Thyroid, Depression and Mental Health

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Thyroid, Depression and Mental Health

_http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/thyroid-depression-mental-health/_'>http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/thyroid-depression-mental-health/_

(http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/thyroid-depression-mental-health/)

 

 

Psychiatric, Psychological and Emotional Aspects of Thyroid Disease i.e. it’

s not all in your head!

It’s a common scenario for hypothyroid patients, especially when you are

undiagnosed due to your doctor’s over-reliance on a faulty TSH range, or

treated

with thyroxine T4-only medications: You go to the doctor; you complain about

your depression, or your anxiety, or your emotional swings, or your

inability to concentrate, and onto your doctor’s favorite anti-depressant,

anti-anxietal, lithium, or bi-polar med you go—beginning with the freebies on

the shelf

from his friendly and suited pharmaceutical rep. Sound familiar??

But the problem with this scenario is that your depression or anxiety or

other mental health problem is not a unique and unrelated illness. It’s most

likely due to having a low free T3, the active thyroid hormone, and/or adrenal

insufficiency. And this is especially common for patients treated with

Synthroid, Levoxyl and other thyroxine medications.

And this problem is not limited to depression. Low thyroid hormones, and the

common occurrence of sluggish, poorly functioning adrenals, can play a role

in a variety of emotional and behavioral symptoms and disturbances, including

anxiety, excessive fear, mood swings like bi-polar, rage, irritability,

paranoid schizophrenia, confusion, dementia, obsessive/compulsive disorders,

and

mental aberrations. So if your physician or psychiatrist failed to check your

thyroid function with the correct tests (free T3 and free T4, plus

antibodies), and your adrenal function with a 24 hour adrenal saliva test, and

instead

prescribed his or her favorite band-aid psychotrophic medication, you are

left with medications that can include unneeded fluoride, that can clash with

your other meds, that can make your hypothyroid worse, or can leave you with

classic side effects…besides the cost.

The mother of the creator of this site is a classic example of the tragedy

of poor assessment or treatment of thyroid function. After she battled

clinical depression and anxiety for years while on Synthroid (and we now know

due to

the thyroxine treatment), she relinquished all control of her health to a

doctor who gave her electric shock therapy–a treatment which only slightly

lessened her chronic depression and dulled her memory and intelligence for the

rest of her life.

Dr. Ridha Arem, in his book, “The Thyroid Solution: A Mind Body Program for

Beating Depression and Regaining Your Emotional and Physical Healthâ€, states:

Scientists now consider thyroid hormone one of the major “players†in brain

chemistry disorders. And as with any brain chemical disorder, until treated

correctly, thyroid hormone imbalance has serious effects on the patient’s

emotions and behavior.

Thyroid hormones thyroxine (T4, as the storage hormone) and triiodothyronine

(T3, as the converted and direct active hormone) not only play a part in the

health of your metabolic endocrine, nervous and immune system, they in turn

have an important role in the health and optimal functioning of your brain,

including your cognitive function, mood, ability to concentrate, memory,

attention span, and emotions. On her _website_

(http://www.drnorthrup.com/womens-health-thyroid.php)

_http://www.drnorthrup.com/womens-health-thyroid.php_

(http://www.drnorthrup.com/womens-health-thyroid.php) , Christiane Northrup,

MD

states that T3 “is actually a bona fide neurotransmitter that regulates the

action of serotonin, norepinephrine, and GABA (gamma aminobutyric acid), an

inhibitory neurotransmitter that is important for quelling anxiety.†She

also

states that “If you don’t have enough T3, or if its action is blocked, an

entire cascade of neurotransmitter abnormalities may ensue and can lead to mood

and energy changes, including depression.â€

Dr. Barry Durant-Peatfield, in his book Your Thyroid and How to Keep It

Healthy, states

 

“Brain cells have more T3 receptors than any other tissues, which means that

a proper uptake of thyroid hormone is essential for the brain cells to work

properly.â€

He feels that up to one-half of depression is due to unrecognized

hypothyroidism. And this figure could be higher when you consider the high

amount of

thyroid patients who are suffering from depression while on the inferior

treatment of T4-only.

A classic article written in 2003 by Heinrich MD and Grahm MD, and found in

the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, outlines the relationship between thyroid

disease and pyschiatric and psychologic manifestations, titled

Hypothyroidism Presented as Psychosis: Mxedema Madness Revisited:

_http://www.psychiatrist.com/pcc/pccpdf/v05n06/v05n0603.pdf_

(http://www.psychiatrist.com/pcc/pccpdf/v05n06/v05n0603.pdf)

Low cortisol can be an additional problem

In addition to low T3 levels causing psychiatric and psychological

disorders, low cortisol levels can be an additional culprit—even when you

feel you are

adequately treated for your thyroid. Low cortisol results in cell receptors

failing to adequately receive thyroid hormones from the blood, and can

explain certain emotional and behavioral symptoms even when a patient is on

thyroid

meds, such as the need to avoid leaving one’s house, seeking peace and

quiet, unable to tolerate stress, low tolerance to loud noises, rage, emotional

ups and downs similar to bi-polar, panic, obsessive compulsive tendencies,

hyper sensitive to the comments of others, phobias, delusions, suicidal

ideation…

..and more.

What’s the solution?

If you recognize any of the mental health issues mentioned above–or even

have friends or family members who have been trying to point these out to

you—

_find a doctor_ (http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/how-to-find-a-good-doc/)

_http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/how-to-find-a-good-doc/_

(http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/how-to-find-a-good-doc/) who will test

your free T3,

plus antibodies. If you find your free T3 below mid-range, or if you have an

autoimmune attack going on against your thyroid (which will make labs

useless since you vascillate between hypo and hyper), you need to discuss the

addition of Cytomel (synthetic T3) to your current thyroxine medication. There

is

a growing body of doctors and researchers who are using T3 as an adjunct to

anti-depressive therapy, since improving your T3 levels can raise brain levels

of the neurotransmitters serotonin and norepinephrine to the optimal level

they need to be.

Even better, according the experience of many, is switching to desiccated

thyroid, which gives you the entire complement your own thyroid would be giving

you—T4, T3, T2, T1 and calcitonin. There are numerous testimonies of

patients ridding themselves of chronic depression and other emotional problems

when

they dosed high enough with desiccated thyroid to put their free T3 towards

the top of the range. (SEE LINK BELOW)

If you find that your free T3 is high or above range, yet you continue to

have mental health issues, the missing piece in your puzzle may be your

adrenals. Click here for _adrenal information_

(http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/adrenal-info/) .

_http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/adrenal-info/_

(http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/adrenal-info/)

***_Click here to read inspiring stories from patients whose depression and

other mental health went away on desiccated thyroid…and in some cases, when

they added cortisol due to diagnosed low-functioning adrenals. _

(http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/thyroid-depression-mental-health/inspiring\

-stories/)

_http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/thyroid-depression-mental-health/inspiring'>http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/thyroid-depression-mental-health/inspiring

-stories/_

(http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/thyroid-depression-mental-health/inspiring\

-stories/)

_Click here to read a growing list of articles you can read about the

thyroid and mental health issues. _

(http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/thyroid-depression-mental-health/articles/\

)

_http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/thyro

id-depression-mental-health/articles/_

(http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/thyroid-depression-mental-health/articles/\

)