In my practice as a doctor of Oriental Medicine I see this all too often; a patient that has depression, difficulty loosing weight, hair loss, feeling cold, low metabolic rate, often accompanied by anxiety, insomnia and palpitations, but when complaining to her physician is told either nothing is wrong with her, or being placed on levothyroxine, Synthroid, etc., after being diagnosed with hypothyroid condition which sometimes may take years. After starting the medication, symptoms may only improve for a short time at best or may experience no significant change at all, or in some cases, the symptoms can even get worse.

Over the years, I’ve seen patients being ignored, they have all kinds of laboratory tests and are told that there is “nothing wrong with them”. Even after being placed on the thyroid meds, patients rarely experience a return to “normal”, especially over the long term.

The problem with conventional approach is that it only looks at thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) and only sometimes at T4 and T3, but almost never at more subtle thyroid markers. When TSH is high, a person is hypothyroid and is immediately placed on meds. Sometimes meds work, but most of the time symptoms just don’t go away. However, once on meds, TSH levels usually come down to normal and the doctor pronounces you are cured! But you don’t feel any better, so how come?

It is likely because you have Hashimoto’s hypothyroid, which is an autoimmune condition in which your own immune system is attacking your thyroid gland. After a while you loose enough thyroid tissue you start to experience low thyroid symptoms.

90% of hypothyroidism in the United States has an autoimmune mechanism. The blood markers for the Hashimoto’s are thyroid peroxidase (TPO) antibodies and thyroglobulin (TGB) antibodies. 7 – 8 % of the US population has these antibodies. Not every person who has antibodies has symptoms, however, they are predictors of the future thyroid disease.

Many allopathic physicians know this, but the problem is that the treatment for autoimmune disease often consists of powerful immune suppressing medications such as corticosteroids that carry multiple side effects that can outweigh the benefits. Physicians often see no need of doing these tests because the treatment is the same regardless of the diagnosis. Insurance companies don’t like to pay for them for the same reason.

In my experience, management aimed at modulating the immune activity yields a greater result in supporting the thyroid gland health.

This meet up group focuses on educating and empowering these patients that found little or no help with their condition.

I want you to learn about what causes this immune reaction, what systems contribute and promote the imbalance, such as hormonal system, digestive tract, nervous system, environmental factors and stress.

My goal is to arm you with the tools to help you manage your condition nutritionally and help you feel better.

You can learn all this information and more at our Meetup groups that we offer monthly and at no cost.

See you soon at the Woodland Hills Hypothyroid Support Group.

Arthur