Another source of inspiration for a blog post came again from a Sunday newspaper - honestly I’m going to have to start buying those things purely for the entertainment value!

Last weekend there was a story about how many Australians are deficient in iodine, and how nutritionists are advising the government to recommend the addition of iodine to white bread.

White bread.

Could we find a less nutritious substance on the face of the planet?  Hardly.

If this is what nutritionists are advising, thank goodness I am not a nutritionist.  It has hardly been news for anyone that has an interest in health - and especially thyroid health - that iodine levels in Australian soil are mainly deficient and that corresponds across to the general population.

But to advise the addition of iodine to white bread is a scary thought.  And it actually just goes to show what horrible diets most people have, if white bread is the most ubiquitous source of food that will get supplemental iodine to the most number of people.

That’s pretty sad.

There are a lot of alternatives to iodised salt or iodised white bread that are actually very good for your health.  These include a variety of seafoods and sea vegetables - but unfortunately a lot of these foods are not common to the Australian table.  Many Asian countries incorporate seaweed into their everyday diets, but most people in Australia have never experienced this family of vegetables unless it is the small piece of Nori that comes with sushi.

Dulse is a particularly nice seaweed that you can purchase in dry flakes that are lovely on a salad or can be chewed on their own. Kelp is high in iodine, but not very nice to eat - so supplements of that are much more palatable :-)  Wakame, arame, and nori are other seaweeds that can be experimented with to see what flavours suit.

It is much healthier to find natural sources of food high in essential minerals, than to eat food that is highly processed, but “enriched” with a few vitamins and minerals that the government nutritionists think are important.

As many of you know I have struggled with thyroid issues for many years, and have been taking natural thyroid replacement for some time.

In the past when I have tried to wean off the thyroid support, I have become very ill - that is until recently.

Putting together my own retreats has been a very empowering and satisfying experience and I have felt like I have been creating the life that I want to live and taking my power back and control over my life in many ways.  In the past I have had feelings of powerlessness in my career and in my personal life, so this has been a very positive time of action.

I have, of course, done everything I know of physically to heal my thyroid, and I’ve done a lot of emotional work in this area - but was still having to take thyroid hormone to be healthy.

Until my first retreat that was.

While I was there I started getting symptoms of thyroid hormone overdose which was very unusual - so I halved my dose (which I haven’t been able to do for years), and I have been fine every since and am actually feeling better than ever!

I’m sure that the actual action of fulfilling a vision and acheiving a goal that put me in a position of strength has made the impact that has always been needed to start true healing.

I’ll keep you posted on how I go with this, but it’s been four weeks now on a half dose and I’m doing well and about to wean off completely.

This has been an amazing experience for me to see where true healing can lie, and it isn’t just in the physical.

Mary Shomon is a fantastic patient advocate for people with thyroid disorders, educating untold numbers of people through her books and her comprehensive website http://thyroid.about.com 

Like myself and many others, Mary suffered from a thyroid condition that was incorrectly treated, and this led her on a journey to recover her health by finding out more about her thyroid and what the answer to healing might be.

On this journey she found that thyroid conditions were one of the most misunderstood and misdiagnosed conditions - leaving thousand of people suffering needlessly, often due to the rigid adherence by doctors to the standard protocol of TSH blood test results and Thryoxine prescriptions.

There has been much debate about the relevance and accuracy of the standard TSH test (thyroid stimulating hormone) and whether this test is a definitive diagnosis of a hypothyroid disorder.  There is a lot of literature to say that it is not - yet most doctors are not aware of the controversy surrounding this test and still use it as gospel.

If a patient has every hypothyroid symptom in the book, has a family history of thyroid disorder, has a low body temperature, and an enlarged thyroid (as I have seen in clinic) - but her TSH is in range, the doctor will more often than not refuse to treat the patient for a thyroid condition.

The patient will be prescribed anti-depressants, told to eat less and exercise more for the weight gain, and that the fatigue is just a natural part of getting older.

None of this actually helps the patient, who continues to decline in health until a forward thinking practitioner uses their judgement and treats the thyroid.

Many patients ask me what literature they can take to their doctor to help them to understand that the TSH test can be misleading, and a result that is at the high end of the range can indicate a hypothyroid problem.

In  Mary Shomon’s latest post she give links to articles discussing the health issues of sub-clinical hypothyroidism (normal TSH but thyroid symptoms) citing scientific journals to illustrate their point.

If you think your doctor might be willing to read about this issue, then this would be a good place to start:
Mary Shomon TSH Reference Article

I just thought I’d let everyone know that my article on fibromyagia has just been published by Natural News, one of the biggest news and information sites on natural medicine there is!

I have been a subscriber to Natural News for years, and I really admire the way Mike Adams has put together a huge amount of knowledge on food, herbs, supplements and alternative views.

I hope to write for them a lot more in the future, so keep your eyes open!!

Here it is! http://www.naturalnews.com/023452.html

Whenever we discuss health and fitness, the subject of weight loss or achieving our ideal weight is always going to be a part of the conversation.

Weight is such a huge issue (no pun intended) that we have industries making billions of dollars out of people’s desperation to attain a thin physique.  Often the health aspect is disregarded, as the latest “quick fix” pill, powder or potion is touted as a cure all for the “disease” of being overweight.

If we do explore the health aspect though, we can start to see things from a different perspective.  More often than not, there is a causative factor that is contributing to the weight gain, and it’s not purely a lack of willpower. 

I don’t believe we need to be fanatical about being stick thin either, but we do need to find that balance of energy and vitality that comes with having a fit, healthy body.  I’ve experienced both sides of the weight issue, and I can tell you that I prefer fit and healthy!

My weight problem started when I broke my leg (femur) at Tae Kwon Do training and was unable to exercise for six months.  Little did I know at the time, but the trauma and the following operation to pin the bone, shut down my adrenals and thyroid – I just thought I was having a hard time recovering, but it was much more than that.

Over that six months period I started to gain weight – and I went from my normally fit and toned 48kg (I am only 5ft tall if this seems light to you!) – up to about 62kg at my heaviest.  That might not sound like a lot, but it was a gain of 30% of my body weight and I felt terrible.  With that also came the fatigue, depression, thinning hair, brain fog, and feeling the cold that is part of a thyroid disorder.

With all my knowledge on health, once my leg was OK, I started exercising again (when I had the energy) and I made sure that my diet was perfect – but I could only lose about half of the weight.  The other half stubbornly stayed put.

It’s a long story but until my thyroid and adrenals were properly supported nothing made much of a difference to that extra bit of weight.  I know, it’s not like I was obese and had 50 more kilos to lose – but I’m just illustrating that even the best diet and exercise will not do the trick if there is a metabolic or hormonal disorder underneath.

Once I had the correct treatment, that last 7kg dropped off in a few weeks and I was able to feel human again -the thyroid symptoms all reversed and I could sustain my previous levels of exercise, which I had found exhausting up until then.

Stay tuned because tomorrow I will discuss some of the problems that can cause weight gain, and what simple things you can do about it.