Healing the Thyroid – The Trinergy Way!
DR ARUNA
Holistic Psychiatrist
What is Hashimoto's Thyroiditis?
Hashimoto’s thyroiditis is an unrecognized, under-diagnosed and untreated root cause of many psychiatric presentations – from psychosis, to anxiety, to depression, to behavioral problems in developmentally disabled adults and children.
We routinely look for this illness at Trinergy Health, as curing it is key to restoring balance within the human being.
As we peel the onion further and look for root cause for Hashimoto's, we find leaky gut, inflammation, and most often trauma as the underlying factors here. The beauty of this kind of work is in the results we see: recovery from symptoms and disease, development of resilience and a fresh start to a new healthier, happier life!
Most Endocrinologists will recommend waiting until TSH increases and FT3, FT4 deficiency begins. Then, they will recommend lifelong supplementation with thyroid medicines. This is the symptom management approach. What they are actually saying is:
“We will wait until your immune system has killed your thyroid gland. Then your gland will no longer be able to produce any hormones. Then, we will put you on this synthetic hormone for life. This is all we can do.“
This is what was said to me when I was diagnosed with Hashimoto's in my 20's. In fact, I literally waited for the TSH to rise above normal by periodically checking my TSH. How hopeless I felt! So, yes, in full confession; healing others' Hashimoto's gives me intense personal satisfaction :).
But 20 years later, this is what an Endocrinologist told my other patient who was diagnosed with schizophrenia and who had rosacea. You can read more about her story here.
Playing the devil’s advocate, this is what they say because of what is taught in medical schools, residency and post residency fellowships. That auto-immunity is genetic, idiopathic and besides suppressing the immune system (with its long list of horrible consequences), there is nothing else to do.
Through Functional Medicine and Ayurveda, I have learned how to diagnose, evaluate, and reverse auto-immunity, including Hashimoto’s.
When I first started to work with this patient in summer 2019; this patient had a TSH of 120!!! For non-physicians, this is an insanely high value for TSH. My own career’s highest value ever. She was under the care of an Endocrinologist who kept on increasing her Synthroid dose and not once were the antibodies checked. I did so last summer and the antibody levels were much higher than what is shown here. These labs are from Feb 2020 onwards, once the patient switched to Ultalabtests, as this was the cheapest lab to check their thyroid on a monthly basis.
As soon as our anti-inflammation protocol was implemented, we began to see, at first, a dramatic drop in TSH and in the psychiatric symptoms, and only recently did we begin to see the antibody levels also drop. I have fully taken over the management of this patient’s thyroid medication and we have reduced the Synthroid dose gradually.
As the labs indicate, we are reversing the Hashimoto's disease and saving the thyroid gland from extinction. This person will not have to be on a synthetic hormone for long.
Another takeaway is that the healing process takes time, consistency and continuity. The reward is genuine improvement in symptoms and in the psycho-physiological functioning of the individual.
Hashimoto’s and autoimmunity in general is “Reversible!”
At Trinergy Health, we’re here for you. We offer mental telehealth, remote clinical evaluations, and video therapy for adults, children, and couples, as well as in-clinic Ayurvedic therapies to help our patients. Find out more by calling us at (262) 955-6601, or contact us to schedule a time to talk.