Friday, February 14, 2014

Hypothyroid & Weight Loss

By Dr. Kevin Dobrzynski


The hypothyroid weight loss struggle is a common battle for those with hypothyroidism. If you've failed to lose weight despite dieting, it's possible that your thyroid is to blame.

Around 27 million Americans are thought to have a hypothyroid weight loss condition, and many of them don't even know they have this disorder. The most common thyroid dysfunction is hypothyroidism. This is when your thyroid is underactive. The condition does not just affect Americans, but also those living in developing countries.

Weight loss is a losing battle for anyone with this thyroid condition. This is because your metabolism slows down and not even a low-calorie diet can help. In fact, you may even depress your metabolic rate further by causing long-term damage to it.

This is the real issue

People with this disorder often go undiagnosed or even misdiagnosed. You may experience all the symptoms of the disease but your physician may not recognize the problem.

One of the reasons why the diagnosis of hypothyroidism is often missed is due to it's many symptoms. Hypothyroidism affects every system of the human body.

The other reason why this condition goes undiagnosed is that blood testing is often inconclusive. The main blood test used to diagnose hypothyroidism, called the TSH test, can miss cases of hypothyroidism up to 80% of the time.

If you believe you have a thyroid problem, you must act on it right away!

You can start by paying attention to your symptoms. Keep diaries of them by marking each one from a scale of 0 being not applicable to 3 being severe. You should make a note of these for a minimum of one week to a month, and make sure you enter dates.

The next step is to perform a body thermometer test at home. This is one of the easiest ways to see how low your metabolism is.

Place a thermometer by your bedside the night before the test. First thing in the morning, even before you get out of bed, place a thermometer under your armpit for ten minutes without moving. Any movement will throw off the accuracy of the test.

Your body temperature should be measured for the next 3 days. Women who are menstruating can do the test on the second and third day of their period. However, if you have any infections at the moment, your test result will be inaccurate.

Normal readings should be between 97.8 to 98.2. If the reading is below this point, you have a thyroid disorder. Your weight loss battle will continue until your body temperature and metabolism rate become normal again.

Show your journal and body temperature readings to an endocrinologist. This type of doctor is a specialist in thyroid conditions and will be able to help you get better.

Hypothyroid and weight loss struggles go hand-in-hand. If you're convinced that you have a problem, yet your doctor disagrees, or your lab tests don't support your suspicion, don't give up. Try another doctor and keep looking until you find one that will listen to you. You are your own best doctor and you know your body better than anyone.




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