Let me say at the onset of this article, that the "natural treatments" I will be referring to, cannot substitute synthetic treatments in all cases but only in certain patients, with certain disorders. Many times natural treatments are incorporated into other medical treatments, for added benefit but any natural treatment should be discussed with your Doctor and researched thoroughly, when added to other medical treatments. Also be aware that when hormone replacement therapies are needed, treatments other than actual hormone replacement, carefully monitored, cannot be substituted.

In late 2002, I made a Doctor appointment because of worsening symptoms of fatigue, joint pain, anxiety alternating with depressive symptoms, dry skin, constipation, slow heart rate, spells of low blood pressure etc…
At the Doctor’s Office, I described my symptoms, making sure to include all of them, including the emotional ones. The Doctor immediately diagnosed me as having emotional problems, despite the fact that I had a lot of physical symptoms, not always related to an emotional disorder, such as the dry skin and joint pain, after all, I’m sure the Doctor, thought a big scrapping 220lb, 39 year old man, couldn’t possible have some type of disease process going on!
I suggested to this Doctor that I felt I had a physical, medical problem going on and I even asked; “Could this be my thyroid?”. The Doc simply replied “Could be.” and proceeded to write me out prescriptions for an anti-depressant, an anti-anxiety medication and a beta-blocker. All of these the Doctor felt would help me with my “emotional” problem.

I took the meds for about six weeks and continued to get worse, my symptoms increasing in severity, with each passing week, so I stopped taking these medications. I also made a new Doctor appointment about two months later, with a new Doctor, insisting he order me blood tests, including a thyroid panel. The tests were done and the results came back that I had hypothyroidism, with very high thyroid antibodies levels but the period of non-treatment and incorrect treatment, severely stressed my adrenal glands, so left me with both low-thyroid and “adrenal fatigue“. The adrenal fatigue aspect, also called “adrenal exhaustion” and “low adrenal reserve”, combined with the hypothyroidism, cause me to also experience the onset of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), which was debilitating.

Researchers have concluded that CFS can have different triggers for different patients but the triggers are usually some types of diseases, viruses, bacteria, etc…, that cause the immune system to be chronically activated. In my case, my hypothyroidism was caused by “autoimmune disease” of the thyroid gland, in other words, my immune system was attacking my own thyroid gland. This is also called “Hashimoto’s Disease/Thyroiditis” and it was causing constant activation of my immune system and CFS symptoms.

When the immune system is constantly activated, the adrenal glands cannot keep up this pace continually without getting exhausted/fatigued because the adrenals are so involved in helping our bodies survive the stress of disease and the resulting immune system activation.

The major stress hormone the adrenals send out to help with these stressors, is called “cortisol” (also called cortical) and this major “stress hormone”, is also our body’s own anti-inflammatory agent. The constant need to fight inflammation from a virus, autoimmune process, bacteria, severe allergies etc…, combined with the stress diseases can cause on the body, is what causes the low-adrenal function found in CFS in my opinion and in the opinion of many researchers.

Research over the past 15 years, in regard to CFS, has concluded that patients with the syndrome (also true of Fibromyalgia), have low cortical levels, indicating adrenal hypo-function. They also found however, that patients cannot be treated with the same steroids that patients with full blown “Adrenal Insufficiency” are, due to severe side effects and resulting adrenal suppression, so the medical community largely does not recognize a treatment of any kind for this form of adrenal fatigue.

In my case, I had repeated testing that clearly revealed that I had consistently low cortical levels, along with my hypothyroidism. My then Doctor, ruled out full blown adrenal insufficiency, with an “ACTH Stimulation Test”, which I passed with a normal result. He concluded because of this, that my low cortical levels, had no treatment available for it.

He began treating me for thyroid-only, with synthetic “Thyroid Hormone Replacement Medication”, called “Synthroid”, the most commonly prescribed for hypothyroid patients. My reaction to the medication was not favorable, mainly due to not being on a high enough dose and this is what inspired me to intensely research about hypothyroidism and co-existing adrenal fatigue, both of which resulted in my debilitating symptoms of CFS.

I found that there were indeed Doctors who do recognize and treat patients for these disorders and that they will use “natural” supplements to do so. I decided that natural treatment, also called “Holistic Treatment” was my preference because I witnessed over and over again, in my case and in the case of many other people I know, Doctors placing synthetics as a superior treatment over natural and the patients would not improve until they received natural treatments for their diseases/disorders! Certainly this is not always the case but it can be for certain patients and certain disorders. My wife for example experienced near-miraculous improvement from chronic yeast infection, by taking the natural supplement "pro-biotics", which could not be treated successfully with synthetic anti-fungals.

In my case, I first of all had my Doctor to switch me over to a natural brand of thyroid hormone replacement, called “Amour” because I suspected I might be one of the small percentage of patients needing the T-3 hormone found in Armour, because I was not concerting the T-4 only in Synthroid, into this other needed, more active T-3 hormone. Once on the proper dose of this natural hormone, I began to improve almost immediately but I also realize I was not on an adequate dose of the Synthroid, which would have also likely improved my hypothyroid symptoms.

For my adrenal fatigue, I found through research, that I could take natural supplements for it as well, including an over-the-counter natural adrenal hormone, called “DHEA”. I also found information on “Adrenal Glandulars” and multi-vitamins that contain those that boost the adrenals, such as B-12 and Vit. C, magnesium, selenium, zinc etc… I incorporated these supplements into my treatment and began to experience the most significant improvement in symptoms that I had seen to that point! Today, I have recovered significantly from these severe symptoms but unfortunately suffered due to under-treatment by less informed Doctors, for the first two years after diagnosis of hypothyroidism.

The Doctors I received much of the information about these supplements from, were “Osteopath Doctors” and MDs that incorporated “Holistic Remedies” into their treatment.

So remember these two type Physicians, can be extremely helpful to patients with serious health disorders, such as Thyroid Disease and CFS/Fibromyalgia. When natural treatments can be used, in my opinion, they are as effective and sometimes superior to synthetics for some patients, in certain cases.