It’s important to be a well-informed patient.
Learn The Facts About Thyroid Disorders
October 27, 2014 by Leave a Comment
10 Signs You Have A Thyroid Problem And 10 Solutions For It
September 11, 2014 by 32 Comments
This doctor has struggled with thyroid disease herself.
You can only truly understand what we go through with thyroid disease if you’ve lived it yourself.
The Thyroid World’s Queen T3
August 19, 2013 by
When my Free T3 levels reached the top quarter of the normal range, it was like magic. One by one my hypothyroidism symptoms disappeared. I felt so good I cried.
Optimal Free T3 changed my life. Could it change yours? [Read more…]
When Thyroid Disease Masquerades As Psychiatric Disorder
March 18, 2013 by 46 Comments
One of my most popular posts at Hypothyroid Mom was a post entitled Mental Disorder or Undiagnosed Hypothyroidism? A reader contacted me soon after the launch of my blog in October 2012 with a story that has haunted me to this day.
Dear Dana,
I found your blog Hypothyroid Mom and feel a need to contact you directly. I was an energetic successful person and in one year I fell down and literally broke. I was put in a mental health ward because I went days without sleeping, felt so tired I couldn’t function and found myself delusional and couldn’t stop the words running through my head. I was diagnosed bipolar and drugged up with medication. I saw the line of bipolar patients waiting every morning in the psych ward for electric shock therapy. The only thing that saved me from electric shock was my mother yelling NO.
For four years I was drugged up so bad that my mind wasn’t right. I told the psychiatrists and doctors that something wasn’t right with me. From 110 pounds my weight went up to 245. I was so tired, suffered pains from fibromyalgia. My heart rate was pounding at 155 and my blood pressure was through the roof. They just kept telling me I was bipolar and that I was a hypochondriac.
Finally after 4 years of bipolar medications to the max, a close family member was diagnosed with hypothyroidism so my doctor tested me too. I have a family history of thyroid disease. I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism. I’ve suffered so many of the symptoms of hypothyroidism you list on your blog for so many years.
Every single time I attend a bipolar support group I ask everyone if they are hypothyroid and every time half the people raise their hand and the other half have no clue what it is and they don’t know if they have been tested.
Jana
This post sparked so much interest that many thyroid sufferers contacted me with their personal horror stories of psychiatric disorders. I can’t stop wondering how many fellow thyroid sufferers reading this post right now are struggling with mental health issues? Is it possible that many of them have been misdiagnosed? [Read more…]
Which Is The Best Thyroid Drug For Hypothyroidism?
March 4, 2013 by 121 Comments
The biggest human temptation is to settle for too little.
-Thomas Merton
Many Hypothyroid Mom readers ask which thyroid drug is best. My answer is always the same, “I wish there was one thyroid drug that worked for all of us but the reality is that we each react differently to the different medications. We must work closely with our doctor to investigate which treatment is ideal for us and what dosage is optimal.” The key is that you must know all the treatment options to ensure your doctor is exploring the options to find what’s right for you. If you are being treated with thyroid hormone replacement medication but you still don’t feel well, insist on further exploration. If you are still not feeling well, get a second opinion, a third opinion, even ten medical opinions until you find a doctor that explores the options to find what’s right for YOU.
Don’t settle. [Read more…]
Thyroid Hormone Replacement Drug Madness!
December 17, 2012 by 10 Comments
I’ve received countless messages from Hypothyroid Mom followers around the world suffering from symptoms of hypothyroidism while on T4-only drugs, including Levothyroxine, Synthroid, Levoxyl, Oroxine and Eltroxin. Doctors refuse to test Free T3 and thyroid antibody levels. Doctors refuse to work with patients who are currently on natural desiccated thyroid and refuse to accept them as patients unless they switch to T4-only medications. Doctors refuse to prescribe natural desiccated thyroid even though their patients are suffering debilitating even life-threatening symptoms on their current T4-only meds. While mainstream doctors are focusing solely on T4-only medications, they are missing the bigger picture in hypothyroidism treatment options and leaving their patients suffering. What in the world is going on? [Read more…]
