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Tag: thyroid hormone

Touching message from a near-91 year old New Zealand resident who feels his government is keeping him sick…

Screen Shot 2015-08-10 at 10.38.26 AM(Though this post was originally written in 2012, it is still appropriate even today! Enjoy!)

I am impressed if ANYONE over 70 years old is active on their computers, especially because they didn’t grow up with one, nor did their own children. So when I get a message via Facebook from a near 91-year-old man in New Zealand who clearly knows his stuff, I am doubly impressed.

But this story is poignant, aggravating, and the very reason Stop the Thyroid Madness exists–to educate YOU in the face of medical and government leaders who are completely clueless! Do we have to wait for our current crop of government officials to be forced or voted out of office  before we see this thyroid diagnosis and treatment travesty stop???

Dear Janie, I am 90 years and 10 months old, and have a TSH of 3.5 . My doctor, using the range of 0.4 to 4, declared me OK and not hypothyroid. This margin is used by the New Zealand Governments Ministry of Health (M.O.H). My letters to the M.O.H. of New Zealand to read the article written by the AACE in America of  January 2003 (to bring down the margin to 0.3 to 3.04) were not taken into consideration.

I am a permanent resident in New Zealand. Because of my repeated requests, they even blocked my letters to them, and in the meantime, leaving me suffering. Have been suffering about 3 years with “Chronic Fatigue Syndrome”.  Found your articles on the Internet and bought your book Stop The Thyroid Madness.

My doctor gave me Synthroid and when it didn’t work, wanted to raise the dosage. Fortunately I was in possession of the book Overcoming Thyroid Disorders by David Brownstein M.D. and refused. Indeed, I share all the “Common Experiences We All Share” as written in your book . My doctor has even referred me to a Psychiatrist—unbelievable! Of course I told the Psychiatrist who works for the N.Z. Public Health Department straight away that I will have nothing to do with him. Just to do something, he wrote me a prescription for a drug used for people who are lunatic. Gave the prescription to the doctor to throw it in his rubbish bin!

Am now looking for a knowledgeable N.D. but have not succeeded yet . They are either not knowledgeable enough about thyroid disorders or too expensive for my pensioner income. Have obtained dessicated thyroid from a compounding pharmacist, but don’t dare to take it without guidance. In the meantime, I have to eat frequent small meals just to prevent awful anxiety attacks or to feel reasonably well ..and the doctor calls me euthyroid?

Well Janie, that is my story. Am so glad that you have written your book, thanks, and that I just today received it by mail order on the Internet. With my best regards – ****

P.S. Of course you can publicise my letter to you. Hope that it will help a bit in our struggle to get proper treatment and that people all over the world will know how indifferent governments can be.

THINK THIS PROBLEM IS ONLY WITH NEW ZEALAND? PATIENTS AROUND THE WORLD SHARE THE SAME STRUGGLES!

Sheila Turner, a Thyroid Patient Advocate in the UK and creator of TPA-UK, has worked tirelessly to change the DARK AGE medical treatment protocols that UK thyroid patients have to endure. Here is a letter she wrote July 2012 to the President of the Royal College of Physicians in one of many attempts to change the inane poor practices: http://www.tpa-uk.org.uk/Report_RCP_et_al.pdf

DR. JOHN C. LOWE’S WEBSITE “THYROID SCIENCE” BACK UP!

http://www.thyroidscience.com/

JanieSignature SEIZE THE WISDOM

New to this?

* Read why the TSH lab test can be a huge failure. 
* See why Synthroid or any other T4-only med can be a problem, sooner or later.
* To read what happens when your brain doesn’t get enough of the thyroid hormone T3, go here.

* To have the Stop the Thyroid Madness revised book in reach for reference, go here.

* To get more tips, inspiration and information, Like the STTM Facebook page.

30 replies

Has Armour gone back to its pre-reformulation? And 5-HTP is pretty remarkable…

Though this page was originally written in 2012 about Armour and 5-htp, it’s been updated to the present day and time. 

It’s only a handful of comments here or there in patient groups, and I’ve gotten two emails as well. But there are reports that recent bottles of Armour desiccated thyroid have pills which are performing just like they did before the unappreciated reformulation of 2009. i.e. they are softer again and can be done sublingually, and may be back to more dextrose and less cellulose.

Said one patient who contacted me via email: “It’s interesting what I read in the thyroid group the other day that her pills were back to being soft. But typical condescending Forest Labs who never said a word in 2009 to the most informed group of patients in the world, and haven’t communicated to us directly once again if it really has changed.”

So, if it’s true, there may be a phase of figuring out what you get: the hard ones that patients found HAVE to be chewed up to be the most effective, or the return of the softer ones which could be done sublingually. I’d be curious to know which pharmacies and in which city/state are giving out Armour tablets that are softer.

UPDATE: Forest Labs, the former makers of Armour, was bought out by Activas in 2014, then the price of Armour became the highest priced NDT around. And for many, it wasn’t working like it used to. But some still do well on it, paying the highest price. Learn from this page: http://stopthethyroidmadness.com/options-for-thyroid-treatment

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5-HTP can be miraculous against depression, plus can help troubled sleep patterns

When I went into full menopause, one issue I noticed was out-of-the-blue was afternoon depression, in spite of being optimal on Natural Desiccated Thyroid.  Bottomed-out female hormones can be problematic until I can correct them. And I found something that worked to completely remove the afternoon depression with the FIRST day of use: 5-HTP.  I was shocked.

Turns out that menopause can also mean low levels of serotonin–a brain transmitter that affects your mood positively. Your over-the-counter 5-HTP supplement (which comes from the seeds of the African plant Griffonia simplicifolia) is a precursor of trytophan, the amino acid responsible for making serotonin and melatonin. And lo and behold, what do many prescription anti-depressives, such as Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI) meds, do?? They increase the bioavailability of serotonin! But why put up with the side-effects when 5-HTP is natural and has so few, I decided!!

How much? 100 mg did the trick for me, once a day. But others report needing 200 or 300 mg. I started on too much–had dizziness with starting on 200 mg. Found out the hard way that 100 mg was enough for the time being until I coud better treat my female hormonal issue. I’ve read where some only start on 50 mg.

For better sleep, studies have shown that 5-HTP outright will improve your sleep due to increasing melatonin. Research has reported a lengthening and deepening of their REM period of sleep–the deep sleep–and without increasing the amount of time they sleep. It also seems to smooth any ups and downs with sleeping.  Some research shows it can take several weeks, but I figure that can be individual.

There’s even anecdotal evidence that taking 5-HTP has helped drinkers avoid the bottle. i.e. if someone drinks to self-medicate against depression, 5-HTP could help.

There are definite cautions with 5-HTP! i.e. it’s NOT recommended to take it with anti-depressants or any seratonin-raising drug, as together one could raise their serotonin levels too high. A lot of different experiences with 5-HTP can be found here. As always, talk to your doctor about using it or not. It may be for only short-term use.

NOTE ABOUT DEPRESSION: For hypothyroid patients, especially those still stuck on T4-only like Synthroid, depression is pretty common due to inadequate levels of T3.  Once you get on Natural Desiccated Thyroid, as well as correct any potential low iron or low cortisol issues, you may find that depression is kicked to the wind!

As intellectually stated by Eric Fliers from the Department of Endocrinology in Amsterdam, “triiodothyronine (T3) is also capable of increasing serotonergic neurotransmission by desensitization of inhibitory 5-HT1a autoreceptors in the raphe nucleus, thus disinhibiting cortical and hippocampal serotonin release, and by increasing cortical 5-HT2 receptor sensitivity, further increasing 5-HT neurotransmission.”  

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Two newer pages on STTM as of 2012, and updated to today:

  1. Adaptogens:  read how certain plant and root substances can help you cope better with stress, here.
  2. Graves Disease: never thought I’d have a page on STTM about it, but enough patients have asked that it’s now here. Besides, since many Graves patients become hypothyroid, it’s good for them be included on a site that teaches what patients have learned about far better thyroid treatment, which is NOT T4-only.
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New to this website? Read about:
  1. Desiccated Natural Thyroid as the treatment with the best results
  2. Why T4-only meds like Synthroid aren’t doing the job for all too many
  3. How many thyroid patients fall into sluggish adrenal function aka adrenal fatigue
  4. How you can treat low cortisol without the use of HC
  5. What patients have learned
  6. Mistakes patients make in their treatment
And get the REVISED STTM BOOK for more details and ease of learning about what patients have learned.

 

 

62 replies

Why iron is so important, milk thistle for RT3, and send the revised STTM book as a Christmas present!

NOTE: though this post was originally written in 2012, it has been updated to the present day and time! Enjoy!

IRON AND ITS IMPORTANCE 

It all too common with hypothyroid patients: finding themselves with low iron levels.   I probably had insufficient iron my entire adult life, remembering that my doctors always told me I was borderline, yet nothing was done about it. So when I finally got on desiccated thyroid, and my iron needs increased due to better health, I finally fell into true anemia, and twice.  Miserable, let me tell you. I was breathless, achy, depressed and had horrific fatigue.

And why is iron so important?

  • Iron carries oxygen from your tissues to your lungs (so if iron is low, you can be breathless and your heartrate has to go up in response to less oxygen. Link here.)
  • Iron helps raise dopamine and serotonin in your brain (so if iron is low, you can feel depression or hyperactive i.e. attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. Link here.)
  • Iron assists with the cortisol secretion after ACTH stimulation (so if your iron is low, the cortisol secretion is decreased, lowering glucose in your cells, and that might cause the pooling of T3 in your blood. Link here.)
  • Iron promotes good conversion of thyroid hormones T4 to T3 (so if iron is low, your storage iron T4 will build too high. Link here.)
  • Iron balances your autonomic nervous sytem (so if your iron is low, you can end up in a frequent state of fight-or-flight with accompanying adrenaline surges and nervousness due to heightened sympathic activity. Link here.)
  • Iron protects women from breast tumor growth (so if your iron is low, a benign tumor can become a malignant cancer tumor. Link here.) 
  • Iron improves your immune system (so if your iron is low, you are most susceptible to infections and illness. Link here.)
  • Iron supports brain cell health (so if your iron is low, you can have brain cell death contributing to dementia and possibly Alzheimers. Link here.)

How to discern if your iron is too low

We used to think testing one’s storage iron, ferritin, was enough. But it’s not. Your storage iron can look normal because of an ongoing inflammation, which tends to thrust iron into storage. So we learned that we need four labs at the minimum : ferritin, % saturation, serum iron, and TIBC.  Even low ferritin along with optimal results in the other labs have caused problems with T3 pooling in the blood.  Go here to read what we look for in our iron results.

Raising poor iron levels

Hypothyroid patients tend to “dry up” and that also causes lowered levels of hydrochloric acid in the stomach, which lowers absorption. For better absorption, try adding 1 tsp to 1 tbsp of Braggs Apple Cider Vinegar to each large glass of water or juice you use to swallow your iron pills, or use Betaine, which is an OTC hydrochloric acid supplement.

To learn more, go to the following page. And for even more details, read the Odds and Ends chapter in the revised STTM book.

CAN LIVER CLEANSES/SUPPORTS HELP IMPROVE YOUR RT3 RATIO??

Because of low iron or adrenal dysfunction, many thyroid patients have found themselves with high levels of Reverse T3…or more common, a poor RT3 ratio. And too much RT3 can mean the thyroid hormone T3 won’t adequately work in your cells, and you can feel miserable. The solution for most has been to switch to T3-only, but that can have a host of difficulties.  It’s not easy to dose with T3 alone.

Recently, though, patients are discovering an alternative way to lower one’s excess RT3: the use of a good liver cleanse/support product, and most especially those with the herb called Milk Thistle. It’s an herb which, for hundreds of years, has been used as a liver tonic.  In supplements, it’s the milk thistle seeds which are used because they contain silymarin–the powerful part of the herb which does the trick.  And doses in the 400 mg’s of milk thistle extract supplements seem to be doing the trick, say patients who are reporting on it, taking it twice a day at 200 and 200 minimum. Some studies state you can go higher, if needed. Be careful with its use, as it can lower ferritin levels to some degree. But as long as you keep your serum iron levels up, you can get by with the lowering of ferritin for the short while you may be on Milk Thistle to lower RT3.

HO! HO! HO! SEND THE REVISED STTM BOOK TO A FRIEND OR LOVED ONE FOR CHRISTMAS OR THE NEW YEAR!  It can be the BEST gift they will ever receive!  Go to the following page, and put in the name and address of the recipient, YOUR email, and the publishing company will get the book out to your special someone:  //www.laughinggrapepublishing.com/

 LISTEN TO ONE OF SEVERAL INTERVIEWS I’VE DONE LATELY…AND BOSTON IS NEXT! My next interview will be aired on WBZ-AM 1030 (Boston & New England) on the program called “Women’s Watch” with host Ellen Sherman. You can also listen live here: http://boston.cbslocal.com/station/wbz-news-radio/ No specific time as I am posting this, but it may happen next week. Watch the NTH Yahoo group, STTM Twitter and STTM Facebook groups for an announcement. And there are more to come thanks to a great publicist representing Stop the Thyroid Madness. Want to donate so she can continue helping us spread the word? Go here.  Janie can’t do it without you…and this is specifically to reach millions still on T4-only meds!

 STTM NOW HAS MANY FACEBOOK GROUPS!  See what Facebook has to offer you on top of already great Yahoo groups, here.

 

NOTE: if you are reading this via the email notification, and you want to comment on it, you’ll need to click on the title of this blog post to take you directly to the blog post. Then scroll down to comment.  For those reading this on the actual blog, sign up to the left under the links. 

23 replies

Reverse T3–do you have this problem in excess? Let’s talk!

Screen Shot 2015-12-04 at 5.53.48 PM

This blog post has been updated to the current day and time. Enjoy!

Most thyroid patients have heard about T4…the thyroid storage hormone, also called a pro-hormone. You’ll see it in literature as “thyroxine” or “l-thyroxine”–the latter as the name for a man-made T4.

And many know about T3…the active thyroid hormone which rids us of hypothyroid symptoms.

And as patients become more informed, they learn that the body not only converts T4 to T3 through what is called deodination, it also provides some of that T3 directly. That is an important distinction! The latter fact can be why thyroid patients report getting far better results with natural desiccated thyroid (NDT) like Naturethroid, NP Thyroid or other brands.

Patients might also learn that there are actually five thyroid hormones made in your body, which is also what’s found in NDT: T4, T3, T2, T1 and calcitonin.

Reverse T3

But in every individual, whether a thyroid patient or not, a thyroid can also convert T4 to the inactive RT3 (reverse T3).  RT3 is an inactive thyroid hormone, as compared to T3 as the active thyroid hormone. And converting to RT3 is a natural and necessary process, even if there are consequences.(1)  The body might convert T4 to RT3 as a way to clear out excess T4, or as a way to reduce your metabolic rate.  It can happen if you go through any of the following:

  • surgery
  • a major physical accident
  • certain heart problems
  • intense chronic stress
  • restrictive low carbohydrate diets (2)
  • chronic inflammation

When Reverse T3 is a problem

Unfortunately, many thyroid patients make far too much RT3, as well, and patients with their open-minded doctors have been making cutting edge discoveries about this fact.  Many patients have seen that their high levels of RT3 can be found with the following conditions:

  • high cortisol
  • low cortisol
  • low iron levels
  • possibly low B12
  • lyme disease
  • gluten intolerance or Celiac
  • other undiscovered and untreated underlying issues that can go hand-in-hand with being hypothyroid.

Why is a high level of RT3 is problem? That excess RT3 is making itself lazily comfortable on your thyroid cell receptor sites, preventing the active T3 thyroid hormone from doing its job on that same receptor to get you out of your hypothyroid state.  It becomes akin to a clogged up drain to your organs and cells. So you stay hypo and symptomatic, in spite of seemingly “normal” other labwork.

The solution

Informed patients discovered they needed to discover and treat all the reasons contributing to their body converting to excess RT3.

Want to read more? All the below is based on patient experiences and wisdom to share and work with your doctor:

For those with the revised Stop the Thyroid Madness book, there is also more good detail in Chapter 12 called T3 is the Star of the Show, page 155, to continue your education. This is all good information to take into your doctor’s office.

JanieSignature SEIZE THE WISDOM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(1) http://press.endocrine.org/doi/abs/10.1210/jcem-41-6-1043

(2) http://press.endocrine.org/doi/abs/10.1210/jcem-42-1-197

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79 replies