Hashimoto’s – When To Medicate?

And today's topic is Hashimoto's and when to medicate and so I'm not a medical doctor
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I practice function practicing functional medicine practice functional neurology chiropractor and a few other
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things you need to know about and I also take thyroid medication so I think I can give you a pretty good perspective from
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both sides as to when to take thyroid medication in the in the functional medicine flow here's the classic flow to
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me this is how I understand functional medicine and this is the protocol that works pretty good for me first of all
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you've been established as having Hashimoto's yet positive antibodies you go to the doctor the doctor frequently
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he gives you today they're really sticking the levothyroxine quite a bit but other doctors might give you sense
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worried or something like that and then usually a patient feels good for a little while
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not usually well sometimes patient feels good for a little while they get they get a boost in energy maybe their hair
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stops falling out maybe the way it stops going away or maybe the weight starts going away and their energy gets better
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but we usually we call that the hormone honeymoon usually what happens is after a short period of time that person will
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then start reverting back to having all their hashimoto symptoms the reason is because Hashimoto's tissue has been
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damaged this so the thyroid tissue has been damaged by the immune attack and so it wasn't making that much thyroid
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hormone and the the levothyroxine which is t4 kind of gets in there if you're able to convert your t4 to t3 you feel a
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lot better and and that's kind of how it goes when you go to the to the medical doctor or to your PCP eats here and the
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chronologist so our approach is quite a bit different the approach with Hashimoto's is dampen the immune
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response first hashimoto's is first and foremost an autoimmune problem and so it just seems
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to make a lot of sense to take care of dampening the immune response first so we do all of those things we find food
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sensitivities you do the leaky gut you do whatever it is you find that person if the person a chronic stress response
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that parasites that viral infections whatever it is it's creating inflammatory responses that are damaging
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their thymus and nutrient deficiencies toxicities all of these things and then as that gets better usually you will see
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symptoms disappearing and usually they are the hyper symptoms that go away first heart palpitations for no reason
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at all on saamne and night sweats inward tremors those types of things and then because that is that because you're
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dampening the immune inflammation that starts the thyroid to be able to heal okay then maybe that's not the best way
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of putting it when you dampen the immune information it stops the attack on the thyroid and it stops damage to the
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tissue if the thyroid is not damaged too much then you you may be able to address the protocol with any of a handful of
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herbs and botanicals that either promote you making thyroid hormone without having to take it or promote you to be
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able to convert thyroid hormone that your thyroid is now being able to make because it's not attacked but it's not
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getting converted into active hormone in a lot of other different places so the second line to me is you would try a you
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would try natural support after you took all of the steps to dampen all the other things that would create the immune
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inflammation that's causing you to have this thyroid symptoms and then and then the last thing would be medication and
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the nice thing about that is if you follow this protocol and and my observation has has also been
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if a person is taking thyroid medication already and they've been taking 50 micrograms or less for two years or less
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there's a good chance that they might even be able to come off of that off of that thyroid hormone on their own with
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the with the cooperation of their doctors because it may be that they don't have enough damage your thyroid
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yet and so that once you've removed all of the antigens all the all the inflammatory rataxes
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and once you've gotten to that point and you give that person the all of the the selenium x' and all the things that you
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read about that can help the google so that type of stuff then the thyroid can start working again
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now if the thought if you do all that and thyroid doesn't start working again the nice part is with all of that out of
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the way your lab numbers become much more usable and so now your doctor can look at your remaining symptoms to say
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okay you still have hypothyroid symptoms your TSH is a little high let's try dosing you with a little bit of
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levothyroxine and all sudden boom you feel better and and now you have utilized all aspects that are known to
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be able to be recruited to help your thyroid to be perfect I had a patient the other day who is adamant she does
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not want thyroid medication and I get that I understand that but here's the thing about thyroid medication yes if if
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they give you too much thyroid medication and it's cause you have heart palpitations and shaking and having
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caught in the appendix obviously that's not good if that person does not give you enough thyroid medication and you're
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fatigued and you're depressed and and you're putting on weight and and you're swollen obviously that's not good but
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somewhere in between the two of those is the right dosage of thyroid medication and I would argue that you cannot make
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that right dosage until you have taken care of all of the other logical aspects of the case and tried to
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do herbs and botanicals and gotten that gland to as close to normal as functioning as maximally as possible
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have it at a baseline now to where the doctor can actually use their numbers to doshu and if you're taking levothyroxine
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like I am and it's the right dose like mine is you think better you're not putting on weight your hair is not
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falling yeah their gut is okay you're not having constipation and so the side effect and I don't know that you can say
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this for too many drugs the side effect of a properly dosed thyroid medication layered on top for Hashimoto's layered
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on top of a protocol that has dampened all of the inflammation already produces the side effect that produces is not a
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side effect the side effect that produces is your metabolism runs properly and so that is to me when when
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you would when you would do the medication now having said this if a person is having tremendous symptoms and
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they take a thyroid medication and a lot of the symptoms go away and they come into my office I don't suggest that they
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go and talk to her doctor about getting off their high current medication usually I have that person stay on the
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thyroid medication especially if it's over 50 micrograms for more than two years because they're probably going to
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need it and then we work that same protocol and then at the point where we get to the point we've done everything
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we can do again it becomes more clear to their doctor how they can now modulate their medications so that they can get
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those symptoms correct so that that would be my protocol that would be my understanding as to when is the correct
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time to introduce medication into a Hashimoto's patient all right I hope that's helpful