You wrote: "Can you expound on hypothyroidism? I do have it. But most of the docs I have been to just want to throw some pills at you and send you on your way, with no discussion on how best to live with it. I have my theories. Like that somehow it is connected to depression. And that strenuous exercise will help balance it. But these are just theories. Now I am worried that It will get worse if I take CS all the time. Is there a test to measure selenium Catherine?"
Dear Sharon, Hypothyroidism causes depression and one of the worst things docs do is throw antidepressants at women, which in themselves worsen hypothyroidism. It is known in medical literature that thyroid treatment can cure long standing intractable depression. Hypothyroidism has a major impact on brain health and function. Many new antidepressants interfere with thyroid function and T4 to T3 conversion. There are many sites that list the symptoms of hypothyroidism. Read Mary Shomon's "Living Well With Hypothyroidism" But, the sad thing is that I went for years and years misdiagnosed and suffered much health debilitation. Some signs are high cholesterol, weight gain, bloating, depression, low body temperature, cardiovascular disease, memory problems, digestive disturbances, sleep disturbances, and reproductive disorders from high estrogen. You can run a simple body temperature test on yourself http://www.lef.org/protocols/prtcl-104.shtml to see if your metabolism is slowed. In the old days, hypothyroidism was diagnosed by some good physical tests of muscle response, the person's appearance (hair quality, nail ridging, skin condition, weight, etc.), and the nature of their complaints. Current tests that you obtain from the doctors are not adequate because they do not detect all conditions that can make a person hypo. A person can actually have normal blood work and be hypothyroid. Most doctors only test TSH. This test is far from adequate due to ranges being too broad and the fact that a person can easily have normal TSH and be hypo from a problem in the brain TSH feedback system. At the very least, you should have a Free T3 and Free T4 test and in all tests you should be above the midline somewhere. The reason for this is because it is mostly hypo people who have thyroid tests which skews the ranges for what is normal toward hypo. TSH should be between 1.0 and 2.0 not 1.0 and 5.0. Exercise can be helpful, depending on the type of thyroid problem you have. If you have a thyroid system problem with normal test results and maybe thyroid hormone cellular insensitivity or resistance, then exercise can help. It is best done several times a day for short (10 minutes or a little more) intense periods. This helps keep the metabolism and body temps higher throughout the day. However, if you have been hypothyroid for a while, it is likely you have been overworking your adrenals. Then, exercise can pull the system down and make you feel worse. It also increases demand for thyroid hormones and if your thyroid cannot keep up, then you won't get a lot of benefit. The adrenals actually try to compensate for low thyroid hormones by raising adrenalin and with hypothyroidism more cortisol is needed to deal with the inflammatory processes that are caused by being hypo. Long standing hypothyroidism often results in adrenal fatigue or hypo-function. Adrenal fatigue itself is associated with depression, lethargy, hopelessness and mood disturbances. Violent offenders have been found to have low adrenal hormones. A good tip is to go to the Wilson's Thyroid website http://www.wilsonssyndrome.com/ and find a Wilson's doc. They would be more likely to treat you not based solely on tests and they would be more likely to run more extensive tests. Mary Shamon's http://thyroid-about.com mentioned earlier is a very good site with many excellent articles and a doctor list. You can try supplements to help your thyroid and adrenals. Nutri-meds makes thyroid extracts which contain small amounts of thyroid hormones. Keep in mind that if you supplement with thyroid hormone and have adrenal fatigue, you are going to feel worse. In that case, you will need to help the adrenals with glandulars or hydrocortisone replacement. Tish -- The silver-list is a moderated forum for discussion of colloidal silver. Instructions for unsubscribing may be found at: http://silverlist.org To post, address your message to: [email protected] Silver-list archive: http://escribe.com/health/thesilverlist/index.html List maintainer: Mike Devour <[email protected]>
