Recurring symptoms

Hello Hilary 

I am only recently diagnoised but I have read a bit about the disease and thyroid. You may well know everything I am about to say. In the book your thyroid and how t jeep it health. Dr durrant talks about taking you base temperature and pulse first thing in the morning normal pulse between 65- 75 temp around 37oC. Above or below indicate hyper or hypo. He suggests keeping a track of it along with symptoms. Then go to dr and show them your results. If still no joy I would go to see a functional medical Dr but I would really recommend that now actually. I would also reccomended the book. The Immune System Recovery Plan. How you get it sorted. 

Hi Hilary

I've had Graves since 2007 & am still struggling with it! I believe most doctors & endocrinologists don't really care about getting to the bottom of 'why' you are ill & they will only ever treat your symptoms.  You are just a number & they want to get you off their books as fast as they can, its rather like being on a conveyor belt !

My advice to anyone is to do as much research as possible so that you gain a full understanding of exactly what is going on in your body, it will empower you when you talk to the endos.  

I am trying to go down an alternative route, have not seen great results so far but I still believe this is the right thing to do, I have very little faith in the medical profession now given my experiences.

Remember it is not your thyroid that is not functioning properly it is your immune system so until you find a way to calm the immune system then I believe you may continue to have issues perhaps with other AI conditions, they say that once you get one AI disease it is not uncommon to get another.  This happened to me & I now have rheumatoid arthritis, I'm not saying this is going to happen to you & I certainly would not wish it on anyone.

I'm still on my journey, it looks like it will be a long road ahead too but when you consider all the years of just eating/drinking whatever you like and not giving much thought to nutrition then it is not a surprise that things have not improved quickly.

I have recently been made aware of a little known drug Low Dose Naltrexone which appears to be being used very successfully to treat all AI conditions as it calms the immune system down very quickly.  I have a friend in USA who has RA & who has only been using this for a week and she has seen massive improvement already, all swelling has gone & she has been able to go for walks which previously was not possible.  So I am researching this currently, whilst is does not fit with my natural treatment I believe it may help in the short term to calm everything down.

Good luck in your journey & keep us posted with your progress.

Ann

PS I recommend watching the following films if you can, they are on Netflix for free if you have access :-

- Food Matters

- Hungry for Change

Hi Hilary.  I haven't heard about your pattern in particular.  However, my disease really didn't heal on just medications.  I read an article about the use of L-Carnitine in patients with hyperthyroidism and that's what turned mine around.  Particularly for me, Acetyl-L-Carnitine made the difference.  That is because this amino acid normally found in the body gets depleted in the muscles of hyperthyroid patients.  You can get this in Health food stores.  If they don't have it, they usually will order it for you.  Also avoid foods with aspartame in them. 

Hi everyone.  This is a reply for acd mainly.  I recently researched LDN myself, as I have Graves, RA, Sjogrens Syndrome and SLE.  I personally wouldn't touch it.  Although the information sheet says it can be used to treat Graves there is a waiver that you have to sign (if you use LDN) that says you are accepting responsibility if the thyroid goes over active.  How can they say this when they have claimed it can be used to treat Graves.  I wrote to them and asked them to explain and got no reply.  Secondly if your GP will not prescribe it you can have a consultation with a LDN Doctor (at a price) who will prescribe it.  If a prescription can be bought like that I think there is a way to go before I would consider it safe.  I certainly won't be trying it. 'I'm not saying it isn't effective for some conditions but I would tread very careful with thyroid issues.   I would recommend Simba tablets from the Little Herbal Company that are immune support and I can honestly say changed my life when I was first diagnosed with auto immune issues in 2000.  And try L cartinite as Linda suggests.  She is very well informed and I've started on it myself.  Remember we are all different and although I've had some really bad symptoms in the past, including severe palpitations and weight loss I am lucky enough to respond well to carbimazole and feel fine. 

From what I read some endos will treat the patient not numbers but this is rare. A nutrionist, herbalist, functional medic will treat the patient. From my reading I started with all three with in weeks 

I also started with a psychologist who is looking at the stress. I am doing mindful meditation every day. I know it's early days but within a month of treatments and of course carbimazol. I felt the best I felt in literally years. I am trying to be optimistic and positive. If it doesn't work at least I tried. I have also started to adjust my meds slightly if I am experiencing symptoms of hyper and hypo. I read temp daily and check plus. I beleive we are the experts of ourselves and if fully informed we should take responsibility for ourselves. I am not suggesting you start self medicating but listen to yourself, trust your body get informed and get all the help you can. 

I wish I had done this last year. I don't think I would have this disease if I had. 

Good luck

Thanks Linda and Ann for your support and encouragement    I will do more reading on the fillings although the dentist and I did already talk about it briefly. I am the main bread winner, self employed ands mum of young children so I am viewing my health as a necessary out going. It is costing a lot but I hope wirth it. I doubt I will every wish we had had a holiday instead. The weather is being very kind thankfully. 

 I am typing on my phone and it is accidently sending it deleting so sorry for irratic posts.