A: Low-iodine diet and manic behavior

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Dear ,

what are his thryoid lab values? that is the main way to check whether he is overdosed. what dose what is he on? I would get a complete thyroid profile with free T3, free T4, rT3 to get a better idea of what his body is doing with the meds;

gammadyne Li has done wonders for my mood Patients and so has gemmo Tilia; are you doing BTG's and general drainage? No dairy and gluten are essential with him; hopefully the low iodine and adjusting meds will calm him down again and then you can look for the priority his body presents.

GAbrielle Duebendorfer, ND

SAndpoint, ID

RE:() Q: Low-iodine diet and manic behavior

Hi all,

Maybe someone out there can shed some light on this one.

A mother consulted with me last week about her 27 yr. old, intellectually handicapped son.

He had thyroid cancer @ 19 yrs. old, and had most of his gland removed.

The mother also had a nodule (non-cancerous) on her thyroid gland some years ago, which

she had removed.

SInce the surgery, her son has been taking large doses of Synthroid, and Risperdal for his

mood disorders, although he is neither bi-polar nor schizophrenic. He is "wired" as though he's

had too much coffee. He has a problem focusing, and food grabbing is his biggest problem.

He is very quick and will literally grab the food off of a schoolmate's plate if he gets hungry.

This continuous prowling stops him from focusing on his schoolwork. He is in a school for the

intellectually challenged and cannot integrate into the community at this time.

The point of all this: His mds put him on a low-iodine diet for a couple of weeks, during which time

he completely calmed down, his appetite normalized, no more food grabbing, and was very gentle and kind.

His mother said he was like a completely different person. When he went off the diet after a few weeks, his

behavior was twice as erratic.

From what I can glean on my own, a deficiency of iodine is a leading factor in mental retardation,

and an overdose of it has the side effects of hyperactivity, excessive sweating (which he also had for a couple

of years, then disappeared), and increased appetite. I believe that he is way over-medicated as evidenced by

the normalization of his mood and appetite with the diet. I've told his mother to put him back on the diet and

question his doctor about revising his meds in light of his reaction to the diet. I'm not too hopeful that

he'll even listen to her. I've instructed her not to give him any more dairy, since it provokes cramping and diarrhea.

He may be lactose intolerant, but curiously the cramping and diarrhea are also side-effects of too much Synthroid,

and also Risperdal.

Right now, I'm cleaning up his digestive tract and fine-tuning his diet, however from a nervous system and endocrine

perspective, other than some flower essences and a couple of homeopathic complexes, I'm not quite sure where to

start, especially regarding the emotional aspect since he has trouble communicating. Another characteristic about

this young man is that he has only 4 toes on each foot. Multiple birth defects.

Today I will question the mother about her pregnancy and the birth. That may give me some additional

insight as to the baby's emotional state during the pregnancy and the birth. However, even with this information,

I confess I'm not quite sure how to best approach this or what I can reasonably expect as an outcome.

The mother would be happy to just have him back as he was while on the diet.

Have any of you ever had a similar case? If so, any suggestions on how to approach it would be HUGELY

appreciated.

Many thanks in advance.

-M. Leger, ND

Green Genes Health Care