Articles by Dr. Erdman are for informational purposes, and are not to be taken as specific medical advice.
In the last four columns we’ve gone through the anatomy of
the thyroid, it’s functions and dysfunctions.
In this last article of the five part series, we will look at what
treatments are available once you have a diagnosis of thyroid dysfunction. Treating low thyroid function is fairly
straight forward. First you must find out where the problem is with proper lab
testing and get a useable diagnosis.
If you find out that your body has elevated heavy metals by
using the reverse T3 testing, the majority of those people can be treated with
chelation therapy with EDTA and DMPS. These draw out the heavy metals and allow
the thyroid to return to normal function.
When it comes to replacing thyroid hormones, there are two
options from which to choose. First, there are the most commonly prescribed
synthetic hormones such as Synthroid or generically, Levothyroxine. These are a
T4 only supplement. This seems like an obvious choice if you are low on T4
production.
Unfortunately, as with most things made by big pharma today,
it should not be your first choice. To start, it is fake, synthetic, man-made
T4. It is not like real T4, and your body knows it. No matter how much the drug
companies say it is exactly the same as real T4, it isn’t. Otherwise, if it was
exactly like real T4, it couldn’t be patented and sold for profit.
In some cases fake T4 can make you worse as it competes with
real T4 at the cellular receptor sites.
The other problem is that Synthroid is only T4. T4 needs to
be converted to T3, which is usable by the body. Most people cannot effectively
convert synthetic T4 to T3. This is probably why most studies show that T4 and
T3 must be taken for the best results.
This brings us to the second option for thyroid hormone
replacement, natural thyroid products. These are also known as bioidentical
hormones because they contain T4, T3, T2 and T1 made from dried porcine (pig)
thyroid. Studies clearly show better symptomatic improvement with natural
replacement versus synthetic.
Some of the brand names of bioidentical thyroid are: Armour
Thyroid, Nature-Throid and Westhroid.
Again, these are made from pig thyroid glands and contain the full
spectrum of thyroid hormones.
The most difficult part of hormone replacement is finding
the right dose. Most times it is done over many months with regular lab
testing. Add too little and you get no help; add too much and you get excessive
sweating, rapid heart rate or heart palpitations. It needs to be tailored
specifically to you, there is no “normal” dose.
Now we come to the best solution for thyroid conditions.
Don’t get it in the first place! Prevention is the best medicine. As previous
articles noted, gluten, soy, bromines, fluoride and stress are all detrimental
to the thyroid.
Probably the most common cause of poor thyroid function is
the lack of iodine in the diet. It is estimated that 40% of the population is
iodine deficient. The US RDA is just 150 mcg of iodine per day. That is barely
enough to avoid getting a goiter. Dr. Mercola recommends 2-3 grams per day, but
Dr. Wright, and iodine expert, recommends therapeutic doses of 12.5 mg per day.
You must be careful and knowledgeable about iodine, as taking too much can have
some detrimental health effects.
Having proper iodine in your system has other positive
effects. It also protects against breast cancer. Too little iodine can cause
cry mouth, rough and dry skin, and produce nodules, scar tissue, fibrosis, and
fibromyalgia and pain in soft tissues.
Taking an iodine supplement is one way to increase it. The
preferred way is to get it in your diet. Dr. Mercola says toxin free sea
vegetables and spirulina are a good source, but who eats that? There are things
normal people eat such as raw milk, raw eggs and shrimp (not raw), that contain
good iodine.
One last point on iodine. Many people’s thoughts turn to
nuclear fallout when thinking of iodine. We know that potassium iodide is used
to prevent thyroid cancer when nuclear material is in the air. How does this
work? It’s a fairly simple concept, actually. If you flood your body with
iodine, the thyroid takes it up quickly. Then, when you contact the nuclear
atoms that compete with iodine for receptors on the thyroid, the receptors are
already full of good iodine, and the bad material is not absorbed, thereby
preventing possible thyroid cancers.
This article concludes the review of the thyroid. We’ve
covered a lot of ground, but this really is just the tip of the iceberg. This series of articles should be up on my
website shortly if you want to read all of them.