Guest guest Posted September 25, 2004 Report Share Posted September 25, 2004 Hello every one, longtime no post Mostly I am confused as to the nature of Hashimoto's. In particular how to lower the antibodies. Should one eat iodine rich foods or avoid them like the plague? Is supporting the immune system good or will it cause more antibodies? What to do, what to do. I have read numerous articles and some seem to say one thing while others seem to say the opposite. I have been on thyroxine for a month and my TSH has gone from 5.27 to 3.5. The doctor seemed to think this was perfect but I am not so sure. I do not feel any different so cannot tell from that. Changing doctors is not easy in this part of the world as there are few taking new patients. I am thinking of moving to the high Arctic soon and the doctor situation is even worse there so I would like to try and get a handle on this a bit before going. Any help/advice would be appreciated. Regards Helen PS> How are your legs doing (Topper) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 27, 2004 Report Share Posted September 27, 2004 > Should one eat iodine rich foods or avoid them like the plague? ________________________ This is a tricky one. For some, Iodine causes further damage to the thyroid and triggers an auto-immune flare up that drains energy and health. I am one of those and Iodine makes me feel terrible and makes my thyroid sore to the touch and gives me swallowing problems. So, if you don't have any problems when you use it, you may be ok. It all depends on what part of the thyroid hormone process is being attacked by the antibodies and whether it is triggered by iodine. __________________________ > > Is supporting the immune system good or will it cause more > antibodies? _________________________ No, In fact it is a messed up immune system that is lacking in some component or componenets that cause the thyroid disease. So, making a healthy immune system usually makes it better. Studies done with thymus extract resulted in big improvement in autoimmune diseases. The thymus has a huge role in how the immune system works and so it is thought that autoimmune diseases are related to a malfunction or aging process in the immune system causing malfunction. Nutrition and other things can actually help it work more normally. Along with the thyroid problems often goes adrenal problems. The adrenals play a big role in proper immune function. So, any nutritional, support, or other health benifit activity you do is most likely going to help the autoimmune condition. Anything that helps to make the immune system function more normally is going to make it better. The current " kill your immune system to protect you from it " as is done in arthritis is debated by many and altenative doctors have had better success with making it more normal and healthy. This includes diet, hormones if needed, cortisol if needed, and correcting health issues like leaky gut, etc. ______________________ > > I have been on thyroxine for a month and my TSH has gone from 5.27 > to 3.5. The doctor seemed to think this was perfect but I am not so > sure. _________________ This is not alright. The new ranges for TSH are 0.5 to 3.0 and many labs in the US have not adopted them yet. These new ranges were set because of a very large well done study in the UK that found that above 3 was hypothryoid. Life Extension Foundation looked at all the new research on this and found that anything above 2.0 is impaired thryoid function. You really need to be below 2.0 and 1.0 would be better. Here is a little info on that: http://thyroid.about.com/cs/testsforthyroid/a/aace.htm __________________ > I am thinking of moving to the high Arctic soon and the doctor > situation is even worse there so I would like to try and get a > handle on this a bit before going. _________________________ You will need even more thyroid for cold temperatures. Dr. Derry has written about this. _________________ This is my suggestion. Order enough Armour or Synthroid (Armour much better) from MyRxFor less to last you the whole time you are up North and treat yourself. I think that you need to start to raise your dose up very slowly and in small increments untill you feel right. Armour will easily keep for a very long time in cool temperatures. It has been known to stay potent for up to a year with proper storage. The average healthy human thyroid makes 4-1/2 to 5 grains a day or 333 to 37 mcg Synthroid. You cannot overdose on anything less according to Dr. G. Young in his book " Thyroid Guardian of Health. " You can have problems with lower doses if you have adrenal fatigue, anemia and some other health conditions. But, you can't get too much thyroid on less than 4 gains. This is because the pituitary senses how much you are taking a drops production by whatever you take to keep blood levels below 4-1/2 to 5 grains or 333 to 370 mcg. Sometimes the pituitary gets overly supressed by low doses of thryoid medication and does not tell your thyroid to make enough hromone so that your body has enough total. In this situation higher doses of thyroid are needed. Dr. Derry has written that most people don't feel good on anything less than 3 grains. To read about that, go to: http://thyroid.about.com/library/derry/bl11.htm From the late 1800s untill around 1975, when the TSH came into heavy use, all thyroid doses were determined by how the patient felt, by body temperature, reflex action, and appearance. Thyroid patients live long healthy lives before the TSH test and before the ultra sensitive T3 and T4 tests. Body temperature is a measure of metabolic rate, which is controlled by thyroid and adrenal output. If you want to use body temperature to determine the effectiveness of your thyroid treatment, go to Dr. Rind's site at: http://www.drrind.com/tempgraph.asp If you want to switch to Armour, you can find the conversion on the web. It is about 74 mcg of Synthroid equals 1 grain of Armour. Just type into google " convert synthroid to armour " So, you can just treat yourself for your thyroid condition and just adjust your dose up 1/4 grain every two to 4 weeks and monitor your temperature and symptoms. I have been treating myself for almost a year now and am on 3-1/2 grains of Armour. I am very happy with it. Tish Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 27, 2004 Report Share Posted September 27, 2004 > Should one eat iodine rich foods or avoid them like the plague? ________________________ This is a tricky one. For some, Iodine causes further damage to the thyroid and triggers an auto-immune flare up that drains energy and health. I am one of those and Iodine makes me feel terrible and makes my thyroid sore to the touch and gives me swallowing problems. So, if you don't have any problems when you use it, you may be ok. It all depends on what part of the thyroid hormone process is being attacked by the antibodies and whether it is triggered by iodine. __________________________ > > Is supporting the immune system good or will it cause more > antibodies? _________________________ No, In fact it is a messed up immune system that is lacking in some component or componenets that cause the thyroid disease. So, making a healthy immune system usually makes it better. Studies done with thymus extract resulted in big improvement in autoimmune diseases. The thymus has a huge role in how the immune system works and so it is thought that autoimmune diseases are related to a malfunction or aging process in the immune system causing malfunction. Nutrition and other things can actually help it work more normally. Along with the thyroid problems often goes adrenal problems. The adrenals play a big role in proper immune function. So, any nutritional, support, or other health benifit activity you do is most likely going to help the autoimmune condition. Anything that helps to make the immune system function more normally is going to make it better. The current " kill your immune system to protect you from it " as is done in arthritis is debated by many and altenative doctors have had better success with making it more normal and healthy. This includes diet, hormones if needed, cortisol if needed, and correcting health issues like leaky gut, etc. ______________________ > > I have been on thyroxine for a month and my TSH has gone from 5.27 > to 3.5. The doctor seemed to think this was perfect but I am not so > sure. _________________ This is not alright. The new ranges for TSH are 0.5 to 3.0 and many labs in the US have not adopted them yet. These new ranges were set because of a very large well done study in the UK that found that above 3 was hypothryoid. Life Extension Foundation looked at all the new research on this and found that anything above 2.0 is impaired thryoid function. You really need to be below 2.0 and 1.0 would be better. Here is a little info on that: http://thyroid.about.com/cs/testsforthyroid/a/aace.htm __________________ > I am thinking of moving to the high Arctic soon and the doctor > situation is even worse there so I would like to try and get a > handle on this a bit before going. _________________________ You will need even more thyroid for cold temperatures. Dr. Derry has written about this. _________________ This is my suggestion. Order enough Armour or Synthroid (Armour much better) from MyRxFor less to last you the whole time you are up North and treat yourself. I think that you need to start to raise your dose up very slowly and in small increments untill you feel right. Armour will easily keep for a very long time in cool temperatures. It has been known to stay potent for up to a year with proper storage. The average healthy human thyroid makes 4-1/2 to 5 grains a day or 333 to 37 mcg Synthroid. You cannot overdose on anything less according to Dr. G. Young in his book " Thyroid Guardian of Health. " You can have problems with lower doses if you have adrenal fatigue, anemia and some other health conditions. But, you can't get too much thyroid on less than 4 gains. This is because the pituitary senses how much you are taking a drops production by whatever you take to keep blood levels below 4-1/2 to 5 grains or 333 to 370 mcg. Sometimes the pituitary gets overly supressed by low doses of thryoid medication and does not tell your thyroid to make enough hromone so that your body has enough total. In this situation higher doses of thyroid are needed. Dr. Derry has written that most people don't feel good on anything less than 3 grains. To read about that, go to: http://thyroid.about.com/library/derry/bl11.htm From the late 1800s untill around 1975, when the TSH came into heavy use, all thyroid doses were determined by how the patient felt, by body temperature, reflex action, and appearance. Thyroid patients live long healthy lives before the TSH test and before the ultra sensitive T3 and T4 tests. Body temperature is a measure of metabolic rate, which is controlled by thyroid and adrenal output. If you want to use body temperature to determine the effectiveness of your thyroid treatment, go to Dr. Rind's site at: http://www.drrind.com/tempgraph.asp If you want to switch to Armour, you can find the conversion on the web. It is about 74 mcg of Synthroid equals 1 grain of Armour. Just type into google " convert synthroid to armour " So, you can just treat yourself for your thyroid condition and just adjust your dose up 1/4 grain every two to 4 weeks and monitor your temperature and symptoms. I have been treating myself for almost a year now and am on 3-1/2 grains of Armour. I am very happy with it. Tish Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 27, 2004 Report Share Posted September 27, 2004 > Should one eat iodine rich foods or avoid them like the plague? ________________________ This is a tricky one. For some, Iodine causes further damage to the thyroid and triggers an auto-immune flare up that drains energy and health. I am one of those and Iodine makes me feel terrible and makes my thyroid sore to the touch and gives me swallowing problems. So, if you don't have any problems when you use it, you may be ok. It all depends on what part of the thyroid hormone process is being attacked by the antibodies and whether it is triggered by iodine. __________________________ > > Is supporting the immune system good or will it cause more > antibodies? _________________________ No, In fact it is a messed up immune system that is lacking in some component or componenets that cause the thyroid disease. So, making a healthy immune system usually makes it better. Studies done with thymus extract resulted in big improvement in autoimmune diseases. The thymus has a huge role in how the immune system works and so it is thought that autoimmune diseases are related to a malfunction or aging process in the immune system causing malfunction. Nutrition and other things can actually help it work more normally. Along with the thyroid problems often goes adrenal problems. The adrenals play a big role in proper immune function. So, any nutritional, support, or other health benifit activity you do is most likely going to help the autoimmune condition. Anything that helps to make the immune system function more normally is going to make it better. The current " kill your immune system to protect you from it " as is done in arthritis is debated by many and altenative doctors have had better success with making it more normal and healthy. This includes diet, hormones if needed, cortisol if needed, and correcting health issues like leaky gut, etc. ______________________ > > I have been on thyroxine for a month and my TSH has gone from 5.27 > to 3.5. The doctor seemed to think this was perfect but I am not so > sure. _________________ This is not alright. The new ranges for TSH are 0.5 to 3.0 and many labs in the US have not adopted them yet. These new ranges were set because of a very large well done study in the UK that found that above 3 was hypothryoid. Life Extension Foundation looked at all the new research on this and found that anything above 2.0 is impaired thryoid function. You really need to be below 2.0 and 1.0 would be better. Here is a little info on that: http://thyroid.about.com/cs/testsforthyroid/a/aace.htm __________________ > I am thinking of moving to the high Arctic soon and the doctor > situation is even worse there so I would like to try and get a > handle on this a bit before going. _________________________ You will need even more thyroid for cold temperatures. Dr. Derry has written about this. _________________ This is my suggestion. Order enough Armour or Synthroid (Armour much better) from MyRxFor less to last you the whole time you are up North and treat yourself. I think that you need to start to raise your dose up very slowly and in small increments untill you feel right. Armour will easily keep for a very long time in cool temperatures. It has been known to stay potent for up to a year with proper storage. The average healthy human thyroid makes 4-1/2 to 5 grains a day or 333 to 37 mcg Synthroid. You cannot overdose on anything less according to Dr. G. Young in his book " Thyroid Guardian of Health. " You can have problems with lower doses if you have adrenal fatigue, anemia and some other health conditions. But, you can't get too much thyroid on less than 4 gains. This is because the pituitary senses how much you are taking a drops production by whatever you take to keep blood levels below 4-1/2 to 5 grains or 333 to 370 mcg. Sometimes the pituitary gets overly supressed by low doses of thryoid medication and does not tell your thyroid to make enough hromone so that your body has enough total. In this situation higher doses of thyroid are needed. Dr. Derry has written that most people don't feel good on anything less than 3 grains. To read about that, go to: http://thyroid.about.com/library/derry/bl11.htm From the late 1800s untill around 1975, when the TSH came into heavy use, all thyroid doses were determined by how the patient felt, by body temperature, reflex action, and appearance. Thyroid patients live long healthy lives before the TSH test and before the ultra sensitive T3 and T4 tests. Body temperature is a measure of metabolic rate, which is controlled by thyroid and adrenal output. If you want to use body temperature to determine the effectiveness of your thyroid treatment, go to Dr. Rind's site at: http://www.drrind.com/tempgraph.asp If you want to switch to Armour, you can find the conversion on the web. It is about 74 mcg of Synthroid equals 1 grain of Armour. Just type into google " convert synthroid to armour " So, you can just treat yourself for your thyroid condition and just adjust your dose up 1/4 grain every two to 4 weeks and monitor your temperature and symptoms. I have been treating myself for almost a year now and am on 3-1/2 grains of Armour. I am very happy with it. Tish Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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