Thyroid, fibromyalgia, lupus, MS is there a connection.
To get straight to the meat of the subject, the thyroid is a gland in your neck that can be considered the thermostat of your body. It regulates
hormone activity, and if it is out of balance contributes to health imbalances.
Why is the thyroid so important and how is it related to our health.
There is a book written by Datis Kharrazian DHSc, DC, MS which has extremely interesting and up to date information on begining to understand the workings of the thyroid and how it relates to health. The title is "Why do I still have thyroid symptoms? When my lab tests are normal".
Current lab tests for the thyroid measure T4 and in a range that will signal a thyroid problem once the thyroid is in a disease phase. The functional range is explained in the book and the numbers are discussed. By identifying these numbers in testing of not only T4, but also T3 and many other indicators, you can try to understand how your thyroid is working.
A very interesting statistic talked about in the book is that many people, more woman than men, who have lo thyroid funtion or hypo- thyroid- ism, about 90 percent which is a huge number, actually have Hashimoto's disease which is an autoimiune disease. In fact the first autoimmune disease that was named for Dr. Hashimoto Hakura in Germany in 1912.
Conventional and naturopathic doctors may tell you to take iodine if you have lo thyroid. The conventional allopathic doctor may say take an iodine supplement, while a naturopath may say take some sea kelp, which contains iodine. Both practioners would be making the person worse as Dr. Kharrazian talks about, due to the fact that iodine would interfere with receptors in the body related to thyroid function, if that person has Hashimoto's, which roughly 90% of people who have lo thyroid, have
Hashimotos thyroiditis.
A factor contributing to this is gluten intolerance, and or leaky gut syndrome where the gluten sneaks into the blood stream. Causing the body to attack the gluten and the thyroid, since the gluten and thyroid molecules look similiar. The anti bodies produced by your immmune system to attack any foreign object in your body attack both the gluten and your thyroid.
Further more your digestive system is part of your hormone production since some of the T4 produced by your thyroid enters the liver then the gut to be converted to the active T3 that your body uses. So if you have unhealthy gut bacteria you lose this portion of T3. Also if you have lo stomach acid (hydrochloric acid) it makes things worse.
Other intersting information can be found on Suzanne Somers Blog
titled "Hmmm... It Might Be Your Thyroid" found at the web address below
www.suzannesomers.com/Blog/post/Thyroid.aspx
Where she talks about the relation to the immune system, heart rate , cholosterol, dry skin, and many more.
Interestingly she talks about fibromyalgia, lupus, and MS and how women who get diagnosed with these conditions have lo thyroid instead. Because of muscle swelling and reduced enzyme activity in the muscles, which causes a build up of waste like a jelly being deposited in the muscles, joints and ligaments. Many of these starting at perimenopause and menopause which are directly related to hormones, and how natural bio identical hormones can help.
She also talks about the testing of T4 and T3 and free T4 and TSH, and how important it is to understand the larger picture of all of these numbers. Also how lo thyroid can reduce the ability of the body to make estrogen and how that impacts the body.
With the information above as well as other sources Eat Walk Talk can say,
The digestive system is super imporant to your health. More so than many people realize. It has more cells than the rest of your body. Absorbs nutrients and passes them to the blood. Makes a percentage of your thyroid hormones. Provides 60 percent of your immunity. If your stomach acid is to low it can cause heartburn or low thyroid levels among other things. If your digestion is not good you may get "leaky gut" which throws toxins into your body causing autoimmune conditions. Proper digestion is necassary for good brain function.
Considering all the information above alone is not enough continued reasearch and follow up is necassary. For example take a look at a story by USA Today found at
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/olympics/athens/swimming/2004-06-10-dumais_x.htm posted 6.10.2004 titled "Disease diagnosis doesn't deter diver" by Vicki Michaelis with a photo by James A. Finley showing Justin Dumais and his brother Troy compete during the 2004 olympic team diving trials.
The article talks about Justin Dumais a US olympic diver, who was so tired he could barely take a shower, and thought he might be overtraining. After a doctors visit then a specialist he was diagnosed with Graves' disease, overproduction of thyroid hormone. Which mostly affects middle aged women, Justin was 25. Justin researched on his own and found a nutritionist who suggested he cut out aspartame.
He cut out out aspartame and his medication and improved.
More information about apartame can be found at www.sweetpoison.com by
Dr. Janet Starr Hull an OSHA Certified environmental hazardous waste emergency response specialist and Toxicologist, a former firefighter and college professor.Further information on her can be found at www.janethull.com/about/index.php she talks about being diagnosed with Graves disease herself and curing herself through a detox program she descibes on the site.
Another factor to be discussed is fluoride. There is an article tiltled
"Hidden Danger in Your Drinking Water and Toothpaste, Fluoride and Fluoridated Water's Link to Thyroid Disease" written by Mary Shomon, and hosted on About.com Updated December 13, 2003, found at the web address
http://thyroid.about.com/cs/toxicchemicalsan/a/flouride_2.htm
She talks about fluoride being used for decades to effectively treat hyper thyroidism (over production of thyroid hormone).The dosage amount
she says that was used to treat hyper thyroid frequently was lower than the current level of 1 mg per day that was the optimal intake level you could safely ingest in 2003 when the article was written. Also at that time the estimate of daily fluoride
intake was 8 mg per day 8 times the optimum amount, and that fluoride mimicsTSH (thyrotropin), and from more than 150 symptoms of hypo thryoidismalmost all are also symptoms of fluoride poisoning.
There are many variables to consider, Eat Walk Talk suggests continued research and follow up and sharing of information. For example iodine supplementation through pills or kelp as suggested by one source may aggravate certain thyroid disorders as suggested by another source. So the conventional approach and or the natural approach does not always provide a complete picture. Diet also plays a role who would think an artificial sweetener may contribute to a health issue. Any feedback on this issue can be sent to info@eatwalktalk.com
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