Left in the dark by the medical profession

Since being diagnosed with Graves Disease (hyperthyroidism) I have been personally looking at the reasons why so many people I have spoken to seem to have one auto immune disease, and then boom, another one, then another.

There doesn’t seem to be such a thing as “one autoimmune disease”.

Then whilst watching Izabella Wentz on The Thyroid Secret The stone in the shoe theory was mentioned.

Basically, the theory is that medical professionals nowadays treat thyroid patients with a “band aid”. We go to them with a problem, for example a headache, they give us Paracetamol. They don’t look at the root cause of our problems. They don’t tell us to “take our shoe off and remove the stone!”

This poses the question as to why? Why are thyroid patients left in the dark about their treatments, and left resorting to Facebook groups for support?

Every day I log in to Facebook and I see yet another thyroid sufferer asking “are my levels normal, or should my TSH be like this?”

It is wrong on so many levels that we are left to fend for ourselves.

Since being diagnosed with Graves disease and Hyperthyroidism and even since having my total thyroidectomy, all of my knowledge has come from doing my own research into my condition and turning to others for support and advice. A friend and I have even resorted to setting up our own local thyroid support group.

All this should be provided by the medical profession. We are led to believe that the one day magical levothyroxine will cure all our problems and sent on our way, but that is far from the truth. It took my 2 years of levo treatment to find out that my lansaprazole was interferring with my thyroid meds and I shouldn’t be taking them together. Not one GP who prescribed these tablets advised me of this!.

When it comes to the medical profession it is unlikely that they will advise you of the fact, that when you have one autoimmune disease, you will probably get another. This because once your body starts attacking a certain part for example your thyroid in the case of Graves disease or Hashimotos thyroiditis, once it has destroyed that part, the trigger for your autoimmune issue will go in search of another part of the body to attack for instance your muscles and joints causing Rheumatoid arthritis.

This is why patients with autoimmune conditions need to try and discover what triggers their autoimmune process. Is it the gut, or gluten or wheat intolerancy?

What ever it is, in order to minimise the chances of developing another auto immune disease, Doctors and medics should be helping us find out the cause of the autoimmunity and nor just sending us away with prescription after prescription

#autoimmunedisease #glutenfree #rheumatoidarthritis #thyroid #levothyroxine #hyperthyroidism #hypothyroidism #medications #gravesdisease