Blood Pressure and Hypothyroidism can go hand-in-hand

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Blood Pressure and Hypothyroidism can go hand-in-hand

_http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/blood-pressure/_

(http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/blood-pressure/)

 

 

 

There’s a variety of reasons you may have a blood pressure problem, and

often, the precise cause is not obvious. But did you know that a poorly

functioning thyroid, or inadequate treatment with T4-only medications, can be a

factor

in high blood pressure??

At first, it’s common to have LOW blood pressure due to your thyroid

disease. i.e. a lowered force of blood being pushed through your arteries. In

this

case, the upper number, called the systolic, is lower than it should be. And

having adrenal insufficiency, which is common with hypothyroid, can also

create a low circulating blood volume via the loss of salt.

Over time, though, factors related to having low blood pressure can create

HIGH blood pressure. For example, the kidneys fail to filter waste products

from your body properly when your pressure is low, and “angiotensin†is

produced, which raises your blood pressure. In his book, Thyroid Guardian of

Health, Dr. Young states “Also when patients are low thyroid, blood is

shunted from

the extremities into the body core, which tends to raise pressure by forcing

the same volume of blood into a smaller network of vessels. This shunting is

brought about by a constriction of peripheral vessels. Hypothyroid patients

produce an excess of noradrenalin from the adrenal gland, which constricts

blood vessels all over the body, another effort of the body ot combat the low

pressure. This in turn is partly related to the effort by the body to raise

blood sugar levels when low. Production of Noradrenalin can actually be thirty

times normal.â€

So what was once low blood pressure, now takes an insideous turn towards

hypertension, or high blood pressure. In fact, some statistics show that you

have a threefold increased risk of hypertension with your thyroid disease!

When the high blood pressure hits, you can have damage to your blood vessel

walls, and the beginning of arteriosclerosis. Your risk for heart attack and

stroke increases four-fold.

What to do? The solution is to be adequately treated with thyroid

medication, especially natural desiccated thyroid, and dose according to the

elimination of symptoms, not the TSH.

Here is Valerie’s story with high blood pressure, and treatment with Armour:

 

“About 9 years ago I was just breaking out of a very dangerous and bad

relationship. I had been under extreme stress for the last 4 years and my blood

pressure was just going up & up. My doctor said my thyroid was fine (I was on

Synthroid 500mcg) and my labs were “normalâ€. He said I needed to lose

weight

(duh) and gave me a restricted salt diet and Atenolol. OK, I cut salt out of

everything I ate—none on the table, none to cook with. I stopped eating

canned soups and lunch meats. I bought unsalted butter, and soon I became used

to

eating like that. Yet, my blood pressure continued to climb.

Finally I was on Atenolol, Hydrochlorothiazide, Lopressor, and Triamterene…

all for my BP which at this point was 245/138. Yup, I was a stroke waiting

for a place to happen! Then I was diagnosed with Congestive Heart Failure. At

that point, I was desperate. I was reading alot on the Internet and learning

more and more about Armour Thyroid. I found a place to order it online without

a prescription, and started on it, raising bit by bit to find the

elimination of symptoms.

Then I found a website that explained how low sodium could cause fluid

retention in the body. Now THIS was enlightening! This was the opposite of what

all these doctors (four at the time) had been telling me. So I started taking

1/2 tsp Celtic Sea Salt twice a day in a shot glass of water. Now I am sure it

was mostly the Armour, but I think the salt did have a part too, as my BP

slowly started to come down. When I got to 145/100, I dropped the Lopressor. It

stayed there, so next month I dropped the Atenolol. Then I started feeling

really alot better! So in about 6 more months, I dropped all BP meds and was

at a stable 130/79!!! Quite an improvement I ‘d say!

No more nosebleeds which I had been having regularly before, and the fluid

retention just melted away. Now the tissue damage took longer to heal, and my

legs hurt for almost a year after the swelling went away, but heal they did

and now I have no signs of the horrible heart condition or Hypertension I once

had. â€

To read more:

_PubMed: The role of thyroid hormone in blood pressure homeostasis: evidence

from short-term hypothyroidism in humans._

(http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve & db=PubMed & list_uids=\

11994331 & dopt=Abstract)

_http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11994331?dopt=Abstract_

(http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11994331?dopt=Abstract)