Posted by BLPBart on May 8, 2002, at 2:26:04
In reply to Re: Desperately Need Help...(long) » Lia Mason, posted by marnie on May 7, 2002, at 0:09:37
> Lia,
>
> Thank you so much. You've given me some hope.
> I'm glad to hear that you've over come your depression and fatique. I will definitely get that book you mentioned and look into some of the medications you named. Thank you. Thank you.
>
> MarnieAbsolutely educate your self also on the thyroid issues. I did a lot of reading about that and have found out that many docs don't know what they're doing in that area. Most will measure your TSH level and if it falls in some range, usually in the 0.5-5 range, they'll tell you there's nothing wrong; or they'll say you're hypothyroid, give you synthroid and simply get your TSH down to about 5. New research is indicating that for most people an ideal TSH level is around 1-2. Also, you HAVE to measure free T3 and T4 too, because there are people who have levels of these hormones that are too low, despite having what's considered "normal" TSH levels, but doctors often don't measure these and it gets missed. One last point. In the past, thyroid patients were given Armour thyroid which was actual dessicated and ground up thyroid from pigs. This gave the patient the mixture of hormones that are normally present in the thyroid. Now docs tend to give synthetic T4 (synthroid) with the theory being that your body will convert the T4 into the active T3 form. A lot of patients have reported that T4 alone doesn't work for them and they feel as awful as they did when they weren't treated at all. I think in some cases, the problem these people have is their body lacks the ability to convert the T4 into the biologically active T3. This may not be a problem for you at all, but you should try to rule out thyroid issues. A really good website on this is the about.com site dedicated to thyroid issues.
poster:BLPBart
thread:105293
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020503/msgs/105555.html