Re: on behalf of my sis

[Guest guest]

Tell your sister to join our Internet Thyroid Support Forum

where we can help her. These tests are not enough, she needs to have her Free

T3 tested and the tests to see whether she has antibodies to her thyroid.

Especially as you have thyroid disease. Are there other members in your family

who have a thyroid or autoimmune disease? She should also get her levels of

iron, transferrin saturation%, ferritin, vitamin B12, vitamin D3, magnesium,

folate, copper and zinc tested to see whether any of these are low in the

range. If so, she will need to supplement with whatever is low because no

amount of thyroid hormone can be fully utilised at the cellular level.

You could always buy our new 'Thyroid Problems: The TPA

Guidebook' and send it to her for her as an early (or late) Birthday/Christmas

present.

Luv - Sheila

My Sis is struggling...would really appreciate

some advice.

Have sent results from her via email....she attends as I understand diabetes

clinic and also sees an endo....south coast area. Help....jus want to see her

happy and at optimal health

Thyroid function test (X77Wg)

Serum TSH level (XaELV) is " below range " 0.03mu?L (0.1-5.0)

Serum free T4 level (XaERr) 16.0 pmol/L (9.0-21.)

That is all it says, apart from who the provider is etc.

[Guest guest]

Thank you for your advice, I am seeing my GP on Tuesday and will take a copy of

what you have said...I am hoping to be referred to the endocronology unit from

there, I have been battling this out with my gp for nearly two years who has

completely ignored me apart from putting my thyroxine up accordingly, now on

150mcg....thank you for all you do. Will return here once I have the necessary

results.

>

> Tell your sister to join our Internet Thyroid Support Forum where we can

> help her. These tests are not enough, she needs to have her Free T3 tested

> and the tests to see whether she has antibodies to her thyroid.

[Ed]

[Guest guest]

Thank you! I am the " sister " ....I have an apt. to see my gp again on Tuesday

having been checked out by the surgery nurse for other problems...she sees my

levels are low....I have been battling for referral to endocronology for two

years, used to attend but moved area. Now on 150mcg of thyroxine but know

things are not where they should be. Will take copy of what you advice to gp

and hope I will have some action at last.!!!! Thank you for all you do.

>

> Tell your sister to join our Internet Thyroid Support Forum where we can

> help her. These tests are not enough, she needs to have her Free T3 tested

> and the tests to see whether she has antibodies to her thyroid.

[Ed]

[Guest guest]

Hi 's

sister - the following are associated conditions that go along with

hypothyroidism and you should go through them by way of a process of

elimination to ensure that none of these are the cause of your thyroxine not

working as it should. Also, ask the GP to give you the blood tests mentioned

and when the results are returned, post these together with the reference range

for each test done onto the forum so we can help with their interpretation. All

too often, doctors tell their patients their results are 'normal' if they

appear anywhere within the range, but we need to know whether they are at the

bottom, the middle or the top of the range, or even outside of the range.

There are 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 iron, ferritin, vitamin B12, vitamin D3, magnesium, folate, copper and

zinc - all of which, if low, stop the thyroid hormone from being properly

utilised at the cellular level and low levels MUST be treated.

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 your doctor – 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 (T4), the standard treatment

so you are unlikely to feel the need to see your doctor, 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.

Luv

- Sheila

Thank you! I am the " sister " ....I have an apt. to see my gp again on

Tuesday having been checked out by the surgery nurse for other problems...she

sees my levels are low....I have been battling for referral to endocronology

for two years, used to attend but moved area. Now on 150mcg of thyroxine but

know things are not where they should be. Will take copy of what you advice to

gp and hope I will have some action at last.!!!! Thank you for all you do.

>

> Tell your sister to join our Internet Thyroid Support Forum where we can

> help her. These tests are not enough, she needs to have her Free T3 tested

> and the tests to see whether she has antibodies to her thyroid.

[Ed]