Dabbling in alternative medicine

So in my previous post, I eventually described going to the doctor for fatigue. When I did that, I suspected that I might have hypothyroidism. Although the blood tests didn't show that to be the case, my sister convinced me that I might be experiencing a slowing of thyroid function and started taking a supplement she recommended.

The supplement is basically just iodine -- the stuff they put in salt to prevent thyroid problems. This particular supplement contains two different iodine compounds. My sister gets if from a doctor at the University of Pittsburgh who has a study in progress to test its effectiveness. (I don't know anything about his research and I'm not part of the study.)

I don't add a lot of salt to food and when I cook at home, I prefer uniodized sea salt. I figured, what the hell. It must be safe enough if they put it in salt.

I have noticed on difference since I started taking it. I sweat. This sounds strange, but I never used to sweat. It could be hot and humid and I'd barely even glow -- not even climbing chichen Itzen in June under the hot mid-day sun. Of course this meant that my body didn't cool off properly -- I was the queen of heat exhaustion.

Now I actually sweat it's hot out or I exert myself.

Not sweating is one of the subtle symptoms of an underfunctioning thyroid.

More recently I read Anne Louis Gittleman's Fast Track One-Day Detox Diet. It's not the first ALG book I've read. She's a total food nazi and I've never been able to stick with her food flush program, but I have lost weight and felt better when I've incorporated some of the principals of her nutritional philosophy: less refined carb, more veggies, more omega fats, less saturated fat. I even ate ground flaxseeds and drank organic, sugar free cranberry juice (and developed a taste for it straight).

I don't know if I'll have the discipline to do the 9-day diet and 1-day fast described in Fast Track, but something clicked when I read about estrogen dominance. I started reading more online and decided to try progesterone cream. I ordered it online and started using it Friday.

Already I am feeling the effect, I have more energy and I slept much better the last few nights. I was having a flairup of rosacea on my chest and face and it's cleared up on my chest. And somehow, I feel like I'm breathing easier, or deeper, or perhaps I'm just getting more out of each breath -- I don't know how to explain it but it feels good.

Wow!

That was when I started dabbling in alternative medicine.