Naturopathic Approaches to Thyroid Malfunctions
Desiccated Thyroid Replacement Therapy
When a patient is diagnosed with low thyroid function, they are typically prescribed Synthroid or Levothyroxine, respectively the synthetic forms of T4. While some patients find relief from these medications, there are also individuals who continue to feel unwell while using these medications; they may even resume with difficulties losing weight while being administered high doses of Synthroid or Levothyroxine. Why does this happen?
RELATED: Naturopathy- Natural way to Treatment
As we previously mentioned, the thyroid produces T4 and T3 hormones. The synthetic T4 drug must be altered to become biologically active T3; this must happen to incite a metabolic function. If you administer only T4 to the body, it’s assumed that the body is capable of converting it to T3. However, this isn’t true for everyone. If your body has a low conversion of T4 to T3, it is often due to hormonal imbalances (i.e. low progesterone/high estrogen or nutritional deficiencies such as low selenium, B vitamins and even chronic stress).
Studies have shown that patients noticed health improvements using desiccated thyroid replacement therapy. In a randomized, double blind study of 70 patients with hypothyroidism, for three months participants were given either desiccated thyroid or T4 (Levothyroxine). Then for the next four months, the patients swapped treatments.
Participants were weighed and had physical/blood tests conducted following each treatment phase. They were asked which therapy they favoured according to the reduction of their symptoms. As per study outcomes, 49% of participants selected desiccated thyroid extract; 19% favoured Levothyroxine. A noticeable trend in this study was that desiccated thyroid extracts were connected to noteworthy weight loss.