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Why did your thyroid die?
People across the country are told every day that their thyroid has just died or stopped working. Some patients simply accept this without question. Others ask how this could happen. Her doctor's usual response is that it's just something that happens. Almost as if the thyroid was a light switch that could easily be turned off. Thyroids don't just stop working and die for no apparent reason. It's usually a slow process that takes years until one day you go to your doctor and continue to complain about thyroid problems. He will do a TSH and you will get the...
Why did your thyroid die?
People across the country are told every day that their thyroid has just died or stopped working. Some patients simply accept this without question. Others ask how this could happen. Her doctor's usual response is that it's just something that happens. Almost as if the thyroid was a light switch that could easily be turned off.
Thyroids don't just stop working and die for no apparent reason. It's usually a slow process that takes years until one day you go to your doctor and continue to complain about thyroid problems. He performs a TSH and you get the bad news. It is well published that the main cause of thyroid dysfunction is an autoimmune disease called Hashimoto's thyroiditis. This means that the body has lost self-tolerance. It attacks and destroys healthy thyroid tissue as if it were a foreign invader. This destruction leads to less and less healthy thyroid tissue, resulting in less release of needed hormones. It is estimated that 85-95% of people with hypothyroidism have Hashimoto's thyroiditis.
Most people have never heard of Hashimoto's thyroiditis. Although it is the most common reason for hypothyroidism, it is rarely checked. Part of this is that it is viewed as a “waste” of resources in the HMO health insurance model. There is no reason to test for it unless you treat it differently than primary hypothyroidism. The usual medical treatment is to give hormone replacement until the thyroid "dies" or "burns out" and then put the patient on thyroid medication since they are no longer able to produce their own.
This type of treatment has few shortcomings. First, most of the time the thyroid is not the only tissue attacked by the body. Research shows that areas in the brain, intestines and pancreas are often attacked in patients with Hashimoto's. Taking thyroid hormone replacement does not contribute to the attack and destruction of these tissues. Secondly, it's not about attacking the thyroid. It only replaces what the gland can no longer release. The thyroid is defenseless against the autoimmune process that destroys it. Another reason for this treatment is that it does not target the cytokines that block thyroid receptor sites. This means that even though you take the drugs, they may not be able to bind to the sites they are intended for because a cytokine is blocking them. Along with the above reasons, the patient may still feel terrible despite taking his medications as prescribed.
So if you've been told your thyroid has died or stopped working, ask your doctor why. Make sure you have the proper tests done, including a full thyroid panel and taking thyroid antibody tests. The antibody tests will catch 80-90% of patients with Hashimoto.
Inspired by Dr. Chris Heimlich