Almost everyone knows somebody with thyroid problems and many times despite medication they still have significant symptoms.Hypothyroidism ( low thyroid function) falls into one of six patterns and several patterns may exist at the same time. Just having an awareness of these different patterns helps one to realize that thyroid medication is only a small part of the answer if in fact it is needed at all. This information can be very helpful for the person who has lab work and is told their thyroid is fine even though they have all of the classic thyroid symptoms.

When there are so many possible lab tests and areas to work with on a patient; why have we started working on the adrenals first on most people? Well as you will see in the chart below we can impact so many areas such as metabolism, nervous and muscular healing, detoxification capacity, inflammation balance, endocrine function and nearly everybody's concern : weight and fat distribution.

 Mercury toxicity is  serious health threat and needs at least consideration in most neurological illness, depression etc. We all have different exposure levels and different abilities to detoxify mercury so each person has to be considered individually. To keep this article short here I am going to reference a good article by Dr. Mark Hyman on what you should know about mercury toxicity.http://bit.ly/pmSyqj    Even his article is long so if you want the short attention span version scroll to the bottom of the article for the '10 truths and tips about mercury toxicity'.

How do we approach this issue at Winters Wellness Center?  First each person that see us fills out an online functional assessment that consists of 300 different questions that places your answers to the symptom questions into different categories such as heavy metal (mercury etc. ), nutrient deficiencies, adrenal, thyroid etc.  From this questionnaire we can determine how the body is being impacted and if metal toxicty is a priority or if something else could be the priority. If we determine from this and your health history that mercury or other metals metals may be a priority issue then we can test.

The tests involve testing if the immune system is reacting to metals thru a blood test called MELISA. The second test involves taking a substance DMSA which binds to mercury and other metals and measuring the metals that are excreted into the urine over the next 6 hours. If either of these tests show a problem we have very safe and gentle ways to help the body rid itself of this toxic burden and lay the groundwork for health restoratrion to occur.Again mercury toxicity is a serious problem - get more details in this article  http://bit.ly/pmSyqj  If you want to see if mercury and metal toxicity maybe impacting your health we have the tools and experience at Winters Wellness Center to help you.

We get depressed because our body isn't working right. What about stress- well that is one thing that when it is continuous causes our body to not work right. Stress can throw off our adrenal function which can contribute to depression. But we could just as easily be depressed because we have a digestive problem and we can't break down and absorb amino acids from which the body makes the nerve messengers called neurotransmitters. And we could also get depressed because  toxins in the body are causing some of the neurotransmitters to be overly stimulated. We could also have an issue where a hidden or longstanding infection is affecting the immune system and then in turn it is affecting the neurotransmitters. Think of how you feel when you have the flu- the brain symptoms with the flu are actually coming from the immune system.

One of my favorite tests relative to depression is a test which measures the neurotransmitters in urine. Not only can it tell us how to help a person  with their mood, concentration,anxiety etc. without drugs but it gives clues as to the problems in the first place. Just today I looked at a  neurotransmitter test on a person who for at least 16 years has been on multiple anti-depressants and they all stop working for her in 3-6 months and she has to be switched to new ones. She has also had multiple hospitalizations for suicidal thoughts. Well 9 out of 12 of her neurotransmitter levels were perfectly normal which is amazing. Histamine which the brain uses as a neurotransmitter was elevated but histamine is only made by the immune system. Another neurotransmitter that was elevated indicates the body is reacting to some kind of toxic issues. All of the neurotransmitters that could be influenced by her medications were entirely normal- then why 16 years of problems?
A toxic issue and an immune issue are affecting her brain. That could never be corrected by anti-depressant drugs no matter how many are tried or how long they are taken or how many dosage changes she has !!!  Can this lady get well now- I think so- we certainly have a fighting chance now that we know where to look for the cause of her problems.

After all people are not depressed due to a lack of anti-depressants although they can at times be helpful. They are depressed because their body isn't working right.