Frustrated With Medicine, Doctors - Where To Get Good Health Advice Outside Of This Forum?

[YourUniverse]

I started supplementing thyroid (tyromax, natural dessicated thyroid) and was hoping for some dosing guidance, so I went to my GP this morning. I live in Canada, and I love our health care.

I dont know what I was expecting, but I just left extremely frustrated. I asked him for guidance on thyroid dosing, and told him what I have been doing (1 drop most days for about 2 weeks) of NDT. I had some concerns, specifically about endogenous thyroid hormone being halted, and wanted help finding my right dose.

He told me to stop taking thyroid immediately, as my last TSH results from 1 year ago were "good" - I had 1.07. To my knowledge, this is fairly high, although not terrible. It is certainly in the "normal" range, but on this forum we know we want the lowest tsh possible, ideally near 0.04 <-- directly from the man himself, Dr. Ray.

He offered no dosing help other than advising I stop immediately, and said NDT is an old thyroid medication, and that they now prescribe something newer (I believe he said thyroxin). He said thyroid medication would raise my blood pressure and increase strain on my heart.

I have been having some blood pressure trouble the last few months, so while I was there, I asked him about that. He gave the obvious answer that I should have expected - lower caffeine and salt, get more aerobic exercise, stop taking thyroid. UGH! I have concerns about calcification of the arteries (and calcification in other areas, specifically in the brain...) so I asked him if he could recommend different things that would aid in de-calcification. His response was, pending a cholesterol check, that he would recommend dietary interventions - cut out saturated fat and lower dietary cholesterol. UGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Where can I go for expert help? Is my doctor right? By extension, is mainstream medicine right?? Surely, if I lower my salt and caffeine intake, my BP will drop - but Im sure, based on what Ive learned here, that my health would drop, too. I dont want to pester Dr. Peat with my little inquiries, all the information has been made available online, but I must be missing something. In my last correspondence with him, he recommended I massively improve vitamin D status to decrease PTH, and get thyroid dosing correct, which should improve blood pressure. This is virtually the opposite advice of my GP.

Im frustrated and a little confused. Can anyone shed some wisdom here?

 

[theLaw]

Where can I go for expert help? Is my doctor right? By extension, is mainstream medicine right?? Surely, if I lower my salt and caffeine intake, my BP will drop - but Im sure, based on what Ive learned here, that my health would drop, too. I dont want to pester Dr. Peat with my little inquiries, all the information has been made available online, but I must be missing something. In my last correspondence with him, he recommended I massively improve vitamin D status to decrease PTH, and get thyroid dosing correct, which should improve blood pressure. This is virtually the opposite advice of my GP.

Im frustrated and a little confused. Can anyone shed some wisdom here?

Whenever I hit a wall with a problem, I start with going back to the basics. So if it were me, I would type in blood pressure Haidut/Ray Peat, and start there. Macros/micros, temps + pulse.

Also, why not try to find a doctor that agrees with Peat instead of looking for conflict?

 

[Blossom]

Maybe you could consult with one of the Peat style coaches?

 

[Dhair]

I started supplementing thyroid (tyromax, natural dessicated thyroid) and was hoping for some dosing guidance, so I went to my GP this morning. I live in Canada, and I love our health care.

I dont know what I was expecting, but I just left extremely frustrated. I asked him for guidance on thyroid dosing, and told him what I have been doing (1 drop most days for about 2 weeks) of NDT. I had some concerns, specifically about endogenous thyroid hormone being halted, and wanted help finding my right dose.

He told me to stop taking thyroid immediately, as my last TSH results from 1 year ago were "good" - I had 1.07. To my knowledge, this is fairly high, although not terrible. It is certainly in the "normal" range, but on this forum we know we want the lowest tsh possible, ideally near 0.04 <-- directly from the man himself, Dr. Ray.

He offered no dosing help other than advising I stop immediately, and said NDT is an old thyroid medication, and that they now prescribe something newer (I believe he said thyroxin). He said thyroid medication would raise my blood pressure and increase strain on my heart.

I have been having some blood pressure trouble the last few months, so while I was there, I asked him about that. He gave the obvious answer that I should have expected - lower caffeine and salt, get more aerobic exercise, stop taking thyroid. UGH! I have concerns about calcification of the arteries (and calcification in other areas, specifically in the brain...) so I asked him if he could recommend different things that would aid in de-calcification. His response was, pending a cholesterol check, that he would recommend dietary interventions - cut out saturated fat and lower dietary cholesterol. UGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Where can I go for expert help? Is my doctor right? By extension, is mainstream medicine right?? Surely, if I lower my salt and caffeine intake, my BP will drop - but Im sure, based on what Ive learned here, that my health would drop, too. I dont want to pester Dr. Peat with my little inquiries, all the information has been made available online, but I must be missing something. In my last correspondence with him, he recommended I massively improve vitamin D status to decrease PTH, and get thyroid dosing correct, which should improve blood pressure. This is virtually the opposite advice of my GP.

Im frustrated and a little confused. Can anyone shed some wisdom here?

Read the Broda Barnes book. That will tell you everything you need to know.
Thyroid hormone is not supposed to cause overstimulation/nervousness as your doctor suggests, and if it does, it indicates that you may have other health problems. Having said that, you should ask yourself what you hope to achieve by using thyroid.

 

[HDD]

When I began dosing thyroid, I used the email replies from Ray,along with posting questions on this forum-
https://raypeatforum.com/wiki/index.php/Ray_Peat_Email_Exchanges#Starting_Thyroid_Supplementation

I also had read “Hypothyroidism, the Unsuspected Illness” by Broda Barnes that described how he dosed NDT and how he determined proper dose.

My blood pressure came down after I started using thyroid. I was borderline high blood pressure.

Have you measured your vitamin D?

 

[YourUniverse]

Whenever I hit a wall with a problem, I start with going back to the basics. So if it were me, I would type in blood pressure Haidut/Ray Peat, and start there. Macros/micros, temps + pulse.

Also, why not try to find a doctor that agrees with Peat instead of looking for conflict?

Good advice, and you're right, I should have expected what I heard and realized it was never going to be agreeable with my ideas of health.

Maybe you could consult with one of the Peat style coaches?

Good idea - I consult with Travis on verbal disfluency, maybe I should hook up with Kate Deering or Mr. Roddy. That will be the next step if I dont feel I can fix this myself.

Read the Broda Barnes book. That will tell you everything you need to know.
Thyroid hormone is not supposed to cause overstimulation/nervousness as your doctor suggests, and if it does, it indicates that you may have other health problems. Having said that, you should ask yourself what you hope to achieve by using thyroid.

This has been my experience with thyroid, it induces relaxation, not overstimulation (which was my GPs assumption). I am very interested in this Broda Barnes book, what is the name of it?

When I began dosing thyroid, I used the email replies from Ray,along with posting questions on this forum-
https://raypeatforum.com/wiki/index.php/Ray_Peat_Email_Exchanges#Starting_Thyroid_Supplementation

I also had read “Hypothyroidism, the Unsuspected Illness” by Broda Barnes that described how he dosed NDT and how he determined proper dose.

My blood pressure came down after I started using thyroid. I was borderline high blood pressure.

Have you measured your vitamin D?

Ok, "Hypothyroidism: the unsuspected illness" - I will look into this, thank you for the lead. Ill look at the Ray peat exchanges on thyroid supplementation, good advice, thank you. My vitamin was never measured, but I have less than stellar direct sunlight daily these last few months.

 

[x-ray peat]

Are you sure you have a thyroid problem? Morning temps, pulse rate and the Achilles reflex test are better indicators than TSH. Do you have any measurements for those?

 

[Blossom]

I agree wholeheartedly about testing your vitamin D. This has been a recurring issue of mine that I think I'm finally getting under control. It can never hurt to check your levels.

 

[Dobbler]

If you feel insecure about PUFAs, watch this video. Pretty good motivation to stop eating them.

 

[HDD]

Since Ray Peat specifically advised about vitamin D, I would look into it. I recently ordered a home test kit from the Vitamin D Council site.

 

[shepherdgirl]

At least you got some cholesterol labs from your visit, LOL.

 

[HDD]

@jamies33 The vitamin D home test kit is a little more expensive than ordering the test from Life Extension (iirc) and going to a lab. I have done labs through Life Extension via email and have been satisfied with the service.

 

[cats]

Progesterone can help bring your blood pressure down

 

[EndAllDisease]

Yes, modern medicine is the #1 cause of death, according to a 2002 study by Dr. Gary Null, Dr. Carolyn Dean and their team of scientists.
In other words, there's almost nothing your doctor can do for you that won't make your health worse.

Study: http://www.webdc.com/pdfs/deathbymedicine.pdf

 

[YourUniverse]

I must contribute, my doctor is good at what he does, and hes a good man. He caught my moms cancer early, from very obscure signs - she was having tremendous pain down her arm, and he ordered a CT scan of her chest, where the cancer was found. I have no doubt he is acting in my best interests as mandated by Hippocratic oath, and he is highly intelligent. I simply need to do as others have advised, and seek a health professional who sees things from a similar paradigm to my own.

 

[Phosphor]

Many doctors out there surely care, but they have been indoctrinated. Like, my own caring doctor "warned" me about ivermectin. To top it, they now know that going against The Machine will cause them loss of license. I'm doing everything I can to not need the services of any physician associated with allopathic medicine. I just hope I don't get run over by a bus and end up in the hospital helpless to help myself.
Cancer can be detected before it manifests physically, in the aura, by a good energy healer, and corrected on that level. But you have to know whom to see and also believe that things occur at that level first, before you're going to go there.