LifeCare Chiropractic

The Best Chiropractic Care in Mesa, Arizona

Thyroid

Thyroid Problem Symptoms? 2 Things You Need to Know

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Thyroid problem symptoms seem to be everywhere. Hyperthyroid (Hashimoto’s, Graves), hypothyroid, benign thyroid nodules, cancerous thyroid nodules. No discrimination between them–they all seem to be happening to everyone.

The way I see it, there are 2 possibilities.

1)  The Creator screwed up on the thyroid. Given how amazing everything else works in our bodies and can last for 100 years or more (if we take care of it), it seems a little odd that the thyroid just “goes out” in your twenties or thirties. Or, if you believe in the infallible nature of our Creator, maybe he subcontracted the work out and that’s where the problem arose. Either way, it’s a design flaw.

2)  The thyroid was designed with the brilliance of the rest of our body, but it is overly sensitive to abuse (think of the yellow canaries in the coal mining days) from stress, lifestyle and environment chemicals.

Personally, I’m going with #2.

So what do we know of that screws up our thyroid gland?

  • Stress
  • Gluten sensitivity
  • Flame retardants
  • Nutritional deficiencies like selenium and iodine

And this is just the short list. In all of them, there is something wrong. Our body throws up the thyroid flag as a warning to look for the problem and fix it. But we burn the warning flag and treat the thyroid with medication, destruction or surgery.

We now have two more items to add to the list of thyroid toxic life events.

Prediabetes and diabetes.

Big shocker–they’re linked to every other chronic disease, why not the thyroid??

This particular study looked at a group of patients who had prediabetes, diabetes and thyroid problems and compared them to normal controls. Here’s what they found:

  1. TSH levels were higher in the diabetic group.
  2. The volume of the thyroid was higher in the diabetic (75% higher) and prediabetic groups (62.5% higher).
  3. The percentage of thyroid nodules was 38% higher in the diabetic group and 27.6% higher in prediabetics (Tweet this).

These are some pretty astounding numbers. From a full functional medicine perspective, we know that chemicals in our environment and stress play a major role in the development of diabetes. It could boil down to a chicken or the egg discussion, but it really doesn’t matter.

The best answer is to make the right lifestyle choices (you can see my recommendations by clicking here) BEFORE any thyroid  or diabetic problem develops. If you’re too late for that and you’ve got thyroid problems, it’s time to accept the fact that the thyroid is merely the tip of the iceberg and you need to begin to look under the water for answers.

Today.

What did YOUR doctor recommend for YOUR thyroid problems?

Clue to Subclinical Thyroid Disease – (03-14-02)

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Individual Variations in T4, T3: Clue to Subclinical Thyroid Disease

This article introduces an entirely novel concept: patients may actually have lab values within normal range that are abnormal for that particular patient. All sarcasm aside, I will always ask for patients’ prior bloodwork so that I can begin to evaulate all values, not just those that fall outside of the reference range for the lab. I fell that subclinical thyroid disease is underdiagnosed and undertreated in Western medicine and articles like this can begin to pave the way towards an individualized approach to lab values.

JCEM — Abstracts: Andersen et al. 87 (3): 1068

Read entire article here

Homocysteine higher in thyroid problems – (03-15-01)

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Changes in homocysteine in hyperthyroidism and hypothyroidism

Hypothyroidism has been linked with an increased risk of heart disease, and this study demonstrates that patients with decreased thyroid function have higher homocysteine levels. This once again demonstrates the intricate weave that all body systems have on one another and the need for a multifactorial approach to disease management.

Read entire article here

TSH Blood Test: Should We Treat Underactive Thyroid Symptoms?

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Having a TSH blood test is part of normal bloodwork. These tests may to drug treatment (usually Synthroid), but are underactive thyroid symptoms dangerous?

Let’s cover some basics first.

The thyroid plays a huge role in just about everything we do (so does the adrenal–but that’s fodder for another post) and is critical for good health. It produces two hormones: triiodothyronine (T3) and thyroxine (T4). T3 is much more active than T4, but the body breaks it down much faster. So, in its brilliance, the thyroid makes mostly T4 and sends this hormone into the circulation. When it gets to organs like the liver, kidneys, heart and brain enzymes here convert T4 to T3 to be used on site. Pretty smart if you ask me.

Healthy production of T4 in the thyroid depends on several factors such as iodine, TSH levels and chemical exposure. Many, many chemicals affect thyroid hormone production. Some of these chemicals that lead to underactive thyroid symptoms have been addressed in a previous post. This means that treating low TSH levels does NOT begin with medication, but rather by a complete look at what might be leading to a slow thyroid gland.

Then, once T3 gets to the organ, it requires nutrients like selenium to be properly converted to T4. Many patients are put on thyroid medications when the real problem may be as simple as selenium deficiency. Stress also destroys this process, leading to the production of a compound called reverse T3 (which is inactive) instead of the desired T3. So if underconversion is your problem, again meds are not the answer–stress management and supplementation are better options.

Overall, I think we have a very messed up way of addressing thyroid problems. First of all, what if your heart or liver started to fail in your twenties?  Would we throw up our hands and say that it just happens? Of course not.  If something is wrong with those organs we’re going to damn well get to the root of the problem and fix it. But for some reason the thyroid is treated differently. Maybe it’s because we have a medication that “fixes” the problem.

The other issue is how we compare the patient and the lab values. Normally, you consider the two in conjunction and use each to guide treatment options. Not so with the thyroid. You can have a patient who has the entire laundry list of underactive thyroid symptoms but normal labs. In this case the doctor just tells the patient that the thyroid is ok, completely ignoring the patient’s story. On the other hand, I have had patients who have been put on Synthroid without a shred of symptoms but had high or low TSH levels.

So what happens if we treat solely based on TSH blood tests and not on patient’s underactive thyroid symptoms?

This particular study should make us think twice about blindly treating thyroid disorders without understanding what is going on. Researchers looked at how thyroid related blood values played a role in a group of patients (around 72 years old) followed for 13 years and his or her risk of dying. Here’s what they found:

  1. Over the 13 years, levels on the TSH blood test went 13%
  2. T4 levels increased 1.7%
  3. There was a 13% decrease in total T3
  4. Subclinical hypothyroidism, TSH levels and TPO antibodies had no effect on the risk of dying
  5. T4 levels, however, greatly increased the risk of death-257% for each ng/dl increase

Clearly, higher levels of T4 led to more problems and a shorter lifespan in the participants of this study. So what does this mean?

It can mean several things, but what seems to be staring me in the face is that maybe the body is supposed to slow down its metabolism as we get older. Much like menopause, the body slows things down for a reason.  Decades of abuse from stress, poor quality diets, sedentary lifestyles and environmental chemical exposures damage our genes. At this point, more metabolic activity may not be a good thing, leading to things like cancer and brain cell damage.

Keep in mind that standard medical approaches to thyroid problems involve almost exclusively T4 (Synthroid, levothyroxine). Based on this information, does this sound like a good idea, especially over the course of 30, 40 or 50 years?

Links between iodine deficiency and breast cancer – (01-29-04)

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The thyroid, iodine and breast cancer

This is a very interesting concept brought to my attention by Dr. Harry Eidner’s newsletter produced for DSD International. Their seems to be some links between iodine deficiency and breast cancer. The additional of treatment for hypothyroidism seems to strengthen to risk of breast cancer. Given the high level of prescriptions for hypothyroidism (most notably Synthroid) this is a very real concern.

Entrez-PubMed –

Read entire article here

THYROID EFFECTS BLOOD PRESSURE AND HYPERTENSION – (05-09-02)

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The Role of Thyroid Hormone in Blood Pressure Homeostasis

I must admit that the evaluation of hypertension and factors associated with it do not generally include evaluating thyroid function. This article suggests that thyroid function can indeed be a factor in high blood pressure and should be added to the list of therapeutic avenues for anyone with hypertension. Add to this lowering insulin resistance, exercise, consuming healthy fats and lots of fruits and veggies and you are well on your way to lowering blood pressure naturally.

JCEM — Abstracts: Fommei and Iervasi 87 (5): 1996 –

Read entire article here

IODINE DEFICIENCY LEADS TO DEFICIT AND HYPERACTIVITY IN OFFSPRING – (12-15-04)

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ATTENTION DEFICIT AND HYPERACTIVITY DISORDERS IN THE OFFSPRING OF MOTHERS EXPOSED TO MILD-MODERATE IODINE DEFICIENCY: A POSSIBLE NOVEL IODINE DEFICIENCY DISORDER IN DEVELOPED COUNTRIES

The answer to the origin of ADD/ADHD as well as autism will most likely result in a multi-factorial equation. One thing is for sure–we are doing something different to our kids that is negatively affecting their health and increasing their risk for chronic diseases.

In this study, the concept that kids with ADD/ADHD may have developed a resistance to thyroid hormone as a result of iodine deficiency in the mom is proposed. Iron deficiency, vaccines, antibiotic overuse, poor nutritional quality diets and toxin exposure are all on the list as well. Most likely the answer lies in a mixture of all of these factors.

Read entire article here

SELENIUM ASSOCIATED WITH CHEMOPREVENTION – (11-21-04)

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The Link between Selenium and Chemoprevention: A Case for Selenoproteins

I know I covered this article in the last Updates, but just the other day I had a patient come in who had had Hashimoto’s thyroiditis–an autoimmune condition where the body attacks its own thyroid gland–and underwent typical medical treatment which is to get rid of the thyroid via surgery or radioactive ablation. Kind of like if you had gang members shooting little old ladies–just pack up all the old ladies and take them to south Florida. The problem here is that a large chunk of patients with autoimmune thyroiditis may have their symptoms caused by either low selenium or an allergy to gluten containing grains.

This article illustrates one of the major shortcomings of mainstream medicine’s approach to disease. Destroy or cover up the symptom while allowing the underlying process that created it to continue. So, if this patient is deficient in selenium, this current article would also suggest that she has a reduced ability to fight off cancer. Do you think this was including in the surgeon’s informed consent to the patient?

The Link between Selenium and Chemoprevention: A Case for Selenoproteins — Diwadkar-Navsariwala and Diamond 134 (11): 2899 -..

Read entire article here