Hypothyroidism: How to assess and Correct it

A conservative estimate is that 40% of Americans have sub clinical to advanced hypothyroidism (autoimmune); 10% of Americans are diagnosed, another 30% have symptoms but inaccurate lab tests have been unable to diagnose hypothyroidism (which is easily corrected by proper hormone therapy treatment, diet, and reduction of the consumption of toxins and pollutants).  These numbers largely correlate to Americans between the ages of 40-60, but autoimmune and subclinical hypothyroidism—just like autoimmune and Type 2 diabetes— is on the rise in children and adolescents.  This number is alarming high due largely in part to the standards of testing for hypothyroidism in most Western practices being highly inaccurate.  Due to these poor standards estimates as high as 1 in 4 people diagnosed with anxiety or depression, who have not responded to antidepressants, are misdiagnosed for hypothyroidism.  If and when hypothyroidism is diagnosed the underlying autoimmune condition—which is more often than not the root of the problem—is not diagnosed until the body has almost or completely destroyed the thyroid beyond repair.  Autoimmune hypothyroidism is a larger epidemic in the United States than diabetes (also an autoimmune and sub clinical disease of the endocrine gland system that regulates metabolism through insulin production in the pancreas).  

There is recent research that indicates that this epidemic is largely due to pollutants and toxins from developed countries that cause the immune system to turn on itself and attack healthy cells that are mistaken as foreign causing the body’s immune system to produce antibodies that attack and destroy healthy cells and organs.  

The body’s ability to produce hormones that regulate our body’s metabolism, which effects the health of every cell in the body, our cognitive function, energy level, mood, and overall health.  Environmental conditions are just beginning to be considered in exponentially rising autoimmune disorders as endocrine disruptors are being identified in the chemicals that disrupt hormone balance in everything from pesticides on our fruit and vegetables, chemicals and nutrient poor soil and fertilizer used in industrial agriculture, estrogen petrochemicals found in plastic that when heated durring shipping or storage are leached into bottled water and other plastic containers,  and fluoride in municipal tap water that has been historically used to treat patients whose thyroids were overprotective (HYPERthyroid as opposed to HYPOthyroid).  

An early detection of a thyroid problem can be detected through taking an average of basal body temperature in the morning over the course of five days.  If an average low body temperature is reported this is a high indicator of hypothyroidism and a blood work for a full thyroid panel should be sought out from a doctor who understands