Dr. Clark's Brain Based Blog

Which Thyroid Hormone Is Best For Hashimoto's? Synthetic or Bioidentical

DallasThyroidDoctor.com

Dr. David Clark, DC -Center for Low Thyroid Solutions Dallas, TX- guides Hashimoto's sufferers through the debate about synthetic vs. biodidentical thyroid hormones.

Let’s talk for a second about the debate between what is best for Hashimoto's – synthetic thyroid hormones versus bioidentical thyroid hormones. 

The answer is... neither one of them is best. 

This is a real red herring of a debate that I see a lot of people that are suffering with Hashimoto’s and low thyroid symptoms get sucked into.  They get sucked into this debate over, you know, which is better – synthetic or natural.  The answer is there is no better one.  It depends on what works for the individual. 

In reality, the answer to the question to what hormone you should be on if you have Hashimoto’s is only about 10% of the battle.  The other 90% of the battle is what are you going to do to calm down this autoimmune response? 

Unfortunately, there is a lot of doctor's who don’t understand Hashimoto’s.  They don’t understand autoimmune.  They don’t understand really what triggers it, what perpetuates it. 

So instead we get stuck on these useless moot debates about Synthroid versus Armour.  Levoxyl versus Nature-Throid, and it doesn’t matter. 

Just this past week, I had to give this speech...

I was talkng with a women whose TSH is over 10.0.  She was never diagnosed with Hashimoto’s.  We ran the tests....she’s got Hashimoto’s, but she just doesn’t want to be on a medication.  She doesn’t want to be on a "synthetic medication."  She wants to try one of the "natural things," but she doesn’t know what to do.

I said "Kim, you know, you’re killing yourself.  You’re really punishing yourself for no reason.  I mean, if you had a leg that was amputated, if you wanted to walk again, you’d get a prosthetic leg.  Right?  You wouldn’t just hobble around and crawl on the floor.  You’d get a prosthetic leg.  They make prosthetic legs to help that exact situation."

In Hashimoto’s it’s the same situation.  In Hashimoto’s you’re going to lose pieces of your thyroid gland, and you’re never going to get them back.  And being worried or having some kind of idealistic problem with being on a medication for that problem means you’re unnecessarily punishing yourself. 

You deserve to have some kind of thyroid function.  Right? You deserve to be free of low thyroid symptoms like:

• constipation
• hair loss
• brain fog
• depression 

If you’ve got Hashimoto’s, there’s a really good chance – I mean a really good chance-- you’re going to have to be on some type of thyroid hormone replacement at some point.  But what kind of thyroid hormone replacement is going to vary from person to person.  Let me explain why.

Some people do great on synthetic thyroid hormones. However, if you go to the internet and you starting looking in chat rooms, you’re going to see that people say "Synthroid is awful."

And it may be awful for that person who made the post...but synthetics do great for some people....and for some people bioidenticals are awful.  They have a horrible time with bioidentical thyroid hormones.  And here’s why...

When you have Hashimoto’s, you have an autoimmune attack on your thyroid gland.  You start destroying the inside your thyroid gland.  You start destroying the enzyme thyroid peroxidase and/or and you destroy thyroglobulin. 

When you have autoimmunity and you’ve already targeted and attacked one tissue, the taboo is broken...your whole body is on the menu now.   

The autoimmune attack can now progress beyond TPO and beyond Thryoglobulin...progress to now attacking your own hormones--T4 and T3. 

If you’re that person who is now attacking your own T4 and T3, and you start taking Armour or Nature-Throid...and you have a really bad reaction to it...There’s a really good chance that what happened is you just put more wood on the burning fire. 

You were already attacking your thyroid hormones, and now you just gave your immune system a whole bunch more fuel to attack. 

I hope that makes sense. 

That person usually does great on synthetic thyroid hormones.

But some people don’t do well on synthetics, and here’s why. 

Synthroid, for example, contains fillers. These fillers can stimulate your immune system to be more out of balance, and you can have a reaction to them.  You can feel inflamed, oir have more low thyroid symptoms. 

That’s the basic two scenarios that happen---attacking your own hormones, or being wrongly stimulated by the fillers.

The fact is, if you’re watching this, you’re just going to have to find a doctor who’ll work with you, and you’re going to find which one works best for you. 

Don’t get sucked into the debate about natural versus synthetic.  That is so a waste of your time. 

What you really have to do is focus on "what am I going to do to get this autoimmune thing under control?"  Because the thyroid hormone replacement is going to do very little to address the autoimmune process. 

And your autoimmune attack could keep on progressing and can move into other tissues. This is dangerous. Your immune system can attack your cerebellum, your pancreas....any tissue....and cause a more symptoms that are way worse than what you’re already feeling, and those are bad enough. 

So you’ve got to find a doctor who understands that it synthetic or bioidentical doesn't really matter... just find out which one works for you. This doctor should understand that you could react badly to either kind, and if you do-- does NOT ignore it. 

More important for your long term heatlh---you’ve got to find a doctor who understands how to get this Hashimoto’s autoimmune tissue attack under control and help balance your immune system.

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© 2011 David Clark. All Rights Reserved.

THE PLACE FOR ANSWERS™
Dr. David Clark, DC
Functional Neurologist
Diplomate College of Clinical Nutrition
Functional Endocrinology
Board Certified Chiropractic Neurologist
Vestibular Rehab Specialist
214-341-3737

URL: http://www.doctordavidclark.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/DrDavidClark
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Dallas-TX/Dr-David-Clark-Functional-Neurologist/92451382182

Thyroid Antibodies and Risk of Miscarriage, Premature Birth

DallasThyroidDoctor.com

Dr. David Clark, DC -Center for Low Thyroid Solutions Dallas, TX- explains a hidden cause of why many women suffer miscarriages and premature births.

I want to talk to you for a minute about thyroid autoantibodies and the risk of miscarriage and preterm birth. 

Many women that come to see me are suffering with low thyroid symptoms, and they've also had some problems with miscarriages, infertility and premature births. 

Some of these women can’t get pregnant.  Some can’t implant a fetus.  Some can’t carry it to term. 

Over the last year or so, new research  has shown the clear association between thyroid antibodies and the risk of miscarriage and preterm birth.

In fact, a recent study showed that 

TPO antibodies (one of the antibodies that can be high when you have Hashimoto’s) can increase the risk of miscarriage and preterm birth by two to three times. 

That is huge news for all women.

What they’re not clear about --and I’m going to explain this to you-- is exactly why there would be this connection. 

Well, there’s two reasons. 

1. As a mother, If you have TPO antibodies that means you have a real risk for becoming hypothyroid.  Hypothyroidism itself can cause miscarriages and preterm birth.
   
2. If you have TPO antibodies, you have ONE autoimmune disorder, and your immune system is attacking ONE tissue....it can now easily attack something else, like a developing fetus.

So if you don’t understand what Hashimoto’s is, here’s a short primer...
 

Your immune system targets your thyroid gland and destroys the gland, and kills the gland's ability to make thyroid hormones.  It actually destroys pieces of your thyroid gland.  You lose them and they never come back. 

Well, over time you become hypothyroid.  You can’t make enough thyroid hormones.  Being hypothyroid is a huge risk in pregnancy, and that in itself could cause you to not be able to carry a baby to term. 

Now, another thing that can happen is if you’ve got TPO antibodies,  you have an autoimmune condition...so you could have other autoimmune conditions (which is really just all the same autoimmune condition.) 

You could have antiphospholipid syndrome, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus etc.  When you try to carry the baby to term, your immune system mistakenly attacks the developing fetus, and that’s why you have a miscarriage and you can’t carry to term.

So there’s two different reasons why miscarriage and premature birth might be happening. 

What I find really interesting is when you start reading the papers about this topic, they start saying ...well, there’s no reason to screen healthy women who are thinking about getting pregnant. 

Think about that. 

There’s no reason to screen healthy women who are thinking about getting pregnant for Hashimoto’s? That’s a huge mistake. 

How do you know they’ve got Hashimoto’s? 

A lot of women are walking around right now without overt low thyroid symptoms of depression, constipation, hair loss, brain fog but still have Hashimoto's.

There’s a lot of them walking around like that because Hashimoto’s can present in a lot of different ways.  They’re walking around feeling good, but they’ve actually got Hashimoto’s.  It's happening.  To just blanket say well, they don’t need to be screened, I think that’s a real huge mistake.

Now, one of the other things  going on in research is they’ve been asking is there any kind of a treatment that we can do for these women that have Hashimoto’s and will it work? 

Some studies have shown if you give a Levothyroxine to a woman who’s got Hashimoto’s  during pregnancy,  it could have a  good outcome.  But....

that’s only if her rher risk of miscarriage was because she was going to be hypothyroid, not because of that other reason where she has a heightened state of autoimmunity.

So what’s the takeaway message for all of this? 

1. If you’ve got a history of miscarriages --whether you’ve got low thyroid symptoms or not--you need to be checked for Hashimoto’s.  You need to run a TPO antibodies and a TGB antibodies.  The problem is most doctors aren’t going to want to run it unless you’ve got an elevated TSH aready,  or you’ve got some of these hypothyroid symptoms like:  depression, constipation, hair loss, weight gain even though you don’t eat much and exercise, high cholesterol.  You’re going to have to be a real advocate for yourself or you’re going to have to find someone who understands what I'm talking about.  It’s not a crime to run a test on someone and see if they’ve got this problem.


2. The other thing is...that if you have any low thyroid symptoms, you’ve got to get checked for Hashimoto’s because it’s the No. 1 cause of low thyroid in America.  The number of women that I see with miscarriages, infertility, preterm births-- that also have low thyroid symptoms--is staggering.  If you could read the emails I get you'd be floored.

So you’ve really got to be an advocate for yourself and realize that, No. 1, if you’ve got Hashimoto’s you’re going to be at risk for having a hard time conceiving and carrying a pregnancy to term. 

You’ve got to find someone who understands Hashimoto’s from a functional perspective and knows what to look for....

• What triggers Hashimoto’s
• What perpetuates it
• What you can do without drugs to calm everything down. 
  

That will be key for you being able to have a healthy pregnancy and be able to avoid the risks of miscarriage and preterm birth that are clearly connected to having thyroid autoimmunity.

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© 2011 David Clark. All Rights Reserved.

THE PLACE FOR ANSWERS™
Dr. David Clark, DC
Functional Neurologist
Diplomate College of Clinical Nutrition
Functional Endocrinology
Board Certified Chiropractic Neurologist
Vestibular Rehab Specialist
214-341-3737

URL: http://www.doctordavidclark.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/DrDavidClark
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Dallas-TX/Dr-David-Clark-Functional-Neurologist/92451382182

Vitamin D Deficiency and Psychotic Disorders in Children

DoctorDavidClark.com

Dr. David Clark, DC explains why new research connecting Vitamin D Deficiency and pschotic disorders in children could help children with Autism, ADDH, Depression, Bipolar Disorder....

I want to share with you important new information about the connection between Vitamin D deficiency and psychotic disorders in children.

Recently, at the annual meeting of The American Psychiatric Association there was a interesting study presented that investigated the vitamin D levels of children that required residential care (so these are kids with severe psychotic disorders.) 

And here's what they discovered....

21 percent of the kids in this study--21 percent -- had Vitamin D levels less than 20 ng/dl. These are extremely deficient levels of Vitamin D.

They also discovered that the prevalence of Vitamin D deficiency in kids with psychotic disorders was 43 percent.

So, their point is there’s an unequivocable, undeniable connection between Vitamin D deficiency and these kids that have these severe psychotic disorders. 

Now what the study authors didn’t do, which I’m going to fill in for you, is

1. Give you some reasons WHY Vitamin D and psychotic disorders are connected

and

2. What you should  do with this information about Vitamin D and psychotic disorders in children.

The Brain has receptors for  Vitamin D.  Vitamin D affects brain development---and if you look around some of my other posts, you’ll probably find some information on that--

So, in a simple way of looking at it...

Deficient Vitamin D often leads to abnormal brain development and brain function....psychotic disorders are just one example.

But there are some other reasons why low Vitamin D levels could lead to psychotic disorders in children.

Vitamin D is critical for the normal regulation of your immune system.  Vitamin D deficiency is strongly associated with autoimmune disorders.

Here's a few: Multiple sclerosis, Hashimoto's Thyroiditis, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Celiac disease, Type1 Diabetes, many cases of Autism

"Autoimmune" means the immune system is attacking and attempting to destroy some part of the body. The immune system could attack the brain; it can attack any organ, any tissue. 

When you have low Vitamin D levels, your immune system can dis-regulate and literally become unbalanced. Become overzealous and can start attacking things that it shouldn’t attack. 

It can lead to what we call “neural inflammation," “neuroinflammation,"  or "neurodegeneration." This is inflammation inside the brain, inflammation in the central nervous system. 

In fact, a lot of researchers believe – I shouldn’t say a lot.  Some researchers believe that Vitamin D deficiency is THE cause of autism.  I don’t believe that Vitamin D Deficiency is THE cause of autism--- BUT, it’s certainly the cause for several cases that I’ve seen personally in my practice.

How would a child get to be that Vitamin D deficient? 

Is it the fact that they don’t go out in the sun enough?  Probably not.  I’ll give you some other reasons why this could happen. 

This is what I want you to pay close attention to....

Vitamin D deficiency is often caused by gastrointestinal malabsorption. 

Now let's ask the next question...

Why would a child not be able to absorb things correctly through their intestines?

The number one reason is gluten sensitivity.  I’ve said this a million times, and I’ll say it a million and one times more... 

If there was only one thing you could do for a person that is diagnosed with some type of psychiatric disorder – the best thing you could do--- a gluten-free and dairy-free diet. 

I’ve made some posts on this before... if you have an inflammatory response in your gut, you do not absorb correctly. 

I can’t tell you how many cases; I’ve lost count of how many autistic spectrum kids I've seen that had Vitamin D levels in the toilet---less than 20 ng/dl--- that, when we corrected their diet (and a few other things), their Vitamin D levels increased beyond "normal" and into the "optimal" range. 

So that’s one likely reason why these kids in the study have Vitamin D deficiencies--gastrointestinal inflammation. (The detective in me must tell you that a good doctor won't stop there, though. He/she will investigate and determine WHY there's inflammation)

The other probablity is that these kids may have autoimmune disorders.  There are certain genetic propensities that make you not be able to store and use Vitamin D normally.  And you end up with a unregulated immune system and/or disordered brain development. 

Okay, so what are you going to do with this information? 

If there's a child that’s been diagnosed with any sort of psychotic disorder, they’ve got to get checked for Vitamin D deficiency.  You have to find a doctor who understands that  just because the child is in a residential care facility doesn’t mean that the child can't be helped. With the right help, the child may be able to leave.

If you don’t have a child with any type of psychotic disorder  this important information may still be able to change a child's life...

If you have child with ADHD, Autism, Bipolar disorder, depression... you need to have  their Vitamin D levels checked by a doctor who understand what I'm talking about. 

Really, you should get the appropriate testing and determine if the child is gluten sensitive.  But, let me save you some money...just save your money and put the child on a gluten-free and dairy-free diet.

And third, you gotta find a doctor who can help guide you through all this  because these get complex quickly.

Please, don’t just go run out and start supplementing Vitamin D.

Here's why... because if your child’s got low Vitamin D, you have to figure out WHY.  Do they have an autoimmune condition?  Do they have gluten sensitivity?  What exactly is happening?  Do some investigating.

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© 2011 David Clark. All Rights Reserved.

THE PLACE FOR ANSWERS™
Dr. David Clark, DC
Functional Neurologist
Diplomate College of Clinical Nutrition
Functional Endocrinology
Board Certified Chiropractic Neurologist
Vestibular Rehab Specialist
214-341-3737

URL: http://www.doctordavidclark.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/DrDavidClark
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Dallas-TX/Dr-David-Clark-Functional-Neurologist/92451382182