January – National Thyroid Awareness Month

I bet you didn’t know that there was an entire month dedicated to your thyroid, did you? But it’s true! January is dedicated every year to promoting Thyroid health and encouraging people to get to better know the little gland at the base of their throat.

According to the American Thyroid Association, there are up to 20 million Americans with some form of thyroid disease or disorder and about 60% of them don’t know it. The majority of the affected are women and if thyroid disease continues undetected, it can lead to more serious conditions like osteoporosis, infertility, cardiovascular diseases or even myxedema (mix-eh-DEE-mah) – a serious condition that starts out with extreme drowsiness, confusion, seizures and can put the sufferer into a coma.

That sounds like a good reason to get yourself checked out to me!

Be sure you know your symptoms and if you feel that anything is even slightly off, get to your general doctor for some quick blood work.

Hyperthyroidism:

• Irritability
• Nervousness
• Muscle weakness
• Sudden unexplained weight loss
• Sleeping problems
• Rapid or pounding heartbeat
• Hot flashes/night sweats
• Hair loss
• Irregular/light/missed periods

Hypothyroidism

• Extreme fatigue
• Anxiousness
• Depression
• Unexplained weight gain
• Brain fog/forgetfulness
• Always cold
• Body aches
• Irregular/heavy periods

Most thyroid conditions are treatable with medication. And there are many out there! The most common are Levothyroxine and Synthroid. Levo is just the generic of Synthroid and is much cheaper and usually the insurance-preferred one. But if neither work for you, there are many alternatives such as Armour Thyroid, Liotrix, Liothyronine, Westhroid. So do not stop trying if you’ve had trouble with just one or two types.

If your condition isn’t caused by an environmental trigger, but is instead the cause of your own body turning on itself (autoimmune), then you could have Grave’s Disease (severe hyperthyroid) or you could have Hashimoto’s Disease (severe hypothyroidism). The symptoms above are still present, but your doctor will need to run an additional antibodies test. A high level of antibodies means that your body is fighting something off and that something is usually your own thyroid. There are many books and diets out there that claim they have the formula for helping curb the autoimmune side of the disease. And while I have tried my fair share, I would recommend this book to you:

This book contains explanations about the suffered symptoms such as leaky gut, bacterial imbalance, goitrogens, hormonal imbalances, and more then provides recommended foods to help cure and even restore the health of all our systems and organs. I followed the book and felt much better after only 2 weeks! It contains easy to follow recipes, shopping lists, and more. You can click the image to find it on Amazon. I receive no compensation for your purchase — I’m simply recommending this book based on my own experiences.

I hope you encourage those you love to get checked and if you yourself are suffering, I hope that this blog and the products/foods/etc… that I recommend have been helpful to you. I wish you only the best for this new year!

Cheers!

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