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UNDERACTIVE THYROID

What is hypothyroidism?

This condition describes an under activity of the thyroid gland, which is located in the neck. It produces hormones that play a very important role in the cell metabolism and its function is vital for every cell and tissue in our body. Therefore, when it malfunctions, it can affect many systems and organ, give rise to a wide range of symptoms and make someone very ill.

What goes wrong?

The thyroid is a very sensitive organ, which is easily affected by our emotions, stress, trauma, and environmental factors. It responds by either producing too much of the hormones it secretes, or not enough. Our body will change quite considerably depending on how well the thyroid gland is performing.

Hypothyroidism

This is when the thyroid is not producing sufficient levels of hormones. This often causes fatigue, inability to lose weight, poor immunity, constipation, insomnia, poor memory & concentration, and often other symptoms as well.

The mainstream treatment, Thyroxine or levothyroxine, only replaces one of the hormones that an underactive thyroid is not producing in sufficient amounts. This can be very helpful, but has to be taken forever and does nothing to help the thyroid gland itself. Many people on Thyroxine find that it improves their health to some extent but does nothing to improve the rest of their symptoms.
Furthermore, because it is artificially produced, as opposed to the body’s natural form of it, the cells do not always absorb and use it effectively. This can mean that, even by increasing the dosage, you may still suffer with some insufficiency symptoms (e.g. fatigue, depression, poor immunity). But also, the Thyroxine that is not absorbed in the tissues, circulates in the blood, (which is often why re-tests show healthy levels of thyroxine) and can cause symptoms of HYPERTHYROIDISM. The result is a person suffering with symptoms of excess (palpitations, anxiety, insomnia, headaches etc) as well as insufficiency (fatigue, weight gain, depression etc) which puzzles them and their GP and no further solution is found other than prescribing further medication for problems like the palpitations, depression and headaches. A number of these people are diagnosed as having ME (Myalgic Encephalitis or Chronic Fatigue).

OVERACTIVE THYROID

This is the opposite of hypothyroidism, the thyroid produces surplus amounts of hormones and the body is over-stimulated. .

The person often complains of feeling hot, sweating excessively, insomnia, weight loss, but symptoms vary from person to person.

How can herbal medicine help?

Blood tests are not always accurate in giving an indication of thyroid function. A lot of people whose blood tests show levels of the thyroid hormones that are considered as healthy will suffer with symptoms of excessive or insufficient function and yet will be denied orthodox treatment on the basis of the blood tests.

However, these levels vary depending on the country and over time, which shows how unreliable they are.

Why use Herbal Medicine?

Herbal medicine helps the body in the long-term by re-balancing its functions as opposed to just temporarily relieving the symptoms, as a lot of orthodox drugs do.
Herbal medicine is safe, natural, effective and carries very rare side-effects