Help with my thyroid

[starlight]

Hi Shelley,

I've recently discovered that my TSH level is 4.16, and am only NOW discovering that that is "high", which means my thyroid is underactive. My mother had a thyroid problem when I was a teenager, and I can remember having to go to the dr. and drink radioactive iodine! I can't believe they would even do such a thing! But, apparently, that still happens even today! Now, I've researched a lot on this subject, and to me, it seems I would have the HYPO, the underactive. I'm a little worried, because being that my mother had OVER active, I hope I don't end up with that instead, I know thyroid problems run in the family too, but what I wonder is, would I have to get the same TYPE as she did, or a diff. type? Like I said she had HYPER, and I THINK i have HYPO....now when I saw my GYN last, on Feb. 7th, he was the one that discovered that my thyroid gland was SLIGHTLY enlarged. I asked him if that was a problem, he acted quite casual, shrugged his shoulders, and kept writing in my file, basically telling me it's not a big deal. So, I thought..ok.

Now, since I belong to Power Surge, a site for perimenopausal women, I've been told that my TSH of 4.16 is "high", and that is indicitive of HYPO, or underactive thyroid, and many of the women there have this, since apparently, this is common amoung women my age. Now....I am going to make anohter appt. to see him again, to see if the enlarged thyroid has gone back to normal size, HOPEFULLY, but whether it has or hasn't, I need to kow what I can do for this NATURALLY! I'd rather deal with this using herbs, or whatever, instead of taking pills, and dear God..NOT RADIOACTIVE IODINE....what is your opinion on that iodine stuff anyway? That can't be good! I know they give that to people to KILL OFF thier poor thyroids! I have looked at the symptms list of HYPO, and I do seem to fit in there, the only thing that scares me, is that on the HYPER list of symptoms, it lists heart palps as one of the symptoms.....and as you know...I've had heart palapatations and irregular heartbeats since 1992, so I don't know if that would be from that or not. When I see him, hopefully I can even GET an appt. sometime soon....I'm going to insist he order a bloodtest for antibodies, because he didn't do that last time, and that is supposed to tell me if I have this thyroid problem, right? Now, how would he know if it's HYPER or HYPO, symptoms only? Shelly, I'm going to post my thyroid numbers here for you to read, and tell me what you think:

TSH......................4.16........................0.35-5.50...............ulU/mL

THYROID PANEL 1

T3, UPTAKE............30..........................23.0-36.0

T4 (Thyroxine).........7.6..........................4.5-12.0................ug/dL

FREE THRYOXINE
INDEX ............2.3.........................1.0-4.3.................ug/dL


now that's all he ran.....he didn't do any "free T3, or T4" whatever that is.....I don't seem to have any symptoms otjer than the heart palps from the symptom list of HYPER, I don't loose weight easily (i wish i did...lol), and i don't have bulging eyes etc.....I can't remember now where the "enlarged thyroid" symptom was listed, under the Hyper, or HYPO....I 'll hav to recheck.

OK< shelly, thank you again........and please please please, let me knw if there is a way to deal wit hthis naturally!!!!!!!! (in fact, some of the girls on the power surge forum had even told me that a lot of the "head" symptoms I've been dealing with COULD be from the thyroid, as well as the peri....the temple pressure, off balance, etc......)

Sincerely, Starlight

[shelley]

All you have to do is start taking about .25 of Synthroid each day, get checked again in 3 months and tinker with the dosage until TSH gets between 1-3. Synthroid is fine, it's a man-made version of something the body creates. Nature doesn't create it herself outside of the human body, she needs help from humans. The so-called "natural" solutions don't work consistently.

Hypo can cause enlarged, as can hyper.

[starlight]

Shelly,


what do you think of my numbers? as you know, they lowered the "norm" down to 3.0 ... so am i an any danger here?

Also, it's hard to believe that there isn't a natural way to deal wit hthis, I mean, what did women do BEFORE we invented all this synthetic stuff?
Our grandmothers, and great grandmothers must have done SOMETHING, right? Now, I know, you'll probably say, yes, they suffered,,,,,ok, I'm sure they did, but then again, there had to be some kind of way to deal with this. I've looked up natural remedies on Google, and there are some products that are natural herbal things, they're not good at all then?

Also....one other quest. that has nothing to do with this..LOL

i've been getting bloodshot eyes again, it used to happen when I'd get up after sleeping for a while, and I'd see my LEFT eye, bloodshot, sometimes light bloodshot, other times, pretty darn red! Now, I'm noticing that it can happen anytime! OK, any thoughts on this?

thanks again Shelley...............Starlight

[shelley]

No, no danger.

No. no natural way works and you thinking that "natural" means anything, or is automatically better, is a complete fallacy.