The Mood Cure: Take Charge of Your Emotions in 24 Hours Using Food and Supplements. Julia Ross

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Weak, brittle nails

      

Anemia, low red cell count

      

Adult acne, eczema

      

Dry, coarse, or thick skin

      

Pale skin

      

Hypoglycemia

      

Constipation

      

Hair loss

      

Labored, difficult breathing

      

Swollen feet

      

Nervousness, anxiety, panic

      

Enlarged heart

      

Premature graying

      

Gallbladder pain

      

Pain in joints

      

Autoimmune conditions often associated with thyroiditis: diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, lupus, Addison’s disease, allergy, Candida overgrowth, and pernicious anemia

      

Angina, heart palpitations, irregular heartbeat

      

Muscle weakness

      

Atherosclerosis

      

Extreme flexibility (double-jointed)

      

Strong-smelling urine

      

Tongue feels thick

      

Vision, eye problems

      

Excess earwax

      Checking off your symptoms on this list is a solid start. But go beyond it to make an even stronger case. Ask yourself, “When did my symptoms begin? What illnesses or upsets was I experiencing at that time? Have my symptoms always been there?”

      Quite a few of our clients report the start of symptoms after a tonsillectomy (the tonsils are close to the thyroid). The start of menstruation, menopause, or a pregnancy is perhaps the most common trigger in women, but the incidence of thyroid problems among women doubles after menopause, and up to 30 percent of women with PMS have some kind of thyroid problem. Among men, the rates of thyroid dysfunction climb steeply after age 60, but we’ve seen many younger men with thyroid malaise, often starting with unusual weight gain in childhood. Most of our low-thyroid female clients began to gain unneeded weight and lose needed vitality in puberty.

      If you’ve found that you have many of the symptoms on the list above, check them off and take the list to show to your physician. Thyroid malfunction is easily overlooked by many doctors, who simply run a single test, read the results with outdated reference ranges, ignore the symptoms thoroughly, and tell you to see a therapist or a diet doctor. For this reason, I recommend a very specific strategy for demanding attention for your thyroid. Otherwise you may never get any. I detail this technical strategy, from finding an effective doctor to testing your thyroid, to successful treatment, in the “Thyroid Tool Kit,” page 306.

      What Can Interfere with the Thyroid-Brain Connection?

      Your thyroid makes two primary hormones: one is called T₄ and the other is called T₃. “T” stands for the amino acid tyrosine, and the numbers 4 and 3 stand for the number of molecules of the mineral iodine in each hormone. Through these two hormones, your thyroid literally ignites every cell of your body and brain by activating its genetic coding.

      Within the cells of the brain, your thyroid converts T₄ (its more passive, storage hormone) into T₃ (its activator hormone). This, for example, transforms the sleeping cats into a vigorous, healthy depression-fighting force. Without proper thyroid function, specifically in regard to T₃ activation, the brain’s neurotransmitters cannot alter your moods effectively. You may have the blahs because without enough T₃ your brain’s nerve cells cannot transform the tyrosine you ingest into enlivening cats. In fact, the areas of the brain that should contain the most T₃ also contain the highest concentration of cats.

      Without adequate T₃ your brain cells not only can’t produce adequate amounts of the cats, they can’t effectively produce enough of other key neurotransmitters, like serotonin, either. If you identify with symptoms anywhere on the Four-Part Mood-Type Questionnaire, but the aminos don’t work for you, it’s very likely your thyroid that’s the problem.

      Several things can interfere with your having a perfect thyroid-brain connection. Let’s look at each possible cause separately.

      

      Could it be genetic programming? If you’ve inherited a slow thyroid, your brain will become sluggish right along with the rest of you. Do you have a mother or any other relative who has the low-thyroid symptoms listed above or who has been treated for them?

      Most of our low-thyroid clients do have family members who share their symptoms of depression, low energy, weight gain, and cold feet. Typically these clues have been ignored, dismissed as inevitable family traits (like blue eyes), and never explored or treated. In other cases, our clients have been amazed to discover that some of their family members had actually been diagnosed and put on thyroid medication for years or had СКАЧАТЬ