Symptoms: Low or overactive thyroid function include fatigue, muscle aches, sleep disturbances, and high cholesterol just to name a few. The thyroid dysfunctions are influenced by many different factors including adrenal hormones, lack of nutrients, auto-immune inflammation, toxicity, and food intolerances. Traditional thyroid testing often misses subtle thyroid dysfunctions. One of the most important aspects of optimizing thyroid hormone function is treating adrenal fatigue. Both inadequate amounts of cortisol and adrenaline interfere with thyroid function. Environmental chemicals have a direct impact on the thyroid gland. It's clear that PCBs and other industrial petrochemical toxins can lower thyroid function, as well as other pollutants such as chlorine, fluoride, and bromide. Since the thyroid produces hormones that manage your metabolism, anything that affects your thyroid will ultimately affect your metabolism. In fact, there's evidence that toxins boost the excretion of thyroid hormones, leaving you with less of this hormone to control your metabolism - and a decreased ability to burn fat.

The conventional treatment for Hashimoto’s disease and hypothyroidism does not address the root causes of low thyroid function...autoimmune disease. It mostly centers on the use of hormones that only mask the symptoms and allow the patient to develop worse conditions as time goes by. Unfortunately, the autoimmune nature of the disease goes completely ignored.

My unique approach is different. My goal is to find out why your immune system is functioning abnormally, and discover what the triggers are in your case.
I accomplish this through a well thought out plan of action that includes myriad of tests to help uncover underlying metabolic problems. One of those tests is comprehensive blood chemistry. This may possibly be the most thorough blood chemistry you have ever had. It includes a chem. 24 (not a chem. 7 or 14 like those routinely done by your PCP). It also includes a fasting glucose with an A1C level to find out how well you are regulating blood sugar, a lipid panel to determine your triglyceride and cholesterol levels, a CBC with differential to find out how well your immune system is working, 4 iron markers to determine if you have anemia or other issues, a T7 thyroid panel to determine how well your thyroid is working, a vitamin D analysis, and many others.

In addition to blood chemistry, we may need to run a DNA based stool analysis to discover if you have underlying digestive issues or parasites that could be contributing you your problem. Other tests may include adrenal stress index, food antibody testing, and hormone analysis.

In conventional medicine, these tests are usually run individually by doctors in varying fields, and are rarely analyzed together by a single practitioner with your global health in mind.

With my training in functional medicine, I understand the complex interrelationships between the nervous system, the endocrine system and the immune system. I also know that these systems are intricately connected and you cannot treat one without affecting the others. It is because of this interconnection, that the solution to your health problem may not be where you think it is, or where other professionals have told you it is. This is why comprehensive lab testing is so important. Without it, you are just throwing darts hoping to hit the bull’s-eye.

How do I treat thyroid dysfunctions?

As I mentioned above, most hypothyroid conditions are treated solely by the use of thyroid medications. Although thyroid medications may indeed be necessary, my goal with hashimoto’s disease is to help balance the immune response in order to slow or stop its attack on the thyroid. By accomplishing this, we can hopefully protect and save any remaining thyroid tissue, and avoid attack on other tissues like cartilage, stomach etc. that the immune system may have developed antibodies against. Its been estimated that 50-70% of hashimoto’s patients have developed multi-tissue antibodies. So if you think this is just a thyroid      problem, think again!!!

Treatment is different for each patient, as everybody has his/her own unique metabolic issues. However, as a general guideline, the first thing I do is to try and find out what triggers are activating the immune system. These can be environmental toxins, food allergies, parasites, viral or bacterial infections etc.

Because the easiest one to test, and arguably the one we have the most control over is food, this is where I typically begin. I start by putting my patients on a 3-week elimination/provocation diet whereby we eliminate many of the known allergens from the diet. This may sometimes be accompanied with certain herbs and products to help support detoxification. At the end of the 3 week diet, we are able to find out that if by eliminating certain foods your condition has improved or not. If so, we can surmise that at least some of your problems are related to the types of food you eat. After completing the diet, we then systematically return foods to your diet to find out how your body responds to those foods that have previously been eliminated. By doing so we are able to identify what foods are causing adverse reactions. Reactions to food allergens can occur in many forms...digestive issues (constipation, acid reflux, indigestion, bloating, etc.), neurological and brain issues (brain fog, depression, anxiety, etc.), musculoskeletal problems (Chronic pain or fatigue). In fact, many responses to food do not cause obvious digestive problems as would be expected, and for this reason many people don’t even know they have them. However, they will affect your hashimoto’s disease.

After all the initial lab results come back, I am able to analyze those results from a functional medicine and nutritional perspective. First I separate all the abnormal findings from the normal ones, to determine what metabolic problems exist and what systems may be involved. I then prioritize those problems as to which ones we need to treat first. Treatment usually includes dietary modifications and nutritional supplements containing specific herbs, vitamins and minerals to help correct and support the underlying metabolic dysfunctions that are at the foundation of your particular health problem.

The efficacy of treatment is objectively measured by repeat lab analysis to find out if the treatment is working, does the treatment need to be modified and has the targeted metabolic problems returned to normal function indicating that no further treatment is necessary. The ultimate goal of treatment is to return health and normal function to all systems of the body.

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