Did A Virus Cause You To Have Thyroid Disease? – Video

Video: Did A Virus Cause You To Have Thyroid Disease?

Dr. Vicki Peterson discusses the increase in autoimmune thyroid disease, specifically Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, following COVID-19 and other infections. She highlights common symptoms like fatigue, weight gain, dry hair and skin, joint pain, depression, and constipation. Conventional thyroid testing often misses early-stage autoimmune thyroid disease. Functional medicine can help by addressing the root cause and unburdening the immune system. Early detection and treatment are crucial to prevent further damage and additional autoimmune diseases. If you have these symptoms and need help, reach out to Root Cause Medical Clinic.

Transcript of the video

Does this sound like you? You’re tired, gaining weight, losing some hair, or your hair is dry. Your skin is dry, maybe with rough patches. You’ve got joint pain and achiness in your muscles. You’re depressed, or you have constipation. If any of these sound like you, pay attention to this video.

What we’re seeing post-COVID and post-certain infections is an increase in what’s called autoimmune thyroid disease, specifically Hashimoto’s thyroiditis.

Understanding Autoimmune Disease

What is autoimmune disease? It’s when your immune system is attacking you. In the case of Hashimoto’s, it’s attacking your own thyroid. A healthy immune system doesn’t do this. An overwhelmed or overtaxed immune system becomes hyper-vigilant and starts making mistakes, attacking itself instead of the bad guys.

Certain viral loads can trigger this, meaning a viral infection can overburden the immune system. The thyroid tends to be a magnet for toxins, such as high viral loads, mold, and heavy metals, which readily tax the thyroid. Of all autoimmune diseases, and there are over a hundred, Hashimoto’s is the most common. Women are predisposed to autoimmune diseases at a three-to-one ratio.

The Issue with Conventional Thyroid Testing

The medical community often does a disservice by not testing thyroid function adequately. Typically, a general test called TSH (thyroid-stimulating hormone) is used, which measures your brain telling your thyroid to work. The reference range is from 0.45 to 4.5. However, functional medicine doctors prefer a much narrower range of about one to two, sometimes a little below one.

What this means is you can have a TSH number of four and be told your thyroid is fine. The problem is, they don’t measure the autoimmune component, meaning they don’t check for antibodies attacking your thyroid. The justification is that it costs money to run the test, and their treatment wouldn’t change whether they knew about the autoimmune disease or not.

The Importance of Early Detection

You can have early-stage autoimmune thyroid disease and still have pretty normal thyroid function because the antibodies haven’t done enough damage yet. Wouldn’t it be better to catch it early? You might have symptoms, but your thyroid tests come back normal, missing the autoimmune aspect entirely.

Functional Medicine Approach

Autoimmune disease doesn’t have a known cause or treatment according to conventional medicine, but we disagree. At Root Cause, we’ve been treating this for 40 years. While we can’t always reverse all autoimmune diseases, we have reversed Hashimoto’s in many cases. The earlier you catch it, the better.

An overburdened immune system mistakenly attacks itself. By unburdening the immune system, it can settle down and stop attacking itself. It sounds simplistic, but it’s effective. We’ve seen antibody levels normalize in patients, reducing their risk of developing additional autoimmune diseases.

If you know someone with these symptoms, please share this video with them. Conventional medicine often overlooks these issues because they don’t see sky-high test results. The thyroid affects many parts of your body, and preventing or restoring its function is crucial. If you have these symptoms and your doctor isn’t helping, please reach out to us. That’s why we’re here.

Additional resources

Did a virus cause you to have thyroid disease?
Impact of thyroid disease on fertility and assisted conception