THYROID PROBLEMS

At medical school we were taught that if someone is hypothyroid then it’s simply a matter of giving that person some thyroxine !

Such an approach never felt right – it seemed far too simplistic.

 It was only when I discovered and studied functional medicine and was introduced to a different paradigm for helping people find hormonal balance that it I found a way to help people with thyroid issues that made sense to me.

Once again when the red light comes on in the car we stop  to find out what is the problem – we don’t cover over the light – we look for the root cause. 

And so with thyroid issues.  

We are interested in what is really happening and why the person has an under active or over active thyroid. Merely giving thyroxine to someone with an underactive thyroid without further investigation is once again treating symptoms as opposed to looking for the cause.

This was brought home to me when many years ago, I myself, developed an over active thyroid. It took me a while to work out that it was caused by eating a food that was flavoured with kelp with an excessively high iodine content.

I developed all the symptoms of hyperthyroid disease.  

Had I not discovered the cause I might have ended up with irreversible damage to my thyroid gland. Instead the remedy was simply to stop eating that food !