A couple of months ago, I attended a conference in Las Vegas sponsored by the International Hormone Society.?? Bio-identical hormones were the main topic of discussion, obviously, and the thyroid gland came up repeatedly.
Keep in mind that proper functioning of the thyroid gland is critical when it comes to migraine headaches. In my book, The All-Natural Cure For Your Migraine Headache, I have a special chapter devoted to the 20% of migraine sufferers who don’t respond entirely to bio-identical sex hormone replenishment therapy.?? A large part of this 20% has to do with the thyroid gland.
When discussing the thyroid in Las Vegas, Dr. David Brownstein described the function of the mineral, iodine.?? The thyroid?? requires iodine to make up the two major products of the thyroid – T3 and T4.?? When a person is deficient in iodine then the thyroid cannot function properly and imbalances result.
In the past, when someone had low thyroid function, we just supplement with thyroid hormone.?? There is controversy in the medical community regarding exactly what type of thyroid hormone to use but I preferred Armour Thyroid.
Now with Dr. Bernstein’s results of using iodine with his patients, he was able to hold off on adding the thyroid hormone to his low thyroid patients regimen and achieved good results with iodine alone.
In terms of migraine management, I am preparing to alter and upgrade my treatment recommendations shortly.
As soon as we are finished, I will amend the book to a new edition with the latest recommendations and guidelines.
Andrew Jones, M.D.