ward and return home. The effect on the body of thyroid hor- mone involves so many functions that there are many other symptoms in addition to those mentioned above. Menstrual problems such as irregular periods, PMS, and infertility may occur. Is your cholesterol elevated? This too may be a sign of an underactive thyroid. Before committing to long term use of medication to control cholesterol, if a person recognizes the signs of an underactive thyroid, and they are treated with thyroid, the cholesterol level will come down. In summary, it is important that the underdiagnosis of


an underactive thyroid be understood and challenged. Since thyroid hormones play a part in overall body metabolism and varied functions, there are a wide array of clues that need to be considered by doctors. Furthermore, it is important for a person to be properly empowered so they may act upon this knowledge. It should be acknowledged that many doc- tors simply do not treat as per the ideas in this article; the tendency is to rely solely on the TSH number and whether the person's test falls within the "normal" range. If it does, the person is told that their thyroid is fine. In that case, if the patient is still dealing with any number of the myriad of signs and symptoms above, they may need to find a physician who recognizes newer developments in the diagnosis and treat- ment of hypothyroidism and thus may offer treatment that the first doctor did not.


Dr. Henry Sobo is medical doctor practicing Holistic/Nutiri- tional Medicine in Stamford, CT. More information is available at www.drsobo.com His office phone number is 203-348- 8805. See ad page 16.


An Integrated Chinese Medicine Perspective on the Thyroid By Kenneth Hoffman, D.Ac, L.Ac CCH


T


hyroid disorders in the conventional western medical model are notoriously hard to control. Often when evaluating a new patient, I will see that while their


blood work was normal (including TSH, T3 and T4) they still report feeling all of the symptoms of the disease such as fa- tigue, weight gain, hair loss, etc. This is a classic case of “the lab tests look fine so it must be in your head.” For my pa- tients with hyperthyroid, the condition is even more difficult to control and will often lead to either chemical or surgical


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destruction of the thyroid without supportive care. This is where I think the young mind of modern western medicine could look to its older siblings in the east and not only make the bloodwork look good but actually make people healthier and feel better. Thyroid problems confirmed by lab tests are relatively new to Chinese medicine as the doctors typically treated the symptoms according to tradi- tional concepts of qi deficiency, internal fire and phlegm accumulation, and had great results. However, in the past 50 years over a dozen studies looking at more than 700 patients with thyroid disease, Chinese medicine doctors have achieved “cure” in almost half and controlled it in most. After 3 months of treatment, these patients were followed up in 1-4 years and 85-90% maintained the results. The major contribution of Integrated Chinese Medi- cine to integrative medicine in the United States is its way


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