Rocky Mountain Family Chiropractic

Your thyroid gland is one of the most complicated glands in the entire body.  Its responsibilities can be generally broken down into two main areas: Blood Calcium (in concert with the parathyroid gland) and your body’s Metabolism.

It is the latter of these responsibilities that creates this convolution of job functions.  Speaking in general terms, your body’s metabolism is responsible for creating and using energy.  More specifically, it is involved in the processes of digestion, absorption, cellular respiration, internal temperature, proper functioning of ALL the body’s internal organs, chemical balances in the brain, body growth rate (in children), and the rate of which the body can produce energy in order to complete these tasks.  That’s a tall order, and one that allows for opportunity for disruption.  For this reason, many of the symptoms of a thyroid disorder may look like other disease processes.  These symptoms include:

• Fatigue
• Cold hands and feet
• Weight gain
• Constipation
• Hair loss (including outer 1/3rd of your eyebrows)
• Depression
• Mental sluggishness
• Morning headaches

Traditional treatments for thyroid dysfunction involve synthetic thyroid hormone medications (made or altered by a laboratory), glandular thyroid hormone medications, and/or surgeries (in the case of hyperthyroid patients).  Many times, after being on these medicines, a patient will return to the doctor without any changes in the symptoms, in spite of their blood work values returning to “normal”.  This situation is one of great frustration for the patient and physician alike.

One of the reasons for the normalization of blood work without changes to how the patient feels is that the primary cause of the symptoms may not be directly related to a hypo-functioning thyroid gland (for which Synthroid, Armour Thyroid, or Levothyroxine treat).  These medicines override your body’s natural physiology and may actually be doing more harm than good.

As stated above, the thyroid is responsible for a lot of functions in the body.  The treatments above are only effective against one of the six possible causes of actual hypothyroidism.  Because of this, if you are experiencing thyroid symptoms you need to make sure your doctor is fully investigating the exact cause of your thyroid condition.  Your thyroid works based on influence from the brain (hypothalamus and pituitary gland).  If one or both of these two areas are not properly communicating to the thyroid, you will end up with a dysfunctional thyroid and the medications will have little to no effect.  Your thyroid secretes two main hormones: T4 (93%) and T3 (7%).  T4 is the inactive form and must be converted to T3 to have an effect on the body.  If this conversion does not take place (60% happens in the liver, 20% in the gut, 20% elsewhere), then you will end up with hypothyroid type symptoms for which the medications will be ineffective.  If you have Hashimoto’s disease (which is estimated as 80% of hypothyroid patients in America), then your body is mounting an immune attack against your thyroid.  Medications will have minimal effect, and will not calm the autoimmune system underlying the disorder.  Many patients and/or physicians supplement treatments with iodine.  With an autoimmune condition, however, using iodine would simply be adding fuel to the fire.  It will make things worse! Additionally, when your body attacks one tissue there is a high likelihood that it will attack another.  It is not uncommon to find a Hashimoto’s patient with antibodies against their own brain (cerebellum).

To truly treat a thyroid you must understand where the dysfunction is taking place.  This can be easily done with blood tests.  Additionally, there are natural medicines designed to treat where the dysfunction is occurring.  These medicines can effectively help in ALL six of the possible thyroid dysfunction conditions! Everyone deserves to know what is going on in his or her body.  Everyone deserves to live a life free of thyroid symptoms.  Why not start now?

Dr. William Green and Rocky Mountain Family Chiropractic are currently accepting thyroid patients.  If you mention this blog article, you will receive a no charge, no obligation case review of your thyroid (a $250.00 value!).  This will give Dr. Green an opportunity to review your case and give you recommendations.  It’s time to take your life back!  Why not start the journey with someone who knows how to guide you along the path?  Call today at 801-683-9553!