It’s been 10 days since I saw Dr. Young and went over my test results.  She added more supplements and made modifications to my diet.  The results so far are that the achiness in my joints is gone, the feeling of always being cold is gone, and the pain in my mid back is much less noticeable.  Today, I went in for to get my hair cut and the first thing out of my stylist, Marla’s mouth was, “Whose hair is this?”  My hair is getting thicker and more vibrant.  And it is no longer falling out in chunks!  Also, my eyes had become so dry that I have really limited wearing my contacts.  They are getting so much better with each day. 

Today, I will give an overview of what Dr. Young discovered in the tests.  I will chunk out the findings and go into more specific detail about each finding in subsequent posts. 

First, the good news.  While thyroid is stressed and moving towards hypothyroidism, it is not there yet.  My organ functions are generally very good.  I have low inflammation, which is a very good thing.  And while I have an average risk of heart issues later on, I do not carry any genetic markers.  This is huge because my family is a cardiology intern’s dream. And my vitamin levels, with little exception, are in range.  That fact, coupled with consistent exercise, sleep and water intake are probably behind the level of good news, and for that I am grateful!  My antioxidant levels are borderline so any more hits to my system would have opened my system up to dangerous toxins.

And now, for the not surprising but still unfortunate bad news. 

• My neurotransmitters are stressed out.
• Epinephrine, which controls brain function, is really low while norepinephrine, which can cause stress on the heart and brain, is elevated.  Therefore, serotonin is also low.
• Histamines, which affect allergies are elevated so my immune system is living at war. 
  
• My cortisol levels are elevated so I am in a state of “fright or flight” stress. 
  
• The good news is that the neurotransmitters glycine, GABA,  and Glutamate are all in normal range. 
  
• Shockingly, the only issue with my heart is a borderline reading for LDL cholesterol. 
  
• I have a long history backed up by a family history of insulin resistant hypoglycemia.  In times of stress, my body stores sugar.  And bad bacteria (like strep) due to overgrowth of yeast just thrive there.  Beneficial flora don’t do so well.  Fortunately the really nasty flora, that reek serious havoc on the GI tract have lost the battle and are not present in my culture!  My poor immune system is currently winning the battle but would have ultimately lost the war without intervention of diet modification and probiotics. 
• While most of my vitamins are good, I am deficient in calcium and zinc, which are most essential elements.  

So, there you have it in a nutshell.  Over the coming weeks, I will share more information on these results, what I am doing and how I am doing.  I hope that it will provide good conversation and helpful information to others!

I have read a number of articles and heard from a number of friends with thyroid issues that either eliminating or reducing gluten can give the thyroid a much needed vacation.  So after a fair amount of research, both online and at Whole Foods, I decided to take a week off from gluten.  It definitely takes some planning but there are plenty of gluten free options. 

Fruit and vegetables in their pure state are always gluten free.  Unprocessed meats are nearly always gluten free.  There are gluten free cookies, pastas, breads, soups, sauces and salad dressings out there.  I even found a decent gluten free granola at Trader Joes.  While I can’t have a beer, I can have wine.  I even found that Aqui, one of my favorite local haunts, has an extensive and delicious gluten free menu. 

This is not something I would choose to do on a long term basis because it is just too inconvenient.  But what I have learned is that it is pretty easy to dramatically reduce the amount of gluten I eat with just a little practice.  If I find at the end of the week that I have more energy, feel less bloated and feel the brain fog lifting that I have been in, I may opt for a gluten fast a few days each week. 

The only downfall is that foods with gluten are high in fiber and have other essential vitamins and minerals, so be sure to supplement to make up for the missing nutrients!

Are you gluten free?  Have you ever tried a gluten free diet for a period of time?  Did you feel better?  Was it too hard to do? 

Here is the Mayo Clinic’s full list of gluten free foods. 

After I read this article and watched Dr. Lowe’s interview about the connection of Fibromyalgia to Hypothyroidism on Mercola, my first thought was “Thank God I don’t have fibromyalgia.”  And then, “An article such as this could offer tremendous hope to those who suffer every waking moment with this racking muscle pain.”  I have a number of friends who have been struck with fibromyalgia anywhere from their 30s to their 60s.  And it is NOT pretty. 

For those of you who are not familiar with fibromyalgia, the clinical definition according to the Mayo Clinic is

a disorder characterized by widespread musculoskeletal pain accompanied by fatigue, sleep, memory and mood issues. Researchers believe that fibromyalgia amplifies painful sensations by affecting the way your brain processes pain signals.

Symptoms sometimes begin after a physical trauma, surgery, infection or significant psychological stress. In other cases, symptoms gradually accumulate over time with no single triggering event.

Women are much more likely to develop fibromyalgia than are men. Many people who have fibromyalgia also have tension headaches, temporomandibular joint (TMJ) disorders, irritable bowel syndrome, anxiety and depression.

While there is no cure for fibromyalgia, a variety of medications can help control symptoms. Exercise, relaxation and stress-reduction measures also may help.

Then I had a personal “aha”.  Maybe my thyroid is the reason I am always COLD.  At this point in my hormone cycle, I should always be HOT.  While I have occasional hot flashes, most of the time I am cold.  And even when I do have those hot flashes and start sweating like mad, I still end up feeling clammy cold. And then there is my battle with fatigue, hair falling out in chunks, my itchy skin and the acne that I never had in high school but here it is in my mid 40s.  BOTHER!!!

So, why didn’t the routine blood tests ordered by my doctor in September point to hypothyroidism?  Well, maybe I don’t have hypothyroidism.  Maybe I am just stressed out.  Or, as Dr. Lowe points out in his article, maybe it did not show up in the blood tests.  He considers routine blood tests useless.  That’s harsh but sometimes the truth is.  We are tired, stressed and busy women and we want answers! 

Dr. Lowe suggests a different way and that is going back to what worked.  Looking at symptoms instead of simply treating them away, and charting the body’s measurements such as basal temperature, resting heart rate and morning weight measured over a series of days and weeks as a roadmap to the true origin of medical issues. And don’t be surprised if it’s been your thyroid all along.

Have any of you ever used basal temperature testing or resting heart rate to measure thryoid activity?  I am curious what you learned.

There are not nearly enough good resources on the internet for thyroid information and advocacy. 

First of all, let me define “good” resource.  It is a resource that provides valuable information on treating the thyroid in a format that is easily read and understood.  It is not a site that sells supplements or services from a multi level marketing (read pyramid) organization with unsubstantiated claims of treating thyroid issues.  I don’t want to buy a bridge over the river Thyroid.  The source of the information has either treated thyroid with professional credentials or lived thyroid through their own experience and works in the true interest of serving others with the knowledge they have acquired.  There is NOTHING wrong with promoting ones livelihood if it is done in a way that provides the reader with valid and useful information. 

So, here is what I have learned. 

My friend, Linda has lived it.  She recommended the site Save Natural Thyroid Coaltion.  It is a site that advocates for safe and effective thryoid treatments to be covered by insurance.  The site is chocked full of useful and current information and includes links to a Yahoo! group and a Facebook fan page where lots of people share.  This is a great one! The nature of this site is geared toward conventional medicine with common sense nutrition and health.

I went onto Ask.com and found Mary Shomon, who is a patient and advocate.  She started writing a site for ask.com in 1997 and has written a New York Times Bestseller on managing your metabolism with thyroid issues.  Click here for her ask.com site.  Mary’s site has a definite bent toward naturopathic solutions. 

Just this morning, I heard from one of my dear college pals.  Marsha Smith Westfall is no stranger to the medical industry as a career professional and now, unfortunately, as a consumer.  She was the Director of Internal Communications for Sanofi Pasteur, the leading company in providing immunizations.  She suffered irreparable harm during a routine back surgery and is now permanently disabled.  She blogs about her experience at shakinguplife.wordpress.com.  Marsha highly recommends the work of Dr. Julian Whitaker at the Whitaker Wellness Institute.  Dr. Whitaker is an M.D. who uses the latest practice in conventional and naturopathic medicine to help patients stop being patients and start living.  I may just have to plan a visit down to Newport Beach.  It sounds like an amazing institute!

I sincerely hope that you find something you can use at one or all of these resources.

My last post on the connection of everything to the thryoid inspired a friend who is a very successful businesswoman to send me a message.  With her permission, I am posting most of the note here.  Her sentiments speak volumes to the frustration most of us are feeling. 

Hi LauraBeth - Been following your posts and probably no one writes about it because it is so frustrating and the doctors cannot agree on it a lot of times too. Sorry to hear you are going through this

I spent $5,000 with a “Thyroid Doctor” that was a big joke. (Name removed) went with me to her office and asked if this was really a “Doctor” as her whole operation was so unprofessional, it did not give you a feeling of confidence. After multitudes of costly blood tests, mega rounds of vitamins prescribed, I went back to my doctor at Kaiser who disagreed with EVERYTHING the expert doctor had found. Now this same woman doctor is treating a friend of mine and she is delighted with her.

I hope your experience is better once you get a diagnosis and successful

In a follow on note, she gave even more insight to her frustration….

Kaiser is my primary care doctor and since they did not agree with the other doctor’s written lab reports, it was either stay with the costly unprofessional doctor or stay with Kaiser and have them just monitor my blood every year. I chose the latter and gave up on trying to self diagnose myself. I do like that Kaiser is more proactive in prevention now too - I just don’t know which way to go with them re the thyroid. I also had a hysterectomy early 30’s, (that was more than 8 years ago though - LOL) so not sure if that has anything to do with it. You can strip and post away - I still just shake my head when I think of the experience. It should not have such diverse - read opposite - opinions from doctors. I get the feeling that they really don’t know that much about it so tend to not do a lot to “Fix” it.

I hope you find out more about yours and feel better.

Note to the medical community…Women are busy leading successful lives.  We do not have the time or finances to throw at you because you can’t get your act together!  Enough with the conflicting information already!