>I am convinced there is a connection between low thyroid and
Alzheimer's ...<
I agree! I have made the same observation in my family.
One elder woman in the family was fine until her (puffy, stringy-haired, deaf
to all but herself middle-aged) doctor cut the woman's generic T4 dosage in
half. I didn't know it for a year until the woman landed in the hospital,
depressed because she knew she was losing her mind. Over the year several
symptoms had developed, making the last year of her "aware" life miserable. Her
blood pressure went so low, and she lost so much muscle tone that she could not
exercise as before, so she did not get enough oxygen to the brain, and brain
cells died, taking memories and the ability to remember away from her.
(Arrrrrgh!) At my insistence, the woman's dosage was put back to where it was, but
the damage was permanent, and she now lives in a time warp.
I recall another elder woman in the family with Alzheimer's. She was
freezing when the rest of us were warm.
An elder man in the family is losing his mind and memory, has dry, flaky
skin, is chilled when the air temperature is 80 F, etc. His doctor has him convinc
ed that his thyroid level is fine. Yesterday he proudly announced that he
was not really sick (with the virus going round the old folks' home) because his
temp is only 98.0 F. He is usually 97.2 F, which is doctor says is fine.
(Arrrrrrgh!)
We are of Irish, Scottish and possibly Welsh ancestry (the British side was
from Manchester County next to Wales). Plus, we don't have to have Wilson's
Thyroid Syndrome to have times of too much Reverse T3. Stress and all the aches
and pains that come with old age can trigger the same mechanisms. But with a
lot of us in the family (not all) it seems that once the stress mechanism
causing too much Reverse T3 kicks in, it doesn't get shut off -- that's WTS.
Doctors have learned to pay attention to ancestry for some diseases. They
should start paying attention to ours. (But they make more money and freebies
from drug companies if they deny the problem and keep us sick.)
Last October I visited an old folk's home in Maine. The people we visited
were of French Canadian ancestry. None were of Celtic Ancestry. Of the people
we visited (friends and former teachers of the hostesses), not a one of them
showed any signs of dementia. I was struck by that because of what was going
on in my family.
Peg
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