Nonprescription thyroid help?

slieber

A friend has classic Hashimoto's symptoms but the doctor said her numbers aren't bad enough for Synthroid treatment. I read somewhere either here or on a FB hypothyroidism site that there was a natural supplement that can treat hypo situations. Does anyone know what it is called?
Thanks in advance.

Fuzzipeg

There are many things which may help. Reading from Kris Kreser, (spelling may not be spot on), he is oriental and homoeopath trained, if I remember rightly. This was following his own health problems picked up while travelling, which western medicine did not alleviate. Also the Dr mentioned yesterday on a different thread, his name has not come to mind. He wrote, "the thyroid alternative". Both these people prefer to address many issues by diet and supplements. They are US based.

All the very best to your friend. She may be able to influence her specific symptoms rather than flying in the dark.

VastBreak

Does she have low B12 and vitamin D levels. Both of these seem pretty common in the Hypo/Hashi world. I noticed a difference adding both of these supplements.

slieber

She does. She added these and saw dramatic improvement. BUT! I recall reading somewhere about a natural supplement that mirrors Synthroid, that is nonprescription. That is what I am looking for.

duckykissy

The only thing I can think of that mirrors synthyroid is Armor which natural dessicated thyroid. But I'm pretty sure you still need a prescription for that.

lindsey1979

She should also look at her DHEA levels. Hypo women often have low DHEA levels and that can impact their thyroid. Low DHEA levels inhibits the turning of T4 into the active T3. It's one of the reasons docs are supposed to check the adrenals before prescribing any thyroid medication. DHEA is over the counter, but she really should have it checked first.

Also, your friend should really speak to a thyroid specialist. Someone who really understand Hashi's understands that symptoms govern treatment just as much if not more than blood tests. This is because it is literally IMPOSSIBLE to know how much the Hashi's antibodies are interfering with the thyroid hormones. They could be rendering 2% ineffective or 98% ineffective. So a Hashi's person can be in the "normal" range for total numbers and still have horrible symptoms because their effective numbers are a lot lower. For example, I don't get most of my symptoms alleviated until I'm in the upper third of the "normal" range. I've had doctors like your friend and they don't know what they're doing. Encourage her to seek out a thyroid specialist, even if she needs to go out of pocket. It will be the best money she's ever spent. Many Hashi's people suffer until their thyroid gets destroyed enough to get into the overt hypo range and that's really unnecessary -- not to mention can be years and years until such patients see relief from their symptoms.

As for natural dessicated thyroid (Armour, Nature-throid), you do need a prescription for those. They're different from the synthetics because they have all the thyroid hormones, the biggest being T3 (but also have T1 and T2). To get that with the synthetics, you'd need synthroid (T4) and cytomel (T3). And, my doc says that he's observed in his Hashi's patients that they tend to do better with the natural stuff. He can't explain why exactly, but it's what he's noticed in his patients and speculates that there may be some benefit they don't fully understand with the T1 and T2, especially for Hashi's folks.

lindsey1979

Also, selenium may help her. It's over the counter as well, but she should have a blood test run to see if she's deficient. If she's deficient, this may help as well as there are some studies out there on Hashi's in particular that selenium supplementation helps reduce the level of antibodies.

desertcrafty

This book has lots of suggestions that go beyond meds:

http://www.amazon.com/Hashimotos-Thyroiditis-Lifestyle-Interventions-Treating/dp/0615825796/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1421202377&sr=8-1&keywords=hashimotos+thyroiditis+root+cause

allergictodiets

Since it is virtually impossible to get T3 meds or nature thyroid in Germany, I try to help myself by supplementing with Vit D ( + K ), iron and B complex vitamins.

IndyCarfan

You may be thinking of thyro-gold. I know there are other options, but that's one I've used and felt it helped me when my doctor wasn't interested in raising my T3 dosage because my numbers were ok (even though I still felt like crap).

slieber

I'll look that one up. Thanks!