven’t seen you out wal­king with your husband.”

Car­lin and her hus­band Clint are pro­bably in their late 70’s – both vibrant indi­vi­duals and fre­quent wal­kers in the same area.

“Well”, she said wist­fully as she glan­ced down the street I had just wal­ked, “I have to go in Mon­day for a Pacemaker.”

Turns out she has fibri­lla­tions and other heart issues, and even wal­king from her bedroom to her living room can exhaust her.  I told her how well my mother-in-law has done with her pace­ma­ker. She told me she’d be in the hos­pi­tal for at least 3 – 4 days for the sur­gery and observation.

And as we were chat­ting over the low white fence, I couldn’t help but notice the scar on her neck – the same scar my own mother had from the remo­val of her thy­roid years ago.  And the rest of Carlin’s story, and the rea­lity of her story, made me want to punch the nea­rest elec­tri­cal pole in disgust.

Carlin’s thy­roid was remo­ved over 40 years ago.  She remem­bers being on “2 grains of something” – clearly it was desic­ca­ted thy­roid. And she says she felt really good. But she wasn’t on it long, as her doc­tor remo­ved it and put her levothy­ro­xine over 30 years ago. You know, that “new and modern” T4-only CRAP which doc­tors fell for like the blind follo­wing the blind begin­ning in the 1960’s until today. (The story behind the intro­duc­tion of T4 onto patients in the early 1960’s is in Chap­ter One of the STTM book)

So I knew. Her heart trou­bles could be one of the many side effects of the infe­rior treat­ment of T4-only medi­ca­tions (which also inc­lude Synth­roid, Levoxyl, Eltro­xin, Oroxine…all of them). My own mother suf­fe­red the same fate while on Synth­roid her entire life. And patients chat about this all the time on thy­roid groups – heart issues while on T4.

I star­ted pro­bing. She has had issues with high blood pres­sure. Another typi­cal side effect of the crap T4-only medi­ca­tion, and which is remo­ved with desic­ca­ted thy­roid. She has had issues with depres­sion – another typi­cal side effect of the crap T4-only medi­ca­tion, and which is remo­ved with desic­ca­ted thy­roid. She tal­ked bit­terly about the slew of medi­ca­tions she’s had to be on for years to coun­ter all her pro­blems, and which had given her bad side effects.

And the next worse thing she told me? She had acid reflux so bad a few years ago that they did sur­gery on her sto­mach. She had sur­gery for a con­di­tion which is VERY com­mon with thy­roid patients who are on T4 meds – low sto­mach acid from a lower meta­bo­lism, which cau­ses acid reflux. i.e. a symp­tom of con­ti­nued hypothy­roi­dism which is CORRECTED when on desic­ca­ted thyroid.

It was hard to con­tain myself. Here was this vibrant, life-loving, inte­lli­gent woman who has been on T4-only for over 30 years and has endu­red health pro­blems, sur­ge­ries, side effects from all sorts of money-grubbing phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal pills, and now, has to go in Mon­day for a pace­ma­ker. And in all pro­ba­bi­lity, most of what she has gone though could have been pre­ven­ted if some doc­tor had been WISE enough to keep this woman on desic­ca­ted thyroid.

I am livid and sick to my stomach.

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• Are you che­wing up your Armour or Natu­reth­roid? It will make the treat­ment far bet­ter, as it will release the desic­ca­ted thy­roid from the excess cellu­lose.  If you are on com­poun­ded, you need to tell the phar­ma­cist to stop using cellu­lose as a filler. On Erfa? You can do it sublingually.
• If you are rea­ding this right on STTM’s blog, and would like to be noti­fied of each blog post, just sign up to the left and under the links.
• Have you done labs and found your­self with high RT3? Get off Sele­nium for the time being, as it can help con­vert T4 to the RT3 along with the other rea­sons you make too much.
• Want to spread the word about far bet­ter treat­ment? T-shirts and bum­per stic­kers are here.

I had a fun inter­view by the viva­cious and inte­res­ting Jimmy Moore of the Livin’ La Vida Low Carb Show. If you haven’t yet heard it, you can lis­ten to Jimmy and I by clic­king right here.

Jimmy Moore is a living suc­cess story about the bene­fits of a low carb diet – losing 180+ pounds in 2004 and regai­ning his health and vita­lity.  As I do about far bet­ter thy­roid treatment,  Jimmy has been on a one-man mis­sion to tell the whole world what livin’ la vida low-carb can do for them.

Eating low carb can be a very impor­tant stra­tegy for those with hypothy­roi­dism, espe­cially while on desic­ca­ted thy­roid and see­king to reverse the damage of being on T4 meds like Synth­roid, et al.

And for those of you with adre­nal fati­gue, follo­wing Jimmy’s low carb life style can be very bene­fi­cial when you need to be on cor­ti­sol, which can cause weight gain for some, but is an impor­tant treat­ment for your low cor­ti­sol situation.

Have a great day!

This past Satur­day, while brow­sing at the next-to-last garage sale (one of my favo­rite Satur­day mor­ning events), my ears per­ked up like a bunny when I heard a gal chat­ting with the owner of the house.  I heard things like “sick for 5 years…fibromyalgia…a lot of pain all over my body…had to quit my job and live with my parents…in bed for two years…they had to bath me...” and more mise­ra­ble ima­ges of something she was clearly glad to be over.

So, while my hus­band sat in the car with the patience of a saint, I lin­ge­red. When she finished chat­ting and was hea­ding to her car, I wal­ked towards her and said gin­gerly “I overheard your con­ver­sa­tion. Can I ask you about the fibrom­yal­gia and your expe­rience??” I couldn’t help myself.

As a Thy­roid Patient Acti­vist who has stood up to the inane allo­pathic fai­lure in the diag­no­sis and treat­ment of hypothy­roi­dism, I knew that the majo­rity of cases of “fibrom­yal­gia” were due to undiag­no­sed or poorly treat­ment hypothy­roi­dism, as well as the accom­pan­ying hell of adre­nal fati­gue,  thanks to the gar­bage can TSH lab test or the stu­pi­dity of T4-only treat­ment like Synth­roid.  Yet, here was a young woman, Mel, who was now the pic­ture of health. What was her story??

Mel’s story was a tale of sud­den onset follo­wed by five years of misery, all over body pain,  immense fati­gue, utter hel­pless­ness, debi­li­ta­tion, and neck lymph nodes SO swo­llen that they loo­ked like two huge goi­ters – right and left. It was also a sce­na­rio of no firm diag­no­ses, yet no hesi­ta­tion by doc­tors to make stabs– from fibrom­yal­gia to an unk­nown chro­nic fati­gue disorder.

But I knew right away what she pro­bably had: acute Eps­tein Barr Virus (EBV) reactivation.

I knew because I had the exact same malady which once took away more than a year of my life (as com­pa­red to Mel’s horri­fic five years).  And like her, with the use of medi­ta­tion (and in my case, intense ima­gery and homeo­pathics), I got well as if it never happened.

And we also sha­red a rea­son why the EBV virus became acti­va­ted in our bodies in the first place: STRESS.  For Mel, it appea­red to have nothing to do with anything thyroid-related, but an extre­mely stress­ful helping-vocation that was eating her alive. For me, it was the stress of having to be where I didn’t want to be, fee­ling overtly powerless…and on top of being on the lousy Synthroid.

And for thy­roid patients all over the world, inc­lu­ding you, the risk of reac­ti­va­tion of the Eps­tein Barr Virus is a cons­tant threat. It can result from one or more of the follo­wing bio­lo­gi­cal stresses:

• being undiag­no­sed thanks to the ina­de­quate TSH lab test
• being on a T4 medi­ca­tion like Synth­roid, Levoxyl, Levothy­ro­xine, Eltro­xin, Oro­xine, etc
• falling into low cor­ti­sol from adre­nal fatigue
• having chro­nic side issues pulling your body down such as glu­ten into­le­rance or celiac, low ferri­tin, poor diges­tion, or making mis­ta­kes in your treatment

Even worse, add life’s stres­ses as icing on the cake, and you’re a sit­ting duck for the risk of reac­ti­va­ted EBV.

What is EBV? Eps­tein Barr Virus,  also called human her­pes­vi­rus 4 ( HHV-4) is an oppor­tu­nis­tic virus that actually lies dor­mant in at least 95% of all adults over their 30’s. It’s what cau­ses mono­nuc­leo­sis, aka “mono”, as a tee­na­ger,  but you don’t have to have had mono to carry the dor­mant virus. Wiki­pe­dia sta­tes that it also pro­bably has a pri­mary role in many autoim­mune disea­ses, inc­lu­ding ” der­ma­tom­yo­si­tis, sys­te­mic lupus erythe­ma­to­sus, rheu­ma­toid arth­ri­tis, Sjogren’s syn­drome, and mul­ti­ple scle­ro­sis.” i.e. this is one nasty virus!

Why do so many thy­roid patients find them­sel­ves with it? Millions of thy­roid patients live their lives com­pro­mi­sed due to being on T4-only meds like Synth­roid, Levoxyl, levothy­ro­xine, Eltro­xin, Oro­xine, and other T4 med brands.  Addi­tio­nally, patients find them­sel­ves with poorly func­tio­ning adre­nals, poor diges­tion and other con­di­tions rela­ted to a poor treat­ment – all adding to a lowe­red immune sys­tem, which allows the oppor­tu­nis­tic EBV virus to take ahold, espe­cially in the face of extreme or chro­nic life stress.

What are symp­toms of a reac­ti­va­ted EBV? It can vary from patient-to-patient, but can inc­lude easy and excess fati­gue, achi­ness, joint pain, all over body pain, swo­llen lymph nodes, slight fever, rin­ging in the ears, and a gene­ral I-don’t-feel-well. When my EBV anti­bo­dies were acute, I would be in bed for 2 – 3 days after pulling weeds for just twenty minu­tes while sea­ted.  I couldn’t gro­cery shop; I couldn’t do hou­se­work. Nothing. Nada. I also had cons­tant rin­ging in the ears and achiness.

How do I find out if I have it?? Ask your doc­tor to send you to a lab to be tes­ted for it.   Or you can use Healthcheck USA–scroll down on the lat­ter link to find the test. Put STTM10 in the form to get a discount.

How do I treat it?? It’s not easy. I per­so­nally bene­fit­ted from taking a presc­ri­bed anti-virus medi­ca­tion. Though that les­se­ned my symp­toms by 50%, it wasn’t enough. I then moved to homeo­pathic medi­ca­tions and some dedi­ca­ted men­tal ima­gery to finally get rid of it, as well as lots of rest and the immune enhan­cing sup­port of vita­mins, mine­rals, sup­ple­ments plus healthy stra­te­gies i.e. wha­te­ver it takes to nou­rish your immune sys­tem. Nou­rishing sup­ple­ments inc­lude high dose Vit. C (2000 mg mini­mum),  Vit E as mixed tocophe­rals,  sele­nium (200 — 400 mcg), mush­room extracts, CoQ10, high dose B-vitamins, mine­rals plus plenty of healthy and raw foods.  And ulti­ma­tely as a thy­roid patient, being on a MUCH bet­ter hypothy­roid treat­ment with natu­ral desic­ca­ted thy­roid is the key, besi­des trea­ting one’s adre­nal fati­gue, glu­ten or diges­tive issues, low ferri­tin, and all other rela­ted conditions.

Bot­tom line, once you are ade­qua­tely trea­ting your thy­roid pro­blem (see the current Options for Thy­roid Treat­ment), addres­sing poten­tial adre­nal fati­gue, low ferri­tin, glu­ten issues, low B12, for exam­ple, and using good stress mana­ge­ment in the face of pres­su­res within your life, your risk of having a reac­ti­va­tion of the dor­mant EBV virus is very low.

They both GET IT.

Jef­frey Dach, MD, who is foun­der of  True­MedMD cli­nic in Holly­wood, Flo­rida, has recently writ­ten just one more bri­lliant article tit­led Why Natu­ral Thy­roid is Bet­ter than Synthe­tic on OpEdNews. And patients can only deri­si­vely agree when Dach says “This non­sense really makes my blood boil and my eyes pop out of head” in res­ponse to artic­les on medi­cal web­si­tes which still pur­port that synthe­tic T4 is a bet­ter treat­ment  than natu­ral desic­ca­ted thyroid.

John O. Wycoff DO gra­ciously had me on his radio pro­gram a week ago, called Health and Well­ness Solu­tions radio, which runs each and every Satur­day mor­ning in Michi­gan or live strea­med. And I couldn’t help but be impres­sed by this warm, friendly, and caring doc­tor who runs the Wycoff Well­ness Cen­ter in East Lan­sing, Michi­gan. He defi­ni­tely see­med to unders­tand the use of desic­ca­ted thy­roid and adre­nals. Michi­gan patients are lucky to have this man.

And frankly, there seems to be a gro­wing body of doc­tors who are GETTING IT, making the large body who still don’t look like medi­cal cave­men and health ostriches.  Natu­ral desic­ca­ted thy­roid is a FAR bet­ter treat­ment, and millions of chan­ged lives prove this over and over.

Both Dach and Wycoff will go down in his­tory as being part of the foun­ding mem­bers of doc­tors who really GOT IT in the first decade of the 21^st cen­tury and have pla­yed a huge role to STOP THE THYROID MADNESS!!

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UPCOMING PROGRAM with Janie: You will be able to lis­ten to me on Jimmy’s Moore’s Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb pro­gram on Thurs­day July 22^nd, 2010 for what Jimmy has dub­bed “The Truth About Thy­roid Week.” As I see it, each time I’m on a variety of radio and inter­net pod­casts like this, it’s going to mean reaching MORE folks about why they have depres­sion, rising cho­les­te­rol or blood pres­sure, fati­gue, hair loss, dry skin or hair, osteo­po­ro­sis and more as a result of either the TSH lab test, or being on T4 meds like Synth­roid!  I’ll announce this clo­ser to the event, as well.

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MORE ABOUT MAGNESIUM: As I wrote about recently here, I found myself very low in my RBC Mag­ne­sium levels – the very bot­tom of the range. I am even lower than a friend who has Celiac disease, which affects diges­tion!!  No won­der I’ve had issues with muscle cramps for so long, as well as what I saw as a wor­se­ning of my MVP (mitral valve pro­lapse).   Since then, I’ve been on Mag­ne­sium Oil and a par­ti­cu­lar brand of buf­fe­red Vit. C which con­tains a good amount of mag­ne­sium. And lo and behold, I have found out that taking mag­ne­sium when you are defi­cient is like drin­king water when you are dying of thirst – your body TAKES IT IN fas­ter than you can give it to your­self.  So it’s impor­tant to take as high a dose as you can take in, and be patient for it all to level out.  And by the way, I’m already noti­cing an impro­ve­ment in my huf­fin’ and puf­fin’ when I go out wal­king.  I do it less!!