Read the last blog in this series.
Well, I thought an update on my general thyroid and related health was needed!
I last did a general update in July, when I was seven months in to NDT, and found out that my cortisol levels had only got worse.
I’ve since been exploring naturopathy and functional medicine, and spoke with a practitioner this morning who believes she can help me to lower the elevated cortisol I have. She also believes that my worsening skin (horrendous, painful acne), irregular periods and PMT is being caused by low progesterone (oestrogen dominance), which is being caused by high cortisol.
She said she can definitely help me to fix that. I’m going to discuss this with my partner and have a think. I think I’m going to ask the GP to check my sex hormone levels anyway.
In terms of my iron issues, I have since started taking Bisglycinate ‘Gentle Iron’, and have had no side effects. I’m going to have my blood test end of next month as originally planned when the doctor put me on Ferrous Fumarate (a different type of iron), to see if these over the counter iron tablets do much. I changed iron type because it was giving me daily migraines!
I’ve also got an update on my Vitamin C search; after trying Garden of Life, Alive! capsules and Alive! powder, I’ve switched to Solgar’s Vitamin C now. It is high dose which is good, and I can take multiple a day, but it is ascorbic acid, which is kind of controversial, as some sources say that raw food Vitamin C is best, and as you know, I tried raw food and didn’t get on with one brand (painful urination) and the other two I tried were too expensive to maintain long term.
So I’m giving Solgar’s Vitamin C a go – I do like Solgar’s other supplements and they are well rated. A friend who is a nutritionist assured me that there is nothing wrong with ascorbic acid. I’ll see how I get on with them.
I also decided to lower my Vitamin D supplements. After finding my Vitamin D levels low (41, bottom of the ‘normal range’) in January, my endocrinologist and GP said I could safely dose with up to 10,000iu a day, so I have done this for over six months and started to suspect that I needed to drop it again soon.
After having my levels tested, they’re now optimised again, so I have dropped it to 5,000iu a day.
I’m having my thyroid levels tested again at the end of this month, so we’ll see if those levels are still optimal. I feel great in terms of my thyroid health.
Do remember that you can keep up to date with my personal health journey via Instagram. My Instagram is updated with realtime updates and you’ll be able to follow along as and when everything happens over there!
You can click on the hyperlinks in the above post to learn more and see references to information given.
Read the next blog in this series.
No Comments