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Dear Pharmacist,
I’m very tired and weak without my thyroid medicine. Now, I’m concerned about the thyroid shortage and worried that there will not be medication for me. What else can I do? M.K., Gainesville, Florida
Answer: There will always be thyroid medication, don’t worry. While this is all getting sorted out by the manufacturers and the FDA, let me assure you that it’s possible to create more thyroid hormone naturally. You can also make your cells more sensitive to circulating thyroid hormone.
The active version of thyroid hormone is called T3 and it makes you feel “awake.” The inactive hormone is called T4. In order for you to feel well, have energy and burn carbs and fat, your body must be able to convert T4 to T3. It’s pretty easy to do. Low thyroid (T3) can cause depression, weight gain, brittle nails, cold sensations and thinning hair.
Low thyroid (T3) will trigger your brain to produce some TSH (Thyroid Stimulating Hormone) which shouts at your thyroid gland, “Make more T3, we don’t have enough!” When the gland makes some more T3, the TSH hushes up. It’s a complex feedback loop, but that’s the gist. With that in mind, here’s some more advice that can help you regain healthy thyroid levels:
Iron: You need sufficient levels of iron to make thyroid hormone and to get it into your cells where it works. Women with a heavy monthly flow often run short on iron. You can measure iron stores (called “ferritin”) with a simple blood test.
Trace Minerals: They help you convert T4 to T3 and include zinc, selenium and chromium. These minerals double as antioxidants which means that they do good housekeeping on your cells and protect the thyroid gland from destructive free radicals. It’s an inexpensive fix, take “chelated” minerals or drink green food supplements that contain marine-derived compounds.
Iodine: Another trace mineral that is absolutely critical in making thyroid hormone and also in protecting against breast cancer. It’s shocking but white bread often contains bromine which can cause iodine deficiency and interferes with thyroid functioning. So iodine is helpful to your thyroid, bromine is not.
Ashwagandha: In animal studies, this herb stimulates more T3 production. Additionally, it nourishes tired, stressed adrenal glands. This causes your stress hormone cortisol to come down, and it may help you lose belly fat.
Guggul: You get a lot of bang for your buck with guggul because it helps you make more T3, it can lower cholesterol/triglycerides and it may relieve joint pain and osteoarthritis.
Insulin: When serum insulin is high, thyroid hormone can’t work well. You can bring insulin levels down by exercising and taking various supplements which I outlined for you in a prior column (now posted at my website, www.DearPharmacist.com).
Did You Know?
Essential oils should be avoided for ten days following chemotherapy administration.
I think your advice is terrific. Especially about iodine.
I think your advice is terrific. Especially about iodine.
I love all your advice and clip your column from the newspaper, have your Drug Mugger book and read everything I find on your suggestions. Thanks Suzy. You are the number one person I trust to tell me the truth about drugs and supplements.
Very good advice. I was dxed with Hashimotos ( autoimmune disease) and as a result have low thyroid function. I take Synthroid and am doing well for the first time in 8 years. I’ve learned you can’t always depend on the TSH level as to taking more or less meds. For the first time my TSH does not correspond with the FT4 count, so I go only by the FT4 level and it has worked out great. Soy products are poison to most thyroid sufferers, can really suppress thyroid function. The soy industry is so powerful, they claim a cure for just about anything.
Dear Suzy,
Thanks for sharing info on this matter.
I am trying to find more info on the supplements you’re suggesting in the last paragraph of this article in a column on your website, but I don’t seem to be able to find them.
Could you please be a bit more specific as for where they are? Thanks! ; )
Hi Suzy, the Aloe and Sea vegetable supplement I take contains a very high amount of natural iodine as well as the trace minerals which are impossible to get from our everyday food sources. I also take a healthy energy drink which uses 2 adaptogenic herbs Ashwagandha and Holy Basil.
I have been educating folks as much as possible about the health benefits of these adaptogenic herbs, Aloe Vera and especially sea vegetables…the last great food source on our planet. Nice to see a health care professional like yourself advocating natural alternatives to pharmaceuticals.
Thanks for the information. I had been tested for thyroid function countless times. Results are all negative, but I have all the symptoms of hypothyroidism. I have gained a lot of weight and I don’t over eat. Unfortunately doctors can’t prescribe any medication if tests are negative even if symptoms are there. I will try some of the remedies mentioned. Thanks.
Mari, I spent three years seeing doctors, with all the symptoms of hypothyroidism…only to keep receiving negative test results. I bought Suzy’s book “24 hour Pharmacist” and started taking my underarm temp, as she suggested. Eighteen months ago,the good Lord led me to an alternative doctor, who is treating me naturally. I’m seeing improvement every day!
I have MRSA, I was on Zyvox, intervein for 3 weeks in the hospital.
What do you suggest to remove it from my blood stream? I also had it back in the end of 2006 into 2007. The 1st. time I contracted it at the Wound Care Center at Amsterdam Memorial Hosp.NY. The 2nd.time was at Wound Care Center,GlensFalls Hosp,NY, when the Dr applied the appagraft to the hole in my left ankle he had some left & applied it to the tiny holes up the front of my left leg,that were almost healed.The bandages were left on for a week.When I went back to have the bandage changed,I had 32 holes,which Iwas told it was my fault.Ijust want to get rid of MRSA!
Please can you help me? Have a Great Day! Thank you!…..Gail
I totally agree and thanks for putting
the truth out here.
Debbie
Also avoid soft drinks containing BVO (brominated vegetable oil). This food additive contains bromine and is banned in many countries, but in the US, it is added to citrus-flavored soft drinks and sports drinks. I don’t know if I’m allowed to mention brand names here, so I will just say that one popular drink has “Dew” in the name. Read food labels!
Some thyroid hormone conversion takes place in the liver, so you need to keep your liver as healthy as possible by avoiding toxins such as mercury and pesticides. I avoid artificial food ingredients such as aspartame, and I also avoid anything with high fructose corn syrup because some of it is contaminated with mercury during processing. Certain species of fish also are high in mercury. Also limit alcohol to help your liver.
For those of you suffering with Hypothyrodism symtoms but not getting a positive test result or the symptoms are not going away despite taking a thyroxine supplement, you should be tested for Celiac’s Disease.
It is an intolerance (autoimmune disorder) to gluten (wheat, rye, & barley). If you are overweight, your doctor may not want to test you, but demand it. If the doctor still refuses, try removing gluten from your diet for at least a week to see how your body responds and how you feel.
Celiac’s causes you to not absorb the nutrients you need for your body to function properly (including your thyroid), until you remove the gluten and heal the damage that has been done to your GI.
My daughter was diagnosed with Celiac’s at age 15. My sister, my husband and myself were diagnosed approx 1 month after my daughter’s diagnosis. We all noticed a dramatic difference within days after removing our gluten.
Eventhough the most “popular” symptoms for Celiac’s deal with GI pain/leakage our symptoms were dealing with weight gain, low energy level, moodiness, headaches, mental fog, and other life disturbing symptoms. My sister, my daughter and myself were diagnosed with Hypothyroidism years ago, but the symptoms did NOT go away until we were diagnosed with Celiac’s and removed the gluten. Even after years of taking levothyroxine and keeping our levels in check. My husband had the same symptoms, but the test results kept coming back negative for hypothyroidism.
If you have been suffering with these types of symptoms, do some research on Celiac’s and Hypothyrodism. Go to your doctor and discuss it. Just realize, that most doctors were taught… 1. Celiac’s is a “skinny” peoples disease. 2. It is rare for family members to have it if one of them is diagnosed with it. 3. Only 1.3% of the population has Celiac’s. 4. It is an “infant/toddler” disease. 5. In order to have the disease you have to have gut pain. … All of which have been proven inaccurate. In fact, after looking into this, I have come to find out that both Europe and Australia have not only know about this disease for years, but gluten free eating is as common to them as low fat eating is to us here in the US.
We suffered for years thinking that we would never get rid of our symptoms because the doctors said our TSH levels were ok. I am so thankful that we finally figured out what was really going on.
If this long winded comment can help one person get better, it was worth it.
Hi Suzy, Just want to let you know I really enjoy the information you provide to all of us who want to take control of our health vs western medicine. I have added several things to my diet including Yerba Mate tea daily along with Astaxanthin. Thanks for all your good advice.
I am getting so educated by reading and researching and I can see that my primary dr is not going to be able to treat me. I could not get my Armour thyroid because of the FDA so my dr gave me Synthroid (low dose) I have been sick now for 2 months because of Synthroid. He finally put me on a higher dose, but didn’t feel any better. I was getting so desperate that I went out of town to a Holistic dr and she wrote me a perscription for Armour which was compounded for me.(my dr refused to do this for me) She also took a lot of tests which I don’t have results for yet. I am beginning to feel better, but still fatigued. I have been reading some letters about Celiac desease and how that makes you feel. Also read Suzy’s article on progesterone. Just don’t know if I should take that because I have a small spot on my lung which is breast cancer. Need some answers on balancing my hormones and cancer. I am getting treatments for the cancer, but I am really thinking that if I had my hormones balanced, I would not have gotten cancer at all. I was taking progesterone (which I got from a Holistic dr) but the endroconologist took me off of it. Now that I am more educated, I believe that regular drs don’t have it right. Maybe I could get more answers if I could get Suzy’s book on cancer. Looks like I’m going to make decision to give up my primary dr at this point. I sure would love to get an answer to this letter from Suzy, but I had to get all this off my chest. Thanks for listening!