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Check out this photo, about Vitamin D, 64 symptoms removed, and life after thyroid cancer~

OOPS. THIS GAL’S DOCTOR WAS A BIT CLUELESS…

Look carefully at the photo to the left. You will see the actual outline of this woman’s thyroid. It’s obvious. It’s swollen. A swollen thyroid is called a goiter, and can be due to an autoimmune attack of the thyroid called Hashimotos, aka thyroiditis.

Yet, this woman’s doctor insisted she just had a throat infection, gave her penicillin for 12 days, and the outcome?  It’s still inflamed and sore. Jeez, doctor!! WHAT were you thinking!  She states: I always feel something pressing down on my neck and food gets stuck and then I’m having a chocking session. CLEAR thyroiditis and a blind doctor!

Thanks to this gal’s participation in the Stop the Thyroid Madness Facebook groups, she knows the truth, is empowered, and is going to try and get the RIGHT labs and treatment this time! Her biggest challenge is where she lives–the UK with a very dark- ages medical system that worships T4-only and doesn’t get the efficacy of Natural Desiccated Thyroid. It’s not a pretty picture in the United Kingdom or a lot of European countries if you have thyroid disease.

VITAMIN D–DON’T DISMISS THIS IMPORTANT VITAMIN FOR YOUR THYROID HEALTH!

Vitamin D is considered a steroid plus a prohormone, i.e. it’s not yet a hormone, but has affects on real ones. And your body can get it from sunshine exposure, or you can supplement with it. Why is it a great vitamin? It helps balance out your calcium levels and bone density, can help lower stress and blood pressure, and promotes a good immune system.

Vitamin D is found in two forms: cholecalciferol (vitamin D3) which is made via skin exposure to sunlight, or ergocalciferol (vitamin D2). D3 is the natural form and why it’s often preferred for supplementation over D2. After vitamin D3 is formed in your skin or taken as a supplement, it is then metabolized into two different substances: 1) 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D), known as calcidiol and your storage Vitamin D, and 2) 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D (1,25(OH)2D3), known as calcitriol. The former is the Vitamin D you measure via blood.  Good information on both can be found in the abstract here.

So why bring it up?  First, it’s important for your thyroid, i.e. it has to be in sufficient amounts for thyroid hormones to work in your cells. And second, a huge body of thyroid patients find themselves with low levels of this important vitamin! How to raise it? It can take 10,000 IU’s of D3 daily. Some doctors even prescribe more and sometimes once a week in these very high amounts. Add an acid to the drink you use to swallow your Vit. D–like one tablespoon Braggs Apple Cider vinegar, or lemon juice. It will promote better absorption.

SHE ELIMINATED 64 SYMPTOMS THANKS TO NDT AND TREATING HER LOW CORTISOL!! 

Next time you hear that NDT is not good, think twice. Her name is Mary, and you should check out the 64 symptoms she eliminated thanks to NDT, here.  You will see that she’s still working on a few more, but the difference is stunning!

A TESTIMONY FROM A COLLEGE STUDENT OF HOW NDT CHANGED HIS LIFE AFTER THYROID CANCER (even more than being on T4 with T3!)

I’m a male college student and in 2008 I was diagnosed w/ thyroid cancer. Cancer aside, I was placed on Cytomel followed by Synthroid. When I asked my doctors for natural options they said there were no such meds. For four years I was a prisoner in my own body. I had rapid mood swings, I was always cold, had a lack of energy and worst of all dry skin. The dry skin became so bad that I started to develop cystic acne covering my entire back and many on my face–I had no confidence and work out 5x a week yet I was scared to take off my shirt. I knew that there had to be a solution being that I didn’t have any of these symptoms prior to getting my thyroid removed so I began to research. This website, Stop the Thyroid Madness, got me in the right direction as far as understanding the role o f T3 and T4. After many lies, and doctors who denied to write for Armour or Naturethroid, I finally found a woman who knew about the “madness”. I have only been on Naturethroid for one month and my TSH, T3 and T4 levels may be off but I feel like the old me again! I have energy, I have steady moods, I have less brain fog and my skin is finally producing oil again and my acne is almost cleared 100%! Thanks for your work your site had changed my life for the better!

DID YOU KNOW THAT THE STTM BOOK IS AVAILABLE IN ENGLISH, SWEDISH AND GERMAN?? A perfect gift for your friend or loved one who speaks any of those languages. Go here.

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We are sad at the passing of Edna Kyrie of the Thyroid History website

From Sheila Turner of TPA-UK:

Some of you, probably the majority of you, will have heard about Edna Kyrie of ‘Thyroid History’ fame website: http://www.thyroidhistory.net

It is with great sadness that I write to you  to let you know that Edna died earlier this week, following serious digestive tract complications arising from her MS diagnosis. Her condition deteriorated a lot this past year, leading to a couple of long hospital stays. She died at home in her London flat with her main carer and friend, Kieron. Edna was in her mid to late forties.

In 1985,  Edna was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis — a diagnosis she still questioned, right up to the day she passed away. In 1998 Edna also found out she had an under-active thyroid, it was this diagnosis that encouraged her to found the wonderful scientific web site ‘Thyroid Research’. She said: “I read a book on the thyroid and was amazed by how much could be affected by it, I decided to follow up the references at the back of the book, and so the project began.”Today, thyroidhistory.net holds over 1,200 abridged articles on the diagnosis and treatment of thyroid related illness, photocopied from books and journals in The British Library and scanned onto her computer at home. She said: “At one point I was spending £70 a week on photocopying. I just feel so passionately about this.” What has shocked Edna most, and what she talked about most animatedly, is the medical research by long-dead doctors that has been lost over the passage of time. Edna said “In the 1880s when they wrote about the thyroid they thought they’d found the elixir of youth. There is all this incredible work that had just been forgotten about.”The website sprang from a determination that the knowledge of thyroid function in many common illnesses is made available. Edna thought at the start that if she could just help one person it would be worth it, and she soon learned that she had helped many, many more than that – and will continue to help so many more in the future.

Edna’s health had declined in recent months and she was not getting to the British Library as much as she used to, but she continued adding to the website from a backlog of copied articles. She said “I worship The British Library and I feel I have this queue of long-dead doctors and physicians looking over my shoulder encouraging me,” and “This is what I have built my new life around — before all this happened I was a singer and a psychotherapist, I just can’t believe how much things have changed.”

Edna will be greatly missed, but her work lives on. I was fortunate enough to have met Edna and we have corresponded since. I first met her at Dr Skinner’s original IOP Hearing in London. Everybody found her to be a warm, kind, funny person who was totally dedicated to thyroid research and to make this available to all who will read it. I know that without her research, Thyroid Patient Advocacy would not be where we are today.

Edna and her work has been an inspiration to me personally. Thank you dear Edna. Details of the funeral will be posted as soon as possible.

Our condolences have been passed to Kieron Deahl, a very close and dear friend of Edna’s.

Sheila
Thyroid Patient Advocate
www.tpa-uk.org.uk

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Jennifer Livingston: this goes even deeper than bullying. You are on the wrong thyroid medication!

Jennifer Livingston, a mother of three adorable daughters, is a morning anchor at WKBT-TV in La Cross, Wisconsin and a very pretty one at that. And she received an email from a male viewer which stated that her excess weight was not a good role model for young girls. Jennifer’s supportive husband Mike Thompson, who is an evening anchor on the same station and strongly supports his wife, posted the critical email on his Facebook page:

“It’s unusual that I see your morning show, but I did so for a very short time today. I was surprised indeed to witness that your physical condition hasn’t improved for many years. Surely you don’t consider yourself a suitable example for this community’s young people, girls in particular. Obesity is one of the worst choices a person can make and one of the most dangerous habits to maintain. I leave you this note hoping that you’ll reconsider your responsibility as a local public personality to present and promote a healthy lifestyle.”

Livingston followed this up with a bold four-minute rebuttal to the personal attack, emphasizing the cruelty of judging someone based on their exterior, especially considering she is very aware of her weight problem, and has worked hard to deal with it for years. She also referred to the bullying nature of the note. With October being National Anti-Bullying Month, this incidence hit a chord.

Jennifer’s famous brother, actor Ron Livingston, also expressed support for his sister.

BUT JENNIFER, YOUR STORY GOES EVEN FARTHER AND DEEPER THAN YOU KNOW, AND YOU COULD CHANGE MANY LIVES OF YOUR LISTENERS AND BEYOND. YOU MAY BE A VICTIM OF A 50-YEAR THYROID TREATMENT SCANDAL!

You mentioned being on a thyroid medication, and you may be a victim of the same 50+ year thyroid treatment scandal that millions of overweight women have been part of : 1) the use of the TSH lab test, which can be “normal” for years even though the patient has clear hypothyroidism, or 2) the use of Synthroid or any other T4-only medication to treat the hypothyroid condition, which leaves patients with their own degree and kind of continuing hypothyroidism. And weight gain, plus difficulty losing it, is a common symptom of continued hypothyroidism for all too many

Neither the TSH lab test or T4-only meds like Synthroid work well, exclaim frustrated, or sick, or overweight, or angry patients all over the world!

Additionally, the longer patients stay on this lousy medication, the higher the risk of having low levels of Vitamin D, Iron, B12 and other important nutrients. More than 50% of T4-only treated patients fall into adrenal fatigue, aka low cortisol, due to the failure to get enough T3, the active thyroid hormone, into the cells of their adrenals. i.e. T4 is a storage hormone meant to convert to T3, but the body is not meant to live for conversion alone! T4 is only one of FIVE hormones secreted by the thyroid.

And it gets worse….

Many folks replied to the WKTB article about this incident. And one person stated in their post: “…..GIVE UP A FEW BURGERS AND CUT THE CHEESE. START MOVING JENNIFER!”

Jennifer, do you know how MANY thyroid patients with a weight problem have heard this well-meaning but terrible refrain from friends, loved ones, strangers and even some clueless doctors?? Oh sure, we know that eating healthy is important. Many already eat healthy! But continued hypothyroidism keeps our bodies like that of a snail. It affects our body temperatures (it stays much lower), how our muscles work and our blood circulates (true fatigue here), how we digest food (food tends to stay in our stomach longer), and how we eliminate waste (we tend to be constipated or slow eliminators). When we try to exercise, we end up in bed from the excess fatigue of continued hypothyroidism.

It’s not a pretty picture, Jennifer….and it’s just as bad as bullying for millions!

Learn from other thyroid patients: https://stopthethyroidmadness.com/things-we-have-learned

Here’s my story: https://stopthethyroidmadness.com/my-story

Here are others stories: https://stopthethyroidmadness.com/stories-of-others

Here are the crazy things we have to listen to from our doctors: https://stopthethyroidmadness.com/give-me-a-break

Here’s why Synthroid doesn’t work for all too many: https://stopthethyroidmadness.com/t4-only-meds-dont-work

Here’s why the TSH lab test sucks: https://stopthethyroidmadness.com/tsh-why-its-useless

Here are symptoms which went away with Natural Desiccated Thyroid: https://stopthethyroidmadness.com/long-and-pathetic

Here are many good thyroid patient groups: https://stopthethyroidmadness.com/talk-to-others

HELP US STOP THE THYROID MADNESS, JENNIFER, OF WHICH YOU MAY BE ONE MORE VICTIM!

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Washington spits in your face, anti-depressant problem, and the STTM book is now in German and Swedish!

The US Government is going to confiscate your meds sent from overseas!

Fall is in the US, but as you were enjoying your summer, it happened in a flash:  last July, President Obama signed into law the FDA Safety and Innovation Act (S. 3187). And that Act includes a section that might negatively affect your life as a thyroid patient if you are among those feel forced to get your life-saving natural desiccated thyroid (NDT) or related medications from overseas (because your doctor was too clueless to either prescribe NDT or give you enough thanks to the medical stupidity about the TSH lab test).

i.e. in Section 708, the US government now has the authority to destroy a package of personally imported drugs at their point of entry to the United States…even if you badly need them. And this potentially includes NDT like Erfa coming to us from safe, reputable Canadian online pharmacies by prescription! Or your T3-only from other places. Both the latter are unclear, but it’s a possibility.

And do you know why they state they are doing this?? For your “SAFETY”.  Janie’s eyes rolling here.  Can someone tell me how they know if a thyroid med from somewhere else is “unsafe” simply because it wasn’t made in the US?? Are US-made drugs SAFE??? Give me a break. Ask that of folks whose lives paid big prices because of side effects from our FDA-approved medications like Synthroid and many other NON-thyroid related drugs pushed upon us. It’s all a bunch of Big Pharma-influenced, greedy hooey, say thyroid patients.

Now as far as we know, this isn’t going to affect anything really soon. The US Secretary of Health and Human Services has up to two years to decide how to make the new law a reality. But it may happen far sooner than later in that time frame and I would count on it.

Says Lee Graczyk, RxRights Lead Organizer, “It’s critical for people to stand up and get organized to fight against this harmful regulation!”

Anti-depressant use and your adrenals: not a helpful connection for some

Sure, having depression is not fun and it’s understandable if you want to do something about it. My own mother had depression so bad thanks to her lifelong use of Synthroid that she used anti-depressants her entire adult life. This was long before we, as thyroid patients, discovered the strong connection between low T3 levels in the brain and depression (and a connection which all too many doctors miss!)

She also had an extremely “emotionally apathetic” personality, which I assumed was solely due to the electric shock treatment she had while in her early 40’s in an attempt to reverse the depression. But turns out her impassive and flat personality could have also been from the nasty side-effects of my mother’s long-term antidepressant use. i.e. while they made her “happy”, they also made her more dull, flat and detached. This has been reported by all-too-many patients

But now we are seeing the problems that anti-depressant use can cause for your adrenals. A study done in September 2011 titled Antidepressant use and salivary cortisol in depressive and anxiety disorders reveals that

  1. Tricyclics* flatten your cortisol awakening response
  2. SSRI users** had higher evening cortisol levels
  3. Most antidepressants are associated with distinct alterations of the HPA axis (hypothalamus, pituitary and adrenal feedback loop)

*A common form of Tricyclics is Elavil (Amitriptyline).  **Common examples of SSRI antidepressant (Selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors or serotonin-specific reuptake inhibitor) include Lexapro, Prozac, Celexa, Paxil, Zoloft, etc) 

The alternation of your HPA axis is a common finding when you peruse several research studies. And it’s even more obvious when thyroid patients with adrenal fatigue start using the T3 Circadian Method. i.e. it can take longer to get the right response from the T3. ***Please note that this is simply providing information in the name of being informed patients, not a recommendation to get off your antidepressant!  Talk to your doctor.

(Speaking of mood issues, a study was done showing cherries help with mood. Who would’ve guessed. You can read about it here.)

The revised Stop the Thyroid Madness book is now in German and Swedish! 

You can read about the translations here and I included an autobiography of each translator!  Please do not comment asking if a particular language is coming. I’ll announce them when the day comes.  If you know someone in Germany or Sweden who could badly use the patient-to-patient information in this book, go here.

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Touching message from a near-91 year old New Zealand resident who feels his government is keeping him sick…

Screen Shot 2015-08-10 at 10.38.26 AM(Though this post was originally written in 2012, it is still appropriate even today! Enjoy!)

I am impressed if ANYONE over 70 years old is active on their computers, especially because they didn’t grow up with one, nor did their own children. So when I get a message via Facebook from a near 91-year-old man in New Zealand who clearly knows his stuff, I am doubly impressed.

But this story is poignant, aggravating, and the very reason Stop the Thyroid Madness exists–to educate YOU in the face of medical and government leaders who are completely clueless! Do we have to wait for our current crop of government officials to be forced or voted out of office before we see this thyroid diagnosis and treatment travesty stop???

Dear Janie, I am 90 years and 10 months old, and have a TSH of 3.5 . My doctor, using the range of 0.4 to 4, declared me OK and not hypothyroid. This margin is used by the New Zealand Governments Ministry of Health (M.O.H). My letters to the M.O.H. of New Zealand to read the article written by the AACE in America of January 2003 (to bring down the margin to 0.3 to 3.04) were not taken into consideration.

I am a permanent resident in New Zealand. Because of my repeated requests, they even blocked my letters to them, and in the meantime, leaving me suffering. Have been suffering about 3 years with “Chronic Fatigue Syndrome”. Found your articles on the Internet and bought your book Stop The Thyroid Madness.

My doctor gave me Synthroid and when it didn’t work, wanted to raise the dosage. Fortunately I was in possession of the book Overcoming Thyroid Disorders by David Brownstein M.D. and refused. Indeed, I share all the “Common Experiences We All Share” as written in your book . My doctor has even referred me to a Psychiatrist—unbelievable! Of course I told the Psychiatrist who works for the N.Z. Public Health Department straight away that I will have nothing to do with him. Just to do something, he wrote me a prescription for a drug used for people who are lunatic. Gave the prescription to the doctor to throw it in his rubbish bin!

Am now looking for a knowledgeable N.D. but have not succeeded yet . They are either not knowledgeable enough about thyroid disorders or too expensive for my pensioner income. Have obtained dessicated thyroid from a compounding pharmacist, but don’t dare to take it without guidance. In the meantime, I have to eat frequent small meals just to prevent awful anxiety attacks or to feel reasonably well ..and the doctor calls me euthyroid?

Well Janie, that is my story. Am so glad that you have written your book, thanks, and that I just today received it by mail order on the Internet. With my best regards – ****

P.S. Of course you can publicise my letter to you. Hope that it will help a bit in our struggle to get proper treatment and that people all over the world will know how indifferent governments can be.

THINK THIS PROBLEM IS ONLY WITH NEW ZEALAND? PATIENTS AROUND THE WORLD SHARE THE SAME STRUGGLES!

Sheila Turner, a Thyroid Patient Advocate in the UK and creator of TPA-UK, has worked tirelessly to change the DARK AGE medical treatment protocols that UK thyroid patients have to endure. Here is a letter she wrote July 2012 to the President of the Royal College of Physicians in one of many attempts to change the inane poor practices: http://www.tpa-uk.org.uk/Report_RCP_et_al.pdf

DR. JOHN C. LOWE’S WEBSITE “THYROID SCIENCE” BACK UP!

http://www.thyroidscience.com/

JanieSignature SEIZE THE WISDOM

New to this?

* Read why the TSH lab test can be a huge failure.
* See why Synthroid or any other T4-only med can be a problem, sooner or later.
* To read what happens when your brain doesn’t get enough of the thyroid hormone T3, go here.

* To have the Stop the Thyroid Madness revised book in reach for reference, go here.

* To get more tips, inspiration and information, Like the STTM Facebook page.

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