When I meet people, who have a thyroid condition, I am often surprised about how little they know about their condition and the support that is available to them. Sometimes they have been on thyroid medication for years, yet still struggle with thyroid related symptoms like fatigue and weight gain.
It’s important to take time with these clients and explain how thyroid disease works, the fact that there are different patterns of thyroid disease and the specific pattern of thyroid disease they are experiencing. The other important point is that not all patterns are clinical (meaning they show up on medical results), some are sub-clinical. When your thyroid condition is sub-clinical, you can be experiencing all of the symptoms of thyroid disease, but you don’t have the blood tests to confirm. Then there are the patterns of thyroid disease which may be overlooked with conventional blood tests.
Patterns of thyroid disorder not commonly diagnosed by conventional testing include:
- under conversion of T4 to T3
- too much or too little thyroid binding globulins (TBG)
- thyroid receptor-site resistance
- Hashimoto’s
These patterns of thyroid disease may seem confusing at first, but except for Hashimoto’s, which is an autoimmune disease and a whole other topic, these patterns are problems with the way that thyroid hormones are being used, not a problem with the production of thyroid hormone itself.
Did you know that every cell in the body has thyroid hormone receptors?
So, it’s a big deal when cells don’t respond to thyroid hormone. Weight gain, fatigue, hair loss etc, etc, it’s not a pretty picture. Many people who fit into these patterns of thyroid dysfunction fall through the cracks in the medical system and that’s where a good naturopath or integrated medicine practitioner can really help.
If you would like to understand the bigger picture about your thyroid hormone levels and get help addressing your particular thyroid pattern, then simply book your naturopathic appointment online today.
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About Cindy
Cindy Morris has been working as a naturopath for over 15 years, she is currently adding to her clinical skills with further study at Griffith University. Her clinical focus is around chronic fatigue, thyroid health and auto-immune conditions.
