MEDS! Finally, my husband read his doctor the riot act.

[greatlaurel]

57. A low or non functioning thyroid gland cannot generally be fixed by diet.

Cholesterol levels can be impacted by diet somewhat, but if you are one of those unlucky persons whose body makes way too much cholesterol then medication may be needed. My spouse has elevated cholesterol, but cannot take any of the statins. He develops muscle and tendon pain within two weeks of starting them. We are trying supplements, diet and exercise, but it is not working. We won the bad gene lottery.

Your husband really needs to see his doctor to get his thyroid levels corrected. Thyroid conditions are very serious and poorly understood. If he is taking synthroid or the generic equivalent and his TSH levels are low, make sure they test the T3 levels as well. Some people cannot process the T4 into T3 at the cellular level and need T3 supplements, as well. This is not well understood in the medical community and even some endocrinologists are not on board with that treatment. Anyway, make sure they test his T3 as well as T4 levels. The usual screening for thyroid function is to test for TSH or thyroid stimulating hormone. TSH is produced in the pituitary gland in reaction to the blood levels of T4. If you have really high TSH you are not getting enough T4 and low levels of TSH means too much T4. The comparison of these two hormone levels in the blood are how doctors monitor to make sure the person is getting the correct amounts of T4 naturally or from medication. If you are one of the people who does not properly process T4, then your TSH numbers may be out of wack and you still may not be getting enough T4 and may feel bad while seeming to be taking enough T4. My new doctor checked this out after I had complained of symptoms for years. It made a huge difference once I started taking the small T3 supplement.

Diet does play a role in thyroid function. Do you get enough iodine in your diet? Also bromine in foods can impact endocrine function. A common source of bromine in our diet are brominated wheat flours.

The doctors are trying their best. The deregulation of the pharmaceutical and medical insurance industries and moving so much drug production overseas has not helped increase our quality of care in the US. But medicine is based on scientific facts about how our bodies function. You need to educate yourself on real human physiology to understand what the doctors are doing and then you can recognize when you are not getting proper treatments or the treatments are not working to your benefit.

Good luck.