Thyroid Balance

It happened again this year.  The Thanksgiving table got cleared and the dishes done and immediately the over 30s crowd sunk deep into the living room couch (there is a very long couch at my folks’ house) and started the evening dozing.  It took the promise of decaf and multiple desserts (gluten-free for me, various […]

Here’s the story, repeated countless times in my office over my 32 years of practicing medicine. It goes like this:
“My doctor found that I had thyroid disease, he put me on Synthroid (or other thyroid medicine) and told me the numbers were better. But I still feel tired, sluggish, bloated, constipated and depressed!”
Another version:
“I have […]

Another study has confirmed the relationship between thyroid function and mood. In this study, reported by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), 2/3 of 65 patients diagnosed with depression from Bipolar Disorder have “sub-optimal” thyroid levels. These patients with low-normal thyroid levels took an average of 4 months longer to respond to their depression […]

Five absolutely baffling things said to my patients by other physicians:

To a patient with persistent stomach problems, said by a gastroenterologist: “Take the Nexium”. Don’t worry what you eat; food doesn’t make a difference in stomach problems.”
To a patient who had just completed an unsuccessful very toxic chemotherapy program, and was being offered another toxic […]

Things to blame chocolate cravings on….
Excuse #1: Gut Microbes Swiss researchers at the Nestle Research Center in Lausanne, Switzerland, recruited men - some who craved chocolate and some reportedly indifferent to its charms - then fed them all the same diets for five days. Urinary analyses found that the chocolate-lovers had a distinctly recognizable metabolic […]