Plaque is the stuff of coronary heart disease. It is CONTROLLABLE, it is STOPPABLE, it is REVERSIBLE.
But you must be equipped with the right information on diet, nutritional supplements, and hopefully the avoidance of medication.
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I’ve gotten a number of requests for solutions on how to solve the low thyroid issue if either 1) your doctor refuses to discuss the issue or denies it is present, or 2) there are government mandates against thyroid correction unless certain (outdated) targets are met.
Oh, boy.
While I’m not encouraging anyone to break the laws or regulations of their country (and it’s impossible to generalize, with readers of this blog originating from over 30 countries), here are some simple steps to consider that might help you in your quest to correct hypothyroidism:
–Measure your body temperature–First thing in the morning either while lying in bed or go to the bathroom and measure your oral temp. Record it and, if it is consistently lower than 97.0 degrees (Fahrenheit), show it to your doctor. This may help persuade him/her.(You can still be hypothyroid with higher temperatures, but if low temperatures are present, it is simply more persuasive evidence in favor of treatment).
–Supplement with iodine 150 mcg per day to be sure you are not iodine deficient. This is becoming more common in the U.S. as people avoid iodized salt. It is quite common outside the U.S. An easy, inexpensive preparation is kelp tablets.
–Show your doctor a recent crucial study: The HUNT Study that suggests that cardiovascular mortality begins to increase at a TSH of only 1.5 or greater, not the 5.5 mIU usually used by laboratories and doctors.
–Ask people around you whether they are aware of a health practitioner who might be willing to work with you, or at least have an open mind (sadly, an uncommon commodity).
Also, see thyroid advocate and prolific author, Mary Shomon’s advice on how to find a doctor willing to work with you. Yes, they are out there, but you may have to ask a lot of friends and acquaintances, or meet and fire a lot of docs. It shouldn’t be this way, but it is. It will change through public pressure and education, but not by next week.
Another helpful discussion from Mary Shomon: The TSH Normal Range: Why is there still controversy? You will read that even the endocrinologists (a peculiarly contentious group) seethingly debate what constitutes normal vs. low thyroid function.
Also, you might remind a resistant health practitioner that guidelines are guidelines–they are not laws that restrain anyone. They are simply meant to represent broad population guidelines that do not take your personal health situation into consideration.
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Hard to tell about the soil mineral depletion thing, there are major regional variations which can show in animal diseases and require supplementation, salt licks etc. as well as human disease clusters. Deficiencies can show before “deficiency diseases”
I trialled several different supplements but none of them made any discernible difference, probably a widely varying diet helps, plus fish, and local farmers who use high levels of organic manure and feed the soil as a whole rather than (increasingly expensive) stuff out of a bag and treat the soil as a sterile growing medium. Grass-fed rather than grain-fed meat, and game, probably helps too in picking up trace elements
The downside of World Trade may be that while you get more trace elements from crops from different regions you are probably also getting more pesticides some of which are banned in the West
I’ve been doing so great after taking 1 1/2 gr nature-Throid brand of thyroid since october 08 and stopping all statins. Taking the Now D-3 at 5,000 per softgel. Now if I can just get back in the forums again….LOL Dennis still no 4th heart attack since 12/04
I wish my family doctor was open to new things. I asked him about Armour thyroid he said that he has hundreds of patients on Synthroid with no problems and I don’t want to start a new prescription without my family doctor knowing about it. I’m on 75mcg of Synthroid and would really like to try Armour thyroid…might have to wait until he retires (could be soon) before I see if I can get Armour..
What about supplementation with tyrosine along side the iodine? Tyrosine is a precursor to thyroxine, and there have been a few interesting studies, like this one:
Psychoneuroendocrine effects of combined thyroxine and triiodothyronine versus tyrosine during prolonged Antarctic residence. Sure, the tyrosine may be working indirectly (going into neurotransmitters more than thyroxine) … but at the end of a day, it seems to reduce TSH by about a third, while raising free T3 by 6%, while improving mood.
Dr. Brownstein (Family physician, holistic doc in Michigan) in his book, “Iodine, Why You need it, Why You can’t live without it” makes an interesting case for temporarily increased TSH (5-30mU/L higher) after correcting iodine deficiency.
In addition to just stimulating thyroid hormone production, TSH also increases the production of the iodine transport cells (NIS). Without more NIS available, iodine couldn’t enter the cells and be utilized. Therefore, increased TSH makes sense during the initial phase of iodine correction.
As one increases their iodine consumption, they could experience this increase in TSH for as long as several months. As long as the T3 and T4 levels are normal, then the TSH elevation probably isn’t a sign of hypothyroidism.
If you haven’t yet read this book, it’s worth the 2 hours it took me to get through it.