What is Thyroid

It sometimes happens that these symptoms get discarded by specialists who blame the patient’s condition on stress, depression, PMS, unhealthy diet, anemia etc. It’s a lot more common to accuse one of these than to actually run the blood tests meant to confirm Graves’ disease or hyperthyroidism. In the United States alone, there are 3 million sufferers with this condition, and there could be thousands others who’ve been misdiagnosed.

How to proceed to diagnosis

• When you feel displeased with your doctor’s reaction to your health condition, you can ask for a second specialist’s opinion or request being referred to an endocrinologist.
• The first diagnostic effort for hyperthyroidism symptoms is the Thyroid Stimulating Hormone test or TSH. A low TSH is evidence of an over-active thyroid.
• The terminology could be confusing, as some doctors tell their patients that they have high thyroid when the TSH is HIGH. High TSH levels actually indicate low thyroid function.
• Ask the doctor to fully explain what he/she means by low or high in such situations.
• If the diagnosis confirms an imbalance, treatment needs to be instated so that the hyperactive thyroid is inhibited and the secretion of hormones returns to normal.
• A formal diagnosis should also be based on tests for Free T4, Free T3, and thyroid antibodies.

The confusing changes in lab standards: what to do?

• Over the last years, the standards for measuring TSH have dropped from 0.5 5.0 to 0.3 3.0. This is very confusing for patients, and the subject is not clarified enough by doctors.
• Some people claim that this is the result of the pharmaceutical companies putting too high a pressure on the medical world. If the standards for measuring the TSH have dropped, the drug companies benefit most, because there will be more people on medication. And drug companies hence make profit!
• Good doctors will not evaluate the health condition of the thyroid based on the TSH test alone. They will carefully look into the hyperthyroidism symptoms and run some extra tests for professional diagnosis.

Living with a hyperactive thyroid!

1. Don’t dismiss symptoms! Mention everything to the doctor because it might be important for diagnosis.

2. After starting a treatment to reduce the thyroid hormones level in the blood stream, pay attention to the changes you go through. Is there improvement? How serious are the changes? On a scale from 1 to 5, how well do you feel now?

3. Have your symptoms monitored on a regular basis so that you can determine the optimal dosage of medication. Depending on the response to treatment, the doctor may adjust the dosage, increasing or decreasing it.

Beware! If left untreated, things could get worse!