Blaine Chiropractic Care – Is Your Body At War With Your Thyroid?
When it comes to your hormone levels, balance is vital. Even small changes in the wrong direction can send multiple systems in your body off kilter. Look no further than your thyroid for a great illustration of this natural rule. Unbalanced levels of thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), triiodothyronine (T3), and thyroxine (T4) can affect anything from your metabolism and energy level to your menstrual cycle, cholesterol level and nervous system functions.
This can cause symptoms of chronic fatigue, pain, weight gain, brain fog, depression, digestive problems, sugar cravings and cold hands and feet. Numerous individuals suffer from these symptoms even though their doctor tells them their thyroid tests are “in the normal range”. There are solutions for these very common symptoms associated with low thyroid function, the doctor need only look deeper to find the underlying causes. Many times it’s not your thyroids fault but your immune system over reacting.
Hashimoto’s thyroiditis is the most common thyroid disease in the country today. As an autoimmune disorder, it is triggered when antibodies from your immune system attack your thyroid. This can decrease the thyroids output of thyroid hormone (a condition called hypothyroidism). Symptoms include weight gain, fatigue, constipation, dry hair, depression, joint and muscle pain, infertility and often increased cholesterol. Research finds this to be seven times more common in women than in men.
Thyroiditis can also increase thyroid function (hyperthyroidism). As an autoimmune disorder, this results when thyroid-stimulating antibodies begin to mimic thyroid-stimulating hormone causing your thyroid to increase hormone production. This can cause transient symptoms of such as rapid heartbeat, heat intolerance, weight loss, frequent bowel movements and anxiety like symptoms.
Common causes of Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis are specific antigens such as a food, a mold, bacteria, or chronic virus that triggers the autoimmune reaction. For example, undiagnosed gluten sensitivity is a very common cause of Hashimoto’s autoimmune reaction and thyroid dysfunction. People can also develop an immune response that affects the thyroid and other tissues from environmental chemicals and heavy metals. Proper laboratory testing by a knowledgeable doctor is the only way to know what is causing your thyroiditis and how to heal it.
Furthermore, many people continue to suffer from thyroid symptoms even when they are taking thyroid medication. Many times a clinician does not run a comprehensive enough thyroid panel. The usual approach is to measure a hormone from the pituitary gland called TSH and possibly a hormone from the thyroid gland called T4. If the results are within the labs “normal” range the individual is told their thyroid is fine. If the person’s TSH is high and/or their T4 levels are low, the doctor will many times prescribed a thyroid hormone such as Synthroid.
However, there are many problems with this simple approach to this complex problem. First, the individual may be just within the normal range but for them this barely “normal” is not good enough to run their cellular metabolism. Second, and most importantly there are actually six patterns of thyroid dysfunction that must be properly diagnosed and only one of them really responds well to thyroid medication.
Many times to completely conquer the underlying cause of an individual’s fatigue, weight gain, depression, and brain fog it is vital to address more than just the thyroid gland. Many times it is vital to go to the heart of cellular function for your thyroid, muscles and brain to conquer these symptoms. At the center of your cells in these organs are hundreds of throbbing engines cranking out massive energy (ATP), the mitochondria. These organelles have been called the power plants of your cells. They take calories from your food, break it down and literally burn it for energy, in a process called cellular respiration.
When these little mitochondria are efficiently humming along, like well-tuned engines, you have all the energy you need throughout the day to run your muscles, brain and allow your thyroid and adrenal gland to function properly. When your mitochondria are not working efficiently, this can lead to these very common symptoms. Once the key metabolic factors causing mitochondrial dysfunction have been identified, through proper diagnostic workup, an effective patient specific biomedical program can be commenced to normalize thyroid and general cellular function, allowing you to live a life you have always deserved!
The origin of these disabling symptoms of chronic fatigue, pain, weight gain, brain fog, depression, digestive problems, sugar cravings and cold hands and feet and the lab tests to properly diagnose the actual cause will be the subject matter of my upcoming FREE seminars. To learn more, click Blaine Chiropractic or Minnesota Natural Medicine for details at www.painandbrainhealingcenter.com
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