Is there a possible link?

[sahuaro]

I am now almost 5 months out from ADR at c5/6. Since my accident, I have had low-to-borderline thyroid levels but because I had started on estrogen patches a few days before the accident, I have wondered if the estrogen was affecting my thyroid levels. At any rate, I held off on starting thyroid replacement. Yesterday, I received the results of my first post-surgery thyroid tests--and they are back to normal! Additionally, since my accident, I have been diagnosed as a "glaucoma suspect" because of elevated intra-ocular pressure; yesterday I went for my first post-surgery check and my pressure levels were normal!
I am aware that there is literature linking thyroid issues to trauma and whiplash but I am also aware that as a spiney, I have been linking everything (or almost everything) to my herniated disk, but after having had neck surgery, I really feared the thyroid would be worse, not better.

So: any thoughts? Is there a possible link, including the alleviation of pain/stress, between the ADR and these incredible medical findings?

[dshobbies]

Stress can kill you! It's capable of altering all bodily functions. With the alleviation of stress the body returns to its 'normal' state, for better or worse.

However, as a married, homeowner, business owner with kids, stress is a part of my life and most of my friends. My grandmother used to say "If you didn't have kids what would you do for aggravation?" No wonder I had a 3 level

By the way, supplemental estrogen and thyroid do not agree and must be taken at least 4 hours apart.

[mmglobal]

I don't remember the exact post and can't go look now, but a few weeks ago, there was a post about a tool with dermatomes and someone asked about the thyroid link... look for that and see if the dermatome is at your level????

[sahuaro]

Actually, Mark, I was the poster who questioned the link between c5/6 and the thyroid since this dermatome chart was the only mention I have seen of such a link. Are there nerves that go from 5/6 to the thyroid and what would they do, since the thyroid is a gland which is hormonally regulated?

[nopain]

Keeping Today's medical knowledge in perspective is difficult. We expect Answers because Technology has grown so rapidly. In most of our lifetimes we've seen amazing technologies... from the MRI in the Early 70's, to the Cell Phone to the personal computer. Technology is allowing amazing advances.

However, these advances have for the most part only occurred in the past 40 years. And much of what is "known" is new, and for the most part untested.

Prior to 1983 there were all kinds of beliefs as to what caused ulcers.

In 1983, Dr. J. Robin Warren and Dr. Barry Marshall reported finding a new kind of bacteria in the stomachs of people with gastritis. Warren and Marshall were soon led to the hypothesis that peptic ulcers are generally caused, not by excess acidity or stress, but by a bacterial infection. Initially, this hypothesis was viewed as preposterous, and it is still somewhat controversial. In 1994, however, a U. S. National Institutes of Health Consensus Development Panel concluded that infection appears to play an important contributory role in the pathogenesis of peptic ulcers, and recommended that antibiotics be used in their treatment. Peptic ulcers are common, affecting up to 10% of the population, and evidence has mounted that many ulcers can be cured by eradicating the bacteria responsible for them.

The simple truth is there is so much that is Unknown. Because I don't sleep well I often catch "Dr. Oz" on Oprah. No I can't really watch regular episodes, but when he's on the show it beats Conan Reruns.

On a recent episode featuring Dr. Oz this was stated:

Dr. Oz illustrated the science of acupressure with an interesting example. Pressing the area of the foot next to the pinky toe can cure blurry vision and other eye problems. How? With advanced imaging techniques, the Western scientific explanation of the relationship between the pinky toe and eye function became clear. When pressure was exerted on that section of the foot, the brain function lit up in the back of the brain. "And guess what?” Dr. Oz says: “The back of the brain (the occipital lobe) controls your eyes.”

Nerves or "Energy Paths" in the toes affecting vision?

The bottom line is we simply do not fully understand the human body. Imagine the knowledge society will have 100's of years from now as technology advances?

So to answer your question I would simply say this. The body works as a whole, and when one problem is resolved resources are freed to work on another area.

Surgery does not repair a body, it just removes a problem so our bodies can repair themselves.

Possible link? Sure why not. The body is a whole. Doctors have to specialize in one area. Imagine the difficulty in learning one area, then multiply that over by all the specialties!

It can be very frustrating when a "Specialist" compartmentalizes a problem so much that they are ignorant of or arrogant to the point where they dismiss the unlikely yet possible.

Might I share this one well known phrase or quote that I've taken a liking to...

..."All truth passes through three stages: first it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third it is accepted as self-evident."

I read a lot and research a lot. Take some time to read the works of Albert Einstein and Nicolaus Copernicus, Hippocrates and you realize what it means to "Think outside the Box"... we know so little.