People who suffer with a low thyroid are likely to be taking the appropriate drugs for the rest of their lives.
Recent findings suggest that despite earlier optimism there are no easy answers for the condition.
The individual’s thyroid gland fails to create enough of the thyroid hormones that the body needs.
It is mainly women who have the problem and it affects about five percent of citizens. The common treatment for hypothyroidism is hormone replacement, most usually with levothyroxine.
It is no surprise that patients, facing a life time of ever stronger medicine, are turning to alternative therapy to find a solution.
The symptoms are many and can vary greatly; they include joint and muscle pain, depression and fatigue, high cholesterol, changes in the skin, constipation, sudden weight gain, puffiness and alterations in menstruation cycle.
Studies have looked at a variety of different supplements and certain foods that have been claimed to affect the production of the thyroid hormone.
The oil from coconuts is supposed to stimulate the latter but nothing concrete has been proved. Consuming too much soy is believed to have the opposite effect but that too has yet to be confirmed by science.
One fact that data does back up is the need to take any medication when the stomach is empty. Also avoid any of the likely foodstuffs, or other drugs, that might not be beneficial to it working as it should.
For example walnuts, cottonseed meal, walnuts, iron or calcium supplements, cholestyramine or antacid and dietary fibre.
