# Newly diagnosed and confused.



## c777 (Aug 17, 2016)

After over a year of struggling with debilitating symptoms I have finally recently been diagnosed with Hypothyroidism. Hoping this is the cause of all my problems (and not just something else going on at the same time).

But unfortunately the doctor I got stuck with is a senile quack whose only use has been sending me for blood tests and tossing me on Levo (and Vitamin D). I have not been able to have any type of conversations with them and am confused and left out in the cold (and searching for a new doctor.. lol).

*One huge question I am confused about and am wondering is, is there always something underlying that has caused our Thyroids to go out of wack? Such as an autoimmune disease? Or is it possible for it to happen "just because"? Should I still be looking for WHY this happened to me, or is this the end of the line, I take the medication, and cross my fingers?*

Within the few weeks before I was diagnosed (I'm 23), my mother in her 50s was also diagnosed (which I wouldn't be super surprised about), but also my 15 year old brother as well! My mother and I both find this a bit strange. Should we be looking for more answers/causes, or is it just the way it is because that's the way it is.

I have been miserable for a very long time and just want to make sure that I 100% have my correct diagnoses, treatment, and get to start moving on to living again.


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## jenny v (May 6, 2012)

I would start with getting hard copies of all of the labs they have run on you. Do you know if they have run any thyroid antibody tests?

There is a school of thought that thyroid problems can be genetic and run in families, but sometimes people also just seem to spontaneously get them and no one else in the family does. Mine seems to have been genetic--my maternal grandmother had lifelong hypo problems, my mom had hyper issues, and I was lucky enough to get both hyper and hypo problems.


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## joplin1975 (Jul 21, 2011)

There are lots and lots and lots of theories as to why people have dysfunctional thyroids. Everything from radiation exposure to genetic/hereditary issues to endocrine disrupters in food, cosmetics, and chemicals/pesticides to too much gluten, dairy or sugar in our diets.

I think its probably different for everyone...and probably for many people, it's some combination. Thyroid disorders are on the rise, so I don't think it can be JUST genetics for everyone, but I also think genetics plays a big, fat huge role.

You can certainly do loads of research and attempt to sort it out. I know the "why" questions drives loads of people crazy. I get it, I really do. The problem is that right now, there's not a clear answer. And until there is, you will probably spend an inordinate amount of time chasing lots of dead ends. If you feel ok about that -- go for it!

What I've found, though, is that managing a thyroid disorder can be a very time consuming endeavor. So I opted to focus on really educating myself about how to read lab results, medication options, symptoms etc. Because I want to feel as good as possible so my life can be as full as possible.


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## Jolanta (Aug 21, 2016)

Hi,

It is important to know what is causing your issues so that you can help yourself feel better. It is important to eliminate autoimmune disorder, such as Hashimoto's thyroiditis, which causes hypothyroidism. Ask for thyroid antibodies test.

There are some holistic approaches that help with Hashimoto's.

There are plenty of other causes of hypothyroidism. Number one cause of hypo is low iodine (you can check your levels).

Other problems may include some nutritional deficiencies, such as vit A, D (low intake or gallbladder problem)

Vitamin B12 deficiency, other B vitamins, vitamin C, iron, selenium (poor diet or low stomach acid). Lack of specific co-factors, such as coenzyme Q10, magnesium, potassium.

Other causes may be dysfunction of adrenals, oestrogen dominance (birth control pills, environmental oestrogens, HRT, obesity), some toxins or some medications. Mercury toxicity may cause hypothyroidism. Chronic or severe stress may also cause hypothyroidism.


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## BurntMarshmallow (Feb 26, 2016)

It's useful to think a little bit about why this happened to you. There may be some things in your environment or diet that you can change that would help your thyroid.

There could also be things in your genetic makeup that made you more vulnerable to have a thyroid condition. For example, if you have the MTHFR gene variation, you need more riboflavin (B2) than other people, and more folate than other people. Since the thyroid needs riboflavin to function, if you have a genetic variation that competes for using up riboflavin, you are going to be more vulnerable to a thyroid problem. Dairy products are the best source. So if you and your brother don't drink or eat dairy, you could over time impact thyroid function. Dairy has in the past decade been getting bad press and many believe it shouldn't be part of a healthy diet. But it is really the best way to get riboflavin. This is the vitamin that turns your pee fluorescent yellow.

If you drank a lot of grape juice or ate a lot of grapes, especially white grapes, while growing up, that could have affected your thyroid. Grape juice is one fruit which absorbs a lot of fluoride from the pesticides used on them. Fluoride was once used to lower thyroid function in hyperthyroid people. It's a known endocrine disruptor. Some people can tolerate more fluoride in their diets than others.

If your family grew up drinking a lot of tea, which also contains a lot of fluoride, over time this will lower thyroid function.

Certain vitamins are stored in large quantities in the liver, but over time, and in certain situations like pregnancy and illness, they can become depleted. This is true for B12, which gets a lot of press. So I won't go on about that one. But one that doesn't get enough press is vitamin A. The liver stores a lot of vitamin A. Vitamin A is very important for thyroid function as well as immune function. Certain viruses can deplete stores of vitamin A very quickly. Pregnancy uses up so much vitamin A that most women experience vision changes after a pregnancy. What makes this really bad for the thyroid is that without vitamin A, the thyroid is much more vulnerable to low iodine in the diet. The thyroid attempts to compensate with nodules and goiter in this situation. A person may be either hyper or hypothyroid. When a person is hypothyroid, they cannot convert beta-carotene into vitamin A, so vitamin A status does not resolve. When a person is hyperthyroid, they burn through stores of vitamins too fast, ending up deficient. Currently doctors in first world countries do not test for vitamin A sufficiency and even when they do, they don't have a standard protocol for vitamin A deficiency. I told my sister to get tested, because she has poor night vision, and she is very deficient, but her doctor basically told her she didn't know anything about it and couldn't recommend steps to solve it. It's really sad how little the medical community knows about something so important. It's probably just as important as vitamin D for the thyroid, but for some reason, it's just not on the radar in the medical community unless you live in Africa where vitamin A deficiency is rampant. The World Health Organization has a lot of documentation on Vitamin A. Here's a study about it from 2012: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23378454

Thyroid conditions seem to run in families, but it could be that families pass on similar eating habits through the generations. If you and your brother grew up in a family that ate fried chicken livers, which have a lot of vitamin A, then you might be less vulnerable to a thyroid condition compared to someone else who did not. If you ate beef liver as a kid, you'd get a lot of vitamin A, copper, zinc, iron, folate and B12. Or if you grew up with a mother who was constantly dieting, drinking crystal light tea and maybe your dad was on a low salt diet so everyone in the family was too.... then you will be deficient in a lot of things. Puberty can trigger the onset of symptoms, because of the body's increased demand for nutrients it needs to make all those hormones. Headaches are very common in puberty for this reason. Just one example, B6 is needed to make serotonin, and estrogen increases requirements for B6. Which is why many girls get depressed when they hit puberty.

It's a misconception that people in developed countries are not deficient in anything. Thyroid conditions cause deficiencies. And thyroid conditions can be caused by deficiencies. Endocrinologists just don't get the training about it.


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## AgentChupa (Nov 12, 2014)

It could easily be genetic in your case. I think women are also much more likely to develop thyroid disease compared to men, so I wonder if the development of thyroid disease might be related to the presence of female hormones (or female hormones in excess). I also wonder if men who have more estrogen than normal in their bodies are more prone to developing thyroid disease.

In my case, there are five women on my mother's side who have thyroid disease (no clue about my paternal family because I never met any of them), not including me. My mom managed to not get it, but one of her sisters and some of my second/third cousins have it. Oddly, they all have hyopthyroidism, save for my aunt who is hyper, but she was never super-thin like some hyper folks are. She always struggled to lose weight (then again, almost all the women on Mom's side are pretty fluffy weight-wise) and her only noticeable symptom was really bugged-out eyes.

I don't think thyroid disease is always genetic, but having a family history of it certainly increases your chances of it, especially if people on both sides of the family have it. From what I understand, hypothyroidism doesn't occur on its own - rather, it's almost always only a symptom of Hashimoto's thyroiditis. Doctors don't seem to quite know why the immune system does this, or why it specifically targets the thyroid, which is a vital-but-not-quite-vital organ (as in the thyroid is sorta like mission control, but you can also live without it if you take medication once it's gone or stops working entirely). I don't know if it means that your immune system is just a little off in general or it just happens to hate your thyroid.

Welcome to the thyroid club! I'm sorry you have to join us, though. Hypothyroidism is both the best and worst chronic disease a person can get, in my experience. It's not fatal, it's easy as pie to treat (just a daily pill), but it's a pain in the butt trying to get it diagnosed and properly medicated.


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