Greenville Thyroid Clinic Shares – The Challenges of Evaluating Low Thyroid
Is it possible that you have low thyroid that’s gone undetected? Estimates from one research study determined that as many as 10 percent of people with thyroid disease may be misdiagnosed, and for women the risk is higher. Low thyroid is certainly not rare, so how is it the condition so often eludes detection?
One reason low thyroid may not be correctly identified relates to symptoms. The most common symptoms associated with low thyroid are typical of many other conditions. Fatigue, aches and pains, hair loss and weight gain may indicate low thyroid, but they can also occur as people age—or so most people believe. If a patient perceives herself as not living the healthiest lifestyle, she may simply attribute these symptoms to growing older, or as a price that must be paid for not exercising enough or eating a less than ideal diet.
Women are at particular risk for misdiagnosis of low thyroid, as many symptoms may be attributed to either PMS or pre-menopause. A female patient complaining to her doctor of headaches, moodiness and night sweats may simply be advised to take pain relievers or be prescribed antidepressants. In some instances, she may even be advised to consider oral contraceptives for help with PMS, which can actually exacerbate a thyroid problem.
Knowledgeable, proactive physicians (or those with very insistent patients) often do decide to check for low thyroid based on symptoms. Yet it’s very common for test results to lead a doctor to conclude, there is nothing wrong with their patient’s thyroid, when in fact there is. Low thyroid is typically checked by testing levels of TSH, or Thyroid Stimulating Hormone. If levels fall within a ‘normal’ range, there is no thyroid problem present. However, degrees of dysfunction (such as a mild or moderate cases of low thyroid) often go ignored with this approach.
Under-diagnosis or misdiagnosis isn’t easy to counter from a patient’s perspective. Many patients find themselves going to their doctor for the same problem or symptoms time and time again, as medication after medication fails to help them. Others go from doctor to doctor, hoping for a solution to a problem they continue to suffer with. In many cases, their symptoms worsen over time.
Those who suspect they do indeed have low thyroid despite being told ‘there’s nothing wrong’ or their thyroid is ‘fine’ do have another option. Functional wellness practitioners are an excellent choice for getting to the root cause of stubborn symptoms commonly associated with low thyroid.
These practitioners do not use medication to address thyroid problems; they rely on natural therapies such as optimizing nutrition and any necessary lifestyle changes that will enable their patients to achieve wellness. The focus is on helping the body heal itself, for long term benefits.
A wellness practitioner that is experienced with helping patients with low thyroid isn’t likely to allow the condition to go undetected. Instead of guessing what might help and taking a ‘wait and see’ approach, patients receive care that is based on in-depth analysis of their condition and their overall health. They’re then provided effective therapies that are suited to their body’s individual needs.
