I'm pretty sure my thyroid doesn't function properly. I had blood tests a few years ago which came back 'normal' but I still have symptoms: weight gain even though I eat healthily and exercise, lack of energy, coarse dry hair, itchy dry skin, irregular heavy menstruation (am using Mirena coil now which contains oestrogen and I've read that this can affect thyroid function [:o]- has sorted out heaviness though), aching joints, carpal tunnel syndrome, low blood pressure. I'm taking my basal body temperature at the moment and it is slightly low compared to the normal temperature range. I'm reluctant to go back to GP though in case my blood tests come back 'normal' and I'll feel like a time-wasting hypochondriac again.
Does anyone know of any natural remedies I can try?
RE: Suspected under active thyroid - Advice on remedies needed
Hi Calmer,
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Antonyoxidant
RE: Suspected under active thyroid - Advice on remedies needed
Hi calmer,
I strongly agree withyour suggestion, that thyroid tests could be unreliable. The article here is just one of many that questions the reliability of thyroid tests:
"Unreliable Thyroid Function Tests - An article in the British Medical Journal by Denis O Reily, a Medical Consultant at the Glasgow Infirmary, calls the reliability of Thyroid Function Tests into doubt. He argues there should be a greater emphasis on a patient's symptoms rather than the test results. So even if the tests for, say, hypothyroidism, give you the all-clear, you may still have the condition. Some patients have been known to suffer for years after a negative test."
As a reflexologist I see this problemoften and I find thata course ofreflexology treatments can actually address and help undetected thyroid imbalance and generally stimulate the body to re-establish a natural balance, including a healthy menstrual cycle.
Andre
RE: Suspected under active thyroid - Advice on remedies needed
Hi
I was diagnosed with an underactive thyroid nine years ago. Through research I have discovered that many people with borderline hypothyroidism are not treated, because the test has a designated 'range' which doesn't take into account individual metabolisms or minor deviations. The fact that the test was done years ago is enough to ring alarm bells - I have to have an annual check of blood levels, and after nine years on one dose, it was discovered that my dose was too high! I had been having trouble sleeping, my heart was racing, and I was actually wondering if I had ADHD! I have no idea what triggered this change at all, but I am so relieved to be taking less medication. You need to get to a different doctor immediately, and have the test done again. One think I would say is that I wish I had explored alternative remedies before taking thyroxine, because once you are on the medication route, your body just gives up and will never produce its own thyroxine again (though why my dose needed to be reduced, I have no idea - it doesn't fit with that notion). Homeopathy is very effective in the early stages, as is reflexology. Do some reasearch yourself, and be insistent with your doctor. You should not be spending years feeling ill like this.
RE: Suspected under active thyroid - Advice on remedies needed
Changing the diet will help with hypothyroidism. Eating goitrogenic foods such as rapeseed, cabbage, brussels sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower, sweet potatoes, maize, lima beans, soya and pearl millet should be limited. These foods contain natural goitrogens, which are chemicals that cause the enlargement of the thyroid gland by interfering with thyroid hormone synthesis. Cooking is known to make the goitrogens elements less effective but it would be wise not eat these foods raw. Foods that contain iodine such as kelp, beetroot, radish, parsley, potatoes, fish, oatmeal and bananas should be kept in the diet. In the treatment of underactive thyroid, fats, sugars, sodium chloride, red meat and egg intake should also be restricted.
Some herbs can help combat hypothyroidism, nettle will balance the thyroid with both under and over activity. Bladderwrack (Fucus vesiculosus) is a type of brown seaweed that contains iodine. hypothyroidism due to small intake of iodine may possibly improve with bladderwrack supplementation; also kelp has been linked to helping with hypothyroidism. Some people with hypothyroidism have seen improvements by taking Chinese herbs.
Another important factor in the treatment of hypothyroidism is exercise. Exercise increases tissue sensitivity to the thyroid hormone and stimulates thyroid gland secretion. This is especially true in people who are dieting; this is because when dieting the metabolic rate decreases but exercise prevents this decline. An exercise regime of between 15-20 minutes per day will be beneficial with hypothyroidism. This exercise needs to be strenuous enough to raise the heartbeat, an exercise such as walking, swimming, running and cycling.
All the best
RE: Suspected under active thyroid - Advice on remedies needed
I've just had my blood test results and they're normal. I'm so glad as I can now concentrate on using alternative remedies following your advice above and will not be bullied into going the conventional route. I still have all the symptoms and my basal body temperature is consistently below the average range, it usually hovers around 36.1 to 36.4.
I've started taking multivitamins, kelp, ginko, ginseng and omega 3/6 oils. I'm revising my diet, Newbeing, but I'll sorely miss cabbage, brussels sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower, sweet potatoes and my dry roasted soya nut snacks (or are they okay 'cause they're cooked?)
I'm starting an exercise regime next week.......I promise.;):)
RE: Suspected under active thyroid - Advice on remedies needed
Does anyone have any brands of thermometer (sp?) that they would reccomend for basal body temp as accuracy here is really really important.
RE: Suspected under active thyroid - Advice on remedies needed
ORIGINAL: calmer
I've just had my blood test results and they're normal. I'm so glad as I can now concentrate on using alternative remedies following your advice above and will not be bullied into going the conventional route. I still have all the symptoms and my basal body temperature is consistently below the average range, it usually hovers around 36.1 to 36.4.
I've started taking multivitamins, kelp, ginko, ginseng and omega 3/6 oils. I'm revising my diet, Newbeing, but I'll sorely miss cabbage, brussels sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower, sweet potatoes and my dry roasted soya nut snacks (or are they okay 'cause they're cooked?)
I'm starting an exercise regime next week.......I promise.;):)
Hi,I know it's some time since you posted this thread but I had to sign up just to give you details of my experience with doctors and hypothyroidism (in my case), in the hope that you, and maybe others,can be helped. This might be a long answer so apologies in advance. 😀
I was ill with an under-active thyroid for about 6 years -we think,(you can't always identify just when you became ill as it's an insidious little illness that creeps up on you) -before it was finally identified.
In that time I had an enormous list of symptoms, which includedall of those you listed in your opening, plus others. I had seen 4 GP's ('it's not thyroid, you're just an overweight, middle-aged woman'said one maleGP- I was 38 and had been slim all my life) and 1 so-called 'specialist' whose contribution to proceedings was to tell me thatbecause of my weight gain(at least 5 stone) I needed to 'keep a food diary and not eat in front of the television'.
During this time I had NUMEROUS blood test for thyroid function, all of which came back 'within normal levels'. The final straw, for me, was when my mental capacity began to fail (not good when you're in the middle of doing a degree!)and that really worried me.
My mother is 'under-active' (as is my maternal aunt and paternal aunt), so family history was quite strong.More and more she became convinced that I had the same condition. She had tracked down a book - I recommend you read it if you can get a copy- "Tears Behind Closed Doors" by Diana Holmes. In this book she tells of herundiagnosed thyroid condition for 23 YEARS (blood tests normal) and how it led to a serious decline in her health. She also referred to a doctor who had finally diagnosed her condition - Dr Gordon Skinner - who believed that you should treat the symptoms and not the blood test results.
After my last blood test came back in September 2003, 'within normal limits' and the GP told me she couldn't treat me with thyroxine 'as your blood tests don't warrant it', we insisted on a referral to Dr Skinner.
Almost the moment I walked through his surgery door he said I had an under-active thyroid. He looked at my skin (was slightly yellowish he said), my tongue, and, the first doctor to do so, felt my thyroid gland which he said was enlarged. He obviously listened to my listof my other symptoms too but the fact that he said it was 'quite clear' that that was what I had, was such a relief I can't begin to tell you.
He maintains that the range used for 'normal' values in these blood tests is so wide that you could be at the outer limits of these and still be ill. He also says that as you weren't tested before you became ill, how can you know what your normal range should be?
He prescribed I starta course of thyroxine (T4) and T3 and within 2 weeks I was beginning to feel better.Four years later I am back to full health ('thoughthe weight gained ismore difficult to lose - darn it!)
Apologies for the length of this reply but I feel so passionately about this, through bitter experience, that
RE: Suspected under active thyroid - Advice on remedies needed
hi,i read this post with great interest & had to register,i have a borderline result for underactive thyroid,but i have done for a long time,i have been to hell & back the last 2 / 3 years with severe symptoms,& i read over the weekend that there is a connection between hypothyroid & anxiety/panic attacks,which i have been suffering to a great deal,the exhaustion i feel is difficult to cope with,i have 5 kids,i just want to feel well again,i dont mean to be rude but my doctor is useless,ive been advised to talk to him about this latest result but was told its unlikely he`ll treat me as my results were only borderline,i cannot begin to list my symptoms as there is so many,but the new ones are,painfull puffy feet,very bad sweating,hot feet inside,im starting to feel quite desperate,does anyone have any advice please,thanks so much.
RE: Suspected under active thyroid - Advice on remedies needed
I have been taking Sea Kelp as my thyroid wasn't working correctly, and as a result had a sluggish metabolic rate. My thyroid is now back to 8, it was 4 when I started.
Am still taking the sea kelp.
I too have an underactive thyroid... I did my own basal temp tests for one month, and consistently had significantly under the 'norm', so I asked my GP for a blood test - of course it came back fine :rolleyes:
Thing is, I'm very slim with a fast metabolism - (I'm thinner now than I have been though I eat what I like), so I don't really fit with the typical hypothyroid description, though I constantly perspire even when I'm freezing cold and my internal thermometer doesn't seem to know what's going on, I tire really easily and sleep poorly. I tried kelp some years ago and didn't find it helped at all, does anyone think there could be something else going on aside from the low thyroid function?
Symptoms of menopause and hypothyroid are similar. Don't just have a TSH test, ask for a complete thyroid panel.
You can eat cruciferous vegetables like cabbage, broccoli if they COOKED. Don't eat them raw. That's the latest info.
If you have Hashimoto's disease you cannot eat excess iodine.
For thyroid info, try http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com
I was diagnosed with an underactive thyroid when I was 7. I'm now 32. My maternal grandmother is a sufferer as was my great grandmother. Not long after I was diagnosed my mum had tests and although her levels were normal, her thyroid gland was working overtime to produce enough.
I'm on 225mg thyroxin daily now and mum is on 125mg. I know that kelp is supposed to help.
underactive thyroid
I'm pretty sure my thyroid doesn't function properly. I had blood tests a few years ago which came back 'normal' but I still have symptoms: weight gain even though I eat healthily and exercise, lack of energy, coarse dry hair, itchy dry skin, irregular heavy menstruation (am using Mirena coil now which contains oestrogen and I've read that this can affect thyroid function [:o]- has sorted out heaviness though), aching joints, carpal tunnel syndrome, low blood pressure. I'm taking my basal body temperature at the moment and it is slightly low compared to the normal temperature range. I'm reluctant to go back to GP though in case my blood tests come back 'normal' and I'll feel like a time-wasting hypochondriac again.
Does anyone know of any natural remedies I can try?
Hello,
I have an underactive thyroid and your symptoms ring true-unfortunately not showing up in blood tests is common but often misinterpretation occurs and should be a guide only secondary to symptoms. Urine tests show before blood does. Thyroid UK have alot of information on this. I take Armourthyroid by Forest and buy it in via Internationalpharmacy. A good book is Tears Behind Closed Doors by Diana Holmes. Other diseases occur as a result. Look at imva , com on the end! Magnesium is often a problem too along with other minerals have a look at Shazzies site on detoxing.I buy Himalayan crystal salt made into a Sole-(So-lay) for minerals
All other natural products do not work for this unless thyroid and adrenals are under control. Gluten and refined sugars can be trouble too, as can casein in milk. Good luck!
Thyroxine is synthetic and doesn't work for everyone, my son was taken off his Armourthyroid and put onto levothyroxine and has been ill since and is on T3 too but no difference ar 150mcg and 20 mcg T3 at 250mcg he is allergic to levothyroxine and woke with bleeding into the eye and memory shot at. At moment he has a droopy eyelid following another sinus infection one of many since his change in treatment. I won't touch the stuff. Prefer to self treat.
hi,i read this post with great interest & had to register,i have a borderline result for underactive thyroid,but i have done for a long time,i have been to hell & back the last 2 / 3 years with severe symptoms,& i read over the weekend that there is a connection between hypothyroid & anxiety/panic attacks,which i have been suffering to a great deal,the exhaustion i feel is difficult to cope with,i have 5 kids,i just want to feel well again,i dont mean to be rude but my doctor is useless,ive been advised to talk to him about this latest result but was told its unlikely he`ll treat me as my results were only borderline,i cannot begin to list my symptoms as there is so many,but the new ones are,painfull puffy feet,very bad sweating,hot feet inside,im starting to feel quite desperate,does anyone have any advice please,thanks so much.
Sounds very hypothtroid def relation to panic attacks and most everything else....no such thing as borderline in my book as my son was full blown hypo and had life threatening infections and was very overweight and a mess -bloods are misinterpreted and symptoms should be first and foremost look at thyroid uk.i take Armourthyroid by Forest and find it helpful. I was so ill for 20yrs all the time my bloods came back as euthyroid, i now have osteoporosis as a result of neglect of hypothyroidism...minerals are key too try Himalayan Crystal Salt make into Sole ( so-lay) Cell Food by Lumina too