I was diagnosed with mild hypothyroidism about a year ago after my thyroid lighting up on a pet scan. I have been treating it with my Chinese Doctor and Chinese medicine for about a year, with my values going up and down. The conventional Dr wanted me to start thyroid meds numerous times. I just feel like my body has so much to deal with at times, I didn’t want to add another drug. Plus, my Chinese doctor says my thyroid is very treatable.
In May, I learned that iodine deficiency is a potential cause of hypothyroidism. Iodine can either help or harm hypothyroidism. I informed the conventional doc of my intended experiment, which he ignored my theory, except he agreed to run a tsh test when I needed one. I started chewing up my Kombu (seaweed, high in iodine) daily. By my July test after a month of eating Kombu, the iodine made things way worse (my tsh has never been above 8.5 previously).
The conventional doc of course freaked out and told me I needed to start the drug right away and put in a prescription. I said “Wait! I told you this was a potential cause of what I’m doing, things should go back down to my normal high numbers if I stop the seaweed”. “Can we retest in a month to see?”
“Hrumph, fine”, he replied.
I saw the Vampires on the 18th, got my blood sucked out and the results posted. I burst out laughing, mainly because it was funny, but also so unexpected.
| Name Standard range | 5/23/22 | 7/15/22 | 8/18/22 |
|---|---|---|---|
| TSH 0.4 – 4.2 uIU/mL | 6.4 | 18.7 | 3.2 |
The Doc wrote the following message a day later:
Mr. Sendan,
TSH is come into the normal range, are you taking the levothyroxine?
Sincerely, Doctor
I’m pretty sure that my doctor has very selective memory, only remembering parts of our typed conversations. “Nope, still not taking the levothyroxine, haven’t even picked it up”, I replied.
My theory, which I shared with him is (which he ignored), the iodine from the seaweed shocked my system, and it did end up doing some good. Maybe, I just need to eat an occasional piece of kombu. I’m still a work in progress in many aspects. We will retest in a few months so see how things are going. (Please take note that I did all of this with an alternative Dr and conventional Dr, monitoring. Don’t do things yourself!)
My point in telling this story is to use it as an example of things having an effect on your body, even natural products. What you put into your body has an effect, for good or ill, please remember that when you are making choices.
Be an active participant or be the driver when it comes to your health. After all, your health is more important to you than anyone else.
Eat your vegetables!