I want to tell you about our unfolding story today. My husband, David, spent a large part of October sick I mean, really sick - sick in bed, missing work kind of sick. The doctors couldn't find anything wrong with him despite dozens of tests. We all assumed it was some nasty, tenacious virus.
It was an unlikely trip to the doctor that sent David to the hospital by ambulance. We found out later that his doctor thought he was dying, that he had cancer, that something was seriously wrong. He was in "a fib" which means that his heart was going crazy. At one point his pulse was 170 bpm. Not good. At the hospital, they used a drug to stop and restart his heart - TWICE. It hurt. Everything about the hospital hurt. Everything about his experience in the hospital made us determined to never make a trip there again - EVER!
The doctors made a quick, but accurate diagnosis - Hyperthyroid. Did you know that a hyperthyroid can cause all kinds of unlikely symptoms. When we looked back on his symptoms it all made sense - weight loss, fatigue, irritability, racing heart... we just didn't realize they were indicators of a bigger problem. He was discharge after 2 days on two medications, one to keep his heart rate controlled and one for his thyroid. The doctors gave the impression that the thyroid medication would not work and that drastic measures to kill the thyroid would most likely need to happen.
Killing his thyroid was simply not an option for either of us, so I started researching nutritional support, especially using Shaklee supplements. We scheduled a phone consult with a well-respected pharmacist who promotes nutritional support for illness. He outlined a pretty intense regiment and stressed "if you want supplements to work like medications, you have to take them like medications." That is to say, take them EVERY day and ideally at about the same time. He was very optimistic about David's healing.
Fast forward 4 weeks.. to David's first appointment with the endocrinologist and follow up blood work after being in the hospital and 4 weeks of being on his supplement program. The endocrinologist said that there was a very slim chance that David's thyroid would stabilize. That it happens, but very rarely. Most often treatment is to kill the thyroid and treat for hypothyroid because the medication is not as "risky." He gave David's meds 12-18 months to see if they were working. But a few days later when the results from the blood work came back showing significantly lower levels of thyroid hormone, David's doctor decreased his medication by half! A few days after that, he called again having re-reviewed the numbers and decided to lower it ever further. After only 4 weeks, David was on 1/4 the dose of thyroid medication that he started on.
Now, we're still quite early in this adventure. But we're feeling even more confident that David's thyroid will heal because when the body is given what it needs nutritionally, healing and health is the natural result.
It was an unlikely trip to the doctor that sent David to the hospital by ambulance. We found out later that his doctor thought he was dying, that he had cancer, that something was seriously wrong. He was in "a fib" which means that his heart was going crazy. At one point his pulse was 170 bpm. Not good. At the hospital, they used a drug to stop and restart his heart - TWICE. It hurt. Everything about the hospital hurt. Everything about his experience in the hospital made us determined to never make a trip there again - EVER!
The doctors made a quick, but accurate diagnosis - Hyperthyroid. Did you know that a hyperthyroid can cause all kinds of unlikely symptoms. When we looked back on his symptoms it all made sense - weight loss, fatigue, irritability, racing heart... we just didn't realize they were indicators of a bigger problem. He was discharge after 2 days on two medications, one to keep his heart rate controlled and one for his thyroid. The doctors gave the impression that the thyroid medication would not work and that drastic measures to kill the thyroid would most likely need to happen.
Killing his thyroid was simply not an option for either of us, so I started researching nutritional support, especially using Shaklee supplements. We scheduled a phone consult with a well-respected pharmacist who promotes nutritional support for illness. He outlined a pretty intense regiment and stressed "if you want supplements to work like medications, you have to take them like medications." That is to say, take them EVERY day and ideally at about the same time. He was very optimistic about David's healing.
Fast forward 4 weeks.. to David's first appointment with the endocrinologist and follow up blood work after being in the hospital and 4 weeks of being on his supplement program. The endocrinologist said that there was a very slim chance that David's thyroid would stabilize. That it happens, but very rarely. Most often treatment is to kill the thyroid and treat for hypothyroid because the medication is not as "risky." He gave David's meds 12-18 months to see if they were working. But a few days later when the results from the blood work came back showing significantly lower levels of thyroid hormone, David's doctor decreased his medication by half! A few days after that, he called again having re-reviewed the numbers and decided to lower it ever further. After only 4 weeks, David was on 1/4 the dose of thyroid medication that he started on.
Now, we're still quite early in this adventure. But we're feeling even more confident that David's thyroid will heal because when the body is given what it needs nutritionally, healing and health is the natural result.
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