Category Archives: Opinion

Everyone should read Thyroid Mind Power  by Richard Shames, MD , Karilee Shames, PhD, RN, and Georajan Shames, LAc. If this book doesn’t help  you, it will help someone you know. In fact every doctor and therapist should read this book too. If you know of someone who suffers from any of these symptoms: constantly tired, depression, addictions, insomnia, narcolepsy, anxiety, panic attacks, memory loss, feeling foggy, cold hands and feet, chronic irritability, angry for no reason, ADD, ADHD, alcoholism, eating disorders, dementia and more, it is possible with the right testing, that their thyroid
is too low/high. Thyroid affects how everything else functions in our body yet most people don’t know that their problems could all stem from it not working correctly. Many doctors don’t understand what tests they should order that will show true thyroid levels either. They use the standard test and tell you if you fall in-between these ranges, you don’t have a problem, even though there are more precise tests out there that will tell you otherwise.

Part I of this book describes all of the symptoms and many of the problems caused by too low/high thyroid levels. There is a self assessment questionnaire and recommendations on where to get properly tested. There are many natural supplements and acupuncture that can help with this problem as well, which are also covered.

Part II has five chapters on what type of person you may be (Moody, Edgy, Foggy, Sleepy, Needy) and the symptoms, causes, and help for this type of person.

Part III sums it all up and gives you recommendations for where to find help, additional thyroid boosters, advice about eating better, hormones, how and why to reduce stress, vitamin recommendations and reasons why you should meditate, exercise, and various other helpful advice.

I now realize why I had these health problems all of my life and that I had inherited the thyroid problem from my mother (who never knew she had one). Between that and the constant barrage of offending carcinogens that are in our water (fluoride is a huge culprit), the food we eat and the air we breath, it’s pretty hard not to have your thyroid affected over the long run these days. This book will help you deal with it and hopefully get you the care you deserve.

This last part is My Personal Story

I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism when I was 19. I took thyroid medicine for a year. When I was 25 and expecting my first child, I was told that I was low on thyroid but nothing would be done until after the baby was born. After that I was put on synthetic thyroid medicine again and have been on it ever since. My first few doctors rarely ran blood tests to monitor it. Most would feel my neck and say everything was just fine, no need for tests, just keep taking the same dose. Yet I had horrible menstrual problems all those years, hot flashes, headaches, tinnitus, freezing hands and feet and other things. I was told repeatedly that this was also normal (now I know they were all signs of thyroid imbalance, even though I was already on thyroid medication). By the time I was 40 I had endometriosis so bad that I needed a complete hysterectomy, which threw me into instant medical menopause. At the same time, my mother who had similar problems all her life was diagnosed with endometrial cancer (of which she died from 3 years later). It wasn’t until I started researching endometriosis and endometrial cancer that I realized I had probably inherited her problems.

It was a few years after my hysterectomy and in search of relief from the unexplained weight gain and constant nausea that I had while wearing my hormone patch, I discovered a doctor who explained what thyroid should do and how it affected my hormone problems. Between readjusting my thyroid medications, adding T3 and adding some natural bio-identical hormone replacement creams, my life was turned around. Everything was not 100% better but I now understood how things worked and that it would be a constant process of tweaking the various medications to deal with the changes my body would naturally go through over time.

I believe in using natural products and therapies. It’s a sorry state that we live in when we can’t get or afford the natural remedies we need because our insurance doesn’t cover it, a doctor doesn’t know anything about it, or a pharmaceutical company doesn’t sell it. I have gone to holistic doctors, massage therapist, chiropractors and acupuncturist, including Georjana Shames, one of the authors of this book, and believe in their healing ways. But it’s all been at my own expense, which is financially hard on most people these days. Some insurance companies are realizing how these area’s of healing can help. Even Kaiser has started adding many of  these specialist to their list of providers. Give this book to your doctor or ask him/her to read it. If your doctor won’t or can’t help you,  Dr. Richard Shames, Karilee Shames, PhD, RN, and Georajan Shames, LAc. would be glad to help