Our Old Friend, Thyroid

By far, the most common complaint we hear from clients is fatigue.  Does this sound like you? No matter how much sleep you get, there is never really a time during the day when you feel energetic.  Except for maybe that half hour after your cup of coffee or energy drink, then… crash!

Low thyroid levels are a chief cause of chronic fatigue.  In addition to the sluggishness, clients usually report problems losing weight, cold hands and feet, thinning hair, dry skin, and memory problems, to name a few.  Your thyroid gland is the pace car for metabolism throughout the body, and it throttles you up on the fuel of thyroid hormone.

But you may say, “My doctor tested my thyroid, and said my levels are normal. And now he wants to have me take Prozac to see if it will help.”

We hear that over and over again, and yet we know we are looking at a perfect picture of hypothyroidism — usually before even looking at the results of the lab test. How can this be?  Because, chances are, your doctor is looking at the wrong thyroid hormone levels.  For decades doctors have routinely used TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) to measure thyroid function.  TSH is the messenger hormone that is sent out in the bloodstream from the master control center (the pituitary gland in the brain) to tell the thyroid gland to kick up production.  The reasoning is simple:  if the TSH is high, the pituitary must have detected low thyroid, and so, we prescribe thyroid medication, right?

That tired, old approach doesn’t work well.  We achieve tremendous results by checking the thyroid levels the right way.  So many women and men come into our clinic and leave with hope.  Hope that finally someone is going to get to the bottom of the problems, instead of just covering up the symptoms with medications that are not effective.