Greenville SC Thyroid Doctor Explains Why is Low Thyroid So Often Under Diagnosed or Misdiagnosed?
Do you struggle with symptoms of low thyroid such as constipation, dry skin, joint pain, cold sensitivity, weight gain or extreme fatigue? Maybe you’ve visited your health care provider for help, but blood tests have shown your thyroid is functioning fine. If this sounds familiar, you may be among the many hypothyroid patients who have subclinical hypothyroid.
If you have low grade hypothyroidism, the blood tests typically used by health care providers in standard medicine will not detect your problem. Unfortunately for many patients, this means that their condition may need to worsen before they’ll be helped with therapeutic support. This may mean continuing to struggle with symptoms that worsen. For many patients who have low thyroid symptoms, an underlying autoimmune condition called Hashimoto’s disease is responsible. This disease will continue to progress if it remains undetected and unaddressed, resulting in damage to thyroid tissue that eventually leads to hypothyroidism.
So why can’t health care providers detect hypothyroidism that’s causing discomforting symptoms? Oftentimes it is due to reliance on inadequate blood tests. If thyroid hormone levels are registering in the “normal” range of the blood test a doctor is using, she is likely to look for another cause for symptoms. Tests that are much more specific can help in properly evaluating subclinical hypothyroid patients, but they aren’t typically used within standard medicine. If you want the type of comprehensive testing and evaluation that can precisely identify the status of your thyroid function and much more that may be involved with your symptoms, you’ll need to work with a different type of health practitioner—one who is trained in functional wellness care.
Another problem with properly identifying subclinical hypothyroid relates to the nature of the symptoms. Symptoms of hypothyroidism can appear close or identical to symptoms of hormone imbalance related to menopause and other conditions, too. The majority of low thyroid patients are women. Often times, when tests show thyroid function is normal, a health care provider will assume sluggishness, headaches, difficulties with sleep or weight gain relate to sex hormone imbalance that is occurring as a part of pre-menopause or menopause.
Instead of guesswork or taking a trial and error approach with medications to address symptoms, if you believe you may have a thyroid problem you can opt for a different type of care. Consider seeing a functional wellness care provider. This alternative approach to health care focuses on finding the root cause of chronic health conditions such as low thyroid. Whatever is causing your symptoms, whether it is thyroid dysfunction, hormone imbalance or something else entirely, it is possible to find out why you feel the way you do.
There is no need to wait to feel worse before you begin to address whatever is causing your symptoms. Once the cause of your condition is correctly identified, you can begin to take steps to address any dysfunctions or imbalances involved. Functional wellness care involves customized therapeutic support that is safe and natural. You can look forward to regaining optimal health, and to maintaining it long term, too.
