Low Thyroid in 21 lessons (Article 11)

Hello,

I am Dr Michael Teplisky, a holistic medical doctor from Low Thyroid Doctor.com and this is lecture 11 in our seminar about low thyroid called “Hypothyroidism in 21 Lectures.” 

So far, we have learned that thyroid is vital for normal health and normal function and well-being of the body. We have learned that many people do not make enough thyroid hormones, which causes hypothyroidism or low thyroid. This produces symptoms, some common, some not, but because every cell and every organ suffer from lack of hormones, this can produce multiple symptoms. We have also learned that most doctors don’t know much about hypothyroidism and treat it only if the blood level of TSH is higher than what the lab says is normal.

In the last 2 lectures I went through the whole body, top to bottom, and told you what symptoms various organs and tissues produce, from skin and hair down to bladder, ovaries and testicles, so now you have a better idea of the kinds of symptoms that can happen.

I told you that over the years I have treated thousands of patients with low thyroid. Many came to me because they had typical symptoms, but their doctors would not treat them because their TSH was ‘in the normal range’ in other words, not high enough. Many came because they were already diagnosed with low thyroid and were being treated with synthetic thyroid medication, which did not make them feel better.

I practiced as an internist, so I saw patients with many other diseases beside low thyroid – heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, asthma, poor circulation, high cholesterol and so on. I gave every new patient a comprehensive blood test that included all the usual things that the doctors check plus vitamins, minerals, hormones, markers of inflammation and a complete thyroid panel which includes not just TSH, but also total T3, total T4, free T3, free T4, reverse T3, and sometimes antibodies against thyroglobulin and thyroid peroxidase. 

What I found was that many people, who came for another condition, like diabetes or heart disease, had low thyroid. Especially if they had high cholesterol. The relationship of high cholesterol with low thyroid is well-known. This is part of the biochemistry that every first-year medical student learns. 

The point is that many people, tens of millions, have low thyroid and don’t know it. The problem develops very slowly over the course of many months or even years. A person becomes used to the “new normal”. They have some feeling of not being well, but not anything specific.

This is one of the reasons why doctors miss low thyroid so often, they just don’t look for it, they don’t do the right tests. The doctors start suspecting low thyroid when a person has typical symptoms and falls into a typical category – women in their late 40s, early 50s and older.

But what if you see a woman with pain in the muscles, slight weight gain, occasional anxiety and this woman was trying to conceive for a few years without success.  Low thyroid would not be the first thing on your mind, yet all the symptoms can happen in a woman with low thyroid.

What about a young man with stiffness in the joins, slow heart beats and dry eyes. Again, low thyroid would not be the first thing on your mind. 

The point is, low thyroid is so common, you have to suspect it in every patient. Low thyroid can produce many “un-thyroid” symptoms. That’s why I checked every patient for low thyroid. 

And that brings me to another point. My goal is to educate you, so you know how common low thyroid is, why it happens, what the symptoms are, what are the tests that need to be done to diagnose the problem. I also want you to know what nutrients thyroid needs, what supplements you should take, what foods you should eat and what foods to avoid. 

If you are not feeling well, your doctor should consider low thyroid, you can even suggest it yourself and perhaps the doctor will listen. You need a doctor who will be open-minded and will listen. Most doctors don’t want to listen to a mere layman like you, they think they already know all there is, so they don’t want to listen. After all who went to medical school, you or your doctor? So why should they listen to you? That’s the usual attitude. 

That’s why you need a doctor like me, a doctor who is experienced and is willing to listen and to help. Like it or not, you will have to work with a doctor so you can get blood tests and the medications, either natural or synthetic.

We’ll have a couple of lectures on the different medications available, and what else, beside the medications you need to do to make your thyroid better. 

Next few lectures will be about Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, the condition that causes about 90% of cases of low thyroid in the US. Hashimoto’s is an auto-immune disease, which means that it is caused by your own immune system attacking your thyroid gland, something that is not supposed to happen. After all the immune system exists to protect you, not to fight your own organs. 

We will talk about the immune system and why it develops antibodies against its own tissues. We’ll learn why the immune system become overstimulated, overwhelmed and goes crazy. 

We’ll talk about GI tract, especially the intestine, and how it contributes to Hashimoto’s and other auto-immune conditions. We’ll talk about food allergies and a few other things. 

And then we’ll talk about treatment, what sort of treatment is available, about natural vs. synthetic drugs, supplements, vitamins, minerals, herbs. 

Please make sure to subscribe to my newsletter which you will get about once a week. If you know someone who might benefit from this information, please forward it to them. Also, if you have questions or comments, please email them to info@LowThyroidDoctor.com. I try to read and answer all of them, time permitting.  

Also, please keep in mind that if you suspect that you have low thyroid or you are being treated and are not getting better, you can get a free, no obligation 30 min phone consultation with me to see if I can help you get better. Just book it online or call my office at 718-769-0997. 

I’ll see you in the next lecture. 

Until then, I am Dr. Michael Teplisky from LowThyroidDoctor.com wishing you the best of health.