Re: time to jump in

January 8, 2004

Hi and welcome to our group. You have other Aussies here whom

I am sure will jump in if they are reading the posts.

First it sounds like you have Hashi's (Hashimotos Disease), which is

an autoimmune thyroid disorder and can cause the TSH fluctuations

tht you mention, in addition to that tightness in your throat.

Next, 1/2 grain of Armour is practically nothing. You need to be on

much more to have any good effects. It is rare to see someone on

less than 2 grains and who is getting the most they can get from

Armour. Additionally, once you are able to increase, you need to do

two things--first, take it sublingually, which means to allow it to

slowly dissolve in your mouth, preferable a place where there is the

least saliva. I, for example, do mine between the lower gums and

inner cheek. And second, you need to divide your dose to at LEAST

twice a day. I do 1 1/4 grain in the morning, 1 1/4 grain in the

early afternoon, and another 1/4 grain at bedtime, for example.

" Low basal metabolic rate " is just another name for being VERY

hypothyroid, in your case.

Yes, you could need adrenal support. Several of us are on Isocort--

check out the FILES section, go to the ADRENALS folder, and you will

find information on it plus a great site to get it. Nutri-Meds also

makes an adrenal support which some folks here also use and like.

Hope this is a good start of information for you. Don't hesitate to

come back with more questions or support.

Janie aka ThyroDiva

January 8, 2004

,

Welcome to the group!

One thing that is not thyroid related, but could be related to your seizures.

You might want to check and see if you are consuming anything with aspartame

(Nutrasweet - I'm sure it goes by other names in Australia). In people that are

sensitive to it, it can cause seizures. It's usually found in diet soda and

sugarfree items such as chewing gum. I learned the hard way about it.

Dusty

From: Tink

To: NaturalThyroidHormones

Sent: Thursday, January 08, 2004 5:36 AM

Subject: time to jump in

Hi everyone,

I've been lurking for a few days, and I've learned so much from you all

already; but I figured it was time to introduce myself and ask for your

opinions on the stuff I'm trying to work out.

I'm sorry this e-mail turned out to be so long. If you're sick to death of

peoples' stories about unhelpful doctors and want to jump straight to the

questions, scroll down to the 3 asterisks.

I'm and I'm 26. In a few months time I will have been noticably

sick for 10 years. I've been given various diagnoses during that time:

iron deficiency anaemia in 1997; asthma, chronic fatigue syndrome and

fibromyalgia syndrome in 2000; sleep apnea, arthritis, insulin resistance

and epilepsy in 2001; hypoglycemia in 2002; polycystic ovarian syndrome

and endometriosis in 2003. Some of the diagnoses have been right (there

the ones like PCOS that I knew for years before I could get a doctor to do

the proper tests), some like CFS have served a purpose, and some like the

epilepsy were just plain wrong. After a year of medication that did

nothing but make my life hell, my partner realised and pointed out to me

the connection between my seizures and me not having eaten for a few hours.

In a couple of hours of research I came up with the answer that the

neurologists had missed for the last year: I figured I was hypoglycemic,

and probably hypothyroid too.

I changed my diet and the seizures happened much less often. So I went to

my doctor with that evidence. He agreed with my diagnosis of hypoglycemia

and agreed to me reducing the epilepsy medication slowly until it was out

of my system. He's a GP, a CFS specialist, and he also has a good

knowledge of natural therapies. He's the only good doctor I've found, and

I've seen a huge number of them over the last 10 years. At the time my big

concern was the epilepsy medication because I knew it was doing nothing but

making my life hell, but I did more reading on hypothyroidism and was

amazed at how it seemed to describe my situation.

Early in 2003 I saw my sleep specialist who agreed that hypothyroidism may

be a problem and ordered a blood test for me. I was so excited when I got

the results back and found that my TSH level was at the very top of the

normal range (3.7). Here finally was evidence a doctor couldn't ignore! I

went to my CFS specialist with my results. He was happy for me too and

hoped that this may be the cause for my health problems. However

hypothyroidism is something he's not an expert on so he referred me to an

endocrinologist. I chose the endocrinologist. I searched the internet and

chose one who people said cared about them more than there blood tests.

I actually e-mailed him and asked if he wanted me to get any tests done

beforehand. He wrote back and said he thought it was best practice to

order the tests once he'd seen me, and I thought that was positive. At the

first appointment he just gave me a form for the blood tests. At the

second appointment he was horrible. My TSH had dropped back to 1.9 (it'd

been 2 months since the last test) and he saw nothing significant in my low

free T3 level. I asked him why he thought the TSH level was so different

and he said my thyroid problem had probably just been temperary due to an

illness of some kind. I asked him to explain my other symptoms. He said

iron deficiency anaemia can cause tiredness and insulin resistance causes

weight gain. I said what about my other symptoms like cold intolerance,

emotional instability, heavy painful and irregular periods and chronic

fatigue just to name a few. He didn't have any explanation for those and I

walked out and vowed never to go back.

I couldn't understand why my TSH levels were so different and just couldn't

bear thinking about the thyroid thing for a while. I was scared back into

thinking about it a couple of weeks later when my skin became flakey. And

I knew something had to be done when I got that tight feeling in my throat

like someone had their hands around my neck and was squeezing hard.

At this time I was reading a lot about hypothyroidism and came across a

phrase that rang a bell. The phrase was " low basal metabolic rate " and I

remembered it from when I was in my early teens and my stepfather said I

should ask the family doctor why I get cold so easily and can cope with the

heat when everyone else is complaining. So I asked her and that was the

answer. " nothing to worry about " she said. I was absolutely furious!

A couple of weeks later the tightness in my throat was hurting so much I

just couldn't take it anymore, so I went to a local GP who I could get an

appointment with that day and she referred me for an ultrasound of my

thyroid. That happened a couple of days later and the report said my

thyroid was slightly enlarged and I had a nodule. I was scared about what

the nodule might be and I knew that it would take a couple of months to get

into see a new endocrinologist so, reluctantly, I went back to the old one.

Predictably, he was no help and the appointment was a complete waste of

time and money. He could not have cared less about the nodule that I was

so stressed about. He said you could go to a bus stop and half the people

there would have a nodule. I said the difference was that mine wasn't

there before. He said it probably wasn't serious and, even if it was

cancer, we could do nothing about it for 6 months and it wouldn't matter.

I said that at the very least it was evidence that my thyroid problems

weren't temperary like he had thought and asked for the results of the

latest batch of thyroid levels I'd just had done. My TSH was back up to 3

and he admitted then that things weren't stable and examined my thyroid.

He didn't have much to say about it though and would've been happy to just

" monitor things " . I insisted on medication and he would not give me armour

but, for the sake of getting rid of me I think, wrote a prescription for

oroxine (the Australian equivalent of synthroid.

I went back to my CFS specialist and told him all about my bad experience

with the endocrinologist and asked for a referal to a good one, and for

armour in the meantime. He was happy to prescribe me the armour, but we

talked about it and decided that I should try the oroxine first for 6

weeks. We both thought it probably wouldn't help but at least we could

then tell the next endo that I'd already tried it - plus, in Australia,

there's quite a substantial price difference and oroxine is much much

cheaper. After the 6 weeks I was feeling no better and so he started me on

half a grain of armour. This was meant to be a temperary measure until I

saw the good endo.

It was October by this time, and I was leaving in early November to spend a

month with my partner who lives in the US. I tried to get an appointment

with the endo before I left but he was booked up until the end of the year

and they didn't have the diary for next year yet. When I got back home I

called his office again, answered all their questions, and then they called

me back a couple of days later and said they wouldn't take me because I

don't have private health insurance.

I asked my CFS specialist for a referral to another endo and, while I will

go and see her because she's one of the best reproductive endos in the

state, I think I need to approach my thyroid and adrenal issues in a

different way. So I've found a GP who's also a nutritionalist and

specialises in hypothyroidism and adrenal insufficiency. I feel like I

need help dealing with this rather than doing it on my own because I feel

so overwhelmed by all the stuff I've read about my various conditions I

just don't know where to start, or how to approach things in a way that

will demonstrate what's working and what isn't.

***

So my appointment with the nutritionist is a week from today, and I'd like

to get your opinions on a couple of questions before I see her: One thing

is, I take my half grain of armour first thing in the morning, but at night

I'm often hot, particularly my legs. I feel like I'm badly sunburnt, or

like I'm radiating heat. Does that sound like it's related to a hyper

state, or adrenal problems, or both?

Another thing is that, for a couple of weeks now, I've been getting goose

bumps every so often just on one part of my body like my lower leg or upper

arm. Here in Australia we're right in the middle of summer so it's

definitely not cold-related. I've never read about this anywhere. Has

anyone ever experienced this? And do you know what the cause was for you?

Also, I'm confused about adrenal insufficiency and exhaustion, and

wondering which category I belong in. I have symptomes like taking a long

time to feel awake in the morning (actually, it's usually not until the

afternoon), startling easily, and having a very low tolerance for stress,

but I also seem to be able to produce adrenaline when I need to. For

example, I helped organised a weekend-long convention a year ago, and I

felt better than I usually do all weekend and was able to get lots done;

but as soon as it was over I crashed. By that I mean I collapsed on the

floor, I could not respond to things for a couple of minutes although I was

aware of what was happening around me, and I was completely exhausted and

unable to do anything. Also it feels to me like, for me to have a

productive day like anyone else, my adrenaline needs to kick in at a level

that can't possibly be healthy. So for me to have a good day which is like

everyone else's average my body needs to release the amount of adrenaline

that most people only need in an emergency. Is this making sense?

Thanks for reading, and for any suggestions or ideas you might have.

.

--

Tink: atink@...

I'm not an angry girl,

but it seems like I've got everyone fooled,

everytime I say something they find hard to hear,

they chalk it up to my anger and never to their own fear (Ani DiFranco)

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January 8, 2004

--- In NaturalThyroidHormones , Tink

>

> Thanks for reading, and for any suggestions or ideas you might have.

>

> .

Hi and welcome! a few things come to mind here...I had severe

hypoglycemia in my 20's...I took the five hour glucose tolerance test

and shortly after hour 2, I flunked it bigtime..luckily, I was in the

hopspital lab waiting area and fell on the floor and began to have a

seizure..my blood sugar had dropped to 30 in a record amount of

time...- they injected me with something and helped me get up - after

that, I began Dr. Carlton Fredrick's Low Blood Sugar diet, cut out

sugar and refined starches and found it helped me a great deal...such

severe hypoglycemia is a definite symptom of adrenal exhaustion.

People with burned out adrenals sometimes make excess amounts of

cortisol which tends to keep them in a constant state of " flight or

fight " even when they are not in stressful situations..their adrenals

are stressed..eventually it vbecomes worse, when you are no longer

able to " rise to the occasion " even when you do have a stressful

situation or sudden fright..then your levels remain always low

because the adrenals can no longer make much cortisol. Both states

are considered adrenal fatigue or, more serious adrenal, exhaustion.

But proper treatment can bring them back to a strong place - you can

rest and recharge the adrenals most of the time..One other anecodotal

thing...my friend's cocker spaniel began having seizures several

times a week..she also had lots of skin problems...the doctor put her

on 1 grain Armour daily (she was 38 lb.s went down to 16 lbs in 6

months and stayed healthy)- her seborrhea and her seizures

stopped...after looking this all up on the internet, I found that

seizures can often be halted with thyroid meds...not if you have a

case of epilepasy..but when seizures begin for other reasons, this is

something that works for many pets...why not humans too? I never

actually had cause to look it up and see if this pertains to

humans. Good luck finding your way back to health!!

January 8, 2004