Undiagnosed Hypothyroidism: Why Low Thyroid Function is Commonly Overlooked

December 5, 2018

Many Americans suffer from the #1 most commonly overlooked and undiagnosed condition: hypothyroidism. Dr.Hotze discusses how you can avoid being misdiagnosed to feel your best this holiday season. Find out about the common symptoms of hypothyroidism and how easy it is to get back to feeling yourself again!!

https://youtu.be/u4vENcHTG2I

Podcast Transcription:

Stacey Bandfield: Welcome to Dr. Hotze’s Wellness Revolution. I’m Stacey Bandfield here with Dr. Steven Hotze, founder of the Hotze Health & Wellness Center, and who has helped thousands of men and women get their lives back. Well, I am very excited about this program. We’re going to talk about hypothyroidism. A lot of people have it. A lot of people don’t know they have it. It is very…it’s a condition that’s very often misdiagnosed or it’s misdiagnosed by physicians. So, you’ll want to tune in. There are a lot of people out there that take thyroid, that have been helped by it.  We would like to help you, as well. So, Dr. Hotze, please share with us what people need to know about hypothyroidism.

Dr. Hotze: Well thank you so very much, Stacey. Thank you each one of you for joining us today. Thyroid problems, particularly hypothyroidism, is an unsuspected illness by most individuals and by most physicians. Hypothyroidism has to do with the ability of your cells to use thyroid hormone, which is made by the thyroid gland in the neck. Now, thyroid hormone is secreted into the blood and has to enter the cells. It has to be received by the cells. And inside the cells, it catalyzes the production of energy in the power plants that exist within every one of your cells. You have 70 trillion cells in your body, every cell has a power plant. Those power plants are called mitochondria. Some cells have one power plant. Some cells have thousands of power plants. For instance, the heart cells have thousands of power plants within each cell because it has to produce a lot of energy in the heart because it’s beating constantly, 70 times an hour, 100,000 times a day over a lifetime. So it requires a tremendous amount of energy.

Well it’s the thyroid hormone in the cell that enables the cells to produce and use energy. Think of the thyroid hormone as a spark plug and you have to have a spark plug to spark the energy production within the cell in the power plant. And then energy production is electrical energy. And that electrical energy is transported into the cell and it drives the biochemical processes helping the cell be healthy and well and then helping the organ in which the cells live be healthy and well. So if you produce large amounts of energy within your cell, your body’s going to be healthy and well. If your cells produce low amounts of energy, if you’re toxic and you down regulate the power plants, you’re going to be sluggish, you’re going to have low metabolism. Now, those power plants have to be catalyzed by thyroid hormone. Now, we take food from our body that we digest the nutrients from. That enters the power plants through the mitochondria. The vitamins and minerals enter the power plants as do the thyroid hormones. But it’s the thyroid hormone that is the catalyst that stimulates the energy production. It governs your body’s metabolism.

But the symptoms of hypothyroidism plague literally tens of thousands of Americans. I suspect there are 60 to 100 million adult Americans who have the signs and symptoms of hypothyroidism. It is a very commonly overlooked, unsuspected illness by physicians because most physicians are not trained on how to evaluate and treat therapeutically with a therapeutic trial using natural desiccated thyroid hormones like we do at the Hotze Health & Wellness Center. I was influenced by Dr. Broda Barnes who wrote the book Hypothyroidism, The Unsuspected Illness. That book had a tremendous impact on the way I approach and the way our team of providers at the Hotze Health & Wellness Center approaches our guests, our patients, to determine whether or not they deserve a therapeutic trial of thyroid hormone.

So let me explain. As I mentioned, the thyroid gland in the neck, which is shaped like a butterfly, produces thyroid hormones. The thyroid hormones enter the blood, they have to enter the cells. In the cells, the inactive thyroid hormone T4, that’s the thyroid hormone with four iodine atoms attached to it, has to be changed to T3. And there’s an enzyme within the cell that cuts off one of the iodine atoms. So now you have T3. That’s the active thyroid hormone. If you don’t make a proper conversion from T4 to T3 within your cells, the T4 is very inactive as the catalyst to produce energy and so it down regulates the production of energy in your cell.

Now, what would cause the enzyme not to function well? Well, it just so happens fluoride, which is a halogen, similar to iodine, bromine, and chlorine. It’s a halogen on the periodic table and remember that from chemistry, when you were in chemistry. The periodic table up on the wall with all the various elements. Well, in the column with halogens, you’ve got iodine, fluorine, bromine, chlorine, and several others. But the fluoride competes with the iodine in the thyroid gland. It also enters the cells and it poisons the enzyme called deiodinase which cleaves off one of the atoms of iodine to convert T4 to T3. And that’s why individuals have problems in America with all the signs and symptoms of low thyroid because although they have it in their blood, T4, the inactive thyroid hormone, they are not making a proper conversion in the cell. And there’s no way you can measure what you have in your cell. How you measure that is by the clinical findings, and symptoms, and signs that an individual presents with.

Stacey Bandfield: Well, and doctor, I think this is important too because a lot of times doctors will say, “Oh, your levels are fine. You have plenty of thyroid.” But you have to diagnose it clinically by the symptoms because it may not be getting into your cells.

Signs and Symptoms of Low Thyroid Function

Dr. Hotze: Exactly. So when they measure your blood and, let’s go through the signs and symptoms of low thyroid. Well, you have fatigue, just tired, run down and just can’t ever seem to feel rested and don’t have any energy. Difficulty with weight is common. Cold body temperature. Body temperature should be 98.6. it’s down to the 97s or even 96s. We see that in almost all our guests that come in here that complain with the symptoms of low thyroid. They have low body temperature. If you’re not producing enough thyroid or have enough thyroid within your cells, you’re not producing enough energy. The excess energy in your cell is given off as heat. It’s what gives your body a temperature. So, if your body’s temperature is lower than normal, that’s an indication that you’re not utilizing enough thyroid hormone within your cells to produce the energy to produce the heat.

Difficulty thinking. Poor sleep habits. Moods are depressed. Joint muscle aches and pains. Stomach disorders. Particularly people develop constipation when they have hypothyroidism. They have puffy skin, pasty skin. Loss of the lateral third of your eyebrows. Enlarged tongue. You can tell that by the scalloping of your tongue. So you stick your tongue out, look at it in a mirror, relax it. If it’s scalloped on the borders, that’s the sign it’s enlarged and that’s the sign of hypothyroidism. Loss of body hair. Ridged fingernails. These are common in women. Loss of hair. The hair is falling out. That’s a very common feature of hypothyroidism.

Now you may have looked up hypothyroidism online or read about it in Ladies Home Journal, some magazine. There’s always an article every year about hypothyroidism in some magazine. Reader’s Digest. And you may have said, “My goodness. I’ve got all these signs and symptoms. Surely this is what I have.” Yet you go to the doctor and the doctor when you say, “Could you check me for thyroid problems?” says “Why do you want to do that?” “Well, I read an article.” They’ll look at you like you’re crazy. “You don’t have low thyroid.” “Well could you check it?” And he’ll say, “Well, your insurance doesn’t pay for it. You’re going to have to pay for it, okay?” Trying to keep you from having it. You’re willing to pay the 50 or 100 or whatever it costs to do that. And then later you don’t hear from the doctor. You have to call back. You call, and call. Finally you get an answer from the nurse. You go back to see the doctor. And the word is, “Well, we’ve got good news. You don’t have hypothyroidism. Your blood levels are normal.” Well guess what? 95% of everybody that does a blood test for thyroid is going to be normal. Why? Because that’s how the lab defines what’s normal. It takes the average level plus or minus two standard deviation, a statical term, which encompasses 95% of the people.

So the range for low thyroid or for the thyroid hormone is as wide as the Grand Canyon, as tall as the Empire State Building. You can hardly get out of that range. But if you think about it, if your thyroid level…Aa thyroid enables you to produce and use energy. If it’s up here when you were younger and now it’s down here, you’re still within the range but now you’re in the low end of the range. I’ve even had patients tell me that doctors have told them, “Well, you’ve got low thyroid. Low range, but you’re not out of the range. I’m not going to give you any treatment on that.” So the doctors, even when you have all these signs and symptoms of hypothyroidism, they don’t want to treat you if your blood test falls out of the range. They don’t even check primarily your thyroid hormone. They look at the thyroid stimulating hormone, which is a hormone produced in the brain by the pituitary gland that governs just like a thermostat. It governs the production of thyroid hormone in your gland. They’re looking at that. And you can have plenty of thyroid hormone in your blood, the thyroid stimulating hormone for the brain is in a normal range. Doctor says, “Well, you can’t have thyroid because your TSH is normal.”

Stacey Bandfield: But maybe you should have a…

Dr. Hotze: Therapeutic ..oh, maybe you should have a-

Stacey Bandfield: I know what you need.

Dr. Hotze: A therapeutic trial of Prozac.

Stacey Bandfield: Yes, of course.

Dr. Hotze: Some antidepressant, anti-anxiety medication. That’s what they end up offering you and individuals like you with hypothyroidism that fall within the normal range. And then they tell you everything’s normal, when you begin to think maybe I could be crazy. Maybe I do need this. Don’t let them put you on antidepressants if you have the signs and symptoms of hypothyroidism. I believe that any individual that has signs and symptoms of hypothyroidism deserves a therapeutic trial of natural thyroid that contains both the inactive and the active, T4 and T3, thyroid hormones in the same amount that your body would normally make.

So what happens oftentimes, if a person falls out of the range when the doctor does treat them, a conventional physician, he or she will use T4, which is the inactive thyroid hormone. And that comes in Synthroid, Levoxyl, Levothroid, Levothyroxine. These are just T4 preparations, T4, the thyroid molecule with four iodine atoms that’s inactive. You still have to activate that inside your cell. And if you don’t properly cleave off one of the iodine atoms, your thyroid hormones aren’t going to work, but it’ll normalize your blood level. I have seen so many people, I mean, thousands of people coming in on synthetic thyroid hormone that have all the signs and symptoms of low thyroid. And they tell the doctor and the doctor goes, “Well, that can’t be your thyroid. It’s normal now.” Well listen, doc, it’s not working.

If you’re taking a preparation for thyroid, and you still have all the signs and symptoms or many of the signs and symptoms of low thyroid or hypothyroidism, your preparation, the medication they’re giving you, isn’t working. The doctor ought to be able to figure that out. I can’t understand. I’ve written a book. Hypothyroidism, Health, and Happiness. and I highly recommend you call up here at the Health & Wellness Center (281)698-8698, (281)698-8698, and let me send you a copy of it so you can read it. This will help you tremendously. Thyroid is a very common problem that is overlooked by doctors.

Now another problem and cause of hypothyroidism is autoimmune thyroiditis, known as Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis. And that’s where the immune system is making antibodies to the thyroid gland. When that happens, that causes the thyroid gland either not to produce enough thyroid or those antibodies glum up the thyroid so it’s not properly received inside the cell. So that’s autoimmune thyroiditis. And in our center, at the Hotze Health & Wellness Center, we have…we’ve checked everybody since 1992 for autoimmune thyroiditis to see if they have antibodies to the thyroid gland. Very few doctors do this. We’ve done it on over 30,000 of our guests. And we find that 28% of the females that we check and 18% of the males make antibodies to their thyroid gland. They have Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis or autoimmune thyroiditis. And that’s causing them to have symptoms of low thyroid. You treat it with thyroid. You may use a little bit of natural cortisol to tone down the autoimmune. Clean up the gut. Gluten-free eating program could be helpful.

So, hypothyroidism is a common problem. And this is one thing that we are really focused on here at the Hotze Health & Wellness Center, is making sure that if you have the signs and symptoms of low thyroid, hypothyroidism, that we give you a therapeutic trial of thyroid preparation, and we increase that incrementally until we get resolution of your symptoms. If it does, then that’s the problem you had. I would encourage you go to our website at Hotzehwc.com, Hotze, H-O-T-Z-E-H-W-C.com, go to the website and check out the various testimonials we have of individuals who have had hypothyroidism and have been treated. That’s what we want to do. We want to get at the cause of the underlying problem and not treat the symptoms like most conventional doctors do.

Remember I talked about fluoride. Fluoride’s in your water. 70% of Americans have fluoride that’s put in by the municipalities in their water. It’s in the toothpaste. It’s a poison. It’s a toxin. It poisons the thyroid gland and the enzyme that converts the inactive thyroid hormone, T4, to T3. It’s ubiquitous. That’s why we have a weight problem in America. 70% of the population is overweight. Half of those people, 35% of the population, are obese. That all began back in the 19, late 50s and early 60s, when municipalities were sold a bill of goods and decided to put fluoride in the water duct. Help prevent dental caries in children. Well, they don’t use any fluoride in the water in Europe, and guess what, they have 16% overweight, 8% obese like we used to have in the 60s. And they don’t have any more dental caries in their children than we do. So it’s really a poisonous substance. By the way, it’s in your toothpaste. Look on the side of your toothpaste and there’s a warning on the side of your toothpaste. Go look at it and it will tell you that children under six should not ingest this and if you ingest what’s on the toothbrush, then immediately call poison control or call your physician. Why would you brush your teeth with something that if you swallowed it, which you know you’re going to do anyway, you’re going to get some of that in your system.

Stacey Bandfield: It’s going to happen by accident. It happens to all of us.

Dr. Hotze: It’s the fluoride that causes the problem. So I want to encourage you to get yourself on a reverse osmosis system on your fountain in your kitchen and also drink bottled water. But don’t drink it out of plastic. Drink it out of glass. And I’d recommend Mountain Valley Water. You don’t want to get the plasticizers and other chemicals from the plastic in your water and drink that because it gets into your blood system and gets into your fat and stays in your body. Those are toxins and petrochemicals that are hormone disruptors.

So that’s the story on hypothyroidism. It’s a very unsuspecting, overlooked, and undiagnosed problem by most physicians because they’re not willing to listen to the patient’s clinical symptoms and make a diagnosis based upon that. They want to look strictly at blood tests.

Stacey Bandfield: Thank you, Dr. Hotze. Now if you’re wondering “do I have hypothyroidism?”, there’s a great way where you can get an idea if you do or not. We have a symptom checker on our website. Just go to Hotzehwc.com. That’s H-O-T-Z-E-H-W-C.com. Just check out our symptom checker. You can plug some information in and see if you might have hypothyroidism. It was great information today. As we know, knowledge is power. So thank you for joining us today here at Dr. Hotze’s Wellness Revolution.

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