My Thyroid Test Is Normal But I Don’t Feel Normal
-From the desk of Dr. Brkich
The thyroid gland is a butterfly-shaped organ located at the front of your neck. It is a vital hormone gland that plays a major role in metabolism by constantly releasing a steady amount of thyroid hormones into the bloodstream. If you are experiencing low energy, depression, anxiety, irritability, nervousness, insomnia, poor memory, weight gain, high cholesterol, dry skin, constipation, heart palpitations, or low motivation or ambition, among the first things to check is your thyroid function.
Most people who come to see me generally do not come specifically for treatment of their thyroid. They usually come with a pre-diagnosed thyroid condition, mostly low thyroid (hypothyroid), for which they were prescribed thyroxin, such as Synthroid or Levothyroxin, or in a very small number of cases natural, porcine derived, desiccated thyroid. Naturopathic physicians with pharmaceutical prescriptive authority are authorized to prescribe thyroid hormone replacement. My preference is to always look for and treat the underlying causes of thyroid disorders before prescribing thyroid hormone replacement medication as a last resort.
The types of thyroid disorders that I commonly encounter range from an underactive thyroid (hypothyroid) to an overactive thyroid (hyperthyroid), some have hypertrophy, or enlargement of the thyroid gland, and others have thyroid lesions or nodules. Some started out with a thyroid that was initially underactive and then became overactive and vice versa. Some started out with an overactive thyroid which was treated with radioactive iodine to destroy a part of the thyroid gland to make it less overactive. Radioiodine is meant to shrink an overactive thyroid gland by destroying it in part or entirely, which can turn an overactive thyroid into an underactive thyroid, requiring thyroid medication for life.
It has been my general observation that most people who start on low dose thyroid hormone replacement tend to need increasing doses of medication, since thyroid function usually worsens, rather than improves with time, unless the underlying causes are addressed. In my experience, thyroid problems that are caught early are much easier to manage and reverse. It becomes very difficult and may not be possible to reverse a thyroid disorder that has gone on for too long without the underlying causes being addressed.
How can you check your thyroid function?
