I received an email today from a lady with Hashimoto's that saddened me a bit. This is what she wrote...

"I have just had my annual blood tests  and have been told I have hashimoto's disease.

From what I read online, there is no cure and when my thyroid can't sustain the attacks on it by my immune system then it goes into hypothyroidism and I need medication for the rest of my life. Seems there is not much to be done."

Newly diagnosed and she is going to sit around and wait for the immune system to kill her gland and send her into hypothyroidism.

Does that sound like a good plan to you?

She is going down a road that is going to lead to fatigue, brain fog, hair loss, and weight gain...

... all based on the false assumption that you can't slow down and modulate the immune attack.

My communication with her has led me to believe that she is going to have to go down the long and winding Hashimoto's road before she considers a new alternative... a better way.

If you are not already a patient in my practice, and you don't want to go down that long and unforgiving Hashimoto's road or maybe you have been traveling it for too many years and want to address the immune system (the real problem) then click the link below:

http://drboydston.com/consulting.html

I get the opportunity to consult with Hashimoto's from all over the world, and whether they are from Australia, England, Hong Kong, or the United States, the standard treatment protocol for Hashimoto's stays pretty consistent.

I bet you can guess what the treatment is. Your right... give some sort of thyroid replacement until the TSH moves below 1.0 and then consider the case 'properly managed.'

What about the fact that the immune system is slowly destroying your thyroid gland? Shouldn't that be addressed?

Some patients are falsely led to believe that Synthroid and other forms of replacement hormone actually treat the Hashimoto's immune process. This couldn't be further from the truth. Synthroid does nothing to slow down the immune attack on the thyroid gland, which is why thyroid replacement-only treatment is completely inadequate for Hashimoto's.

Now there are actually some practitioners who believe that giving high does of synthroid will suppress the natural production of the thyroid and since the gland is not producing hormones (because the medication suppressed it) then the immune system won't attack the gland anymore.

Here is where you are required to apply a bit of logic. First of all the low thyroid problem started in the first place because the immune system is destroying the thyroid gland and decreasing the amount of hormone the gland is naturally producing.

The goal of treatment should be to slow down or halt the immune attack against the thyroid gland so that hormone production can approach normal output levels.

In the above scenario. where we are suppressing the thyroid gland with medication, we are making the dose of thyroid medication so high that the gland stops producing hormones naturally. Instead of slowing the immune attack we are shutting down the thyroid gland with medication, and functionally doing the same thing the autoimmune process was doing to the gland in the first place.

Where is the logic in that??

Do your doctors mention or acknowledge the immune systems role in your thyroid problem? How do they say they are addressing it? Leave your comments below.