2
The Shocking and Disturbing Truths Your
Doctor Is NOT Telling You About
Hypothyroidism, Testing, and Treatments
Tom Brimeyer M.S.
3
Hypothyroidism – The
Silent Killer
My motivation for writing this report was simple… Research continues to show that hypothyroidism is an epidemic problem that potentially affects more than one hundred million people in the US alone, most of whom go entirely undiagnosed while being treated for other unknowingly related health issues such as heart disease, stroke,
cancer, diabetes, chronic fatigue, depression, autoimmune, and fertility issues, just to
name a few.
Despite the research, modern medicine continues to remain ignorant of the fact that the standard medical testing and treatment available to hypothyroidism sufferers today is far inadequate and ineffective to the point that it is practically useless. And if we continue to be complacent with and rely on inadequate and ineffective medical testing and
treatment, the idea of making marked progress against hypothyroidism, and disease in general, will remain nothing more than a fantasy. But you have the opportunity and the power to make this your reality.
In my struggles with my own hypothyroidism and health, I lost years of my life that could have easily been avoided. It wasn’t until I discovered much of the research that I’ll share with you in this report that I finally put the pieces of the puzzle together and was able to overcome my hypothyroidism and help countless others do the same.
It’s through this research that this Hypothyroidism Revolution was born and it’s up to you as a Health Revolutionary to demand better medical care. In a world where
hypothyroidism and its related diseases continue to rise year after year, it’s up to you to reverse this trend and pave the way for a healthier, happier, and better future. Not only will this affect you and your health today but this revolution is for the greater good of changing and improving the health of our future generations.
After reading this report, you WILL be smarter and more informed than your doctor. But it’s up to you to decide what you will do with this knowledge.
Where would we be today if more than a half a century ago everyone continued to accept the false idea that the world was flat?
Where would we be today if more than two hundred and fifty years ago everyone continued to accept the false idea that harnessing electricity was impossible? Where would we be today if a hundred years ago everyone continued to accept the false idea that creating an automobile was unfeasible?
Now, think about this. Where will we be tomorrow if we continue to believe the false idea that today’s medical approach and treatment is the best answer to hypothyroidism?
4 Modern medicine continues to ignore the obvious connections between hypothyroidism and many of the most deadly diseases known to man, including heart disease, cancer, as well as a number of other diseases that are rapidly rising today. Because of this, hypothyroidism continues to be the most vile silent killer today as heart disease and cancer continue to kill at unprecedented rates.
Simply looking at the
leading causes of death, it’s quite clear that heart
disease and cancer are the two leading causes of death today, and both by astronomical margins. Yet, there’s an enormous amount of research demonstrating the connection between
hypothyroidism and both of these diseases. So much so that even researchers today are noting the overwhelming evidence.
Here is an example. The following research not only proves that hypothyroidism leads to heart disease but it also mentions several other reports that have overwhelmingly proven the same exact connection.
There are even studies, like the following one, demonstrating that thyroid hormone levels dictate the severity of the heart disease as well.
Endokrynol Pol. 2005 Mar-Apr;56(2):194-202.
[The influence of thyroid hormones on homocysteine and atherosclerotic vascular disease].
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16335688
Excerpt: Several reports have appeared in the literature proving that
hypothyroidism is associated with increased risk for cardiovascular disease,
especially coronary heart disease. This increased risk for premature atherosclerosis is supported by autopsy and epidemiological studies in patients with thyroid
5 But let’s take it even one step further… There are also studies, like the next one,
demonstrating that thyroid hormone levels are the most important predictor of death from heart disease. This means that the more hypothyroid you are or become, the greater your chance of dying from heart disease.
Even if you’re one of the millions who haven’t been properly diagnosed by the poor medical testing available today, research has shown that sub-clinical or undiagnosed hypothyroidism results in the same increased risk of heart disease and death.
Int J Cardiol. 2008 Mar 28;125(1):41-8. Epub 2007 Apr 16.
Impact of subclinical thyroid disorders on coronary heart disease, cardiovascular and all-cause mortality: a meta-analysis.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17434631
CONCLUSION: The present meta-analysis indicates that sub-clinical
hypothyroidism is associated with both, a significant risk of CHD [Coronary Heart
Disease] at baseline and at follow-up. In addition, mortality from cardiovascular
causes is significantly higher at follow-up.
Intern Med. 2012;51(21):3009-15. Epub 2012 Nov 1.
A Low fT3 Level as a Prognostic Marker in Patients with Acute Myocardial Infarctions.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23124142
Excerpt: Using a multivariable Cox proportional hazards model, the fT3 level was
found to be the most important predictor of cumulative death and MACE. A Kaplan-Meier analysis revealed that those patients with low fT3 levels had higher rates of MACE and death. Conclusion: A low fT3 level, a common phenomenon in patients with acute myocardial infarctions, is a strong predictor of short-term and long-term poor prognoses in patients with acute myocardial infarctions.
Clin Cardiol. 2003 Dec;26(12):569-73.
Thyroid function is associated with presence and severity of coronary atherosclerosis.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14677810
Excerpt: Higher levels of [T3] hormone concentrations were associated with
decreased severity of coronary atherosclerosis. Higher levels of [TSH]
6 Believe it or not, this connection between hypothyroidism and heart disease has been well known for more than 70 years.
The research presented above was all conducted in the 2000’s but hypothyroidism research pioneers like Dr. Broda Barnes had proven the hypothyroidism heart disease connection as far back as the 1930’s.
Dr. Broda Barnes showed clearly through experimentation that when the thyroid gland was removed to induce hypothyroidism, heart disease developed rapidly. Yet, even today modern medicine continues to turn a blind eye and entirely ignore his research that could have been used to better prevent and treat heart disease for the past 70 years.
This trend of scientific ignorance is now continuing with cancer research as well.
The work of other brilliant scientists like Otto Warburg, who won the Nobel Prize almost a century ago for discovering and demonstrating the cellular defect that causes cancer, continues to be ignored by modern medicine to this day while more than a half a million people die of cancer every single year.
Yet, even today research continues to prove what Otto Warburg discovered so many decades ago; hypothyroidism’s role in the development of cancer.
For example, the research recognizing the role of hypothyroidism and thyroid disease in breast cancer is overwhelming. Following are just a few of the research studies that demonstrate this:
Eur J Cancer Prev. 1996 Dec;5(6):504-6. Thyroid disorders and breast cancer.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9061284
Excerpt: These findings provide clear evidence of a relationship between thyroid
disease and breast carcinoma…
Breast Cancer Res. 2003;5(5):R110-3. Epub 2003 Jun 5. Breast cancer in association with thyroid disorders.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12927040
CONCLUSION: Our results indicate an increased prevalence of autoimmune and
7 But the research is not limited to breast cancer alone. More and more research is
showing the involvement of hypothyroidism in other forms of cancer, including lung cancer.
Hypothyroidism’s involvement in the disease process doesn’t stop with heart disease and cancer. But I wanted to shed some light on these two in particular because they are responsible for nearly half of all deaths in the United States each year.
Imagine how many unnecessary deaths could be prevented by simply focusing your attention on healing your thyroid. Imagine the improvements in the quality of life.
The prevalence of other thyroid related diseases, like diabetes, which is currently the 7th leading cause of death, are rapidly increasing and more and more research is
demonstrating the involvement of hypothyroidism in diabetes today.
J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2006 Sep;91(9):3337-43.
Thyroid function is intrinsically linked to insulin sensitivity and endothelium-dependent vasodilation in healthy euthyroid subjects.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16804039
CONCLUSIONS: Thyroid function tests are intrinsically linked to variables of insulin
resistance and endothelial function.
Br Med J. 1978 January 28; 1(6107): 210–212. Thyroid function in lung cancer
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1602576/
Excerpt: Overall, the pattern of thyroid hormone metabolism in lung cancer was a
tendency towards reduced T3 concentrations with significantly increased T4/T3 ratios and modestly increased 3,3′,5′-triiodothyronine (rT3) concentrations… These data suggest that thyroid hormone metabolism is altered in patients with lung cancer by decreased 5′-monodeiodination of T4.
Thyroid. 2005 Nov;15(11):1253-9.
Hypothyroidism might be related to breast cancer in post-menopausal women.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16356089
Conclusion: Hypothyroidism and low-normal FT4 are related with an increased risk
8
Hypothyroidism is truly the most deadly silent killer.
The health of your thyroid is the most important factor in your overall health, and hypothyroidism plays a direct role in the development heart disease, cancer, and so
many major diseases of today.
Every single cell of your body relies heavily on thyroid hormone because without thyroid hormone, your cells cannot produce the energy they need to function properly and remain healthy.
Think about it like this. If electrical system in your car wasn’t able to produce an adequate amount of energy to keep your car running, your car would stop functioning and eventually die.
The same is true for your cells and organs.
Without adequate thyroid function, your cells and organs can’t generate the energy they need to continue running, and your cells eventually become diseased and begin to die. Just think about the major implications that hypothyroidism can have on your health. Many of your body’s most vital organs including your brain and heart rely heavily on your thyroid to maintain their energy and continue to function properly 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Without adequate thyroid function, these vital organs struggle to function properly.
Hopefully it’s becoming clearer to you that your thyroid is directly responsible for the health of every cell, organ, and tissue within your body. And when thyroid function is impaired, every cell, organ, and tissue becomes susceptible to failure and disease. The health of your thyroid is far more important to your overall health than you realize.
How Hypothyroidism Became So Mis/Undiagnosed
One thing I’ve always found very interesting when talking with people about
hypothyroidism is the large number of people who believe or suspect that they are hypothyroid even when their doctor and testing clearly show that they are not. It may be entirely intuitive for some. For others it’s often a strong connection of their symptoms with the many symptoms of hypothyroidism.
Regardless of the connection, I’ve found that most people are correct with their self diagnosis because of the poor testing methods used today.
9 Up until the late 1940’s, hypothyroidism was successfully diagnosed and treated based primarily on a number of common symptoms and oftentimes on your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). Your BMR is entirely dependent upon your thyroid function.
Doctors would determine your BMR by measuring your body’s oxygen consumption, which would indicate your body’s rate of metabolism. An inefficient use of oxygen was clearly a sign of hypothyroidism.
Another one of the common symptoms oftentimes used to diagnose hypothyroidism was cholesterol levels. Research studies at that time, and still today, showed that your cholesterol levels were directly correlated to your thyroid function.
When thyroid function is low, cholesterol levels rise. When the thyroid is stimulated to normal levels, cholesterol levels fall to within normal range. And so doctors began using elevated cholesterol levels as another
indicator of hypothyroidism.
The relationship between thyroid and cholesterol is easily explained through a basic understanding of the human body. Your body requires cholesterol, thyroid hormone, and vitamin A in order
produce the hormone pregnenolone. Pregnenolone is a very important hormone because it is the precursor to all of the highly protective steroid hormones including two very important ones, DHEA and progesterone.
When you are hypothyroid and lack
thyroid hormone, then your body can’t convert cholesterol as it normally would. Thus, your cholesterol builds up as a protective mechanism in attempt to stimulate the production of more protective hormones.
At that time, the diagnosis was conclusive based on therapeutic trials. You would be treated for hypothyroidism while your measureable indicators (BMR, temperatures, cholesterol, etc.) were charted over time. If your symptoms improved as your indicators normalized, then the diagnosis was confirmed and treatment would continue.
Based on these well accepted methods that were used at the time,
hypothyroidism was commonly diagnosed and treated in 40-45 percent of the population.
10 Then, things quickly changed in the late 1940’s when a new “scientific” test for
hypothyroidism was introduced and promoted within the medical community. This particular test measured Protein Bound Iodine (PBI) in the blood, which was claimed to be a more accurate indicator of hypothyroidism. However, this was not the case.
During the time when PBI testing became the gold standard, the rate of diagnosis of hypothyroidism dropped significantly to 5 percent.
The other 35 percent were then being diagnosed as various other conditions such as overeating, mental illness, and unexplained disease.
By the time that PBI testing was exposed as being very inaccurate, the medical community had already adopted this false belief that hypothyroidism existed in only 5 percent of the population. And so, this false statistic was carried over to newer forms of thyroid testing such as today’s “gold standard” measurement of Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH).
When the reference ranges for the TSH test were established they were grossly inaccurate because they were made to fit this false 5 percent statistic instead of being based on true statistical values. So, even to this day, the reference ranges used for TSH testing do not make a bit of sense.
As a result, 35-40 percent of today’s population is hypothyroid and misdiagnosed by their doctor. So, unfortunately, they are being treated with a lifetime of
prescription drugs to cover up their symptoms instead of being treated to correct the underlying cause of their problems.
Even today, according to the National Endocrine and Metabolic Diseases Information Service… “About 5 percent of the U.S. population has hypothyroidism.”
If you understand statistical distributions, as you can see from the image to the right that based on the revised 2003 “normal” TSH reference ranges that the prevalence of hypothyroidism must statistically be at least 20 percent. This is not debatable, this is purely mathematics.
This only goes to show you that even today the medical community continues to ignore the true statistics as the same 5 percent estimation continues to be thrown around and accepted as accurate.
11 It is because of major problems like this that it is important for you to take an active role in your own health. Otherwise, you are relying entirely on a medical system that fails to understand the underlying cause of your health problems.
Some of the leading hormone researchers today are arguing the danger and validity of today’s newest “normal” TSH reference range of 3 microIU/L. They believe that the TSH level of a truly healthy thyroid is closer to, or even less than, 1 microIU/L. And that translates into a far greater prevalence of hypothyroidism, which more closely matches the 40-45 percent diagnosis that we seem to somehow have forgotten long ago.
The Truth & Understanding of Hypothyroidism
One of the biggest misconceptions today is that hypothyroidism is merely a problem with your thyroid gland. It is this type of over-simplified thinking that has gotten modern medicine in trouble to begin with. Doctors are trained to believe that hypothyroidism is simply caused by a lack of thyroid hormone and that giving thyroid medication is the sure, quick, and easy fix.
But millions of people using thyroid medication every single day still complain of every hypothyroidism symptom in the book, and when you question your doctor, the typical response is that your symptoms are all in your head.
The truth is that the health of your thyroid is far more involved than just the thyroid gland itself. There’s an intricate thyroid hormone pathway with multiple working components, which all must be working properly together for your thyroid to
function as it should and for you to be healthy.
It’s like trying to fill a bucket with water from a kinked garden hose. If there’s a kink in the hose, you can turn the water pressure up as high as you want, but water can’t flow through the hose to fill the bucket.
The same is true for your thyroid. The only thing that matters is getting the right thyroid hormone to your cells. You can take all of the thyroid medication or hormones you want, but if there’s a kink anywhere along your thyroid hormone pathway, you won’t get the thyroid hormone to your cells and you will continue to remain hypothyroid regardless.
This is one of the biggest downfalls of thyroid testing today. It
doesn’t tell you the most critical piece of information that matters more than anything else; whether or not you’re getting any water into your bucket, or in other words, whether or not you’re getting enough thyroid hormone to your cells.
12 This is something that I continually drum into my clients because it’s critical for them to understand as they are going through the process of healing their thyroid. This isn’t about just popping some pills and expecting miracles to occur. This is more about
removing the kinks and giving your thyroid everything that it needs to do its job properly. You can do all of the testing you want, but it doesn’t tell you the most important
information that you need to know. You can use all of the supplements or thyroid medication you want, but it doesn’t mean that you can get that thyroid hormone to your cells where it is needed.
Regardless of how or why your thyroid hormone pathway becomes kinked, if you can’t get the right thyroid hormone to your cells then you will remain hypothyroid until you address and correct the underlying cause(s) and undo all of the kinks that are suppressing your thyroid.
The
Shocking
Truths About Thyroid Testing
In today’s society, we are raised with the idea that doctors are infallible. From a young age we are taught to trust everything that our doctor tells us, and that if we do, it is always for the benefit of our health.It’s time to learn the truth.
Remember, that chart above produced by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) showing the leading causes of death? Well, they forgot a big one.
The leading study on preventable medical errors estimates that there are 180,000 deaths every year due to medical error, among Medicare beneficiaries alone. This isn’t even accounting for those who use other forms of insurance outside of Medicare. By this statistic alone, this puts doctors at the third leading cause of death in the
United States, right behind heart disease and cancer.
Department of Health & Human Services – Office of Inspector General Adverse Events In Hospitals: National Incidence Among Medicare
Beneficiaries
https://oig.hhs.gov/oei/reports/oei-06-09-00090.pdf
Excerpt: An estimated 1.5 percent of Medicare beneficiaries experienced an event
13 I’m in no way saying that you should not trust your doctor. However, the days of simply placing your health into your doctor’s hands are over.
Today, we have to take our health into our own hands and become educated so that we can make the right decisions for our health instead of relying on a failing medical
system.
I mentioned previously how the standard thyroid testing used today is leaving millions of people undiagnosed, but even that is only scratching the surface of why standard
thyroid testing is so unreliable today.
Let’s discuss some of the shortcomings of the most widely used thyroid test today.
Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH) Testing
The TSH test is what most medical doctors use to diagnose hypothyroidism today. As I mentioned previously, this test is based on grossly exaggerated “normal” reference ranges that have led to a chronic under-diagnosis of hypothyroidism.
It’s not only a matter of bad science, but bad math as well. The first established “normal” reference ranges for this test were statistically established so that only 5% of the
population would fall outside of the normal range and therefore be diagnosed with hypothyroidism. They forced the reference ranges to fit their false belief that only 5% of the population suffered from hypothyroidism.
Based on prior decades of confirmed diagnoses it was widely understood at the time that hypothyroidism affected as much as 45% of the population. Although that is a big part of the problem, it is really only part of the problem.
There’s a whole other piece of the puzzle that gets completely overlooked when relying entirely on TSH measurements alone.
Imagine again, if you will, that you’re trying to fill a bucket with water from a kinked garden hose. Because the hose is kinked, no water can flow through the hose to fill your bucket.
Regardless of how high you turn up the water pressure, the water can’t get past the kinks in the hose.
TSH is really just a measure of the water pressure. When your cells need more thyroid hormone then TSH generally rises to increase the flow of thyroid hormone. But if there’s a kink in your thyroid hormone pathway, then you still won’t be able to get thyroid
14 What’s important to understand is that there are a number of extraneous factors that can effectively turn down the water pressure and lower TSH without addressing and correcting the kinks to your thyroid hormone pathway. So, you can manipulate and lower your TSH a number of ways, but that doesn’t mean that you’re getting the right thyroid hormone to your cells or that your thyroid function has improved.
In many cases there are extraneous hormonal influences that can lower your TSH level and make it appear as if your thyroid is functioning normally, while in reality you are still very hypothyroid.
Some of these include the hormonal influences of… Aging
Excessive Stress or Cortisol Infection
Pain or Trauma Poor Dietary Choices Caffeine Fever Adrenaline Somatostatin Dopamine or L-dopa Amphetamine
Feedback Effect of Thyroid Hormones
Regardless of whether you realize it or not, most hypothyroidism sufferers who are treated using the standard medical treatment today of prescribing inactive T4 thyroid hormone medications like Synthroid or Levothyroxine are directly experiencing the feedback effect of thyroid hormones.
Simply taking a T4 only thyroid medication will effectively lower TSH, but most people have a kink in their thyroid hormone pathway that prevents them from converting that T4 into the active T3 thyroid hormone that their cells need. So, they medicate and
effectively lower their TSH, but they continue to fail to deliver the right thyroid hormone to their cells and remain hypothyroid regardless of what their test indicates.
This is one of the biggest downfalls of modern thyroid testing today and will be discussed in more detail a little later in this report.
There are even studies showing that 90% of hypothyroidism sufferers treated with the standard medical treatment continue to suffer from fatigue and various other
15 I’ve had a number of clients who have been told by their doctor that they needed to see a psychologist because their TSH was within normal range and they continued to complain that their symptoms had not improved with treatment.
One client in particular came to me in tears because her doctor literally called her a liar to her face because despite medical treatment she continued to complain of fatigue and that she still wasn’t able to lose weight no matter what she tried. By simply monitoring her temperature and pulse, she was able to understand that her medication wasn’t working and that she still had all of her symptoms because she continued to be just as hypothyroid as she was prior to treatment. Once we addressed the kinks in her thyroid hormone pathway, she was amazed by the difference.
So, as you can see, it is not always so cut and dry. There are many factors that affect your hormones and that make it impossible to rely on the level of one single hormone (TSH) to tell a much bigger story. It is definitely not enough evidence to rule out hypothyroidism, especially when your symptoms say otherwise.
Additional Thyroid Testing
Few doctors understand the inadequacies of TSH testing and are even willing to run additional lab testing to see more of the bigger thyroid picture.
While this is a step in the right direction, and additional thyroid testing can provide more insight into the bigger picture, it still does not answer the most important question you need to know; whether or not thyroid hormone is able to get to your cells properly. As I have mentioned many times, you can supplement or medicate all of the thyroid hormone you want, but if you can’t get the right thyroid hormone to your cells, it’s a lost cause.
So, we really don’t have much choice but to take matters into our own hands and
become educated as to all of the testing options available. Believe it or not, there is a far more reliable and more accurate test that your doctor is not telling you about and you don’t even need your doctor to do it.
The good news for you is that I’m going to show you the best way to test your thyroid function and answer the most important question that you need to know.
By monitoring your temperature and pulse you can effectively measure your metabolism and thyroid function. Instead of measuring the water pressure of the hose, which isn’t accurate by any means, you’re directly measuring the amount of water that is getting into your bucket, or in other words, the amount of thyroid hormone getting to your cells.
16 Dr. Broda Barnes provided the research demonstrating just how effective monitoring your temperature can be, which I discuss in detail in my free report entitled, The Best Test for Hypothyroidism - Test From Home, For Free, and In 10 Minutes or Less.
The
Harmful
Truths About Thyroid Treatments
When it comes to treating hypothyroidism, most people fall into one of two groups. The first group consists of those who are treated by their doctor using thyroid medication. The other group consists of the ones who choose to treat themselves, most commonly with natural supplements.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but in general, neither is effective and both can actually cause far more harm to your thyroid and your health than you realize. I’m going to discuss the two most popular treatment options out there that really deserve more attention because they can have some major health implications.
T4 (Thyroxine) Supplementation
For decades, doctors have been prescribing T4, the non-active form of thyroid, to patients. They do so with the belief that it will easily be converted into T3, the active form of thyroid that your cells can use, and as a
result, it will alleviate your hypothyroidism.
This includes prescription medications such as… Synthroid Levoxyl Levothyroxine Unithroid Eltroxin Levaxin Norton Eutrosig Oroxine
But, unfortunately, it’s just not that easy.
I want to introduce you to one of the most important research studies that your doctor is likely unaware of.
17 This research study analyzed both the symptoms and the active T3 thyroid hormone levels between untreated hypothyroid patients and patients that were treated with the standard T4 only medication that is used today.
The results of this study show just how ineffective the standard T4 only medical treatment is.
For starters, this study revealed that 90% of T4 treated patients continue to suffer from fatigue despite more than 3 years of treatment.
But let’s look at this even further…
According to the table above, taken directly from this study, the “Symptoms score” for the T4 treated patients were actually higher than those of the untreated patients. So, not only do T4 treated patients show no improvement, their symptoms tend to be slightly more severe than even untreated patients.
Also, according to the table above, the measured active T3 thyroid hormone levels of the T4 treated patients were not significantly different than those of the untreated patients. So, we know that these patients being treated with the standard medical approach are not getting the right thyroid hormone to their cells and they are still effectively hypothyroid regardless of their test results.
As seen in the above study, T4 treatment will effectively lower TSH, but in most cases, it does not improve thyroid function.
Journal of Nutritional & Environmental Medicine, Volume 11, Number 3, 1 September 2001 , pp. 159-166(8)
Thyroid Insufficiency. Is Thyroxine the Only Valuable Drug?
http://www.hypothyroidismrevolution.com/research/Is-Thyroxine-the-Only-Valuable-Drug.pdf
Results: The group of 89 patients, treated elsewhere with T4, but still complaining
of symptoms of hypothyroidism, did not really differ from the group of untreated hypothyroid patients as far as symptoms and 24 h urine free T3 were concerned.
18 Imagine yourself in pain and bleeding to death from a gaping wound and your doctor telling you that you’ll be fine while just sending you home with a prescription for pain meds to mask the pain. You can use all of the pain meds you want and you might feel a little better, but it doesn’t change the fact that you’re bleeding to death. The pain meds are just covering up the more serious problem.
Using T4 only medication does practically the same thing. It can effectively lower TSH and mask your hypothyroidism from standard testing, but it doesn’t change the fact that you’re still hypothyroid and that your health is still suffering big time.
While some people do get a little bit of help from the T4, there are typically many factors that inhibit the conversion of T4 to T3, and this oftentimes causes a buildup effect of T4 in your body. While this non-active T4 builds up, your body begins to slow down your thyroid even further in order to stop from adding even more T4, hence the worsening of symptoms in the above study.
So, in the end, these T4 only medications can have a negative effect on your thyroid and you can end up even more hypothyroid than when you started.
Important Note Regarding T4 Only Medication: For those who are using T4 only medication for the treatment of hypothyroidism, I do NOT recommend stopping any medication prescribed by your doctor. In some cases, this can be detrimental to your health. It is best to consult with a professional regarding the best options and how best to work with your doctor for a more effective treatment.
Iodine Supplementation
There are a lot of doctors and practitioners out there that highly recommend the use of iodine for hypothyroidism. This is also a subject that can be quite misleading for many. Many years ago, goiters, which are a definite sign of hypothyroidism, were primarily caused by iodine deficiency. But today this is quite rare. Most goiters today are actually a result of excessive estrogen and/or progesterone deficiency that prevents the thyroid gland from releasing its stored hormones.
So, while it’s true that an iodine deficiency can cause hypothyroidism, this is rarely found today in developed countries.
There are some tests out there that are still being promoted that supposedly tell you if you’re deficient in iodine for the purpose of suggesting hypothyroidism. One such test suggests that you paint a spot of iodine on your skin and if the iodine disappears quickly then this is an indicator of a deficiency.
19 The biggest problem with this test is that it lacks
scientific justification.
For example, Iodine is easily converted into iodide by many substances such as vitamin C, glutathione, and thiosulphate. Iodide naturally is completely colorless. None of these reactions indicate an iodine deficiency. It is just a natural chemical reaction.
But many people continue to use unscientific tests like this one as a way to self diagnose. This is definitely a problem, especially when it comes to iodine
supplementation.
While some scientists agree that 150 mcg (that’s micrograms… not milligrams) is a safe amount of iodine to take, many of the recommendations for iodine supplementation out there are a recipe for iodine toxicity waiting to happen.
Most of the popular iodine supplements today are recommending the use of 12.5 milligrams or more. That’s 83 times the recommended daily allowance. Many proponents of iodine therapy recommend as much as 50 milligrams to 100 milligrams of iodine daily which is 350 to 650 times the recommend daily allowance. This is a sure way to develop iodine toxicity, which is well known to be quite dangerous to your thyroid. An iodine excess like this can come with some pretty nasty side effects. Aside from the array of degenerative diseases it can cause, too much iodine can
actually cause thyroiditis and can suppress your thyroid, making you even more hypothyroid than you were to begin with.
There are plenty of studies that have demonstrated this:
Science. 1985 Oct 18;230(4723):325-7.
Induction of autoimmune thyroiditis in chickens by dietary iodine.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/4048936
Excerpt: These results suggest that excessive consumption of iodine in the United
20 Excessive iodine was once used to treat hyper-thyroidism because of iodine’s ability to suppress thyroid function. However, in hypothyroid people or people with normal thyroid function, it has the same effect and can lower thyroid function far below normal.
It’s well understood by science that getting some exposure to sunlight daily is essential for your health. But it’s also understood that excessive sunlight can be very damaging to your health. So, the idea that more is better doesn’t always hold true, especially when related to health.
The same applies to iodine. A little iodine is essential for our health, but today we get plenty of iodine from our food. Supplementing additional iodine will only cause more damage to your health.
Excessive iodine can also suppress your TSH levels without stimulating your thyroid, which is yet another reason you can’t rely on TSH testing. If you rely on TSH testing, you may be falsely led to believe that iodine is working to your advantage when in reality it is actually working against you and your thyroid.
Presse Med. 2002 Oct 26;31(35):1670-5. [Hypothyroidism related to excess iodine].
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12448334
WOLFF-CHAIKOFF'S EFFECT: The thyroid gland has a capacity to reduce thyroid
hormone production in the presence of excess iodine by reducing the organification of the iodine.
Thyroid. 2001 May;11(5):427-36.
Iodine and thyroid autoimmune disease in animal models.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11396701
Excerpt: In general, iodine deficiency attenuates, while iodine excess accelerates
autoimmune thyroiditis in autoimmune prone individuals.
Verh Dtsch Ges Pathol. 1996;80:297-301.
[Spontaneous Hashimoto-like thyroiditis in cats].
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9065031
Excerpt: Animals with excess iodide intake, however, show an aggravation of the
21
Any Treatment that Doesn’t Involve your Diet
The right supplements at the right times can be a game changer with your health, but keep in mind that they are meant only to “supplement” an already healthy diet. This is yet another area where I find a major problem with hypothyroidism.
Most people are looking for a supplement or drug that’s going to fix their thyroid. They want to pop a pill, feel great, and be done with it without having to put forth any real effort. That’s just not the way it works.
If you’re familiar with my Hypothyroidism Revolution Program, then you already understand how big of a part your diet plays in every case of hypothyroidism.
Your diet has such a big impact on your hormones and thyroid that if you don’t change your diet, then it’s pretty safe to say that you will never truly correct the underlying problem.
Your body needs the right vitamins, minerals, and nutrients in order to produce and properly regulate all of the necessary hormones in your body.
Your liver needs selenium and the right amount of sugar to convert T4 to T3, the active form of thyroid hormone. Your body needs vitamin A and thyroid hormone in order to produce the hormone pregnenolone, which is the precursor hormone to a cascade of highly protective hormones that are essential to
your health.
And aside from getting the necessary nutrients, you have to make sure that you’re not eating foods that have a negative effect on your thyroid function. For example, there are many foods, such as soy, that promote excessive estrogen in your body. And estrogen contributes directly to hypothyroidism and thyroid disease.
Another very common example is eating the wrong
kinds of fats in your diet. Studies have shown that polyunsaturated fats in your diet will block your thyroid hormone pathways on multiple levels. For starters, it directly blocks thyroid hormone secretion at the gland. It then blocks the hormone from being properly transported within your bloodstream to your cells. It even blocks the response of your cells to the hormones, therefore making the hormone far less effective.
So, it’s pretty safe to say that you should get comfortable with your health problems until you start feeding your body what it needs to correct the problem.
22
The Future of
Hypothyroidism
…
I hope that I’ve shed some light on this controversial topic of hypothyroidism for you and exposed some of the major flaws with how hypothyroidism is currently understood, diagnosed, and treated.
I think that it’s a pretty fair assessment to say that just about everything that is commonly accepted about hypothyroidism today is false. This has to change.
Hypothyroidism has become a major financial burden, not only a personal level, but on a national level as well. While modern medicine continues to ignore the severity of hypothyroidism, its related diseases including heart disease and cancer are only going to continue to rise year after year. As the rate of disease rises, medical costs and insurance premiums will continue to rise as well until eventually medical care becomes too expensive to sustain.
Look at how many people end up wiping out their entire savings along with their retirement savings because of ridiculous medical costs related to hypothyroidism. Today, medical costs are the leading cause of bankruptcy in the United States.
Imagine how many people miss out on promotions, salary increases, advancement in the workplace, or even lose their jobs because they can’t perform to their potential due to hypothyroidism.
People invest their money for retirement and other purposes in order to make their future better and brighter. Living with hypothyroidism is like investing everything you have into a sinking ship.
23 But investing in your health and healing your thyroid is one of the best investments you can make.
Showing people how to take their health into their own hands could make an
astronomical difference. Simply educating people and teaching them how to periodically monitor their own temperature in order to determine the onset of hypothyroidism would save massive amounts in unnecessary medical costs.
Doctors’ visits would be minimized because patients would not have to continuously see their doctor and run dozens of unnecessary medical tests for chronic symptoms and conditions related to hypothyroidism that their doctor can’t explain or properly treat. People would not be trapped into over-medicating themselves in an attempt to manage their various symptoms to the point that their liver becomes severely damaged, resulting in a number of other medical issues.
One client of mine was on hormone replacement therapy and five different medications when she started working with me. We were even able to determine that a couple of her medications were partially responsible for driving her hypothyroidism. Now, she’s off the hormone replacement therapy and her meds and it’s saving her thousands of dollars every year.
But most importantly, people would not feel helpless being trapped living a life of pain because their doctor has told them that their health issues are a genetic anomaly that they have no control over and need to come to terms with.
It’s time to make a change.
It’s Time for a Revolution…
I’m tired of hearing doctors tell their patients that their thyroid is permanently damaged and they’ll have to take some sort of medication for life that doesn’t even help.
I’m tired of hearing doctors tell their patients that their diet has no affect on their thyroid health.
I’m tired of hearing doctors tell their patients that their thyroid is fine and that they just need more medications to mask all of their other health complications that really stem directly from hypothyroidism to begin with.
If you want real answers, if you want a better quality of life, if you want to finally feel like yourself again, then there is something that you can do about it. But, you have no choice but to take control of your own health.
24 I discuss some simple steps that I use with all of my clients and that you can use to start taking control in my free report entitled, 7 Simple Steps to Start Saving Your Thyroid. The Founding Fathers of the United States of America started the American Revolution because they believed that freedom and a better future were worth dying for.
The Hypothyroidism Revolution is about believing in freedom of disease and creating a healthier future, but instead of having to die for it, you have to overcome hypothyroidism and live for it.
This is about paving the way for and demanding better treatment options based on up
to date research. This is about stopping the insanity and instead focusing on solving the problem instead of merely trying to sweep it under the rug.
This is about learning how to help ourselves, but more importantly, helping our children and future generations so that they don’t have to deal with a lifetime of disease and poor quality of life.
This is about the desperate mother who came to me because her four year old daughter wasn’t gaining weight, had dark circles under her eyes, was really behind in her motor and verbal development, was suffering from numerous food allergies, had chronic diarrhea, and was chronically fatigued to the point that she didn’t even want to play. In a short period of time her diarrhea stopped, her energy returned, her cheeks began to fill out, and her weight began to normalize.
This is about the mother who came to me because her five year old son wasn’t himself, was overweight, experiencing joint pain, and was chronically fatigued to the point that he refused to walk.
His energy returned, all of his symptoms diminished, and his weight began to decrease daily. I’ll never forget it when she told me that her son was finally acting like a five year old again.
If we’re going to stop the negative health trend of rising disease, then we have to stand up today, put our foot down, and say enough is enough.
We spend an estimated $150 Billion dollars every year on protecting our environment so that our future generations have a healthy place to live. But why, if our future generations are not healthy enough to even enjoy it?
25 If we can focus on the right research and with the right plan, we can learn how to
effectively address all facets of hypothyroidism that modern medicine continues to blatantly ignore.
Together, we can make a difference. To your health,
Tom Brimeyer M.S.
www.HypothyroidismRevolution.com
P.S.
– After reading this report you should understand why we can’t rely on our currentmedical system to solve our health problems. We can’t continue to rely on the
inaccurate and inadequate testing and treatment options that doctors are prescribing today.
But most importantly, you should now understand just how important the health of your thyroid truly is and how big of a role hypothyroidism plays in many of the most deadly diseases today, including heart disease and cancer.
With this knowledge, you now know more about thyroid health than your doctor. I hope that you continue to build upon this knowledge and help pave the way for a healthier, happier, and better future.
By learning how to address the underlying cause(s) of hypothyroidism we really can make a difference and take back our health in the process.
If you like what you’ve learned in this report and you want to learn more about what you can do to overcome your hypothyroidism, then you might also be interested in a free presentation that I put together outlining the 3 Step Process that I use with my clients to help them stop hypothyroidism directly at the source and take back their lives.
Click Here to Watch Your Free Presentation Explaining My
Exact 3 Step Hypothyroidism Treatment Process
2
The BEST Test for
Hypothyroidism
Test From Home, For Free, and In 10 Minutes Or less
Tom Brimeyer M.S.
www.HypothyroidismRevolution.com
Disclaimer:
The author is not a medical doctor and this information is for educational purposes only and may not be construed as medical advice. It is meant to supplement, not replace, the professional medical advice of your health care provider.
No part of this report may be sold, resold, traded, reproduced, edited, or transmitted in any format without prior consent of the copyright owner.
3
Understanding Your Thyroid Testing Options
I wrote this report for you for a number of reasons. For starters, I wanted to share with you one of the most accurate techniques for testing your own thyroid function that is being used by myself and some of the other most highly skilled thyroid practitioners out there today. I’m going to show you just how effective this technique can be if used properly and the absurd reasons why your doctor doesn’t want you knowing about it. But, I also wrote this report with the intention of helping you to save a lot of unnecessary time, money, and hassle by helping you get real answers instead of constantly getting the run around with your hypothyroidism.
No, you don’t have to be a doctor or receive extensive medical training to test your own thyroid. In fact, the less medical training you have the better, and I’ll show you why. So, let’s get right to it…
Over the past hundred years, there have been many tests that have been developed to screen for hypothyroidism and monitor the function of your thyroid. Some of the early tests were quite effective. However, over the years modern medicine seems to have taken many steps in the wrong direction with the development of more technologically advanced testing. Many of problems associated with today’s testing are covered in detail in my free report entitled, Why You Still Have Thyroid Symptoms and Why Doctors, Drugs, and Labs Are Failing You.
In this report, I’m going to focus more on the three most common thyroid testing options that are readily available today along with the advantages and disadvantages of each.
1. TSH (Thyroid Stimulating Hormone) Testing
Odds are that if you’ve been tested for hypothyroidism by your doctor, then you’ve had your TSH level measured and they may have been above “normal” (at least the medical interpretation of normal that is). This is currently the standard test that medical doctors use to diagnose hypothyroidism today. And it’s the ONLY test they typically run.
While TSH is a test that is generally covered by medical insurance and is measured simply through a blood draw, it has a number of disadvantages.
If you’re not familiar with human physiology, TSH is a hormone that tells the thyroid gland that more thyroid hormone is needed and to release more thyroid hormone into your bloodstream. So, if TSH is high then this is thought to mean that your thyroid gland is not able to produce adequate thyroid hormone, thus you must be hypothyroid.
4 Think of your thyroid like using a garden hose to fill a bucket. The faucet represents your thyroid gland, the hose represents your thyroid hormone pathway, the water represents your thyroid hormone, and the bucket represents your cells that rely on getting adequate thyroid hormone to survive and function properly.
TSH is the equivalent of the water pressure. Normally, when you turn the water pressure up then you get more water (thyroid hormone) into your bucket (cells).
But what happens if your garden hose (thyroid hormone pathway) is kinked and water (thyroid hormone) can’t get through?
You can turn the faucet on as high as you want, but regardless of how high the water pressure is you can’t get any water (thyroid hormone) into your bucket (cells).
This is one of the biggest problems with relying on TSH testing. It’s simply a measure of how stimulated your thyroid is, but it doesn’t tell you the most important piece of the puzzle that you need to know which is how much thyroid
hormone you’re getting into your cells.
TSH testing can be influenced by a number of extraneous factors unrelated to the direct function or health of the thyroid gland including:
Aging Stress Infection Blood Sugar Excessive T4 Etc.
It’s important to understand that any thyroid test is merely giving you a snapshot of your hormone levels at one single moment in time. Any factor, including the list above, can cause an immediate or drastic change in your hormone levels. So, let’s say you’re under a considerable amount of stress, you’ve caught a cold, or you didn’t have time to eat before your doctor’s appointment… these variables can affect the outcome of your test and lead to false results.
There are a number of factors that can drive TSH down to within “normal” range without actually removing the kinks in your thyroid hormone pathway or helping you to get the right thyroid hormone you need to your cells.
5 For example, doctors typically prescribe T4 only medications like Synthroid or
Levothyroxine that can easily lower TSH without actually delivering more of the right thyroid hormone to your cells or improving your thyroid function.
The most important piece of the puzzle that you need to know is how much thyroid hormone you are getting to your cells and simply looking at TSH alone is highly inaccurate and leads to millions of people suffering with either undiagnosed or misdiagnosed hypothyroidism every day.
Another reason why TSH tests are highly inaccurate is that they are based entirely on illogical reference ranges. Any lab test is only as accurate to the degree that its reference ranges are accurate. And there is a lot of evidence surrounding the illogical reference ranges that have been established for TSH.
The original TSH reference ranges were based on the results of the Protein Bound Iodine test, which was one of the many tests that have been deemed entirely inaccurate and unreliable.
So, basing TSH reference ranges on a test that was proven to be inaccurate and unreliable makes the results of the TSH test… inaccurate and unreliable at best!
2. Additional Thyroid Blood Testing
There are a number of blood tests available for measuring various factors related to the thyroid hormone pathway including TSH, T4, T3, reverse T3, T3 Resin Uptake,
Thyroglobulin, etc.
One of the biggest benefits to additional blood testing is that if you understand the physiology and roles that all of these hormones play within the human body, then you can begin to gain some insight into what the potential problems, or kinks, are that are disrupting your thyroid function.
However, they still do not answer the one single question that continues to elude modern medicine even today, which is how much thyroid hormone is actually getting to and being used by your cells.
6 Looking at these various other hormone levels in the blood is the equivalent of taking a water sample from your kinked garden hose and analyzing the quality of the water. You can analyze that water all you want but it’s still not telling you if you’re getting any of that water (thyroid hormone) into your bucket (cells).
There are a number of physiological and dietary factors that can block thyroid hormone from actually being used by your cells. Thyroid hormone can be blocked in your
bloodstream and it can even be blocked at the cell receptors themselves.
Aside from the fact that additional blood testing doesn’t give you the most important piece of the puzzle that you need to know, it’s also quite expensive and oftentimes deemed unnecessary under medical insurance standards. That’s why so many patients end up having to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars out of pocket for these labs and still continue to get nowhere with the inadequate medical treatment available today.
3. Monitoring Your Temperature and Pulse
The idea of monitoring temperature as an indicator of thyroid function is not a new concept. It has been effectively used for more sixty years and proven to be one of the most accurate indicators of hypothyroidism, even today.
As mentioned previously, one of the biggest issues with relying on blood testing,
whether it be for TSH, various other thyroid hormones, or otherwise, is that while those tests can give you insight into some of the various issues that can be disrupting your thyroid function, they fail to answer the most important question of whether or not your cells are able to get and utilize adequate thyroid hormone.
While it doesn’t give you all of the pieces of the puzzle, simply monitoring your temperature and pulse can effectively give you the most important piece.
Your thyroid is directly responsible for controlling your metabolic rate, or the rate at which your cells produce energy. When thyroid function is good, your cells are able to utilize thyroid hormone effectively and
maintain a temperature of 98.6°F (37°C) throughout the day. When you become hypothyroid and your cells are NOT able to utilize thyroid hormone properly, then your temperature will generally run lower.
By monitoring your temperature and pulse, you are effectively able to measure exactly
7 Because you are directly measuring your cells use of thyroid hormone, you are
effectively measuring the end result, which no other current medical test can measure, making this the most accurate test available.
Modern medicine today continues to completely ignore the kinks in your thyroid hormone pathway and just assumes that by simply giving you thyroid hormone
medication it will somehow magically bypass all of these kinks and get to where it needs to go. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way.
Not only does monitoring your temperature and pulse give you the most important piece of the puzzle, it’s comes with a lot of additional advantages. For example, it’s entirely free, easy to do yourself, and can be used far more effectively and accurately to track your treatment progress.
With the billions of dollars invested each year in medical research and the amazing advancements in medical technology, you would think that we would be able to diagnose hypothyroidism today with 99% accuracy. Heck, I’d even settle for 75% accuracy, but we’re still missing that mark by a long shot.
Let me tell you, computer technology today may be advancing at light speed but in many other areas of technology we’re still scratching our heads.
It reminds me of my days as an engineer when I was introduced to a navigational
program that was still using navigational technology developed by German scientists 70 years ago during WWII. For the past 70 years American scientists have been trying to improve this German design and have achieved nothing but 70 years of failure.
Sometimes, it’s a lack of knowledge that slows technological advancement, but when it comes to healthcare, more often than not, it’s ignorance that impedes progress.
In the same respect, it’s ignorance that allows us to continue to rely on inaccurate thyroid testing while ignoring a simple test that was developed more than 70 years ago to more accurately diagnose
hypothyroidism.
However, even this cloud has a silver lining. If you can learn how to take your health into your own hands and effectively test your own thyroid function better and more
accurately than your doctor, then you can use this to your advantage in treating your own hypothyroidism better and more effectively than your doctor as well.
8
Low Body Temperature and Hypothyroidism
Low body temperature is an epidemic problem. I have personally spoken with nurses and have heard stories from others in the medical field who chart temperatures all day long and who openly admit that it’s rare to find anyone today with a 98.6°F (37°C) temperature unless fever is present. In my own practice, I see the same exact thing. Low body temperature is more often than not, an indicator of hypothyroidism.
Am I saying that everyone today is hypothyroid? Of course not, but it’s well known that hypothyroid people get sick more often and are far more likely to develop health
complications and disease. So, it should be understandable that the majority of people being seen in hospitals and doctors’ offices for health problems today are far more likely to be hypothyroid.
Your thyroid is responsible for controlling and regulating a large number of functions within your body including:
Metabolism and Heat Production Circulatory System and Blood Volume Muscular Health
Nerve Health Digestive Health Health of Every Organ Health of Every Tissue Health of Every Cell
But today, we don’t even stop to consider the potential impact that thyroid health has on every function of the human body, and instead we only focus on its impact on our metabolism and our ability to lose weight.
Every cell in your body relies on thyroid hormone to produce energy and remain
healthy. When your cells use thyroid hormone, they produce more energy and therefore more heat. When your cells are starved of thyroid hormone, they produce less energy and therefore less heat. By simply measuring the heat that your cells, or body, produce at rest can give you direct insight into how much thyroid hormone your cells are using. And as I’ve mentioned many times before, TSH tests, blood tests, and all other thyroid tests DO NOT tell you how much thyroid hormone your cells are actually using, which is the only true way to accurately diagnose hypothyroidism.
9
Why Your Doctor Doesn’t Want You Taking
Your Own Temperature
If measuring your basal body temperature is so simple and effective, then why does your doctor dismiss its relevancy? There are two reasons which are quite simple… 1. Your doctor didn’t go through 8 years of schooling and 3 to 5 years of residency just
to let his or her patients self-diagnose themselves by simply using a thermometer. Of course not, and doctors understand that they have to protect their profession
because they are the so-called “experts” when it comes to your health, not you. What would the world become if people started taking a more active role in their own healthcare and demand proper treatment? So, instead of even trying to argue the relevancy of basal body temperature, modern medicine has chosen to turn a blind eye and simply ignore it altogether.
2. Healthcare today is a business. And like any business, they want to maximize their profits. How much money do they stand to make by having you take your own temperature?
Absolutely nothing…
It’s much more profitable to charge you for an office visit to draw your blood, charge you for the blood test itself, and then force you to come back to their office so that they can charge you yet again for another office visit just to read you the results of your test. Multiply this times twenty, thirty, or forty years of seeing your doctor and you’ve done your part to pay for his or her new vacation home.
Many people continue to wonder why the cost of healthcare continues to rise year after year. Unnecessary testing sure isn’t helping, nor is improperly treating people for health problems that stem entirely from hypothyroidism to begin with.
I personally know someone who was kicked out of their doctor’s practice because they requested to receive their blood test results by phone and refused to go in and pay for an office visit they didn’t see as necessary.
It’s like taking your car to a mechanic who charges you two hundred dollars to look under the hood, change your air filter, and shine your windows. If you can do it yourself for next to nothing, then why would you keep going back to the same mechanic and throwing your money down the drain?
10
The Most Accurate Test for Hypothyroidism
I want to share with you one of the easiest and most accurate ways to determine whether or not you suffer from hypothyroidism.
One of the most unfortunate aspects of this way to test for hypothyroidism is the fact that it doesn’t cost you a dime. I say this is unfortunate because the medical community shows little to no interest in testing that they cannot profit from. So, instead of accurately diagnosing the many people who are suffering from hypothyroidism, they rely on
expensive lab tests that make them a lot of money while providing very poor results.
Monitoring your Morning Temperature and Pulse
Yes, your morning temperature and pulse together are very accurate indicators of hypothyroidism, if you measure them properly.Monitoring your morning temperature was a concept that was pioneered by an American doctor by the name of Broda Barnes. Dr. Broda Barnes studied hormonal issues and argued against the medical community that hypothyroidism was widely under-diagnosed.
He spent more than 50 years researching and proving that hypothyroidism was the underlying cause of heart disease today. Even though nobody has been able to
invalidate his research, his work has been, and continues to be, completely ignored by modern medicine today.
In 1942 he published a study demonstrating the effectiveness of basal temperature in diagnosing hypothyroidism and its ability to prevent misdiagnoses that to this day continue to lead to unnecessary operations to remove the thyroid gland, leading to unnecessary severe health complications.
JAMA. 1942;119(14):1072-1074. doi:10.1001/jama.1942.02830310006003. BASAL TEMPERATURE VERSUS BASAL METABOLISM
http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=256690
SUMMARY 1. From a study of over 1,000 cases the results indicate that subnormal
body temperature is a better index for thyroid therapy than the basal metabolic rate. 2. The differential diagnosis between hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism is
sometimes difficult. In 7 cases reported the diagnosis was wrong, in 5 of which an operation had been performed. The temperature was subnormal in each case.
11 While Dr. Broda Barnes and his work were very advanced for his time, there were still some factors that morning temperatures didn’t account for. Most notably, it didn’t account for changes in air temperature.
Respected endocrine physiologist Dr. Raymond Peat discovered that in warmer
climates your morning temperature was not always the best indicator of hypothyroidism. When the air temperature around you is warm, then your thyroid doesn’t have to do much work to maintain your core temperature of 98.6°F (37°C).
It doesn’t make sense to measure your thyroid’s capacity to work during a time that it doesn’t have to work very hard.
Dr. Peat also noticed a trend of low pulse rates with those who suffered from hypothyroidism, even when their core temperatures were influenced by the warmer air temperature. But when these people took a thyroid
supplement, their pulse rates returned to normal.
So, by taking into account your morning temperature and pulse rate together, you get more accurate results than with morning temperature alone.
A Note About Your Pulse
I think that this is an important point to make because so many people have the wrong idea when it comes to understanding what a healthy pulse rate is.
For one reason or another, it is very common to think that the lower your pulse the better. However, nothing could be further from the truth.
Nutrients are delivered to your cells through your blood. The slower your pulse is, the fewer nutrients you are getting to your cells. These are nutrients that your cells need in order to function properly and maintain a healthy energized state. If your cells become starved, which is very common with hypothyroidism, they become easily damaged and dysfunctional.
Also, keep in mind that there is a point that in which your pulse is considered too high. I’ll touch on this more in a second but this is typically driven by excessive stress
12
Morning Temperature Ranges
When taking your morning temperature, for the most accurate results, you should keep a thermometer by your bedside and take your temperature before getting out of bed or moving much. Also, when using a digital thermometer, it is sometimes necessary to hold the thermometer in place for a minute or two before taking your temperature to ensure that the measurement is accurate.
A morning temperature of 97.8°F (36.5°C) or less is highly indicative of hypothyroidism. It is important to monitor your temperature and pulse again after breakfast in order to factor out the influence of adrenaline. This is because high stress hormones can give you false normal or even high temperature and pulse measurements. This is most common in people with hypoglycemia or low blood sugar. As your blood sugar drops overnight, your stress hormones rise. The stress hormone, adrenaline, will both raise your core temperature and increase your pulse rate, which can give you false
measurements in the morning.
By eating breakfast and regulating your blood sugar, your stress hormone levels will return to normal. So, re-testing 20 minutes after you eat breakfast can give you a better indication of your true thyroid function or basal metabolic rate.
If your thyroid is functioning properly, then after breakfast you should see your temperature increase from around 97.8°F (36.5°C) up to the normal 98.6°F (37°C).
If you are affected by high adrenaline levels, then you will see your temperature and/or your pulse rate fall after breakfast. If adrenaline is not an issue, then your temperature and pulse rate should rise after breakfast.
Afternoon Temperature Ranges
I also advise on monitoring temperature for a third time
around 3 p.m. in the afternoon as an indicator of thyroid function later in the day. If your thyroid is functioning properly, then after breakfast and continuing through the afternoon, your temperature should remain consistently close to 98.6°F (37°C).
If your temperature has dropped in the afternoon, this is another sign of hypothyroidism.
Pulse Ranges
According to Dr. Peat, the average resting heart rate of a healthy person is 85 beats per minute. Less healthy people have an average closer to 70 beats per minute, which oftentimes is another indication of hypothyroidism.
