Getting Closer to Solving my Thyroid Issue

Greetings Fellow Health Seeker--

I got my 24-hour iodine test results back from Amy Tyler, the wonderful naturopath doctor I've been working with, and they revealed that it looks likely that I have an iodine deficiency.

Note: I have validated this test with my MD.

For those of you who don't know, this test involves you, approximately 50mgs of iodine and a lot of urinating. It goes thusly :

1. Wake up and urinate into a cup.
2. Pour some urine from cup into a vial.
3. Label vial "Pre".
4. Stick vial into fridge.
5. Take 50 mgs of iodine.
6. Collect urine for the next 24 hours in a nifty bucket provided for you.
7. Refrigerate bucket.
8. Endure sighs from boyfriend when he sees pee bucket in fridge.
9. At end of 24 hours, shake bucket.
10. Put more urine into another vial and label it...you guessed it: "Post".
11. Mail to lab.

Nice way to spend 24 hours, right? Worth it though.

The logic of the test goes that if you have enough iodine, your body will excrete the majority of the iodine. The ideal secretion is 90%. If it holds on to more iodine, it means your body needs iodine. Lack of sufficient iodine could certainly be problematic for the thyroid (and the breasts).

I found a great website on iodine supplementation for both thyroid and breast health.

http://jeffreydach.com/2007/05/05/jeffreydachdrdachiodine.aspx

It recommends iodine supplementation of 12.5 mg/day, over 100 times the RDA amount. Apparently, toxicity levels for iodine are around 100,000 times the RDA.

You can get this in a supplement form called Iodoral, which is an unfortunate name, but which was created by Dr. Guy Abraham, a former professor of obstetrics and gynecology at UCLA. I'm going to give that a try.

I'll keep you posted.

Think to your health,

Marie

Excuse please, but what the heck and hades is a multi-nodular Goiter?

Quite a mouthful there, isn't it? What is it? It means that you got nodes on your thyroid gland. Lovely. I don't like the thought of random nodes on or in or even near my body. Feels unsettling. But in my body they are.

I was first diagnosed with this in 1991. Plural biopsies and ultrasounds and more-than-plural vein pricks later, I still have the darn things. Recently, on a visit to the endocrinologist, the very grumpy Eastern European-born doctor, whom I'll call Dr. S, felt my neck. Within nanoseconds, here's what ensued:

Dr. S
Ju have a multi-nodular goiter with de larger node on de left side. I recommend ju hev jure thyroid remov-ed immediately.

Me
What the...you can tell this from just feeling my neck for two seconds?

Dr. S
Yes, that and jure markers...

Me
Markers?

Dr. S (sighing impatiently, writing quickly)
Jure cancere markers are elevated.

Me (sotto voce)
Eek!

Dr. S
Here's a referral to the best thyroid surgeon in town, Dr. R. He will remove it for you.

M
How kind of him.

Dr. S
Dis is serious.

M
Oh I know.

Yay! As little as I enjoy having nodes in my body, having my glands removed excites me even less. So I got two second opinions and both told me NOT to have my gland removed. So there, Eastern Europe.

But those pesky nodes still remain. I called the naturopath that I'm working with, Amy Tyler at People's Pharmacy in Austin. I call her so often, I wonder if she's ready to call me a stalker. Regardless, she still sees me. I cannot recommend her highly enough.

She ordered me a test to show my iodine uptake. This involved alot of urination. And urination collection. Again, lovely. What you do is collect the morning's first urine. Then you take a dose of approximately 50mg of Iodine. Then you collect your urine for the next 24 hours. How, how is this possible, you ask. Well, the company who offers the test even gives you a lovely orange bucket to collect it. And you get to store it in your refrigerator to keep it "fresh." This prompts your boyfriend to say:

Bryan (opening the refridgerator door)
Is this your pee here in our refrigerator?

Me
Why yes.

Bryan
Uh....

Much verbal scrambling occurs. He walks away grumbling and shaking his head. Who can blame him really.

When the 24 hours is up, you shake the bucket ferociously and pour it into another vial. Fedex very kindly comes and picks it up for you, after you put it in the near-hermitically sealed SPECIMEN bag. I recommend scrubbing the fridge as well.

If the test comes back and my thyroid isn't getting enough iodine, this could be an underlying cause for the goiter. Then I get to take a pharmaceutical dose of iodine. But it might just help and it's much better than yet another needle in my body.

I have a strong feeling that doctor's have known about this inexpensive test for sometime but instead of recommending it, they opted to prescribe endless rounds of blood tests, biopsies, possible surgery, oh and one time, radiation. Why? All I can think of it money--and that possibly the medical industrial complex (sounds very Vietnam) makes most of its money perpetuating disease, not promoting health. Just my opinion though.

Will keep you posted.

Happy Health,

Marie

Welcome to my Blog: Outline for Health

Greetings from trying-to-be-healthy-Land.

This is my first entry for what I hope will expand into a website about health.

I'm not a doctor or a nutritionist (although I'm looking into it). I am a somewhat-normal (don't ask my family to vouch for that) person who wants to maximize my health. I've tried all different sorts of vitamins/minerals and done re-donkulous amounts of research on eating plans, vitamins and various health gadgets and spent roughly a ka-billion dollars on health books and vitamins.

My goal here is to help you streamline your path to health and wellness and make it affordable and simple.

I have a confession to make: I am a woman. Thusly, many of the issues I focus on (e.g. hormones, metabolism, fatigue) pertain to women. But there are universal nuggets in here that can help men, too.

I'll make product suggestions on some of the products I've tried and how they worked for me. I'll write passages about the research I'm doing.

I'm going to dedicate much of the blog to the ten steps below that I think have been crucial to restoring my health. I'm estimating the overall investment for tests, vitamins, and equipment is around $2000 for the steps, which is a minimal investment. Check with your insurance company because they might pay for some of the tests. But be willing to spend your own money if necessary--it's worth it.

So, following is a 10-step protocol that is simple and reasonably affordable. It isn't the cheapest way to live but it is an investment that pays off tremendously:

1. De-stress. Crucial to any path to wellness.
2. Eat mostly organic and eat well.
3. Retrofit your home to make it a healthy environment to live in.
4. Get your thyroid, other hormones, neurotransmitter, and vitamin levels checked.
5. Supplement any deficiencies.
6. Test for parasites, yeast and bacteria, and food allergies.
7. Perform kill-off protocols as necessary and stop eating allergy-causing foods .
8. Check for heavy metals poisoning.
9. Perform chelation if necessary.
10. Detoxify your organs. This includes your intestines and your liver. At least once a year, do a liver cleanse.

So there you have it. Many thanks for your time.

Use your brain and gut to think to your health!!

Marie