It’s more than your thyroid!

I read over and over again on Facebook, thyroid patients that go to their endocrinologist and beg for a complete blood work, and not just the standard TSH test. TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) to find out why they, the patient, is not responding to typical thyroid replace therapy. By not responding, I mean they are not feeling any better on thyroid replacement therapy (HRT).

Typical symptoms of Hashimoto’s thyroiditis:

• Fatigue
• Headaches
• Sore throat
• Hair loss
• Weight gain
• Dry skin
• Heat or cold intolerance

I tell people, it feels like I have strep throat all the time. To put it  mildly…Hashimoto’s SUCKS!

So what do patients do who have a doctor who won’t run a more extensive list of labs for you?  You can find another doctor, or pay for the tests yourself. Simple as that.I usually have my endocrinologist run complete labs once a year, (yes, I go in to his office armed with information). In between that I will have a TSH test done every 4 or 5 months just to see how I am doing.

Only approximately 10% of patients with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis will feel better on HRT alone. That is the disappointing truth. Why? Because it is, NUMBER ONE, an autoimmune disease!  What is an autoimmune disease?

Autoimmune disease affects up to 50 million Americans, according to the American Autoimmune Related Diseases Association (AARDA). An autoimmune disease develops when your immune system, which defends your body against disease, decides your healthy cells are foreign. As a result, your immune system attacks healthy cells. Depending on the type, an autoimmune disease can affect one or many different types of body tissue.

There are over 80 autoimmune diseases that affect different areas of your body. For instance: Multiple Sclerosis (MS), causes damage to the myelin coating around the nerve fibers in the central nervous system (CNS) and to the nerve fibers themselves interferes with the transmission of nerve signals between the brain, spinal cord and the rest of the body.

IT MUST BE SOMETHING ELSE.

What is wrong with me?

Hashimoto’s thyroiditis is an autoimmune disease that has picked your innocent thyroid to attack. It attacks and attacks until the thyroid no longer produces the hormone needed for your body to run efficiently. Hence: you feel constantly tired and you crawl to your doctor for lab work. What is frustrating, is after years of complaining about being fatigued and your doctor prescribes a medicine like Synthroid, you still feel the fatigue but now you have other complaints such as weight gain, hair loss, foggy brain, etc. You doctor scratches  his head and declares that your TSH is now in the “normal” range SO IT MUST BE SOMETHING ELSE. Then he leads you out of the examination room.

Patients have burst into tears at this point. They have come to their doctor in hopes of regaining their once vital life back, and instead they are told it basically is in their heads because, after all, blood tests don’t lie. (SCREAM HERE!)

Okay, take a deep breath, There is hope. I have faced this hurdle head on, and innocently I have believed my learned doctor. Well my doctor, or I should say doctors, are obviously not doing the same in depth research that I have had to take on in an attempt to find out WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH ME? What I found out…it is Hashimoto’s. Screw the blood tests and the supposedly normal TSH. I have an autoimmune disease with a fancy name…HASHIMOTO’S THRYOIDITIS. (Dr. Haruku Hashimoto, in 1912, published a paper on lymphomatus goiter and when published in American papers, renamed Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis.)

When I was first diagnosed 5 years ago, I had never heard of it. Yes, I knew what hypothyroidism was, but the autoimmune disease that was attacking my thyroid was new to me. What set the diagnose apart from just having hypothyroidism is the high antibodies showing up in my lab results.

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The presence of TPO antibodies in your blood suggests that the cause of thyroid disease is an autoimmune disorder, such as Hashimoto’s disease or Graves’ disease. In autoimmune disorders, your immune system makes antibodies that mistakenly attack normal tissue.

My endocrinologist preformed a ultrasound on my thyroid and he said it looked like a typical “beat-up” thyroid caused by Hashimoto’s. If I knew years ago what I know now, I could have stopped the progression of the demise of my thyroid. Now, it has gone past the point of no return and I am on a lifetime of hormone replacement therapy. Oh joy!

So what do you do if your doctor says your TSH is in the normal range and that is all they can do? Pull up your big girl (or boy) panties and it is all up to you! Trust me on this one. I have SEARCHED for the magic pill. There is none. Hashimoto’s patients usually place too much importance on their prescription. It’s all about diet.

Your hormone replacement therapy is extremely important because your body needs thyroid, but it is not how you are going to feel better. It also is not how you are going to lose weight. (I’ve even tried going on the very low side of TSH numbers and didn’t lose a pound. The lower the number, the more thyroid you have in your system,)

What is going to help you is:

• Eliminating gluten, sugar, fluoride, alcohol, junk food.
• Using shampoos and moisturizers that have natural ingredients and no gluten.
• Upping your intake of fresh and organic vegetables and fruit.
• Either having food sensitivity blood tests done or try eliminating foods for a while to see how you feel then gradually adding them back into your diet.
• Coffee is something that is not tolerated well by people with Hashimoto’s.
• Taking D3, selenium, vitamin C, Zinc.

That’s a good start.

Feeling better will not happen overnight.

Sorry to deliver that news but no, this will not happen overnight. It probably will take a good 3 months before you really could resume activities that you could do before being diagnosed with an autoimmune disease.

Below are some helpful links. Educating yourself about your disease is a great step toward recovery.

Thanks for reading!

Terry Ryan

http://thyroid.about.com/library/links/blthyroid.htm

http://www.medicinenet.com/hashimotos_thyroiditis/article.htm

http://www.thyroidawareness.com/hashimotos