Are You Still Suffering From Thyroid Symptoms?

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Are You Still Suffering From Thyroid Symptoms?
HOUSTON                                                          Thyroid Disease
           HEALTH&WELLNESSCENTER

Are You Still Suffering From Thyroid Symptoms?
              DID YOU KNOW?
                                                           Even if you are prescribed thyroid
90% of women on thyroid replacement                        replacement hormones, you could
                                                           still be suffering from any number
hormones are likely to continue suffer-                        of these thyroid symptoms:
  ing with low thyroid symptoms!
                                                           •Feel tired or sluggish

T
      he thyroid is one of the largest endocrine glands,   •Can’t lose weight even with exercise
      found in the neck (under the “Adam’s Apple”). It     •Feel cold in hands, feet, or all over
      controls how quickly the body uses energy, reg-      •Increase in weight gain even with
ulating the rate of metabolism, makes proteins, and        low-calorie diet
controls how sensitive the body is to other hormones.      •Gain weight easily
                                                           •Require excessive amounts of sleep
Even if your thyroid levels appear normal and you’re       to function properly
taking your prescriptions, these symptoms may per-         •Insomnia
sist. In the United States, 4 out of every 1000 women      •Night sweats
suffer with hypothyroidism. Most of them continue to       •Difficult, infrequent bowel move-
suffer ever after they receive the standard thyroid hor-   ments
mone replacement treatment. Why does this happen?          •Feel depressed and lack motivation
                                                           •Morning headaches that wear off as
The thyroid hormone replacement model does not             the day progresses
have a great chance to make you feel better. It simply     •Mental sluggishness
does not consider the many other factors that thyroid      •Brain fog
patients suffer with and contribute to how they feel.      •Outer third of the eyebrow thins
                                                           •Thinning of the hair on scalp, face or
What’s wrong with the premise behind the use of thy-       genitals or excessive falling hair
roid hormone replacement alone is that you can make        •Dryness of skin and/or scalp
up the lost thyroid function by replacing the deficien-    •Feel more nervous and emotional
cy of hormones with external hormones like Synthroid       •Heart palpitations
or Armour. It ignores the many factors that are con-       •Inward trembling
tributing to your body’s unhealthy function in the first   •Increased pulse even at rest
place.

                                                                                                  1
Are You Still Suffering From Thyroid Symptoms?
measured, it will usually be found to be elevated, representing low

Thyroid Replacement Hormones as
                                                                        thyroid function, and patients are typically diagnosed as having
                                                                        primary hypothyroidism. They are then placed on thyroid replace-

the Only Approach are completely
                                                                        ment hormone for the rest of their lives without considering how
                                                                        the other factors in their bodies could be making the problem
                                                                        worse over time but if changed could allow them to feel better.
ineffective !                                                           Why did this happen? The issue of the autoimmune attack is
                                                                        not addressed in “normal” medical approaches. Instead, they are

T
     his hormone replacement approach may work for about 10-            “considered” to be “managed” properly when the TSH normalizes
     20% of hypothyroid patients, but it will fail to produce opti-     with the replacement hormones. In a sense, the patient is having
     mum results with the other 80-90%.                                 their TSH managed, but not the real underlying mechanism for
                                                                        their loss of thyroid function, which is the autoimmune attack
                                                                        against their thyroid.

                                                                        In the replacement model, when the TSH is “normalized” from
                                                                        taking the thyroid replacement hormone, any symptoms that re-
                                                                        main after the normalization of the TSH are attributed to some-
                                                                        thing else.

                                                                        Take for example if your thyroid condition is causing depression
                                                                        (which it commonly does) the doctor will give you antidepres-
                                                                        sants. Why? Because if the thyroid TSH level is now in the “nor-
                                                                        mal” range, your doctor won’t consider the depression to be a
                                                                        symptom of a thyroid condition since your TSH levels are “normal”
                                                                        so it must be something else entirely.

                                                                        It appears logical, but the symptoms could still be coming from
                                                                        poor thyroid function.

                                                                        If you have not had this experience yet, you probably will. You will
                                                                        go into your doctor’s office because you still suffer with the same
                                                                        symptoms, and in an attempt to move you out of the office in the
                                                                        allotted 10 minutes the doctor has been given for your visit, he or
                                                                        she is going to shove an anti-depressant prescription at you and
Take for example treating Hashimoto’s Autoimmune Hypothy-               tell you that it will help some of the symptoms.
roidism with hormone replacement as the sole treatment, is like
treating the common cold virus with antibiotics. Antibiotics never      In most cases, since the actual autoimmune attack is ignored, over
have and never will be effective against the cold virus because an-     time you will continue to lose more thyroid cells, and the require-
tibiotics don’t kill viruses, yet they are still commonly used.         ments for your thyroid replacement hormone will continue to rise.
                                                                        Even more importantly, despite the fact that “TSH is considered
For most thyroid sufferers today, the immune system will never          managed” with replacement thyroid hormones, Autoimmune
be looked at and measured. The immune system, and all things            Thyroid patients will continue to have all the symptoms of low
that affect the immune system, was a huge missing factor for the        thyroid function.
causes doctors used to consider for illnesses. In fact, most doctors
will not consider anything that falls outside “traditional medicine”    If you fail to look at factors affecting your GI system (gastroin-
as effective. They fail to look at how diet, GI function, supplemen-    testinal system), blood sugar regulation, hormone balance, along
tation, and lifestyle alterations can bring greater function to their   with taking your thyroid replacement hormone, you could be
thyroid patients.                                                       making your autoimmune condition worse every day.

Following the” traditional medical” approach will only leave you        Since the autoimmune mechanism is the most common cause of
feeling sick and keep you from the information that you can use         hypothyroidism in the United States, you would think that it is
to help yourself.                                                       commonly screened for. Actually, it is rarely ever checked. This
                                                                        is mostly because the treatment is still thyroid replacement hor-
The number one cause of low thyroid function worldwide is iodine        mones only. Why run extra tests if you are not going to alter the
deficiency; but in the United States the number one cause of low        treatment based off the test results? This is considered “waste” in
thyroid function is Hashimoto’s Autoimmune Thyroid. Hashimo-            the insurance model, which has become prevalent in this country.
to’s is an autoimmune attack against thyroid cells, meaning your
body’s immune system is targeting and killing your own thyroid
tissue!

Although Hashimoto’s can cause symptoms of hyperthyroidism,
or overactive thyroid, there is a slow, gradual attack against the
thyroid. This eventually leads to the loss of enough thyroid cells
and function and when the thyroid does not work adequately, in
this case because the cells are being destroyed, the pituitary gland
(in your brain) increases the production of TSH (thyroid stimu-
lating hormone) as an attempt to increase thyroid gland activity.
This over activity is what is causing the hyperthyroid symptoms,
because your body is working overtime to compensate for the de-
teriorating cells.

Over time, people with Autoimmune Thyroid’s start to develop
the symptoms of low thyroid function, which will prompt them
to have their thyroid checked by their doctor. When the TSH is
2
Are You Still Suffering From Thyroid Symptoms?
Natural Thyroid Support                                                  Your Immune System
Y
     ou may have been to an alternative health doctor or nutri-

                                                                         T
     tionist looking for some relief from your thyroid symptoms.               he immune system has two sides like a teeter-totter. The
     They may have given you some supplements that contained                   first side, called our T-Helper 1 System (TH-1 System), is
iodine, B Vitamins, and thyroid glandulars to try to improve your              our immediate immune system response. It is responsible
thyroid function.                                                        for an immediate attack against foreign invaders like bacteria or
                                                                         parasites. The cells involved in the TH-1 system are called mac-
What’s wrong with this                                                   rophages, natural killer cells, and cytotoxic T Cells. It is our front
approach? When a pa-                                                     line defense.
tient is presented with
an autoimmune thyroid                                                    The other side of our immune teeter-totter is our T-Helper 2
patter, neither nutritional                                              System (TH-2 System). It involves the production of antibodies
support specific for the                                                 to “tag” onto foreign invaders so our TH-1 system can find and
gland, thyroid glandu-                                                   destroy the invaders easily. It is our B cells that are responsible for
lar therapy, nor thyroid                                                 producing the antibodies.
hormone       replacement
do very little to improve                                                Most of the time our TH-1 system will successfully destroy in-
the patient’s response                                                   vaders before antibodies are ever produced. If the invader is not
and physiology. This is                                                  destroyed by the TH-1 system immediately, the TH-2 system gets
an autoimmune battle. If                                                 involved and produces antibodies. These antibodies are like at-
we make progress in that                                                 taching strobe lights to the foreign invaders. It makes it extremely
battle, you will begin to                                                easy for the TH-1 cells to find and kill.
feel normal again.
                                                                         In order for the various immune cells of the TH-1 and TH-2 sys-
In Hashimoto’s Autoim-                                                   tem to communicate and coordinate their function, they produce
mune Thyroid, your body                                                  little messenger proteins called cytokines.
is literally eating your
thyroid tissue, and the                                                  In an autoimmune condition, like Hashimoto’s Autoimmune Thy-
longer you go without                                                    roid, the two sides of the immune system teeter-totter become
regulating and calming the immune attack, the more thyroid cells         terribly imbalanced. It is almost like there is a person on only one
you will lose. But not all doctors treat Hashimoto’s like they do        side. It is this dysregulation (or poor modulation) in the immune
other autoimmune conditions.                                             system, the imbalance between the two TH systems that tricks
                                                                         your body into attacking its own tissue.

Traditional Treatiment for Autoimmune                                    This “dominance” of one side of the immune system is also why
                                                                         the hormone replacement model as the sole thyroid treatment

Conditions                                                               does not usually result in patients feeling better even though lab
                                                                         tests may look normal for a time.

W
        hether a person is diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis,          The cytokines that are produced in the autoimmune attack actual-
        Lupus, or Multiple Sclerosis, the standard medical treat-        ly interfere with the thyroid receptor sites from producing normal
        ment is cortisone, thymectomy, or other immune sup-              responses. Therefore, even if you have an adequate amount of
pressing drugs. In other words, complete immune system sup-              thyroid hormone in the blood stream, the hormones will not
pression. The approach is to suppress the immune system as an            necessarily bind to your cells and create a normal metabol-
attempt to dampen the attack against the body’s own tissue.              ic response. This means you still have thyroid symptoms even
                                                                         with normal levels of thyroid hormones circulating in your blood
Unfortunately, this treatment creates many side effects and              stream.
is rarely used to treat Hashimoto’s. In Hashimoto’s, the usual
treatment is NO treatment at all. They just completely ignore            Normally, when a thyroid hormone binds to a cell, it causes the cell
the autoimmune attack against the thyroid.                               to increase its metabolism and increasing the production of cer-
                                                                         tain proteins inside the cell. This is called a “proteomic response,”
The wisest thing to do would be to not completely shut down your         which triggers the cell to perform its function. In Hashimoto’s, the
immune system; you need an approach that is centered on spe-             proteomic response is diminished by the inflammatory cytokines
cific immune evaluation and regulation. You need someone who is          that are produced as a result of the autoimmune attack against
going to analyze your immune system with specific lab panels and         the thyroid.
make natural changes based on the specifics of your own immune
physiology.                                                              Therefore, even when the thyroid hormones bind to cell receptors,
                                                                         there is not a very strong proteomic response. This is exactly why
Before we can begin to modulate or regulate the immune system,           treatment with thyroid replacement hormone only can result in
a very specific evaluation must be done. It is terribly dangerous to     continuing thyroid symptoms.
suppress your entire immune system. It does more than just pro-
tect us from foreign invaders like bacteria, parasites, or viruses. It   Most doctors do not acknowledge this mechanism. They will try
is involved in destroying our own cells to help us eliminate dead        to make your lab tests look “normal” with replacement thyroid
or old cells. This process is called cellular apoptosis, and if this     hormones, and when you tell them you still have the same symp-
system fails, cancer develops.                                           toms, they are going to assume the symptoms are coming from
                                                                         somewhere else. Not much consideration is given to how you, the
                                                                         patient, feel or what you are experiencing every day.

                                                                                                                                               3
Are You Still Suffering From Thyroid Symptoms?
Next, we usually run a panel that looks at all of your lympho-
What makes your Body Attack your Thyroid?                               cytes (White Blood Cell T Cells) called a Lymphocyte Subpopula-
                                                                        tion Analysis. This gives us insight into the health of your immune
                                                                        system. There are numerous possibilities when we look at these
                                                                        two panels together, and we have strategies and methods to help
                                                                        manage the situations we see.

                                                                                              Going Organic
                                                                        F
                                                                            rom the information we derive from these immune panels, we
                                                                            are going to devise an all-natural treatment plan to support
                                                                            your specific immune dysfunction. We use all natural botan-
                                                                        icals and plant extracts that have been shown in peer-reviewed
                                                                        scientific literature to have very specific immune stimulating and
                                                                        modulating/regulating effects.

                                                                        There are many natural substances that have been studied, which
                                                                        have immune stimulating or suppressing properties, but what’s
                                                                        important is the therapeutic use of only those natural substances
                                                                        shown to have a particular affect when applied to a specific im-
                                                                        mune dysfunctional pattern.

A
      ll autoimmune thyroid sufferers start with some sort of ge-
      netic susceptibility that predisposes them to this disorder.      Something that may have a very beneficial immune effect in one
      At some point, the genes for the disease “turn on,” and your      Hashimoto’s patient may have a very detrimental effect in anoth-
body begins the attack on your thyroid tissue. Possible triggers        er. But there is no way to know this until the immune system has
that are known to “turn on” autoimmune attacks are environ-             been analyzed!
mental compounds such as heavy metals, pesticides, herbicides;
hormonal imbalances; stress responses of chemical, physical             One of the biggest mistakes I see natural medicine doctors make
and emotional nature; antigen responses such as bacteria, vi-           is giving autoimmune patients broad spectrum immune support.
ruses, mold and parasites; and food allergies and sensitivities.        This may seem counterintuitive at first. If the immune system
Any one or a combination of these factors related with some ge-
netic susceptibility can “turn on” the autoimmune response and
lead to the slow, gradual destruction of your thyroid cells. Most
importantly, we must understand that once these genes “turn on”
we have no way of completely turning them off.

Think of these autoimmune genes as a light switch that is turned
on and then suddenly breaks. Now we can no longer turn the
switch off, but we can modulate or regulate the immune system
using a dimmer switch. With the right treatment, we can turn
down the dimmer by removing things that are triggering the im-
mune system to be overzealous.

A Different Perspective to the Thyroid                                  is obviously unhealthy in an autoimmune patient, then providing

               Sufferer                                                 things that are known to help boost the immune system should
                                                                        help, right? Wrong!

B
     ecause of our understanding of functional immunology and
     functional endocrinology, we take a very detailed look at a         It is a totally different game with autoimmune situations. Ideally,
     Hashimoto’s sufferer. We run special functional lab tests and      your TH-1 and TH-2 systems would be balanced and work to-
immune panels that actually tell us where the physiology is going       gether. This is not the case in autoimmune attacks. The immune
wrong, which helps us determine what needs to be done to man-           system is malfunctioning to the point that it thinks your own tis-
age your condition.                                                     sues are foreign invaders.

Starting with a comprehensive thyroid panel, including antibodies,      It is absolutely critical that only botanicals and natural compounds
we see exactly what the source of your thyroid problem is out of        that are known to have specific immune responses be used with
the 30 (and more) different dysfunctional thyroid patterns with         an autoimmune case. With broad spectrum immune support, you
Autoimmune Thyroid as the most common pattern we see by far.            can actually further stimulate the dominant side of the immune
We then run laboratory panels to look for blood sugar disorders,        system and make the autoimmune attack worse. This results in
hormone imbalances, anemia patterns, and adrenal gland dys-             greater tissue destruction, which is why we must base our treat-
function. All of these things play a crucial role in affecting normal   ment off the details contained in each individual’s immune panels.
thyroid function, so we go through your case with a fine tooth
comb to uncover all the possible mechanisms that are contribut-         If you are wondering what might fall under the category “immune
ing to your suffering.                                                  support,” I would tell you to avoid supplements that are labeled as
                                                                        “immune support products.” You may have some in your cabinet
When we are dealing with Autoimmune Thyroid, the most com-              right now.
mon pattern, we go even further in our assessment. We may run
a cytokine panel to determine which side of your TH-1 and TH-2          Most alternative medicine based patient management is not based
teeter-totter is dominant or tipping the scale.                         on lab testing. At best, treatment in traditional natural medicine

4
Are You Still Suffering From Thyroid Symptoms?
is based on old, outdated testing models like checking basal met-
abolic temperature, or even worse, solely based off of patient’s     Birth control pills are another
history.                                                             source of estrogen surges. It is
                                                                     a common scenario for wom-
In the traditional medical “box,” immune testing becomes irrele-     en to go on birth control pills,
vant because it does not dictate or change the traditional medi-     gain a lot of weight, and get
cal management of the patient. In the medical treatment model,       depressed. When they get off
once it is determined that an autoimmune mechanism is involved,      the pill, it does not really help
drugs to suppress the immune system are given, bringing with         them lose weight or decrease
them a multitude of devastating side effects. Long-term immune       their depression. Being on the
suppression is only going to make you sicker since the immune        pill in the first place may have
systems purpose is to keep you well.                                 triggered the Hashimoto’s re-
                                                                     sponse against the thyroid.
Question the thought process here: Once an autoimmune mech-
anism is involved why would you want to suppress the immune          The third issue with estro-
system completely!?                                                  gen and Hashimoto’s is per-
                                                                     imenopause. As women lose
However, when we determine that an autoimmune mechanism              their feedback loop between
is producing your hypothyroid symptoms, we are then going to         the pituitary and ovaries, a
run our specific immune panels. These include: (1) Lymphocyte        consequence of normal aging,
Subpopulation Analysis and (2) Cytokine Panel.                       there are surges of estrogen produced because the pituitary can no
                                                                     longer regulate the ovaries. These surges of estrogens can “turn
The results of these two panels are going to give us a clearer un-   on” the Hashimoto’s response. When these estrogen surges oc-
derstanding of what the immune system dysfunction is, leading to     cur, they may trigger an increased autoimmune attack against the
applying specific nutritional strategies to calm down the autoim-    thyroid, causing thyroid cells to be destroyed.
mune attack against your thyroid.
                                                                     The estrogen surges may act like “gas on a fire” and further in-
Using our understanding of functional immunology and our re-         crease the autoimmune thyroid destruction. This increased de-
view of the peer-reviewed scientific literature involving natural    struction of the thyroid will result in short-term, high release of
plant botanicals and extracts, gives us the most highly effective    the thyroid hormones into the blood stream, creating temporary
strategies available to support your immune system. Most impor-      high thyroid hormone levels. This increases the metabolic rate,
tantly, we can do this without all of the side effects of immune     and women get hot flashes, insomnia, and irritability.
suppressing drugs.                                                   These symptoms are usually attributed to a deficiency of estrogen
                                                                     from going through menopause, but often, this is not the case.
Along with turning down the dimmer switch on your autoimmune         Sometimes it is not the estrogen fluctuations that are causing the
attack, long-term success necessitates that we remove any “trig-     hot flashes, insomnia, and irritability, but it is the immune at-
gers” that are flaring up your immune response. Here are a few       tack against the thyroid that is promoted by fluctuations from
triggers and some extra information on each. It is always a good     the menopause process that creates a temporary hyperthyroid re-
idea to learn as much about your body as you can.                    sponse.

Food Sensitivities - We will run additional lab testing to deter-    Whenever we see a post-menopausal woman who developed hot
mine if there are foods that you eat that are creating an immune     flashes, insomnia, and irritability that did not resolve with estro-
response. Foods to which you are sensitive to flare up your im-      gen replacement therapy, we know we are likely dealing with a
mune response every time you eat them, furthering the attack on      Hashimoto’s response that turned on with menopause. In these
your thyroid, leading to more destruction.                           cases, many times, we can totally normalize the hot flashes by
                                                                     treating the autoimmune thyroid.
Iodine - Even though iodine is a very
important nutrient for thyroid function,                             Insulin Surges - Surges in insulin really promote the Autoim-
and even though iodine deficiencies                                  mune Attack on the thyroid. The insulin surges actually stimulate
are very common in other parts of the                                the immune cytokines responsible for your autoimmune attack.
world, iodine containing supplements                                 Insulin surges occur in diabetics, pre-diabetics, and hypoglycemic
can actually trigger a Hashimoto’s re-                               patients.
sponse. The bottom line is that iodine
is a very important supplement, but in                               Many people get checked by their medical doctor and are told that
supplemental form it can make the au-                                everything is fine. The sheer number of functional hypoglycemics
toimmune against the thyroid worse!                                  and insulin resistant (pre-diabetics) people walking around is
                                                                     staggering. Even if you were told your labs were “normal”, the lab
There are numerous studies in the sci-                               ranges they used are not “healthy functional ranges,” and there is
entific, peer-reviewed literature that                               a good chance there is an underlying blood sugar problem.
show this connection. Most natural
healthcare practitioners, without con-                               Hypercortisolism - Cortisol is your body’s stress hormone. It is
sidering the immune interaction, insist                              produced when your body’s energy demands increase as a result
on giving iodine supplements for thy-                                of stress – the “Flight or Fight” response. When there is an active
roid conditions in much the same way                                 stress response (from chemical, physical, or emotional stress) or
as the medical community uses thyroid replacement hormones as        a defect in your brain’s ability to modulate stress, you will have
a “blanket” treatment for all hypo-thyroid conditions.               increased cortisol production. The increased cortisol promotes in-
                                                                     sulin resistance, leading to insulin surges. This will cause your au-
Hormone Imbalances - This is especially true when looking at         toimmune attack to get worse.
estrogens and pregnancy. In the third trimester of pregnancy, a
female is TH-2 dominant, and postpartum they have a tenden-          Gastrointestinal Infections (GI) - There are a number of GI in-
cy to be TH-1 dominant. This fluctuation of hormones is enough       fections that promote the autoimmune response. Your gut has
to turn on the Hashimoto’s response for some women. It is very       a huge number of healthy bacteria that live and produce posi-
common to have a woman deliver her baby and then, months lat-        tive benefits for normal functioning. When the balance between
er, be diagnosed with hypothyroidism. Actually, Hashimoto’s was      good and bad bacteria is askew, called dysbiosis, it is known to
“turned on” after pregnancy.                                         promote autoimmune inflammatory responses. If we ignore this,
                                                                                                                                         5
Are You Still Suffering From Thyroid Symptoms?
our chance of fixing your autoimmune thyroid condition is greatly
compromised.

There isn’t a “cookie cutter approach” to dealing with autoim-                       How will I see the Results?
                                                                          W
mune thyroid. Until we look at all of the triggers that cause and                 e are going to know we are making the functional changes
promote the autoimmune attack, systematically work at removing                    we desire because, after treatment, we will be repeating
those triggers, and then look specifically at your immune system                  the tests we used to determine our specific plan of action.
with the lab panels we discussed, there is no way to know what            We cannot just spend time and effort learning what is wrong and
is going on or how to deal with the issues involved. Every case is        then just hope our natural treatments made the changes. We have
different; every case is special. We will treat you like an individual,   to re-test, make alterations in treatment protocols, and re-test
not just another patient.                                                 again. Not that you will not be feeling better as we make these
                                                                          changes, but we have to measure your changes so we keep moving
Not everyone needs every test. From your history, current presen-         toward the goals we set together.
tation, and initial consultation, we work with each individual to
determine what is needed. It is truly an individualized approach.         In reality, we may have to make a series of changes before you
                                                                          start “feeling better”, but at every point we have labs to guide
As much as it sounds like common sense, one reason other doctors          us. Based on your specific case, we are going to have a schedule
don’t take this approach is because some doctors just do not know         of your re-tests so we can make corrections and know when we
what they need to know. They are seriously behind the times, liv-         need to move on to the next thing. Sometimes we cannot effec-
                                                                          tively support a particular physiological process until we normalize
                                                                          another first.

                                                                          A lot of doctors will not to do this for you. Most “natural medi-
                                                                          cine” is based off of zero testing, minimal testing, or the wrong
                                                                          testing. Mainstream medicine is going to shove hormones and an-
                                                                          tidepressants at you no matter what the labs say, so there is not a
                                                                          lot of testing done on that end either.
                                                                          Functional changes take time. Remember, our job is not to give
                                                                          you a pill and hope a symptom goes away. Our job is to take a
                                                                          step back, look at the big picture, and systematically support
                                                                          your physiology.

                                                                          The reason you may not have gotten help yet is because no one
                                                                          dug deep enough, was willing to listen, understood your problem,
                                                                          or took the time necessary to make the changes.

ing in decades past, using an outdated treatment model which
does not work for the majority of people. Or they may not under-
stand how to use natural supplements and nutrition.

Another reason is that they and the insurance companies do not
consider this comprehensive approach and testing “medically
necessary.” Medically necessary should include everything that
is going to contribute to you having a better functioning body
and help you feel as good as you possibly can. You may not have
experienced this before, but it should be a “partnership” when
you work with a doctor on your health condition. That is the way
it’s always intended to be, but unfortunately with historical proof,
medicine and healthcare in general have moved away from that.

The goal of the case review, consultation, and any initial testing is
to tell us what your functional imbalances are, what your immune
system dominance is, and what triggers and lifestyle factors are
contributing to your problem. Then, we can design a powerful,
all-natural, step-by-step approach to help you achieve your de-
sired results.                                                                 What If This Doesn’t Work For Me?
Have you ever put together a piece of furniture or a kids’ toy with-
out reading the instructions because you thought you could figure

                                                                          T
it out on your own? Then, you reached the very end, realized you               he number one factor that determines success or failure
missed a step, and had to go back and take everything apart be-                with a case is how closely the patient follows my recom-
cause you missed that one little piece?                                        mendations.

Supporting these functional immune, hormone, and metabolic                If you do the things I prescribe, then you are going to go down the
imbalances has to be done in the proper sequence. We look at              road you have been wanting, probably for a long time, which is
everything we need to do up front, so we know what sequence we            moving toward “normal” again.
have to take to help you.

6
Are You Still Suffering From Thyroid Symptoms?
completed our initial consultation and made our initial set of rec-
                                                                         ommendations, we will decide on our next step.

                 What about the Cost?                                    Following your initial consultation we will schedule your complete
                                                                         Wellness Evaluation followed by a report of findings where we will

O
        ur initial consultation and case review is $287* (but IF you     summarize your findings and make recommendations if we accept
        schedule your case review within 2 weeks of requesting this      your case.
        article it is only $87). To find the best course of action for
 your, we will do a comprehensive review of your medical history,        If we move forward, we can work together, as a partnership, to tru-
 medical records and recent labs tests (if available). Then, we will     ly improve your condition. Remember, we are going to work at your
 make health recommendations and work with you to build your             pace and take the necessary steps to help reach your goals.
 Personal Roadmap to a healthy life. This includes a comprehen-          Initial Consultation with Dr. Brian Fennelly
 sive plan of action and steps that both you and us will need to take
 to get you where you want to be.                                        If you are sick and tired of being sick and tired and would like
                                                                         to take a comprehensive natural and functional treatment
 Our unique approach steps out of the “medical box,” so we can do        approach to enhance your current thyroid treatment, then call
 what is needed and take the time necessary to help you. Until we        us at (713) 947-2772 and schedule your Complete Thyroid Case
 know the specifics of your case, what tests we need to run, and         Review and Consultation.
 how long it will take to make the necessary functional changes,
 there is no way to say what the cost is going to be.                    The $287 cost for the initial consultation will cover the review of
                                                                         your medical history, review of past medical records, review of
 Everything can be done in steps. The first step involves a case re-     recent lab tests (if available), and our consultation and recommen-
 view and consultation, so we can get to the specifics of your case.     dations.

 There is always a way to make it work out financially. We have          DO NOT let your thyroid condition control YOU when answers to
 financing options available through our office as well as many          your suffering are right here. How would you feel finding out years
 different payment options are available to help minimize your           from now that the answer to your problem was right in front of
 immediate out-of-pocket expenses and limit the impact on your           your face all along, and you let it slip through your fingers?
 financial situation. We can make it work.
                                                                         95% of Failure comes from not having a system AND a coach/
 The smartest choice is to get to the root of the problem and not        mentor. Mentor means “doctor lead”. We take our clients through a
 get “passed through” the medical system, being treated like you         Step by Step, ABC, 123 ROADMAP…to take you from where you are
 don’t understand your own body.                                         NOW to where you want to be!

 The thyroid hormone replacement is making up for decreased in-
 ternal thyroid production, but it does not address your immune
 problem. Immune suppressing drugs are going to create long-
 term side effects and greater problems in the future. Natural sup-
 port for the thyroid gland itself is often futile for Autoimmune        For more information about hypothyroidism and Hashimoto’s dis-
 Hashimoto’s Thyroid.                                                    ease, visit http://www.thyroidbook.com/.

 How does Consulting with Dr. Fennelly
               Work?
Every new client we work with begins with a case review and con-         Written by Dr. Brian Fennelly, Founder of Houston Health and
sultation, as previously mentioned. When you schedule your case          Wellness Center
review and consultation, we will send you our comprehensive case         Edited by Sera Perkins
history and dietary & nutritional questionnaire. This will allow us to   Layout Design by Wendy Warwas
learn everything about your case and your medical history. We will
also review all your previous lab tests (if available).

We will email you the questionnaires, have you fill in the form, save
it, and email it back to our office prior to your scheduled consulta-
tion. If you prefer, we can mail you these forms for you to complete
and mail back to our office prior to your scheduled consultation,
along with any previous labs to our office.

Your case review consultation will take approximately 45 minutes
to 1 hour. During this consultation we are going to thoroughly
discuss your case and also talk about the dietary, lifestyle, and sup-
plemental changes we can make immediately to positively impact
your condition.

We are also going to discuss the specific lab tests that will give us
the needed information to uncover the mechanisms or causes of
your condition. We will direct you to the proper local labs and have
the results sent back to us.

How we continue our relationship after our initial consultation and
follow-up appointment is completely up to you. After we have                                       Copyright © 2013, Houston Health and Wellness Center

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Are You Still Suffering From Thyroid Symptoms? Are You Still Suffering From Thyroid Symptoms? Are You Still Suffering From Thyroid Symptoms?
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