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While you can use herbs to enhance your energy and vitality, remember that many health problems, some of them quite serious, can leave you feeling fatigue. If you have the run-down feeling which doesn't subside in a few weeks and you still feel sluggish, consider seeing a doctor.

One of the leading causes that causing you the *run-down feeling* is an underactive thyroid gland, a condition called hypothyroidism. The thyroid plays a key role in regulating metabolism. If the gland is under active, you don't burn enough calories to fulfill your body's energy requirements.

Symptoms of hypothyroidism include fatigue, loss of appetite, inability to tolerate cold, a slow heart rate, weight gain, painful menstrual periods, a milky discharge from the breasts, fertility problems, muscle weakness, muscle cramps, dry and scaly skin, a yellow-orange coloration in the skin (particularly on the palms of the hands), yellow bumps on the eyelids, hair loss and depression. The most common symptoms are fatigue and intolerance to cold. If you consistently feel cold while others around you are hot, you may be suffering from reduced thyroid function.

The thyroid gland is the body's internal thermostat, regulating the temperature by secreting two hormones that control how quickly the body burns calories and uses energy. If the thyroid secretes too much hormone, hyperthyroidism results; too little hormone results in hypothyroidism.

Hypothyroidism affects about 13 million people in the United States, about 90 percent of whom are women. Women between the ages of thirty and fifty seem to be most prone to this condition. It is estimated that one in eight women will develop a thyroid condition at some point in her lifetime.

Thyroid problems can cause many recurring illnesses and fatigue. The thyroid can be affected by poor diet =, fluoride in the water, excessive consumption of unsaturated fats, endurance exercise, pesticide residues on fruits and vegetables, radiation from x-rays, alcohol, and drugs.

Thyroid Self-Test

To test yourself for an underactive thyroid, keep a thermometer by your bed at night. When you awaken in the morning, place the thermometer under your arm and hold it there for fifteen minutes. Keep still and quiet. Any motion can upset your temperature reading. A temperature of 97.6*F or lower may indicate an underactive thyroid. Keep a temperature log for five days. If your readings are consistently low, consult your health care provider.

The Proline-Rich Polypeptide component found in colostrum, with its ability to regulate underactive immune response can be indispensable to people with hypothyroidism. Other factors contained in colostrums repeatedly contribute to the healing of the intestinal lining; in some cases of autoimmune disease, the triggering agents filter from the *leaky* gut into the bloodstream.

This is why individuals with autoimmune diseases usually respond so well to colostrum- it helps to repair the gut that may be leaking foreign bodies into the bloodstream that trigger autoimmune response.