The naturopathic doctors at the Whole Health Naturopathic Clinic have a special interest in thyroid health to help patients achieve optimal health. The body has many different hormones, which help our organs and tissues communicate with one another, and with the outside world to regulate our metabolism, sleep, mood, reproduction, and most other parts of our everyday functioning. The thyroid hormones in specific help our bodies know when we need to eat, how much energy we have, and even our cholesterol levels. Thyroid hormones also play a big role in our cardiovascular health, sleep, sexual health, development, and more. Keeping a proper balance of these hormones is important to keep the body functioning at optimal health.
Common symptoms associated with too much or too little of the thyroid hormones include:
Low thyroid
- Lethargy, fatigue
- Hair loss, dry, straw-like hair
- Dry skin
- Thin, brittle fingernails
- Fluid retention or swollen ankles
- Weight gain that is difficult to lose
- High cholesterol
- Constipation
- Recurrent headaches
- Decreased sweating
- Muscle and joint aches or poor muscle tone
- Tingling in your hands or feet
- Cold hands and feet, cold or heat intolerance
- Slow speech, with a hoarse voice
- Slow heart rate
- Slow brain, slow thoughts
- Difficulty concentrating, “brain fog”
- Low libido
- Depression or moodiness
- Heavy periods
- Infertility or miscarriage
- Enlarged thyroid, difficulty swallowing
High thyroid
- Fatigue
- Hair loss, fine, brittle hair
- Thinning skin
- Excess thirst and urination
- Weight loss with increased appetite
- High blood sugar
- Diarrhea, nausea, vomiting
- Memory issues
- Increased sweating
- Muscle aches
- Weakness
- Tremor
- Heat intolerance
- Rapid heart rate, palpitations
- Difficulty sleeping
- Hyperactivity
- Overactive reflexes
- Low libido
- Irritability or anxiety
- No periods
- Infertility or miscarriage
Dessicated thyroid and compounded T3/T4 supplements
Some patients may already be taking thyroid medications, such as levothyroxine, and find that it is still not doing enough. This medication is a synthetic form of the thyroid hormone Thyroxine, or T4. The main benefits of this medication are seen when our body converts the T4 to T3. Unfortunately there are many factors, including stress, aging, obesity, alcohol, smoking, heavy metals, other hormone imbalances, nutrient excess or deficiencies, and more, which can affect your body’s ability to convert that T4 into the T3 to make you feel better. Dessicated thyroid or compounded T3/T4 supplements include both the longer lasting T4 and the active T3 in very specific ratios. By supplementing your body with T3 as well as the T4, patients who did not get relief from conventional medication often start to see improvements in their symptoms. Just like conventional treatments, it is important to monitor blood levels of hormones to ensure that they are properly balanced on a consistent basis.
CONDITIONS THAT COULD BE ASSOCIATED WITH THYROID IMBALANCE
- Hypothyroidism
- Subclinical hypothyroidism
- Hyperthyroidism
- Hashimoto’s thyroiditis
- Graves’ disease
- Postpartum thyroiditis
- Obesity
Our practitioners have had a lot of experience in treating thyroid conditions with great success. Your first step to feeling better is to Make an Appointment today!
OUR APPROACH
The naturopathic doctors at the Whole Health Naturopathic Clinic believe in treating the whole person in order to achieve optimal health. We will perform a thorough assessment, including detailed medical history, evaluation of signs and symptoms, hormone test results, and any other relevant test results, which include thyroid testing, adrenal stress testing, and blood work. Your naturopathic doctor will integrate this into an individual assessment and treatment plan, which may include dietary changes to optimize thyroid function and hormone conversion, lifestyle changes, herbal medicine that can help to enhance or suppress thyroid hormone function, vitamin and mineral supplementation, and if needed, dessicated thyroid.
TESTING
Doing thorough blood work allows for better insight into what is going wrong and at which level. Our naturopathic doctors always start with a full thyroid panel to get a baseline, which includes:
- Free Triiodothyronine (T3)
- Free Thyroxine (T4)
- Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH)
- Thyroperoxidase Antibody (TPO)
- Anti-thyroglobulin
- Reverse T3
Our thyroid gland produces two key thyroid hormones, T3 and T4, which are key players in our metabolism. Our thyroid gland is told how much hormone needs to be released by the brain via the “Thyroid Stimulating Hormone” or TSH. This TSH test is the most common test done to monitor thyroid health, but a lot can affect brain signals regarding the status of the thyroid, and thus, TSH levels could be ok, but your body is still suffering from thyroid excess or deficiency. At our clinic we are looking at not only TSH, T3 and T4 to ensure that they are signalling properly, we are also looking at auto-antibodies to check for autoimmune conditions.