What To Look For In Hypothyroid Care

Low thyroid conditions can include a variety of frustrating symptoms. You may struggle with fatigue and insomnia, or an inability to shed excess pounds and even an ongoing gain in weight despite eating a healthy diet and exercising. You may struggle with skin conditions, hair loss, headaches or depression even though you follow your health care provider's recommendations exactly. 

Hypothyroidism can be a challenging condition for patients. 

Most people are used to a predictable scenario when it comes to health care for illnesses or chronic health conditions. You visit a physician, expect the problem to be identified fairly quickly, and anticipate taking medication to resolve it, or at least to alleviate symptoms. Yet low thyroid conditions are rarely such simple matters. 

It's easy enough for a practitioner to identify a low thyroid case according to standard testing procedures, and to determine what type of medication a patient should need to correct the problem. But unfortunately, the medication doesn't always work. If it does help, side-effects may be problematic. In addition some patients are simply uncomfortable taking medications long-term, while others may be concerned about the potential health risks involved in doing so. 

Many low thyroid patients have much more going on throughout their bodies... 

than an improperly functioning thyroid gland. A vast array of dysfunctions and imbalances can be involved in a thyroid condition, including the autoimmune disease known as Hashimoto's. 

If you have low thyroid, your health may also be negatively impacted by problems with the gut and nutritional deficiencies, hormonal imbalances and more. Your cardiovascular and reproductive systems may be affected by your condition. Most likely, your thyroid problem also involves imbalances or disruptions in brain function. 

Practitioners and health care providers who focus exclusively on specific health conditions in standard medicine do not usually take an approach that is natural. They tend to rely only on protocols and procedures for hypothyroidism, that rely on medications. When this approach fails, there is little more to offer patients. 

By contrast, functional wellness is a type of health care that focuses on the entire body—all of its systems and how they work or are failing to work together. Practitioners educated in functional wellness rely on in-depth testing to gain a comprehensive picture of what is happening throughout the patient's body. 

They run many more tests than physicians in conventional medicine, because they want to gain much more information. This information is then carefully analyzed in combination with the patient's health history. A thorough evaluation requires time and expertise most practitioners in standard medicine do not have or cannot devote to low thyroid patients.

Functional wellness care and therapeutic support is customized... 

to meet the specific needs of each patient once the root causes of their condition are identified. The practitioner develops a personalized, therapy plan that focuses on healing, recovering, and regaining vitality and good health. 

Low thyroid patients work closely in partnership with functional wellness practitioners to achieve measurable results. They also learn how they can best manage their conditions long-term to sustain optimal wellness for a lifetime.