Total confusion

Well, I had the "thyroid panel" done last week and got my results back yesterday.

In the mean time I went to a D.O. that specializes in natural therapies. I spent a couple hours with him and we looked at my exhaustive list of symptoms and discussed when these changes may have started. One of the tests we did was an analysis of a live blood sample. Most doctors draw blood and run "tests". We took blood and actually looked at it on the cellular level. It was amazing. I saw my white blood cells engulf an invader and destroy it right in front of my eyes. The invader???...Candida albicans (aka yeast). But wait....you say...blood is supposed to be "sterile". Well, that is what we are told, but clearly my blood is not sterile. I have many invasive yeast in there. We saw a red blood cell that as parasitized by the yeast. It was absolutely fascinating.

So I am on a few natural supplements to aid in digestion, heal the intestines, and destroy yeast. I am to cut out all refined sugar and stay away from refined processed foods. Easy for you to say. Imagine feeding a family of five with no packaged foods. I can't imagine doing this with my severe fatigue and mental cloudiness.

My blood tests from the FMCF center came back flagging a potential thyroid issue (as was expected). I have low T3, sub-optimal T4, and too much reverse T3. To understand what this means you have to understand how your thyroid works. The thyroid together with the pituitary and adrenal glands control all the metabolism in your body. When you think of metabolism, you think of processing food and weight gain/loss. But metabolism is, at the cellular level, all the processes your body goes through in taking up nutrients from your food and turning them in to nergy. It takes up iodine from your diet and makes T4 and T3. T4 has 4 iodine molecules, T3 has 3. T4 is not bio active and needs to be converted by the body into T3 before it is used. Here's the problem. My body is making "reverse T3" which is biologically inactive. My body can not use it. RT3 binds to the cells so you can't take up thyroid hormone. You normally have RT3 in your system, but too much can be a sign of a problem, especially when accompanied by symptoms of hypothyroid and low blood values of thyroid hormone (both of which I have). Now you can see why I have no energy, and am gaining weight. No metabolism.

The Center said I need "more testing" that would cost between $800-$1200. Yikes! I sent the blood results to my D.O. and he said I did NOT need more testing, I have "Wilson's syndrome" (not to be confused with Wilson's disease) and it's a very hard thing to treat.

Naturally I wanted to understand this Wilson's thing, so I looked it up online. Here is the problem: Wilson's disease is not recognized by the medical community as a real thing. It's more formally called "Wilson's Temperature Syndrome". Dr. Wilson who claims to have discovered it has supplements designed to help these people. But the medical community and the American Thyroid Association say it can be dangerous to treat a false condition. So....who is right? I've read testimonials of people who feel better after treatment. And that is all I want. So what do I do? What would you do?

I don't have health insurance that would cover these tests, so the $800 would be out of pocket. I SOOOOOOOOOO want to get better. But I don't know if I need these tests. I don't know which way to go....who to trust.