It’s your immune system doing too good of a job. When your body unfortunately starts recognizing yourself as foreign, you get what is known as an autoimmune disease. This means you start destroying things within yourself that you need to survive. When that “thing” is your thyroid gland, this disease is called Hashimoto.
The medical problem was discovered by Japanese medical student named Hakaru Hashimoto from Germany in 1912. It was the first disease discovered where the immune system had confused self (thyroid) with a foreign invader (bacteria). This is called an autoimmune disease because the body automatically starts destroying itself.
Up to 5% of our population is affected with the disease. The majority of the patients are middle-aged women although many older men also end up with the problem.
Symptoms are exhaustion, weight gain, loss of hair, muscle aches, depression, anxiety, cholesterol above normal, dry skin, constipation and a thing called goiter. Goiter is an increase in size of your thyroid gland which pops out in the neck area.
The thyroid is butterfly shaped organ that hugs your windpipe. It becomes enlarges when you have hypothyroid (hypo-low) or low amounts of thyroid hormone being produced by the body. Your thyroid gland requires more thyroid hormone than you are able to make in the body. So, you must be treated by taking a thyroid pill. This may also be caused by an iodine deficiency. Check with your health care professional to determine the cause and resolve the problem with treatment.
Physicians have been treating Hashimoto’s Disease mainly with synthetic thyroid hormone. This is known by the brand name of either Synthroid™ or Levoxyl™ or the generic name of levothyroxine which are all composed of tablet preparations. There is also liquid gel brand name formulation called Tirosint™. Currently Levoxyl™ has been unavailable and is being discontinued. This has brought up the price of the other alternative medications.
In addition, there are animal-derived thyroid medications that have also been on the market. There is a problem with availability since they are sometimes in short supply. In addition, the danger with animal-derived products are amounts of hormones may vary significantly with each batch.
The body normally makes thyroid hormones called T3 (triiodothyroxine) and T4 (thyroxine). If everything is working correctly T3 is completely changed into T4 by our human systems. This is why it was just easier to make the prescription medications as 100% synthetic T4. The drugs are monitored by the manufacturers to contain the same exact amounts of T4 per batch unlike animal-derived drugs containing T3 and T4.
A sub-group of Hashimoto’s patients may also need T3. These are people that are taking the synthetic T4 hormones but are still not feeling right mentally. They are experiencing anxiety, depression or fatigue. Pharmacies can compound preparations that are composed of both types (T3 and T4) to help these sensitive patients.
With the addition of T3 with T4, patients start losing weight and are relieved from anxiety, depression and fatigue. It may be the way to go for all patients with Hashimoto’s Disease. Patients must be monitored to make sure they are not getting too much T3 when taking both types together.
Best Morning Friends, Aqua And Thyroid
- Thyroid medication must be taken on an empty stomach with only water.
- For best results, take the dose in the morning hour.
- Please wait at least 30 minutes before eating or drinking any type of beverage other than water.
- Limit your soy products because it may interfere with synthetic thyroid hormone (T4).
Sushi GOOD. Hashimoto’s Disease BAD,
if left untreated or not properly checked by your health care professional. Get all those faces smiling by having regular blood tests as determined by your physician.
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