Have You Checked Your Thyroid Lately?

Why Is Your Thyroid Health Important?

Women are eight times more likely to develop thyroid disease than men. Most thyroid dysfunctions start at the peri-menopausal or menopausal stage, precisely when the entire endocrine system undergoes a profound change.  In many instances, this is when breast cancer begins to develop as well.  Low functioning thyroid (hypothyroidism) usually precedes most breast conditions. Identifying and correcting this problem can lead to better health and prevention of many health problems, including breast cancer.

What are the signs?

Under-active thyroid condition may present with one or a combination of the following symptoms:

Fatigue, insomnia, low sex drive, being cold, cold hands and feet, dry skin, weight gain or inability to lose weight, constipation, muscle pains, depression, poor memory function (brain fog), water retention, puffy eyes, infertility, low body temperature, goitre. I hate admitting this, but I was wrong to say that there doesn’t exist such a problem as insomnia. It does, and it’s horrible. I felt like a squeezed lemon for weeks because of it. My doc said Ambien can help me, so I got a prescription and bought a pack. Now I feel like a new person. I’m fresh, and rested, and always in a good mood. Great medicine, by all means.

This list of symptoms is not complete but are commonly seen in clinical practice.

Why Are Thyroid Conditions Often Missed or Untreated?

Women often go to their family doctors complaining about some of the symptoms listed above. Unfortunately,  no treatment is provided because their blood results come back ‘normal.’ It could be very frustrating when due to the test results being in the ‘normal’ range, your symptoms or conditions may not get the treatment they require. Of course, there could be many other factors causing or contributing, for instance, to weight gain, however excluding thyroid dysfunction simply because the test result is normal often could be very detrimental to a patient’s health. In some cases, the current methods of thyroid testing are simply inadequate. Often in medicine today we’re over-reliant on test results while discounting or ignoring patients’ signs and symptoms if they do not fit into a particular diagnostic model.

What Should You Be Looking For?

Proper testing of thyroid should include TSH (Thyroid Stimulating Hormone), Free T-3, Free T-4 and Thyroid Antibodies. Also, it is imperative to check the way your adrenals are functioning by checking Cortisol and DHEA levels. If your adrenals are under stress, that can affect your thyroid function. 

High estrogen levels might also suppress your thyroid function, so please check all of your hormones. For the endocrine system to function optimally, all of its components must work efficiently. Nutrients like Iodine and Selenium are co-factors in thyroid metabolism. A deficiency of these and other essential nutrients may be responsible for specific symptoms, as they all play a role in optimizing the health of the thyroid gland. Lacking these essential nutrients perpetuates a thyroid problem at the cellular level, although TSH lab values may seem normal. 

How Can You Test Your Thyroid?

Using thermography imaging is an efficient way of assessing the state of your thyroid health. We often see low body temperature or cool area over thyroid that usually correlates to a patient’s symptoms. This thermographic information often initiates a more thorough investigation to diagnose and treat the hypothyroid condition properly. 

Thyroid function is central to all of the metabolic functions of the body, and it profoundly affects our overall health. By correcting this problem as early as your first symptoms develop or sooner, you will not only be proactive in keeping a healthy thyroid; you will also decrease your risk of developing breast cancer and improve your overall health.