MD Cause: Unknown 

MD Rx: Thyroid hormone prescriptive agents.

ND Cause: Iodine, Copper, Selenium deficiencies. Inappropriate curvature in the vertebrae of the neck.

Discussion: If the body is deficient enough in Iodine, then the thyroid gland begins to overwork and becomes swollen. The swollen thyroid gland is referred to as a goiter. In the early 1900’s iodine deficiency was prevalent in the Great Lakes, the Appalachians, and the Northwest regions of the US. These areas were referred to as the “goiter belt.” 26% to 70% of children living in the goiter-belt had visible goiters. In 1922 David Cowie, chairman of the pediatrics department at the University of Michigan, proposed that the US adopt adding iodide to salt to eliminate the goiter epidemic. His work was instrumental in the Iodine Supplementation of Salt effort which virtually eliminated the goiter epidemic. We are discussing this here because we are discussing the health of the Thyroid gland. The relationship of Iodine to thyroid health has been glaringly obvious for more than 100 years, but once the AMA was given control over the development of medicine in the 1930s, the MDs did no further research into the relationship of other minerals to human health. I wonder if Pharmaceutical money had any influence over this decision…? This is yet another area which begs for new-fashioned Wholistic research. Until it is done we use good old common sense. When faced with a thyroid problem we give the 90 EN, extra iodine, extra copper, extra selenium and extra trace-minerals. We also give herbs which support optimal thyroid health. 

“Military neck” is a term Chiropractors have given to a neck which has lost its natural curve. When viewed from the side, the human skeleton has a natural “S” shape which starts in the neck and ends in the tail-bone. In a healthy person, the neck has a curve in it. If the curve is not present (as in Military-Neck), or if it is going the wrong way, then the nerves which come out of the spinal-cord in the neck run the risk of being impinged. If the nerve signals coming to the thyroid are funky because of a less that perfect neck curve, then all the nutrition in the world will not help the thyroid to work correctly. So if you are suffering from an underactive or an overactive thyroid, then go to a Chiropractor and have the curve of your neck checked with an X-Ray.  If it is not correct, then the Chiropractor will give you a series of exercises and neck adjustments to fix it. 

Sometimes thyroid medications are necessary here. Most people in the US and Canada with underactive thyroids are automatically put on thyroid meds, the most common one being Synthroid. The problem with this treatment strategy is that the longer someone is on the drug, the weaker their thyroid becomes. Then their system becomes dependent on the drug and a wholistic intervention will have a hard time working. For people that have been taking Synthroid or Levothyroxine for more than 5 years I recommend that you find a doctor (ND or MD) who can prescribe “Nature-throid” for you.

The rationale here is easy to understand and is yet another example of the old-fashioned close mindedness brought to bear on medicine by the MDs. If you close your eyes and visualize the MDs as cavemen throwing rocks into a fire, then everything becomes much easier to understand. There are two major hormones the thyroid gland produces. They are called T3 and T4. Your body needs both of them. T3 is four times as impactful as T4. Synthroid and Levothyroxine are synthetic forms of T4. T4 is the thyroid hormone that the body prefers the least. If you were a pharmacist creating a medicine for the thyroid gland, wouldn’t you put both T3 and T4 in it? I am sure that you would. But the cave man Pharmacist did not.  Interestingly enough, the body will convert T4 into T-3 in the presence of our old friend, the trace mineral selenium. So if you are taking Synthroid or Levothyroxine, then when you add selenium into your health recovery program, those medications should begin to work more effectively.  If you can find a licensed doctor to prescribe Nature-Throid, then that is a good idea, because it contains both T3 and T4. Most of the patients that I have switched from the standard thyroid medications to Nature-Throid feel better within a few weeks and they are glad that they switched. This only makes sense. One additional little nugget of information that you need to know is that when you do anything to your thyroid medication – increase or decrease the dose, or switch to a different medication, you have to wait four weeks before you can judge the effects of the change.

My Rx: In addition to the 90 EN:

·     Use Iodized Sea Salt on your food to make it taste good.

·     Ocean’s Gold: 1 bottle per 100 pounds per month. Take in 2 divided doses with meals.

·     Plant Derived Minerals, or Cheri-Mins, or Strawberry Kiwi Mins, or Ultimate Mineral Caps:[1]1 bottle per 100 pounds per month.

·     Imortalium: 1 bottle per 100 pounds per month. Take in divided doses between meals if possible.

·     Good Herbs Hypothalamus Support: 1 bottle per 100 pounds per month for 3 months: Take 1/2 teaspoon per bottle twice daily.

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[1] The dose for the mineral caps is different than for any of the mineral liquids. It is: 1 bottle per 200 pounds per month.