Natural therapy for treating an under active th... - Thyroid UK

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Natural therapy for treating an under active thyroid

Healthiest83 profile image
31 Replies

Hello All

I want to heal my body by using natural, herbal medicines. I have been using a natural dessicated porcine thyroid powder for 5 months and my bloods are improving.

I am looking for others in similar situation as am looking to source NDT and other alternatives in the UK, please DM me, thank you, H

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Healthiest83
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31 Replies
Jaydee1507 profile image
Jaydee1507Administrator

Welcome to the group.

Perhaps if you tell us a bit about yourself and your thyroid journey? Filling in your profile helps people know your situation.

Healthiest83 profile image
Healthiest83 in reply to Jaydee1507

came off thyroxine completely early last years and went on a natural healing journey. Alegedly hypothyroid but I know realise there will be a root cause.

Jaydee1507 profile image
Jaydee1507Administrator in reply to Healthiest83

Have you had your thyroid antibodies tested?

NDT doesn't heal the thyroid, it replaces what your thyroid isn't producing.

Healthiest83 profile image
Healthiest83 in reply to Jaydee1507

Thanks

in reply to Healthiest83

If NDT is helping you feel well there is no 'allegedly' about it. NDT contains T4 and T3. Levo is T4.

If your hypothyroidism is autoimmune, as Jaydee said, you can't repair the damage. You may be able to stop further damage but I'm doubtful.

Sometimes bodies break. It's unfortunate but not all broken parts are fixable. No matter how much we want them to be.

Healthiest83 profile image
Healthiest83 in reply to

Thanks

Regenallotment profile image
Regenallotment

might be worth talking to LucyYoga who has done lots of research into natural approaches.

What are your latest blood test results?

Do you feel hypothyroid symptoms?

🌱

Healthiest83 profile image
Healthiest83 in reply to Regenallotment

Thank you. My bloods are getting better on natural dessicated thyroid. I feel great.

waveylines profile image
waveylines in reply to Healthiest83

4NDT was what was used as standard treatment to replace thyroid hormones for over 100 years. I tried the synthectcs -did not work well for me though I did improve on them but never felt well. Once on NDT I blossomed. Currently I use Armour Thyroid. Important to ensure other nutrients are optimum especially B12 & b vits , vit D, folate & ferritin. This will help you to make best use of your NDT. Am really glad you are finding it helpful. It won't cure your thyroid problem....ie repair your thyroid so it can produce enough thyroid hormones but it will replace what your thyroid can no longer produce.

I wish you every success in your journey. 💗

in reply to Healthiest83

I ask this kindly, do you understand what NDT is? It's thyroid hormone replacement, not a 'natural supplement'. You're feeling great and your bloods are better because you're giving your body what it needs and can no longer make; thyroid hormones.

There are a multitude of different ways you can help support a failing thyroid; diet, exercise, targeted supplementation... And yes there will likely be a "root cause" but finding it could be impossible and even if you do find it you can't fix it.

I suspect childhood trauma caused mine and all the therapy in the world won't regrow the damaged thyroid tissue!

I would recommend reading a researching to really understand what hypothyroidism is and then start your treatment research. Otherwise you're going to be swept along by a host of charlatans all claiming that drinking juiced celery can reverse thyroid damage... Which is just made up nonsense with zero scientic backing.

Best of luck.

jrbarnes profile image
jrbarnes

There were a few years my hypo symptoms disappeared. At this time I didn't know I had thyroid issues and had been living with the symptoms for nearly ten years. I took a job on a cruise ship that was based in the Hawaiian islands back when I was in my mid 20s. My days were spent walking miles upon miles under the warm sun, swimming in the ocean, and eating nutritious foods. Not a trace of hypo symptoms while I was in that environment, looked and felt amazing, but once I left and came back to the mainland US the hypo came on with a vengeance. I would say the reason for your hypo makes a difference. Is it a lack of nutrition and calories and/or being inactive, not the right environment, lack of Vitamin D, iron etc or all of these combined or is it an autoimmune disease that one can do nothing about? I question myself about this from time to time. To this day I still don't know but if I could go back in time I'd increase my activity, time in the sun, increase calories and nutritious foods, take supplements if needed etc. Surely, even if you have autoimmune thyroid these things would help not hurt but if you don't improve then you should consider getting back on the thyroid hormone. Not an attempt to scare anyone but I wasn't offered thyroid hormone and developed a hurthle cell adenoma the size of a golf ball on my thyroid gland which led to a partial removal of my gland. My thyroid was working hard to produce more and more thyroid hormone and that's how I ended up with the adenoma. The one thing that had a significant affect on my natural conversion and thyroid function was increasing my calories/carbs but this may not be your issue. Take care.

cazlooks profile image
cazlooks in reply to jrbarnes

the intermittent nature of your thyroid problems is very reminiscent of my and my kids journeys. Our thyroid problems started with an autoimmune problem, this autoimmune problem wreaks havoc with your life because you will have problems one day, and none the next! In the early days it's impossible to 'test' for it, and impossible to judge what it will do next. However, there are things you can do to stop it. If you are happy, living a peaceful life and looking after yourself well, you will have good days. If not, and especially if you face a stressful problem such as a health problem, then Wham! it will knock the socks off you! If you have an autoimmune disease you should try ways to help yourself, because it will help you. However, once you have reached a certain point there's no way back and you will be reliant on medical support. For example, my thyroid gland is now just a wizened shell (I had tests, it's like a gnarly, fried walnut). I can't go back and I am on tablets forever now. NDT suits me fine but one of my daughters can't use it. Believe it or not, the tablets doctors give you might suit you better because NDT is pig-based (ie. not human - so they may irritate your autoimmune system) and the tablets the doctor gives you are human-based (or they were originally). You are currently taking NDT so you are taking t3 and t4. I would recommend you ask your GP for a referral to a consultant who will do tests and tell your GP to give you liothyronine (t3) and levothyroxine (t4). They can also test for autoimmune disease so you will have a prognosis. cx

Healthiest83 profile image
Healthiest83 in reply to jrbarnes

Thank you 🙏

userotc profile image
userotc

Personally I applaud your stance. You seem to have some knowledge in natural approaches but otherwise you could consider a Nutritional Therapist or similar with thyroid specialism.

Healthiest83 profile image
Healthiest83 in reply to userotc

Thank you 🙏

Sofie007 profile image
Sofie007

Hey Healthiest83, I am currently trying medical medium , but it’s too early to say that it works for my thyroid. The only thing I can already say is that my brainfog is gone. I have read good things about him, maybe it’s worth looking into it.

Healthiest83 profile image
Healthiest83 in reply to Sofie007

Thank you 🙏

Proudx profile image
Proudx

I’m currently trying to come off thyroid medicine as well. Before doing so I made sure I had an ultrasound done of my thyroid and had to autoimmune antibodies. I also had a pituitary scan done of my brain.

Before trying natural or coming off you need to make sure you have no damage or antibodies it is also helpful to try and find the source of the low levels of thyroid if everything clears

I believe the source of my problem was lack of absorbing b12 and other nutrients. Time will tell if I am successful.. So far so good I have gained a lot of weight pretty fast coming off it but I was underweight anyway so the gain was welcome a bit but much faster than I would have liked. I’m 5ft 8” male that started on 9-10-22 at 128lbs and weight 142lbs today although my waist size has only increased 1/2”

You can see all my labs and history at

1drv.ms/x/s!AjvijF1NxulpiC5...

RedApple profile image
RedAppleAdministrator in reply to Proudx

Proudx, 'I’m currently trying to come off thyroid medicine as well. '

Can you explain more fully why you're doing this? What is it about taking thyroid hormone replacement that bothers you?

Proudx profile image
Proudx in reply to RedApple

Long story short I woke up since in spring of 2020. Fatigue morning fog etc, hair loss, bone loss etc

I had large red blood cells or high mcv values indicating anemia. At first we thought it was low testosterone driving by sub clinical hypothyroidism which can drive up mcv values so started thyroid treatment. Mcv value never got below 96 on any amount of thyroid treatment. I also had neuropathy in my hands and feet develop desipite having good a1c and fasting insulin and glucose. Hm red. I then discovered thanks to Paul Robison you can have high b12 blood levels from taking b12 pills but have low levels of b12 making it into the cells and some people need b12 injections. I started b12 injections and started feeling better soon. After several months my mcv values finally fell and thyroid number actually improved.

So I made the choice to try and come off thyroid medication after 2 years knowing it is without risk abs may or may not work. I did ultrasounds, antibodies testing, brain mri before trying to come off.

I still don’t know if it will work but so far I feel fine despite a rise in tsh as expected and weight gain which should in theory stabilize if my thyroid production continues to come beck online.

in reply to Proudx

I looked at your spreadsheet but there are no reference ranges so I can't see where your results sat within their ranges.

What is very obvious though is that your TSH has shot up since you've stopped taking thyroid hormones. Are you testing frequently and tracking your symptoms closely?

tattybogle profile image
tattybogle in reply to

i think ranges are on the right hand column Witchinghour

*edit...can only see TSH and RT3 levels recorded though , no fT4 or fT3 results on there ~so still much use for seeing the full picture of what is really going on : )

in reply to tattybogle

I saw that but it looked like lots of different labs and no way of telling which ranges went with which results! I am likely overlooking something though! 😂

tattybogle profile image
tattybogle in reply to

Now i've looked properly at ProudX's table ,there's no fT4 / fT3 results ,, and no 'before NDT' labs , So if no antibodies and no thyroid damage , the diagnosis /starting NDT may have been questionable .

in reply to tattybogle

There are FT4 & 3 results!

results
tattybogle profile image
tattybogle in reply to

Oh... doh! , i had the page too far too one side , oops :)

in reply to tattybogle

No results since stopping early December though

Proudx profile image
Proudx in reply to tattybogle

1/16/20 and 3/16/20 are before thyroid labs. .

I started reducing 50mcg of t3 thyroid medication slowly since 9-10-22 and did a set of labs on 12/3/22 after being completed off t3. But I still have 60mcg of armour to come off. I have continued to slowly come off the 60mcg of armour since 12/3/22 I am now down to 15mcg of armour left or 1/4 pill I’ll be on this schedule for 2 more weeks then another few weeks and I’ll order more labs

Yes I did expect my tsh to riseafter coming off the 50mcg of cytomel and my ft3 to drop but the rise and drop is not too bad suggesting that my thyroid is coming back online. Yes I gained weight as expected. I generally feel fine with no hypo symptoms.. If you guys are interested I can do an entire new post on my journey and why I choose to come off thyroid medication and believe my ultimate source was b12 deficiency despite taking oral b12 pills. I am now on b12 injections every other day.

Column h

9-10-22 reduced 6.5mg off morning t3 dose 128lbs9-17-22 reduced 6.5mg off afternoon dose 128.4lbs9-24-22 reduced another 6.5mg off morning dose 31.25mg a day 128lbs 10-1-22 reduced shipping 6.5mg afternoon 25mg a day 124.8lbs stomach flu10-8-22 reduced another 6.25mg off morning dose 18.75mg total 130.610-15-22 reduced another 6.25mg off afternoon dose 12.5mg total 130.4lbs10-22-22 reduced another 6.25mg off 130lbs10-29-22 no more t3 just armour 131lbs 11-5-22 129.8 only armour 11-12-22 131.1lbs11-19-22 133lbs11-26-22 135.8lbs12-3-22 137.9lbs only 60mg armour12-10-22 138lbs 15mcg reduction armour thyroid for 45mcg total12/24/221/7/23

tattybogle profile image
tattybogle in reply to Proudx

Thankyou for the further info Proudx . yes i'm sure your journey will be of interest to folk on here. (especially 'what happens next')

It is very useful to hear from people who have good records with proper monitoring of what happens to their thyroid levels and how it relates to any Vitamin deficiencies etc , as members/ admin on here do usually advise people to make sure those are optimised in order to improve sub-clinical thyroid hormone function if it is not yet deemed bad enough for treatment by the NHS and / or get the best results from thyroid hormone replacement once they are on it .

There are so many 'internet' examples of people saying "i've successfully come off all thyroid medication" (written a short while after stopping) , but so often there is no proper trail of reasons for starting /results / or any follow up about how they were over the following few years ... they just disappear ... so those stories can be a bit misleading when people who actually have knackered thyroids see them , but you have done your homework and know why you are dong what you are doing .

Hope you continue to improve , and please do let us know what happens next :)

Proudx profile image
Proudx in reply to

red ranges colume m

Ref RangesFT3 Quest 2.3-4.2FT4 QuestRT3 Quest 8-25 ng/dlTSH Quest FT3Clinical Pathologies 2-4.4 pg/mlFT4 CPL .8-1.9RT3 CPL  9-27 ng/dlTSH CPL .4-4.1

in reply to Proudx

I saw the ranges but I've no idea which range corresponds with which results.

Which results are 'Quest' and which are 'CPL'?

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