Thyroid Disorder Can Mimick Over 65 Major Symptoms of Illness

December 13, 2009 | Leave a Comment

One of the most unsuspecting cause of many chronic problems I see in my office is actually due to low thyroid functions (hypothyroidism). That’s because the gland is responsible for mimicking over 65 major symptoms of illness! Left untreated, it affects the metabolism of every cell in your body and will definitely ruin any plans you may have in place to help you live a long and healthy life span.

The thyroid gland is responsible for mimicking over 65 major symptoms of illness!

A weak thyroid can sabotage your best laid out plans and cause errors in treatment as well. For instance, treating only the frequent upper respiratory illness with antibiotics while missing the underlying cause of hypothyroidism will continue to weaken your body further leading to chronic fatigue, a poor sense of well-being and worsens your ability to think and even remember!

The Basal Body Temperature Test by Broda Barnes, MD

One of the oldest methods of testing for weak thyroid functions is known as the Barnes Basal Body Temperature Test. It goes like this:

Put an axillary (armpit) thermometer by your bedside at night and make sure that you shake it down to the lowest temperature reading. In the morning and before getting out of bed or moving around, put the thermometer under your armpit for 10 minutes and lie very, very still. Record your readings for at least 3 mornings in a row. The normal readings are 97.8 to 98.2. If yours are lower than this and you have the classic symptoms which I will review with you now, then take all of this information to your doctor and get tested.

If you are a woman that still has her cycles, make sure you do this when you are not on your cycle as this will affect your temperatures. Do it immediately after your cycle or during the final days of your cycle like days 3,4,5. Don’t do it in the middle of your cycle or you will get the rising temperatures seen with ovulation which is one of the ways we tell women to check when they are ovulating to improve their chances off getting pregnant.

This test was developed by Broda O. Barnes, MD, PhD who during his illustrious career spanning over half a century published more than 100 papers on thyroid literature in well respected and reputable journals. Dr Barnes correlated the temperatures of over 2,000 individuals with their basal metabolic rates and compared those numbers to the patient’s standard laboratory tests. He discovered that there was a much higher correlation of low metabolic rates and clinical hypothyroidism using the basal body temperature test than with any other testing method available.

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