INDIGO INTEGRATIVE HEALTH CLINIC

(202) 499-7535

Serving the greater Washington DC area

Thyroid Disease

THYROID DISEASE

WILSON’S TEMPERATURE SYNDROME (WTS) RESTORATIVE MEDICINE,

YOUR THYROID DISEASE COULD BE A LOW BODY TEMPERATURE SYNDROME

RESTORE YOUR HEALTH BY RESETTING YOUR BODY TEMPERATURE

A normal temperature is critical for good health. Thyroid symptoms may not improve until body temperature improves. A low body temperature is a strong indication that there may be something wrong that could be fixed, such as fatigue, headaches, migraines, PMS and irregular periods, easy weight gain, depression, irritability, fluid retention, anxiety and panic attacks, hair loss, poor memory and concentration, low sex drive, unhealthy nails, dry skin and hair, cold intolerance, heat intolerance, low motivation, low ambition, insomnia, allergies, acne, carpal tunnel syndrome, asthma, odd swallowing sensations, constipation, irritable bowel syndrome, muscle and joint aches, slow healing and easy bruising, sweating abnormalities, Raynaud’s Phenomenon, itchiness, ringing of the ears, flushing, bad breath, dry eyes and blurred vision, and more.

All of our bodily functions are the result of chemical reactions that are catalyzed by enzymes. Without proper enzyme function, the chemical reactions will either take place too sluggishly, or not at all. The function of every enzyme depends on its shape for its activity, and its shape depends on it temperature.

Persistently low temperatures typically come on or worsen after severe stressors such as childbirth, divorce, death of a loved one, job or family stress, surgery or accidents. The body slows down and the body temperature drops in response to the stress and is supposed to recover once the stress is over, but sometimes it doesn’t. When the temperature does not recover, this results in the condition Wilson’s Temperature Syndrome (WTS).

The first thing patients with WTS can try is changing their current conditions. Anything that can enhance patients’ physical or emotional well-being has a chance of turning their WTS around. A few examples are eliminating as much physical and emotional stress as possible, moderate exercise for 15 minutes two to four times per day, small frequent meals that are high in protein and low in carbohydrates, avoiding wheat and refined sugar products, getting plenty of rest, staying hydrated by drinking of plenty of water.

Classically, WTS is a persistent but reversible slowing of the metabolism, often brought on by the stress of illness, injury or emotional trauma, often worsened in stages with subsequent stress, characterized by a low body temperature and classic low-thyroid-like symptoms, often corrected with a special thyroid treatment even though thyroid blood tests are often normal. About 80% of WTS sufferers are women.

WHY IS WTS UNDIAGNOSABLE WITH THYROID BLOOD TESTS?

Because people often recover even when all tests (blood, slivary, urinary or otherwise) are completely normal. The regulation of the metabolism involves part of the brain, the pituitary gland, the thyroid gland, and conversion of thyroid hormones in the tissues of the body. The metabolism is regulated to maintain a normal body temperature and to prevent low-thyroid-type symptoms. If the body temperature is too low and a person’s suffering from low-thyroid-type symptoms there’s a good change that there’s something wrong with the metabolism.

Decades ago, doctors discovered a thyroid disease, hypothyroidism, that causes low body temperatures and low-thyroid-like symptoms, required thyroid treatment for life, shows up on thyroid blood tests. In the late 1980’s, Dr. Wilson discovered a health problem, Wilson’s Temperature Syndrome, that causes low body temperatures and low-thyroid-like symptoms, doesn’t require treatment for life, but usually only for a few months, doesn’t show up on thyroid blood tests and responds well to a special thyroid treatment known as Wilson’s T3 Protocol (WT3).

Patients can have normal TSH and T4 levels and still respond well to the WT3 protocol. Further, people can have normal results on the following tests: Total T3 (TT3), Free T3 (FT3), Total T4 (TT4) and Reverse T3 (RT3), and still respond well to T3 therapy. Additionally, even people with high T3 and/or low RT3 may respond extremely well to the WT3 protocol.

HOW ARE BODY TEMPERATURES MEASURED?

Since Dr. Wilson believes that low body temperatures cause the symptoms and since most patients complain of symptoms they are having during the day, Dr. Wilson recommends that the temperatures be measured during the day.

Body temperatures are normally lower in the morning, higher in the afternoon, and lower again in the evening. So if the temperatures are low during the day when they’re supposed to be at their highest, that’s better evidence that there’s a problem.

Temperature patterns are also important and illuminating. How patients feel can be affected not only by how high or low their temperatures are but also on how steady their temps are. This is especially important during T3 therapy. One temperature reading a day is not enough to see how widely the temperature is fluctuating, but more than three a day can be too time consuming.

For these reasons Dr. Wilson recommends measuring the temperatures…

  • By mouth with a thermometer
  • Every 3 hours
  • 3 times a day, starting 3 hours after waking
  • For several days (not the 3 days prior to the period in women since its higher then) for diagnosis
  • Every day during treatment

Here is a convenient ST3 Protocol Log you can print out and use to record your temperatures.

For each day, add the 3 temperatures together and divide by 3 to get the average.

If your temperature consistently averages below 98.6 then you may be suffering from Wilson’s Temperature Syndrome.

Note: Some people believe that moving the thermometer around in the mouth very much can increase blood flow to the area and affect the temperature reading. It seems prudent to be mindful not to move the thermometer unnecessarily much.

WHAT KIND OF THERMOMETERS SHOULD BE USED?

Digital thermometers are very fast and convenient but can easily become inaccurate from:

  • dropping them from 4 inches or more
  • low batteries
  • exposure to water or humidity

When they become inaccurate they can still give a reading, it just won’t be right. There’s no way of knowing whether the reading is correct or not. Sometimes, a digital thermometer will show one reading one minute and another the next.

Mercury Thermometers are very consistent and they hold their readings. If patients are too busy to read their thermometers (while driving, for example) when it’s time, they can take the thermometers out and read them later.

Mercury thermometers can take longer (it’s good to leave them in for around 7 minutes). They are also being phased out of the market because of environmental legislation and are becoming harder and harder to find. The concern is that when the thermometers are broken the liquid spills out and some mercury vapor gets into the atmosphere, finding its way into the food chain. When broken thermometers are thrown in the trash and then incinerated, that apparently puts even more mercury into the air. One doctor believes that some mercury can make it through the glass of intact thermometers. She believes that some of her patients are especially sensitive to mercury and have noticed episodes of acute depression, headaches and malaise just from measuring their temperatures with a mercury thermometer.

We recommend some great new Liquid metal thermometers (not mercury). We think they’re better than mercury thermometers ever were. For one thing, they provide accurate readings in only 2 minutes! This is especially true if the thermometer is 72 degrees or warmer before you measure your oral temperature. If possible, it’s good to warm the tip of thermometer against your body for a couple of minutes before measuring your oral temperature. The reason you don’t want to put a cold thermometer in your mouth is that it will cool down your mouth a little, altering your reading.

If you have a different liquid metal thermometer, you can test it by keeping it in your mouth and have someone time the measurement to see when the temperature stops changing. However, leaving the thermometer in for more than 5 minutes or so will mechanically stimulate increased circulation to your mouth. That increased blood flow is coming from your heart which is one degree warmer. Therefore, your temperature reading could rise to an inaccurately high reading.

Glass Alcohol thermometers are very consistent but frequently don’t hold their readings. They usually contain a red liquid. These thermometers are fine as long as you read them right away.

THE BIG PICTURE

No matter what thermometer you choose, no matter how new, it may still not be perfectly accurate. There is always some variation among thermometers, some small, some large. The important thing is for patients to be able to see the changes in their temperatures with proper T3 therapy. Therefore it would make sense for patients to try to take their temperatures in the same way each time with the same thermometer for comparison’s sake. The Mercury, Galistan, and Alcohol thermometers are especially good for this since they are so consistent. The liquids they contain are going to expand with warming the same way every time (make sure to shake down the Mercury and Galistan before each use to reset them). So even if a patient has a Mercury or Galistan or Alcohol thermometer that is a little inaccurate, at least it will be consistently inaccurate and in that way still useful (in showing the improvement in temperature with treatment).

By the same token, if your story is consistent with Wilson’s Temperature Syndrome and you find your temperature is normal, by all means check it with another two or three thermometers! Many patients have found that their thermometers were wrong and their temperatures were low and they have responded well to treatment. In fact, if your history is classic for Wilsons Temperature Syndrome your chances of having a normal temperature are only about 1 in 200. There’s a lot better chance that your thermometer is wrong than there is that your temperature’s normal.

These issues of thermometer accuracy don’t come up very often but they come up often enough that doctors and patients would be well served to know about them. For the most part, patients are easily able to see that their temperatures are low before treatment, that they come up with treatment, and that their complaints begin to disappear as their temperatures improve.

PLEASE DOWNLOAD AND COMPLETE

PATIENT ORIENTATION CHECKLIST

WTS CHECKLIST SCORE

INFORMED CONSENT FOR WTS TREATMENT

To learn about WTS Restorative Medicine more in depth and the WT3 protocol, please visit their website at www.wilsonssyndrome.com.

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