Thyroid Maddness
Optimal Lab Values–how to interpret your results
Below are lab tests and information to help you interpret your results…because most results have NOTHING to do with being “in range”–they have to do with “where” you fall in a range. All the below will also help you steer your doctor with the right interpretation based on successful patient experience. Note that for most of the below, you’ll need to be off what you are testing for a minimum of 12 hours, i.e. take nothing the morning of the test.
Supplements and meds that can influence your cortisol saliva results
Over the years, patients learned, or found out the hard way, that certain supplements and certain medications can potentially affect one’s adrenal functioning and not give a true picture of what’s going on with their adrenals when testing via saliva. Below is a list of more common supplements or medications that can influence your adrenals.
Thyroid and mental health articles
This bible of hypothyroid treatment contains most everything you will find on this site, plus a whole lot more, including a chapter on T3, an explosive doctor chapter, historical information on desiccated thyroid as well as T4, an entire chapter on the TSH (Thyroid Stimulating Hooey), how to interpret your cortisol labs, extra details in two adrenal chapters, and more! You can order the book from the publishing website here: www.laughinggrapepublishing.com Below is a growing list of links you can read about your thyroid health and behavioral disorders.
Psychiatric, Psychological and Emotional Aspects of Thyroid Disease i.e. it’s not all in your head!
Thyroid, Depression and Mental Health
How to treat adrenals–for the patient and their doctors
DISCLAIMER: the goal of this page is to provide information to take into your doctor’s office, and is not intended to replace that relationship. You are responsible for the results or consequences of your choices based on general information presented here.
HOW TO FIND A GOOD DOCTOR
Bottom line, it can be maddening to find a GOOD DOCTOR when it comes to correct thyroid care, which has n othing to do with the TSH, total T4, or any T4-only medications like Synthroid or Levothyroxine.Mistakes Patients Make (or their Doctors make for them!)
These are the most common mistakes patients, or their doctors, make when a switch has been made to desiccated natural thyroid (NDT)…or when you are working to improve your hypothyroid state. You can avoid them by being familiar with these reasons and making sure your doctor understands them, too. Can you find yourself below?
Things We Have Learned
“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”
Want to be inspired? These are real lives and real stories, sent directly to STTM. And they represent many more individual stories of success as seen in patient groups all over the internet.
Stories of Others
Natural desiccated thyroid (NDT) has been working for over 100 years and completely changes lives.
Natural Thyroid 101
Options for thyroid treatment
Wondering which desiccated thyroid brand to take? Any other good options? Here is a list with summaries of your options.Hashimotos – The Autoimmune Thyroid Attack
(Chapter 9 of the STTM book also contains good information. Order the revised STTM book below–it’s very worth it to have on hand.)The following is a “template” letter, written in a polite and informative style.
Dear Doctor…
The following list, also found in the revised STTM book with more detail, is a compilation of symptoms experienced by patients with adrenal issues. And they point to high cortisol, low cortisol, or often a combination of both. These can also be found or exasperated while raising natural desiccated thyroid or T3, and can occur at low doses of desiccated thyroid or T3, or waited until the patient got as high as 3 grains and more.