Andrea Briand <[log in to unmask]>

> You mentioned your wife's pulse rate being over 100 before Thyroid
>  treatment, then going to 70 after.  I thought that low thyroid generally
>  caused a lower heart rate, while hyper caused it to be higher.   Since
metabolism, body temperature,
>  basically everything slows down...why would the heart rate be elevated?

It's a contradictory disease.  It makes some people fat, some people thin.
My wife could gain 40 pounds in a month but my son was wasting away.

The classic symptom is high blood pressure.  I think perhaps to conserve
energy the blood vessels constrict and that increases blood pressure.  It's
not because the heart is stronger it's weaker.  As my wife said, she couldn't
feel her heart beating until she went on thyroid.  Yet, her blood pressure
had been high.

I'm just guessing, but I do know that high blood pressure is one of the text
book symptoms, having a lot thyroid is one of the worst things you can do for
your heart.  It makes the heart weak and an inefficient carrier of oxygen.  I
believe this is the cause of most of the symptoms.  I remember in high school
biology learning that our muscles would hurt after exercise if we were out of
shape because the lack of oxygen in our muscles would cause lactic acid.
Well, how many of us have sore muscles?  Probably most of us and when we are
not treated it's a lot worse.  If this poor oxygen flow hurts the muscles, is
this what hurts the nerves too?  If we are colder than we should be, the
blood pumping through our systems are what keeps us warm.  My mother's hands
were blue when she was on oxygen because she wasn't getting enough.  In the
winter our hands might turn blue because the system shuts off some of the
blood flow to the peripheral areas to preserve the oxygen and heat to the
brain and other vital locations.

In fact, other than apnea which is caused by the thyroid itself swelling
because it's working too hard (or maybe not getting enough oxygen either),
I'm not sure there are any symptoms not related to low oxygen or blood flow.
Brain fog is probably low oxygen to the brain.  Hair falling out, it's
probably a blood flow problem to the scalp.  Edema - does the heart somehow
pump away that stupid fluid we accumulate?  Fatigue - well you need oxygen
for energy.  Neuropathy - probably lack of oxygen for the nerves makes them
sick.   Asthma - People with this have inflammation, my suspicion is this is
also a blood flow/oxygen problem.

Yes, people with weak hearts are not going to do much well.  Even if you have
normal blood pressure and pulse it doesn't mean your heart is strong.

As for low blood pressure, my belief is that's possible but a lot more likely
to be a low adrenal problem.

Skipper Beers



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