When we think of health, we naturally consider all of the medical specialists who focus on aspects like heart health, managing blood sugar, digestion, obesity or mental wellness. However, an integral part of our overall wellbeing rests with a small, butterfly-shaped gland in our neck. This is the mighty thyroid.
Thyroid doctors, also known as endocrinologists, specialize in diagnosing and treating conditions related to this essential gland. These include hyperthyroidism, hypothyroidism, thyroid nodules, and thyroid cancer.
Thyroid management is a complex task that requires specialized knowledge. Regular doctors can provide basic thyroid care, but there are times when the services of a thyroid specialist nearby come in handy.
In this article, we outline several key factors to consider when searching for a thyroid specialist and the range of services they provide.
What Are the Types of Thyroid Doctors?
Endocrinologists: Endocrinologists are physicians whose expertise lies in understanding hormones. Hormones are chemical messengers that are produced in specialized tissues known as glands. They travel through the blood to affect the function of specific target cells.
These hormones control many aspects of your life, including metabolism, reproduction, growth, sleep, and mood. They play an indispensable role in ensuring your overall health and well-being. If these biochemical messengers are not functioning correctly, it may lead to conditions (often severe) requiring the intervention of a specialist – an endocrinologist.
Regarding thyroid, an endocrinologist diagnoses and treats conditions related to our thyroid and its effect on many aspects of our metabolism.
Surgeons: Surgeons play a crucial role when thyroid disorders require surgical intervention. They can perform surgeries ranging from partial to total thyroidectomies, depending on the severity of the condition.
Here is Why You Need a Thyroid Specialist: An Endocrinologist
Thyroid doctors employ various diagnostic tools and therapeutic techniques, offering a range of services:
Clinical Consultation: The process begins with a thorough review of medical history, physical examination, and discussion of symptoms. The physician might also ask about lifestyle, diet, stress levels, and environmental factors that might contribute to thyroid dysfunction.
Diagnostic Tests: Thyroid doctors employ various tests to determine the health of the thyroid gland, including blood tests to measure hormone levels, ultrasound imaging to visualize the thyroid, and radioactive iodine uptake tests to understand how well the thyroid is functioning.
Treatment Plans: Depending on the diagnosis, a thyroid doctor might prescribe medication to regulate thyroid hormone levels, recommend lifestyle modifications, or suggest surgery to remove all or part of the thyroid gland. Radiation therapy could be another option, particularly in cases of thyroid cancer.
Follow-ups: Regular follow-ups are essential to monitor the progress of treatment and make any necessary adjustments. This ensures a patient-centric approach that values continuous care.
Patient Education: A crucial aspect of a thyroid doctor’s role is to educate patients about their conditions. This knowledge empowers patients to take active roles in their healthcare, contributing to better long-term outcomes.
Functional Medicine – Holistic Approach to Unresolved Thyroid
Functional or Foundational Medicine is an exciting, emerging field of medicine best described as the new science of biology, the real understanding of how our bodies work, why they break down and how to restore function and optimize health. It goes beyond the ‘suppression of symptoms’ of Conventional Medicine to uncover the root causes of your health issues by looking at your whole body and your environment.
Functional Medicine practitioners are often the first and only healthcare providers to order comprehensive tests that find the problems when others have missed it over and over again.
Pioneering Practices: The Natural Thyroid Doctor’s Approach
The Functional Medicine approach is firmly rooted in a holistic perspective that targets these underlying deficiencies and toxicities, rather than merely alleviating symptoms. This involves an in-depth evaluation of the patient’s lifestyle, nutrition, genetics, and environmental factors.
3 Key Services to Support Thyroid
The 3 essential, customized plans for the thyroid patient include:
1. Personalized Food Plans
There are certain substances that everyone needs for their body to function optimally. In unresolved thyroid disease, especially autoimmune thyroid (Hashimoto’s), essential nutrients are often missing. Also, food sensitivities and allergies must be solved.
2. Advanced Whole Food Supplements
Over fifty percent of Americans take a nutritional supplement, but the majority don’t know why. Consulting with a Functional Medicine practitioner to determine your nutrient needs via vitamin and mineral deficiencies through the appropriate lab work (rarely done in Conventional Medicine) is key.
3. Whole Body, Cellular Detoxification Programs
In Conventional Medicine, the devastating role of environmental toxins, including pesticides, heavy metals, and environmental chemicals is virtually ignored.
However, in Functional Medicine, the problem of toxicity is acknowledged and tackled head on. We come in contact with 84,000 chemicals a year, and only 1% of those have been tested for safety! Not only are we in danger from man-made chemicals, but our food supply is so toxic that it contributes to the pollution of our bodies. Toxins in lotions, creams, plastics, make-up, toothpaste, etc. all ends up inside your body!
Toxins increase liver stress and reduce toxin breakdown and elimination. Your liver doesn’t know what to do with all these toxic food additives. This means that you cannot effectively get rid of excess hormones and toxins. The liver requires extra nutritional support to clear these toxins from your body. No drug can provide this.
Toxins cause inflammation– toxins increase inflammation which can interfere with or interrupt the proper production of essential thyroid hormones.
These 3 pillars are the foundation that a natural thyroid doctor designs for a comprehensive and dynamic approach to customized treatment protocols tailored to each patient’s needs.
Final Words
Understanding the symptoms of thyroid disease can be the first step towards seeking appropriate medical care. It’s crucial to remember that thyroid diseases are treatable, and with the right approach, one can live a healthy and active life.
The good news is that there are doctors with specialized knowledge who are ready with a science-backed action plan to get back to looking, feeling, and functioning at your best.
From understanding the initial symptoms to diagnosing the root causes as well as formulating treatment plans and conducting regular follow-ups, a thyroid doctor’s role is pivotal in our journey towards thyroid and overall health.
Dr. Bob was born and raised in Florham Park, New Jersey.
He loved the philosophy of vitalism, which teaches about the incredible, innate intelligence of our bodies and its power to self-heal when given the opportunity.
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