Myra:
And we’re back with Dr. Richard Shames and Karilee Shames R.N., Ph.D., talking about the thyroid.
And before I start questioning you again…we had a caller in the chat room that asked a very interesting question. They’re concerned about the high levels of radiation in the air due to that recent disaster in Japan and…how that affects the thyroid and do we have to be more on guard?
Richard:
Yes…I’d like to address that just to be very clear and make sure that I’m being heard. There is a great deal of concern about the amount of this radioactive iodine that has been released that might be in Japan, but might be in the air, the food and the water and so forth, eventually around the world. There has been a great deal of it in Japan that is problematic. But for people in the United States this has not been a problem. Radioactive iodine is one of the unfortunately necessary byproducts. If you’re going to split the atom one part of it that you’re splitting is going to be iodine and then it’s going to be radioactive. So, trying to contain this would be a very good idea. It [radioactive iodine] will lower thyroid function if you have a lot of it that gets out. But the amount that has been found certainly in our country and in places that are far away from Japan is too little to be concerned about at this time.
Myra:
Oh, thank heavens…
Karilee:
One less thing to worry about, Myra.
Myra:
You know it crosses your mind whenever you are exposed even to a great deal of x-rays and MRI’s. It’s something that does weigh heavily and you wonder…
Karilee:
Well I have two suggestions. One is, whenever anybody goes for x-rays and if they’re going to be x-raying anywhere near your throat make sure you’ve got a thyroid guard on. They often don’t do it just because it takes a little more time to put it on, and you’ve got to know that your thyroid will thank you for doing that. The second thing is that it has been studied that many of the people in Japan after the original atom bomb [Hiroshima] actually benefited from using miso and from just sipping on miso broth. It’s a nice way to help your body to get rid of some of that.
Richard:
Especially when there is some seaweed in the miso broth, which there often is. And if it is one of the brown seaweeds like kelp having good iodine in abundance so that the thyroid gland has plenty of that to pick up, it doesn’t matter so much [about the radioactive iodine]. That’s what Karilee is saying. It won’t matter so much about the abnormal radioactive iodine. The thyroid gland won’t use that so much if there’s plenty of regular iodine around, and a good source can be eating kombu or kelp…the seaweed…rather than pills.
Myra:
And all of this is in your book?
Richard and Karilee:
Oh, absolutely.
Myra:
Now what are the 5 types associated with thyroid imbalance?
Karilee:
Well, what we found is that people exhibit different symptoms. Often the symptoms can be very related to how your family deals with stress. It may have been learned but a lot of it may be genetic as well.
Some people when the thyroid affects the mind get very anxious, highly anxious. So if anyone listening knows somebody who’s highly anxious that would be a really good person to get a thorough thyroid check. You would be a great friend in helping them understand that.
Richard:
I think what Myra is probably wanting us to tell the listeners is that we have made a contribution to the field with this new book, Thyroid Mind Power in that it has been our experience over 30 years, and we’ve looked at other research as well, that there are certain kinds of genetic predispositions where a person could have the same amount of thyroid problem but one of them will be moody, another one might be edgy, a third person with the same degree of thyroid difficulty would be foggy, another person would be sleepy or have some sleep disturbance, and then another “type” is called the “needy” person. This is someone who seems to have the proclivity to get into relationships with either substances or [addictive] activities: they’re addicted to gambling or they’re addicted to risk-taking…or maybe alcohol…or almost anything. So this is a “needy” person.
And each of these 5 types: moody, edgy, foggy, sleepy or needy, actually has a better thyroid treatment intervention whether it’s over the counter (herbs, vitamins, etc.)…or whether it’s prescription medicine. There are certain remedies that are better for the moody person than they would be for the foggy person, as a rule. So that is what we’ve outlined in our book. That is what the Thyroid Mind Power book really talks about.
Myra:
Here’s a question for you …as you pass through your stages of your life and you grow into a senior, would you tend to see more of this type of behavior which to me is commonly treated with antidepressants–oh they’re getting older just give them an antidepressant and they’ll be numb and …
Karilee:
…happy pills! We’re all full of happy pills!
[Laughter]
Karilee:
You know it’s great to have happy pills and they do help. But the question that even large health systems have to begin to ask is, what’s the most economic way to deal with these issues? And it’s not going to be to prescribe these psychotropic drugs to so many people. It’s very expensive. So it’s not even practical.
We have to learn to change the chemicals around in our body in order to support the life that we want to live. So we have to learn more about what our body needs and we have to be willing to go into doctors offices and say, you know, I need a doctor or I need a practitioner: maybe it’s a nurse practitioner, maybe it’s a physician’s assistant, maybe it’s a chiropractor who really knows his or her stuff. There are some very good practitioners out there who are not M.D.’s but have been studying these problems for a long time, and we can learn from those practitioners. If modern medicine would actually listen and share more with the other realms of healing I think that humans would benefit to a much greater degree.
We are allowing acupuncturists in. It is highly regulated. We’re happy to say our daughter is an acupuncturist working with us in our medical office and she’s a wonderful healer and we have a son who’s just getting launched in his massage practice. So it’s an exciting time for us and we love helping people because we’ve seen such positive results, and this to us is so much more empowering than just throwing the same pill at everybody, the same amount whether somebody weighs 300 pounds or 80 pounds. It doesn’t make sense, and so, what we’re talking about is common-sense practice.
Myra:
So, then, a person that goes in to their health care provider for a “normal” checkup but is blaming mood disorders on everything around them…it’s my job or I’m nervous. etc., what’s the normal health care provider going to do to check for that [mood disorders] in a man. Let’s say a man because maybe if it was a woman they would suspect it more rapidly than in a man. And if not, what would you suggest, then, that the person, before they take any of the other medications that might be offered them…would you suggest they either ask for the test or order a more extensive test through your office?
More after this brief commercial break…
Karilee:
Yes. In our book we describe what extensive medical testing should be done if you choose to go that route instead of the saliva and blood spot analysis testing. That’s a perfectly fine option and you can get it through your insurance if they’ll pay for it. And basically, it’s a comprehensive battery of [blood] tests so it’s not just a TSH. We’re talking about the TSH, the Free T3 (and it has to be Free) the Free T4, at certain times the Total T3 and we definitely want them to look at those forms of thyroid antibodies. There’s two different forms in this. You’re showing that that autoimmune response is going on in your life. Then there’s a little war going on inside of you that’s autoimmune, and you need to learn how to cool the autoimmune response, and we talk about foods to avoid and foods to eat, even for autoimmunity…
Richard:
But…what Karilee is really driving home here is that you may have to make these kind of decisions yourself, because, Myra, you’re right. You go to the doctor or the clinic, the nurse practitioner, and you will sometimes find that kind of like trying to blow out a light bulb to get them to check your thyroid really carefully. Even though it’s one of the most common illnesses in the country, even though it’s frequently hidden, and even though that once discovered, the treatment is straightforward and often very successful and at less expense, you are almost beating your head against a wall to try to say, “Look, give me more than just the TSH screening test. I have a family history, I know I’m much more likely to have thyroid because I’ve had a relative with thyroid. Give me the full battery of the tests.” Well, you may not be able to get it.
What you might best do is just go to the www.thyroidpower.com website and get the full battery that Karilee was talking about, where you check every one of your thyroid determinations but also check your adrenal and the reproductive hormones and also a Vitamin D [test]. Viamin D is crucial to thyroid function. It is a co-hormone, a necessary co-hormone for thyroid function. And so you get that checked and you’re much better off.
Karilee:
One thing also I want to share, Myra, is when we do evaluations on people [and] when Dr.Shames first starts working with people, he takes a complete hour. And he goes through a lot of things that take time. They cannot be done in a 3 minute doctor visit. He does the family history, signs and symptoms list, looks at their related conditions, and he also looks at their lab tests.
Most other doctors look only at lab tests, and we have … cartoons on our website … and in our books in the past that show this. You know: the woman on the floor with her tongue hanging out, her eyes are puffy and the doctor says, “Good news, Mrs. Jones, your thyroid test is normal.” That doesn’t help her at all! She knows that she’s not doing well. And so the problem with the [standard] thyroid test is that…for a long time, for the last 20-30 years maybe, the doctors have interpreted it with such a broad range of “normal” that almost everyone fits in there. And that is not accurate. So now about 8…or 10 years ago (I think) the American Association of Clinical Endochrinology changed the lab standard so that it’s 0.3 to 3.0 and not 0.5 to 5.0. So that means about 50% of you out there listening who’ve been told for years you don’t have a thyroid problem, that may not be accurate for you.
Myra:
What was that range again?
Karilee:
The range for TSH now, the current range …maybe some of the older labs [are still using the older,] broader ranges, which means that people are being told they’re normal when they really could benefit from some thyroid care. And so now we’re saying to people: 0.3 to 3.0 we consider that max. If you’re 3.0, you’re struggling. We’ve seen it. We see it every day in women and you’re struggling to keep up with your own self and your own life.
Richard :
These are “norms” Karilee is giving you about the standard screening test that is used all over the country, sometimes wrongly, just by itself, as the one test. And if you use it just by itself at least use the new range of “normal” whic is what Karilee was telling you [0.3 to 3.0] rather than the old range.
Karilee:
And make sure your doctor is using the new range, your doctor and your lab. Don’t just be told, “your tests are normal.” That’s not adequate. You have to say, “I need the numbers. What was my TSH? What were my Free T3 and Free T4?” And then look at the variety of scales that exist out there so that you can find out what you need to know.
Myra:
Very good advice. Now what are some of the over-the-counter nutritional remedies that can help, just maybe on a preventative level?
Richard:
Well, sure. Listen. The best thing for prevention would be…like I said before, to make sure you have enough Vitamin D. Vitamin D has been in short supply because in the ’40′s and ’50′s when the research was done to come up with a “RDA” for Vitamin D, it was given an RDA of 400 IU (10 mcg), and now all the …multivitamin pills have 400 IU. You used to be able to go and buy Vitamin D and it would be 400 IU because that’s what the research showed. Well it turns out [that] re-examination 50 years later shows it was off by a factor of TEN. Factor of TEN! That means that you are more likely to do good prevention for your thyroid and a lot of other things if you had a Vitamin D daily intake of 4,000, not 400 [IU]. So 4000 is also a safe level and a sensible level for a lot of people to be ingesting Vitamin D because it’s a crucial co-hormone for whether your thyroid is going to work right or not. And that’s just one [nutritional remedy]…
Karilee:
And some osteoporosis programs call for quite a bit more [Vitamin D] than that.
Richard:
And then another very common one…is something everybody ought to be doing for prevention. Get at least 100 or 200 mcg of selenium [daily]. Selenium is a mineral that is in a multivitamin but it’s a very small amount…Thyroid people and most other people who are destined to become low or high thyroid people have got to have some prevention for that by taking 100 or 200 mcg of selenium along with whatever else you’re taking because that is one of the crucial components of the enzymes that make for active thyroid hormones. Most of [what] the thyroid gland makes is inactive thyroid hormone. [It] has to get converted, and what people take as far as synthroid and a lot of the synthetic thyroids, is not active thyroid, and you need selenium-dependent enzymes to convert the inactive form to active form in your body, or else you are not going to have good thyroid function. So selenium is one of the most important things of all.
Myra:
Wow …
Karilee:
I have a different program suggestion using natural products and also telling what “type”…that’s in the Thyroid Mind Power book…so that [for example] people who feel like they’re kind of “foggy” or people who feel like they’re “edgy” could benefit from certain kinds of glandular [supplements], certain vitamins, certain minerals, and we spell it all out so that everybody knows exactly what might work best for them. And if you have more than one of these symptoms then you need to start with the most predominant one first and try and get that balanced and then see how you’re doing as far as the other aspects.
Myra:
It’s very interesting because I’ve always believed highly in eating healthy, a colorful diet; you know, everything should be of a vibrant color and taking supplements, but I found it frustrating not really knowing what was in a great deal of the supplements. Are there recommendations that you make within your pages?
Karilee:
…I’m going to go now because I have to leave but I’ll say real quickly that we have taught some seminars in the past for companies that we worked with to help them formulate what we felt was needed for our patients. So we do recommend those products [they make] and Richard can tell you about that.
Myra, it’s been a pleasure and I need to leave but I look forward to hearing from your listeners.
Myra:
Yes, and I hope you do come back and visit with us again…
Richard:
I can take it where she [Karilee] left off.
There are a few of the very effective, potent and high-quality vitamin and mineral supplements that people can get from companies that don’t sell to health food stores or pharmacies. They’re a cut or two above the pharmacy and health food store and over-the-counter vitamins. They sell to clinics and nutritionists and it’s a very high-quality kind of products that work excellently for thyroid function. When your metabolism is off you want good supplements not just mediocre and not just “OK” supplements. If you’re going to take that selenium and you have a chance to order it from a nutraceutical company you get a very high-quality highly absorbable version of it. If you get it just from a health food or vitamin store, try to get the highest quality that you can. Ask them what’s the best kind, and then go ahead and spring for that because it’s going to be important to you. It’s important to your whole metabolism. It’s important to how your brain works.
Myra:
It’s funny: I know that many of our listeners will spring for a new pocketbook or pair of shoes before they put the supplement at the top of the list. Until you start really feeling lousy I think we have a tendency to think, oh, it’s all going to go away.
Richard:
Right. Some of it goes away but the thyroid thing…does seem to get worse as we get older. So the likelihood that it’s going to go away is lower than the likelihood that it’s going to stay or maybe get worse.
So if you have a thyroid issue, [if] it seems like a thyroid issue, you really want to go after it and check it out. And try to get good-quality over the counter items or good-quality medicines…
Karilee was talking about (and you, Myra were asking me about) Synthroid® and it’s one particular brand of the most common T4 inactive thyroid. There are high-quality versions of [Synthroid®] that are generic.
The Sandoz company makes a very good generic. The Lynette company makes a very good generic. The Mylan company makes a very good generic. It turns out that you could ask for a particular kind of generic and maybe do a lot better… Many of my patients do a lot better with…for instance, a Lynette generic levothyroxine. Many people are doing better with that for much less expense than the more expensive brand-name thyroids.
Myra:
Sounds like your book’s a “must-read…”
Richard:
You’re very kind to say so. I appreciate that.
Myra:
Well, it’s just that you have so much to suggest–very important information.
I would like to get your opinion about how people, after they consult with you over the phone and get your book and possibly take the test, where would you suggest they go on a local level: to their regular ordinary health care provider and say look, this is my findings and I’d like to be treated in this manner? What do you suggest?
Richard:
Generally the best shot at it is to be interested in a practitioner who is open minded, who is willing to work with you and this is often not always a specialist [or] the top-rated M.D. in town, etc. It might be a general practitioner; it might be perhaps a nurse practitioner or a physicians assistant that had an interest in thyroid; …it might be an osteopathic physician that actually has been involved in thyroid, knows a little bit about it and is interested in trying out different things for you and realizes that you might need something that’s a little different than the standard that everyone else is getting; that you might need a little more testing than what everybody else gets. So [it's] someone who is willing to listen to you, work with you and consider that you are a partner in your own health care rather than just being there as a dictator.
Myra:
An informed patient… And now, finally, so much information is out there that gives the power back to us as the patient.
Richard:
That’s why we wrote the Thyroid Mind Power book, the whole “power to the patient” thing. That’s why we’re calling it “Thyroid Mind POWER” to the patient and that’s why we did the Thyroid Power website. You get to have a number of choices. You get to have choices in diagnosis; you get to have choices in treatment, whether it’s over the counter choices or whether it’s prescription choices. The freedom of choice for the consumer..is not just an innovation. That’s the way health care needs to be.
Myra:
Absolutely, and you have been so informative and wonderful. I want to extend a “Thank You” on behalf of our listeners and the Never Say Impossible Show.
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