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There's no medication specifically for Hashimoto's. There are medications in and around Hashimoto's, so I'll go with that. The number one medication that is used, mostly by alternative functional medicine practitioners, is low dose naltrexone. Low dose naltrexone goes in, dampens the inflammation, creates an effect in your system that increases your endorphins, makes you feel better. That can dampen immune responses by just calming that whole system down. It's a favorite for alternative medical doctors. I tried it. For those of you who don't know, I have Hashimoto's. I tried it years ago. I think it made me feel better, but it gave me horrible nightmares and horrible dreams. And I hear that a lot. I've heard that a lot from people who take it. That's number one. That's not for Hashimoto's. In fact, it's a drug that was developed for a whole different thing.
They just happen to see what happened. It's really more like a dampening, increasing endorphins. None of these drugs are made for Hashimoto's. Hashimoto's is a thyroid problem. The drug for Hashimoto's is take a thyroid medication, especially in the mental world, basically their whole solution. We'll come back to that in a second. If there were a drug for Hashimoto's, it would be the one that's already there for autoimmune problems. If you're watching this and you have rheumatoid arthritis, or you have lupus or you have Sjogren's or you have irritable bowel syndrome, not irritable bowel syndrome, ulcerative colitis or something like that, that's autoimmune. What do they give you? They give you a steroid. Because why? Because it decreases and ultimately dampens and maybe even crushes the immune system. It comes with its whole set of side effects, which I don't have to go into.
A lot of you're going, "Ah, I don't want to take a steroid for the rest of my life." And you'd be right. I don't know that it would ever reach the level of taking an immunoglobulin therapy, which is another therapy for autoimmunity. But, the point is Hashimoto's is an autoimmune problem. It's not primarily a thyroid problem. Somebody can go, "It's a thyroid problem." Is lupus a primarily a skin problem? Is rheumatoid arthritis primarily a joint tissue problem? No, they're primarily autoimmune problems. That's why they give you steroids to dampen the immune inflammation.
It's the same thing with the thyroid. I've had patients that have come in and said, "One more thing I wanted to ask you." As I was doing their history, it's like, "I had this thing happen to me and they gave me steroids for 10 days and I felt enormously better. All had my anxiety went, my heart palpitations went." And I said, "Yeah, because for 10 days your immune system was put out of commission. It couldn't flare up and attack you."
Martin P. Rutherford, DC
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