Posted by Barbaracat on September 16, 2004, at 1:40:16
In reply to Re: Chemist--i need your help--you still here?, posted by fluffy on September 15, 2004, at 16:40:09
Hi Katy,
Hopefully your doctor is more enlightened than just dumping higher doses of the same non-effective meds on you. Lord, save us from this mentality. Hypothyroid is low thyroid. Hyperthyroid is too much. There's also thyroiditis which is an autoimmune condition. One of the best low tech ways to tell is to take your temp 3 times a day for 3 days. Take it as soon as you get up, at 11:00am and at 7:00pm. Or at least the same times every day. Don't do this when ovulating. Average the temps and if below 98.2 chances are good that you're hypothyroid.The standard thyroid test is the TSH test. There's a range of values, with 5 being the upper 'normal' limit (a higher value means lower thyroid functioning). Many doctors say you can live with the upper borderline values, but don't believe it. Especially for a mood disordered person, the value should be between 1 and 2.
A low thyroid makes everything awful. Not enough metabolic spark to do much of anything - digest food, make other hormones. Every system depends on having enough thyroid. Many many people are hypothyroid - it's a real epidemic. Our toxic chemical environment produces many endocrine disruptors that can damage the thyroid gland or mimic thyroxine molecule and occupy the receptor sites.
So there's a definite low thyroid disease condition with all the crummy symptoms that go along with it. But there's also other forms of thyroid disorder that don't quite fall into the 'disease' category but make you feel like sludge all the same. Pdocs will use thyroid hormone to augment other meds or to just jump start metabolism. The problem comes from giving too much when it's not needed. Your thyroid gland could halt it's own production and depend on the outside source if it's overprescribed. So it's best to verify a low thyroid condition by temperature testing, various blood tests. But sometimes none of these show anything and you just have to try it an see if it makes a difference. It's slow acting, so it's not an immediate effect.
As for my source, I went to a naturopath originally and now am seeing a 'functional medicine' MD who prescribes Westhroid (which I like better than Armour which is the most popular brand of natural thyroid). Unless your regular MD is hip to complementary medicine, you probably won't get much support for the natural T3/T4 brands. They will 90% of the time give you a synthroid generic brand, T4 only. Many of us have problems converting T4 into the active T3. This same scenario is true for most endocrinologists. No, no, when it comes to hormones I stay far away from conventional doctors.
If I were you I'd find a good naturopath or alternative physician. They'll give you much more sensitive tests and a natural product. They excel at hormonal issues. Go visit this website: thyroid.about.com. You'll find out more than you could imagine about thyroid disorders. It's a fabulous site. There's also a section on finding doctors under the Articles and Resources section.
Maybe it's not your thyroid at all but from my experience and those in the field, hormones are hugely majorly implicated in mood disorders. Think PMS. It wasn't just my thyroid that was off. My entire hormonal profile (I did blood work, urine and saliva tests) was warped and is slowly coming back into balance with natural hormonal therapy. No way in hell would psych meds help with that underlying imbalance.
Do some searching to find someone who will dig deeper into the hormonal labyrinth. You won't get the kind of detective work and treatment through conventional medicine channels. But then again, your current doctor may surprise you if you bring it up. Taking a synthetic T3 like Cytomel is OK too if your doc won't prescribe the natural. But the T3 is important.
About the boyfriend, just remember, we seldom appear as weird outside as we feel inside, and no one is a burden when they can manage to be interested and listen to another's life. It lifts the performance burden. A secret seems to be: breathe evenly, upright posture, and smile. Alot of it comes down to posture and facial expression, silly but true. There was an interesting book written on it. People will think you're exotic and mysterious instead of bipolar. You know, Mona Lisa having a meltdown. Who would ever know? Plus smiling triggers neural reflexes that make your brain think you're happier than you actually are. What a silly world. It would be nice if we could just ask for help and understanding when we really need it, but I don't think the majority of folks are that evolved. That's why we have therapists, journals, and our Babble Buds. Oh well, that's enough Dear Abby advice for now. - BCat
poster:Barbaracat
thread:339744
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040915/msgs/391391.html