Hypothyroid

Symptoms of hypothyroid

The thyroid can malfunction in over 20 different ways, only one of which can benefit from synthetic thyroid hormone. Traditionally only one or two blood tests have been ran to evaluate hypothyroidism and treated with thyroid hormones like Synthroid, Armour, or Levothyroxine. These drugs just replace the normal hormones from the thyroid. This bypasses the thyroid, leaving it useless. And like muscles, you use it or lose it with the thyroid too. This includes the part of the thyroid gland that secretes calcitonin, the hormone responsible for putting calcium into your bones and insuring their strength.

Traditional blood work isn’t enough to truly understand what’s going. Most doctors only run one or two tests because they only know one way to treat the problem and it doesn’t change if they run advanced tests. Our clinic orders up to 7 tests for the thyroid alone, and customizes a unique approach for each person who walks into our door.

Not only do we order the right tests, we interpret them in the correct manor. Traditionally lab values come back with what we call Laboratory Reference Ranges. This is what the lab says is normal and abnormal. This range of numbers that determine whether someone is sick or not sick comes from a statistical analysis of all the blood work received by the lab. And who gets their blood work ran? Sick or unhealthy people normally are the ones having blood drawn. This leads to inflated normal values that are derived from sick people. Dr. Yarbrough is specifically trained to look at optimum, also known as functional, ranges that have been derived from healthy individuals.

If you experience any of these signs or symptoms listed above, make an appointment today for a free consultation with Dr. Yarbrough at 615-269-5558.