Sure Nancy,

Here it is. A few other ideas come to mind that I hope you will find helpful. Practice makes perfect. I believe we can often improve in many areas of our lives with effort and practice. If we want to get better at piano, we can practice piano. You mentioned that you would love to get through the day without having to take something to get your metabolism going. In a sense, metabolism can be defined by how fast our bodies move. Perhaps that's something that can be improved with practice as well. I've recommended this approach to many people (and do it myself) and many are amazed at how much better and stronger and faster they feel.

You can set a timer or an alarm clock to go off every 2 hours during the day. Everytime it goes off you can excuse yourself from your desk and find a place to move quickly for 30-40 seconds. The idea is not to hurt any of your joints. The idea is to not hurt anything. The idea is simply to move parts of your body faster, faster, faster, faster, until you are moving them just as fast as you can without hurting anything. By so doing, you are sending exclamation points to your brain to move your body faster. If you exercise moving a lot of weight, you'll be able to move more weight. If you exercise for endurance, you'll be able to exercise longer. But if you exercise for speed, your body will tend to move faster. Your reflexes will speed up, and you'll be able to get more done more quickly and you'll feel more resourceful. With 'fastercize' you won't wear yourself out, you'll energize yourself. You'll be done before you ever start to get tired or break a sweat. Just put the timer on each morning and then OBEY THE TIMER. Don't think about doing 20-40 seconds worth of fast movement, just do it and I'm certain that you'll feel significantly better in just a few days. You can do curls for your biceps, military presses for your deltoids or shoulders, easy push-ups, dance moves for your abdomen. You can exercise any part of your body that you'd like to get in better shape, but remember that speed is the most important factor (not weight or resistance). In fact, these exercises can be done without weights or resistance of any kind. And prepared to be very sore the next day, especially if you exercise the same muscles for 3 sets or more..

Best wishes,
Denis Wilson, MD  

One alternative is to travel to a doctor that does seem qualified. Many patients travel long distances for treatment. Another alternative is to interest a doctor in your area to work with you. That may not be as hard as it might sound. Most doctors that are currently treating WTS found out about it from their patients. This Patient Guide shows you how to go about looking for a doctor and also how to approach a doctor and exactly what to say. It also describes how to use the CD to make it easy for a doctor to find out more. You may want to approach a doctor you already know, or you could try calling a local health food store and asking them if they are aware of any alternatively minded physicians.

Warmly,
Denis Wilson, MD  

Yes, as with almost any physical stress, after successful suppression therapy for Graves' patients can develop low temperatures even though theri thyroid blood tests are normal. By suppression therapy you may mean antithyroid drugs such as PTU or Tapazole. During treatment with such drugs thyroid function tests (tft's) are often taken every two to three months.

On the other hand, you may mean radiation treatment. After radiation treatment blood tests are usually taken on a monthly base to see if and when a patient may need to start life-long thyroid replacement treatment (usually a T4-containing medicine).

If the patient has a history of having Graves' but received radiation therapy years ago is currently being maintained on a T4-containing medicine then the approach to that patient could be the same as for any other hypothyroid patient.

If the patient is currently, or recently post Graves' disease then the approach might include supportive herbal treatment such as ThyroCalm Px. Please call 800-420-5801 to make an appointment to speak with a physician if you'd like to discuss a particular case in more detail.++