I have read that you shouldn't take sea kelp al... - Thyroid UK
I have read that you shouldn't take sea kelp along with levo...have any of you done this??? Im trying to weigh up the pros and cons..thanks
I suggest you use this link to read previous discussions:
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(Or put whatever you like into the search box. We know it is not wonderful but it often works.)
Rod
Why do you want to take kelp? I think that should be the starting point of your weighing up.
Hugs, Grey
There is a school of thought that iodine should be taken along with thyroxine and some say to take in high doses even though you have underlying Hashimoto or don't have a thyroid at all. There is a general iodine deficiency in Britain and many say that iodised salt is not enough as we all are supposed to cut down on salt now(which is another tricky subject) I think you have to make the decision to take or not to take iodine after finding out a bit more. The yahoo group Iodine will give their quite radical view but you can always have a read. I have also read that kelp has a lot of heavy metals and if you want to take iodine something like Lugols iodine is better.
health.groups.yahoo.com/gro...
Roslinxx
The reason's I was considering taking kelp are my levels according to the doctors are fine and generally in myself I feel much better but there are still a few niggling problems..1) I cant loose weight I have been trying for well over a year the more i cut down the less difference it makes I have tried the sensible diet the calorie controlled diet the drastic diet they all work for a week or two then it all stops again I feel rubbish then eat its a vicious circle and 2) my hair loss.. my scalp is clearly visible even when i brush it over to one side and even after 3yrs i find it still distressing I take skin hair and nails I make sure I'm eating enough protein and nothing..I was maybe hoping that sea kelp would by some miracle help..
There are no miracles, I'm afraid. But let's look at this step by step.
People take kelp because it has high levels of iodine. Iodine is necessary for making thyroid hormone, it is one of the main building blocks. If you are low in iodine, you will be hypo and taking more iodine will sort the problem out.
But, not all hypo is due to low iodine. It can be due to auto-immune or a host of other things. In which case iodine will be a stimulant to the thryoid to which is can't respond. Try thinking of your thyroid as a factory, and production is failing due to worn out or sabotaged machinery, irrepairable dammage has been done to this machinery. In that case, piling up a mountain of unusable raw materials (iodine) is not going to help the factory out-put, just clog up the works and cause more problems.
If a dose of iodine was all that was necessary to sort out a failing thyroid gland, then levo would do the trick. Levo is a thyroid hormone, T4, which means it contains 4 molecules of iodine. Every time T4 is converted to T3 (three iodine molecules), one molecule of iodine is released into the blood stream and recycled. That is why they say not to take kelp with levo, because you would be ingesting monstrous amounts of iodine. And, as we saw above, too much can be as bad as too little.
If you are still unable to lose weight and are losing hair it means that your doctor is wrong (most of them are!) and your levels are not fine at all. I imagine that what he means is that they are 'in range', but 'in range' is often far from optimal. And what you need is optimal! Do you have any blood test results to share with us so that we can see what's going on? Have you had your iron/feratin, folate, B12 and vit D tested? Because if any of these are low it will exacerbate the problem. And if you can't lose weight it probably means that your T3 is low.
Not much that you put in your mouth - apart from your levo - is going to help if your T3 is low. It isn't what you're eating that is making you put on weight, it is your low metabolism due to your low levels of thyroid hormone. Protein is necessary, of course, as is fat and vitamins and all the rest. But the most important are the hormones. And I have no doubt that you need either an increase in your levo or the addition of some T3.
Hugs, Grey
Yes hair falling out is a sign the dose isnt right i had that and it was horrendously scary.
Thank you for your detailed and helpful reply.I was on levo 100 and my test results came back as T4 14.4 and TSH 1.4 this was last week I explained my worries and the doctor reluctantly increased my dose to 125..my T3 wasn't mentioned I have to go back in September so will ask them to do a full test then..At the beginning of last year I was referred to a dermatologist at the hospital for my hair loss not only is it on my head but all over my body,and her answer was I had diffused alopecia..I think thats just crap..my thyroid seemed fine until I quit smoking and then all hell broke loose..but on the plus side I don't smoke anymore..
