My hubby went to
his physician for an annual physical a couple weeks ago (he’s the sort who
likes to do that kind of thing whereas I’m the type who would prefer to
secretly die of something without knowing anything about it), even though he
totally has “white-coat” syndrome and gets stressed out about the thought of
possibly having something wrong. He was
having some discomfort in his lower back so they ordered an x-ray. As a regular practice, they also did some
blood work. This office advertises the
attitude that they want to take the whole person into consideration.
However.
They ordered his
x-ray first and then due to certain circumstances, he had his blood test the following
day (or perhaps it was the second day).
The x-ray came back as no problems, but the blood test came back as
having a high TSH level which is the signal that your thyroid is functioning at
a low level. This (obviously) freaked
him out even more.
They told him he
would need to start taking medication.
He asked them
(good boy) if there was a natural remedy – could he exercise more to improve
it, eat differently, do anything to help?
Their response? “No. The only thing you can do is meds.”
Reeeeeeeeeeeee-heee-heeeally?
Well, poor sot,
he’s married to me so that answer isn’t going to cut it whatsoever. I began researching about the thyroid and
what things affect it. When I found out
what the main issues are that cause low thyroid, I pretty much began freaking
out.
Are you ready
for this?
Do you know what
are the main things that can cause a person to have a low thyroid?
Let’s begin with
the biggest one. It’s radiation (in the
form of x-rays, etc.).
ARE YOU FREAKING
KIDDING ME.
Way to think
whole person, Dr. Dumbdumb. Did you seriously order an x-ray and then have blood work done? REALLY?
Secondly,
stress. Good thing my husband wasn’t
having complete and total anxiety over going
to the doctor at all. Yeaaaah.
Also, if you’ve
got low iodine levels or low selenium, you run the risk of a low-functioning
thyroid. Another factor is having a high
toxin level (which is something the naturopath tested my hubby for a few months
ago and he did have an increased level of toxins).
This is also in
conjunction with a new “scale” of what is a good TSH level. A couple years ago, you could have a TSH
level of up to about 5. This year the
highest within the range of normal is 3.0.
(And yes, some people are saying those levels are still too high, but
there sure are a lot of things going on here.)
One more thing, lack of Vitamin D (hello, winter in the Midwest, that
does not actually exist).
So let’s get
this straight. Your thyroid can get
wiggidy-wacked if you have a high level of stress, have been irradiated, have
higher levels of toxins within your body and have low iodine, selenium and
Vitamin D.
Let’s just go
through that checklist there for the hubby and check every single one off.
So it was no
wonder that his levels were coming back above the 3.0 mark. I told him to go play outside in the newly
shining Vitamin D, bought him some food-based selenium, sent him off for a
check to the naturopath who gave him the appropriate level of iodine
supplementation. Guess what? His energy levels have returned and the
created problem is beginning to resolve itself. He'll get his blood retested in a month or so to verify numbers.
If you’ve got a
problem with your thyroid or anything else in your body, you should figure out
what the system is doing, what will encourage it or damage it, what the auxiliary
systems are to that problem system and seek to resolve it through researching
those things. The problem is that many
physicians do not have time to go that in depth with a patient. You have to be a medical doctor combined with
a detective and it is much simpler to get your easy kickback from a section of
Big Pharma and make people think you’ve solved their problem by passing them
their favorite colored pill.
*cough*cholesterol*cough*
The disturbing
part is that if I were not the crazy ol’ lady that I am, my hubby would have
been on thyroid hormones without a second thought. Why would that be problematic? Because your thyroid will continue to produce
less and less as you artificially give it more until you have a
zero-functioning thyroid. Let’s think
about where we’re going before we run down that road.
Anyway, just a
very up close and personal reminder that you are responsible for your body and
even though your doctor cares about you, they just may be used to doing it the
traditional way that includes pharmaceuticals when you may be able to
completely fix a situation by going to the source from a different direction.
Think about
it. Do your research.
Peace, love and
think outside the pill,
Ms. Daisy
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