Many women are surprised to find out that their symptoms such as fatigue, memory loss, depression, chilliness, hair loss and weight gain may be due to an underactive thyroid. In fact, in my experience as a health care practitioner, such a condition can exist even when a blood lab has confirmed the person as "normal". In my opinion this is often because the doctor did not order a complete thyroid panel and/or because the level for healthy functioning is more narrow than the range deemed as "normal". This means that woman will have many symptoms and feel poorly long before she is diagnosed by a regular doctor and during this time her gland is actually slowly diminishing in function.
In the realm of fertility thyroid plays an important part in maintaining a normal menstrual cycle and in allowing a woman to hold a pregnancy. Often when a woman has had trouble conceiving I will have her take her basal body temperature, or chart her temperatures first thing every morning. If her temps are below 97 degrees Fahrenheit and she has other symptoms, I will suspect a thyroid issue and want to get that in balance. Sometimes I will send her to her regular doctor for testing or treatment, but often this isn't enough. Even if the woman takes synthetic hormones like Synthroid she is not actually nourishing the thyroid gland itself. In fact supplementing hormones like this is sometimes believed to make the gland lazy. For this reason, I will recommend high quality supplements like Thytrophin by Standard Process and Thyroid Complex by Mediherb that use whole foods without hormones to help the gland to regenerate if necessary and function more optimally.
If you suspect you or someone you love has a thyroid issue please visit http://www.santarosa-acupuncture.com for more info or call (707) 775-8311 to speak to Kat Delse Mardirous, L.Ac. to speak about how her services may help you.
