What Other Things Get Blamed for Thyroid Issues?
Before I discovered my thyroid issues, I had investigated pretty much everything there was. I had been told by family doctors for years that my thyroid was normal, so I thought that avenue had been explored. (See Getting Diagnosed for tips on how to avoid this problem)
I suffered from exhaustion, depression, nausea, achy joints, sore muscles, lots of digestive issues, anemia, and more. These are the things I explored (and others can probably add infinitely more):
- Depression – I thought that depression as persistent as mine must mean that I had deep psychological issues that I wasn’t confronting. Turns out that life just looks a LOT better 3 days after starting thyroid meds. Optimism returned, and my outlook completely shifted.
- Food allergies and sensitivities – I did learn that I have a few allergies, but nothing that would have triggered the symptoms I had. Here’s one book worth reading, if you’re exploring this: Food Allergies and Food Intolerance: The Complete Guide to Their Identification and Treatment, by Jonathan Brostoff, MD
- Seasonal Affective Disorder – Living in Washington State, this one is plausible. A good website is BodyBlues.com, and some useful light therapy tools are available at Amazon. (my favorite was the Litebook Elite).
- Vitamin & Mineral Deficiencies
- Adrenal Insufficiency or Adrenal Exhaustion – Some docs will mock this as a possible issue, but I found it pretty helpful. Diagnos-Techs is a mail-order lab that will do some (relatively inexpensive) tests for you. And Designs For Health's Adrenotone is a superb product (after 3 months on it, I stopped needing coffee. Miraculous!).
- Fibromyalgia – I actually did get a diagnosis of having fibromyalgia, but as time goes on, I think that Fibromyalgia was a good catch-all condition that covered many of the things I was experiencing, but was not my actual condition. This condition can be very severe, and those who have it won't find catch-all solutions in thyroid meds, like I did.
- Acupuncture – Actually, I’m a big fan of acupuncture now, and highly recommend it for different conditions. I shopped around a bit, and found someone who does Five Element Acupuncture (the traditional Chinese method), and she is fabulous.
- Systemic Yeast Infection
- Metabolic Syndrome and Insulin Resistance
(Want to add more to these suggestions and experiences? Email mary@thyroidstory.com).
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