Alternative Medicine
Thyroid Imbalance
Undiagnosed Illness & Silent Suffering
By Michael Lenzner, R. Ph.
There are 20 million people in the U.S. who suffer from thyroid disease, among these are 10 million women with low or borderline-low thyroid levels; Another 8 million people remain undiagnosed. Even small deficiencies in thyroid hormones, if left untreated, can be physically, mentally or emotionally devastating.
Do any of these symptoms sound familiar?
- Always fatigued or exhausted?
- Irritable and impatient?
- Feeling too hot or too cold?
- Depressed or anxious?
- Bothered by changes in your skin or hair?
- At the mercy of your moods?
- Gaining weight; often eating smaller portions but not losing a pound?
- Losing interest in sex?
- Mentally sluggish, unfocused or forgetful?
- Experiencing aches and pains in joints and muscles?
- Bothered by dry skin or hair?
- Losing enthusiasium for life?
- Sleeping poorly or not at all?
- Does someone in your family have thyroid disease?
If you answered ‘yes’ to one or more of these questions than you should consider having your thyroid tested.
Standard serum thyroid tests include testing the levels of what are known as T3 (Thyronine), T4 (Thyroxine), TSH (Thyroid Stimulating Hormone) and TPO (Thyroid Antibody).
Serum blood testing for thyroid measures both ‘bound’ (or inactive) and ‘free’ (available) levels of T3, T4 and TSH where only 1-percent are free and 99-percent are bound.
Saliva testing, on the other hand, measures only the free thyroid hormones in the body: The active and available thyroid hormones that can be used and utilized by the body.
Unfortunately, many medical clinicians exclusively use blood serum testing for thyroid function as their primary diagnostic tool regardless of the accuracy.
How often have you heard your medical clinician say that your thyroid test is in the normal range?
Sometimes doctors misdiagnose illnesses that might be thyroid-related when patients complain of stress, depression, anxiety, fatigue and other mental or emotional concerns. These symptoms are often signs of an undiagnosed thyroid imbalance.
Blood serum thyroid tests can often yield a ‘normal’ test result because of the wide range that is considered ‘normal. Saliva testing is much more sensitive to detecting low or insufficient levels of thyroid hormones.
But the greatest test of all is how the patient feels. If a blood test indicates a ‘normal’ thyroid levels but the patient still exhibits symptoms, then a low dosage trial of a thyroid medication might be a consideration.
Thyroid disease can affect many other medical conditions including miscarriage, infertility, menstrual problems and low libido.
Menopause symptoms such as hot flashes, night sweats and weight-gain and many other types of medical conditions can be much more pronounced from low thyroid levels. How much energy people have, how well they sleep, how well they get up in the morning and how much stamina they have throughout the day is directly affected by thyroid levels.
The first step to better health is to have your thyroid levels tested. Life Wellness pharmacy offers a simple, non-invasive Thyroid Saliva Test that you can use in the privacy of your own home. The pharmacists at Life Wellness Pharmacy can evaluate your test results and make sound recommendations for natural prescription thyroid medications.
Life Wellness custom compounds your bio-identical prescription thyroid medications and mails them directly to your door at no additional charge.
For more information, call Life Wellness Pharmacy at 1-800-210-9434
The majority of pituitary tumors & treatments are responsible for androgen deficiency. This includes estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone deficiency. The symptoms and treatment are identical to that of menopause for women. Synthetic hormones are most often prescribed. Lately the benefits of natural hormone replacement have been found to have more benefits and possibly fewer side effects.
A Healthier Alternative: Natural
Prescription Hormone Replacement
When the Women’s Health Initiative abruptly halted a long-term study on synthetic hormone replacement last July sending major shock waves through the medical community- many doctors and patients became confused about what to do. The National Institute of Health cancelled the 15–year study after 5 years because they felt that the increased health risks of synthetic hormone replacement outweighed the benefits. About 7 million women in the United States are on some form of hormone replacement therapy to help alleviate the symptoms associated with menopause.
“A healthier alternative is Natural Prescription Hormone Replacement,” says Michael Lenzner, a compounding pharmacist from Life Wellness Pharmacy. “Many menopausal women who were formerly on synthetic HRT are searching for a better way.”
“The recent Women’s Health Initiative study called into question the use of synthetic hormone replacement therapy, both estrogen as well as progestin. Synthetic HRT considerably increased the cancer risks. Natural Prescription Hormone Replacement mimics the molecular structure and the function of natural hormones that are produced by the body. The thought behind it -if it mimics nature, it would be less cancer-causing. Of course, we can’t make that claim and prove it. We have a lot of ancillary, anecdotal studies that point in that direction but we haven’t had a big study like the Women’s Health Initiative. One of the reasons for that is that Natural HRT deals with non-patentable, natural chemicals,” Lenzner added.
“Natural hormones are identical in structure and function to those found naturally in women but are derived from plants,” says Lenzner.
Natural hormones are available by prescription from specialized compounding pharmacies like Life Wellness Natural hormone replacement therapy (NHRT) is often prescribed to women to help alleviate the unpleasant symptoms associated with hormonal changes brought on by perimenopause and menopause such as PMS, hot flashes, night sweats, fatigue, foggy thinking and memory loss. NHRT prescriptions are custom-compounded to meet the individual needs of each patient.
“Synthetic hormones are still prescribed by some doctors and it may be appropriate in some instances: That’s between the doctor and their patient. It would be the appropriate choice if the patient and the physician were both educated on what the alternatives might be. For some patients, after the news that just came out, they’re going to be looking for the fidoestrogens and fidoprogesterone (supplements) in health food stores and I believe that’s not the best choice because the FDA doesn’t regulate these products and from product-to-product the strength is going be different. The imbalance in their hormones is going to be exacerbated because the doctor and the pharmacist don’t know where there hormone levels are –we can’t anticipate what the effect of applying them will be. So fidoestrogens are an alternative and they sometimes relieve some symptoms, but I believe it falls short because it’s not prescription-based and there’s no uniform quality assurance,” says Lenzner.
“The next alternative which is Natural Prescription Hormone Replacement, sometimes called Bio-Indentical of Bio-Equivalent hormone replacement. These are similar to natural hormones that occur in nature like the ones that the body produces naturally. We’re taking those chemicals from a natural source and we are mimicking the molecular structure. We’re basically trying to mimic what nature does in the body. And we believe that because we’re mimicking nature and we’re only replacing what is already deficient in the body, only to the levels that nature originally intended, that will provide the necessary relief from menopausal symptoms or estrogen-dominance symptoms the patient might be suffering . Because natural hormones are often in lower dosages than synthetics, in my opinion, they are a safer treatment alternative than synthetic HRT.”
Michael Lenzner adds: “What I’d like patients to understand is that they have choices.
I feel that strongly that Natural Prescription Hormone Replacement is a better choice. We can educate patients about hormone replacement therapy –and ultimately it becomes their choice and their physician’s choice. My goal is to make sure they understand the facts, so that they can make an informed decision.”
article/interview with Michael Lenzner who is a compounding pharmacist and the President of Life Wellness Pharmacy.
www.lifewellness.com