Hypothyroidism, a medical term that was unfamiliar to me until recently. When I went for my yearly physical check up at my OB/GYN office, I would request her to get me some blood tests done, such as cholesterol and glucose. I asked her whether there was any other test that she could do for me and she suggested a thyroid (TSH) test, which I gladly accepted. The result of my first thyroid test was on the high end of normal based on the chart but since I looked fine and my cholesterol and glucose tests came out normal, my OB said I probably shouldn't be worried about it and just go back for a follow up test in 3 months. Since she phased it like that I didn't do much to change. Then, about 2 months down, I started to gain weight, even though I had been killing myself at the gym. So, I started to do a little more research on hypothyroidism (under active thyroid) and started to take my BBT (basal body temperature) every morning upon waking up. The normal BBT should read 97.5'F and above. If you were measured consistently below 97.5'F, from 2nd day of your menstrual cycle up to 5 days later. You might be suffered from hypothyroidism (low metabolism). My BBT temp. were consistently lower and in addition to gaining weight, I started to feel sore joints on my hands and legs (I thought it might be due to my stair master and track mile exercises that I did in the gym). My hands would feel cold to the touch even though my daughter's hands were warm to the touch. I started to think I might have hypothyroidism!!! Even though I didn't have most of the other beginning symptoms.
My Ob/Gyn office called me for the follow up blood test 3 months later and I went. The blood test was much higher than my previous one (much higher than the normal range) and she referred me to see my family doctor. I started to get serious about this and did a lot of reading on the web. I came to a conclusion that my diet was messing up my thyroid! First let me explain what is thyroid. Thyroid is a small butterfly shape gland (under Adam's apple) in your throat that makes hormones called thyroxine (T4) and triiodothyronine (T3) that your body needs. These hormones help control the function of almost all of your body's cells, tissues, organs such as heart, brain, and skin. The thyroid stores iodine from food and uses it to create T4 and T3. Not enough T4 made will signal your pituitary gland to release more Thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH). Therefore, high TSH equal to low T3 and T4 which means under active thyroid or hypothyroidism. Under active thyroid also means low metabolism. To learn more about hypothyroidism, symptoms and causes of hypothyroidism, read
here and
here. Some of the common symptoms are unexplained weight gain, swollen face, hair loss, constipation, irregular period, heavier period, memory loss, joint pain, brittle nails, and fatigue. After reading a lot of the articles, I came to the conclusion that I had iodine deficiency, even though it was common around the world but very unlikely in the U.S. Why? Because I stopped using iodized salt 4-5 years ago when I switched to kosher salt and sea salt because Food Network chefs use these salts in their shows. Little did I know that my body was screwed by watching the Food Network and all the food magazines out there that listed kosher/sea salt as the salt used instead of iodized salt. Another reason was I mostly cooked at home and in Asian cooking, we used a lot of soy sauce, oyster sauce, bottle sauces and fish sauce instead of salt. And all these sauces were not supplemented with iodine. My table salt was sea salt without iodized and the cooking salt that I used was kosher salt without iodized (I found out that you can actually buy iodized kosher and sea salt now, so please do so if you want to use kosher salt and sea salt, go check your label). I hardly eat crustacean (shrimp and crab) and egg yolk and I didn't supplement with multivitamins and minerals. So, where the heck was I going to get enough iodine in my diet?
