About: Wilson's Thyroid Syndrome
The Best of Rejuvenation
BillyZB: Hello Ellis. Have you heard of Wilson's Temperature Syndrome (WTS)?
MY temperature never goes above 97 F., and is usually around 96 F.
I think it is the cause of a lot of issues I have. I was told I
should take T-3 that is time released.
Any thoughts?
Ellis: You probably have what is called "sub-clinical
hypo-thyroidism" or "hypo-thyroid" which means too little
thyroid.
I suggest that you study this excellent website:
STOP THE THYROID MADNESS!
http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com
The lesson that you learn here is that most doctors are wrong
(again), and you should not use T-3 alone, nor should you use only
T-3 and T-4...
And you shouldn't use synthetic T-3 and T-4.
You should use natural dessicated (Armour) thyroid, which is T-1,
T-2, T-3, and T-4.
You might also need a little cortisol... again: the right dose at
the right time.
- Ellis
Randy Ice writes:
Hi Ellis:
I can comment on BILLYZB's question about Wilson's Thyroid Syndrome as we have been treating it in our clinic for a number of years. This thyroid condition is characterized by:
1.) hypothyroid symptoms (cold feet, dry skin, thinning hair, constipation, cold and/or heat intolerance, fatigue etc).
2.) a normal thyroid blood panel (that is, TSH, T4 and T3 values in the "normal range")
3.) low body temperatures usually well below 98 degrees Fahrenheit
This combination was first described by a physician (Dr. Denis Wilson) in the late 80's who theorized that this combination of symptoms/findings results when the body cannot properly convert T4 into the more active form of thyroid (T3) inside the body's cells.
Instead he believes the T4 is converted to reverse T3 which is inactive within the cell. Hence cellular/organ/ body metabolism decreases and the person begins to experience hypothyroid symptoms with a lower body temperature. Overt hypothyroidism patients will have the same characteristics except the lab test
will find one or more abnormality (usually an elevated TSH) and they may or may not have a lower body temperature.
Dr. Wilson coined this condition "Wilson's Thyroid Syndrome" and developed a treatment protocol that involves a compounded slow release T3 preparation starting at 7.5 mcg twice daily, increasing the dose by 7.5 mcg twice daily every day while tracking body temperatures. Some folks will see their temperature rise very quickly, while others will need 75 - 90 mcg BID before
reaching 98 - 98.6 degrees.
If the person has true WTS, they will feel immensely better once their body temperatures are closer to "normal."
The protocol then calls for maintaining that T3 dosing for 2 - 3 months, then begin tapering back down and eventually stopping it altogether. His theory is that the slow release T3 will drive metabolism to what it normally should be and the body cells will then dispose of the inactive reverse T3, as T4 production from the thyroid will be turned off during the T3 treatment time.
In true Wilson's Thyroid Syndrome (WTS), once the compounded T3
is stopped, the body's T4 production will kick back into gear,
the cellular conversion of T4 to T3 will be restored and the
person "captures" a normal body temperature, feels great and is
essentially cured of WTS.
Our experience is that about 50 - 60% of what we think is WTS, is
actually WTS, and the patients are truly cured.
Another 30% can never seem to capture their body temperature... it
falls back down when the T3 is tapered and they feel lousy again, even after trying several cycles of T3 therapy. At this point we believe they are just "sub clinical hypothyroid" and we then switch them to the desiccated form of bio-identical thyroid you referred to, also known as Armour's Thyroid... and they do very well with that.
A minority (5-10%), usually women, have other causes that relate to menopause and falling ovarian hormone levels (progesterone in particular) or adrenal fatigue... and their hypothyroid symptoms frequently resolve when their estrogen/progesterone levels are balanced as they were before surgical (hysterectomy) or natural menopause, or they need low dose Cortif (cortisone) therapy in the case of adrenal fatigue.
Randy Ice P.T., C.C.S.
Vintage Medical Group
Temecula, California
(951) 676-3748
Ellis: Hello Randy. I have a few questions:
When you treat these patients that have Wilson's Thyroid Syndrome,
do you also give them HGH and Testosterone?
If not immediately, then perhaps later, after you have resolved the problem of WTS, and they are feeling better... THEN do you add HGH and/or Testosterone?
And, can you please take a look at the blood tests of some of
your WTS patients, and see if you can spot if they have HIGH
FASTING BLOOD GLUCOSE, (anything above 100 is not so good...
anything above 110 is bad... anything above 120 is way off...)
or HbA1c above 5.5% (which means that their average blood glucose
for the past 2 or 3 months has been about 115 or higher..)
And also, can you please see if you can check their blood tests
and find what was their HEMATOCRIT and HEMOGLOBIN... and please
tell us if they have LOW HEMATOCRIT (anything below 44%) and/or
LOW HEMOGLOBIN (anything below 15%)...?
THANKS, and thanks for such a good and easy to understand
explanation of Wilson's Thyroid Syndrome and what you do to
treat it.
I HIGHLY RECOMMEND Randy Ice to anybody with a health problem
who wants to consult with somebody who I TRUST 100% for his good
sense. I would consult with Randy if I had any problem with
CANCER (he would probably not be the person to TREAT the cancer,
but he would be the person who I would want to GUIDE ME to the
best treatment for me...) and for any hormonal problem with
TESTOSTERONE, (male sexual dysfunction...) or ESTROGEN and/or
PROGESTERONE...
Anything Else? Randy, please, YOU TELL US what you think you
are very good at that we should consult with you, if we ever have
a health problem.
Thanks again for a great post.
- Ellis
In a message dated 1/23/2008 Randy Ice writes:
The vast majority of patients who come to us for Wilson's Thyroid
Syndrome have been searching for answers and had multiple blood
tests and examinations, being told they are "normal." Invariably
after they find and read the information on the WTS website, they
will say "that's me!" They have read the WTS protocol and most
will have purchased the WTS book, so they come in expecting us to
confirm they have WTS and get the slow release T3 ordered for them
ASAP. They are not interested in other hormone therapies... They
just want to feel better as quickly as possible.
Many have been suffering for many years, so they are pretty "lasered
in" on starting the T3 therapy. This is all spelled out on his
website:
http://www.WilsonsThyroidSyndrome.com
Our clinic also does not want to start one, two or three other
simultaneous hormone therapies with the slow release T3 as neither
the patient nor we will ever know what did or did not work a
few months later. In this case, it is best to just give the WTS
protocol a trial, then consider other hormones (like progesterone
or testosterone) down the road after their WTS has been cured (or
not, as the case may be).
Actually the ones we have cured felt so much better we never saw
them again to try any other hormone replacement! A few women (who
tend to be 90% of our WTS patients) will need and benefit from OTC
or prescription strength progesterone cream due to classic residual
perimenopausal symptoms of irregular periods, heavy bleeding, PMS,
etc. (although many with menstrual irregularities will see them
resolve with the T3 therapy alone).
Since we have started using iodine testing and Iodoral or Lugol's
Solution for documented iodine deficiency in the last 6 months, it
will be interesting to see what role iodine deficiency may or may
not play in WTS.
Wilson suggests checking oral temperatures with a mercury or "fake"
mercury thermometer three times/day starting at 10 A.M. and every
three hours thereafter. We also add in the first reading in the
morning before arising which Broda Barnes MD termed "Basal Body
Temperature" which reflects the body's lowest temperature due to
the inactivity of sleeping and lower metabolic rate.
The four temperatures are added and divided by 4 to give an "average"
body temperature for the day.
We do not see anything unusual about the blood chemistry results
in WTS patients including their blood sugar readings, red cells
count, hemoglobin or hematocrits compared to other patients.
And of course they also have a normal blood T3, T4 and TSH by
definition.
Ellis: [Wait a minute... They also have normal T3, T4, and TSH
by definition? Then what is Wilson's Thyroid Syndrome? - Ellis]
We use 24 hour salivary cortisol testing when adrenal fatigue is
suspected, and have used Cortif (cortisone) in both men and women
who have demonstrated low cortisol readings on this test as well
as symptoms of reduced cortisol.
Generally this is low dose ( 5 - 25 mg) and tapered over a few
months in the hopes that the body's own adrenal gland will "kick
in" and start producing cortisol normally. The licorice root
extract DGL may assist in this process.
ABOUT VINTAGE MEDICAL GROUP
Our clinic specializes in bioidentical hormone replacement for
aging men and women who have demonstrated symptoms and objective
blood or salivary evidence of hormone lack. We have many men who
come to us for testosterone replacement which universally helps
them feel and function better. We use injectible testosterone
cypionate in 98% of our male clients.
We also specialize in women who have gone through surgical
(hysterectomy) or natural menopause and suffer from hot flashes,
night sweats, brain fog and vaginal dryness. We generally use
a "cocktail" of progesterone, Bi-EST, testosterone and DHEA
replacement (usually in the form of separate compounded creams)
for these women which frequently takes some time to "balance" in
the first month or two.
Once the dosing is "dialed in", they also feel and function
dramatically better! Usually these can all be combined into one
cream when the correct dosing is achieved, which makes it quite
affordable ( about $40 - 60/month).
A small percentage of our patients are prescribed HGH ( ~15%) only
because of the affordability factor. I'm sure 70 - 80% of our
clientele would prefer to use it and may well do so IF it ever
becomes generic again and the FDA allows compounders to make it,
or the FDA stops the protection racket of the Big Pharma companies
who make it and allow "biogeneric drugs" to become generic when
their patents run out (HGH should have become generic in 2003) so
the price could come to down to where it should be.
Another area we specialize in is Ozone injections for chronic pain
conditions. This is a therapy where a long 29G needle is inserted
into any soft tissue or joint that is chronically painful, and
Vitamin B12 and Ozone gas are injected directly into the tissue.
Because the needle is so small, there is very little pain from it.
The B12 and ozone seem to kick healing processes into gear and offer
fairly immediate pain relief in 80 - 85% in our experience.
Some may need only one injection, some need more frequent injections
go obtain complete relief. And of course some do not respond, but
that seems to be a minority. I had two injections in my right knee
joint over a 4 week period for a sub-patellar pain I developed in
early 2007 when I do heavy leg presses. The pain is GONE and has not
recurred despite the heavy lifting I do in the gym.
We will probably obtain the equipment necessary to start doing blood
ozone exposure/re-injection in the near future for treating systemic
diseases. This therapy has been used in Europe for many years, and
of course the information on it is quite suppressed in the US since
drug companies make no money on it!
Besides WTS, we also specialize in the gambit of thyroid hormone
conditions including hypothyroidism, sub-clinical hypothyroidism,
Hashimoto's Thyroiditis and Graves Disease. We mostly use Armour's
Thyroid for these patients (except Graves Disease which is
hyperthyroidism) and/or slow release T3.
Ellis: [Can you tell us where we can buy Armour's Thyroid?
Thanks. - Ellis]
We see excellent results with these bioidentical hormones.
We are also pursuing iodine deficiency as the underlying cause of
many of these conditions through 24 hour urinary iodine challenge
testing.
I also am pursuing iodine treatment as the possible "cure" for
atrial fibrillation, and have had success already in converting
patients with atrial fibrillation or flutter back to sinus rhythm.
This allows them to get off Coumadin, which is a huge benefit for
active folks (or anybody for that matter!).
Another area we are particularly strong is in the prevention and
treatment of coronary artery disease and congestive heart failure
in those patients who do not wish to proceed to invasive cardiology
procedures like angiograms, stents or bypass surgery, or have had
these done in the past and they have now "failed."
We use testosterone and HGH (if the patient can afford it) in men
and progesterone in women with angina as well as nitrates, beta
blockers and exercise (both aerobic endurance exercise and weight
training) with excellent results.
We do Advanced Lipid Testing for homocysteine, hsCRP, Lipoprotein(a),
fibrinogen, fasting insulin, HDL and LDL subclassification blood
testing to get to the root cause of their coronary disease, and
treat elevations in these critically important values primarily
with nutrients likem compounded high dose B vitamins, non-flush
niacin, lumbrokinase or nattokinase, high dose antioxidants, fish
oil, Co Q 10, exercise and testosterone (or progesterone in the
case of women).
Testosterone (and HGH) is also CRITICAL in the treatment of
congestive heart failure as they do increase myocardial contractility
when combined with CoQ10, D-ribose, L-carnitine and endurance
exercise.
Strengthening the heart muscle is achievable in many patients and
improves their exercise capacity and quality of life dramatically.
Since Cardiac Rehabilitation has been my specialty area for 36 years,
the ability to add these hormones and nutrients in the last 10 years
has made a profound difference in the improvement my patients make in
our rehabilitation program.
We also do metabolic testing for basal metabolic rate via oxygen
and carbon dioxide measurements which allows for determining what
percent of carbohydrates and what percent of fats are being used
for energy production. Appropriate dietary recommendations and
changes can then be made to assist with bodyfat losses.
We also use the same equipment for VO2 max and anaerobic threshold
testing in endurance athletes who seek to train more efficiently.
Hope that helps!
Randy Ice P.T.,C.C.S
Vintage Medical Group
Temecula, Calif.
(951) 676-3748
[Hello Randy. Yes, it helps to know what you do, and what we
can consult with you.
Randy is my personal choice as an advisor if I would ever have
to consult about male hormone replacement, and also if I would
ever have a very serious health problem (eg, endstage kidney
disease, heart disease, prostate cancer, etc.) I would first
want to consult with somebody with brains that I trust to guide
me to go in the right direction... that person is Randy.
Thanks, Randy! - Ellis]
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