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Posted by: Topper (Linda) on 2010-01-12, 16:52:28
Actually it depends on why your thyroid gland is unable to produce sufficient hormone on it's own. If it's been physically damaged from injury, disease, or poisoning, or due to a genetic defect, or autoimmune disorder you will need to provide your body with replacement hormone. If perchance it's under producing due to a shift in chemistry due to an eating disorder and/ or insufficient caloric intake due to extreme dieting, you correct your eating habits. If it's due to a nutrient deficiency such as selenium (fairly common) or iodine (not likely) then you correct the deficiency. So you'd need to get a determination as to what is wrong before you would be able to take a shot at some type of support to allow your gland, if actually healthy, to be able to provide sufficient hormone. More likely than not.. it's probably more a case of needing the replacement. Synthroid is the brand name for the most commonly prescribed form of synthetic T4 hormone.. there are more than a dozen other brands, with a much better track record for consistency in potency. Pig thyroid.. what's actually used is dehydrated pig thyroid, ground to a powder and then, combined with fillers, is made it to pills or capsules. It too is sold under many different brand names. Other alternatives, for a natural source of thyroid hormone, though not very commonly used, are dried cow thyroid and dried sheep. For many folks synthetic T4 is not readily used by their bodies, it's either not absorbed properly or their bodies are unable to convert it from the Storage stage (T4) to the active state, T3. For those of us that aren't able to use the synthetic, the desiccated, dried hormone, is a life saver, literally. One common problem for a surprising number of folks that they are started on too large a dose of replacement and have a bad reaction, or, they are started the correct low dose, but are not told to return for labs and adjustments. The correct way to start replacement is 25 mcg of T4 OR 15 mg (1/ 4 grain) of natural. You take your dose consistently every day for six weeks, then have a blood draw to determine how well your body is processing and converting the hormone. With the synthetic T4 it also matters how you take it. Due to how it is manufactured you need to take it on an empty stomach (4 hours after a meal and 1 hour before a meal) since it requires stomach acid to remove the sodium molecule added during manufacture. It's also important to avoid taking calcium or iron rich foods (especially supplements) within four hours of taking thyroid hormone. Iron and Calcium both bind with thyroid hormone, making it unusable by the body. You also need to be careful with how you use antacids and acid controllers cuz they too can cause the thyroid hormone to be unusable by the body. I hope I've made enough suggestions so that your situation might be covered.. so that you can make a more informed decision. The links below will add a bit more information if you'd like to get started researching your options more. |
