Dr. Chris Heimlich, DC, DACNB FIAMA Comments:

Unfortunately, it is very common to have symptoms of underactive thyroid, but not be diagnosed.

I just had another patient come in and ask me why that was. She is a 70 year old female, that after 8 years of complaining to her doctors, decided to make a change an “alternative” healthcare practitioner and get diagnosed.

She, like you probably, had done some research on low thyroid or come across some information on this health condition while researching for why she had these symptoms.

Underactive or low thyroid symptoms include: depression, low energy levels or extreme fatigue, an inability to lose weight, feeling sluggish, hair loss, and depression. People with low thyroid can also suffer from gas, diarrhea, headaches, dry skin, constipation or other symptoms.If you have these underactive thyroid symptoms and visit your practitioner, they will probably run a blood test called TSH. TSH stands for thyroid stimulating hormone. I have talked about it in prior blogs, but it is just one single marker of how the thyroid is functioning.

If you have a high TSH level, you’ll be diagnosed with low thyroid.

If you do not have a high TSH level, you will most likely not be diagnosed, even if you continue to suffer with symptoms that seem to match perfectly with low thyroid!

There are at least six major ways the thyroid can have dysfunction.

To figure out which of these is the problem, the doctor has to run more than just the TSH. In fact, you have to look at more than just a complete thyroid panel. As we have discussed in previous blog posts, to asses a patient completely, you need to look at the blood sugar, lipid panel, metabolic panel, CBC, vitamin D’s, and iron panel.

Listening to the patient – including a detailed history (consultation), examining the patient – yes examining the patient- is equally important as the blood labs.

I am not going to go over all six of the different ways you can have thyroid dysfunction. You shouldn’t have to spend your time learning about them. Your physician should. If you feel the need to learn more, just go to my previous blogs at scottsdalethyroiddoctor.com

So if you are suffering with underactive thyroid symptoms, but have yet to be diagnosed, you need a more thorough evaluation.