Pituitary or not pituitary, that is the question (I think)...

[curious_anthro]

My quest to understand my health issues continues and has led to connect several dots and question if perhaps some sort of pituitary dysfunction is driving my symptoms. But its not a clear picture, in fact it seems contradictory based on my current (albeit limited) understandings.

Testing over the years has revealed:
- Low DHEA-S (blood)
- Low FSH / normal LH (blood)
- Low progesterone, low estradiol, estrone, estriol (urine and blood)
- Normal cortisol (urine and blood)
- Normal prolactin (blood)
- TSH 1.9 - 2.17 mIU/L (blood)

My main symptoms: the absolute worst one is cystic acne on face, back and chest, hot flashes (at only 30 year old), insomnia, mild hirusitism, fatigue during the day, brain fog/poor concentration

Consistently negative reactions to highly recommended supplements, for example:
- Aspirin: muscle weakness, extreme fatigue during the day yet restlessness/insomnia at night
- Vitamin D (in EVOO applied on skin or oral): extreme hot flashes, nausea, brain fog, depression
- Vitamin K: same reaction as aspirin
- Cyproheptadine: at doses of 0.5mg, increased acne, zero motivation and depression/weepy
- vitamin E: cystic acne breakouts get worse, nausea
- b-vitamins: hard energy crash in the evenings, other than that notice no real benefits and tried several high quality formulas
- Methylene Blue: amazing energy for a few hours then hard crash and severe nightmares (1 - 1.5 mg)
- caffeine: hard energy crash, cold hands/feet and anxiety no matter how much I eat with it or what time I have the caffeine

I have really focused on healing my gut thinking that was the main driver and had some initial success but then everything got worse again despite maintaining the things that did work. I feel like most people on this forum ask about high FSH, high DHEA, high cortisol.... but my tests always show these are low! Then everything I take that drives estrogen and cortisol down, seems to make things worse. And I thought thyroid and pituitary have an inverse relationship but I feel like I am both hypopituitary and hypothyroid?! I have also been taking progesterone (progest-E and topical), trying both moderate and massive doses, for one year and sometimes it feels like its helping and sometimes not no matter the dose. Interestingly as a child, I had really brittle bones, sleep issues, extremely low weight and delayed onset of puberty which has led me to wonder if there is something going on with my pituitary.

Does anyone have any similar experiences/results or good understanding of how pituitary dysfunction manifests? I sincerely appreciate any and all help or advice!

 

[redsun]

My quest to understand my health issues continues and has led to connect several dots and question if perhaps some sort of pituitary dysfunction is driving my symptoms. But its not a clear picture, in fact it seems contradictory based on my current (albeit limited) understandings.

Testing over the years has revealed:
- Low DHEA-S (blood)
- Low FSH / normal LH (blood)
- Low progesterone, low estradiol, estrone, estriol (urine and blood)
- Normal cortisol (urine and blood)
- Normal prolactin (blood)
- TSH 1.9 - 2.17 mIU/L (blood)

My main symptoms: the absolute worst one is cystic acne on face, back and chest, hot flashes (at only 30 year old), insomnia, mild hirusitism, fatigue during the day, brain fog/poor concentration

Consistently negative reactions to highly recommended supplements, for example:
- Aspirin: muscle weakness, extreme fatigue during the day yet restlessness/insomnia at night
- Vitamin D (in EVOO applied on skin or oral): extreme hot flashes, nausea, brain fog, depression
- Vitamin K: same reaction as aspirin
- Cyproheptadine: at doses of 0.5mg, increased acne, zero motivation and depression/weepy
- vitamin E: cystic acne breakouts get worse, nausea
- b-vitamins: hard energy crash in the evenings, other than that notice no real benefits and tried several high quality formulas
- Methylene Blue: amazing energy for a few hours then hard crash and severe nightmares (1 - 1.5 mg)
- caffeine: hard energy crash, cold hands/feet and anxiety no matter how much I eat with it or what time I have the caffeine

I have really focused on healing my gut thinking that was the main driver and had some initial success but then everything got worse again despite maintaining the things that did work. I feel like most people on this forum ask about high FSH, high DHEA, high cortisol.... but my tests always show these are low! Then everything I take that drives estrogen and cortisol down, seems to make things worse. And I thought thyroid and pituitary have an inverse relationship but I feel like I am both hypopituitary and hypothyroid?! I have also been taking progesterone (progest-E and topical), trying both moderate and massive doses, for one year and sometimes it feels like its helping and sometimes not no matter the dose. Interestingly as a child, I had really brittle bones, sleep issues, extremely low weight and delayed onset of puberty which has led me to wonder if there is something going on with my pituitary.

Does anyone have any similar experiences/results or good understanding of how pituitary dysfunction manifests? I sincerely appreciate any and all help or advice!

If those supplements cause you problems don't take them. Its probably not a vitamin issue. And you sound overstimulated so caffeine or other stimulants making you worse is not surprising.

What foods do you typically eat on a daily basis?

 

[Jessie]

My quest to understand my health issues continues and has led to connect several dots and question if perhaps some sort of pituitary dysfunction is driving my symptoms. But its not a clear picture, in fact it seems contradictory based on my current (albeit limited) understandings.

Testing over the years has revealed:
- Low DHEA-S (blood)
- Low FSH / normal LH (blood)
- Low progesterone, low estradiol, estrone, estriol (urine and blood)
- Normal cortisol (urine and blood)
- Normal prolactin (blood)
- TSH 1.9 - 2.17 mIU/L (blood)

My main symptoms: the absolute worst one is cystic acne on face, back and chest, hot flashes (at only 30 year old), insomnia, mild hirusitism, fatigue during the day, brain fog/poor concentration

Consistently negative reactions to highly recommended supplements, for example:
- Aspirin: muscle weakness, extreme fatigue during the day yet restlessness/insomnia at night
- Vitamin D (in EVOO applied on skin or oral): extreme hot flashes, nausea, brain fog, depression
- Vitamin K: same reaction as aspirin
- Cyproheptadine: at doses of 0.5mg, increased acne, zero motivation and depression/weepy
- vitamin E: cystic acne breakouts get worse, nausea
- b-vitamins: hard energy crash in the evenings, other than that notice no real benefits and tried several high quality formulas
- Methylene Blue: amazing energy for a few hours then hard crash and severe nightmares (1 - 1.5 mg)
- caffeine: hard energy crash, cold hands/feet and anxiety no matter how much I eat with it or what time I have the caffeine

I have really focused on healing my gut thinking that was the main driver and had some initial success but then everything got worse again despite maintaining the things that did work. I feel like most people on this forum ask about high FSH, high DHEA, high cortisol.... but my tests always show these are low! Then everything I take that drives estrogen and cortisol down, seems to make things worse. And I thought thyroid and pituitary have an inverse relationship but I feel like I am both hypopituitary and hypothyroid?! I have also been taking progesterone (progest-E and topical), trying both moderate and massive doses, for one year and sometimes it feels like its helping and sometimes not no matter the dose. Interestingly as a child, I had really brittle bones, sleep issues, extremely low weight and delayed onset of puberty which has led me to wonder if there is something going on with my pituitary.

Does anyone have any similar experiences/results or good understanding of how pituitary dysfunction manifests? I sincerely appreciate any and all help or advice!

So, these situations are always hard to diagnose (even with blood work), but you brought up the point of healing your gut, and you also stated vit E gives you nausea. I see some parallels to the symptoms I had before I corrected most of my issues. What I think really helped me was getting my zinc status back to where it's suppose to be.

One thing that's not talked about much is the relation of zinc to the thyroid, pituitary, gonads, and gut. Zinc is almost as important as magnesium, maybe slightly more. I know Ray would often recommend oyster a couple times a week, which is high in zinc. But, if you're somebody who's already hypothyroid, you can't keep your zinc status up at all. You lose it as fast as you lose magnesium.

Zinc is important for healing the gut, keeping prolactin and TSH where it's suppose to be, suppressing aromatase, and increasing thyroid uptake into the cell. Before getting my zinc levels up, I would always have this weird response to taking thyroid. I would see marginal improvement for a couple days then I would develop bad insomnia and excessive excitation. Outside of magnesium, zinc is a primary calcium antagonist that prevents excitation.

I took a couple big doses (50 elemental mgs) of zinc gluconate for several days, and then thing began to fall into place much better. I tolerate thyroid excellently now. Digestion is good, prolactin is where it needs to be and so is TSH, also I can handle appropriate dosages of vit E without annoying side effects now. Once you've re-established your zinc levels and you're on thyroid, you can probably maintain adequate zinc levels with oyster consumption.

You mentioned progesterone can sometimes make you feel better, well, progesterone has a zinc raising effect to it, and that might be why you occasionally respond better after taking P4. However you'll REALLY respond better to P4 once zinc and thyroid has been corrected.

Just my 2 cents, but it helped me and I had similar problems. When someone has gut, thyroid, and pituitary imbalances my first question from now on is what's the zinc status like. Because I believe it's that important.

 

[curious_anthro]

If those supplements cause you problems don't take them. Its probably not a vitamin issue. And you sound overstimulated so caffeine or other stimulants making you worse is not surprising.

What foods do you typically eat on a daily basis?

I don’t take them anymore. Just trialed all of them to see how I would react.

I usually have eggs + potatoes for breakfast with OJ. Some kind of meat, potatoe or rice for lunch/dinner. Cheese and fruit for snacks. Occasionally “treats” like sugary things/chocolate/ice cream but try to avoid pufas and never eat gluten

 

[curious_anthro]

So, these situations are always hard to diagnose (even with blood work), but you brought up the point of healing your gut, and you also stated vit E gives you nausea. I see some parallels to the symptoms I had before I corrected most of my issues. What I think really helped me was getting my zinc status back to where it's suppose to be.

One thing that's not talked about much is the relation of zinc to the thyroid, pituitary, gonads, and gut. Zinc is almost as important as magnesium, maybe slightly more. I know Ray would often recommend oyster a couple times a week, which is high in zinc. But, if you're somebody who's already hypothyroid, you can't keep your zinc status up at all. You lose it as fast as you lose magnesium.

Zinc is important for healing the gut, keeping prolactin and TSH where it's suppose to be, suppressing aromatase, and increasing thyroid uptake into the cell. Before getting my zinc levels up, I would always have this weird response to taking thyroid. I would see marginal improvement for a couple days then I would develop bad insomnia and excessive excitation. Outside of magnesium, zinc is a primary calcium antagonist that prevents excitation.

I took a couple big doses (50 elemental mgs) of zinc gluconate for several days, and then thing began to fall into place much better. I tolerate thyroid excellently now. Digestion is good, prolactin is where it needs to be and so is TSH, also I can handle appropriate dosages of vit E without annoying side effects now. Once you've re-established your zinc levels and you're on thyroid, you can probably maintain adequate zinc levels with oyster consumption.

You mentioned progesterone can sometimes make you feel better, well, progesterone has a zinc raising effect to it, and that might be why you occasionally respond better after taking P4. However you'll REALLY respond better to P4 once zinc and thyroid has been corrected.

Just my 2 cents, but it helped me and I had similar problems. When someone has gut, thyroid, and pituitary imbalances my first question from now on is what's the zinc status like. Because I believe it's that important.

Thanks so much for your input. That’s so interesting about zinc. I took a desiccated oyster supplement for a while but didn’t notice any benefit… but I’ve heard they are snake oil anyway. Used to eat oysters but then I got the worst case of vibriosis or norovirus from them- almost went to hospital because I was vomiting for 2 days straight,.. so I just can’t go near them now.
Never taken thyroid because the thyroid mimicking or promoting things (like progesterone, MB, caffeine) make me feel awful so has left me afraid to dabble in thyroid supplementation.
Open to trying zinc though so thanks for that! Any brand recommendation?

 

[Jessie]

Thanks so much for your input. That’s so interesting about zinc. I took a desiccated oyster supplement for a while but didn’t notice any benefit… but I’ve heard they are snake oil anyway. Used to eat oysters but then I got the worst case of vibriosis or norovirus from them- almost went to hospital because I was vomiting for 2 days straight,.. so I just can’t go near them now.
Never taken thyroid because the thyroid mimicking or promoting things (like progesterone, MB, caffeine) make me feel awful so has left me afraid to dabble in thyroid supplementation.
Open to trying zinc though so thanks for that! Any brand recommendation?

I used the PureBulk zinc gluconate. The way I did it was I took 50 elemental mgs of zinc (which is like 300mgs of z-gluconate) for 7 days. Over those 7 days I slowly integrated thyroid into my regime. I recommend using the Broda Barnes method of starting at 1/2 grain (or the synthetic equivalent to 1/2 grain) and work your way up to whatever the appropriate dosage.

If you feel you don't need thyroid then just try the zinc by itself. It will definitely help if your problem was zinc related, but usually I think most people get into zinc deficiency because they were already hypo and just didn't know it. In which case, you'll need some amount of thyroid to keep zinc status as well as thyroid status optimal.

I wouldn't recommend taking 50mgs of zinc long term, by long term I mean longer than a month. As it could eventually lead to imbalances with copper and iron. For a long term maintenance dose I would probably cut it in half (25mgs).

 

[redsun]

I don’t take them anymore. Just trialed all of them to see how I would react.

I usually have eggs + potatoes for breakfast with OJ. Some kind of meat, potatoe or rice for lunch/dinner. Cheese and fruit for snacks. Occasionally “treats” like sugary things/chocolate/ice cream but try to avoid pufas and never eat gluten

Not too bad of a diet. But for some with acne and hormonal dysfunction you are missing some key things. Jessie makes a good point on zinc for hormones and I was going to recommend that for acne as well. Zinc is indispensable for hormonal and skin health and the health of many organ systems including the digestive system for example. You may be resistant to your own endogenous thyroid hormones when zinc is low. So you will likely benefit from zinc supplementation. It is also an important sedative mineral which helps deal with the problem of sleep and overstimulation related symptons. Zinc gluconate or zinc glycinate are good options. You can find plenty of good brands on amazon like Thorne. You can take 15-20mg a day with food. This should start to improve your hormones and skin problems.

Zinc is needed to use vitamin A properly as it is involved in its metabolism. This will help you utilize the vitamin A you have stored in your liver so it can be used where its needed such as for the skin. Zinc is needed to make retinol binding protein that transports vitamin A in your liver to the tissues where its needed. Also red meat and dark chicken meat are preferred as they are higher in zinc.

You also don't get much iodine in your diet. Too low iodine intake can cause hypothyroidism, which will compromise hormone synthesis and overall contribute to hypothyroid symptoms. The minimum you should get is 150 mcg a day. Your only major sources of iodine are eggs and cheese.

Eggs only have about 25 mcg per egg. But cheese is not even a major source of iodine because it loses a lot of water when its processed, and thus the iodine is lost with it. So it has very little actually. Milk/yogurt/kefir have much more since they don't lose their water. I am sure you are like most who avoid milk as your acne probably gets worse from it. In that case I highly recommend a potassium iodide supplement to get enough iodine.

NaturesPlus has a good supplement with 150mcg per tablet to help you get enough. It should improve your fatigue and cognitive issues. Getting more iodine, by improving your thyroid function, will also indirectly improve your other health issues including insomnia and acne. Hypothyroids can have more sleep problems because removal of excitatory neurotransmitters from synapses, where they exert their function, such as glutamate, serotonin, norepinephrine, dopamine, require ATP.

 

[curious_anthro]

@redsun @Jessie really appreciate both of your thorough replies

It’s great that you both are hitting on the same thing with zinc. I am going to give it a try!

Always been scared to supplement iodine because of the selenium balance issue…is potassium iodide safer? I do indeed avoid milk but I eat Skyr occasionally as it seems to agree with me. Also try to have fish once a week usually cod, haddock or wild prawns. Probably not enough there either though in terms of hitting the target nutrients.

 

[redsun]

@redsun @Jessie really appreciate both of your thorough replies

It’s great that you both are hitting on the same thing with zinc. I am going to give it a try!

Always been scared to supplement iodine because of the selenium balance issue…is potassium iodide safer? I do indeed avoid milk but I eat Skyr occasionally as it seems to agree with me. Also try to have fish once a week usually cod, haddock or wild prawns. Probably not enough there either though in terms of hitting the target nutrients.

NaturesPlus iodine supplement is potassium iodide. Iodine is completely safe in normal quantities. Occasional fish consumption is insufficient unfortunately. Selenium is not an issue in your case. You get plenty in your diet.

 

[Momma]

Not too bad of a diet. But for some with acne and hormonal dysfunction you are missing some key things. Jessie makes a good point on zinc for hormones and I was going to recommend that for acne as well. Zinc is indispensable for hormonal and skin health and the health of many organ systems including the digestive system for example. You may be resistant to thyroid hormones when zinc is low. So you will likely benefit from zinc supplementation. It is also an important sedative mineral which helps deal with the problem of sleep and overstimulation related symptons. Zinc gluconate or zinc glycinate are good options. You can find plenty of good brands on amazon like Thorne. You can take 15-20mg a day with food. This should start to improve your hormones and skin problems.

Zinc is needed to use vitamin A properly as it is involved in its metabolism. This will help you utilize the vitamin A you have stored in your liver so it can be used where its needed such as for the skin. Zinc is needed to make retinol binding protein that transports vitamin A in your liver to the tissues where its needed. Also red meat and dark chicken meat are preferred as they are higher in zinc.

You also don't get much iodine in your diet. Too low iodine intake can cause hypothyroidism, which will compromise hormone synthesis and overall contribute to hypothyroid symptoms. The minimum you should get is 150 mcg a day. Your only major sources of iodine are eggs and cheese.

Eggs only have about 25 mcg per egg. But cheese is not even a major source of iodine because it loses a lot of water when its processed, and thus the iodine is lost with it. Milk/yogurt/kefir have much more since they don't lose their water. I am sure you are like most who avoid milk as your acne probably gets worse from it. In that case I highly recommend a potassium iodide supplement to get enough iodine.

NaturesPlus has a good supplement with 150mcg per tablet to help you get enough. It should improve your fatigue and cognitive issues. Getting more iodine, by improving your thyroid function, will also indirectly improve your other health issues including insomnia and acne. Hypothyroids can have more sleep problems because removal of excitatory neurotransmitters from synapses, where they exert their function, such as glutamate, serotonin, norepinephrine, dopamine, require ATP.

How is that not too bad of a diet? By what standard? How are you assessing that?


I look at her diet and read this-
“My main symptoms: the absolute worst one is cystic acne on face, back and chest, hot flashes (at only 30 year old), insomnia, mild hirusitism, fatigue during the day, brain fog/poor concentration”

Common sense says whatever she is eating- because food is a strong chemical or hormonal messenger- is not working for her. The symptoms she has are significant.

I’m not here to argue. I don’t have the answers, just observations. But i see a lot of this ok’ing of “Peat approved” foods here. It doesn’t serve people well i have noticed. Plus, i don’t read Peat’s work that way.

 

[curious_anthro]

How is that not too bad of a diet? By what standard? How are you assessing that?


I look at her diet and read this-
“My main symptoms: the absolute worst one is cystic acne on face, back and chest, hot flashes (at only 30 year old), insomnia, mild hirusitism, fatigue during the day, brain fog/poor concentration”

Common sense says whatever she is eating- because food is a strong chemical or hormonal messenger- is not working for her. The symptoms she has are significant.

I’m not here to argue. I don’t have the answers, just observations. But i see a lot of this ok’ing of “Peat approved” foods here. It doesn’t serve people well i have noticed. Plus, i don’t read Peat’s work that way.

Totally respect your viewpoint but I’ve tried just about every “diet” - all kinds of foods- under the sun so I don’t think it’s necessarily that! That’s why I thought it was my gut just reacting to everything - which it still could be- but considering all of the experimentation I’ve done on that end I feel like it’s not the main driver! I am definitely way less bloated than I used to be eating tons of nuts, seeds and greens and happier that I can eat things that taste good without guilt lol

 

[redsun]

How is that not too bad of a diet? By what standard? How are you assessing that?


I look at her diet and read this-
“My main symptoms: the absolute worst one is cystic acne on face, back and chest, hot flashes (at only 30 year old), insomnia, mild hirusitism, fatigue during the day, brain fog/poor concentration”

Common sense says whatever she is eating- because food is a strong chemical or hormonal messenger- is not working for her. The symptoms she has are significant.

I’m not here to argue. I don’t have the answers, just observations. But i see a lot of this ok’ing of “Peat approved” foods here. It doesn’t serve people well i have noticed. Plus, i don’t read Peat’s work that way.

Not too bad means, not too bad. Doesnt mean its good. I literally just said it is low in zinc and iodine. Her diet is not even peaty. She eats cheese, fruit, icecream, and chocolate like most women. Just because she eats "peat approved" food choices does not make her diet peaty. A lot of people, especially women, eat these foods. Nothing wrong with them. They are definitely not going to cause cystic acne or her other symptoms.

Whatever she is eating is feeding her calories and some nutrients. Its the problem of people with acne needing way more zinc then can be easily obtained from the diet. You cant really get people to eat over half a pound of red meat a day to get more zinc, especially women who cannot eat much protein as it is but even men unless they have some muscle cannot eat that much protein. So logically, zinc is needed as a supplement. Iodine is also clearly needed.

 

[Momma]

Totally respect your viewpoint but I’ve tried just about every “diet” - all kinds of foods- under the sun so I don’t think it’s necessarily that! That’s why I thought it was my gut just reacting to everything - which it still could be- but considering all of the experimentation I’ve done on that end I feel like it’s not the main driver! I am definitely way less bloated than I used to be eating tons of nuts, seeds and greens and happier that I can eat things that taste good without guilt lol

Good to hear. My point was “deeper” than this though. And your putting food into your gut- so there’s that. I think the zinc route is good. Why not try to get from food.

 

[Momma]

Not too bad means, not too bad. Doesnt mean its good. I literally just said it is low in zinc and iodine. Her diet is not even peaty. She eats cheese, fruit, icecream, and chocolate like most women. Just because she eats "peat approved" food choices does not make her diet peaty. A lot of people, especially women, eat these foods. Nothing wrong with them. They are definitely not going to cause cystic acne or her other symptoms.

Whatever she is eating is feeding her calories and some nutrients. Its the problem of people with acne needing way more zinc then can be easily obtained from the diet. You cant really get people to eat over half a pound of red meat a day to get more zinc, especially women who cannot eat much protein as it is but even men unless they have some muscle cannot eat that much protein. So logically, zinc is needed as a supplement. Iodine is also clearly needed.

Thank you

 

[Jessie]

Good to hear. My point was “deeper” than this though. And your putting food into your gut- so there’s that. I think the zinc route is good. Why not try to get from food.

Knowing how hard it can be to retain minerals when you're hypo, I think it's really hard to meet the key nutrients from food alone. Even Ray mentioned this about magnesium. When you're hypothyroid, you can't keep magnesium, at all. No matter how much you eat. Even supplementing won't restore it to optimal levels for much longer than a day tops.

Knowing how important zinc is to thyroid, and vice versa, the same concept likely applies with it to. My guess is, over the long term, OP will also probably need to start using thyroid to really feel the best. But cross one bridge at a time. Even when I wasn't on thyroid, I noticed a positive difference after starting zinc.

 

[Momma]

Knowing how hard it can be to retain minerals when you're hypo, I think it's really hard to meet the key nutrients from food alone. Even Ray mentioned this about magnesium. When you're hypothyroid, you can't keep magnesium, at all. No matter how much you eat. Even supplementing won't restore it to optimal levels for much longer than a day tops.

Knowing how important zinc is to thyroid, and vice versa, the same concept likely applies with it to. My guess is, over the long term, OP will also probably need to start using thyroid to really feel the best. But cross one bridge at a time. Even when I wasn't on thyroid, I noticed a positive difference after starting zinc.

I disagree with a couple of things here. But I'm not here to convince anyone. Just to add a different angle.

Why not feed the thyroid so to speak.
Address the thyroid. And I don’t mean with medication.
I agree the op is probably hypo and ED.
I’ve seen more people heal from food than supplements. Personally.

We know nothing about her 29 years prior to this. How did she get here? Pretty sure it was through restriction and or over exercise. There is a lot of that pmhx on this forum.

 

[redsun]

I disagree with a couple of things here. But I'm not here to convince anyone. Just to add a different angle.

Why not feed the thyroid so to speak.
Address the thyroid. And I don’t mean with medication.
I agree the op is probably hypo and ED.
I’ve seen more people heal from food than supplements. Personally.

We know nothing about her 29 years prior to this. How did she get here? Pretty sure it was through restriction and or over exercise. There is a lot of that pmhx on this forum.

You don't need to overcomplicate right off the bat. Go with the simplest, most straightforward explanation. Zinc, iodine are the most straightforward solutions. They will improve thyroid function, skin, digestion, cognitive function and we can see clearly they are low in the diet.

Her TSH is in a good spot. Probably after using both minerals she won't need thyroid supplementation imo so I agree there. But it takes time for these minerals to do their thing so we need to wait it out.

 

[Momma]

You don't need to overcomplicate right off the bat. Go with the simplest, most straightforward explanation. Zinc, iodine are the most straightforward solutions. They will improve thyroid function, skin, digestion, cognitive function and we can see clearly they are low in the diet.

Her TSH is in a good spot. Probably after using both minerals she won't need thyroid supplementation imo so I agree there. But it takes time for these minerals to do their thing so we need to wait it out.

I disagree.

Not to mention, we have very little important data on her to assess more accurately.

She has a list of oral supplements that didn’t work for her; she saw reactions to those. And her tsh is not optimal. Plus, even with a 1.0 tsh; you can’t ignore her symptoms.

Food as medicine. Getting her out of a stressed metabolism. This takes a lot of work. Charting. Tracking. Reasoning.
Perceiving. Thinking. Acting.

 

[redsun]

I disagree.

Not to mention, we have very little important data on her to assess more accurately.

She has a list of oral supplements that didn’t work for her; she saw reactions to those. And her tsh is not optimal. Plus, even with a 1.0 tsh; you can’t ignore her symptoms.

Food as medicine. Getting her out of a stressed metabolism. This takes a lot of work. Charting. Tracking. Reasoning.
Perceiving. Thinking. Acting.

Zinc and iodine likely will be enough to improve most of her issues. And if not, you cross that bridge when you come to it.

TSH is fine. Too much emphasis here to have a TSH of less than 1 which is ridiculous. Zinc and iodine will improve thyroid function regardless.

I know she reacted to oral supplements. She reacts to B vitamins, fat soluble vitamins, and stimulants or substances with stimulant like effects. Why do you assume she will react poorly to zinc or iodine? You going to get her to eat tons of red meat to replete zinc? Good luck. You want her to get more iodine out of thin air since she doesnt drink milk?

I didn't ignore any symptoms. We gave her recommendations which are likely to be simple and effective for her symptoms. You sound like you want her to do backflips when all she might need to do is a somersault.

 

[Momma]

You sound like you want her to do backflips when all she might need to do is a somersault.

Uh-huh. Sure.