BellaOnline Forums Health and Fitness Thyroid Health Natural Remedies for Hyperactice Thyroid anyone?

Hi Everyone, I'm new here. I am Pregnant with my third child and have just been diagnosed with a Hyperactive Thyroid. I have looked at the two alternative choices for therapy and would now like to look into natural therapies... does anyone know any? Any input would be great :) Thanks

Is there any reason you don't want to or can't go on PTU?
When it comes to alt meds, it's not easy finding a practitioner who's really skilled in treating thyroid. Not that it's a piece of cake to find an endo who uses ATDs.(At least you won't be strong armed into nuking your thyroid.) And some of the herbs work the same way as ATDs and need the same kind of monitoring.

If you're really committed to alt med though, check out the last part of Elaine Moore's book, Graves Disease, a Practical Guide for your options.

You may want to see if you can track down a thyroid support group for you state to see if anyone has any good endo recommendations. Most of the people on such a group are likely to be hypo but you might me a few people who can help. If by some chance you're in SE Michigan I can give you a good name.

Thanks for the reply :) Is "Fayge" from Star Trek at all?... just ignore that if you don't know what I'm talking about, lol. Personally, I'm not a Med's kind of person. Half my family is on medication for a variety of illnesses and it hasn't helped them only caused new problems. So, I'd really preffer to try a natural alternative first and leave med's as a last resort. Also because I'm pregnant, I don't feel right putting any treatment into my body, I won't even take nausea tablets! lol. I probably sound like a hippi now!!! ha ha. I will def take a look at Elaine Moore's book and see what she has to say. I actually ended up here when looking for a Thyroid support group, there doesn't seem to be many... I'm in Australia so ... Michigan is too far for me :) Thanks again though, your advice was very helpful and has made me feel a bit better. xx J

My Star Trek frame of reference is fairly limited, and to the original one. Fayge is Yiddish for bird. (There's an Israeli cabinet member named Tzipi, a diminutive of the Hebrew word for bird.)

Linguistic lesson aside, check out the yahoogroup graves support (graves_support@yahoogroups.com ). I haven't checked it out in a few years, I dropped membership when life got busy due to my daughter's wedding. But it's bound to be worth it. Hopefully Elaine Moore's still around. And see if you can contact Caroline from Australia (her address had the name MichaelJohnson in it). I think her input will be invaluable.

Not to scare you but you don't want to push off getting treatment too long if you want a healthy pregnancy. I would go to an endocrinologist, get on PTU, and then start researching your alt med alternatives. Frankly, here in the states, so many endos prefer to nuke the thyroid that getting a dr. to agree to anti thyroid drugs makes you feel like you're asking for some really whacky alt thing, so you get the same warm fuzzies ;-) Seriously, though, ATDs are fairly benign. People do get reactions but often due to drs maltreatment and overdosing of ATDs.

Chances are you would be started at a dose of up to 450 mg. a day. Anything higher and I would get a second opinion. 300 is probably a typical dose for active hyperthyroidism. This must be divided in thirds, taken at three fairly even intervals but don't get neurotic. After a few weeks you would come in for testing again, and if your numbers are improving, a good dr. will reduce your dose by as much as half. Like shampoo, this cycle should be repeated. (Or maybe not like shampoo, many feel it's a waste ;-) If you are dramatically improving, halving your dose again is not a bad idea. After halving the dose once or twice, the dose is reduced with regular testing (at no more than 8 week intervals) in more gentle increments, like 25 or 50 mg. a time. (Pill cutters are your friend.)

This is a general formula that most people will do well under. As you're pregnant you might have more frequent labs.

Now, maybe, very soon, you will hook up with reliable alt practitioners. More power to you. Just saying that you can start with allopathic meds then switch if you need to. And again, it's not as if the alt stuff, like herbs, isn't powerful in similar ways.

Good luck!

Thanks again for your support and advice. I.'m hoping to see a specialist soon and hear what they have to say... I have a feeling i have had this for a long time, approximately 2 years. After I had my son I started dropping weight very quickly and found it hard to keep on. To be honest, I hate this. But having someone to talk to that knows about it is relieving. Didn't know Fayge meant bird... I'd only ever heard that word before in a S.Trek episode years ago! lol. Thanks for that too :) Ok, I have to take some notes down now from what you have written. Thanks so much again, it's extremely appreciated. xx J

Hi Bumpy, Are you still looking for natural therapies that help ease hyperthyroidism? I'm an editor of a natural-health magazine called Natural Solutions, and our March issue offers some foods, supplements, and therapies used to treat thyroid disease. Hyperthyroidism responds less to holistic treatments--and it's important to see an endocrinologist--but some natural remedies can help manage it. Here's the link to the article... BellaOnline ALERT: Raw URLs are not allowed in these forums for security reasons. Please use UBB code. If you don't know how to do UBB code just post here for help - we will help out!