THYROID DISEASE AND ITS HEALING

Dr. Lawrence Wilson is a Nutrition and Lifestyle Consultant at Scottsdale and Prescott, Arizona, course author and instructor at University of Natural Medicine, Santa Fe, New Mexico and  Westbrook University, Aztec, New Mexico; Author for the Eck Institute Bulletin (a monthly bulletin for physicians), Eck Institute of Applied Nutrition and Bio-Energetics, Ltd., Phoenix, Arizona. He is also a consultant at Analytical Research Laboratories, Phoenix, Arizona. He has a medical degree but he chooses, however, to work as a nutrition consultant. What he is famous with is his work and articles on different health topics like: How Nutrition Affects Emotions and Behavior, Toxic Metals, Nutrition and Energy, Biochemical Basis of Positive Thinking, Behavior and Learning Disorders and Nutrition, Sauna Therapy, Tissue Mineral Analysis and Nutritional Aspects of Arthritis, Allergies, Candida Albicans, Developmental Disorders and other health conditions. His website provides a lot of information about all this problems, as well as many other disease:  http://drlwilson.com/index.htm

THYROID DISEASE AND ITS HEALING

Hair tissue mineral analysis offers excellent information about thyroid activity and often very different information than blood tests. The hair assessment can be extremely helpful, especially in a common syndrome that one might call secondary hyperthyroidism.  Most confusion arises because blood thyroid tests do not reveal much about thyroid physiology. Standard tests only measure circulating hormones (T3 and T4) and pituitary stimulation of the thyroid (TSH).

 THYROID PHYSIOLOGY

 Thyroid metabolism involves four important stages:

 1) Hormone Production. To produce thyroxine (T4) requires manganese, iodine, tyrosine, cyclic AMP, vitamin C and B-complex, and other micronutrients.   Radiation toxicity, excessive oxidant stress or toxic chemicals can block hormone synthesis. Mercury and copper toxicity stimulate hormone synthesis.

 2) Hormone Release. Secretion of thyroid hormones requires sympathetic nervous stimulation. Many people have exhausted adrenals or other autonomic imbalances that may affect the sympathetic nervous system.

 3) Absorption into the Cells. Once released into the blood, T4 must be absorbed into the body cells. For this to occur, the cell membranes must function properly. Accumulation of biounavailable calcium and magnesium excessively stabilize cell membranes and reduce cell permeability. Deficient calcium and magnesium cause excessive cell permeability. Oxidant stress or impaired fatty acid metabolism or other damage to cell membranes can also block absorption of thyroxine.

Copper affects absorption by altering calcium and potassium levels. Cadmium or nickel toxicity affect hormone absorption by affecting the levels of calcium, sodium and other critical minerals.

 4) Utilization in the Mitochondria. Once inside the cells, thyroxine must be converted to to T3 and utilized in the mitochondria. Potassium plays a role in sensitizing the mitochondria to thyroid hormone. Fluorides in drinking water and chlorides found in bleaches used to make white flour are powerful inhibitors of thyroid hormone utilization. They interfere with iodine metabolism. Substances in soy and in raw cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli also inhibit thyroid hormone utilization. The worst foods for one's thyroid are soy products and foods made with white flour. Many packaged foods processed with water contain high levels of fluorides that have found their way into water supplies.

Cells must also be able to respond to thyroid hormone stimulation. A range of vitamins and minerals are required for energy production in the glycolysis and carboxylic acid cycles in the mitochondria. If these co-factors are missing or toxins block steps in the pathway, thyroid hormone will be ineffective in increasing energy production.

 THYROID PROBLEMS

           Imbalances can occur at any stage of the production or utilization of thyroid hormone. The concepts of hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism are incomplete and often misleading as they only relate to hormone production and release. One person might have inadequate hormone production due to radiation damage. Another produces enough hormone, but has an autonomic imbalance preventing its release.

          Another cannot transport enough hormones into the cells due to low cell permeability. Still another person might have adequate hormone production but be unable to utilize the hormones in the cells due to manganese deficiency or fluoride toxicity.

          Another may have excess hormone production due to copper or mercury toxicity and at the same time have inadequate cell permeability, causing a mixture of hypo- and hyperthyroid symptoms.

          Blood tests do not assess these factors. As a result, they miss many problems, may indicate a problem where none exists or may indicate one imbalance when the opposite condition exists at the cellular level.

          Most commonly, serum thyroid tests are normal but a thyroid imbalance is present. This may occur because the normal ranges of the blood tests are too large. TSH should not be above 3.5, yet many doctors still use 5 as the upper limit of normal. In other cases, however, the blood tests cannot detect deficiencies and toxins affecting thyroid activity.

          The most common imbalances are low thyroid effect due to impaired cell permeability in slow metabolizers and hyperthyroid symptoms due to copper or mercury toxicity of the thyroid gland. These commonly occur together causing a mixture of symptoms.

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