Is your TSH all over the place? This is classic Autoimmune Disease.
Is Your TSH All Over the Place?
If you have been diagnosed with a hypothyroid condition, there is a very significant chance that you have Hashimoto’s disease. If you’re not familiar with Hashimoto’s disease, it is an autoimmune disease that attacks the thyroid.
How to Tell The Difference
So how would you know if you have an autoimmune disease as opposed to a simple hypothyroid condition? According to clinical research, 90% of people with a hypothyroid issue have an autoimmune disease.
However, most labs won’t test for autoimmune diseases right off the bat. It does not matter to them, because the same drug will be given to you either way, and their protocols don’t change. Because of this, I am always sure to check for Hashimoto’s disease and other autoimmune diseases against thyroid levels when patients come to me and get their blood work done.
When looking for thyroid issues in blood lab results, we specifically need to look at thyroid-stimulating hormones (TSH). High TSH levels mean your thyroid is not making enough of the hormone, and you have a hypothyroid condition (as opposed to an overactive, or hyperthyroid).
Medication Dosage as an Indicator
If you have gone through the conventional system, and they have increased or decreased your dosage of a thyroid medication, that means your TSH levels are also fluctuating. You may have gone in first with high levels, and been given an initial dose, only to have it increased when it had no effect, then decreased again when your TSH is too low.
This constant increase and decrease in dosage may continue for years. Your TSH levels may be bouncing around. This is indicative of an autoimmune disease, even Hashimoto’s disease.
This is a major difference that needs to be distinguished, because the protocol for handling Hashimoto’s disease (or any other autoimmune disease) needs to be handled very differently from a regular thyroid issue.
If you have been going through a similar thyroid issue, please reach out. Sometimes the general medical system is not enough to handle these issues properly, and we need to take a polytherapy, or non-conventional approach to your healing.
