As many of you know, I am big on dispelling “flat-earth” theories in health care. Just because something is published in “peer-reviewed” articles means very little to me. For anyone who takes that information at face-value, I urge you to read “Overdosed America” by Dr. John Abramson. It is a fantastic look at some of the truths that go one behind the scenes of pharmaceutical research.
I have written several posts on thyroid function and have also posted an article about iodine on my facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/Solutions-Integrative-Health-Care/167024840053867. Iodine is fuel for your thyroid to function effficiently. However, what I am going to write about this time, many people are completely unaware of; medications with fluoride in them. Much has been written on the affect that fluoride has on thyroid metabolism, but not much has been said about medications that have an adverse affect on thyroid function; directly.
This information came from the Fluoride Toxicity Research Collaborative. I am only going to list what I consider to be the most common medications used, but for a full list see the FTRC website at http://www.slweb.org/ftrc.html.
- Prevacid
- Cipro
- Levaquin
- Prozac
- Paxil
- Luvox
- Celexa
- Lexapro
- Diflucan
- Lipitor
- Vytorin
- Celebrex
- Advair
- Avodart
The medications in bold are more pertinent to our discussion here as what they are prescribed for what can be directly related to insufficient thyroid function. Anxiety and depression are two very common symptoms related to thyroid disease. Pathognomonic (meaning a particular sign whose presence means that a particular disease is present beyond any doubt) of hypothyroidism is an elevated cholesterol. So, the medication used to lower blood cholesterol levels can actually cause thyroid disease directly, not just indirectly.
All this on top of the aspect of these medications inhibit the body’s ability to convert thyroid hormone.
The very medications used to alleviate symptoms actually worsen the cause.
