Do you have vague, uncomfortable symptoms with no obvious
cause?
If so, you might be one of the 45 million people who have a
chronic medical problem that is both under-diagnosed and
under-treated.
Think about it...
Do you feel tired all the time and have trouble
concentrating?
Is your skin dry? Do you retain fluid?
Has your sex drive gone downhill?
Are your hands and feet always cold?
Is your hair thinning, your voice a little hoarse, your
fingernails a little thick?
Is your cholesterol high?
Do you have trouble losing weight or have you gained weight
recently?
Are you depressed or anxious?
Do you have really bad PMS or trouble getting pregnant?
Do your muscles feel weak, crampy, and painful?
Most of these symptoms aren't severe enough to send you to
the emergency room.
In fact, we usually accept them as a normal part of life --
and so do conventional doctors. They don't view these
symptoms as serious.
But they certainly affect your quality of life. And they
can lead to more serious problems, including heart attacks
and diabetes.
So what causes these symptoms?
It's called hypothyroidism.
In this condition, your overall metabolic gas pedal has
slowed down because the master gland that controls it, your
thyroid gland, isn't functioning at full speed.
If your thyroid slows down, every other organ and system in
your body slows down, including your brain, heart, gut, and
muscles.
Thyroid function is really a gray area. But most doctors
view it as black or white.
Conventional doctors tend to believe that you can diagnose
hypothyroidism only through one blood test, called TSH, and
that you only qualify for treatment if your blood level is
over 5.0.
But this ignores a whole group of people who have what we
call subclinical hypothyroidism. It is called that because
doctors have a hard time diagnosing it.
Subclinical hypothyroidism may trigger many low-grade
symptoms, like those described above. Yet it causes just
slight changes in your blood tests.
In fact, it often only shows up in tests that most doctors
never perform.
I see this all the time in my medical practice: Patients
come in with vague complaints that alone may not seem too
significant.
But when you put them all together, they tell an important
story.
For example, take the 73-year-old woman who had fatigue,
sluggishness, poor memory, slight depression, dry skin,
constipation, and mild fluid retention.
Her doctor brushed her off.
But I believe that most of the symptoms of aging that we
see are really symptoms of abnormal aging or dysfunction
that is related to imbalances in our core body systems.
So I act as a medical detective to find clues where no one
else is looking and put together a story about why a person
feels sick. This gets them the answers and tools they need
to get well.
In this case, we found that my patient had a sluggish
thyroid. Although she didn't meet all the conventional
criteria for hypothyroidism, she had an autoimmune reaction
that caused her thyroid to function poorly.
So we replaced her missing thyroid hormone, supported her
nutrition, and made some simple lifestyle changes. She soon
felt alert, energetic, and youthful -- and all of her other
symptoms cleared up.
Another patient was a 28-year-old chronically constipated
woman.
She also felt tired in the mornings, always needed coffee,
and had trouble staying up at night.
She thought this was normal. She didn't know she had a
sluggish thyroid.
But as soon as we supported her nutrition and eliminated
her food allergens (particularly gluten), which create
inflammation and interfere with thyroid function, she
improved.
Low thyroid function affects people of all ages.
It is very common because of our exposure to toxins such as
heavy metals and pesticides, nutritional deficiencies, and
chronic stress, all of which interfere with our thyroid
function.
And your thyroid isn't just linked to the symptoms
described here.
It is the master metabolism hormone that controls the
function and activity of almost every organ and cell in
your body -- so when it is sluggish or slow, everything
slows down.
Fortunately, we can diagnose and treat problem, with a
comprehensive functional medicine approach that uses the
concepts of UltraWellness.
First, I determine if you have any of the chronic symptoms
of hypothyroidism or diseases associated with it, such as:
* sluggishness in the morning
* poor concentration and memory
* low-grade depression
* dry skin
* hoarse voice
* thinning hair
* coarse hair
* being very sensitive to cold and having cold hands and
feet
* low body temperature
* muscle pain
* weakness or cramps
* low sex drive
* fluid retention
* high cholesterol
Next, I do a physical examination for clues to a
low-functioning thyroid.
I check for a low body temperature. Anything lower than
97.6 degrees F may be a sign of hypothyroidism.
I might also find fluid retention, a thick tongue, swollen
feet, swollen eyelids, an enlarged thyroid gland, excessive
earwax, a dry mouth, coarse skin, low blood pressure, or
decreased ankle reflexes. I might even find that the outer
third of the eyebrows is gone.
These are all physical signs that can be put together along
with other symptoms to form a story of what is causing the
problem.
Then I perform specific blood tests that give me a full
picture of thyroid problems.
Finally, I design a nutrition, lifestyle, and supplement
regimen and hormone replacement plan as needed to help
people regain their health.
In my next article, I will discuss the major preventable --
and mostly hidden -- factors that slow your thyroid down.
And I'll tell you more about the special tests I use to
diagnose thyroid problems, as well as how to specifically
treat low thyroid function.
----------------------------------------------------
Mark Hyman, M.D. is a pioneer in functional medicine,
practicing physician and best-selling author. A sneak
preview of his book "The UltraSimple Diet" is available.
See The UltraWellness Blog for more on Hypothyroidism:
http://www.ultrawellness.com/blog/
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