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Holistic Solutions for Celiac Disease in Kingston, NY

January 19, 2016 by drchrista 3 Comments

Whole-body wellness for Celiac disease in Kingston, NY

Are you living with Celiac disease in Kingston, NY (or anywhere, really)? Are you frustrated that despite strictly adhering to a gluten-free diet, you still suffer from bouts of diarrhea, constipation, stomach upset, bloating or abdominal pain? Do you frequently have other symptoms like constant fatigue, headaches, achey joints, or muscle pain that leave you feeling run down and unable to accomplish what you need to? Do you have trouble getting enough restful & restorative sleep to feel your best each day?

If you’re looking for better solutions to heal from Celiac disease, we can help!

While it’s true that there is no cure for Celiac disease, your body can heal from the damage caused by CD. Once gluten is completely removed from the diet, we know that cells of the small intestine can repair themselves to create a healthier gut, leading to a decrease in symptoms. However, it often takes more than just removing gluten to restore the integrity of the gut lining and limit antibody formation.

Other foods, particularly other grains, can cause cross-reactivity. This is when there is enough overlap between the protein structures that similar antibodies are made, even though gluten itself is not consumed. Therefore, even on a gluten-free diet, chronic inflammation of the gut can continue to be an issue. This often results in continued symptoms.

If you have been diagnosed with Celiac disease, the imbalance and inflammation in your gut has been occurring for a period of months, probably even years, before you started having the symptoms that lead to your diagnosis. In that time, other changes in gut function may have occurred that are also preventing you from healing from the symptoms of CD, such as gut flora imbalances or SIBO infections (Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth). While a gluten-free diet is the first step in recovering from such imbalances, more may need to be done, including the removal of other types of foods that may be ‘feeding’ the bad bacteria in your gut.

Another reason why you may still have symptoms is that there is still an immune system imbalance. While removing gluten from your diet helps stop the damage of your intestine, it may not be enough to calm down the chronic inflammation of your immune system. Left unchecked, this chronic inflammation may lead to develop of other autoimmune diseases in the future.

In the meantime, this chronic inflammation can drive hormone imbalances that lead to poor sleep, chronic fatigue and malaise, muscle aches, joint pain, headaches or brain fog. The chronically elevated levels of cortisol in response to chronic inflammation can also cause depletion of hormones like progesterone and testosterone. This may result in low libido, mood swings, increased PMS symptoms or even infertility.

The symptoms and problems caused by Celiac disease can show up in all parts of the body. That’s why it takes a holistic solution to find true wellness. If you’d like to learn more about a functional medicine approach to Celiac disease, please read this article. You can also learn more about why a gluten-free diet may not be enough of a solution here.

If you are suffering with Celiac disease in Kingston, NY there is a better solution. I work with patients regularly just like you, to help them find the diet and lifestyle based solutions to feel better and have more energy. I offer a free 15 minute consultation if you would like to find out more about how I can specifically help you. Call me at 845-687-6387 to find out how I can help you live better with Celiac Disease in Kingston, NY.

Hudson Valley: Help for your hypothyroid

January 11, 2016 by drchrista 1 Comment

Do these symptoms of a hypothyroid sound all too familiar? You’re tired all of the time. You’re hair is thinning or falling out and you don’t know how to make it stop. Despite dieting carefully and watching what you eat, you seem to continue to gain weight- and can’t ever get it off. You absolutely cannot go without a pair of big thick wool socks in the winter because your feet are cold all of the time. You experience brain fog that takes two or three cups of coffee to ‘fix’ and you wonder if that prescription anti-depressant is helping with that at all.

If you’re struggling with hypothyroidism, you’re not alone. And I want you to know that you’ve come to the right place. I work with patients like you everyday. I help them find relief from their hypothyroid symptoms beyond medication.

You see, there’s a couple of important things you need to know about hypothyroidism in order to get real relief from your symptoms.

You need more than just TSH measured to assess symptoms of a hypothyroid.

TSH simply measures the brain’s ability to stimulate the thyroid gland. However, to truly know what is causing an under-functioning thyroid, a full thyroid panel must be done and considered, including TSH, Total T4, Total T3, Free T4, Free T3, T3 Uptake, Reverse T3 and TPO antibodies. It is totally possible to have ‘normal’ TSH and still have hypothyroid symptoms! If T4 is normal for example, the brain will think there is plenty of thyroid hormone and not make as much TSH. But if there is inflammation in the body, which can inhibit the conversion of T4 to the active form T3, then not enough T3 can get into the cells where it has it’s effect. Thus, leading to signs and symptoms of hypothyroidism, even though TSH and T4 are within normal ranges!

80% of hypothyroid cases in the U.S. are attributable to Hashimoto’s hypothyroid

Many cases of hypothyroidism in the U.S. are actually the result of an autoimmune disease that attacks and destroys the cells of thyroid gland. This results in a decreased ability to produce adequate thyroid hormone over time. These folks often have to keep increasing their dose of thyroid medication in order to feel normal. In others, the right dose for them seems to be all over the map, fluctuating frequently. The only way to confirm Hashimoto’s is to do a blood test for antibodies to the thyroid gland. Thyroid peroxidase antibodies are the most common, but Thyroglobulin antibodies may be present too.

Cases of Hashimoto’s hypothyroid are autoimmune diseases- the immune system needs to be addressed too!

The sad fact is that many hypothyroid patients are giving prescriptions for replacement hormone and told that’s it; that’s all they can do and they will be on the medications for life. However, there is so much more that can be done! Implementing an anti-inflammatory diet and beginning to balance the immune system can retard it’s attacks on the thyroid gland. Focusing on a nutritious diet that decreases the inflammation can also help with stubborn weight loss and even help to regrow thinning hair. More importantly, correcting the immune system imbalance early can help prevent other autoimmune disease from developing in the future.

If you’d like to read some indepth articles I’ve written about hypothyroid and Hashimoto’s, go here, here and here. You can also check out this short video.

If you live in the Hudson Valley, have hypothyroidism and want to learn about holistic solutions for your symptoms, I invite you to call my office and learn more about how I can help you. I offer a risk-free, complimentary 15 minute consultation so you learn about how I can help you. Call me today at 845-687-6387.

Celiac disease: What your doctor hasn’t told you

November 24, 2015 by drchrista 3 Comments

It can be difficult to adjust to a gluten-free life after being diagnosed with Celiac disease, especially if the only thing your doctor has told you about your new diagnosis and lifestyle is “don’t eat gluten.” Thankfully, now there are many groups and organizations to help the newly diagnosed find the information they need. There are also many more food choices available in the marketplace and they are more accessible now than ever. Even most large chain grocery stores have a gluten-free section now.

It wasn’t always this way. I remember when my mom was first diagnosed with Celiac disease. There were only one or two organizations providing reliable information. The ‘can have’ and ‘can’t have’ lists changed rapidly, especially regarding certain food additives like ‘modified food starch’ and its ilk. But the worst was the few gluten-free foods available. Pastas and breads made with brown rice flour that tasted like eating sand. I still remember attending a meeting of a local Celiac support group and a woman holding a gluten-free product in her hands, exorting the group “this is not a health food.” That stuck with me.

As I started to study more functional medicine, and learn more about leaky gut- what causes it and how to heal it, and why its such a key part of addressing all autoimmune disease, including Celiac disease- I finally started to understand what this woman meant.

If you have Celiac disease, going gluten-free may be enough to make your GI symptoms go away. You might not feel the bloating or have the constant diarrhea that you experienced before, but that doesn’t mean its enough to heal the damage caused by the Celiac disease in the first place. That’s the part your doctor probably left out. So if you really want to heal- to get to the root cause of the issue- these are a couple things you need to keep in mind.

Other grains can cause cross-reactions of the immune system that still lead to antibody formation.

In fact, its not uncommon to see patients on gluten-free diets develop sensitivities and intolerances to other grains. I’ve seen patients become sensitive to corn, amaranth, tapioca, even rice. In general, when I have a patient with Celiac disease report to me that they are stilling having symptoms of inflammation, even on a gluten-free diet, I have them do a trial elimination of ALL grains right away.

Gluten-free processed foods are no healthier for you than their wheat-laden counterparts.

I’m sure you’ve looked at the ingredients on the package of a gluten-free bread or pasta. (You do still read the ingredients even though its labeled gluten-free, right?) Potato starch and tapioca starch are often used because they have a finer texture than rice flour- which often gives the product that aforementioned ‘sand’ texture. The problem with these starches though, is that they are highly processed- most of the nutrients are processed out and what is left is the pure carbohydrate. This changes the speed at which the carbohydrate is digested and usually leads to a high blood sugar spike afterward. The higher the blood sugar goes, the higher insulin needs to go. Over time, this mechanism leads to insulin-resistance or what many refer to as “pre-diabetes.” Along the way, this increase in insulin may make it harder to maintain your weight, lead to increased cortisol production and belly fat, and cause imbalances in several hormonal pathways. It doesn’t matter that these products are gluten-free. Gluten is a protein; the refined and processed starches in these products are the often the real problem.

Your Celiac diagnosis is the end stage of a long process that has been going on in your body for years.

It is now accepted that gluten-intolerance and its symptoms are better represented by a spectrum. There are folks in the middle who have various negative symptoms when they eat gluten and feel much better when not eating it, but have not yet reached the threshold for a diagnosis of Celiac disease. Current research from Dr. Alessio Fassano’s lab (he’s the guy publishing a bulk of the research on Celiac disease today) suggests that if these people continue to eat gluten despite their reactions to it AND have the gene the express Celiac disease, they will eventually express full-blown Celiac disease. (Note here that even if they don’t have a gene for CD, but for perhaps another autoimmune disease, this gene may be triggered the same way). If you look back at your own health history, its pretty likely that you’ve known something wasn’t right for years before your diagnosis. Chronic depression, severe PMS, chronic diarrhea or stomach upsets, anxiety about eating out or whether there would be a bathroom nearby when you needed it, acne or chronic skin issues, headache or brain fog, unexplained neurological symptoms- you’ve known these things weren’t ‘normal’ but nobody could tell you what they were. Once you were diagnosed with Celiac disease, a lot of those chronic symptoms began to make sense. They were subtle ways your body was telling you something was wrong.

Because this has been a drawn-process, happening over years, true healing is going to take time to work through. And very likely it will take more than just going gluten-free. The damage in your gut has lead to poor nutrient absorption and there may have even been negative compensations that have developed over time in response to the lack of key nutrients. Vitamins and minerals will need to be replaced. They will need to be replaced in a smart and efficient way, not by just taking a multi-vitamin pill and calling it a day.

The best way to go about this is to work with a functional medicine practitioner who understands Celiac disease and will help you find an integrative, whole-body solution to healing. If you’re ready to start the journey to a deeper level of healing and want some experienced guidance, give me a call at 845-687-6387. I work with patients locally in the Hudson Valley region, but I am also available to consult with non-local patients via telephone or Skype.

Not sure if you’re ready to commit yet? That’s OK too- I still want to do what I can to help you.

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Your brain on Movement

August 3, 2015 by drchrista Leave a Comment

Our big, wonderful brains. Arguably what makes us distinct as humans. We like to think that our brains developed in order to give us the ability to think and to create- and therefore give us the advantage that allowed us to develop language, art and civilization.

But this is wrong.

Scientist Daniel Wolpert puts it best: “We have a brain for one reason only: to produce adaptable and complex movements.”

The largest amount of data coming into your brain at any given moment is coming from the musculoskeletal system and the smooth muscle of other organ systems like the digestive system. Mechanoreceptors in every joint, every muscle, every tendon of your body are constantly telling your brain about where your body, and each part of it, is in space, something we call ‘proprioception.”

This information comes in to the primary somatosensory cortex- a strip of the neocortex that runs roughly from the top of your ear to the apex of your skull on both sides. It is organized in a way that it reflects perfectly how the body itself is organized (the part that receives information from the hand is next to the part that receives information from the lower arm) and its weighted according to where we have the most nerve endings/receive the most sensory input (the areas receiving information from the hands, feet, lips and genitalia for example are much bigger than the areas receiving information from the low back or the buttocks.)

Directly in front of the primary somatosensory cortex is the primary motor cortex- it gets the information about where your body is in space from the primary somatosensory cortex and then uses that information to decide which motor pattern to use. In order to reach for a glass of water, your brain needs to first know where your hand, arm, elbow and shoulder are so that it can tell those muscles and joints exactly how much to move and in what directs in order to reach out and grasp that glass of water.

This all happens so quickly, so eloquently, so seamlessly that though we can create robots that can master the game of chess, they can’t move the pieces around the board as deftly as even a child can.

So what does this mean for our brains and brain health?

Well, to begin with, your brain works much like your muscles- if you use them, they get stronger. And if you don’t they get weaker and less useful. As we move, we get stronger (and smarter) because the movement of our bodies and the subsequent firing of neurons that that requires causes the release of a chemical called BDNF- brain derived neurotrophic factor, or as one author put it “Miracle-Gro for the brain.” Its whole purpose is to stimulate growth of brain cells- not just in the parts of the brain most concerned with movement- but throughout the entire organ.

In a formal literature review, researcher Frank W. Booth showed that lack of movement was a factor in over 20 different chronic diseases. But even more poignantly, he wrote in his review “[s]edentary lifestyle is associated with lower cognitive skills.” Further studies showed that cognitive skills do not decline simply because we get older, they decline because we move less.

Not only is movement a key piece of preventing and addressing dementia and Alzheimer’s, but it has also been shown to be as effective as SSRIs in treatment of depression, with longer lasting benefits and less side effects too.

In short, you need to move to have and keep a healthy, keen brain throughout your life.

Exercise is definitely part of this, but it is only a part. We generally think of exercise as any movement we do in order to stay healthy and fit. Movement is broader than this. Movement is anything that changes the loads on your cells and tissues. A simple changing of the load on your muscles will cause a change in the feedback an embedded mechanoreceptor will give the brain about where that muscle is in space. Therefore movement can be as simple as changing the focus of your eyes from near distance to far, getting goosebumps from a chill in the air, getting up from being seated on the floor, or even evacuating your bowels- there is a reason we call it a ‘bowel movement‘ and not a bowel exercise.

Movement should happen throughout that day, all day long, providing plenty of input to the brain and stimulus for new neuronal growth. In contrast, when we spend 8, 10 or 12 hours a day being sedentary, sitting in a chair, and then go to the gym for an hour, we may get enough exercise to keep our waistline from expanding, but we are not getting enough of the movement we really need keep our brains happy and healthy.

The best part about having a movement practice as opposed to ‘exercising’ is that it can be much easier to fit into what is probably already a busy life. Find errands you can do by walking instead of in the car. Growing a vegetable garden can provide more nourishment than than just from the food alone. Moving your positions through the day from standing to sitting on the floor and back again can provide plenty of novel movement and loads for your body. Working in the kitchen to cook can provide a nourishing meal and nourishing movement at the same time. Play with your kids on the playground instead of sitting on the bench and starring at your phone while they play. Walk the dog in the evenings instead of watching another hour of TV. Its not hard: walk, play, crawl, hike, lifting, bend, run, swing, hang- pretty much do anything but sit and watch TV or zone out in front of screen.

If you’ve read this far, thank you. But now, for the sake of your brain health, please get out there and move!

6 “hidden” sources of stress

July 21, 2015 by drchrista Leave a Comment

Stress. It is ubiquitous in this modern age, so much so that most of us consider it inevitable. However, our relationship with stress over the last hundred years or so is vastly different from our relationship with it for the vast majority of our evolution as a species.

For most of our time on this Earth, stress was a punctuated, limited experience. The saber-tooth tiger chased us, we ran away and once safe in our cave, we could rest, relax and repair wounds, tissue damage and even metabolic damaged incurred on our getaway.

Unfortunately, nowadays that ‘rest, relax and repair’ phase never comes and so the damage builds and builds. Even if we don’t feel ‘stressed,’ our bodies may be experiencing stress. Though most of us associate ‘stress’ with psychoemotional stressors, we can experience ill effects from physical stressors too- and the body does not distinguish between physical and mental stresses.

So what are some ‘hidden’ sources of physical stress that might be contributing to your overall stress and slowly eroding away your health?

1. Food intolerances. Intolerances are different immunologically than a true food ‘allergy’ so the symptoms can be a lot more subtle. Headaches, fatigue, joint pain, skin rashes, and other chronic conditions can be symptoms of a gut being assaulted regularly by foods it doesn’t tolerate. Since the majority of the your immune system resides in your gut, this can create imbalances that can set the stage for autoimmune disease.

2. Poor sleep. Not just a lack of sleep, which most of us have experienced as a stress, but a lack of quality, restorative sleep. Sleep apnea is an all-to-common manifestations of this. If your body is not getting enough oxygen and alarms are constantly going off in your brain to wake up and breathe, you can be in bed ‘sleeping’ for 8-10 hours and still be tired and fatigued throughout the day. Another thing that can negatively impact your sleep quality is electromagnetic radiation from any electronics. Current evidence suggests that EMR disrupts the circadian rhythms that govern our sleep-wake cycles deep in a part of the brain called the pineal gland. Set your phone to ‘airplane mode,’ turn off the wireless router and unplug whatever electronics you can at night. They draw a small current even if plugged, but ‘off.’ Put all bedroom electronics on a power strip so you only have to unplug one thing to kill the electricity to them all at night.

3. Nutrient deficiencies. Most of us have moved away from eating nutrient-dense whole foods for most of our calorie intake. Modern farming practices can often deplete the soil of important minerals like magnesium and selenium and because of this, even organic produce may not be as nutrient dense as the food our grandparents ate. Additionally, in trying to digest process foods, our bodies are often depleted of more vitamins and minerals that we receive from the food itself. In dealing with increased stress, we use up our stores of B vitamins, Vitamin C and magnesium.

4. Blood sugar imbalances. Have you ever experienced the feeling of being ‘hangry,’ when you are so hungry your mood tanks and you get mad at everyone and everything until you get something to eat? Or have you ever had that afternoon ‘food coma’ where all you want to do about an hour after lunch is take a nap? These are symptoms that your blood sugar is unbalanced. One way that your body deals with low blood sugar is to secrete cortisol, our stress hormone, which mobilizes stored glucose from the liver in order to make it available to brain cells. Though this is a key survival adaptation, particularly in times where food is scarce, when this leads to elevated cortisol levels on a daily basis, it can suppress the immune system and lead to problems regulating our inflammatory response.

5. Sex hormone imbalances. Cortisol is made primarily from progesterone, but can be made from estrogen, testosterone and DHEA as well. Poor libido, changes in menstrual cycles, changes in PMS, infertility and erectile dysfunction may all have their route cause in stress that robs of us of our sex hormone balance.

6. Exercise. Bet you didn’t see that one coming? Exercise is a stress, usually a good one. But too much, too frequently, especially ‘cardio,’ can overtax the adrenals and result in overproduction of cortisol. In a healthy person, this is not problematic, in fact, it helps the body be better prepared for future stresses, but if you have a chronic health condition, or any one of the hidden sources of stress listed above, it may useful to reevaluate what kind of exercise you are doing and for how long. Strength training workouts are less ‘stressful’ to the adrenal glands then long steady-state cardio workouts. Additionally, short, high-intensity interval workouts appear to be less taxing on the adrenals glands than a steady-state cardio workout as well. If a patient is suffering from stress from too much of the wrong kind of exercise, I will also recommend moving more and exercising less. Focus on things like walking, playing outdoors, standing instead of sitting, gardening, etc.- activities that are fun, can be fit into your daily routine (as opposed to having to carve out extra time in an already hectic schedule to go to the gym) and move your body in new and novels ways, instead of the repetitive motion of most cardio exercises.

Ancestral Health

August 20, 2014 by drchrista Leave a Comment

We have more access to more information about health and disease than at any other period of human history and yet, we are arguably the most unhealthy we have ever been.

Here in the U.S., the sky-rocketing rates of obesity are a daily news story. Rates of chronic illness like heart disease, diabetes, arthritis and autoimmune disease are increasing at alarming rates. Diseases we thought only happened in aging adults are occurring in younger children.

Ironic isn’t?

If you’re old enough, you may remember a time when obesity was rare; when cancer was rare and only your rapidly aging grandpa has developed ‘diabeetus.’ So what happened? What has caused such a profound change in our health?

There are many answers to that question and as of yet, no proven smoking gun. Searching through the myriad of possibilities would take time we don’t have. What we need is a framework for understanding what effects health and gives us a blueprint to search for the place where we seem to have gone off the map.

The concept of ancestral health is that framework.

We think that cavemen lived ‘short, brutish’ lives, but archeology says that is not really the whole story. Sure, life expectancy was low, but that was a population average, mostly skewed because childbirth was such a dicey proposition. There were plenty of early humans who survived well into old age if they managed to survive disease epidemics, broken bones or becoming a meal for another creature. The point is, even if they made it to past all those hurdles, obesity heart disease and poor health weren’t destined for them simply by virtue of having reached that age.

From what archeology studies tell us, hunter-gatherers were lean, well-built with little tooth decay and no need for orthodontics. By studying modern hunter-gatherer tribes, we have inferred that they spent an average of 20 hours a week engaged in activities necessary for survival, spending the rest of their free time visiting relatives, creating art, or engaged in other leisure activities.

Can you imagine? All your needs met in the space of a part-time job? Very little stress and plenty of time to kick back, relax and enjoy life. No running yourself ragged, running in literal circles, going to gym to keep fit. No having to watch every last piece of food you ate in order to stay trim. No smartphone constantly ringing with requests from people who need something from you…right now! Growing old gracefully, with a strong, supple body. Getting plenty of restful sleep each and every night. Unburdened joy. Not sounding so bad, eh?

So how do this relate to health?

Well I’m glad you asked because you see, we have those same bodies. Bodies that want to be lean and fit and healthy and strong. It is our genetic potential and can be our genetic reality under the right circumstances. The problem is that we have changed the rules of the game much faster than our ancient bodies can keep up with and adapt sufficiently to. Since World War II, we have introduced 50,000 novel chemicals into our environment. We haven’t studied the long-term safety of most of these, let alone the combinations of them that we are exposed to daily. GMOs in our food supply, animals raised on grain instead of grass, pharmaceutical drugs, indoor lighting, smartphones, tablets and laptops, constant stress, automobiles- all are things that are completely new to humans beings in the last 100 or so years. All are interacting in ways that eroding our health.

The sad fact is that many of us don’t eat real food anymore. Many of us spend hours a day only exercising the tiny muscles in our hands while sitting on the biggest muscles of our hips and thighs. This is not how our bodies were designed to function and it is slowly killing us.

Using this framework, I make recommendations to my patients to get their current reality to be more congruent with their ancient genetics. Why? Because when these two are aligned, improved health is often the outcome. I may encourage patients to eat a more whole food diet, or to sleep in pattern that aligned with their brain’s ingrained circadian rhythms or to move and exercise in way that builds so-called ‘functional movement’ patterns. In doing so, we honor the innate wisdom of our bodies and their desire to be healthy.

Up and at ’em with B vitamins

October 3, 2012 by drchrista Leave a Comment

Read below and see if any of these ring a bell:

heart disease
hypoglycemia (low blood sugar)
neuritis/neuralgia (nerve pain)
depression and/or anxiety
weakness & fatigue
exhaustion after eating a meal
poor or lack of appetite
cravings for sweets
headaches, noise sensitivity
insomnia
nervousness
forgetfulness
severe apprehension/uneasiness
unusual fear, rage, or hostility
hallucinations
a constant and almost debilitating fear that something terrible is going to happen

You may be asking what these things could possibly have in common. Well, I’ll tell you. They are all symptoms of B-complex deficiency syndrome (BCDS).

We take for granted that in our culture of abundance, people could suffer from such a seemingly archaic syndrome. Everything is fortified with B vitamins right??? But that is also the problem. B vitamins are co-factors (helpers) for many enzymes in the body. No B vitamins, no properly working enzymes. Highly processed foods often leave the body with a negative B vitamin balance because they require B vitamins to be digested, but then put nothing back in to your system. It’s like overdrawing your bank account. The chemically-synthesized versions that are added back into the food during the fortification process are not the same as the naturally occurring versions of these vitamins. In fact, some of the B vitamins, like B4, cannot be synthesized.

So if you ate a lot of junk food or drank a lot of alcohol this holiday season, that sluggish, anxious or depressed feeling you’re having may be more than just a case of the “Mondays.” That feeling may be your body’s way of saying “I need REAL food! I need REAL B vitamins- STAT!”

An interesting note here is the children are especially sensitive to insufficient amounts of B vitamins and it often shows up first as mental and emotional instability. If you have a teenager, you know this full well. So if your child starts to show symptoms like those above, good food and a quality B vitamin supplement, like that from Standard Process, may be warranted before a prescription for powerful psychoactive drugs.

The information in this article is intended for educational purposes only and is not meant to diagnose or treat any symptoms you may be having. Consult your physician before stopping or starting any medications or natural supplements.

The Pill: Good or Bad?

September 25, 2012 by drchrista Leave a Comment

May 9th marked the 50th anniversary of the FDA’s approval of “the Pill” for birth control use. Such a little thing, yet such a big deal. Nancy Gibbs, in an article for TIME marking this historic anniversary, states that this little pill has “rearranged the furniture of human relations in ways we’ve argued about ever since.”

The TIME article is a fascinating review of just how this little pill has changed women roles and, arguably men’s roles too, as well their access to opportunities since its approval and widespread use in the 60s. But what I couldn’t help but wondering about is the widespread impact to women’s health.

Gates sites a study released in March of this year that followed 46,000 Pill users for over 40 years. The finding? That women on the Pill are less likely to die prematurely from any cause.

But is this effect from the Pill or could it be due to sociologic factors? An alternate take on this finding is that women on the Pill demonstrate more motivation to seek preventative healthcare then those not taking the pill.

But sociologic retrospectives aside, has the Pill made us more healthy? The debate over the Pill’s effect on breast cancer still lacks decisive evidence. We also know that the Pill can increase the risk of thrombosis- clots in the blood vessels that break-off, float through the blood and end up where they shouldn’t- in the heart, lungs or brain. Changes in potassium levels caused by the birth control Pill “Yaz” have caused fatal arrhythmias in young, ‘healthy’ women. There has also been a rash of premature deaths from blood clots caused by “the Patch.”

And for pill users who survive these life-threatening conditions, what are the side effects? Consider this: we know that hormonal birth control pills can down-regulate thyroid receptor sites on the outside surface of the cell. This means that less thyroid hormone can be admitted to the cell to govern metabolic processes. Effectively, the body begins to express symptoms of hypothyroidism, not because not enough thyroid hormone is being made, but because not enough thyroid hormone is having any effect.

Interestingly enough, many of the “side-effects” of the Pill are very similar to the symptoms of hypothyroidism- weight gain, decreased libidio, fatigue and overall sluggishness. Most disturbing of all is that most of the medical profession is still only looking at blood levels of TSH to assess for hypothyroidism. Hypothyroidism caused by taking hormonal birth control will general not affect TSH levels unless it has been allowed to progress untreated for a long time. This means that many women are suffering from these symptoms without getting any real help.

Hormones are extremely potent molecules within the body. Everyday, we learn more about they affect the body. Because of this, patients should carefully weigh the risks and benefits of any hormone replacement protocol.