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Building an effective support network is important in life especially when you have a chronic condition such as thyroid hormone imbalance or autoimmune thyroid disease. Dr. Brittany Henderson of the Charleston Thyroid Center offers four steps to help patients develop a lifelong thyroid doctor-patient relationship with a medical professional who fits their personal needs.

When diagnosing and treating individuals with symptoms of thyroid hormone imbalance, many medical professionals will refer exclusively to the TSH laboratory test. Patients who have symptoms despite a “normal” TSH test will discover that there are medical professionals and patients advocating for testing beyond TSH with a full thyroid panel. Read the article below for the best thyroid hormone tests to diagnose and monitor your thyroid condition, whether you are hypothyroid, hyperthyroid, have Graves’ disease or Hashimoto’s, or if you are a current or previous thyroid cancer patient.

Healthy adrenal function is essential to thyroid hormone balance. Holistic health coach, Andrea Beaman details the common symptoms as well as the common causes of adrenal dysfunction with some suggestions regarding nutritional deficiencies.

Many patients are finding their path to health with expanded laboratory testing and expanded treatment options thanks to the advocacy within the thyroid community. However, many patients are still suffering due to a lack of diagnosis or inability to access options beyond levothyroxine-only. How can we help to end the global suffering of thyroid patients?

Depression is a known symptom of thyroid disease. The exclusive use of the TSH laboratory test does not identify all patients with thyroid hormone imbalance since it is a measure of pituitary function not of thyroid hormone. Therefore, expanded thyroid hormone testing must be conducted before a patient is diagnosed with a mental health disorder.

It can be challenging for patients to know where to begin when approaching their individual nutritional needs. Beginning with the vitamin levels that often need to be raised in patients with hypothyroidism, individuals can use the information below to have a discussion with their medical professional regarding testing, diets changes and, if needed, supplementation.

Patient Question: “Does Hashimoto’s go away with treatment? I have Hashimoto’s and it seems to go away and then it comes back. It also seems to come in cycles: skin breakouts (hormonal acne, predominately on my chin and neck) followed by extreme dry skin/hair and water retention/weight gain/constipation.

Okay everyone, there is a lot of misinformation going around the net about the role of gluten in thyroid disease. In the next two blogs I’ll try to suss out everything we thyroid patients need to know about the role of gluten in our diets.

Patient Question: “I have some test results that I wanted a clearer understanding of. I had a total thyroidectomy for Graves’ disease and a multi-nodule goiter at the end of July. I had just come down from being hyperthyroid to the higher end of “normal” when I had the surgery.