Hyperthyroid vs Hypothyroid vs Thyroid Storm | Diagnosis and How to Fix…

If you're a woman over 40 struggling with unexplained anxiety, weight changes, or heart palpitations, it might be more serious than you think. Today, we're exposing the truth about thyroid storms. Hyperthyroid, hypothyroid, the differences, the symptoms, and how God's design for health can guide you back to balance. By the way, I'm Dr. Tabitha, your Christian physician. I'm a triple board certified OB GYN and I love getting to the root cause of what is really going on in a woman's body. So let's get into it. Women over 40 are way more susceptible to thyroid issues, especially during perimenopause and menopause. Why is that? Well, the biggest reason is our hormones start changing, we go on the estrogen roller coaster. These shifts are being recognized by the thyroid. And here's the deal. The thyroid is our master gland. It is responsible for controlling our entire body, so it's constantly receiving input from all of our systems. The thyroid controls our metabolism, how quickly we utilize energy, whether or not we burn fat. It tells our bowels whether or not to move and our brain whether or not to function. So the thyroid is essential to be optimal during this perimenopausal time. And if it's not, you're going to struggle. There are two really common warning signs that women don't realize when it comes to their thyroid. Number one, their periods change. So women who are trying to get pregnant or worrying about their fertility, they might realize this sooner. Their periods are changing and they want to know why. So they go to the doctor and start investigating. We check for tsh, thyroid stimulating hormone, and we see what is your thyroid doing? Well, women in the perimenopausal years, they might have changes in their periods just as part of changes in their sex hormones. But is it the thyroid causing period changes or are those sex hormone changes causing the thyroid to respond and become dysfunctional? So it's really important that we look at the overall picture of what's going on with you during perimenopause. But I would say that irregular periods, heavy periods, those could be warning signs that your thyroid needs to be evaluated. The second most common warning sign that women don't realize and doctors don't even ask about or talk about is constipation. Constipation plagues women in perimenopause. If you are not having a regular bowel movement every single day or a couple times a day, you should be evacuating completely. It should look like a big snake in the Toilet. It should be formed and easy to pass. If that is not happening, it could be because your thyroid needs to be addressed. In a second, I'm going to talk about the risks associated with thyroid issues. But before I get into that, let's talk about the differences between thyroid storm hyperthyroidism and hypothyroidism thyroidism. We can tackle it from two different directions. First, we can talk about symptoms, how you're feeling associated with those conditions, or what the lab results look like, what your doctor sees to help diagnose those things. So first off, when you are going through a hyperthyroid storm, it is typically during a stressful event in your life. It could be a traumatic delivery. You just had a baby, you just had an emergency C section. There are many reasons why your thyroid kind kind of goes into this overdrive mode. The trauma that is created in your body is creating an excess cortisol response, adrenaline, epinephrine, all of these stress hormones, and you get stuck in this sympathetic mode of your nervous system, the fight or flight mode. Another issue is that your thyroid might be attacked by an autoimmune issue like Graves disease. If that starts to happen, the contents of all the stored up thyroid hormone in your thyroid will spill out into the bloodstream and you will feel all of that excess hormone in your body. That feels like heart racing, palpitations, sweating, anxiety. It's just this overactive thyroid situation that's happening, that is a thyroid storm. But if you're having this on an ongoing basis, but it's more insidious, you don't really remember, my question to you would be, do you have an autoimmune condition that hasn't been diagnosed? Are you on thyroid medication for hypothyroidism, low thyroid, and maybe you're over medicated. It's not normal for you to have those symptoms and it requires looking at the entire thyroid panel in your blood work. So I recommend ask your doctor for a TSH, a total and free T4, a total and free T3, a reverse T3, and then thyroid antibody levels. When we're talking about hypothyroidism, it's the opposite. Okay? Everything is slows down. So you have brain fog because your brain isn't functioning properly. You start to lose hair, your skin becomes, becomes so dry because the cells are not turning over and regenerating appropriately. And that is the general scenario that I see with probably 80% of my thyroid patients in my medical practice is just this picture of everything slowing down. Here's the key we have to start respecting our body and believing that it's always working for us. The Bible tells us this all the time. The body is working to be balanced, to thrive and be health, but we're looking at it the wrong way. We are acting like it's just sluggish and it no longer knows what it's doing and the thyroid just can't keep up. These are lies. The thyroid knows exactly what it's doing. It's responding to everything that you are experiencing. I would encourage you look for a functional provider or an integrative provider who really understands the nuances of thyroid function and, and understands that we have to look at the entire picture and get to the root cause of why this is happening for you. This affects millions of women and I see it every day in my medical practice. You come to me on your medications, you don't feel any better, and you're wondering why you're still struggling. And it's almost always because of a chronic gut infection that hasn't been addressed, a diet issue, liver congestion issue, or some unresolved trauma going on in your life. Just know that your body was made to heal. If you can start to believe that you really can reverse whatever's going on. If you're ready to take control of your thyroid health and live in alignment with God's design for your body, I've created a step by step guide for you. Click the link in the description and get started today. I'm often asked how faith based practices like prayer and fasting can help restore balance to the body. So I was just reading my Bible this morning and I came across Proverbs 4, verse 21 and 22. Do not let the words out of your sight. Keep them within your heart, for they are life to those who find them, and health to a man's whole body. So God says right in the Bible, keep my words at the forefront and you will have health to your whole body. And it's true. He talks about this all throughout the body. He tells you that your faith has made you well, that if you believe it, you will receive it. And First Corinthians is 6, verse 19 reminds us that our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. So if you have been saved, you have accepted Jesus as your Savior, the Holy Spirit lives inside of you. And so we are asked to honor our bodies and care for that temple. And when we do that, we can have health. So taking care of your thyroid just isn't about health. It's about honoring the body that God entrusted to you. So please just start believing that your body has your back. Believe that your body is working with you, not against you. If you can start to partner with your body and listen to it and really honor it and give it what it's screaming at you for, you will shift. I promise. Now that you understand the risks of thyroid issues, let's talk about how to balance your hormones naturally and sustainably. Click here to watch my next video and take the next step toward restoring your health.