New Member - Confusion

[Guest guest]

I am a new member; found this group just days ago. Today is day 8 of taking one

Iodoral tablet daily, as prescribed by a new doctor. I have tried to do a crash

course in Iodine over the past few days in my spare time, but I admit I'm still

confused. Never even heard of this before last week! Any and all

recommendations/info/references are welcome. I will try to be succinct, but I'm

sure I'll post questions that have already been posed and answered before.

I am a 53-year-old, previously very healthy woman with a pronounced family

history of thyroid disease on both sides of my family. I have had an enlarged

thyroid for 30 years, much more pronounced over about the past 4 years, enough

to give me the " goiter " diagnosis. I have had my thyroid function evaluated

repeatedly by labwork over the past 30 years, particularly when I was pregnant.

I have every single symptom of hypothyroidism one could have now, but always

have " normal " labs. I have been sent to a variety of specialists (endocrine,

neurology, etc.), all of whom shake their head and say its probably

perimenopausal. So now for the past couple of years, I feel chronically lousy,

fatigued, am 35 pounds overweight (never overweight ever before), and have been

told that I have sero-negative rheumatoid arthritis and fibromyalgia. Developed

severe hypertension earlier this year along with sudden 100-pt increase in total

cholesterol to 320. Reluctantly, had to deal with both issues with meds.

I finally sought out a doctor who practices alternative medicine, and he spent

over an hour with me. Ordered a ton of labwork and asked me to start taking one

12.5 mg tablet of Ioderal daily along with a good mvt. Today is day 8; I feel

fine (with respect to the iodine) - no side effects. But somehow, I'm not

getting the bigger picture about this, and I don't really understand the role of

unrefined salt. I'm not sure where we're going next, but the doctor did tell me

that the goal would be to get me off of the prescription meds, which I would

love as they are expensive and I DO have side effects from them. I'm going to

track down a copy of the Iodine book today, but any additional feedback from

more knowledgeable people would be terrific!

Thanks!

Deborah