Alternative Medicine & Thyroid Disease: New Book by Stephen Langer, MD

For those of you who just can't get your thyroid questions answered, reinforcements have arrived!
Solved: The Riddle of Illness Your Amazing Thyroid and How You Can Work with it to Control Arthritis, Obesity, Depression, Diabetes, Heart Disease and Circulatory Problems, Cancer, Sexual Problems. This is the Updated Third Edition with co-author James F. Scheer. The authors offer advice on nutrition and other aspects of wellness that go beyond thyroid hormone levels and medications. They advise one thing that is invaluable - educate yourself and PARTNER with your doctor.

I can't emphasize how important that is. When you doctor realizes that you are educated, empowered and taking responsibility for your own health, he or she looks at you differently. You are no longer another patient. You are someone he or she can trust to follow the prescribed regimen and go above and beyond to help him or her help you.

One of our partners, About.com has a great feature - Thyroid-Info. Mary Shomon interviewed Dr. Langer about his book and recommendations. One example is the idea of taking a calcium/magnesium supplement along with an anti-inflammatory before going to bed for those who suffer from thyroiditis attacks. The book is available on Amazon.com and other locations.

Labels: alternative medicine, nutrition, thyroid

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American Thyroid Association Clinical Guidelines for Thyroid Dysfunction

The Standards of Care Committee of the American Thyroid Association (ATA), an organization of scientists and physicians dedicated to a better understanding and treatment of thyroid disease, has come out with some clinical guidelines for detection of thyroid dysfunction. Thyroid disease has been the most popular topic on this Health Observances blog, so Leigh Schevchik, the Blog Manager and I agreed to cover thyroid topics for the rest of the month of August, since the calendar of Observances is light this month.

Healthline has added a lot of exciting new content and we hope our new video content about thyroid disease from Healthology will help all of you with an interest in this subject matter. The ATA is recommending:

• Screening at age 35 for thyroid dysfunction and every 5 years thereafter: measurement of serum thyrotropin level (TSH)

The rationale for this is that the test itself is inexpensive yet prevalence of thyroid dysfunction is high, especially in women. I have not been able to get my hands on the exact numbers for prevalence but it looks like it is somewhere greater than 4% and under 10% for hypothyroidism, higher for hyperthyroidism. Please correct me if you have access to the exact numbers!

Risk Factors include:

• goiter
• family history
• diabetes mellitus
• pernicious anemia
• previous history of thyroid dysfunction
• vitiligo
• leukotrichia
• medications like lithium carbonate, amiodarone hydrochloride, kelp

The thyroid gland is a butterfly shaped endocrine gland found in the neck. It secretes hormones involved in growth and metabolism - T4 and T3, which are in turn regulated by thyrotropin (TSH). The hypothalamus in the brain regulates the secretion of TSH, and the amount of iodine and calories consumed also effects the process. The amount of calcium in the blood is regulated by the thyroid's secretion of the hormone calcitonin. All of these hormones interact with the central nervous system - an increase can result in anxiety and a decrease can result in infertility, decreased concentration and ability to think.

Our endocrine system is the very core of who we are - so no wonder so many of you have concerns about that little butterfly inside your neck! One alternative healing technique is visualization therapy. Using meditative techniques - relaxation, deep breathing - you can focus on visualizing your thyroid as a beautiful, healthy butterfly as you fall asleep and before you arise in the morning. It can't hurt and it just might help!

Thank you heyjules45 for use of photo.

Labels: meditation, screening, thyroid, TSH, visualization

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Thyroid Questions from Our Readers: Communicating with Your Doctor

None of our blog posts have generated as much interest or as many comments as Some Symptoms of Functional Thyroid Disease. Let's start out by stating that I am not a thyroid disease expert and that blog posts are not exactly the right forum for getting detailed personal health questions answered. I am sorry that so many of you are having difficulty either understanding your thyroid problems or communicating them adequately with you health care providers. From reviewing the comments posted and mulling them over, I want to advocate that those of you with concerns about your thyroid and its impact on your health condition do the following:

Take the time to write and organize your own medical history. Take the time to go back over your personal health history and record every diagnosis you have ever been given and every surgery you ever had - succinctly. I can not stress enough that most doctors want to hear just the medical facts and sorry, not your emotional or psychological reaction to them. Save that for a therapist. I am going to give you the cold, hard truth here to help you navigate your way through the health care system and get what you want - better care.

Write it in this format:

Diagnoses
1983: migraine HA Dr. xxzzy Crossroads, WY
1995: High Blood pressure Dr. Pttss Crossroads, WY
1996: Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, Dr.Ssdst Sevenrivers, WY
Work Comp
2003: Hypothyroid Dr. Ptss Crossroads, WY


Surgeries:

1988: C-Section Dr. bbbby Sevenrivers, WY
1997: Carpal Tunnel Release Dr. Ssdst Sevenrivers, WY


Accidents:

1977: MVA Fractured right rib, mild concussion


Medications: Include every vitamin and herbal supplement you take in this list. Over! My! Med! Body! features a place where you can do this on his website for free & he claims it is private. You could use any database program at home like Access.

Print two copies - one for you and one for your doctor. Keep it updated regularly. Many of you have questions about your lab studies. So if you are having lab studies done regularly, chart the results along with any changes in your medications and the changes in your weight as you are describing.

An excellent resource for thyroid disease is American Thyroid Association.
They have Patient Thyroid Brochures in English and Espanol. For those of you who still have questions and feel you are receiving inadequate teaching, please check out their Find A Thyroid Specialist interactive Map.
Best of luck to all of you, and keep writing! We are sorry we can not help you individually with your questions about your particular medical situation, but sure hope this helps!

Labels: Patient doctor communications, thyroid

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