Wellness

[LilacTree]

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@gabstoomuch wrote:

@Trinity11 Dr thinks 10??!!?? At 10 one would feel teribble! If you can find a Dr who truly understands the thyroid, they try for a TSH of 1. Someone with anything above 2-3 feels like poop, I cannot imagine waiting until 10, that is crazy

The TSH is not even testing the thyroid, it is testing the pituitary.

The tests you really want is FREE T-4 and FREE T-3. That would tell you more. FREE means how much hormone is available for use. (T-4 inactive hormone, converts to active T-3 in the liver). So just "totals" does not break it down enough.

If you are on Facebook, there are some really good pages for thyroid  info. I learned so much from just reading there. Hypothyroid affects every system in the human body, so when it is not functioning right, the symptoms can be unbearable.

I started off reading on a website at ABOUT .com, search for Mary Shanon. She is a thyroid advocate for people to fight to get the right treatment, and she is a thyroid wizard. If one does not do Facebook, her website is awesome.

Suzy Cohen is great too, there are a lot of great thyroid websites because unfortunately, very few Drs know how to dose, and what meds to use, and how to get a patient into "optimal" range, not just "in range".

Optimal range for T-4 should be in the upper half of the labs range, and T-3 should be in the upper quarter. There is so much more to thyroid disease than just testing the TSH.

Another good book is "The Autoimmune Solution" by Amy Myers MD. She got Graves disease in college, was sick all through med school, was an ER DR and was so very ill. Unable to find a regular Dr who understood how to treat her, she went back to school and became a functional Dr. She now has a big clinic in Austin TX, and she is so knowledgeable.

90% Hypothyroid people actually Hashimotos, an autoimmune condition. The immune system attacks the thyroid. The ones who are not Hashi's are either the thyroid was injured in some way during their life, or if there is thyroid cancer. The rest really have Hashimoto's. Read up on Hashimoto's. There is a lot of info to wrap your brain around, but once you understand it all, and make all the lifestyle changes needed, get your meds right, it is possible to feel well again.

There are approx 59 million+ people in the United States alone that are under-treated, or not even diagnosed and live every day feeling horrible.

Hashi knows no age either. It is familial, so even kids get it. Checking the thyroid just recently was put onto the newborn check list, so I guess that is some progress, but the medical community has a long way to go.

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@gabstoomuch

Another excellent and brand new book is "The Autoimmune Connection," by Rita Baron-Faust, MPH and Jill P. Buyon, MD.  It has become my "bible." I have discovered so much more about my autoimmune issues since I read it (quite a few times so far).  I concentrate on the diseases I have and have changed my diet as well.  Thankfully, autoimmune diseases are finally getting some attention.