Monday, April 28, 2014

here we go again....

Over at Primal Docs, some DC is blogging about hair loss and hypothyroidism again....  [groan]

Most of these "professionals" only know what they've read -- they've never dealt with hypothyroidism in themselves, and what they've done with their patients is PURE MAINSTREAM BS most of the time.  They may THINK they're on the cutting edge because they're testing for ANTIBODIES (OOOOH!) ... but it's just the same ol' same ol' from where i sit.

I've come to look at hypothyroidism in a similar way to how Wooo looks at obesity -- the "experts" have the causation completely backward.  Though it seems that low thyroid output may cause certain irregularities of function, i found often that the irregularity itself causes a slowdown in production or conversion.  Both the horse AND the cart influence how your buggy-ride progresses.

A long time ago, i looked critically at the list of hypothyroidism symptoms, and concluded that many of them are nothing more or less than micronutrient deficiencies.  I started by doing a LOT of reading, then began adding in supplements one at a time to see how they would affect my health and well-being -- and i paid a LOT of attention to nutritional conflicts-of-interest and co-dependencies, so that i could rely on what i found.  If i saw that one didn't work as expected, i read some more to see if the actual CHEMICAL in the bottle was the right kind to use, or if time-of-day or diet made a difference with it.  I really worked at the details.  When i seemed to have found a magic bullet, i withdrew and reintroduced it a few times, just to be sure.

And you know what i found in this specific case?  Iron deficiency.  The naturopaths, chinese-medicine practitioners and chiropractic internists have the whole blogosphere scared of this critical mineral.  What i consistently hear, though, is that a healthy system adjusts its absorption depending on need, not how much is ingested.  If there IS a case of overload and over-storage, you'd better start looking around for something ELSE wrong.  Iron "overload" isn't caused by eating a lot of meat -- it's NORMAL for the body to not absorb what it doesn't need.  Overload means there's a problem with inhibiting absorption when it's not appropriate.

23andMe looks at the genes for hereditary hemochromatosis.  There's a good discussion there, too, about the low odds of suffering from the disease EVEN IF YOU HAVE THE WRONG SNPs.  I'll bet the farm that the true cause of hemochromatosis -- what sets it off -- hasn't properly been determined yet.  "Scientists don't fully understand how the body controls iron levels, so it has been difficult to understand how changes in the HFE gene cause HH."  ...but that doesn't stop people from speculating, does it?

In my case, i take my iron supplement in the middle of the day, separated by hours from supplements other than vitaminC, every other day when i haven't eaten any liver for awhile.  On the days i don't take it, or eat liver or oysters, i take a copper supplement -- the two minerals need to be in balance, as do iodine and selenium.  I can tell when i have NOT taken enough iron -- i pull more hair out of my brush when i clean it!  The "clutter" in my hairbrush is DIRECTLY associated with my iron SUPPLEMENT intake!  I obviously do not absorb it from food the way i should.

We can learn a lot from reading online, but it's a two-edged sword!  Much of what we find has been blindly copied from other sources -- in fact, some of the ORIGINAL sources are almost impossible to track down.  My practice is to try to find rational sources who disagree to some extent so i see both sides of the situation, then i compare those views to my personal experience.  Physicians/nurses in practice rank much higher with me than theoreticians, "independent researchers" and those with "plans" to sell!  But if MY EXPERIENCE doesn't jibe with others' hypotheses, i don't care how lauded their "authority" or "expert status" is!  If phenomena aren't seen in the real world, laboratory results are irrelevant.

20 comments:

  1. Kudos for self education! I have to admit, when I first found Woos blog I am humbled by how medically ignorant I was. ( I once believed in estrogen dominance! Laf) I am truly humbled by my ignorance so now I am on a reading binge : not just subscribing to the paleo blogs but tracking down original sources and learning to read textbooks all over again. It's amazing how science is continuously progressing and redefining itself. And also, there is truly no shortage of internet quacks out there!

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    1. no kidding -- both about the quacks and MY ignorance! ;-) there's just too much to know, for most of us to have a grasp on anything but our own little area-of-interest....

      i think the question of "estrogen dominance" has relevance for us old broads, but none at all for you young'uns! that's the trouble -- people without special knowledge extrapolate from one population to another when it's entirely inappropriate.

      :-) i started out this blog thinking there was much less variation than there obviously is, in human response to diet. THAT was humbling, and since then i've tried to make a point of saying that this is what works FOR ME, and that's all i can claim!

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  2. There are three things we know: things we know, things we don't know, and things we don't know that we don't know. :)

    The more I learn about the human body the more in awe I become. It's truly a piece of fantastic machinery that leaves much to the imagination.

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    1. :-) reading the entire Hyperlipid archive, i was STILL a bit lost when i started on the "Protons" series, so i backed up.... i'd heard that Prof. Feinman explained mitochondria well, so i read HIS entire archive, and STILL felt unprepared. so i finally sprung for the book "Power, Sex and Suicide" ... and you've no idea the AWE i feel for the science! how people managed to figure out all this stuff just amazes me! talk about feeling ignorant....

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    2. The one book that blew my mind was "Lights Out" by T.S. Wiley. It echoed everything Woo has blogged about carb timing / light and dark cycles / and how obesity and insulin resistance is a naturally adaptive response to changing seasons and mating cycles. Incredible. "Power, sex, suicide" is next on my reading list. :)

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    3. sounds interesting -- i need to check it out!

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  3. The bugaboo about iron seems strange, given how easy it is to test iron levels. My GP suspected iron deficiency when I looked pale to him.

    I can tell when I've skipped my iron supplement: I'm so tired I can barely prise myself out of my chair.

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    1. i suspect it's like the old anti-egg thing -- a very few people have trouble with a substance but the cautions are directed at EVERYONE....

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  4. I presented with a TSH of about 5.3. My PCP didn't think that was an issue because it was "within the lab norms" of my HMO, which says up to 5.5 is "normal". They won't fully test free T3, rT3 and only reluctantly test free T4, so I could not get a complete picture of what was going on. I did get to see an endo who declared this hypothyroid and wanted me on Levythyroxine even though I was having ZERO symptoms. I'm warm, no hair falling out, plenty of energy, clear enough mind.

    I asked her point blank if there could be a nutritional cause and she denied it up, down, sideways, and told me NOT to take iodine under any circumstances (but didn't test for antibodies, either).

    How can they treat something they don't understand? Why was my TSH elevated? She had no answer.

    So I looked at my diet. I was pretty ketogenic at that point, and almost never hungry. When I tracked for a week and looked at caloric intake, I was eating 800 to 900 k/cal a day. Seems like THAT would slow a body down!

    So I increased my calories by increasing the fat. I try to get 1100 to 1200 per day. Surprise, my TSH is now around 3. When I saw the endo again, she said that she thought I was doing very well on the meds she gave me--only I wasn't taking them. I was just eating more calories. But according to her, that has nothing to do with it.

    I still have NO symptoms. I understand that my TSH should ideally be a little lower. But I once took thyroid meds after being very ill, which I think really messed up my thyroid, and I felt HORRIBLE--buzzy, tachycardic, etc. I'm feeling great where I am, and I'm in mild to moderate ketosis. Nothing wrong with that.

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    1. i believe that how one FEELS is the important thing -- not what one's lab numbers are! TSH seems to be elevated if the BRAIN sees suboptimal hormone levels, but the brain isn't the source of ALL sensing apparatus.... so long as YOU feel good, i think you ARE good!

      medical schools seem to be strongholds of entrenched "knowledge." if certain info is in a textbook, it's treated as gospel even when it's demonstrably incorrect. :-( i really have to wonder why the medical industry is SO adamantly anti-nutrition when it comes to wellness???

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    2. I know I would never know as much as a trained health professional or a nutritionist about metabolic pathways and a human physiology. I truly value their knowledge(I wish I had it), even though it doesn't always allow them to give the right advice to their patients. I had to tackle on my own migraine problem and to be really pro-active in my low thyroid treatment and in the dealing with the worsening of my health after I turned 45. My (and everybody's else who does the same ) advantage in finding solutions comes from the fact that no one can listen to my body better then I.

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    3. it sometimes seems that "health professionals" don't really care if their clients feel lousy -- they just write the correct prescription according to their training, and as long as the lab numbers look good they're content. :-(

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  5. Have to say Tess when I saw 'that article' I just had a hunch you would write about it, and yes I was right.

    You have explored, read, researched and experienced, and that goes for a lot when you can share first hand experience with and to others.

    All the best Jan

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    1. oh, dear -- does that mean i'm too predictable? ;-)

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  6. G'day Tess, I've heard a few people (including Krauss) suggest that saturated fat promotes iron absorption. I wouldn't know, do you have an opinion? Ta.

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    1. i think i've heard the same thing. i'm firmly of the belief that vitaminC boosts absorption, too.

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    2. Saturated fat doesn't seem to have helped me absorb iron.

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    3. perhaps it's just that heme-iron is more absorbable, and it COMES with saturated fat....

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  7. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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    1. ^^^some people just don't understand when they're not welcome....

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