HIMPower Magazine HimPower September 2017 | Page 16

WHY ARE THERE SO MANY PROBLEMS
WITH THE THYROID?
There are a few reasons for thyroid
problems becoming so prominent. Certainly
food choices and lifestyle play a part, but
the major reason is the disappearance of
iodine in our diets and its lack of use in
common medical practice. In fact, we have
increased our exposure to toxic iodine
competitors!
Before the universal use of synthetic
drugs that are so common today, iodine was
essentially the medicine used by physicians
around the world. And it was effective for
everything; healing wounds, destroying
bacteria, stopping viruses, and possibly even
preventing cancer. Iodine – along with L-ty-
rosine – is an absolute must for a healthy
thyroid.
WHAT THE THYROID DOES
The thyroid is a butterfly-shaped gland
that sits at the base of the throat. One of its
chief functions is producing thyroxine (T4),
and converting this hormone into triiodo-
thyronine (T3), the active hormone needed
for metabolism.
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When your body produces too little
thyroxine, the normal metabolic and chem-
ical processes your body requires slow
down, resulting in hypothyroidism or under-
active thyroid.
While low-functioning thyroid is
common in both men and women, from
my experience, women are far more apt to
have hypothyroidism than men. But diag-
nosing hypothyroidism isn’t always what it
should be. The most serious problem is that
many doctors rely completely on a blood
test that is grossly inaccurate and overlooks
a majority of low thyroid diagnoses. That’s
because most of the current tests are inad-
equate, and don’t show the full picture of
how well the thyroid is functioning.
When doctors test for blood levels of
T4, they generally find adequate levels of the
hormone, so they naturally rule out hypo-
thyroidism. But, looking at T4 levels is only
half of the picture, and the tests aren’t truly
far-reaching. Many of these “good” readings
of T4 don’t take into consideration the levels
of T4 that need to be converted to T3, the
active hormone.
In fact, readings of TSH (thyroid stim-