Overcoming Thyroid Disorders, a book review

The more I read about thyroid disorders, the more I believe that they can be healed. So many of the books I’ve read have some of the same information, but they all seem to build upon each other as well, offering informational tid-bits that compliment the information in another book.

The most recent that I’ve read is Overcoming Thyroid Disorders by Dr. David Brownstein, M.D. (available on Amazon) and again I found myself getting excited about different ways to help heal my body.

Dr. Brownstein’s NEW Book, Overcoming Thyroid Disorders, 2nd Edition has been completely updated. This book shows how a holistic treatment program can effectively treat: Hypothyroidism Graves’ Disease Hashimoto’s Disease Fibromyalgia Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Arthritis And Much More!

Overcoming Thyroid Disorders provides information on safe and effective natural therapies to help the body heal itself. Dr. Brownstein provides over 30 actual case studies of his success in treating thyroid disorders.

Overcoming Thyroid Disorders contains information on:

• Natural Thyroid Hormone
• Bioidentical Natural Hormones
• Diet
• Vitamins and Minerals Important for Thyroid Function
• Detoxification and more.

My copy is full of yellow highlighter already and I’m on my way to experimenting with some of his ideas. Just a few of the many things I learned from his book:

“When adequate amounts of thyroid hormone are produced, the metabolic machinery inside each of the billions of cells runs at a normal pace. One by-product of this metabolic machinery is heat…

Maintaining a steady body temperature is one of the most crucial functions of the thyroid gland. many of the enzymes, vitamins, minerals, and chemical reactions that are utilized in the body are temperature sensitive.” pg 48

So when our bodies are in a normal temperature range, 97.8-98.2, all of the enzymes, vitamins, etc. can be fully optimized. When our body temperature is too low (or too high) our body has a harder time utilizing them.

“In evaluating individuals with chronic illness, physicians must keep in mind that we are not treating laboratory tests.” pg 64

“It is impossible to have a properly functioning thyroid gland without adequate Vitamin B12 levels in the body.” pg 88 (something that I’m currently dealing with is low B12 levels!)

He also talks quite a bit about Fibromyalgia, and on page 150 states that

“The diagnosis of fibromyalgia became much more prevelant after conventional medicine n=began to rely on the TSH test to diagnose thyroid problems. Before this reliance on the blood tests occurred, the diagnosis of hypothyroidism was primarily a clinical diagnosis. In other words, the physician was treating the patient and not the laboratory test. By relying on the blood tests, many cases of hypothyroidism began to be missed. As time progressed those individuals with untreated hypothyroidism began to develop signs and symptoms of fibromyalgia.” pg. 150

So he believes that in some cases, untreated hypothyroidism (where all the lab tests are normal but the people still feels ill) can show up as fibromyalgia while the blood tests won’t show hypothyroidism for years.

“At times of added stress on the body, the weakest part of the body will be affected first.” pg. 161

This is why some people show symptoms of hypothyroidism, or fibromyalgia, or chronic fatigue symdrome, or infertility……

Dr. Brownstein also talks about the importance of adrenal health in relation to the thyroid, how estrogen dominance causes the body to not be able to properly convert the inactive T4 hormone to the active T3, and also how important detoxification is to help thyroid healing and function.

I really enjoyed how easy to read this book was, yet extremely informative. I feel like I should grab another copy of it to hand out to others as I like to keep one on my shelf for easy reference!

Have you read this book? What did you think and what changes have you made?

*you can read more about thyroid disorders here: Natural Help for Thyroid Disorders

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Donielle Baker

owner and editor of Natural Fertility and Wellness at Natural Fertility and Wellness

I believe women can learn how to heal their bodies & balance their hormones through natural methods. An advocate for natural health, I have a passion for nourishing/real food nutrition and natural living. My personal background includes both infertility and miscarriage and I started Natural Fertility and Wellness in 2008 in order to share all of the information I found helpful in my journey to heal from PCOS and overcome infertility.

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