Thyroid on the Fence

Over the past few years, I’ve been having symptom associated with hypothyroidism. Fatigue and slow digestion among others. I had my thyroid tested, but my doctor said it looked normal. It wasn’t until I went to my gynecologist and then my acupuncturist that it was recommended that I do further tests. They revealed that while my levels aren’t exactly clinical, they are definitely borderline.

I’m going to the endocrinologist in a couple of weeks, but I’ve been thinking and feeling a lot about this, lately. Hypothyroidism is treatable with medication. There is no certainty that they will advise me to take medication but if they do, it is life long and not to be taken lightly. On the one hand the thought of taking something to help these often troubling symptoms seems like a dream. On the other hand, swallowing a pill every day isn’t exactly a happy notion to me.  Then there are the list side effects and the anecdotal commentary I’ve been reading (Google: friend or foe?), the length of both make we wonder exactly if this medication will help anything.

I could go the natural route. My acupuncturist is building my blood Qi and has me on Chinese herbs. She also suggested I supplement with iodine. Acupuncture has helped me dramatically with insomnia, so I’m a believer, but I do know that it can only do so much. Will it be enough to alleviate my symptoms enough for me to be ok without medication? I’m also not sure I buy into the excessive iodine supplementation as I’m pretty sure it is the cause of some aches and irritability I’ve experienced over the past week. It’s hard to know with such things, and that makes me a little nervous. 

I haven’t come to any conclusions on what I want to do about all of this and I’m sure the endo will do another set of blood tests and have their own opinion, but I’m going to continue to educate my mind with research and to pay attention to what my body is telling me. Right now both are in agreement. I’m exhausted.

So Long, Sugarless

At the beginning of October, I decided to make some changes. I had been going to an acupuncturist for insomnia since mid-September and she informed me that I had sluggish kidneys. Sluggish kidneys? Really, lady? It sounded silly, but after a few treatments, I was starting to see an improvement in my sleep and a few other issues I hadn’t known were bothering me as much as they were, so I took a little more heed than before. To an acupuncturist, sluggish kidneys had little to do with the organs themselves and more what they represented in the body as a whole. Intuitively, I knew that I needed to detoxify. 

As a nutritionist, I’m not one for detoxifying diets and I wasn’t going to go on one, now. But I knew there were changes I could make to support the weekly pin-cushion sessions. I was talking artificial sweeteners. Sucrulose, a sprinkling of aspartame, and intermittent sugar alcohols were all part of the regularly scheduled program. Now, no conclusive evidence supports that any of these are truly dangerous to the health and I justified that they were better than eating a lot of sugar, but they couldn’t be helping me. I also was addicted to gum. I chewed it when I was in the car and as soon as on piece started to lose flavor, in went another. It was a really crazy habit and, like most habits, a mindless one. But I had quit diet sodas earlier in the year, so surely I could quit this. And while I was at it, why not go off of all prescription medications, as well? For a month. For October. Surely, I could last that long.

I’m pleased to say, I did. November came and I reintroduced an occasional piece of sugarless gum when the social occasion called, experimented a bit with Stevia as a sweetener, took the occasional  Ambien when traveling, a sugar-free baked good (albeit with a better sugar replacement) a few times, but mostly stayed “clean.” December is here and I’m pretty happy to continue along this way.

Here’s the thing. I don’t feel that much different at all. Aside from the mental happiness and ability to sleep more often, my body isn’t really registering the change. I think it did at first, but now it’s back to status quo. Frustration arises and I’m reminded that not all change is visible or felt and that I must have patience. And awareness. For all I know, there may be something else my body is trying to tell me. I owe it to myself to listen.