Dr. Aimee Duffy: Deciphering the Telltale Signs of Thyroid Dysfunction

Hashimotou2019s vs. Hypothyroidism 0:00

Good morning. I was talking to a patient yesterday about thyroid issues, and she asked me a question, which comes first? Is it Hashimoto's or hypothyroid? And we got into this whole conversation about what actually happens, frustrating for me because your thyroid is like one of your most important organs like you can't most importantly glands and the hormones that come from your thyroids are so important and you cant live without those so why is it that we are okay with the fact that our thyroid just quit working for some reason so Yes, we can recognize that maybe the thyroid isn't working anymore and that we need to consider either some supplementation to support it or some medication to supplement or replace thyroid hormone, but why does it stop working in the first place?

Why Thyroid Function Declines 0:52

this whole conversation and I think there's so many different reasons why that might happen. Like Hashimoto's is an autoimmune disease where basically your own body starts reacting against your thyroid and it can create, I call it Dennis the Menace, it gets in there and just messes with things. So sometimes it could be stimulating and cause some hyperthyroid in the beginning and then a lot of times we use the term quote burned out and your thyroids stops working eventually and you have to go on some sort of thyroid replacement.

Other times, there could be reasons why your thyroid gets tired, like adrenal dysfunction. So when you use a lot of cortisol, then you end up making your thyroid work a little bit harder, is my thought process. But there's a very strong connection between your Thyroid and your adrenal glands. Sometimes your Thyroid isn't working because your adrenals aren't. And that can happen when we are younger and a lot of times in very young people, like teenagers and stuff, hypothyroid is usually caused by Hashimoto's, but as we get older, definitely we can see some Hashimoto's but also see more of adrenal dysfunction.

Common Thyroid Symptoms 1:57

And then as get into menopause, it's very common for us to see thyroid dysfunction in women, particularly as they get old. Because there's also a connection between your hormones, especially estrogen, and thyroid. So there's a lot of intricate connections in there. Then you might go, is it my thyroid? What are those symptoms? And a lotta people recognize fatigue or weight gain or inability to lose weight as thyroid symptoms. We also maybe see hair loss, we see thinner skin, We see dry skin. Everything slows down.

Sometimes we can see constipation. I had somebody complain about their vision yesterday that they felt like their eyes were just really tired. And then when we supported their thyroid, that symptom got better. So there's a lot of different things going on, and then we can get really deep into testing your thyroid. But I think it's really important to look at the bigger picture. Yes, you may have a thyroid dysfunction, or maybe you're feeling all the thyroid symptoms, but yet your TSH, which is something that traditional medicine

Testing Beyond a Normal TSH 2:57

tests for, is normal. There's so many different things that we can talk about with thyroid. If you feel like your thyroid's not working, but you've told it's normal, there's definitely other things we could look at that are affecting your ability for your Thyroid hormone to hit your tissues and work in your body the way it supposed to. Reach out, give us a call if you want to look a little bit further or have any questions about maybe is your thyroid causing you some symptoms or what you can do differently?

Are you taking the right supplements? Is your medication at the place not working but you've told it's normal? There's definitely other things we can look at that are affecting your ability for your Thyroid hormone to hit your tissues and work in your body the way it supposed to. Reach out, give us a call if you want to look a little bit further or have any questions about maybe is your thyroid causing you some symptoms or what

Treatment Options and Next Steps 3:48

you can do differently? Are you taking the right supplements? Is your medication at the place? There are different types of medications that we use for thyroid support as well. So there's all kinds of conversations we can have related to thyroid stuff. Holler, if you have any questions or anything, I hope you guys have a fabulous day and we will see you soon.