CONTRIBUTED CONTENT — Hashimoto’s is an autoimmune disease responsible for more than 90% of low thyroid cases.
Autoimmunity means your immune system attacks and destroys tissues in your body. It’s a sign your immune system is dysregulated and that other body tissues are also susceptible to the development of autoimmune diseases.
Autoimmune diseases are among the most common, yet underdiagnosed and misdiagnosed, chronic health conditions today. Rates of diagnosed autoimmunity dwarf cancer and heart disease combined. However, it’s only when most of the tissue is destroyed in acute stages of the disease that autoimmunity is often diagnosed and treated.
Unfortunately, the average doctor doesn’t test for Hashimoto’s because it doesn’t change their treatment plan. Doctors receive very little education on autoimmunity. As a result, patients go years or decades being told their lab tests are normal, even though they suffer from multiple chronic and sometimes debilitating symptoms.
Many Hashimoto’s patients continue to suffer from symptoms despite medication and normal lab tests because the underlying inflammatory autoimmune condition is unaddressed. You need to know whether you have Hashimoto’s so you can take correct action to prevent further damage to your thyroid gland and future autoimmune diseases.
While thyroid medications may normalize the TSH, that doesn’t mean your autoimmune Hashimoto’s isn’t still destroying the thyroid gland and creating symptoms. In fact, a common sign of Hashimoto’s is ever-worsening low thyroid symptoms. Your doctor may keep increasing your dosage or switching medications, unaware that the real problem is your overzealous immune system attacking the thyroid gland.
It’s common for Hashimoto’s patients to have symptoms that vacillate between low thyroid and hyperthyroid activity.
Why do these swings happen with Hashimoto’s low thyroid? Autoimmune diseases go through periods of flares and remission depending on dietary, chemical, stress-related, hormonal and other triggers. When the thyroid is not making enough thyroid hormone due to tissue damage sustained thus far, low thyroid symptoms result.
However, when the immune system is actively attacking thyroid tissue, thyroid hormone spills into the bloodstream, raising levels too high and causing hyperthyroid symptoms. Not knowing this, some doctors diagnose Hashimoto’s patients with Graves’ disease, anxiety or even bipolar disorder. Some misdiagnosed patients have even been given electroconvulsive therapy for mistaken diagnoses of bipolar disorder!
Even blood tests can be misleading because TSH levels also go up and down, which can result in misdiagnosis. Low thyroid symptoms include fatigue, headaches, constipation, depression and worsening brain function. Hyperthyroid symptoms include heart palpitations, anxiety, nervousness, trembling and insomnia.
To test for Hashimoto’s, you need the thyroid peroxidase antibodies (TPO Ab) and thyroglobulin antibodies (TGB Ab) tests. But remember, the immune system fluctuates with all autoimmune diseases, and you may get an inaccurate diagnosis. If your symptoms strongly suggest Hashimoto’s, make sure to test again.
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Written by JOSH REDD, chiropractic physician at RedRiver Health and Wellness Center.
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About Josh Redd
Josh Redd, MS, DABFM, DAAIM, is a chiropractic physician and author of the Amazon bestselling book “The Truth About Low Thyroid.” Redd owns seven functional medicine clinics in the western United States and sees patients from across the country and around the world who are suffering from challenging autoimmune, endocrine and neurological disorders. He studied immunology, virology and epidemiology at Johns Hopkins where he is a MaPHB candidate. He also teaches thousands of health care practitioners about functional medicine and immunology, thyroid health, neurology, lab testing and more.
Resources
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