Phlebotomists and Halogens

Today is blood-test day to see how I'm reacting to the new dosage of levothyroxine. I've been on it for 8 weeks, and I feel better. My nails and hair are growing, my eyebrows are thicker (weird, huh?) and my body shape is changing. I'm still pretty sleepy, and I haven't lost more than a pound or two, but I am thinner. My skin is clearer. My cheekbones are coming back. My eyes are much less puffy. I sleep better - I often sleep through the night now without having to get up. I have less heartburn, and an improved appetite. If I'm eating correctly (meaning, if I haven't eaten at Fogo de Chao recently ;) then I get hungry for breakfast, lunch, AND dinner. Then I'm hungry again before bed. It's wonderful.

As I'd hinted at in the last post, I left a message at the doctor's office for my endocrinologist. I've asked her what her goals are for my treatment. Is she aiming for a particular TSH, is she aiming for a particular level of me not complaining? Something else?

Depending on what she says, I'm going to tell her my goals. My goal is a TSH of .4 *and* complete resolution of all symptoms. This includes normal body weight. I would like her to continue increasing my dosage until I suffer the ill effects of having too much, then backing off slightly. If we don't do this, then I will always be guessing that I would feel so much better, be so much healthier at the next dose up.

Though I don't trust TSH particularly as an indicator of health, I think it's an interesting place to start. My main goal is, of course, resolution of symptoms. However, by aiming for this particular TSH we have something we can measure, and that's always interesting, and might show us patterns we wouldn't otherwise see. So far my TSH has been approximately:

August: 2.94
October: 2.31
November: 3.65 (after 8 weeks of 25 mg levothyroxine)
February: 3.54 (after 8 weeks of 37.5 mg levothyroxine)

I, as you know, haven't been good about exercising lately. Hopefully we can switch to the YMCA at the end of the month, and that will make things much easier because I won't have to block off 2 hours to work out.

However, this has been interesting. I've seen improvements in my puffiness, and my body fat ratio. My average weight has seemingly dropped a tiny bit (maybe two pounds) but my measurements have decreased in the areas where I carry my podge. The nice thing about this is that my body is healing even without Crossifitting. I'm all about separating out the variables! Interesting though it may be, I've got to get back in the gym, I miss it.

I'm going to do the CFWU tonight, tomorrow, and the next day. Hammering hard to get back in the game, then a rest day, then back on the bandwagon. Harrass me if I don't do this, please.

Having gone for my blood test, I'm on another research kick. Why did I get this? Why is this so common now? This isn't about making my disease into my identity, or about crying "poor me!" and cultivating my victimhood. This is about understanding. What about this can be controlled? Where does the genetic component end and the environmental one begin?

I do know that I have unwittingly put myself in the path of a couple of extremely insidious bad guys in thyroidia over the past years. What bad guys? The Halogens.

I love to swim. I swam about 6 hours a week for three years of my undergrad, and about 3 to 5 hours a week while I was in grad school. That's a lot of swimming, but certainly not alarming. Lots of people swim that much. Lots and lots of people swim more than that and are just fine.

However, the University of Minnesota keeps their pools sanitary with Bromine.

I also drink municipal water which is kept sanitary with Chlorine.

I also have pretty decent teeth now from years of treatment of Fluorine.

Aaand, I've got an autoimmune disease of the Thyroid. Thyroids love and need Iodine.

Go look at a periodic table. Have a link: http://www.corrosionsource.com/handbook/periodic/

Look in column VIIA. Top to bottom it reads: Fluorine, Chlorine, Bromine, Iodine, Astatine. Let's ignore Astatine for the time being, it's radiocative, and doesn't occur in nature.

So what?

Well, here we enter the realm of Halogen Displacement. I'm not very good at chemistry so we'll let Dr. Jarvis continue on from here:

"The mechanism behind "halogen displacement" was probably best described by J.C. Jarvis, M.D. (Folk Medicine, Henry Holt & Co., 1958, HB, p. 136), who wrote: "The clinical activity of any one of these four halogens is in inverse proportion to its atomic weight. This means that any one of the four can displace the element with a higher atomic weight, but cannot displace an element with a lower atomic weight. For example, flourine can displace chlorine, bromine and iodine because flourine has a lower atomic weight than the other three. Similarly, chlorine can displace bromine and iodine because they both have a higher atomic weight. Likewise, bromine can displace iodine from the body because iodine has a higher atomic weight. But a reverse order is not possible. A knowledge of this well-known chemical law brings us to a consideration of the addition of chlorine to our drinking water as a purifying agent. We secure a drinking water that is harmful to the body not because of its harmful germ content but because the chlorine content now causes the body to lose the much-needed iodine..." (http://www.altcancer.com/lugols.htm)

So why is this happening with me and not my brother? My brother is the most similar person to me on the planet - we were raised together, ate the same food, saw the same doctors, travelled to the same places until he was about 20 years old. We even lived together until I was 24. Some may cite the feminine predisposition to thyroid disease, and they might have a point there. However there are two important differences in our history.

When I was 9 and my brother was 13 we changed dentists. Our new dentist gave us fluoride treatments on our teeth. I believe that he did this until the patient was 15 or so? That means I got six treatments, and my brother got two.

When I was 20 I started swimming very regularly in bromine pools and continued that more than weekly for about six of the last 12 years.

Was this enough to damage my thyroid? Am I grasping at straws? Am I reading too much into too little? Hmmm...