Take Less Thyroid Medication and Feel Better by Improving Gut Health – Laura’s Story

After improving her gut health, Laura required less thyroid medication. She was able to cut her dose of thyroid hormone in half AND felt better than when she was on a high dose of thyroid hormone.

Take Less Thyroid Medication and Feel Better by Improving Gut Health – Laura’s Story

Dr. Michael Ruscio: Hello, this is Dr. Ruscio. I’m here with Laura. And we had done a video several months ago with reports of how well you were doing with your thyroid and with some of the other work that we had done. But the really interesting thing that we’ve been observing over the past two months recently here is that Laura has been on thyroid medication, and over the whole course of us doing our work together, recently she’s actually become hyperthyroid, meaning that she was over-medicated.

And what that essentially means is that the dose that you used to have to take is now way too much. And your dose has been decreased once, and it’s still not even enough. And what you were remarking to me earlier, which I thought it would be interesting for people to hear about, was you’re on half? Was it half the amount?

Laura: Half of what I was on, yes. We just cut it totally in half.

DrMR: So we sent her to see her prescribing, and her prescribing cut her dose in half based upon the lab work. And she’s actually doing better than she was even when she was on a higher dose. So is there anything you want to share in that regard?

Laura: Yeah, a couple of things. It was quite remarkable to me to, first of all, have that dramatic drop in medication. I was waiting to gain the weight back. I was just waiting to see whether I was going to actually pick up some weight, which I have not.

I feel better. I feel like I’m getting more balanced. But the dose that I’m on now, which is half of what I had been on, it’s actually lower than the dose that I was originally on starting about fifteen or twenty years ago when I first started on medication. That tells me that my thyroid is functioning way more optimally than it was then.

And that’s such a remarkable thing. Until I came in here, I wasn’t able to put together all these different symptoms that I was experiencing. Things were just getting worse until I came in. And it’s pretty amazing to feel like you can reverse a dysfunction in your body. That’s a powerful thing.

DrMR: Sure, yeah. And I have been really, really happy watching your results, because you had come in, and I think you were really trying to do the right stuff. And not to say right versus wrong, but some of the things maybe weren’t the ideal things for your situation. And once we took that motivation and drive that you had and focused it in the right direction, it was just a great result and a great response.

And, yeah, I should mention that your antibody levels have come down significantly. Your thyroid autoimmune antibodies have come down significantly. And, yeah, even though you’re on less medication, you’re feeling better. And I think that’s an important thing for people viewing to understand, because, as we were talking about a minute ago, oftentimes people think, “I need more hormone, more hormone, more hormone.”

And, while certainly if someone is frankly hypothyroid, they’re going to need some thyroid hormone. But if once you’re in the general vicinity there and you’re still not feeling well, oftentimes—this is my clinical experience and your reinforcement of this—it doesn’t mean that you need more hormone. It means something else has been missed. And it’s just great to see you feeling so much better. And the medication need is going less, less, less, less.

Laura: It’s true. And I think the other thing that’s really important is that as we age, there’s a tendency to begin to believe that if you’re not feeling as well as you used to feel when you were younger, it’s part of aging. So it’s a remarkable thing for me to realize, no, this isn’t aging. This was a problem with my thyroid and with the eating and everything, and getting on the right diet, making sure that I was properly diagnosed and then getting my thyroid medication to be optimal. So that’s a huge thing, I think because people are very interested in their health and trying to stay healthy longer. So it kind of is even more empowering to realize that you can age in a healthy way and feel well.

DrMR: Sure. And that’s exactly what I was going to say. You took the words out of my mouth, which are empowering. It’s got to be a very empowering feeling just to not think that, “Well, I’m getting older. I have to just roll over and accept this,” that there’s something that can be done.

Laura: Right.

DrMR: So you’ve done awesome. I doubt we’ll be doing another video because I don’t know if you can feel any better than you are right now. If we do, that would be great. But thank you again so much for speaking with us.

Laura: Absolutely. Thank you!

DrMR: You’re welcome.

What do you think? I would like to hear your thoughts or experience with this.

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