Thyroid Tests and Guidance

I truly know how hard it is to get a handle on solving thyroid issues and wrapping one’s head around all of the various aspects, causes, deficiencies, etc.. I also know the pain of how costly it can be trying to get to the bottom of this issue, and oftentimes as patients we are not properly tested, diagnosed etc. and we end up wasting so much money.

I want to help progress you from sickness to vibrant health as quickly as possible – this guide is meant to do just that…set you on the right path with a ton of free thyroid info and resources: From finding doctors, getting the correct blood tests…to free podcasts and articles on the topic. All of this information will get you on the right path! Hypothyroidism IS SOLVABLE, do not give up! If you

1. If you want to find a knowledgeable thyroid doctor, go to the FREE YAHOO GROUP called “Natural thyroid Hormones Yahoo Group”https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/NaturalThyroidHormones/info

….and join the group for free. In their files they have a “GOOD DOCTOR” list compiled by thyroid patients all over the country, divided by state. (There is an international list too.) You can also post your lab results
and discuss them on the forum with fellow thyroid patients and forum moderators who can reply with suggestions and opinions FOR FREE.

2. Find a great FUNCTIONAL MEDICINE MD or INTEGRATIVE MD. If you want to see what a great functional MD’s credentials look like…check out the credentials for the doctor on my book, Dr. Gary E. Foresman: http://www.middlepathmedicine.com and you can search for a doctor with similar credentials and certifications. If you live outside of California, Dr. Foresman does see out of state patients in person for the first appointment, and then he can follow up with patients over the phone.

3. Anti-aging specialty doctors are often up to date with thyroid health:http://www.a4m.com

THYROID GUIDE

4. Evan Brand, A wonderful Functional Medicine Practitioner, not an MD, works remotely with people all over the world through Skype and offers a free 15-minute consult and he also has a podcast THE EVAN BRAND PODCAST which is a great resource for solving all sorts of health issues EvanBrand.com.

5. Dr. Ken Berry MD offers remote medical “consultations”—meaning he cannot prescribe medications etc without seeing you in person first, but he can consult with you remotely and steer you in the right direction. Dr. Berry also has a great YouTube channel with great videos of him talking about a variety of health topics!

THE BEST WEBSITE FOR THYROID RESOURCES

http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com

Blood work

Below are the blood tests to assess thyroid properly. No variations… For example, make sure they don’t test “Total T3” or “T3 uptake” instead of FREE T3. Tell your doctor that you need exactly these tests. If they want to test others too, that’s fine, but make sure you get these. I can’t tell you how many times a doctor sees a list from a patient and then just decides “whatever”… and doesn’t order the right tests, and then you’ve wasted a blood draw.

• –  ALWAYS DO A MORNING BLOOD DRAW. NO FOOD or drinks FROM like 10pm the night before….and in the morning just have water, coffee or plain tea. SHOOT FOR AN 8-9am blood draw. If you are on thyroid hormone replacement, DO NOT YOUR MEDS BEFORE THE BLOOD TEST, just bring your meds with you and take them right afterwards.
• –  If you need to get tests done on your own without a doctor (some states do not allow this) you can go to PrivateMDLabs.com or DirectLabs.com (there are others). If you get tested on your own, always google a coupon code for the above sites…. I know PrivateMDLabs ALWAYS has a 12-15% coupon code somewhere online and once you are in their system, they always email coupon codes every month.

  Also, the Stop The Thyroid Madness website has a list of labs and has special discounts for thyroid testing: https://stopthethyroidmadness.com/ recommended-labwork/

Initial Thyroid Tests

TSH

• Free T3
• Free T4
• Reverse T3
• TPO ab (Thyroid Peroxidase Antibody test)
• Tg ab (Thyroglobulin Antibody test)
• Related test

• DHEA Sulfate
• Ferritin (Sometimes you can find iron panels that also include TIBC “total iron binding capacity”, Total Iron, % saturation – usually the entire panel is not much more $ than getting Ferritin tested alone)
• Homocysteine
• Vitamin B-12
• Vitamin D 25-hydroxy
• HbA1c **Get this tested if you are having issues with the inability to lose weight despite all efforts and/or you are worried about being pre-diabetic or insulin-resistant.

There are a myriad of valuable tests one can get, but the above is a good start for a baseline of assessing thyroid issues. Further functional medicine testing could include any of the following: Organic Acids Test, Food Sensitivity Test, Heavy metals toxicity testing, food allergy testing, testing for Lyme disease, EBV (Heavy metals and high mercury affect reverse T3, thyroid function in general, and fat metabolism… Look into replacing silver fillings in mouth ASAP if you have any—PROPERLY.)

Questions to ask a new thyroid doctor to see if they are informed*

* Might be best to write them or call them and ask beforehand before wasting $ on a useless doctors appointment.

B Do you prescribe thyroid hormones based on labs alone or labs PLUS symptoms? *If they don’t factor in symptoms at all, RUN!

B Do you treat thyroid patients with Natural Desiccated Thyroid (NDT)? If they do not or they make disparaging comments about it such as, “NDT is for pigs not humans” or “No, I only prescribe Synthroid” you should RUN! If they don’t use NDT, likely they are uninformed on TOO MANY LEVELS and such a doctor could hurt you and not help you.

MOST ENDOCRINOLOGISTS ONLY PRESCRIBE SYNTHROID (brand name) OR generic Levothyroxine.

B Do you ROUTINELY test Free T3 and Reverse T3 in your thyroid patients? If they do not routinely test Free T3 and Reverse T3, likely they are uninformed and not up-to-date on the latest thyroid info, and this could hurt you, because if a patient has a Reverse T3 issue, giving a patient any T4 could make it WORSE and make the person MORE HYPO (I see this all of the time. It is imperative to rule out a Reverse T3 issue before starting any thyroid hormone replacement)
*If ANY DOCTOR dismisses a Reverse T3 test, then they don’t know what

ELLE RUSS’

THYROID GUIDE

it is or how to evaluate it… and that is a problem. Be wary. However, even if they don’t know about Reverse T3, but they DO test Free T3—they
are “more informed than most”, and perhaps that is a doctor who might be open to learning about Reverse T3 or open to testing it for you and someone you might be able to work with.

B If a patient of yours is on NDT or a T4/T3 combination, or T3-only… are you ever concerned with a suppressed TSH result?
***ANY DOCTOR WHO FEARS OR HAS AN ISSUE with a patient having a suppressed TSH result on NDT or T3-only is uninformed and I would RUN from that doctor. (EXCEPTION: The above is valid ONLY if a patient is on NDT, a T4/T3 combination, or T3-only – THIS DOES NOT APPLY AT ALL
TO PEOPLE ON SYNTHROID/T4-ONLY!!! If a patient is on T4-ONLY, then a suppressed TSH result is problematic!! NOT PROBLEMATIC for patients on NDT, T4/T3 combo or T3-only.)

B Are you open to patients bringing you research or books on matters related to their health journey? If a doctor dismisses this, laughs, or says, “no I don’t have time for that” – be wary.

Even if a doctor answers the above questions “correctly” it doesn’t mean they know what’s up or that they will treat you right. This is a crap-shoot… You never truly know about a doctor until you meet them and assess their demeanor and how they answer to your questions, and furthermore, how they HELP YOU.

7

ELLE RUSS’

THYROID GUIDE

 Important warning on T3-only thyroid hormone replacement:

So many patients think they can just take T3 and it will help them burn fat and solve hypothyroidism. SUCH A MISCONCEPTION that can make your situation worse if not properly approached.

T3-only should be considered A LAST RESORT OPTION and I warn against it unless you know 100% for sure that you have a Reverse T3 issue that cannot be solved by other means **which is what T3-only is best for (in a temporary way) until you can solve the underlying causes of RT3. T3-only should only be used for that.

If you know that you have an RT3 issue… You would STILL DO NOT WANT TO TRY T3-only first, unless you already tried everything else to fix an RT3 issue. T3-only can be extremely problematic. EXTREMELY. Trust me, I have been on it for 6 years now, and I am here to tell you that is is the trickiest road to go down and a big pain in the neck .

You need BLOOD TESTS to confirm that you have an RT3 issue… You need to assess Ferritin and adrenal status before starting T3-only… You cannot just go by symptoms. That will lead you in all sorts of wrong directions (so start taking your basal and afternoon temps ASAP and track those). You can’t play guesswork with this stuff or it can BACKFIRE ON YOU.

If you think T3-only will fix your RT3 issues or hypothyroidism OR HELP
YOU LOSE WEIGHT… that would be a grave mistake in logic. it’s way more complicated than that and it can backfire in unfortunate ways. Excess T3 can make you MORE FAT and inflamed and feel worse, even more exhausted!! If you are going to try using T3-only with your doctor, it is critical that you both readRecovering with T3 by Paul Robinson. RT3 issue causes: Heavy metals (silver fillings included), candida, gut issues like SIBO or Leaky Gut, Lyme disease, Infection, low levels of selenium, low ferritin, low D3, gut issues, STRESS (mental or physical) and more.

8

ELLE RUSS’

THYROID GUIDE

Hashimoto’s/AUTOIMMUNE issues:

Check out THE PALEO APPROACH: Reverse Autoimmune disease and Heal Your Body and/or The Simple Guide to the Autoimmune Protocol by Eileen Laird who has a podcast called PHOENIX HELIX which is all about immune issues.

Taking thyroid meds: Should I

take my meds sublingually or

swallow my thyroid hormones?

Swallow your thyroid hormones unless you have truly SEVERE GUT HEALTH problems and know that your brand of hormones can be taken sublingually OR if you feel it works better for you. Err on the side of always SWALLOWING THEM.

Some thyroid meds don’t work well sublingually (under the tongue). If you are confused about this, just SWALLOW your thyroid hormones. People taking anything containing T4 will need to take it on an empty stomach and wait an hour before eating. For people taking T3-only (meaning they take ZERO T4 AT ALL) it would be most ideal to take T3 on an empty stomach but do not have to worry about taking it with food if you have to (but do not take with calcium or iron)…you can go either way on that one.

9

ELLE RUSS’

THYROID GUIDE

The Primal Blueprint Podcast

NYT Bestselling author Mark Sisson and I alternate hosting this top-rated podcast.
Main Podcast Webpage | iTunes

Here is an amazing video

interview of my publisher…

…and New York Times bestselling author, MARK SISSON talking about Primal Living and also KETO. I WOULD NOT attempt KETO unless you have solved all of your thyroid issues and symptoms, THEN it’s a good time to attempt that next level of Primal/Paleo Living.

10

ELLE RUSS’

THYROID GUIDE

Paleo Thyroid Solution discussion. FREE Podcasts

• @  Dr. Gary E. Foresman on Hypothyroidism / Hashimotos(Underactive Thyroid)
• @  Mark Sisson & Elle Russ talking about Paleo Thyroid Solution (KETO-thyroid discussion in this episode!)
• @  Dr. Gary E. Foresman on HYPERthyroidism (Overactive thyroid)
• @  CARA HAUN – Paleo Thyroid Solution Success Story
• @  SHER SMITH – Paleo Thyroid Solution Success Story
• @  Elle on The ROBB WOLF PODCAST
• @  Elle on THE ULTIMATE HEALTH PODCAST
• @  Elle on BULLETPROOF RADIO PODCAST with Dave Asprey
• @  Elle on The Thinking Podcast – PART 1
• @  Elle on The Thinking Podcast – PART 2

11

Articles

About paleo/primal living:

• ē  What is The Primal Blueprint?
• ē  Definitive Guide to Primal Eating Plan
• ē  Primal/Paleo Food Shopping List
• ē  Why Grains are Unhealthy
• ē  Why Fat Is Preferred Fuel for Human Metabolism

  Paleo Thyroid Solution articles:

• ē  Huffington Post
• ē  Prevention Bare
• ē  Essentials
• ē  Success.com
• ē  Mind Body Green
• ē  Thought Catalog

ELLE RUSS’

THYROID GUIDE

12

Order

The Paleo Thyroid Solution on Amazon

Follow Elle on social media







https://www.instagram.com/_elleruss/ https://twitter.com/_elleruss https://www.facebook.com/elleruss/

13

ELLE RUSS’

THYROID GUIDE

14