Botanicals for Thyroid Function & Dysfunction

[Guest guest]

BOTANICALS FOR THYROID FUNCTION AND DYSFUNCTION

 

Ryan Drum PHD, A.H.G. (by permission)

http://www.planetherbs.com/

 

Thyroid dysfunction is epidemic in North America. One in ten adult American

women have been diagnosed with thyroid disorders and some endocrinologists

suggest that as many as 25% of adult American women are presenting with

clinically detectable thyroid dysfunction.

 

Health practitioners in Canada, Saudi Arabia, and Ireland (pers. comm) report a

similar apparent very startling increase in female thyroid disorders. Most

veterinarians in small animal practice are seeing thyroid problems in cats and

dogs balloon up to 40% of their respective practices (cats tend to be

hyperthyroid and dogs tend to be hypothyroid; the proportional dosage for pets

seems to be much higher for thyroid hormone treatments. )

 

What has happened? ARE PRACTITIONERS FINALLY BECOMING MORE AWARE OF THE MANY

FACETS OF THYROID DYSFUNCTION PRESENTATIONS? Or, has something happened in the

environment which is responsible for the apparent great increase in clinical and

subclinical thyroid dysfunction?

 

In clinical practice I am somewhat incredulous at the recent rapid increase in

patients (90% female) presenting with both diagnosed and probable thyroid

dysfunction (1995-1999).

 

Just for a reality check, I went back to my old (1967) Robbins' Pathology to see

if he had anything to say about frequency of thyroid presentations.

 

He did: " Diseases of the thyroid, while not common in clinical practice, are

nonetheless of great importance because most are amenable to medical or surgical

management. " " NOT COMMON IN CLINICAL PRACTICE " !!!

 

People, practitioners, or the environment has changed, singly or perhaps in

concert.

 

I do not believe that Robbins was joking. His so hopeful prognosis for thyroid

case management might bring bitter responses from the millions of women who have

experienced surgical or radiation ablation removal of their thyroids only to

have many or most of their presenting symptoms and others return with a

vengeance.

 

The patient help phone lines at the Thyroid Foundation of America are flooded

with thousands of calls from women wondering, " how come I feel awful again " ?

 

Too often their endocrinologists dismiss their valid complaints as imagination

or psychological character flaws.

 

These mostly female patients are being very poorly managed from my viewpoint.

Currently, TFA endocrinologists are actively trying to improve this situation.

(pers. comm from L. Wood to RD.)

 

 

 

Worldwide, thyroid dysfunction is a probable risk factor for 1 to 1.5 BILLION

people (WHO figures) usually considered due to simple iodine deficiency and

presenting as goitre (at least 200 million),

complex mental retardation from fetal and neonate

iodine deficiency (iodine deficiency causes more mental retardation worldwide

than all other causes combined), and physical deformities (at least 20 million).

 

The two main thyroid gland hormones are T4 (65% iodine) and T3 (59% iodine);

calcitonin does not contain

iodine.

 

 

 

The American thyroid dysfunction picture does not seem so simple: rather than

just simple iodine deficiency, it is the thyroid gland itself, which seems to be

failing.

 

The claim has been made for almost 80 years that North Americans are getting

plenty of dietary iodine due to the ubiquitous use of iodized salt.

 

Braverman and others have even been suggesting that Americans are getting too

much iodine and that increases in the incidence of autoimmune thyroid disease,

namely Hashimoto's Hypothyroiditis and Graves' disease (hyperthyroidism)

parallel increased dietary iodine intake.

 

High iodine intake, especially during the years 1940-1990, may be responsible

for the thyroid dysfunction plague currently presenting. Recent surveys of food

and alleged diets now indicate that the American diet may be borderline

deficient in iodine intake, down from 5-800ug in l980 to about 135ug in 1995.

 

The truth is difficult to ascertain about any of these numbers since no real

people with real diets were followed very carefully by measuring iodine intake

using precise analyses of iodine content in all food ingested per individual in

the study population with concomitant precise measurement of urinary iodine for

all urine secreted per 24 hours, for a few years; so, the authors merely fiddled

and fudged and extrapolated until they had fallen prey to all of the traps of

the SWAG syndrome. They just sort of guessed and pretended to be precise and

then whined a lot about it at the expense of a lot of trees and tax dollars.

 

Until about a year ago when I began to seriously read the materials and method

sections of the original research papers on dietary iodine consumption, I truly

believed all of the assumptions and conclusions.

 

After reading the only paper (a British effort), which actually analyzed iodine

content of a few foods and then extrapolated the rest, I learned that everyone

else was just guesstimating with assumed academic authority. Too bad, it was

such a great riff.

 

For almost 60 years, the main dietary sources of iodine were not from iodized

salt, but from flour products and dairy products.

 

Iodates were/are used as dough conditioners; they improve the cross-linking in

gluten molecules; they also act as mild antiseptics and mold retardants.

 

The widely varying amounts of iodine in dairy products result from the use of

copious amounts of iodine disinfectants used as teat dips in all commercial

machine-milking dairy factories (hardly farms in either the traditional or

realistic sense). The iodine solutions drip into the milk instead of large

quantities of topical microbes.

 

Furthermore, most dairy factories wash their stainless steel equipment with

strong iodine solutions for sterilization.

 

Do you ever wonder why you get a little hyperactive from eating cheese or

drinking lots of milk? Some Americans did not purchase iodized salt because it

was a little more expensive, and plain salt was usually available nearby often

on the same shelf. People still continue to get obvious low-iodine goiters even

though the academics claim it is virtually impossible.

 

The situation is much improved from the 1915-1919 years when the number one

cause of recruit rejection for military service was overt goiter.

 

Low dietary iodine is associated with increased rates and risk for breast,

endometrial, and ovarian cancer; the cause is probably gonadotropin stimulation

with a resulting hyper estrogenic state characterized by relatively high

production of estrogen and estradiol.

 

Now, I mention all of this because I personally believe that situational iodine

deficiency regularly occurs in modern Americans as a result of both dietary

peculiarities and the chronic use of fluoridated, chlorinated, and bromated

water supplies, internally and externally.

 

Fluorine, chlorine, and bromine are all more chemically reactive than iodine;

when in the body, they all tend to disrupt stable iodine molecules, displacing

the iodine and causing its excretion.

 

When experimental rats (many dietary experiments are performed using volunteer

incarcerates) are fed high-bromine diets, the bromine enters their respective

thyroid glands and replaces the iodine already there; the proportion of bromine

in the thyroid glands of those rats is directly proportional to the amount of

bromine in their diet.

 

We get bromine from pesticides, dough conditioners, and from disinfectants for

water in hot tubs and commercial spas.

 

So, not only can we avoid eating iodized salt, we also can lose iodine from

aggressive halides; our bodies have no known mechanisms for dealing with

relatively large amounts of fluorides, chlorine, bromine, since these substances

are normally too reactive to be available in the so-called natural environment;

our exposure is totally modern.

 

Gaseous chlorine is regularly released from shower and tub water freshly drawn

from water supply taps.

 

I recommend showering with the window open; I recommend bathing in tubs filled

with the hottest water and allowed to out- gas while they cool to bearable

temperature.

 

Reduce your exposure to iodine-robbing halides for optimal thyroid health.

 

Aspirin and other related salicylates as well as anticoagulants like Warfarin

(di-coumerol) increase iodine excretion

and can induce mild hypothyroidism;

 

always inquire of mild hypothyroid patients about aspirin and anticoagulant use.

 

 

 

Where does iodine come from? It is mined in Oklahoma, Chile and Japan from

subterranean brine deposits.

How can we best get it into our diets and our bodies? No land plants are a good

reliable source of iodine.

 

Garlic grown near the sea often has relatively high amounts of biological

iodine. Another peculiar phenomenon, biologically speaking, is the curious stuff

called " snack foods " .

 

These are extended shelf life products that cater to the most basic food desires

of the economically deprived: greasy salty fried carbohydrates with lots of

spoilage retardants and mystery ingredients

euphemistically called " spices and other flavorings " .

 

The world's largest snack food supplier, Frito-Lay, a division of Pepsico, does

not use iodized salt; presumably neither do any of the other snack food

manufacturers, in part to reduce actual product production costs,

but, also, with a wise eye to sloppy industrial mixing of potassium iodide in

huge multi-ton batches of sodium chloride

which has resulted in occasional pockets of nearly pure potassium iodide.

 

The hazard from Potassium iodide poisoning is probably greater than from iodide;

cardiac failure.

Usually excess iodine is simply excreted in the urine. Relatively huge amounts

of iodine salts are used to serve as contrasting agents for radiography in the

intestinal tract, up to 10 grams at once.

 

(And these are the people that whine about eating a little kelp)

 

So, if your dietary sources of salt are largely from commercial foods, you might

be iodine deficient.

 

Iodized salt is approximately 0.01% potassium iodide;

one teaspoon of iodized salt provides about 150ug of iodine,

about the real daily adult requirement given 70-80ug intestinal uptake.

 

For my patients, I prescribe daily dietary dosages of 3-5 grams of a good

powdered *kelp* which should provide enough iodine

and most of the essential trace elements

(4 grams of powdered seaweed per day is 1 ounce per week, is 3 and 1/4 pounds of

seaweed per year.)

 

Any *seaweed* contains more available dietary iodine than any landplant.

 

The seaweeds with the most available iodine are the giant kelps of the northern

hemisphere, with the highest concentrations of iodine occurring in the most

northern kelps

(8000 ppm in Icelandic kelp, 4000 ppm in Norwegian kelp, 1-2000 ppm in Maine and

California kelp; the seaweeds with the least amounts of iodine are Nori, about

15ppm, and Sargassum, about 30-40 ppm).

 

Besides garlic, root crops, vegetables such as turnips, carrots, potatoes,

parsnips, and sweet potatoes

The amounts of iodine in land plants can be greatly increased by fertilizing

food plants with seaweeds applied directly to the soil as topical mulch or

tilled into the soil. I do not know if foliar sprays containing seaweed extracts

provide iodine, which is taken into edible plant parts.

 

 

 

There is one more terrible problem: the atomic age. Since 1945 every human has

been repeatedly dusted with radioactive fallout from both acknowledged and

unacknowledged nuclear explosions, nuclear power plant disasters, and most

insidious of all, the regular, continual,

 

intentional release of radioactive Iodine

 

131 from all nuclear weapons facilities and all nuclear power plants just with

so-called normal operations.

 

In addition to this, the government-sponsored nuclear industry regularly

released enormous quantities of radioactive Iodine, cesium, and strontium into

the atmosphere just to see what might happen.

 

Eastman Kodak was forewarned so they would not lose photo emulsion film to

radioactive fogging.

 

Families downwind of Hanford reservation in Washington were not warned.

 

For nearly 5 years a 100,000-page report prepared by the National Institutes of

Cancer, was suppressed until forced out of hiding by the efforts of some

senators and congressmen, most notably Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa. The report

shows total disregard for American citizens and military.

 

Hundreds of thousands of delayed thyroid pathologies are the long-term heritage

of this inexcusable outrage. I BELIEVE CONTINUAL AND REGULAR EXPOSURE TO

INCIDENTAL IODINE 131 IS THE ORIGIN OF MOST CURRENT THYROID DISORDERS.

 

The prescribed treatment would be cultural and political maturation. Seaweeds

alone are not enough.

 

 

 

It takes about 18 minutes for all the blood in the body to pass through the

thyroid gland; it is the most thoroughly vascularized of all the endocrine

glands.

 

Most of our respective bodies are iodine conservative: we can absorb it through

our skin in minutes when painted on; I have had participants demonstrate

transdermal movement of iodine absorbed from clothing thru the skin.

 

Iodine is easily absorbed from the intestines in efficiencies up to 98% in very

low-iodine diets. The radioactive Iodine we are all breathing and eating is

released in bursts as a product of nuclear fission usually within legally

allowable amounts; these allowed amounts are calculated on a per day basis

rather than as high-amount bursts or episodes. This helps perpetuate the myth

that the allowable releases are no health hazard. Wrong. The episodic rather

than regular release of iodine-131 means we get big hits and then none at all,

especially in milk and milk products. The reason that iodine -131 is so

dangerous is that it has a relatively short half-life of about 8 days; this

means it has a radiogenic life of about 60 days, and then the amount remaining

is probably biologically insignificant. Although this short half-life is touted

as a great thing for patients, and incidental accumulators of iodine-131, the

short half-life means that most iodine 131 taken into the body will decay

in the body rather than being excreted.

 

Rather than occurring over a relatively long time, the short half-life means a

lot of radioactive decay of iodine 131 within the thyroid gland, releasing

unavoidably molecular-destructive gamma radiation to nearby cell molecules.

There is no safe dosage of gamma radiation inside cells.

 

Therapeutically, iodine 131 is fed to patients to fry their thyroids with gamma

radiation, released by radioactive decay of iodine 131; the patient handout

claims that this is a totally safe procedure with no possible health hazards; on

the other side of the handout patients are severely warned to not nurse their

babies for 5 weeks, not to hold children and other loved ones close, to not

share towels for a month or more. So much for totally safe!

 

Our bodies tend to be iodine aggressive in absorption and iodine conservative in

excretion. If we are at all iodine deficient, we will readily take in

radioactive iodine 131 and deposit it in our thyroid glands just as we do with

non-radioactive iodine 127. If we have a full, ongoing whole-body complement of

iodine 127, our bodies tend to not take up any iodine 131.

 

This means that eating seaweeds regularly in the diet, especially the big

northern kelps will provide both dietary iodine and protection against the

ongoing iodine-131 hazards and the next unplanned nuclear disaster.

 

The major health problems from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster on or about

26.April 1986 are all related to the huge and deliberately underreported

releases of radioactive iodine 131 into the atmosphere and onto the soils,

surface waters, plants, animals, and cities within 1000 miles of the Chernobyl

site.

 

Within five years, large increases in thyroid disorders of all sorts began to

occur, directly attributable to Chernobyl iodine 131 releases. The worst is

still developing since we know that the cancer rates from short-term radiation

exposure tend to peak 20-30 years after a particular release episode. The

simplest protection against nuclear fallout is to simply dismantle all nuclear

facilities immediately. Without that, we are all continually at risk for thyroid

dysfunction.

 

Our next best protection against thyroid disruption is to body-load with iodine

contained in iodine-rich whole raw seaweeds as regular daily consumption. If our

bodies have an ongoing full complement of iodine 127, we can better resist

taking in incidental iodine 131.

 

 

 

There are a few more little bits to the iodine part of the story: after the

thyroid gland, the distal portions of the human mammary glands are the heaviest

users/concentrators of iodine in tissue. Iodine is readily incorporated into the

tissues surrounding the mammary nipples and is essential for the maintenance of

healthy functioning breast tissue. I suspect that this is ignored in the

attempts to understand the developmental dynamics of breast cancer; I believe

that radioactive decay of iodine 131 in breast tissue is a significant factor in

the initiation and progression of both breast cancer and some types of breast

nodules.

 

Iodine also concentrates in the salivary glands and gonads. Salivary gland

cancer, and testicular cancer (especially in men over 25, a relatively recent

phenomenon) and ovarian cancer are all increasing in actual numbers. I suspect

that radioactive iodine 131 decay may be a significant contributing factor.

 

 

 

The largest of the endocrine glands, the one-half to one ounce thyroid gland is

almost twice as large in women on average, than in men. Its overt function seems

to be to manufacture, store, and release under strict controls, thyroid

hormones, mostly thyroxin, T4, and T3, tri-iodothyronine, in about a 4:1 ration.

In very low iodine intake situations, that T4:T3 ratio is reversed to 1:4. This

rather comfortable view of the mechanistic thyroid is incomplete: to quote

Robbins (Pathology, 1967) further, " from the physiologic standpoint, the

thyroid gland is one of the most sensitive organs in the body. It responds to

many stimuli and IS IN A CONSTANT STATE OF ADAPTATION.... During puberty,

pregnancy, and PHYSIOLOGIC STRESS FROM ANY SOURCE, THE THYROID GLAND INCREASES

IN SIZE AND BECOMES MORE ACTIVE FUNCTIONALLY.

 

Changes in size and activity may be observed during a normal menstrual cycle.

This extreme functional changeability is manifest as transient hyperplasia of

thyroidal epithelium (follicular cells) changing (to tall, columnar). When

stress abates, involution obtains and normal follicular cell shape (roughly

spherical) and function resume " . Instead of just a passive hormone factory, the

thyroid gland overtly changes size, shape and function to reflect the changing

reality of its particular person. Patients and workshop participants regularly

provide real anecdotal evidence (I usually give more credence to a person's

evaluation of their own experience than I do to the numbers coming out of dead

machines, remembering that all information is technically anecdotal: all

machines are innately unreliable, data are usually massaged, and scientists are

no less biased and prone to lying than the general population) about the

apparent frequent overmedication with thyroid hormone replacement

medications: namely, that they stopped taking their thyroid medications when

they started to feel worse after several months or years, and they not only felt

better, but their symptoms never returned. The joyful cynic can reasonably claim

that the thyroid replacement hormone medication(s) worked. Sometimes yes and

sometimes no, is my evaluation of the situation. I believe that brief thyroid

hormone replacement therapy may be life-saving and or life-modulating; but, I

also think that the increasing reliance on TSH tests and the aggressive attempts

to normalize the thyroid gland and its functions of a particular patient may

mask the greater need which is to understand what is the gain to the patient

from a change in thyroid function. The other point often just dismissed now, is

the full frontal location of the thyroid gland, with no bony protection on the

anterior side unless head drop occurs. When I see the same patients over several

years, modest changes in their respective thyroid

size and sometimes shape are often evident, and resolve with no overt

intervention. Irresolvable or otherwise overwhelming life situation stress often

seems to be if not an initiating factor, at least an accompanying reality for

benign thyroid enlargement. I am not yet clear from physiologic studies if no

pathological increased thyroid size is always accompanied by an increase in

thyroid hormone production or release, or not. One interesting point is that

impact trauma can apparently squeeze a burst of thyroid hormone out of the gland

with a concomitant transient hyperthyroidism episode; this means a physical hit,

or a compression squeeze from poorly placed shoulder belts in automobiles where

the vehicle has been hit or has hit something and a whiplash event occurs. So,

mechanical stress can also affect the thyroid gland.

 

 

 

Many endocrine changes occur in anorexia nervosa, including low levels of T4 and

T3.

 

I further believe that the situational low thyroid presentations

(hypothyroidism) which seem to be initiated by a known life trauma, particularly

loss of a loved one or similar grief-inducing events, are completely normal

thyroid responses and very desirable components of the grief response and should

not be treated unless acute (life-threatening), or persisting for more than one

year. I believe that it is a failing of the cultural terrain that we do not

honor and savor the natural grief response, with the personal consequence that

many of us suffer from chronic secondary grief over the loss of therapeutic

grieving and that this secondary grief is a major factor in the current plague

of hypothyroidism.

 

 

 

Other tissues in the body, particularly the liver. can greatly influence the

accessibility of T4 to body cells; for T4 to be physiologically active, it must

first be converted to T3. This conversion is accomplished primarily by 5'

deiodinase in the liver.

 

Of intriguing interest, this particular enzyme requires selenium as its cationic

enzymatic cofactor.

 

This means that chronic selenium deficiency can present as hypothyroidism due to

reduced T4 to T3 conversion. The thyroid test for TSH and T4 will not reveal

this and unnecessary thyroid medication may be prescribed.

 

In an associated consideration, mercury in the body tends to quell or cripple

selenium in enzymes.

This means that chronic or even possible acute mercury poisoning can present as

hypothyroidism.

 

We all have steadily increasing body burdens of mercury from both our foods and

water. A test for selenium and mercury is always indicated in cases of obvious

hypothyroid signs and symptoms with normal range TSH and T4.

 

 

 

Recently I have read that isoflavones, such as genistein and equol, are

inhibitors of thyroid peroxidase, the thyroid follicle enzyme that makes T4 and

T3. This inhibition may generate goiters, hypothyroidism, and autoimmune

thyroiditis.

 

 

 

Another almost bizarre phenomenon is the RT3 situation. RT3 is also called

reverse T3.

 

It is not reversed at all but instead is produced when 5-deiodinase, instead of

the 5' iodine on the exterior site, removes the 5-iodine on the interior benzene

ring. RT3 is nearly inert and especially so as a thyroid hormone. It has an

extremely short half-life in the body of a few hours; it is rapidly excreted via

the liver.

 

In our bodies normally, T4 converts to T3 at about 40% and to RT3 at about 45%.

This is most curious in an otherwise innately metabolically conservative

biological system. The RT3 mechanism is a way of regulating T3 and reducing the

likelihood of incipient hyperthyroidism, whilst maintaining the capacity to

boost T3 production as a situation may demand The body can also decrease T3

production on demand: fasting, acute trauma, chronic illness, and grief all tend

to increase RT3 production and decrease T3 production.

A decrease in T3 tends to mean a slower metabolism, less appetite, slower

protein replacement and much less energy on demand for spontaneous kinetics.

A relatively high RT3 and low T3 is often accompanied by a relatively low body

temperature (less than 97.5 degrees F) as measured in the axillaries before

rising in the morning; this low armpit temperature reading ( one assumes

carefully calibrated and accurate mercury thermometers only being used) is often

used as a simple test for hypothyroidism, since body temperature is tightly

controlled by metabolic rate and that metabolic rate, the rate at which fuel is

converted to heat and kinetics is controlled by T3. A shortage of T3 means lower

body temperature and possibly death if prolonged. The relatively high production

of RT3 compared to T3 is sometimes referred to as Wilson's Syndrome, and is

clinically treated with T3 until a normal body temperature is " captured " and

maintained. There is not yet a positive consensus about either the efficacy or

desirability of T3 therapy. I tend to think it is indicated in life-threatening

situations and maybe in other cases.

 

I believe that temporary low body resting temperature and accompanying low T3

may indicate physiological grieving and/or the need to slow down, get quiet,

meditate, rest, regroup one's life resources, and correct faulty attitudes or

behaviors to more health-positive ones. In the trauma response, low T3 and high

RT3 function to keep the body still and unavoidably calm to slow or prevent

further trauma thru activity. I think that up to a year of prolonged low T3 and

or low T4 production might be a genetically programmed requirement for health

renewal in a long-lived primate such as ourselves (remember that chimpanzees

have lived well past 65 years in captivity) so that we can remain healthy for up

to 120 years.

 

There is a sad note to the increasing clinical thyroid plague: between 2 and 8

million North Americans (the exact numbers will never be known due to poor

record-keeping) were deliberately medically treated with X-rays to the head and

chest, foolishly and oft times frivolously for a wide range of presenting

conditions.

 

These conditions included: scalp ringworm, asthma, chronic bronchitis,

tonsillitis, acne, and neonate respiratory problems.

 

The thyroid glands of the respective patients received pathologically

significant amounts of powerful ionizing radiation.

 

These treatments (occurring between 1930 and 1980) have caused over 10,000 of

cases of thyroid cancers, which develop 10-40 YEARS after the medical exposures

with a peak incidence between 20-30 years after the episodes, and as much as a

million cases of other thyroid structural deformities including nodular goiters

(at least 27% of all children and adolescents irradiated).

 

Who was punished for this gross instance of medical malpractice? By the 1930's

the connection between cancer and radium exposure was known. The

endocrinologists are relatively mum about responsibility for these poor trusting

victims, more than the total number of victims wounded by the two atom bombs

dropped on Japan in 1945.

 

 

 

If you have a person born before 1980 (most will be over 30 years old since the

practice of sloppy upper body and head irradiation was largely discontinued by

1970 but persisted in some remote clinics and offices for up to another

decade.), who presents with nodular goiter or thyroid cancer, be sure and

inquire about juvenile radiation exposure. Treatment prognosis is mixed with

thyroidectomy usually recommended with subsequent lifelong obligatory thyroid

replacement therapy.

 

 

 

SEAWEED THYROID TREATMENTS

 

 

 

The complexity of many presenting thyroid dysfunction cases precludes a simple

set of all-purpose formulas. Each one of my thyroid patients has a personally

unique thyroid presentation. I try to compose an individualized functional

treatment plan for each, using a few basic methods. Diet and behavior

modification also are very important in thyroid case management. What follows

are some of my treatment approaches and some general guidelines and notes:

 

 

 

1. Rather uncomplicated seaweed therapy seems to help relieve many of the

presenting symptoms of thyroid dysfunction. Some of the results are very likely

from whole body remineralization (especially potassium, zinc, calcium,

magnesium, manganese, chromium, selenium, vanadium etc.) in addition to thyroid

gland aid from both sustained regular reliable dietary sources of biomolecular

iodine and from thyroxin-like molecules present in marine algae, both the large

edible seaweeds and their almost ubiquitous epiphytic micro algae, predominantly

the silica-walled diatoms.

 

 

 

2. Regular biomolecular seaweed iodine consumption is more than just thyroid

food: it can also protect the thyroid gland from potential resident

iodine131-induced molecular disruption and cell death when the thyroid gland is

fully iodized with iodine 127. The fear of eating seaweed which might be

contaminated with iodine-131 is easily mitigated by allowing the seaweed to be

stored for 50 days prior to dietary consumption; this will give enough time for

most (99%) of any I-131 to radioactively decay.

 

A simple folk test for iodine deficiency or at least aggressive iodine uptake,

is to paint a 2 inch diameter round patch of USP Tincture of Iodine (strong or

mild) on a soft skin area such as the inner upper arm, the inside of the elbow,

the inner thigh, or the lateral abdomen between the lowest rib and the top of

the hip.

 

If you are iodine deficient, the patch will disappear in less than two hours,

sometimes as quickly as 20 minutes; if it fades in 2-4 hours, you may just be

momentarily iodine needy. If it persists for more than 4 hours, your are

probably iodine sufficient. Iodine deficiency seems to predispose to thyroid

malignancy; this could explain the apparent thyroid cancer distribution " fans "

downwind of nuclear facilities in previous goiter belt areas.

 

 

 

3.Many patients with underactive thyroid glands complain of a sense of

" coldness " or feeling cold all of the time; often they are over-dressed for

warmth by thyro-normal people's standards. They may also present a low basal

body resting temperature, as measured by taking their armpit temperature before

rising in the morning (remember to shake down the thermometer the night before).

 

Other symptoms may include sluggishness, gradual weight gain, and mild

depression. For these patients, add 5-10 grams of several different whole

seaweeds to the daily diet; that is, 5-10 grams total weight per day, NOT 5-10

grams of each type of seaweed. I usually suggest a mix of 2 parts brown algae

(all kelps, Fucus, Sargassum, Hiziki) to one part red seaweed (Dulse, Nori,

Irish moss, Gracillaria). The mixed seaweeds can be eaten in soups, salads; or,

easily powdered and sprinkled onto or into any food.

 

 

I recommend doing this for at least 60 days, about two lunar cycles or at least

two menstrual cycles; watch for any changes in signs and symptoms and any change

in average daily basal temperature. (Please note that patients can have a normal

98.6 degree F temperature and still feel cold, and, also present many of the

signs and symptoms of functional hypothyroidism).

Please do not insist that all hypothyroid patients must have abnormally low

basal resting temperatures. If no symptoms improve or the temperature remains

low (less than 97.5 degrees F), continue seaweeds and request a TSH and T4 test.

 

If TSH and T4 tests indicate low circulating thyroxin levels, continue seaweeds

for another two months. It may take the thyroid that long to positively responds

to continual regular presentation of adequate dietary iodine.

 

Powdered whole seaweed may be much more effective than flakes, pieces, or

granules. The powdered seaweed is best added to food immediately prior to

eating; do not cook the seaweed for best results.

 

All corticosteroids tend to depress thyroid function. Before trying to fix the

thyroid, be sure and aggressively inquire about both internal and topical

steroid use, including Prednisone and topical creams.

 

These as well as salicylates and anticoagulants can aggravate existing mild

hypothyroidism.

 

 

 

4. Partial thyroidectomy cases can be helped by regular continual dietary

consumption of 3-5 grams of whole seaweeds 3-4 times a week. By " whole seaweed "

I mean: untreated raw dried seaweed, in pieces or powder, not reconstructed

flakes or granules.

 

 

 

5. Patients with thyroid glands on thyroid replacement hormone (animal or

synthetic) can respond favorably to carefully and slowly replacing part or their

entire entire extrinsic hormone requirement by adding dietary Fucus in 3-5 gram

daily doses. Fucus spp. has been the thyroid folk remedy of choice for at least

5000 years.

 

The best candidates are women who seek a less hazardous treatment than synthetic

hormone (after reading variously that prolonged use of synthetic thyroid hormone

increases risk for heart disease, osteoporosis, and adverse interactions with

many prescribed drugs, particularly corticosteroids and antidepressants).

 

 

 

Fucus spp. contains di-iodotyrosine (iodogogoric acid) or DIT. Two DIT molecules

are coupled in the folicular lumina of the thyroid gland by a condensing

esterification reaction organized by thyroid peroxidase (TPO). This means that

Fucus provides easy-to use-prefabricated thyroxin (T4) halves for a boost to

weary thyroid glands, almost as good as T4. European thalassotherapists claim

that hot Fucus seaweed baths in seawater provide transdermal iodine; perhaps hot

Fucus baths also provide transdermal DIT?

 

 

 

The best results with Fucus therapy are obtained with women who were diagnosed

with sluggish thyroid glands and who are or were on low or minimal maintenance

replacement hormone dosages and who may gleefully remark that they miss, forget,

or avoid taking their thyroid medication for several days with no obvious

negative short-term sequellae; others claim to have just stopped taking their

medication. I do not recommend stopping thyroid medication totally at once:

Thyroxin is essential for human life (and all animal life); it has a long

half-life in the body of a week or more so that a false impression of

non-dependency can obtain for up to a month before severe or even acute

hypothyroidism can manifest, potentially fatal.

 

 

 

Fucus can be easily added to the diet as small pieces or freeze-dried powder in

capsules. The actual Fucus is much more effective than extracts. A nice note is

that Fucus spp are the most abundant intertidal brown seaweeds in the northern

hemisphere. This is of especial interest to those patients who might be trading

one dependency for another, as seems to be the case for some. (A year's supply

can be gathered in an hour or less and easily dried in a food dehydrator or in

hot sun for 10-12 hours and then in a food dehydrator until completely crunchy

dry. Fucus dries down about 6 to one: six pounds of wet Fucus dry down to about

one pound. It has a modest storage life of 8-12 months in completely airtight

containers stored in the dark at 50 degrees F. A year's supply at 4 grams/day is

slightly more than three pounds dry.).

 

 

 

6. Aggressive attempts to replace thyroid replacement hormone with Fucus involve

halving the dose of medication each week for four weeks while adding 3-5 grams

of dried Fucus to the diet daily from the beginning and continuing indefinitely.

If low thyroid symptoms appear, return to lowest thyroid hormone maintenance

level and try skipping medication every other day for a week, then for every

other two days, then three days, etc. The intent is to establish the lowest

possible maintenance dosage by patient self-evaluation and/or to determine if

replacement hormones can be eliminated when the patient ingests a regular

reliable supply of both biomolecular iodine and DIT. Thoughtful, careful patient

self-monitoring is essential for successful treatment.

 

 

 

7. A more conservative replacement schedule is similar to the aggressive

approach except that the time intervals are one month instead of one week, and

the Fucus addition is in one gram increments, beginning with one gram of Fucus

the first month of attempting to halve the replacement hormone dosage, and

increasing the amount of Fucus by a gram each succeeding month to 5 grams per

day. The conservative schedule is urged with anxious patients and primary

caregivers.

 

 

 

There is some literature concern (a bit quite shrill and clumsily documented)

that excess (undefined) kelp (species either unknown or not mentioned)

consumption can/may induce hypothyroidism. It seems possible. The only

definitive study I have seen reports from Hokkaido, Japan, where study subjects

at about an 8-10% rate of total study participants, presented with

iodine-induced goiter from the consumption of large amounts of one or more

Laminaria species (Kombu) of large kelps, known to be rich (more than 1000ppm)

in available iodine.

 

Reduction of both total dietary iodine and/or dietary Kombu led to complete

remission of all goiters. The apparent iodine-induced goiters did not affect

normal thyroid functioning in any participants. Two women in the study did not

care if they had goiters and refused to reduce their Kombu intake.

 

Note that the Japanese have the world's highest known dietary intakes of both

sea vegetables and iodine.

 

I think it reduction or elimination of seaweeds from the diet is indicated for

at least a month in cases of both hyperthyroidism and hypothyroidism, to

ascertain if excess dietary iodine is a contributing factor to a disease

condition. Other dietary iodine sources, particularly dairy and flour products

should also be reduced and or eliminated during the same time period. Some

individuals do seem to be very dietarily iodine-extraction efficient and iodine

sensitive simultaneously.

 

 

 

BRIEF CASE HISTORY OF A THYROID NODULE

 

A 35-year-old female patient (two children) presented with a rapidly growing

thyroid nodule, which seemed to arise with no overt cause. The nodule was not

firm but cystic. Once it had stabilized, a fine needle aspirant sample was

collected; the cyst was apparently totally benign. Synthetic thyroid hormone was

suggested to promote the nodule's shrinkage. The patient refused.

 

Almost four years after the nodule stabilized the woman began taking 3-5 grams

/day of powdered Fucus and Nereocystis kelp, mixed. After six months, the nodule

had completely disappeared. The woman continues to take some maintenance dosages

several times a week.

 

 

 

OTHER HERBAL THYROID TREATMENTS

 

 

 

GRAVES' DISEASE: HYPERTHYDOIRISM

 

Unlike Hashimoto's hypothyroiditis, Graves' disease seems very amenable to

successful herbal intervention and control. The three main herbs used are:

Melissa officinalis (lemon balm), Lycopus virginiana (bugleweed) and Leonurus

cardiaca (motherwort) in descending order of strength and apparent

thyrosuppressive efficacy.

 

 

 

MELISSA in particular, when delivered in measured doses as tincture, tea, or

less exactly, freshly extracted juice from a " wheatgrass juicer " stops TSH from

binding to its thyroid receptor sites, slows or even quells the uptake of iodine

by the active transport sites on thyroid cell surfaces, suppresses the

iodination of tyrosine residues in the follicular lumina by TPO, and appears to

also impede stored thyroid hormone release from the thyroid gland.

 

The results can be especially rewarding ( see following case history). My

personal preference is to have hyperthyroid patients grow and harvest their own

Melissa, and also to prepare their own medicine. Melissa grows abundantly in all

except xeric habitats with sufficient water and a little shade. It will

over-winter in pots. The freshly expressed juice can be frozen. I do not know if

freeze-dried Melissa products are effective.

 

 

 

A critical point for herbal treatment of Graves' is the active and aware

participation of the patient in monitoring both symptoms and their respective

body responses to herbal treatment.

 

Melissa has a fine reputation as a calming herb and it may be that the calming

action is not as a nervine, but as a very effective thyrosuppressant.

I do not have data on the proportions of T4:T3, or T3: RT3 in Melissa treatment

of Graves'. The possibility of potential overmedication with Melissa, a

temporary hypothyroidism, exists, but I have no known cases to report.

 

 

 

LYCOPUS, apparently both American species and the European one, are effective in

slowing down TSH adherance to its rightful cell surface receptors and the uptake

of iodine by thyroid cells. It does not seem as quick as Melissa.

 

 

 

Ruth Dreier, one of my former apprentices, reported in the 1994 Journal of the

Northeast Herbal Association about her long and arduous but eventually

successful efforts to slow and stop progressive Graves' using tea, tincture

(found only one from GAIA HERBS), and fresh plant material. of Lycopus

virginiana. She found the tea and tincture to be more effective than the fresh

plant material, which suggests to me that some type of molecular cleavage or

rearrangement is necessary for effective use of Lycopus as a thyrosuppressive.

She also used severe dietary restrictions and careful self-monitoring of her

symptoms, using the tincture as a sort of quick fix medication.

 

 

 

I do not have direct experience with Leonurus as a thyrosuppressive. Some of its

purported almost narcotic effects as a somnabulent may be due to

thyrosuppressive activity.

 

 

 

I usually recommend small (1-2 grams) daily dosages of Fucus in hyperthyroidism

since some dietary iodine is needed for basic body functions.

 

 

 

Contemporary British Columbia coastal natives drink a strong tea (decoction) of

Devil's Club (Oplopanax horridum) root and stem bark to allegedly cure

hyperthyroidism (see: Turner, N, as ref. in Three Herbs).

 

I do not know the dosages or the duration of the treatment. I predict that a

correlation exists between Devil's Club's type II diabetes remediation and its

successful thyrosuppression. The post-consumption Devil's Club lethargy may be

thyrosuppression at the TRH hypothalamic level rather than direct action on the

thyroid gland..

 

 

 

A BRIEF CASE HISTORY OF GRAVES' DISEASE

 

A 47 yr old female was diagnosed with Graves' disease based on blood tests

ordered by an endocrinologist she had been referred to by her family doctor. Her

usual pedicurist who noted the recently greatly thickened skin on her feet first

alerted her to the likelihood of thyroid dysfunction.

The patient also presented feeling hot all of the time, increased sweating, heat

intolerance, insomnia, huge appetite, hyperactivity, fatigue, heart

palpitations, manual tremor, and eye irritation, all Graves' hyperthyroid

symptoms. Her tests were TSH < 0.03 (normal range is 0.5-3.5) and T4 224 (normal

range 65-165). A family health and emotional crisis generated acute worry and

anxiety.

 

 

 

The endocrinologist offered her three therapeutic choices: Surgical thyroid

gland removal, use of thyrosuppressive drugs, or radioactive iodine burning of

the thyroid gland out of existence.

 

None of these were acceptable so she went to see a Naturopath-Acupuncturist and

began taking tinctures of Bugleweed, Siberian Ginseng, Motherwort, Melissa, and

a bit later, Hawthorn in addition to acupuncture treatments.

 

In 5 months her T4 had declined a bit to 198, but her TSH remained essentially

nothing at <0.03.

 

She started a homeopathic constitutional remedy (Pulsatilla 30). A few weeks

later I recommended she begin taking a green drink of freshly blended

 

Lemon Balm (Melissa officinalis)

 

in daily doses of 2-3 liquid ounces with food in addition to her tinctures and

homeopathic remedy.

 

In three months her T4 was 50% lower at 113, but her TSH was still<0..03. She

continued the treatment plan for another 5 months until her THS and T4 were in

the " normal " range.

She stopped all herbs and the homeopathic remedy, and her endocrinologist

declared her cured. WITHOUT THYROIDECTOMY BY EITHER SURGERY, RADIOACTIVE

ABLATION, OR STRONG ANTITHYROID DRUGS (There is a significant risk increase for

women who use thyrosuppressive drugs for hip fracture.).

 

 

 

A few more notes:

 

Maude Grieve in her extensive section on Nettles discusses somewhat cryptically,

the use of powdered nettle seeds as a treatment for goitre. No easy access to

corroborating references or a case history. (Which was not her task). I know of

only one anecdotal report where a young woman claimed to have cured her goiter

with nettle seeds. May bear investigating. It was not at all clear as to what

type(s) of goiter were treated.

 

 

 

Hypothyroidism does not respond to any particular herbs that I know of, in

either a hopeful or remedial manner.

 

Seaweed therapy with a strong fresh green vegetable diet, particularly

chickweed, dandelion, parsley, spinach, and beet greens seem to be the best.

Brassicas are probably best kept to a minimum because of their known goitrogenic

activity.

 

 

 

-Further dietary comments: I usually recommend reduction to little or none,

flour products in an effort to reduce erratic iodine intake and to reduce

bromine intake as well as reduce the hyperglycemia that often accompanies the

eating of flour products and simple sugars (also recommended to totally

eliminate except in fresh fruit ).

 

 

All non-organic meat and meat products are contraindicated since xenoestrogens

can disrupt thyroid function just as intrinsic estrogens generated by the

patient's body. I usually suggest elimination of all dairy products except

unsalted organic butter to further reduce exposure to growth hormones and iodine

and unwanted tetracycline residues.

 

I usually recommend eating avocados, organic eggs, and sardines to provide

quality fats to keep that bile flowing and wasted thyroid hormones moving out of

the liver. DIETARY BLOOD AND BLOOD PRODUCTS

 

All blood will contain some thyroid binding globulin-bound thyroid hormone. The

consumption of red meat will always provide small but significant sources of

extrinsic thyroid hormone and at the least, some dietary iodine. In areas of

endemic goitre (continental Eurasia) blood products such as blood sausage were

regularly consumed. The blood from slaughtered animals was carefully caught when

the animals were bled. Blood pudding and blood sausages are still regularly

served in traditional Irish Breakfasts and are regularly available in meat shops

throughout Great Britain and the European Union countries as well as in eastern

Europe. Blood pudding and blood sausage are folk treatments for fatigue and

sluggishness. I assume that T4 is the active constituent after iron.

 

In his privately published memoir, Of Desert Plants and Peoples, Sam Hicks

writes about the use of fresh deer blood by indigenous peoples in the Sonoran

Desert to treat what reads like hypothyroidism.

The dosages were about a pint or more of fresh deer blood biweekly or monthly.

Just about right for time-release T4. For meat-eating patients, I definitely

prescribe bloody organic meat and organic blood sausage; or, blood can be caught

from home-grown and slaughtered animals known to have no growth hormones or

pesticide exposure , for hypothyroid.

 

 

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND SEA VEGETABLE SOURCES

 

Barnes,B. & Galton, L., Hypothyroidism: The Unsuspected Illness, 1976.

 

Bergner,P., The Healing Power of Minerals, 1997.

 

Greenspan, F.S. & Strewler, F.J., Basic and Clinical Endocrinology, 1997.

 

Hamburger,J., The Thyroid Gland, Suite 303, 29877 Telegraph Rd., Southfield, MI

48034.

 

Pert, C., The Molecules of Emotion, 1997

 

Pert, C, Dreher, X., & Ruff, M., " The Psychosomatic Network: Foundations of

Mind-Body Medicine " , Alternative Therapies 4(4): 30-41, 1998.

 

Rosenthal, S., The Thyroid Sourcebook, 1996.

 

Schecter, S., Fighting Radiation and Chemical Pollutants, 1997.

 

Shannon, S., Diet for the Atomic Age, 1993.

 

thyroidnews Online thyroid resources

 

Wichtl,M. & Bissett, H.G., Herbal Drugs & Pharmaceuticals, 1994.pp 329-332.

 

Wilson, Dennis, A Doctor's Manual for Wilson's Syndrome, 1995. 1-800-621-7006

 

Wood, L. C., Cooper, D.S., & Ridgway, E.C., Your Thyroid,1995. The best easy to

read thyroid book. Doctor-biased and patronizing.

 

Sea Vegetable Sources:

 

Island Herbs, 1525 Danby Mt. Rd., Danby, VT 05739

 

Maine Seaweed Co. P.O. Box 57, Steuben, ME 04680

 

Mendocino Sea Vegetable Co., PO Box 1265, Mendocino, CA 95460

 

Naturespirit Herbs, PO Box 150, Williams, OR 97544

 

Nereo Kelp. PO Box 2472, Sidney Island, Sidney, B.C. V8L 3Y3, Canada (Nereo Kelp

Only).

 

Tidewater Herbs, PO Box 27, Waldron Island, WA 98297

 

 

 

Ryan Drum, Sweetwater Herb Farm 1525 Danby Mountain Rd., Danby, VT 05739 (SASE

please for written responses, thank you)

 

Ryan Drum, PHD has been a professional wildcrafter, herbal educator, and

practicing medical herbalist for over 20 years after a successful career as an

academic research scientist. He has degrees in chemistry, BS and psychology, PhD

from Iowa State University. As a NATO Postdoctoral Fellow he did original

research in diatom cell biology and electron microscopy at the Universities of

Bonn, Germany and Leeds, England and taught botany and related subjects at

American universities for 10 years. The results of his original field and

laboratory research were published in many papers in peer-reviewed scientific

journals and a 100-plate atlas of Diatom Cell Ultrastructure. 1972 -1984 he

studied herbal medicine with Ella Birzneck at Dominion Herbal College; he has

taught at their summer seminars for over 20 years. He was recently the clinic

supervisor at the New Mexico Herb Center in Albuquerque. He has been an adjunct

faculty instructor in the Botanical Medicine Department at John Bastyr

University since 1985 and has taught at both the Rocky Mountain Center for

Botanical Studies and the National College of Phytotherapy. He believes

passionately in true patient autonomy, the complete freedom to choose one's

caregivers no matter what their credentials, and that pleasure is the driving

force of the universe.

_________________

 

JoAnn Guest

mrsjoguest

DietaryTipsForHBP

http://www.geocities.com/mrsjoguest

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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