Low Thyroid in 21 days (Article 1)
Hello,
I am Dr Michael Teplisky, a holistic medical doctor and I am here to talk to you about low thyroid or hypothyroidism.
Low thyroid is a very common problem, about 35 million people are being treated for it. Some feel better with treatment, some don’t, but at least they are being treated. The problem is that there are about 35–40 million more people who have low thyroid and they are NOT being treated.
I have been practicing medicine in NYC for almost 30 years and I have personally treated close to 3,000 people with low thyroid. Most of the patients came to me because either they had the symptoms of low thyroid but their doctor would not treat them. Or they were given a medication for low thyroid, and it did not help them.
The point is that there are tens of millions of people with low thyroid who are not being treated because their doctors tell them that everything is fine, they are OK, they don’t have any problems or they are being treated in a way that does not help. We’ll talk about why and how this happens. How it is possible that the patient knows that she (it’s usually a woman) is not fine, but the doctor says she is.
As I said, I have seen a few thousand patients with low thyroid, so I know a lot about it and I wanted to share what I know with you in the hope that maybe you will recognize that you have low thyroid and seek help OR you may understand why your thyroid treatment is not working and how to make it work.
Now, there are many excellent discussions of hypothyroidism on the internet. However, they are all rather short. I mean there is only so much information you can provide In 10–12 minutes. So a typical lecture gives you a brief overview of what low thyroid is and how it is usually treated. But it does not give you all the information that you should have.
For example, most reviews mention that patients with hypothyroidism have low energy and weight gain. But they don’t usually mention heavy menstrual bleeding or elevated blood liver tests. But these are also symptoms of low thyroid. And if you are trying to figure out why you are not feeling well you (and your doctor) will not consider low thyroid unless you know all the symptoms, not just a few common ones.
So I came up with an idea of doing a more comprehensive review of low thyroid. Not 10–15 minutes, but as much time as needed. I am going to do a seminar on low thyroid and give you all the information you need to have a better understanding of the problem. My goal is to educate you, so you know a lot about low thyroid, can recognize it, and know how to deal with it. Or, if you are already being treated and not getting the results you would like, it is my hope that you will learn how to change that and what else can be done.
I call this course “Low thyroid in 21 days” because 21 sounds like a good number. But it may turn out to be 20 days or 30 or more, we’ll see. I will post a new blog (and possibly a video) once a week until we fully cover the subject. All lectures will be available free on the internet, but I will also have the entire course of lectures on my site for a nominal fee. This way you’ll be able to easily find all the lectures you want.
I will use simple, non-technical words and descriptions. When I have to use a medical term, I will explain what it means. The first few lectures will be about how things should be when thyroid is normal. What thyroid is, where it is, what it does, how thyroid hormones are produced, how they are regulated and so on. In other words, how things are when everything is normal. And then we’ll talk about low thyroid, what it is, why it happens, what it does and how we can deal with it and make you healthy again. In short, we’ll cover many topics.
Today I am going to introduce you to your thyroid, tell you what it is, what it does and why it is important.
So, what is thyroid? Thyroid is an endocrine gland. A gland is an organ that produces something and releases it either outside the body or inside the body. For example, sweat glands, salivary glands that make saliva, lacrimal glands that make tears, their product goes outside the body, which is why they are called EXOcreen glands. EXO means ouside. Then there are ENDOcreen glands, they make a product that stays inside the body, ENDO means inside. The product of endocrine gland is called a hormone or hormones. They are released into the blood and go on to do their job.
Some hormones have a local effect, in other words they don’t affect the whole body. Later on, we will learn about a hormone called TSH or thyroid stimulating hormone. It is produced by a pituitary gland, which is located in the brain. The job of TSH is to travel from the brain to the thyroid gland and stimulate it, in other words make it work harder. So, it does not have an effect on any other organ. Purely local.
Then there are hormones that affect the entire body. Insulin, which regulates blood sugar is one of them. Estrogen, progesterone, testosterone are global hormones. And so are the hormones made by the thyroid gland. Thyroid actually makes 3 different hormones, but for our purposes only 2 are important. They are triiodothyronine or T3 and tetraiodothyronine or T4, also called thyroxine. Both contain Iodine, T3 has 3 of them and T4 has 4. Makes it easy to remember.
Thyroid hormones enter every cell in the body. They help every cell to produce energy and heat. In other words, they are responsible for overall metabolism. Energy is what the cells run on, sort of like gasoline. Energy allows the cells to grow, develop, replicate, multiply, repair and do everything else. Energy allows us to grow from infants into adults. And thyroid hormones are responsible for that.
We’ll have plenty to say about thyroid hormones in the future lectures, for now I just want you to realize that life without thyroid hormones is impossible.
Now, let’s talk about the actual physical thyroid. It’s a small organ, about 1 oz, it’s located at the base of the neck. It looks like a butterfly, and it surrounds the trachea, the pipe that that brings air into the lungs.
Normally, thyroid is very small, so you do not see it or feel it. There are conditions when It can become big, when you can see it and feel it.
So this was the introduction to thyroid gland, lecture number 1 in our Low Thyroid in 21 days seminar. Next time I will tell you how thyroid hormones work inside the cells.
Please make sure to subscribe to my youtube channel, click on “like” and press the bell to be notified when the new posting is available. If you know someone who might find this information useful, please forward it to them.
Also, please keep in mind that if you suspect that you have low thyroid or you are being treated and are not getting better, you can get a free, no obligation 30 min consultation with me to see if I can help you get better. Just call my office at 718–769–0997.
I’ll see you next time.
Until then, I am Dr. Michael Teplisky wishing you the best of health.