About

The number of people I work with on Cura Romana who report that they have long been suffering from a thyroid condition never ceases to amaze me. Almost none of them are aware that low thyroid function is treatable by using well-prescribed bio-available hormones. Your thyroid is responsible for so many functions in the body that are absolutely critical to wellbeing. Even a minor deficiency in the thyroid gland’s ability to produce adequate levels of thyroid hormone can not only disrupt the body’s entire hormonal symphony but also tremendously impact your health. Your thyroid—the butterfly-shaped gland located in the lower part of your neck—is a primary hormone-producing gland that regulates body metabolism and is directly responsible for the production of energy. When the thyroid is not working properly this can lead to any number of other hormonal imbalances in the pituitary, the adrenals, and other hormone-producing glands in your body. When attempting to diagnose hypothyroidism it is not enough just to carry out blood tests and a physical examination. The trained practitioner will also want to listen carefully to your own description of symptoms. It is equally essential to measure your basal body temperature. This was something devised by Broda O Barnes MD, who many years ago carried out exhaustive research, leading him to report that at the time some 40% of the population was likely to be suffering from hypothyroidism. I highly recommend Dr. Barnes’ excellent book Hypothyroidism: The Unexpected Illness to anyone who is keen to promote high-level health. You see, hypothyroidism can reduce the strength of every cell in your body, including those responsible for maintaining your immune system. More about this in a moment. The symptoms of low thyroid function can be many. These include cold hands and feet, dry skin, recurring infections, menstrual disorders, PMS, infertility, obesity, thinning hair and eyebrows, poor memory, depression, headaches and migraines, and general weakness in the body as a whole. Your thyroid should be functioning properly. When it is not, your body can seem to pick up every viral illness that's going around. You may find it difficult to recover from infections. And, amazing as it may seem, when your thyroid is not functioning well, one of the common issues, which is rarely associated with this, is infertility—often a woman cannot conceive. So much for the bad news. The good news is that many men and women respond well when treated with bio-identical hormone replacement therapy. Conventional medicine has little understanding of glandular imbalances and of the most effective treatments for thyroid disorders. This is why, synthetic thyroid preparations like Synthroid or Levothyroxine—both relatively inactive forms of thyroid treatment—are commonly prescribed. These drugs contain T4 thyroid hormone, which must be converted into the more active form of T3 in the body for it to be effective. In fact, a great number of people simply do not respond at all to synthetic thyroid drug treatments because the human body cannot adequately convert T4 into its active form of T3. As a result, people get a poor response to conventional medical treatments. This is similar to the way a body does not respond adequately to being given synthetic HRT. So what is the answer? There is desiccated thyroid, a porcine preparation that contains both T4 and T3 in proportions close to your body’s natural thyroid production. The most commonly used natural thyroid hormone presently available is Armour Thyroid. The thyroid, like every other gland in the body, depends on adequate levels of the body’s natural hormones to support your health and energy. As a result of aging, poor diet, pollution in the environment, or ongoing stress, your glands are unable to supply your body with the level of hormones it needs for optimal health. It can be wise to turn towards bio-identical hormones prescribed by a skilled practitioner well versed in these procedures since bio-identical hormones are as close as possible to the natural hormones made by glands in your own body. And how does one find out if there is a thyroid hormone deficiency? Blood tests on their own are not enough. Thyroid hormones influence your body at a cellular level—the deepest level possible. Lab tests on their own are not capable of identifying a hypothyroid state. Its important that you form a close cooperation with a practitioner well versed in bio-identical treatments who will listen carefully to your perceptions of how you feel and what you sense you may be struggling with. He or she will want to correlate blood or saliva lab tests with a clinical examination, health history, and serial monitoring of your basal temperature. This can be carried out at home following Broda O Barnes’ method for measuring your basal body temperature. Briefly, here’s how it works: Before bed, shake down a basal thermometer and place it on a table at the side of your bed. When you awaken in the morning, tuck the thermometer snugly into your armpit. Leave it there for 10 minutes while you stay quietly in bed. Then record your temperature on paper. Repeat this for five days in row. If you happen to be menstruating it's best to take your temperature on the second day of menstruation and then for the following four days in order to get an accurate basal temperature. If the function of your thyroid is normal your temperature should be within the range of 97.8–98.2°F. If your temperature turns out to be lower than this range this often points to a hypothyroid condition in need of treatment. People who are hypothyroid frequently report that their capacity to remember, to understand, and to stay alert can be very challenged. In the past six or seven years I have worked with many women on Cura Romana’s Inner Circle program who, had spent a small fortune on infertility drugs and treatments while attempting to become pregnant, all to no avail until they discovered the power of bio-identical hormones and the way these can be used to restore healthy thyroid functioning. Some of these women reported that this was literally life changing. A practitioner competent in the use of bio-identicals in addition to analyzing and handling any other glands in your body that also need attention is likely to prescribe a low dose of say, Armour Thyroid. He or she then titrates up the amount until he or she discovers what the optimum levels of natural hormones in your body are. This is important because best results from the use of bio-identicals take place when one bio-identical is used together with other bio-identicals carefully chosen to work with it such as natural progesterone, pregnenalone, DHEA or others It is most important that you have proper nutritional support for your thyroid gland while this is happening. Drink good quantities of pure water every day and eat foods high in iodine like seafood, all of which can be helpful in restoring high-level health to your body. Many practitioners also insist on checking to make sure you have adequate iron stores and that you do not have anemia before they begin hormone replacement therapy. Its important that you remember this: it is virtually impossible to balance your endocrine system without taking into consideration the interrelationships of thyroid hormone with other natural hormones in your body. This is perhaps the most important secret of successful hormonal treatment for your glands, which produce hormones that have a powerful synergistic effect with one another. This makes it important for you to identify a brilliant practitioner who knows his or her stuff. The average GP has no training in the use of bio-identical hormones, he has been trained to use drugs. Next week we will look into important questions such as how to learn more, where to find the right practitioner, and where you can get bio-identical hormones.