Denton County Living Well Magazine July/August 2017 | Page 40

T
Six Steps to Heal
Your Thyroid
he thyroid system plays a critical role in your me-
tabolism. Along with insulin and cortisol, your thy-
roid hormone is one of the big three hormones that
control your metabolism and weight. The key is the
right testing is needed to confirm if a sluggish thy-
roid is contributing to a stalled metabolism and other prob-
lems. Once you know this for sure, there are many ways to
help correct thyroid problems.
There are so many reasons for low thyroid function, yet I
see many patients whose doctors have ignored this prob-
lem. One young female patient had more than 30 percent
body fat and was unable to change her body no matter
how hard she worked. She ate perfectly, exercised with a
trainer every day, yet her body wouldn’t budge. She also
had a slightly depressed mood and other vague symptoms.
She was treated with a low dose of Armour® thyroid, a
natural thyroid replacement. What happened? Well, she
lost 20 pounds and improved her body composition and
mood. And all of her other symptoms went away.
How did we know she and other patients had low thyroid
function? You need to be asked about symptoms, have a
physical exam, and consider potential causes of thyroid
problems. Then you have the right tests.
Most doctors just check something called thyroid-stimulat-
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DENTON COUNTY Living Well Magazine | JULY/AUGUST 2017
By Donna S Barsky, PharmD
ing hormone (TSH), which doesn’t give a full picture of the
thyroid. In fact, even the interpretation of this test is incor-
rect most of the time.
The newer guidelines of the American College of Endo-
crinology consider anybody with a TSH level over 3.0 as
hypothyroid. Most doctors think that only anything over 5
or 10 is worth treating. Unfortunately, this leaves millions
suffering unnecessarily.
Besides TSH, Functional Medicine practitioners perform
other essential tests including free T3, free T4, and thyroid
antibodies. We also look for associated problems such
as gluten intolerance, food allergies, and heavy metals, as
well as deficiencies of vitamin D, selenium, vitamin A, zinc,
and omega-3 fats.
Correcting these problems requires an integrative ap-
proach. It involves more than simply taking a thyroid pill.
As you’ll see, it involves nutritional support, exercise, stress
reduction, supplements, reducing inflammation, and some-
times eliminating certain foods and detoxification from
heavy metals (such as mercury and lead) and petrochemi-
cal toxins (such as pesticides and PCBs).
To integrate all of these elements and create a successful
set of techniques to cope with your thyroid problems, we
recommend these six following strategies.