A Low-Functioning Thyroid Causes All Kinds of Pain!

A Low-Functioning Thyroid Causes All Kinds of Pain!

An underactive thyroid can be a contributing factor to a wide range of chronic diseases. How many of these physical and emotional symptoms do you have?

• Weakness; fatigue
• Fibromyalgic aches and pains; severe muscle cramps, particularly at night
• Persistent low back pain
• Headaches
• Blood abnormalities (easy bruising, minor bleeding, heavy blood loss in menstruation, and anemia)
• Excessive blood uric acid
• Joint stiffness (mild arthritis)
• Decreased heart contractility; heart palpitation
• Dry, coarse skin; pale skin; brittle nails
• Lethargy; slow movement
• Slow speech; hoarseness
• Swelling of face and eyelids
• Coldness and cold skin
• Diminished sweating
• Thick tongue
• Coarse hair; hair loss
• Constipation
• Weight gain
• Labored, difficult breathing
• Swollen feet
• Loss of appetite
• Excessive and/or painful menstruation
• Nervousness; emotional instability; poor memory; depression

Your thyroid has a mild to profound effect on every aspect of your life: energy; endurance; body heat; sexuality; mind and emotions; resistance to colds and other respiratory ailments; condition of hair, skin, and nails; and protection against diabetes, diabetic complications, heart and artery diseases, and cancer.

Are You Hypothyroid?

A simple test you can do at home can give you an indication of whether your thyroid is under-functioning. It is called the Barnes Basal Temperature Test. Do this test for several consecutive days. (Don’t sleep with an electric blanket, heating pad, or on a heated water bed while you are testing.)

Have a thermometer (preferably digital) next to your bed. When you wake up in the morning, immediately tuck the thermometer snugly under your arm as you lie still. If your thyroid function is normal, your temperature should be in the range of 97.8 to 98.2 degrees Fahrenheit. If it’s lower, you are probably hypothyroid.

Your doctor can do a common blood test to measure your level of Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH. Many laboratories define their normal range for TSH as something like 0.5 to 5.0, but this range is too broad.

In 2002, the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists revised its TSH standards to 0.3 to 3.0. People with normal functioning thyroids have TSH readings between 0.4 and 2.5.

Even this range, though, can be too broad to be helpful for you, because even a small deficiency in thyroid function can cause big problems for some people. Many doctors are not aware of this fact, or of the revised TSH standards, and so they may not think that thyroid deficiency is causing your problems.

You need to be your own health advocate!

Take a list of your symptoms and your Basal Temperature Test results to discuss with your doctor. Insist that the doctor take your symptoms seriously, or move on to another doctor who will.

Hypothyroidism is treated with a prescription for thyroid hormone replacement. You might also ask your doctor to test you for iodine deficiency. If you are deficient in iodine, the thyroid hormone replacement medication may not work, because iodine is needed to activate the thyroid.

PLEASE THANK OUR SITE SPONSOR BY CLICKING ON THEIR LOGO (BELOW) TO LEARN ABOUT A NEW, DRUG-FREE PAIN RELIEF PRODUCT!

footer for thyroid page