men with thyroid/adrenal issues??

[hippiemom]

Hello wise mamas,
My BF has lived with and sought care for and finally had to become his own healer/advocate in dealing with thyroid issues (hypo). Like many women years ago, when he went to seek help for his symptoms he was told he was moody, crazy, or had back issues. (!!) Just 3 years ago he finally found an enlightened doc who began treatment for his thyroid and was on the right track. however, in taking thyroid med he uncovered other symptoms that show severe adrenal depression/fatigue (as they are often hand in hand).

This is less commonly heard about in men. I am shocked at how convnetional doctors have disregarded him.
Seeking your herbal and natural treatment wisdom... he needs nourishment! He has cleaned up his diet considerably in the past 2 months with my help, takes many vitamins, and I have made him some remedies, but he still suffers from insomnia and with winter coming, fibromyalgia pain. He is on cortisol now and synthroid, and an antianxiety for his sleeplessness.. yeah, it is a lot of meds, eek eek. He takes gingko and high dose folic acid as well

He is financially secure for now and not working, all stressors removed and concentrating on getting well..
advice welcome!

[SandyMom]

It is hard to be disregarded by doctors as you say.
I would encourage him to seek the underlying reasons for his glandular problems.
Some common ones include:
gluten sensitivity and other food intolerances
metal toxicity (espec mercury)
inadequate detox pathways
read through THE THYROID THREAD Part II here in these forums for more about these things.
As for nourishment..
Coconut Oil & Thyroid Function
Good Foods for Thyroid Health

Many ppl don't do well on synthroid long term. Just keep that in mind. He may choose to switch over to a dessicated thyroid replacement such as Armour at some point. More info:
http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/
Also, did his docs test for antibodies to find out if he has Hashimoto's?
If not, that's important imo.

[FrannieP]

He is on cortisol now and synthroid, and an antianxiety for his sleeplessness.. yeah, it is a lot of meds, eek eek.

Insomnia may well be due to low cortisol at night. Has he tried taking a small bit before bed? How much is he on - and does he break it into several doses? I know that has helped lots of people.
I would think the antianxiety med would be the one that he could do w/o easiest and fastest by replacing with something natural - valerian maybe?
Or natural anxiety remedies.

Also, I would check ferretin levels, b12 levels and vitamin D.
Vitamin D & Thyroid Function

These are common nutritional deficiencies seen in folks w/ thyroid/adrenal disorders.

[tanyalynn]

With thyroid, adrenal, and depression problems, I'd check out frequent-dose-chelation, the yahoo group. In my family, those problems have cropped up a lot through the generations, and it turns out we don't excrete the mercury from our amalgam fillings well. My kids, even without fillings, have issues that are related, because they grew in me. Sometimes non-amalgam sources of mercury also exist, but clearly that's harder to pinpoint the source of the exposure. I mention it because it surely wouldn't have occurred to me to think of this on my own--maybe it's not his issue, but investigating the possibility and ruling it in or out may be very important for his long-term health.

Why the folic acid? Folate's important for methylation (a detoxification pathway) but some folks who are on high-dose folic acid may do better with real folate (Metagenics or Folapro) in addition to a diet high in folate. Has he been tested, or looked into the family history related to the MTHFR gene mutation? It's involved in folate metabolism/methylation issues.

Quick summary website, though it may be old news for him:
http://www.detoxpuzzle.com/folate.php

With pain, has he been tested for his vitamin D level? Sometimes normalizing that can reduce pain.

[nurse kim]

adrenal fatigue/chronic fatigue

do any of you have the lethargic feeling.....with your adrenal fatigue so that everything is difficult to do?

[Alvie]

Vitamin B5 also called pantothenic acid is the vitamin in the highest concentration in the adrenals. Supplementing can help with exhausted adrenal issues. I have really bad seasonal allergies, and this helps alot! Hay fever is a commom symptom of low adrenal function.

[nicky85]

My husband has had adrenal/ thyroid issues too. Switching to a 60-80% raw plant foods diet has helped immensely. He drinks 45 fl oz. of green smoothie a day (leafy greens and fruit mixed in a blender.) Chiropractic care has helped greatly, but make sure that you get a traditional chiropractor who treats spinal subluxations and doesn't just do symptom relief. Chiropractic care uncovered another major problem for my husband- arthritis (and he's only in his late 20's!). He has it really bad. It would be a good idea to stay away from plastic wrapped food, dairy products (they come from lactating cows), and soy products becaus they can alter hormones as well. Best of luck. It has been hell digging out of the hormonal imbalance hole, but we're getting out slowly.

[JaneS]

Synthroid is crap. If he needs thyroid hormone, he needs natural desiccated thyroid hormone that contains T4, T3, T2 and T1 and calcitonin ... Synthroid is T4 only.

See the 'Stop the Thyroid Madness' website mentioned above and Dr. Stephen Langer's book 'Solved: The Riddle of Illness' and Dr. Mark Starr's 'Hypothyroidism: Type 2'.

Fibromyalgia is now known by natural thyroid experts to be just another symptom of poor thyroid function:
http://www.drlowe.com/

Ditto looking into adrenals, whole food vitamin C and lots of celtic sea salt. See Adrenals page on STTM website:
http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/adrenal-info/

Ditto nutrient deficiencies, food allergies and toxicities as the underlying causes.

The reason why adrenals get stressed is that low thyroid function stresses them... the adrenals are asked to kick in to raise metabolism when the thyroid is not doing it. Some good books are James Wilson's 'Adrenal Fatigue' and Willliam Jeffries 'Safe Uses of Cortisol'.

Insomnia can also be influenced by low blood sugar at night:
http://www.drmyhill.co.uk/wiki/Hypog...the_full_story

Insulin, thyroid, adrenals... all those hormones are intimately connected.

[JaneS]

and anti thyroid antibodies should be tested, if they are positive go gluten free

[JaneS]

oops, this is old thread... how is your boyfriend doing now OP?

Yes Nurse Kim, that is classic thyroid/adrenals issues, check out the things I mentioned.