A Thyroid question

[Bill Ryan]

Posted by Bill Ryan (here)
An interesting good-news update. I re-tested myself yesterday (just $8 here for the blood work at the same lab as last time, therefore very easy to do ) and after just 3 weeks my TSH had dropped from 12.15 to 7.5.

I attribute that entirely to

1. Stopping daily iodine supplements, which I'd been taking for years (in retrospect, almost certainly too much)
2. A heaped teaspoon of maca every morning with my coffee and raw cacao.

My most sincere thanks to everyone who so very quickly jumped in with heaps of excellent advice and support.

And more good news. I tested it a third time this morning, and sure enough it'd dropped way down to 4.33 — now within the normal range.

[kanishk]

Posted by Bill Ryan (here)
Dear Friends, we already have a thread about hyperthyroidism, titled Hyperthyroidism - Overactive Thyroid. But I have a question about the opposite — hypothyroidism.

I'd noticed in past months that my blood pressure was low all the time. Not clinically low, but typically about 105/65, which is 'low normal'. That's hardly anything to complain about!

But it used to be 'normal normal', meaning about 120/75. So I saved up some $$ and treated myself to a heart scan, which I do every year anyway purely as routine. Everything was 100% strong and fine. And I also did a blood test for any markers that might be connected with lowered blood pressure.

Everything was normal, except for my TSH, a thyroid-stimulating hormone produced by the pituitary gland. That was very high, at 12.15. It's supposed to be 4.5 or less. The high TSH means that my pituitary is working extra-hard to try to boost my thyroid. My Free T4 was normal, but on the low end (0.94).

So all this is an indicator of low thyroid activity, one of the knock-on effects being... low blood pressure. It seemed to fit.

But the other symptoms of low thyroid (fatigue, gaining weight, feeling cold, anxiety, depression, muscle soreness, etc etc etc, OMG!), are all 100% absent. It's just the slightly lowered blood pressure, nothing else at all.

My questions: (if anyone has any easy answers at their fingertips, maybe from their own experience?)

1. How to remedy low thyroid activity naturally? (All the mainstream health sites recommend a pharma drug called levothyroxine, which is a synthetic T4 hormone. Of course, I will NOT take that. )
2. The small amount of reading I've done suggests that taking extra iodine is not the solution, because (as best I understand it) that can sometimes make an underactive thyroid worse. Does anyone know more about this? (I do take iodine every day.)

You should also test FREE T3 along with FREE T4, because that FT3 is what effects body and Pitutory too. Because Free T3 is low your pitutory is producing high TSH to eventually obtain more Free T3 levels in blood.

The Optimal TSH is below 1.5
above 4.5 is when doctors precribe medicine.
TSH above 1.5 means going towards hypothyroidism, low metabolism, prediabetes, diabetes etc etc... difficult to get it below 1.5, but still we can always try.

Have you been eating Sea Food? Sea Kelp 5 mg max per day is good they say and higher doses of Sea Kelp than than can.hamper your T3 production capability. If you have taken such high doses of Iodine. There are more tests related to Thyroid that check about those processes such as
Anti-Thyroid Peroxidase (Anti-TPO) Antibodies: Checks if your immune system is attacking a crucial thyroid enzyme.
Anti-Thyroglobulin (Anti-Tg) Antibodies: Measures antibodies against thyroglobulin, a protein in your thyroid gland.

Kanchanaar Herb heals the glands, and there's a ayurvedic medicine prepared using Kanchanaar and Guggulu and some other herbs.
Its Name is
KANCHANAAR GUGGULU
Buy Dhootpapeshvar Brand from Maharashtra state or Any other south indian Brand like Vaidyaratnam. Actually this is cheap medicine to prepare, so even normal brands will work too.

Homeopaths say that taking THYRODINUM 3X (made using goats thyroid glands) for 3 months heals all the problems related to Thyroid. Brand ReckWeg from Germany is the best brand for Homeopathic medicines. SBL from India is good too, but not for some high potency formulas such as Natrum Muraticum 1 M.

[Bill Ryan]

Posted by kanishk (here)
You should also test FREE T3 along with FREE T4, because that FT3 is what effects body and Pituitary too. Because Free T3 is low your pituitary is producing high TSH to eventually obtain more Free T3 levels in blood.

Many thanks, and yes, I understand all that. (And we're delighted to see you here on the forum again! )

I did test those, in December: my Free T3 was 3.72 (normal range 2.0 - 4.40), and my Free T4 was 1.34 (normal range 0.8 - 2.0). That was when my TSH was 7.52 (still too high), but lowered quite a lot from a VERY high level since I stopped taking an iodine supplement.

So the normal T3 and T4 was a bit of a mystery. I'll re-test my TSH quite soon to check it's all still going in the right direction — and this time also check my T3 and T4 again to be 100% sure.

[Denise/Dizi]

I see you have solved the issue, I just wanted to add that I too, was prescribed Armour thyroid years ago... My mother in law was prescribed Synthroid (spelling)... later... It was short term, and I no longer take it, but I have had a hysterectomy when I was 24, long before I took the thyroid medication and I had zero issues from such a situation. The medication worked well, and eventually I was able to stop taking it and maintaining my levels...

I can say, having an imbalance in your thyroid function can throw your body completely out of whack, so this is a great topic to be approached... I just want to say, whenever possible, try bio available products like Armour.. My mother in law had side effects which I never did, and I believe it was because she was taking a created version of the medication versus something that occurs naturally in the eco system...

[Bill Ryan]

Posted by Bill Ryan (here)

Posted by Bill Ryan (here)
An interesting good-news update. I re-tested myself yesterday (just $8 here for the blood work at the same lab as last time, therefore very easy to do ) and after just 3 weeks my TSH had dropped from 12.15 to 7.5.

I attribute that entirely to

1. Stopping daily iodine supplements, which I'd been taking for years (in retrospect, almost certainly too much)
2. A heaped teaspoon of maca every morning with my coffee and raw cacao.

My most sincere thanks to everyone who so very quickly jumped in with heaps of excellent advice and support.

And more good news. I tested it a third time this morning, and sure enough it'd dropped way down to 4.33 — now within the normal range.

A very minor update, but I'm bumping the thread again as it might just be useful for others who suspect they could have the same problem.

I tested my TSH and T4 again yesterday. T4 was 1.20, and TSH had fallen further to 3.78 — both absolutely normal.

As I wrote above, this seems to have been all about stopping taking iodine (I'd clearly been overdoing it), taking a heaped teaspoon of maca every day, and (maybe also) snacking on quite a lot of raw cacao, both powdered as a drink and like very bitter chocolate as small pieces of a solid bar.

I can't know for sure which of these has made the biggest difference, and whether this simple protocol would work for anyone else. I'm just very happy to share the apparent success.

[ThePythonicCow]

Posted by Bill Ryan (here)
An interesting good-news update. I re-tested myself yesterday (just $8 here for the blood work at the same lab as last time, therefore very easy to do ) and after just 3 weeks my TSH had dropped from 12.15 to 7.5.

Posted by Bill Ryan (here)
I tested my TSH and T4 again yesterday. T4 was 1.20, and TSH had fallen further to 3.78 — both absolutely normal.

As I wrote above, this seems to have been all about stopping taking iodine (I'd clearly been overdoing it),

Perhaps TSH tests don't mean what conventional medicine says.

Perhaps TSH goes high if (1) one is low on iodine, and then (2) supplements with more iodine. When that happens, the body might recognize that it now has the additional iodine it needs, and raises its TSH levels to start the process of generating the pituitary gland hormones that it can now create, with the more available iodine.

One of the long time masters of iodine, Dr. Brownstein, explains this in more detail ... listen first starting at the 1:08:45 mark for his explanation:

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=vlL9ZT0zUvQ

[Sérénité]

I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism 26 years ago and (foolishly) have been on Levothyroxine ever since. Gradually over the years my dose has had to increase. It keeps it at a steady level for some time, but then slowly needs increasing. I’ve tried all sorts of natural treatments over the years, but I end up feeling that rotten without the levo that I just go back on it.

In retrospect I probably had it since childhood but just thought being constantly tired and cold was normal.

Synchronistically, I’ve only recently been researching into alternative treatments again, apart from the fact I really don’t trust pharma, but also as it feel like the GP has a strangle hold over me (everytime I go for bloods checks they try pushing other stuff onto me)

I’ve recently read about Selenium and Ashwaganda combined being a potential help, so I’m going to give that a whirl. Some interesting tips and advice on this thread so I’ll go through everyone’s advice.

I hope you get sorted Bill, sounds like your levels are levelling already!

I also read some years ago (Julia Canon Soul Speak) that from a spiritual perspective…thyroid issues are usually triggered in childhood when your voice has been silenced. But this can happen in adulthood too. So it’s linked to issues around the throat chakra, being blocked or intentionally suppressing it.
Lapis lazuli is a great crystal to work with for your throat chakra.

I’ve read this recently, so also worth a try.
T3 is only responsible for producing 20% of the thyroid in your body.
The other 80% comes from T4 methylation.
T4 is converted into t3 via methylation and it apparently needs the following to do that effectively: vitamin bs, pyridoxine, riboflavin, niacin, pantothenetic acid.

[Sérénité]

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5842288/

3 ounces of pure Aloe Vera juice, daily, for 9 days seen thyroid levels return to optimal levels (link to research paper above)

[Andula]

I am so sorry, I wanted to say thanks, instead I got locked out somehow.... apologies

[Sérénité]

Epstein–Barr virus in thyroid disease: an integrated immunovirological perspective;

“In recent years, advances in viral detection technologies and a growing understanding of EBV latency have brought increasing attention to its potential involvement in endocrine disorders, particularly thyroid diseases”


https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12602404/

[White Cedar]

Posted by Bill Ryan (here)

Posted by Bill Ryan (here)

Posted by Bill Ryan (here)
An interesting good-news update. I re-tested myself yesterday (just $8 here for the blood work at the same lab as last time, therefore very easy to do ) and after just 3 weeks my TSH had dropped from 12.15 to 7.5.

I attribute that entirely to

1. Stopping daily iodine supplements, which I'd been taking for years (in retrospect, almost certainly too much)
2. A heaped teaspoon of maca every morning with my coffee and raw cacao.

My most sincere thanks to everyone who so very quickly jumped in with heaps of excellent advice and support.

And more good news. I tested it a third time this morning, and sure enough it'd dropped way down to 4.33 — now within the normal range.

A very minor update, but I'm bumping the thread again as it might just be useful for others who suspect they could have the same problem.

I tested my TSH and T4 again yesterday. T4 was 1.20, and TSH had fallen further to 3.78 — both absolutely normal.

As I wrote above, this seems to have been all about stopping taking iodine (I'd clearly been overdoing it), taking a heaped teaspoon of maca every day, and (maybe also) snacking on quite a lot of raw cacao, both powdered as a drink and like very bitter chocolate as small pieces of a solid bar.

I can't know for sure which of these has made the biggest difference, and whether this simple protocol would work for anyone else. I'm just very happy to share the apparent success.

When you start lugol's iodine your TSH will go up even to close to 30 for a few months, than it will lower back to normal range.


I take iodine for 15 years, dosages of 10-20 drops a day and even much more when had infections or wanted to super detox.


The thyroid swells to absorb more iodine and TSH skyrocket.


What ones do? Keep taking it, it will lower naturally in time, don't need o stop.


less than 8 drops of 5% iodine is not much worth to supplement, is to low, it will be expended detoxing heavy metals, bromine/bromides and fluorides and will not get much to cells.

[White Cedar]

Posted by ThePythonicCow (here)

Posted by Bill Ryan (here)
An interesting good-news update. I re-tested myself yesterday (just $8 here for the blood work at the same lab as last time, therefore very easy to do ) and after just 3 weeks my TSH had dropped from 12.15 to 7.5.

Posted by Bill Ryan (here)
I tested my TSH and T4 again yesterday. T4 was 1.20, and TSH had fallen further to 3.78 — both absolutely normal.

As I wrote above, this seems to have been all about stopping taking iodine (I'd clearly been overdoing it),

Perhaps TSH tests don't mean what conventional medicine says.

Perhaps TSH goes high if (1) one is low on iodine, and then (2) supplements with more iodine. When that happens, the body might recognize that it now has the additional iodine it needs, and raises its TSH levels to start the process of generating the pituitary gland hormones that it can now create, with the more available iodine.

One of the long time masters of iodine, Dr. Brownstein, explains this in more detail ... listen first starting at the 1:08:45 mark for his explanation:

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=vlL9ZT0zUvQ

yes, that's it.

[Agape]

Sorry to interrupt but his claim is far from accurate. It may be true for specific group of people.

Here a long term observation from Himalayan villages where iodine levels in soil are naturally very low after thousands of years of erosion and recultivation.

I happen to live here 30 years ago when the environment was very clean but somewhat primitive compared to modern civilisation. It was healthier back then but life was very hard ,
so is the mountain soil, hard and highly mineralised.
Crops and vegetables growing on mountain fields ( from native seeds, not genetically modified ) were rich in vitamins and Nutrition the way we rarely experience today.
They were not "your typical vegetable", they were "medicinal",
so was the rest of wildlife.

Presence of iodine in soil was 0.01 % and there were many thyroid diseases and children born with congenital disorders back then that included tumors of head and neck ,

the SAME is known to have occurred ( though it was never publicized widely for obvious, "strategical reasons" as severe iodine deficiency in human populace may result in various faults of DNA transcription hence increased amount of congenital disorders - to put it bluntly , "too many idiots per pulation" ) in many European countries through out centuries but it's only after WWII the situation was redeemed by iodising salt.

Even while the amount of iodine in salt is very tiny it's been able to eliminate upto 90% of congenital disorders according to some medical research.

Iodine supplementing was not practised evenly in all countries, for example Romania, Bulgaria and former Yugoslavia till the late 1980s so their populace suffered accordingly.


It all summed ,

I don't agree on "excessive amount of iodine" in healthy population is needed.

"Allergy to iodine" is known to most medical institutions for its acute reactive time and severe consequences. The first question anyone got asked when participating in lab test or being treated in surgery ward was "do we have iodine allergy" because iodine was commonly used in disinfection, in treatment of wounds and injuries eventhough significant number of populace had abnormal ( not thyroid related ) reaction to iodine including transdermal iodine that can cause severe rash, apnoe, ataxia ( and fatal renal collapse ), among else.

Personally , I don't have allergy and I used to sort of love the smell of iodine in the lab.

It wasn't any toxic to me in my childhood so to say. But since I grew up and my thyroid function is rather insignificant I tried to supplement with iodine several times and it never helped.

Instead I felt fullness in my neck and state of discomfort ,
so not focusing on that area.

In sum , from My personal medical observation, microdosing of iodine is sufficient for large human populace to maintain efficient reproduction and DNA replication function.

It's because we are not "marine creatures" , the amount of salts , minerals etc. human bodies contain can not be "on par" with whales.


😛

[Agape]

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10383824/

Scaling the Andean Shilajit: A Novel Neuroprotective Agent for Alzheimer’s Disease


Andean Shilajit (AnSh), obtained from the northern Chilean Andes. This is a fossilized product resulting from the millenary degradation of plant material by the action of several types of microbial agents. AnSh is rich in humins, including fulvic acids (FA), humic acids (HA), and some inorganic molecules such as selenium, magnesium, and other minerals [12,22,23]. BrainUp-10® is a new formulation based on AnSh and supplemented with B vitamin complex [12,22,23]. Preliminary studies suggest that BrainUp-10® and AnSh can achieve effectiveness at controlling the disease



I would safely recommend Himalayan Shilajit for improvement of thyroid function , and resupplementing minerals and elements ,
tho there is also Andean Shilajit that would certainly work better for those on Southern Hemisphere.



Don't forget about "chirality" as supportive balancing factor to many organic functions.


While we are currently very "right handed" anywhere in the Northern Hemisphere and depleted of healthy "organic energy" ,
there is still way to keep alive for prolonged periods of time by supplementing on essentials.

[Bill Ryan]

Posted by White Cedar (here)
I take iodine for 15 years, dosages of 10-20 drops a day and even much more when had infections or wanted to super detox.

I have to say, that seems like a LOT. I was taking 1 (one) drop of 5% Lugol's per day for the last 7 years. A couple months after I stopped that (and started taking a heaped teaspoon of Maca every day, as recommended by onawah in her very helpful post #2 on this thread), everything returned to normal. My iodine now comes from a simple multivitamin + my regular diet.

The only thing I can conclude from this is that everyone's different, and there may not be one simple rule for all. That alone may be an important factor to bear in mind.

[ThePythonicCow]

Posted by Bill Ryan (here)
... may be an important factor to bear in mind.

Yes - definitely important to mind the bears - they can be quite the tussle .

[Frankie Pancakes]

This might be of some good.

Thyroid Dysfunction

The thyroid is the master gland of the body. Every cell requires thyroid hormone to function adequately. It supports moods, memory, metabolism, hair growth, digestion, bone density, and blood sugar.

Unfortunately, the thyroid is very susceptible to toxins from the environment and internal inflammatory stress.

Toxins interfere with proper thyroid function, as explained in the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) article, “What is Endocrine Disruption?” The effects of endocrine (including thyroid) disruption include:

Developmental malformations
Interference with reproduction
Increased cancer risk
Disturbances in the immune and nervous system function
These disruptions are caused by a number of manufactured and naturally occurring chemicals, including organochlorine compounds, ethane (DDT) and its metabolite DDE, and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).

In addition, the disruption of soils from mining and large-scale farming has uprooted many natural endocrine disruptors. Endocrine disruptors are not going away any time soon and are likely to increase in diversity and concentration in the future.

As a result, the human body is likely to be challenged to create sufficient GSH to keep pace.

This leaves the thyroid vulnerable. With GSH depleted, the thyroid has little to call upon to help mitigate oxidative stress and shuttle out toxins. In practice, we have witnessed younger women with thyroid conditions that years ago were rare in that age group.

Forty years old is the time when thyroid conditions can really begin to surface, but it seems to be expanding into a younger cohort. GSH replenishment supports the thyroid and reduces the damage associated with endocrine disruptors.

Consider that most cases of thyroiditis, hyperthyroid, and hypothyroid are autoimmune in nature; that is, the immune system attacks the thyroid. Glutathione acts to balance the immune system and restore order.

This can lessen the autoimmune response. Along with the proper attention to what is causing the thyroid problem (which we’ll cover in an upcoming blog post), using glutathione to reduce oxidative stress has helped many of our patients improve symptoms associated with hypothyroidism.

This is generally done with intra-muscular and oral liposomal GSH supplementation.

Proper Treatment Begins with Accurate Test Results

If you have symptoms of any of the health conditions described in this post, or you are an athlete who regularly engages in strenuous exercise, we strongly encourage you to have your GSH: GSSG ratio tested by a medical practice with expertise in functional medicine — one like BioDesign Wellness which understands the importance of this ratio and can use it (if your ratio is low) as a diagnostic tool to start the process of identifying the underlying cause(s).

If your ratio is low, you very well may benefit from medically supervised GSH replenishment, but you also need a thorough diagnosis and treatment of the underlying cause(s). Otherwise, supplementation will merely mitigate the damage done. Until the underlying cause(s) are addressed, your health will continue to deteriorate.

– – – – – – – – –

Disclaimer: The information in this blog post — the second in BioDesign Wellness Center’s two-part series on glutathione treatments — is provided for general informational purposes only and may not reflect current medical thinking or practices. No information contained in this post should be construed as medical advice from the medical staff at BioDesign Wellness Center, Inc., nor is this post intended to be a substitute for medical counsel on any subject matter. No reader of this post should act or refrain from acting on the basis of any information included in, or accessible through, this post without seeking the appropriate medical advice on the particular facts and circumstances at issue from a licensed medical professional in the recipient’s state, country or other appropriate licensing jurisdiction.

Might look at nebulizing it.
As we age the body produces less of this.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1868496/

https://modernholistichealth.com/age...hione-decline/