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Category: Doctors

Fifteen Most Annoying Phrases ever to come out of a doctor’s mouth

In honor of 2009, a year we hope to see bold changes in the medical system, Stop the Thyroid Madness presents the Fifteen Most Annoying Phrases From the Mouths of Doctors. (Note that the word “Armour” has been used for simplicity sake; any prescription-grade desiccated thyroid product can be inserted there.)

Here’s raising our New Year’s stemmed glasses to change!

15) I’ll see you in eight weeks.
14) Here’s a script for [insert any non-thyroid medication to bandaid continuing hypo symptom]
13) The free T3 lab test is not necessary.
12) Your symptoms do not warrant a thyroid medication.
11) You’re tired because you are [insert any label like “a mother” “menopausal”, etc]
10) That has nothing to do with your thyroid.
9) I can find nothing wrong with you.
8 ) You need to eat less and exercise more.
7) Your TSH is too low.
6) The TSH test is [insert any positive description, like “a reliable marker” or “sensitive measure”]
5) I do not believe in Armour.
4) Armour is [insert any negative adjective/description like “unstable” or “hard to regulate”]
3) You’re depressed.
2) You are hyper.

….and tah-dah, the #1 most annoying phrase that comes out of the mouth of a doctor:

1) You are normal.

25 replies

Doctors still have a long way to go a.k.a. Those symptoms might just be the thyroid!

Just as I was finishing up the post below about a short summary on the Endocrinology Today website, I saw a link at the bottom of the page that interested me. It took me to a blog post on the same site from December 10th titled “Why can’t it be my thyroid?”.

And a slew of thyroid patients around the world, as well as a growing body of doctors, would completely disagree with this post.

Namely, a DO explains the problem of patients arriving in doctors offices with “innumerable possible symptoms of hypothyroidism” including “fatigue, cold intolerance, decreased energy, weight gain, depression, hair loss, low libido, menstrual irregularity and others.”

Yet, he bemoans, these patients have a “normal TSH” which is “well within the normal laboratory reference range.” He also refers to their normal free T3 and free T4, and states there is no history to suggest pituitary dysfunction or that the TSH is unreliable.”

He then proceeds to pat himself on the back because he 1) will treat some patients with a high-normal TSH and other clinical features, 2) he will treat to a low-normal TSH of less than 2.0, but like the good-boy-doctor, “still within the normal laboratory reference range” and 3) he will not induce iatrogenic hyperthyroidism, even if symptoms persist. (yikes)

“Iatrogenic hyperthyroidism”?? Since “iatrogenesis” refers to harmful medical procedures, he’s probably referring to a TSH below the range, which in his mind, equates to hyperthyroidism.

***Then comes the observation that has made many thyroid patients shiver, since so many doctors have said it: because he feels that adding T3 to T4 has more negative results than positive, he explains to his patients “that there may be causes of their symptoms besides the thyroid.”

THUD.

So here is my 6-point response to any doctor who might share these beliefs:

1) There’s hardly a thyroid patient around who hasn’t had a so-called “normal” TSH in spite of clear and obvious hypothyroidism. The TSH lab test frequently lags behind what is reality in the body, and has been doing so since it’s creation in the early 1970’s (see Chapter 4 in the Stop the Thyroid Madness book for history).

2) Having a “normal” free T3 and free T4 means nothing. It’s “where” the result falls in that range that means something. i.e. patients all around the world are noticing that having a free T3 mid-range or lower in the presence of hypothyroid symptoms is usually a BINGO lab result pointing to hypothyroidism.

3) Exactly because doctors tend to dismiss clear hypothyroid symptoms as “something else” thanks to a lousy TSH reference range, a burgeoning number of thyroid patients are falling into adrenal fatigue with its low cortisol, which serves to mess them up even more.

4) A huge body of thyroid patients who are on desiccated thyroid hormones (aka Armour, Naturethroid, etc), and who finally have a complete removal of symptoms with a normal temperature and heartrate, also have a suppressed TSH lab result, and not one iota of “iatrogenic hyperthyroidism.”

5) When it appears that adding T3 to T4 is having negative effects, the problem is most likely adrenal fatigue that needs correction, and/or low ferritin, NOT deciding that the symptoms must be from another cause or T3 doesn’t work.

6) “Fatigue, cold intolerance, decreased energy, weight gain, depression, hair loss, low libido, menstrual irregularity and others” may be shared in other conditions, but you are most likely missing CLEAR symptoms of hypothyroidism, both in the undiagnosed patient with a so-called normal TSH, or with a patient treated with the lousy thyroxine, which leaves most everyone with continuing hypothyroid symptoms.

“I’m sorry. It IS your thyroid” is exactly what patients need to hear.

Yes, Dr. Walsh of Australia, patients were right about T4-only therapy.

My mouth just fell open last night.

Apparently, in December of 2002, an Australian doctor named JP Walsh (Department of Endocrinology and Diabetes of Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, Nedlands, Western Australia), and an Endocrinologist to boot, wrote an most interesting article in the journal Current Opinion in Pharmacology.

This incredibly stunning article was titled Dissatisfaction with thyroxine therapy – could the patients be right?

The abstract states:

In some patients with hypothyroidism, symptoms of ill health persist despite thyroxine treatment. It is unclear whether this arises from comorbidity or because standard thyroxine replacement is in some way inadequate for some individuals. Some patients feel better if they take a slightly excessive dose of thyroxine, but this carries a potential risk of adverse cardiac and skeletal effects. There are conflicting data on whether combined thyroxine/triiodothyronine treatment is preferable to thyroxine alone in dissatisfied patients

I am unable to read the full article, as it is required that you pay a sum I don’t have. But you definitely get the impression that this doctor was on the cusp of figuring out what we have known solidly all along. Because Dr. Walsh, the patients WERE right, and still are. Synthroid, Levoxyl, Eltroxin, levothyroxine and all other T4-only medications suck, and have sucked for a long, long time. www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/t4-only-meds-dont-work and www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/long-and-pathetic

I so hope to be able to contact Dr. Walsh. Do you know him? Because he and I need to have a long talk.

Janie

p.s. Thank you Gerry.

6 replies

Doctors who want to ban the availability of saliva testing

Oh jolly.

Diane, a thyroid and adrenal patient, informed me of a recent visit to a local Endocrinologist. The doc stated that she was on a committee that is working with the FDA to do away with saliva testing, strongly proposing that it’s not accurate testing and is “harming” people.

Well, let’s see. For a couple of years now, thyroid patients who strongly suspect they have adrenal fatigue by the reactions they have to desiccated thyroid have been using saliva testing…and lo and behold, the results they receive nearly completely conform with how they feel! i.e. saliva testing, which tests one’s cortisol levels at four key times during a 24 hour period, has worked beautifully in helping thyroid patients with adrenal fatigue identify their problem, in helping these patients doctors have a better understanding of their problem, and knowing better what might be their best treatment, which can range from using licorice root, to over-the-counter adrenal support, to hydrocortisone (HC).

Harmful?? Give me a break.

Could it be that medical school trained doctors just hate and despise any method which a patient might benefit from WITHOUT going to the doctor and paying big bucks?? hmmmm. And once again, could it be that a method NOT taught in medical school just MIGHT be a good one (just as desiccated thyroid like Armour, Naturethroid, etc. is far, far better than Synthroid or Levoxyl, which ARE taught in medical school)?

The FDA approved saliva testing for AIDS in 2005. They approved saliva testing for ovulation in 2003. They approved saliva testing to detect if a woman is going into premature labor in 1998. And there’s many more they have approved. So…perhaps this is all a gasp of a committee who hates to see patients have some control over their health (terrible, awful thing, isn’t it?) or the cry of a committee that only reveals its ignorance.

p.s. Dr. Best of San Antonio recently posted the following excellent article on saliva testing: http://besthealthandwellnessinfo.com/hormone-testing-i-spit-on-your-blood-test/

Order your own saliva cortisol test here.

2 replies

What is going on with the Texas Medical Board?? Potentially worrisome.

This 2008 blog post was updated in 2015 here: https://stopthethyroidmadness.com/2015/07/28/medical-boards-and-the-tsh-how-they-fail-thyroid-patients-worldwide/ Enjoy!!

**************

I was informed today that a very popular and well-liked doctor in Texas, who treats many hypothyroid patients, was disciplined recently. And for what? Under the column titled NONTHERAPEUTIC PRESCRIBING, it states: The action was based on Dr. Launius’ prescribing Adipex, Adderal and Armour Thyroid to patients when such medications were not indicated. www.tmb.state.tx.us/news/press/2008/101608a.php

Adipex and Adderol are both central nervous system stimulants, and I can’t comment one way or the other. But the mention of Armour thyroid as “not indicated” is potentially worrisome, especially with similar disciplinary actions brought upon well-liked and wise doctors like Peatfield and Skinner of the UK, Derry of Canada, and Springer in the US–all who dared to make obvious symptoms more important than ink spots on a piece of paper.

Take Kymm, a 45 year old woman. She has manifested hypothyroid symptoms for 15 years since the birth of her daughter. Yet during those entire 15 years, her TSH lab result has been completely “normal”…i.e. hypothyroidism has never been “indicated” based on the typical and widespread gold standard of diagnosis: the TSH. But she has never, ever been normal with 15 years of easy weight gain, chronic depression, thinning hair, rising cholesterol, and other clear hypothyroid symptoms. And she has in fact started on Armour…and is soaring.

Kymm is not an oddity. Thyroid patients on internet groups report going years with a normal TSH, no diagnosis, yet clear symptoms which are ignored by their TSH-obsessed doctors. So their doctors may have avoided disciplinary action, but did they truly practise the art and science of healing??

6 replies