Medical News

After we eat, the food we eat is converted into energy. The way that your body processes and uses the food you eat is referred to as your metabolism. Rather than speaking of a ‘fast’ or ’slow’ metabolism, think of it as efficient or inefficient.

There’s usually little difference between the metabolic rates of people who are of normal weight or those who are overweight — except in those cases where hypothyroidism is involved. Some overweight people — specifically those with a hypothyroid condition — don’t consume more calories than people of average weight, yet may even gain weight at lower calorie levels.

The thyroid is one of the largest endocrine glands in the body. It’s found in the neck, below the thyroid cartilage. It controls how quickly the body uses energy or makes proteins, and how sensitive the body is to other hormones. Hypothyroidism is a condition in which the body doesn’t produce enough thyroid hormone.

Since the main purpose of thyroid hormone is to run the body’s metabolism, people with this condition show symptoms associated with a slow metabolism. Estimates vary, but some say ten million Americans may have this condition, and as many as one in ten women may have some degree of thyroid hormone deficiency. Hypothyroidism is more common than you might suppose, and millions of people are currently hypothyroid and don’t know it.

There are two common causes of hypothyroidism. The first is a result of inflammation of the thyroid gland, which leaves many of the cells of the thyroid damaged or dead, and incapable of producing sufficient hormone. The most common cause of thyroid gland failure is called autoimmune thyroiditis, or Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, a form of thyroid inflammation caused by the patient’s immune system.

The second major cause is the broad category of medical treatments. The treatment of many thyroid conditions requires surgical removal of part or all of the thyroid. If the total mass of thyroid producing cells left is not enough to meet the body’s needs, the patient will develop hypothyroidism. This can also happen when goiters and some other thyroid conditions are treated with radioactive iodine therapy. The aim of this is to kill a portion of the thyroid to prevent goiters from growing larger or producing too much hormone, a condition called hyperthyroidism. As you might imagine, this is when the thyroid produces an excess of hormone, producing symptoms such as feeling too hot, losing weight, and lack of sleep. Sometimes, the result of radioactive iodine treatment is that too many cells are damaged, eventually making the patient hypothyroid.

Common symptoms of hypothyroidism are as listed here:

- Fatigue and weakness
- Weight gain, or difficulty losing weight
- Coarse, dry hair, and dry, rough, pale skin
- Hair loss
- Inability to tolerate the cold
- Muscle cramps
- Constipation
- Depression and irritability
- Memory loss
- Abnormal menstrual cycles
- Decreased libido

Any of these apply to you? If you suspect you have hypothyroidism, consult your GP. If you have undiagnosed hypothyroidism, anything you do to raise your metabolic rate and so lose excess weight may fail. In which case the first, essential step is to get a thyroid test.

And if you have been tested and are being treated, you need to make sure your treatment is optimized. This means the proper drug and dosage, as well as supplements to support thyroid function. An efficient metabolism requires the smooth running of many complex bodily processes which rely on antioxidant vitamins such as vitamin C, and the B vitamins.

A person suffering from Hashimoto’s is often frustrated, confused and desperate. Their physician doesn’t seem to have the answers and the medication they’ve been prescribed hasn’t really made much difference.

But here is some encouraging news. There is a lot of really good medical research out there that clearly guides us physicians about how to effectively treat Hashimoto’s. The problem is that it seldom finds its way into a physician’s clinical practice.

Hashimoto’s is a complex condition that has taken years and decades to develop. Believe me, if you’ve been diagnosed with Hashimoto’s you are one of the lucky few because there are millions and millions of women walking around suffering needlessly who don’t know they have it. If you don’t know you have it you cannot treat it.

Hashimoto’s is the primary cause of hypothyroidism yet few doctors check for it. At least you know and now you can do something about it.

There are several approaches necessary for correcting Hashimoto’s but the most important one is to take selenium. Why?

When your thyroid cells make thyroid hormones they must also make hydrogen peroxide. The production of H2O2 is essential. At the same time your thyroid is also producing substances to counteract or neutralize some of the downstream effects of the hydrogen peroxide.

It’s kind of like the engine in your car. The spark plugs, the burning of gasoline and all the friction create heat and this needs to be dissipated by circulating cool water throughout the engine.

This is where selenium comes in. Selenium needs to be present for your thyroid cells to make selenoproteins which go on to make antioxidants such as glutathione peroxidase and thioredoxin reductase. These defend and protect your thyroid cells from the ‘heating’ or inflammatory effects of hydrogen peroxide.

One study published in Biological Trace Element Research followed a woman with Hashimoto’s who was taking only Synthroid. When selenium was included her blood selenium levels rose by 45%, her glutathione improved by 21% and her thyroid antibodies (TPO) declined by 76%. After withdrawing selenium all these markers returned to where they were before. There are many other studies which conclude the benefits of selenium for the treatment of Hashimoto’s.

Including selenium in the form of methionine is truly the first and most important step for improving thyroid antibody levels in Hashimoto’s. The dose is normally 400mcg daily taken any time. Selenium will not interfere with any other medication or approach you are taking.

I do not see Hashimoto’s as a disease. I see it to be a condition resulting from specific nutrient deficiencies. Once these are corrected a person can, to a great extent, recover their health.

Treating Hashimoto’s may require a thyroid prescription as a safe way to simply optimize thyroid hormone levels and to live life with more vitality. There are no side effects from thyroid hormones as long as all nutrient deficiencies are corrected.

There is an organ which proves to be important in your metabolism and is located above your thyroid glands. They are known to be the parathyroid glands which secrete hormones called the parathyroid hormones. They are responsible for controlling the calcium in your blood. Oftentimes these hormones tend to overflow and this abnormality is called hyperparathyroidism. It is important that you know more about the symptoms of hyperparathyroidism. The bad thing about it is the fact that symptoms of hyperparathyroidism are hard to determine. There is a need to regulate the calcium in the body for it to function well. Calcium is the main composition of our bones. It is needed to transmit signals in neurological system. Too much of this hormones can cause the bones to break and release calcium.

In most cases, symptoms of hyperparathyroidism are not clear. It can get worst without being detected. When doctors are trying to detect the symptoms of hyperparathyroidism, they use a mnemonic device in order to remember. One of which happens in the skeletal system. This condition can make the bones soft because calcium went to the blood. As result there is a pain in the bones and joints. They tend to fracture because there are no enough minerals. Too much calcium in the blood can make a person get kidney stones. Calcium can be formed in a crystal form and the kidney is used as filtering device. This is so painful and it is an experience that you want to avoid.

Symptoms of hyperparathyroidism can be felt in the abdomen. This includes constipation, nausea and vomiting. One can also experience weight loss because of lack of appetite. People with this kind of symptoms of hyperparathyroidism may tend to groan. There are also psychological symptoms of hyperparathyroidism. A person can get very depressed and feel weak. They tend to lack sleep. People with severe hyperparathyroidism can be comatose because of too much calcium in the blood.

There are other symptoms of hyperparathyroidism. This condition can lead to a person having high blood pressure. It may also increase the chance of pancreatitis. If you think you have the symptoms it is important to consult your doctor. The symptoms of the disorder can be very vague. It would require one to undergo tests before a person can verify if he or she has the disease. There is a need to have a thorough conversion with a doctor to properly indentify hyperparathyroidism.

If you are one of the many sufferers of hyperthyroidism you have probably been told that you must use a hyperthyroid diet to control its affects. This condition is caused when the thyroid becomes overactive and makes much more thyroid hormone than the body can deal with. When the body gets an overdose of this hormone your metabolism speeds up and you can suffer from significant weight loss, depression, anxiety and numerous other problems.

But what how can diet affect hyperthyroidism? When you follow a diet that is low in carbohydrates, fiber, and iodine, you can alleviate many of the symptoms. While there is no diet or diet program that can affect your chances of developing hyperthyroidism, a hyperthyroid diet can help by removing substances that aggravate the problem.

One big problem in diet for those who have this condition is iodine. There are some cases that doctors believe that hyperthyroidism has actually been caused by the presence of too much iodine and reducing the amount of iodine that the body ingests can actually reverse, to some extent if the amount of iodine ingested is reduced significantly.

One solution to reducing iodine intake is to reduce salt intake. A list of other foods that can contain excess iodine follows:

• Seafood
• Eggs
• Dairy products
• Plants grown in iodine rich soil
• And of course sea salt or iodized salt
• Multivitamins with iodine

It has been suggested that hyperthyroidism can be the cause, or one of the causes of celiac disease. Celiac disease is a digestive disorder that restricts your ability to properly absorb nutrients. People with Celiac disease cannot eat gluten, which is a protein found in starch. If hyperthyroidism can be linked to Celiac disease restricting your diet again by not ingesting wheat, rye and barley products can also have a beneficial affect.

While hyperthyroidism can cause significant weight loss and make gaining weight troublesome because of the high metabolism caused by hyperthyroidism, how much or how little that you weight won’t cause the disease. Adding extra calories to your diet with protein rich foods will however help you keep your weight from dropping to low.

Using a hyperthyroid diet will not reverse or help manage this condition alone. If you do have hyperthyroidism you will need other treatments like hormone therapy to help control it.