Thyroid Power: 10 Steps to Total Health

Last week, I read Thyroid Power: Ten Steps to Total Health. It was written by Richard L. Shames, M.D. and Karilee Halo Shames, R.N., PH.D. The book cover says:

The amazing program to help millions conquer fatigue, depression, overweight, and other chronic conditions.

If you have thyroid disease, you're likely familiar with many of those eh?

Some of the notes I made from my reading:

• Allergy is a common energy drain. There are allergy blood tests that you can take to determine if you have an allergy problem.
• We've all heard about the increased risk of osteoporosis with the wrong dosage of thyroid medication. I've heard it several times myself. It seems to be a great scare tactic doctors use when they don't want to deviate from the standard treatments. This books tells of research done that says that appropriate doses of thyroid medications is not harmful to bones and that the author thinks that you have a greater risk of osteoporosis by being undiagnosed or undertreated for hypothyroidism. The books states: "It is a medical fact that untreated low thyroid is a cause of osteoporosis."
• If you are considering estrogen therapy, you should read page 119 of this book and see what you think, talk to your doctor.

According to this book, here are some of their supplement recommendations:

• Vitamin A for low thyroid sufferers of 10,000-20,000 international units (IU). This is a supplement that can be toxic in high dosages so don't use more than what is recommended for you.
• Vitamin C for antioxidant properties (like Vitamin A). 1,000 milligrams a day is recommended.
• Vitamin E as an antioxidant in doses no larger than 400 US per day unless you are menopausal and having hot flashes (then it talks of increasing dosages...talk to your doctor).
• Adjust intake of B-complex to approx. 50 milligrams/day. B6 shouuld be about 100 milligrams a day.
• Bioflavonoids work with B vitamins and often are in fruits and vegetables. Can be very helpful for inflammation due to autoimmune thyroiditis (me). Recommendations in the book are 250-500 milligrams of quercetin and 100-150 milligrams phgnogenol.
• Minerals: This book says minerals are even more important than vitamins. Copper, zinc, selenium, chromium, manganese, calcium, magnesium. You can get these minerals with sea vegetables too.
• Ashwagandha is said to have a stimulatory effect on both T3 and T4 in laboratory animals. Also recommended is milk thistle of 300 milligrams daily.

Fluoride:

Read the information on fluoride in this book. You might find it enlightening. It talks of fluoride's possible thyroid-lowering effect. There have been studies suspecting fluoride for cancer as well. Perhaps putting 100% confidence in our governmental agencies isn't such a good idea. Read this too. To see a video about this, click here.

The authors of this book also have a web site.