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Month: March 2006

Sometimes they need “Idiot” stamped on their foreheads

This morning, I received an email from a friend with a link to a Medscape article by A.P. Weetman , titled “Whose Thyroid Hormone Replacement is it Anyway?” Professor Weetman is the Dean of the School of Medicine, University of Sheffield in the UK.

And as I started the read, my internal warning bells sounded immediately with the second sentence: “We have robust assays to diagnose the condition and an effective replacement in the form of synthetic thyroxine.”

OK, this is going to be an article full of delusional hot air, I concluded. But I was wrong. The information in this article proceeded to turn into nothing less than condescending and arrogant medical bullcrap. In other words, it not only stunk, it REEKED.

Granted, the article starts off well-informed about the brilliant 4-point petition being lodged by patients in the UK: 1) Over-reliance on thyroid blood tests and a total lack of reliance on signs, symptoms, history of the patient and a clinical appraisal.

2)The emotional abuse and blatant disregard by the majority of general practitioners and endocrinologists over the suffering experienced by untreated/incorrectly treated thyroid patients and their lack of compassion over the fate of these patients.

3) Stubbornness of general practitioners and endocrinologists to treat patients suffering from hypothyroidism with a level of medication that returns the patient to optimum health. In addition the unwillingness to prescribe alternate thyroid treatment for patients on individual grounds… such as Armour thyroid.

4) The ongoing reluctance to encourage debate or further research on hypothyroidism.’

It continues with awareness of Broda Barnes and Durrant-Peatfield, and mentions that “access to information by patients has increased vastly due to the Internet.”

But once the article moves beyond the above, it takes a steep downward dive into condescending pig slop. Why do some patients feel so dissatisfied with and so mistrustful of standard medical advice, it asks? Because we have “functional somatoform disorders” (i.e. DSM-IV code number 300.81). In other words, we are mentally ill, folks. We are totally and completely delusional and the symptoms we have ALL experienced, either from being untreated, or while on T4-only medications, are all in our heads.

And it’s all part of what is known as the “healthism phenomenon”–the latter which it described into ad nauseum detail, and is followed by an ignorant analysis of the TSH.

The article then concludes that physicians, especially Endocrinologists, need to avoid “thyroid hormone treatment of euthyroid individuals”, and continue with “replacement with synthetic thyroxine as the standard, rather than Armour thyroid extract.”

Cough.

Let me explain what this site is about. It is a compilation of the experience of thousands upon thousands of thyroid patients who HAD ALL THE DELUSIONAL, SOMATIC SYMPTOMS that Weetman claims we experienced, BUT who had those same DELUSIONAL, SOMATIC SYMPTOMS totally erased when we switched to Armour and ignored the TSH. Hmmm. Anyone laughing yet?

Because though this patronizing article is frighteningly narrow minded and downright stupid, and though we all know there are Endocrinologists who do and will take the same stance, this mental posture only serves to reveal the high-minded, cowardly failure to really LISTEN to patients. And that, my friends, is why you can only LAUGH at articles like this.

Because thankfully, there IS a growing body of courageous and inwardly secure physicians and medical professionals who treat the PATIENT, not ink marks on a piece of paper. They have no need to see patients as psychiatric half-wits in order to exalt their position.

And the bottom line is this: WE know the difference. WE have lived it. WE are patients who have figured it out ON OUR OWN, and it’s time for doctors who take this stance and any like-minded colleagues to have the courage to consider that patients JUST MAY HAVE WISDOM about their own bodies that your lab tests, your medical school education, and your dogmatic pontifications do not.

STOP the thyroid madness!!

9 replies

Medical Doctors are Thyroid Lab Test Zombies

Ever seen a movie about a zombie?? They’re those empty-eyed, soul-less looking beings that seem to be totally automated without one iota of thought to what they do. And THAT is how a doctor behaves when he looks at a thyroid lab result yet TOTALLY ignores how you FEEL.

On another forum recently, a gal posted that for the first time in over a year, she is feeling almost normal again. Her hair shedding has improved tremendously, her brain fog has lifted, and her metabolism has decided to work again. Additionally, she has just recently been able to lose 10lbs. And it’s all because of Armour.

Yet……because her TSH was .01, and her free T3 was one point below the top of the range, her doctor thinks she is overmedicated. And she now laments “It has taken me so long to get this far. I do not want to go back.”

So here we have a thyroid patient who has PROGRESS on Armour…yet because she has a zombie doctor who thinks black ink marks on a piece of paper are much more important than how she FEELS…she will be forced to feel bad once again…or like SO MANY thyroid patients, she’ll have to self-treat to get that efficacy of being on Armour.

Doctors, you repeatedly call Armour inconsistent, unreliable and dangerous. But the inconsistency, unreliability and danger lies in YOU and your failure to look BEYOND the lab test. As Mary Shoman has aptly stated “We are patients, NOT lab values!!”

And as Janie says, “Stop the thyroid madness!!” It’s not working! It never has! It still doesn’t!”

3 replies

Sincerity doesn’t equal accuracy–a very bad thyroid website

I have been exchanging polite emails with a webmaster of a large thyroid site of another country. This is a site chock full of information, covering many aspects of thyroid disease and issues. And the webmaster has obviously put a lot of diligence into the site.

BUT…….as you peruse this site, you sadly discover that sincerity doesn’t always equal correct emphasis and accuracy.

This is a site which heavily promotes the use of T4 medications, in spite of the fact that patients have remained obviously sick, in one degree or another, on these medications for more than 40 years, whether they raise them or not!

The website also contains a few yin-and-yang tendencies. It bravely hints in an article and in a flyer that T4/T3 therapy may have benefits, but in the flash of a new paragraph, moves back into promoting T4-only treatment. It gives some slight information on desiccated thyroid, then in another highly misguided article, it recommends against the use of desiccated thyroid products “because they can cause hyperthyroidism” due to the direct T3. 😆

And the criticism given to me about my site’s emphasis on natural desiccated thyroid?? I’m too “narrowly focused”.

And to that I here reply: You betcha! Because the proof is in the pudding. This site didn’t evolve because a “skewed subset” found benefits. It’s here because several thousands of us are finding out that natural desiccated thyroid removed all our symptoms in a way that T4-only never did and never will! And grassroots thyroid internet groups and websites are growing in leaps and bounds to shout that “narrowly focused” fact all over the world! (i.e. IT AIN’T JUST ME!)

And for those who tried desiccated thyroid and didn’t get the same panacea of benefits? It’s most always due to sluggish adrenals and/or low Ferritin, both quite common, and both very treatable and correctable.

It’s called “broad and healthy outcomes from a narrowly focused treatment of choice”—great energy, better stamina, and the removal of all thyroid symptoms in a way that T4-only medications NEVER DID, and NEVER WILL give you………unless you want to stay on those statins, anti-depressants, weight loss diets, blood pressure meds, benzodiazepines , and all the other pills you have to be on to counter the results of an ineffective medication like T4 alone.

I applaud the sincerity and hard work of the folks at this site, and the willingness to briefly mention the benefits of T4/T3 therapy, as well as criticize the rigid dosing by the TSH and the tendency of the medical profession to underdose patients.

But I hope you can also sincerely rethink and reexamine the following stated beliefs:

1) that “more than 80% of hypothyroid patients are adequately treated on T4 alone” (TOTALLY FALSE)
2) that “only a minority of hypothyroid patients (<5%) have superior outcomes with desiccated thyroid extract” (TOTALLY FALSE)
3) that “dose management with the natural extract is also much more complicated because of the fluctuations in potency and T3/T4 ratio between batches” (TOTALLY FALSE)
4) that “comparing adequate dosing with Armour to inadequate dosing with T4 is just a waste of time and energy” (TOTALLY FALSE)

Waste of time and energy??? Hogwash. It’s the “time and energy” of folks on all those internet thyroid support groups, and on FORUMS like THIS SITE and others, who are helping a GROWING MULTITUDE of folks find out WHY they feel so lousy on T4-only meds, or continue to have symptoms which are related to inadequate treatment. It’s that “time and energy” comparing Armour to T4 which is turning lives around, and busting wide open the denial and rigid false beliefs which abound!

Natural desiccated thyroid really works, and T4-only treatment does not. It’s time to pay attention, because you are getting left behind in the dust by the kangeroos.

2 replies