Adrenal and Thyroid Supplementation Outperforms Nutritional Supplementation and Medications for Autoimmune Thyroiditis.

One of the many challenges for any physician is determining the correct course of treatment for patients with more than 1 area of complaint. Should the physician treat the symptoms or the underlying cause of a condition? If treating the cause, what and who determines the cause? Further complicating the issue, doctors must succeed in getting patients to follow the prescribed treatment, which has always been and will continue to be an issue in reaching therapeutic goals. In late 2009, a 49-year-old Caucasian woman visited the Natural Health Center of Medical Lake (NHCML) in Medical Lake, WA, complaining of multiple symptoms. One symptom was a goiter that had not been relieved with a prescription for 0.375 mg of Synthroid daily. Her comorbidities included mixed hyperlipidemia; multiple joint pains; alopecia; fatigue; bilateral, lower-extremity edema; and severe gastric disruption with bloating and acid reflux. After initial success from treatment, with a complete reduction of her presenting goiter and most of her other symptoms, the patient withdrew herself from her prescription medication and her nutritional supplementation. After 4 wk, the patient visited NHCML with indications of severe hypothyroidism, including a severely enlarged goiter of the right wing. After 6 wk of treatment with iodine and a glandular nutritional supplement (GTA Forte), her symptoms of severe hypothyroidism abated. Subsequent treatment for adrenal insufficiency, which was diagnosed at NHCML using salivary adrenal stress-index testing for cortisol rhythm and load, allowed complete resolution of her presenting complaints. This result persisted even at the 3-y follow-up to a greater degree than did the results from the use of thyroid nutritional supplementation and Synthroid, both alone and combined. The hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis may contribute to the existence of thyroid-type symptoms, particularly for those individuals with subclinical thyroid conditions. The treatment of the feedback mechanisms for the HPA axis may provide a valuable framework for treatment of mixed hyperlipidemia because normalizing or improving thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) levels can reduce serum cholesterol levels.