Greenville SC Thyroid Doctor Explains Why Some Thyroid Medications Don’t Seem To Be Working
Conventional medicine approaches thyroid problems through medications that appear to be designed to help patients feel better. Yet too often, they fail to help with uncontrollable weight gain, sluggishness, thinning hair, loss of libido or the many other symptoms thyroid conditions can involve. Even with adjustments to thyroid replacement medication, you may still feel lousy. What’s going on? Why do thyroid medications fail to do what their supposed to do?
Thyroid medications are a very limited means to an end that can be challenging to achieve. Is your medicine really designed to help jumpstart your body’s ability to properly regulate weight, energy levels or libido? In most cases, the answer is no. The medication you’re taking is designed to normalize TSH levels in your body, which are measured through blood work. It may succeed with this goal even though you continue to struggle with symptoms. You may be told your medication is ‘working fine,’ but you still don’t feel well.
Unfortunately traditional medicine doesn’t offer much in the way of options in such cases. You may be put on different medications as part of a ‘wait and see how this works’ approach that’s extremely frustrating. You might experience side effects; some medications may even seem to make you feel worse. In the end, you may find that nothing helps, or if it does, relief is short-lived.
Once you understand why medications may be failing to help you feel better, you may wish to consider a different approach—one that is aimed at addressing the root cause(s) of your thyroid condition. The thyroid does not function in isolation within the body. It has widespread effects on your health and how you feel, and it’s also affected by many other glands, systems, hormones and organs. Yet it’s possible to uncover and address the causes of your symptoms through in-depth lab testing and a careful evaluation of your lifestyle, diet, health history and other factors that impact the health of your thyroid.
Functional wellness is a type of health care that focuses on finding the underlying causes of patients’ conditions. A comprehensive evaluation enables a practitioner trained in functional wellness to identify any dysfunctions or imbalances within your body that are resulting in symptoms. It takes time to sort out and pinpoint causes. But in the end, it’s the most efficient way to arrive at real solutions.
A functional wellness practitioner will use all of the information gathered during your evaluation to develop a therapeutic plan that can help resolve the web of physiological dysfunctions that is likely involved in your condition. Customized care is a highly effective and efficient way to help thyroid patients feel better, as it is targeted. Results are measured not simply through lab work, but in consideration with how the patient feels. Thyroid patients who work with functional wellness practitioners are active members of their own health care team. They work in partnership with their practitioners to bring about changes that improve their health and condition—real improvements that can be sustained.