Select Page

Thyroid Health

by Oct 20, 2017

2017-10-20_thyroidbook.jpgOctober is turning out to be a busy month! It started off with the nasal release technique course I went to earlier this month, a thyroid seminar I went to over the weekend, and coming up next weekend I’ll present my labor and delivery story for the Illinois Homeopathic Medical Association meeting. The weekend after that we’re celebrating my grandma’s 90th birthday!

The thyroid seminar I attended enhanced my NUHS education and knowledge on assessing thyroid function. One thing that was stressed was the connections the thyroid has with other body systems – brain, gut, and immune system (to name a few). Therefore, a comprehensive, holistic approach needs to be taken to improve all areas affected.

Conventional medicine usually looks at three thyroid markers – thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), triiodothyronine (T3), and thyroxine (T4) – and treats the findings with pharmaceuticals. For example, for hypothyroidism, synthetic thyroid hormones are given to improve lab values. On paper, this looks great, but more often than not, hypothyroid symptoms don’t drastically improve because the underlying cause was never addressed.

To get to the underlying cause, several more thyroid lab markers can be run to look at thyroid function, including auto-antibodies that would indicate an autoimmune thyroid disease, which is VERY common. Also, piecing together other aspects that can affect thyroid health like diet, stress, and blood sugar is necessary.

With naturopathic medicine, we always strive to see the body as a whole, and the information I learned at the seminar supported this philosophy. 

The next step for me is to keep reviewing the information so that when patients with thyroid symptoms present to the clinic, I feel confident that I’m able to make clinical assessments and decisions to help get them on the path towards health.

Subscribe to Our Blog

Follow NUHS on Social Media

About the Author

Mary Simon

Mary Simon

I'm a naturopathic medical student at NUHS. I started the Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine Program in January 2014. I was born and raised in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, a beautiful town on Lake Michigan. My experiences interpreting (Spanish to English) in nearly all medical specialties solidified my decision to study naturopathic medicine, as I saw a deep need for treating the body as a whole, getting to the root causes of symptoms, and using minimally invasive low-cost therapies to restore health.

0 Comments

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Posts

On Eternity

On Eternity

According to Jewish tradition, King Solomon wrote the book of Ecclesiastes. Together with Job, Psalms, Proverbs and Song of Songs, it comprises the books of wisdom, a collection of poetry that explores the human condition.

read more
On Pain

On Pain

As physicians who primarily treat pain, our curriculum is, in a way, dedicated to eliminating this undesirable state for our patients. We rarely, however, take time to consider the roots of pain itself. 

read more
On Surrender

On Surrender

As students, we often lament that school is hard, implying an unspoken expectation that life should not be hard. This assumption is dangerous because beauty results from difficultly. The times in life when we are desperate invite us to recognize a grand plan, one that extends beyond our own life, and surrender to it.

read more

Defining the future of integrated health care.