Has anyone tried using red light therapy for hypothyroidism? If so, did you find it helped?
I'm looking for some non-chemical alternative, partly because I'm not too keen on supplements but mostly because I'm having an impossible job convincing the local quack of a doctor I almost certainly have a very underactive thyroid.
I've been feeling very lethargic the past few years (along with several other issues like brain fog etc) but it wasn't until I talked to mum about this that I found out hypothyroidism runs in the family. My grandmother (mum's mother) had her thyroid out when she was 19, my mum and 3 of her sisters are on thyroid medication and my oldest brother had his thyroid out when he was my age. All due to hypothyroidism.
This spurred me into doing some research and out of all the signs of hypothyroidism, I can tick off all of them bar period problems. But that's probably more due to me having a Y chromosome...
Armed with all this I went to the local gp. I explained my family history and gave him all my symptoms. And what did he say to me? "It certainly looks like you have an underactive thyroid but I think you're just depressed." (Yes, he did say 'just' depressed. I guess he thinks depression isn't important enough to do anything about. Not like anyone has ever died of depression...)
WTH?! How does me apparently 'just' having depression cause half my family to have thyroid issues, some of whom decades before I was born?
He initially refused to bloodtest me but eventually, begrudingly, did. Though this was in the afternoon after I'd had lunch and 3 cups of coffee (I didn't know at the time that I should have fasted beforehand). My results came back as very low but just above the minimum. I wasn't able to see the doctor: all he did was scrawl along the bottom of my test results, 'no further action required'. Which again shows his utter indifference to depression. If I didn't have thyroid issues, wouldn't this then prove my symptoms indicate depression? But he refused to see me.
I know your first thought would be, 'forget that quack, go see another doctor!' Unfortunately I'm in the middle of nowhere in West Australia and he's the only doctor within a few hundred km. I can go see another (hopefully competent) doctor when I'm next in Perth but that won't be for several weeks.
I'm stuck trying to find alternative therapies. I did try some vitamin supplemts supposedly meant to help thyroid issues but they're mostly just B vitamins and a few minerals, and for some reason made me feel rather nauseous. I came across Red light therapy and am keen to try it. But only if it has shown to work. I don't want to spend a couple hundred on a useless light!
Anyone who has tried it, please tell me how it went and if you felt it helped. Thanks!
I'm looking for some non-chemical alternative, partly because I'm not too keen on supplements but mostly because I'm having an impossible job convincing the local quack of a doctor I almost certainly have a very underactive thyroid.
I've been feeling very lethargic the past few years (along with several other issues like brain fog etc) but it wasn't until I talked to mum about this that I found out hypothyroidism runs in the family. My grandmother (mum's mother) had her thyroid out when she was 19, my mum and 3 of her sisters are on thyroid medication and my oldest brother had his thyroid out when he was my age. All due to hypothyroidism.
This spurred me into doing some research and out of all the signs of hypothyroidism, I can tick off all of them bar period problems. But that's probably more due to me having a Y chromosome...
Armed with all this I went to the local gp. I explained my family history and gave him all my symptoms. And what did he say to me? "It certainly looks like you have an underactive thyroid but I think you're just depressed." (Yes, he did say 'just' depressed. I guess he thinks depression isn't important enough to do anything about. Not like anyone has ever died of depression...)
WTH?! How does me apparently 'just' having depression cause half my family to have thyroid issues, some of whom decades before I was born?
He initially refused to bloodtest me but eventually, begrudingly, did. Though this was in the afternoon after I'd had lunch and 3 cups of coffee (I didn't know at the time that I should have fasted beforehand). My results came back as very low but just above the minimum. I wasn't able to see the doctor: all he did was scrawl along the bottom of my test results, 'no further action required'. Which again shows his utter indifference to depression. If I didn't have thyroid issues, wouldn't this then prove my symptoms indicate depression? But he refused to see me.
I know your first thought would be, 'forget that quack, go see another doctor!' Unfortunately I'm in the middle of nowhere in West Australia and he's the only doctor within a few hundred km. I can go see another (hopefully competent) doctor when I'm next in Perth but that won't be for several weeks.
I'm stuck trying to find alternative therapies. I did try some vitamin supplemts supposedly meant to help thyroid issues but they're mostly just B vitamins and a few minerals, and for some reason made me feel rather nauseous. I came across Red light therapy and am keen to try it. But only if it has shown to work. I don't want to spend a couple hundred on a useless light!
Anyone who has tried it, please tell me how it went and if you felt it helped. Thanks!
