Homeopathy and the Thryoid
In my experience, classical homeopathy is often fantastically effective in treating thyroid conditions. With an exact prescription, homeopathy in fact is fantastically effective at treating most conditions, Nevertheless, thinking back into my case history, some dramatic thyroid cases come to mind. I will talk specifically about one next post. Today I will write more generally about my experience.
The thyroid is an organ important in regulating our metabolism. The substance (called T3 and its counterpart T4) made in the thyroid directly stimulates our metabolic rate. Thus, if the thyroid is underfunctioning, there are hypo- or low thyroid symptom: fatigue, sluggishness, hair falling out, dry skin, and such. Hyper- or high thyroid symptoms produce the feeling of being "overrevved": heart palpitations, anxiety, heat. Swelling in the lower neck—a goiter--generally signifies thyroid problems, usually of the hyper-thyroid variety. As an aside, realize that the primary test doctors use to measure whether the thyroid is high, low or normal is the lab TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone). TSH varies inversely with the thyroid, i.e if the thyroid is functioning high TSH is low; if the thyroid is functioning low, the TSH goes up.
When I treat hypothyroidism, generally the patient comes in already on a thyroid hormone replacement such as Synthroid. These patients usually originally presented to their primary doctors with fatigue. Around 75% of the time, the thyroid supplement only partially resolves this fatigue, and they end up in my office still complaining of fatigue or depression. Treatment with homeopathy becomes a matter of taking the case, giving the remedy, and then watching to see if the energy gets better. If the energy dramatically improves and there are clear signs that the patient’s state is changing, I begin a slow taper (i.e months) of the thyroid medication. There is no hurry.
Treating hyperthyroidism is different. There are two general types of hyperthyroidism: the one type has antibodies and the other doesn’t. Antibodies are a substance a patient’s body mysteriously produces that wrongly stimulate the thyroid to overfunction. As a rule, patients producing antibodies are more difficult to treat and it takes longer. If there are no antibodies, treating hyperthyroidism with homeopathy can be extraordinarily quick and simple.
In cases of hyperthyroidism, I invariably see some type of “overwhelmed” or “can’t control my anxiety” at the 2nd level that moves directly into the deeper 4th level state. I plan on giving a couple examples of this in upcoming posts.
When someone comes for hypothyroid treatment, are they on the homeopathics AND traditional meds?
Or do they have to stop the traditional meds?
Response: I keep the traditional meds until I know the remedy is right. Then I slowly taper the traditional meds (usu Synthroid) over months. No hurry. Dr. B
Posted by: HELP! | June 25, 2007 at 09:45 PM