THE THYROID GLAND
Feeling tired or forgetful? Your jeans are tight, you're feeling down, and you're having a hard time remembering where you put your keys. Before you bolt to a psychiatrist or jump on a treadmill, consider this: It might be your thyroid.
A gland is an organ that produces hormones, substances that help to make various actions occur in your organs or tissues, and the thyroid gland makes thyroid hormones. The thyroid hormones control your energy production and fat burning, as well as your ability to process foods. When you have too much estrogen or chemicals that mimic the estrogen hormone, your body will then decrease its thyroid hormones. There are many chemicals that we are exposed to on a daily basis that have the ability to mimic estrogen.
The thyroid produces four hormones, Calcitonin, T2 (di-iodothyronine), T3 (called tri-iodothyronine) and T4 (thyroxine). The pituitary gland in the brain produces the thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), which activates the thyroid to produce more thyroid hormones.
Thyroid hormones:
1. Tell your organs how fast or slow they can work
2. Tell you when to use energy (consuming oxygen and producing heat) in your body.
When functioning normally, your thyroid gland keeps your body and its regulators on task. If the thyroid fails to produce enough stimulating hormones, the result is hypothyroidism -- an under-active thyroid condition that can cause weight gain, fatigue, forgetfulness, and mood swings. Though it occurs less frequently, the gland may produce a surge of hormones leading to an over-active thyroid, or hyperthyroidism, that can cause weight loss, irritability, muscle weakness, irregular menstrual periods, and sleep or vision problems. Another problem that is causing major problems today is endocrine disruptors. Endocrine disruptors, are certain synthetic chemicals in the environment that we are exposed to every day which endangers human health by disrupting the human endocrine system. When these disruptors affect your thyroid gland many symptoms often arise. More than 10 million Americans have been diagnosed with thyroid disease, and another 13 million people are estimated to have undiagnosed thyroid problems in the U.S. alone.
The T in MOTHER too often stands for Tired. Too many chores and too little sleep are logical reasons for a mother to be tired. If you routinely are tired, depressed, have a low body temperature, slow heart rate, irregular or heavy periods, another T may be involved, the thyroid. The thyroid is one of the bodys most important glands. It affects every cell in your body except for those in the brain, uterus, and the thyroid itself. An out of order thyroid could make you feel either nervous or tired, make muscles weak, cause weight gain or loss, impair memory, and affect advertisement menstrual flow. A thyroid disorder can even cause infertility and miscarriage.
About 20 million Americans have some form of thyroid disease. Women are five to 10 times more likely than men to have thyroid dysfunction. They often fail to recognize it because the symptoms can be credited to other factors or illnesses. New mothers overlook the possibility of thyroid dysfunction because it closely resembles common pregnancy-related conditions.
Hypothyroidism
The purpose of the thyroid gland is to make, store, and release thyroid hormones, which help control many of the body's functions.
The thyroid gland works like an air conditioner. If there are enough thyroid hormones in the blood, the gland stops making the hormones (just as an air conditioner cycles off when there is enough cool air in a house). When the body needs more thyroid hormones, the gland starts producing again.
The thyroid gland is a small, butterfly-shaped gland just under the skin on the front of the neck. This gland plays a very important role in controlling the body's metabolism, that is, how the body functions. It does this by producing thyroid hormones (T4 and T3), chemicals that travel through the blood to every part of the body. Thyroid hormones tell the body how fast to work and use energy.
If there is too little thyroid hormone in the blood, you have a condition called hypothyroidism. Hypothyroidism is due to the inadequate production of thyroid hormones by the thyroid gland. .
Thyroid hormones play a crucial role in maintaining the correct metabolic rate. If the thyroid gland doesn't produce and secrete enough thyroid hormone into the blood stream then the metabolism will become too slow, causing the body temperature to drop and leading to classic symptoms.
Hypothyroidism is easy to diagnose. Since the purpose of the thyroid gland is to put thyroid hormones into the blood stream, thyroid blood tests can easily measure thyroid gland function. However, there are some people who have normal thyroid blood tests that still have low body temperatures and low temperature symptoms (same symptoms of hypothyroidism). Their thyroid tests are normal but their metabolisms are still slow.
This is possible because it's not enough for the thyroid hormone, T4 to be secreted into the blood stream by the thyroid gland, it must also be converted into T3 in the tissues. T3 is the active thyroid hormone and it is 4 times more potent than T4. 80% of it is produced in the tissues of the body (after T4 leaves the blood stream). A hormone is manufactured in the body's organs and glands to deliver messages throughout the body. If all is well, these little messengers (hormones) arrive at a particular 'receptor site' in an organ and attach to this site to download it's message. When people have adequate levels of thyroid hormones in the blood stream, but are still suffering from slow metabolisms and low thyroid symtpoms, it is most likely due to 'endocrine disruptors' which clog up the hormone receptors sites. This prevents the hormone from delivering it's message. This can cause a person to have a sluggish metabolism, cold hands and feet, depression, allergies, headaches as well as numerous other symptoms.
Just because people have low body temperatures doesn't mean they have hypothyroidism, because they may have normal thyroid blood tests. This explains why people can still have classic low thyroid symptoms, normal thyroid blood tests, and still respond beautifully to Body Restoration Technique (BRT) treatments. This also explains how people with hypothyroidism can have their blood tests corrected with T4 medication and still feel poorly with classic symptoms. They may be getting plenty of T4, but they may not be processing it properly. In other words, they may be suffering from Endocrine Disruption Thyroid Syndrome even though their hypothyroidism has been corrected on blood tests. For decades, doctors have assumed that the T4 medicine they give patients to normalize their blood tests will be adequately converted to T3 in the tissues. The fact that patients frequently respond so dramatically to proper BRT treatment suggests that this assumption may be founded.
The pituitary gland works like a thermostat, telling the thyroid when to start and stop. The pituitary sends thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) to the thyroid to tell the gland what to do.
About 20 million Americans have some form of thyroid disease. Many are undiagnosed or misdiagnosed. No age, economic group, race, or sex is immune to thyroid disease.
The thyroid gland might produce too much hormone (hyperthyroidism), making the body use energy faster than it should, or too little hormone (hypothyroidism), making the body use energy slower than it should. The gland may also become inflamed (thyroiditis) or enlarged (goiter), or develop one or more lumps (nodules).
What is Hypothyroidism?
Hypothyroidism causes the body to slow down. It occurs when there is too little thyroid hormone in the blood ("hypo" means "not enough"). Hypothyroidism affects more than 20 million people, many of whom don't know they have the disease. Women are more likely than men to have hypothyroidism.
Symptoms of Hypothyroidism include but are not limited to:
* Chronic fatigue (Morning Fatigue) (Daytime Fatigue/Somnolence)feeling slow or tired
* Heart disease (heart attacks,slow heart rate)
* High cholesterol, hypertension
* Cancers, including those of the lung and breast
* Obesity weight gain
* Arthritis, Diabetes and hypoglycemia
* Emphysema
* Fibromyalgia
* Premature aging
* Headaches and migraines
* Emotional and behavioral problems
* Depression
* Anxiety and panic attacks
* Irritability
* Brain fog and lack of concentration difficulty concentrating
* Low motivation and ambition
* ADHD (attention deficit and hyperactivity disorders)
* Recurring infectious diseases
* Common colds
* Influenza
* Skin problems (Acne, Hives, Dry coarse skin)
* Irritable bowel
* Menstrual Disorders (heavy menstrual flow)
* PMS
* Endometriosis
* Fertility problems (infertility)
* Low sex drive
* Fluid retention
* Allergies
* Asthma
* Insomnia
* Hair loss - Hair Thinning
* Unhealthy and brittle fingernails
* Slow healing
* Carpal tunnel syndrome
* Cold Intolerance
* Muscle cramps
* Husky voice
* Milky discharge from the breasts
* Goiter
* Constipation
* Musculoskeletal Pain. And much more...
Many of the symptoms of hypothyroidism can occur normally with aging, so if you have one or two of them, there is probably no reason to worry. However, if you are concerned about any of these symptoms, you should see your doctor.
There are two types of thyroid problems that can cause low thyroid symptoms.
The first type,
* Almost all doctors know about
* Involves glandular problems that result in low thyroid gland function
* Is detected with abnormal thyroid blood tests
* Usually requires the patient to take thyroid medicine for life.
The second type is Endocrine Disruption Thyroid Syndrome, a discovered Reversible Thyroid Problem that
* Many doctors don't know about
* May or may not involve glandular problems so blood tests can show abnormal results or show up normal and
* Medicine doesn't need to be taken for life.
In other words, if you have thyroid symptoms and your body temperature is low and you are suffering from low thyroid symptoms your "Normal Thyroid Blood Tests Could Mean That
Your Low Thyroid Symptoms are Treatable!"
EDTS is not a glandular problem so thyroid blood tests are often normal and it doesnt have to be treated for life. It is not a problem with glandular production of thyroid hormones, but rather with endocrine disruptors interfering with thyroid hormones. This persistent impairment can be corrected by clearing out these endocrine disruptors and resetting the thyroid system in the tissues so that it can function well on its own again. Endocrine Disruption Thyroid Syndrome: tends to come on with stress, is characterized by low thyroid symptoms, is very common and is undiagnosable with thyroid blood tests. Endocrine Disruption Thyroid Syndrome gets better when thyroid disruptors are determined to be disrupting the thyroid system, and eliminated from the body via Body Restoration Technique (BRT). The symptoms often remain improved even after the treatment's been discontinued. The treatment is the test. That's known as a therapeutic trial.
My blood test for my thyroid showed up normal, but I have many thyroid symptoms- does this mean I don't have a problem with my thyroid?
Endocrine Disruptors (ED's) can easily prevent the thyroid hormones from attaching to it's desired site (meaning it cannot deliver it's message). This then makes the thyroid hormones unavailable to a person. (They can't perform their function of delivering messages to the rest of the body - i.e. -- messages that control body temperature, increase metabolism, and raise a person's energy level cannot be delivered) This explains the reason why a person can have normal thyroid hormones on blood testing, but have thyroid deficiency symptoms. The hormones have been produced and are actually present in the body, but endocrine disruptors are obstructing their ability to complete their jobs. These people don't really have a primary thyroid problem. They have a secondary problem to ED's blocking the gland.
A sluggish thyroid gland causes exhaustion to occur inside the body. This prevents the body from removing wastes from the body properly. When waste material starts to accumulate in the body, nutrition doesn't seem to be absorbed properly. Remember, just because you take mega doses of vitamins, it doesn't mean that the body is absorbing it properly. People with slow thyroids often take mammoth doses of vitamins and feel no difference. A sluggish thyroid gland requires more nutrition than normal since it is unable to absorb it. The consumption of mega vitamin doses should not be considered the solution for this absorption problem, since excessive ingestion of synthetic vitamins is capable of becoming very toxic to your body. The solution is to get the thyroid hormones to work again.
BRT has demonstrated success in allowing the thyroid gland to function at a higher level and work more efficiently. Improvement has been shown even in people who have had 50% of their thyroid removed. Increase in energy levels are often the first noticeable change after treatment. Keep in mind - the thyroid is not an isolated gland. It has to work along side many other glands in order to carry out it's tasks. BRT improves the reception of hormone signals in the thyroid gland and other glands in the body which has to communicate with the thyroid gland. This allows the glands to communicate better and increases the chance of messages actually being received.