Dr. David Clark, DC – Center for Low Thyroid Solutions Durham, NC -explains the 3 surprising reasons why your doctor isn’t doing anything for the autoimmune part of Hashimoto’s.
Every day I get asked the question, “Why isn’t my doctor doing anything about the autoimmune part of my low thyroid problem?” There are three reasons why your doctor isn’t doing anything about it…
1. Your doctor may not know that you have autoimmune problem. If they have not tested you for Hashimoto’s, then they don’t know you have an autoimmune thyroid problem.
2. What you have to understand is if that even if your doctors knows for sure that you’ve got Hashimoto’s autoimmune hypothyroidism— the only treatment your doctor has for you replacement thyroid hormones. They don’t have any other tool to offer you.
3. The more sinister reason–your doctor doesn’t really understand Hashimoto’s in the first place. They haven’t read an scientific article about Hashimoto’s in years. They’re out of touch with current science. (The current record for admitted out-of-touchness by my patients former doctors is TEN years.)
I see a lot of people in my practice that have Hashimoto’s, which is an autoimmune attack on the thyroid gland. And most of these people have already been taking thyroid hormones for a year or two years or three years, but they still feel bad.
They still have:
- constipation
- depression
- hair loss
- brittle nails
- dry skin
- severe fatigue
- sleep problems (not enough, insomnia).
- low libido
- infertility.
The reason why they still have theses low thyroid symptoms?
When you have Hashimoto’s and all you do is give the person replacement thyroid hormones like Synthroid®, Levoxyl® or Armour® — it does very little for what’s actually happening in Hashimoto’s.
In Hashimoto’s your immune system is destroying your thyroid gland. The replacement hormones don’t stop that.
It’s the same as if I were to come home and my house is on fire, but the firefighters give me a key to a hotel room…but NEVER try to put out the fire. What are we going to do to put out the fire? Ignore it. Let it burn and hope everything works out OK?
To me, that’s asinine. I’m shocked that more physicians aren’t trying to do something more.
You can’t tell me that all these doctors don’t know something’s not working when their patients are coming back every six months saying, “I still feel awful.” I mean what are the doctors doing? In their mind, what are they thinking?
Well, I’ll tell you what they might be thinking.
- A lot of doctors think your nuts.
- A lot of them think you’re not complying.
- A lot of them think you’re overeating etc.
I’ve come to the conclusion that a lot of the doctors that treat these women suffering with Hashimoto’s think that you go home and eat ice cream & bonbons while sipping a milkshake. And that’s why you’re still gaining weight.
Seriously, I think that’s what some of them think. But I don’t understand why they don’t try to do something about it.
If your the doctor, I just don’t understand how someone can show up to your office and say, “I still feel bad.”
And you say, “Well, time to give you more of the same thing I already gave you that didn’t work.”
That just doesn’t make any sense to me. But that’s what a lot of these doctors are doing; and I think it’s because they don’t understand Hashimoto’s. They don’t understand that it’s an autoimmune condition.
A lot of doctors have stopped reading. When they got their diploma and they got their degree, they stopped reading medical journals. They certainly stopped reading about anything that has to do with natural management or non-drug methods. They’re not reading any of that.
It just saddens me.
I see hundreds of these people – thousands of these people that are taking thyroid medication just like they’re supposed to. Their labs are normal, but they still have low thyroid symptoms while they’re taking that medication. And it’s because the medication not helping their underlying problem.
Many times, when I’m here in my office talking to people, I get really angry at what doctors are telling people….
“That can’t have anything to do with it,”
“Gluten can’t have anything to do with your Hashimoto. There’s nothing you can do for this, you just have to live with it.”
Trash that doctors spit out as a defense mechanism. But they’re really not getting you better in the process.
And that’s why your doctor’s not doing anything about the autoimmune part of your thyroid problem. They either
A. Don’t know you’ve got it, so then you’ve got to get tested for it.
B. Even if you did get tested for it, they’re the hammer and you’re the nail.
They only have one tool and their hammer is thyroid replacement hormones. Most of them don’t have any training in what to do with autoimmunity. They have no idea about what modulates it, what makes it better. And they’re terrified, terrified that they’re ignorance is going to be exposed. Most of these people are just terrified that you’re gonna ask them some question that they don’t know the answer to, which is why they say, “Oh, you can’t do that.” They’re gonna poo-poo things they don’t understand.
If you’ve found a doctor that can tell you, “Look, I don’t know about that, It’s not my field.” That I can accept. It’s the doctors that act like they do know what they’re talking about but really have no basis for their opinion… that infuriates me.
There is help. You have to find a doctor who understands all these things I’m just telling you.
Someone who understands and has been trained on how to functionally deal with this autoimmune problem and get it calmed down and get your immune system under control.
If you don’t get the right help, that autoimmune problem can expand into more tissues, more organs, and cause more problems that are ten times worse than the awful thyroid symptoms you’re suffering right now.
©2012 David Clark.