>  From:    Galina Loshinsky <[log in to unmask]>
>
>  My daughter (17) adds salt to her food before she even taste it. What does
> it
>  mean? Hypo, iodine deficiency, adrenal insufficiency?

It could just be a matter of taste but I find it too coincidental that I
don't even think about salting food not that I get hydrocortsone for low
cortisol.  To test for this you could have the doctor run an Random Cortisol
AM and if that number is under 12, Doc Don will treat as well as Jacob
Teitalbaum of "From Fatigued to Fantastic" (but someone posted he will charge
you $5,000 for an afternoon and Doc Don doesn't.) MY current doctor
prescribed it when my previous one refused to.  Sometimes you have to switch
doctors if yours won't listen. If you're willing to learn about your disorder
it may be more important than the doctor being an expert in that area.  If he
thinks he's an expert and you're still suffering from chronic fatigue on 2
grains of Armour he may refuse to raise you to 3 grains.  MY previous doctor
thought she diagnosed a lot of patints that others wouldn't have, but she
stranded me in chronic fatigue and refused to treat my son, the most severe
hypothyroid person in my family.
>She does have hypo
>  symptoms and with great difficulties (tests are normal, no doctor would
>  evaluate/prescribe/monitor her) I have her on .5 grain of Armour, but she
is
>  still not where she should be.
I was forced to take my son to Doc Don last spring because after 3 years of
suffering and going through all kinds of tests, I found out he was really
hypothyroid.  When his problems started I had his TSH taken, but it was under
3 and I did it as a precaution because that was my problem.  The fact that he
was blind in one eye for a year (this is on some symptom lists, it's from
neuropathy), that he stopped growing (a known thyroid symptom but not to me
at the time and besides I blamed it on his next problem), lack of appetite -
he would be starving, eat two bites and couldnt' eat any more - I found this
on the Magic Foundation website, was the real clincher - I printed out the
Magic Foundation website that specifically listed these symptoms and said the
disorder sneaks up and is hard to diagnose and asked my doctor flat out if
she would treat based on these symptoms and she refused.

So much for female doctors being more caring, we thought he was going to die,
we knew she would give people phen-phen and prozac without proper labs, but
she wouldn't give a little boy Armour thyroid,when he might die without it?
This is sad but common.  Unfortunately the vast majority of doctors will tell
you thyroid disorders are easy to treat and have patients being treated
without their symptoms going away because the dose is too low so they don't
lose their fatigue, sleep apnea, costiochondritis (chest pain), plantar
fascitis (foot pain), constipation, slow growth problems, and all those other
things associated with low thyroid, and their patients have to come on this
list and ask what a hypothyroid person shoud  do about constipation.
Normally, that's an easy answer, take more thyroid.

 I was considering increasing her thyroid
>  medication (more Armour or possibly T3), that I would have to fight for,
but
>  adrenal insufficiency may be something that needs to be evaluated.

The adrenals and the thyroid are somewhat related, even the pamphlets for
synthroid says that if you have an adrenal insufficiency to treat that first,
then to start the thyroid meds. Sometimes, a thyroid problem goes entirely
away with adrenal treatment.  Also, a simple test for the adrenal
insufficiency is before the doctor comes in, have the nurse take her blood
pressure while she's sitting down  and then take it again right after she
stands up.  The blood perssure is supposed to increase, if it doesn't that is
a good indication of adrenal problems.

>  question is: what I should be looking for, tests to ask for, symptoms,
etc.,
>  that will help us figure out what the problem is and what we should do to
> try
Tests mean very little  Doc Don also says that,unlike most doctors, but then
proceeds to take 5-7 vials of blood from your veins.  And the lab actually
has to look up what to do for each test, which they don't for any local
doctor.  You should make a list of every possible symptom your daughter has
including among many others that you may have seen all her life and didn't
recognize or new symptoms such as irregular periods, painful periods,
fatigue, does she always come home and fall asleep, does she fall asleep in
school, does she or die she need speech in school (primary symptom, I sent
through some information from Greg Guzman to the list recently that covered
it), chest pain (more common if hypo, but can also be from too much thyroid,
I don't know how to tell which is which for sure, I know I had lots o f pain
in my chest until I started breaking up my dose and was abover 4 grains, my
daughter also had costiochondritis for many years before I diagnosed her and
convinced the doctor to treat), I recently heard girls thyroid go hyper
around the time their period starts, I suspect that has to do with a growth
spurt that most have, my daughter just became real moody and tired and didn't
have a growth spurt so I suspect that's when her problem started, any kind of
muscle pain, and there are many, many more.  My wife and I along with all 3
of my children are hypothyroid, that's one reason I'm so aware of so many
symptoms, we are all different.  One son mentioned before stopped growing,
his younger brother is at the 90th percentile of height for his age, he kept
eating, which might be the important reason, but the low thyroid made him
emotionally distraught, and his muscles hurt. Not one doctor in 1,000 would
have diagnosed him.  I did because I realized some of his symptoms could be
hypothyroid, but he was bouncy, pesty, and if anything someone would call him
hyper.  The clincher was when I e-mailed these things to Doc Don and asked if
he could be tall and hypo and what his symptoms were and he told me to take
his temperature.  Yes, it was low.

So, whereas only two of my family have seen Doc Don for our thyroids, all of
us owe a large part of our improved  to him.

>  to fix it? Again, it is going to be very difficult to get help from
doctors,
>  and even if I can get medication(s), it is almost completely my
>  responsibility to monitor her, so I need to know as much as I can.

Your right.  First I have a question.  When you put her on 1/2 grain did it
make a big difference at first?  When my youngest son went on 1/2 grain, he
improved the same day especially emotionally.  It was rather trying to have a
son who would run off to his room if you said the slightest  thing to him.
Yes, the house became more peaceful that first day.

However, it doesn't last forever.  They get used to that dose, because their
body really needs more, and when it realizes it, the symptoms return until
you increase.   You should find a competent doctor.  My local doctor was
wiliing to increase me because he saw that my TSH was in the hyper range, but
he wisely watches the cardiac function because if your heart rate and blood
pressure are in the normal range the medication isn't doing you any harm.  It
will increase the blood pressure and heart rate when you increase the
medicine temporarily.  I don't know what to tell people about normal rate
anymore.  I think if your heart rate is low, unless you're a well trained
athlete, which means under 80, that's a sign of low thryoid or adrenals.  My
daughter had a low pulse rate as well as the coldest hands you ever felt and
the day she went on Armour her hands warmed right up. (My wife had cold hands
too, so cold that one day when I was napping on the couch she touced me and I
sat right up from the refles and my forehead broke her nose, but her hands
were nowhere near as cold as my daughter's.)  If your doctor knows enough to
monitor cardiac function, that's a good sign.  Mine does an EKG or ECG
whichever is the cardiac test before prescribing thyroid so he has a baseline
to go from, and monitors periodically.  Doc Don's pre-visit tests also
include one.
>
>      Also, why adding salt may indicate adrenal insufficiency?

I believe the adrenals balance the sodium and potassium.  Gregg is likely to
give you a more techical explanation.


Skipper Beers

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