Recently, I’ve been investigating the possibility of autoimmune reactions (where your body’s immune system attacks your body instead of germs) as a cause of some difficult to treat problems in my patients. In particular, I’ve been looking at patients with chronic thyroid problems, patients who have been on synthroid or armor thyroid hormone replacement products etc.
There are some simple and inexpensive blood tests for autoimmune thyroid problems and for general autoimmune problems. I’ve sent a number of patients out for these tests and I’ve been a little surprised how many have come back positive, especially for the thyroid gland! Most of these patients had thyroid hormone blood tests run by their MD but none of them had the test for autoimmune thyroid run! Treating autoimmune thyroid problems requires a completely different approach than regular thyroid problems and some conventional thyroid treatments can actually make matters worse.
Other possible autoimmune related problems include: arthritis, macular degeneration and other vision problems, fibromyalgia symptoms, multiple sclerosis, systemic lupus, scleroderma, connective tissue and muscle pain, allergies, ADD and ADHD.
I have some exciting new methods for testing and treating autoimmune related problems. If you think you may have problems in this area, especially thyroid problems, be sure to let me know. This is providing a key for many of our patients!
Dr. Hogg
