RE: Re: Test Result Interpretation please!

[Guest guest]

Dan, Unless your GP is already prescribing natural thyroid

extract for his other patients, he is highly unlikely to prescribe this for you

because it is unlicensed and they are taught to believe that everybody does

well with thyroxine only. However, for many, they are unable to convert this

mainly inactive thyroid hormone to the active thyroid hormone T3 for many and

varied reasons and they need either synthetic T3 adding to their T4, T3 alone,

or the T3 in natural thyroid extract as this contains T4, T32, T2, T1 plus calcitonin.

You should ask your GP to refer you to an endocrinologist who will recommend

(or otherwise) that your GP prescribe some form of T3 for you, and only then is

it likely your GP will do this.

There are MANY reasons and many medical conditions associated

with thyroid disease that stop thyroid hormone from getting into the cells,

where it does its work. I mention these over and over and over again - ad

nauseum - people must be bored with the same old, same old but as each new

member joins us, they need to know.

The main condition responsible for stopping thyroid hormone from

working, is, quite simply, a patients thyroxine dose is too low because the

doctor or consultant refuses to increase it, because the serum thyroid function

test results appear OK. Sometimes, the thyroxine dose is too high, yet patients

still don't feel well. They continue to suffer. Some reasons for this:

They may be suffering with low adrenal reserve. The production

of T4, its conversion to T3, and the receptor uptake requires a normal amount

of adrenal hormones, notably, of course, cortisone. (Excess cortisone can shut

production down, however.) This is what happens if the adrenals are not

responding properly, and provision of cortisone usually switches it on

again. But sometimes it doesn’t. If the illness has been

going on for a long time, the enzyme seems to fail. This conversion

failure (inexplicably denied by many endocrinologists) means the thyroxine

builds up, unconverted. So it doesn’t work, and T4 toxicosis

results. This makes the patient feel quite unwell, toxic, often with

palpitations and chest pain. If provision of adrenal support doesn’t

remedy the situation, the final solution is the use of the active thyroid

hormone, already converted, T3 - either synthetic or natural.

Then, we have systemic candidiasis. This is where candida

albicans, a yeast, which causes skin infections almost anywhere in the body,

invades the lining of the lower part of the small intestine and the large

intestine. Here, the candida sets up residence in the warmth and the

dark, and demands to be fed. Loving sugars and starches, candida can make

you suffer terrible sweet cravings. Candida can produce toxins which can

cause very many symptoms of exhaustion, headache, general illness, and which

interfere with the uptake of thyroid and adrenal treatment. Sometimes the

levels - which we usually test for - can be very high, and make successful

treatment difficult to achieve until adequately treated.

Then there is receptor resistance which could be a culprit. Being

hypothyroid for some considerable time may mean the biochemical mechanisms which

permit the binding of T3 to the receptors, is downgraded - so the T3

won’t go in. With slow build up of T3, with full adrenal support

and adequate vitamins and minerals, the receptors do come on line again.

But this can be quite a slow process, and care has to be taken to build the

dose up gradually.

And then there are Food allergies. The most common food allergy

is allergy to gluten, the protein fraction of wheat. The antibody generated by

the body, by a process of molecular mimicry, cross reacts with the

thyroperoxidase enzyme, (which makes thyroxine) and shuts it down. So

allergy to bread can make you hypothyroid. There may be other food allergies

with this kind of effect, but information on these is scanty. Certainly allergic

response to certain foods can affect adrenal function and imperil thyroid

production and uptake.

Then we have hormone imbalances. The whole of the endocrine

system is linked; each part of it needs the other parts to be operating

normally to work properly. An example of this we have seen already, with

cortisone. But another example is the operation of sex hormones.

The imbalance that occurs at the menopause with progesterone running down, and

a relative dominance of oestrogen is a further case in point – oestrogen

dominance downgrades production, transportation and uptake of thyroid

hormones. This is why hypothyroidism may first appear at the menopause;

the symptoms ascribed to this alone, which is then treated – often with

extra oestrogen, making the whole thing worse. Deficiency in progesterone

most especially needs to be dealt with, since it reverses oestrogen dominance,

improves many menopausal symptoms like sweats and mood swings, and reverses

osteoporosis. Happily natural progesterone cream is easily obtained: when

used it has the added benefit of helping to stabilise adrenal function.

Then, we must never forget the possibility of mercury poisoning

(through amalgam fillings) - low levels of ferritin, vitamin B12, vitamin D3,

magnesium, folate, copper and zinc - all of which, if low, stop the thyroid

hormone from being utilised by the cells - these have to be treated. In case

your doctor tells you that there is no connection between low levels of these

specific minerals and vitamins, print off the information below to show him

just some of trhe research and studies that have been done to show that there

is a big connection. These MUST be supplemented to bring up your levels

sufficiently for the thyroid hormone to work.

As Dr Peatfield says " When you have been quite unwell for a

long time, all these problems have to be dealt with; and since each may affect the

other, it all has to be done rather carefully.

Contrary to cherished beliefs by much of the medical

establishment, the correction of a thyroid deficiency state has a number of

complexities and variables, which make the treatment usually quite specific for

each person. The balancing of these variables is as much up to you as to

me – which is why a check of morning, day and evening temperatures and

pulse rates, together with symptoms, good and bad, can be so helpful.

Many of you have been ill for a long time, either because you

have not been diagnosed, or the treatment leaves you still quite unwell.

Those of you who have relatively mild hypothyroidism, and have been diagnosed

relatively quickly, may well respond to synthetic thyroxine, the standard treatment.

I am therefore unlikely to see you; since if the thyroxine proves satisfactory

in use, it is merely a question of dosage.

For many of you, the outstanding problem is not that the

diagnosis has not been made – although, extraordinarily, this is disgracefully

common – but that is has, and the thyroxine treatment doesn’t

work. The dose has been altered up and down, and clinical improvement is

variable and doesn’t last, in spite of blood tests, which say you are

perfectly all right (and therefore you are actually depressed and need this

fine antidepressant).

The above problems must be eliminated if thyroid hormone isn't

working for you.

(****)Low iron/ferritin: Iron deficiency is shown to

significantly reduce T4 to T3 conversion, increase reverse T3 levels, and block

the thermogenic (metabolism boosting) properties of thyroid hormone (1-4).

Thus, iron deficiency, as indicated by an iron saturation below 25 or a

ferritin below 70, will result in diminished intracellular T3 levels.

Additionally, T4 should not be considered adequate thyroid replacement if iron

deficiency is present (1-4)).

1.

Dillman E, Gale C, Green W, et al.

Hypothermia in iron deficiency due to altered triiodithyroidine metabolism.

Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology 1980;239(5):377-R381.

2.

SM, PE, Lukaski HC. In vitro

hepatic thyroid hormone deiodination in iron-deficient rats: effect of dietary

fat. Life Sci 1993;53(8):603-9.

3.

Zimmermann MB, Köhrle J. The Impact of Iron

and Selenium Deficiencies on Iodine and Thyroid Metabolism: Biochemistry and

Relevance to Public Health. Thyroid 2002;12(10): 867-78.

4.

Beard J, tobin B, Green W. Evidence for

Thyroid Hormone Deficiency in Iron-Deficient Anemic Rats. J. Nutr.

1989;119:772-778.

Low vitamin B12: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18655403

Low vitamin D3: http://www.eje-online.org/cgi/content/abstract/113/3/329

and http://www.goodhormonehealth.com/VitaminD.pdf

Low magnesium: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC292768/pdf/jcinvest00264-0105.pdf

Low folate: http://www.clinchem.org/cgi/content/full/47/9/1738

and http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/abs/10.1089/thy.1999.9.1163

Low  copper http://www.ithyroid.com/copper.htm

http://www.drlwilson.com/articles/copper_toxicity_syndrome.htm

http://www.ithyroid.com/copper.htm

http://www.rjpbcs.com/pdf/2011_2(2)/68.pdf

http://ajplegacy.physiology.org/content/171/3/652.extract

Low zinc:http://www.istanbul.edu.tr/ffdbiyo/current4/07%20Iham%20AM%C4%B0R.pdf

and http://articles.webraydian.com/article1648-Role_of_Zinc_and_Copper_in_Effective_Thyroid_Function.html

Luv - Sheila

>

> I'm a 41yo male, diagnosed 7-8 years ago (ish).

>

> I currently take 100mg Levo, daily in the morning.