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Month: July 2010

God bless an electrical engineer: why the TSH lab test needs to be suppressed!

I always know that when I get an email from Dr. John C. Lowe, it’s going to contain excellent information. And he didn’t let me down.

Dr. Lowe is Editor-in-Chief of Thyroid Science, an “open-access journal for truth in thyroid science and and thyroid clinical practice”.  And in the recent issue, there is a remarkable and precise TSH (Thyroid Stimulating Hormone) hypothesis by none other than a brilliant UK  electrical and electronics engineer, Mr. Peter Warmingham.  In fact, his hypothesis about the TSH lab result when treating one’s hypothyroidism exactly corresponds to the successful experience of thyroid patients all over the world.

To quote Dr. Lowe in his introduction about Warmingham’s paper (FYI: “exogenous” refers to the thyroid hormone you give yourself;  “endogenous” refers to what happens naturally in your body):

Mr. Warmingham’s hypothesis is straightforward: When a hypothyroid patient (whose circulating pool of thyroid hormone is too low) begins taking exogenous thyroid hormone, a negative feedback system reduces the pituitary gland’s output of TSH. This decreases the thyroid gland’s output of endogenous thyroid hormone, and despite the patient’s exogenous thyroid hormone’s contribution to his or her total circulating thyroid pool, that pool does not increase–not until the TSH is suppressed and the thyroid gland is contributing no more thyroid hormone to the total circulating pool. At that point, adding more exogenous thyroid hormone will finally increase the circulating pool of thyroid hormone. The increase must occur for thyroid hormone therapy to be effective. The patient’s suppressed TSH, then, does not indicate that the patient is over-treated with thyroid hormone; instead, it indicates that the patient’s low total thyroid hormone pool will finally rise to potentially adequate levels.

In other words, when your doctor says no to an increase in your desiccated thyroid simply because your TSH lab result is, or would become, below the so-called normal range (and in the presence of continuing symptoms or a low temperature), he will usually end up keeping you hypothyroid! i.e. making an ink spot on a piece of paper more important than clinical presentation is just one reason why the current thyroid patient revolution represented by Stop the Thyroid Madness exists!

You can read Warmington’s entire paper here on Dr. Lowe’s site. For further information on the fallacy of the TSH lab test, go here or read Chapter 4, aka Thyroid Stimulating Hooey, in your copy of the STTM book for more detail.

P.S. Dr. Lowe is probably right on when he says he expects criticism to flow for the fact that Warmington is not an Endocrinologist and “how in the world can anybody but an Endo make a logical hypothesis about the TSH lab test”. Read more on Lowe’s thoughts about this here.   But enlightened thyroid patients around the world are collectively shouting “GOD BLESS AN ELECTRICAL ENGINEER!”

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Janie and Jimmy of The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show

I had a fun interview by the vivacious and interesting Jimmy Moore of the Livin’ La Vida Low Carb Show. If you haven’t yet heard it, you can listen to Jimmy and I by clicking right here.

Jimmy Moore is a living success story about the benefits of a low carb diet–losing 180+ pounds in 2004 and regaining his health and vitality.  As I do about far better thyroid treatment,  Jimmy has been on a one-man mission to tell the whole world what livin’ la vida low-carb can do for them.

Eating low carb can be a very important strategy for those with hypothyroidism, especially while on desiccated thyroid and seeking to reverse the damage of being on T4 meds like Synthroid, et al.

And for those of you with adrenal fatigue, following Jimmy’s low carb life style can be very beneficial when you need to be on cortisol, which can cause weight gain for some, but is an important treatment for your low cortisol situation.

Have a great day!

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Recall of T3 tablets — 5 mcg. by Paddock Laboratories

Though this page was written in 2010, it has been updated to the present day and time. Enjoy!

***************
After the turn of the century and within groups associated with Stop the Thyroid Madness, thyroid patients made a huge discovery–that many of them had an RT3 problem!

RT3 is the acronym for Reverse T3. Reverse T3 production is normal. It will occur if you have surgery, after a bodily accident, when having the flu and/or other stressful conditions. It’s your body’s way of moving out the excess T4 by converting it to more and more RT3, which in turn, lowers your metabolism.

But when thyroid patients have either low iron or a cortisol problem, up goes the Reverse T3. And why is that a problem? RT3 is not only inactive, but you might say it’s a T3 “antagonist”, binding to the same cellular receptor that T3 would have attached to, but now can’t. Thus, T3 will rise higher and higher in the blood–a condition we call pooling.

So what did patients learn to do? Find out the reason and treat it…and in the meantime, they lowered the RT3 by lowering the amount of T4 they were getting, or by being on straight T3.

And in 2010 came recall of one of the brands of T3 by Paddock.

PRODUCT
Liothyronine Sodium Tablets, USP 5 mcg, RX only, Net contents 100 tablets, NDC0574-0220-01, UPC code (01) 00305740220016. Recall # D-695-2010
CODE
Lot # 9C548
RECALLING FIRM/MANUFACTURER
Recalling Firm: Paddock Laboratories, Inc., Minneapolis, MN, by letter dated May 18, 2010.
Manufacturer: Metrics Inc., Greenville, NC. Firm initiated recall is ongoing.
REASON
The recall is being conducted due to a stability failure at the 12 month timepoint; the assay value of this lot was found to be sub-potent.
VOLUME OF PRODUCT IN COMMERCE
11,064 bottles
DISTRIBUTION
Nationwide including DC and PR

Luckily, as the years went by, there continued to be other brands of T3 and new brands.

 

  • Want to learn more about RT3 and the problems it can cause you?? You can read about it here on STTM’s Reverse T3 page, plus more details in the STTM book chapter on T3.
  • Have you Liked the STTM Facebook page? Great place of daily information and tips!
  • Like being informed?? Go directly to the STTM blog page and sign up for notifications at the bottom of any any page
  • Need other thyroid patients to talk to? Go to the Talk to Others page.
  • Have questions about what thyroid patients have learned? Check out the Question and Answers page.
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Lesson learned: changing my high school reunion mindset

(To all my thyroid friends, I thought you might enjoy my off-topic post concerning my high school reunion, since many of you may be approaching your own.  Janie)

As my 40th high school reunion was approaching, I really wasn’t sure I wanted to go.

The 10th was certainly disappointing:  the former cliques just seemed to draw together like metal filings to a magnet. Zzzzzzzzzzuippp   And the image of “high school classmate A”  smacking away on her pink gum like a 28 year old teenybopper just put the proverbial exclamation mark on my disgust.

So when the 20th, and later the 30th arrived, I had sound excuses: I was moving into a new house not only during both years, but in the same months. Phooey on high school reunions.

So here it was approaching all over again: a high school reunion with the massive 40th in front of it.  There was no house relocation going on.  So my other excuses not-to-go flowed with ease: I don’t want to watch the clique-zzzuip.  I’ve lived away from Dallas for too long. My memories of high school were not too pleasant. I don’t have any strong connections to old classmates. My life has moved on. Yada, yada, yada.

But I got weak.

The first crack in my negative resolve was my realization that perhaps I just could form new friendships with former high school classmates as one adult to another.  That was an exciting thought. If I had come a long, long way since those secondary school days, so could others.

The second crack was the reality of deceased parents, a brother whom I never see, three sons living far away in three different directions, and the dreadlock, hug-a-tree hippie-dom of where we live, which had not proved to be the best place to find stimulating adult friendships with common backgrounds.

Besides, wouldn’t it be interesting, as the third and final crumble, to find out how everyone really is all these years later.  Facebook was already giving me a peek at that.  And this time, I was not planning on sitting around “watching”.  I was going to put my hand out, wear my genuine smile, and say “Howdoyado?” to as many as I could.

And I did just that.

I arrived at the Dallas Hilton hotel as excited as a peacock in full plume. And to make a full weekend of events short, my highest expectations were met.

  • I was proud to see certain classmates, who might have swum in bitterness about their challenging/lonely/miserable high school experiences, be right there with courage and glory in their own value as an equal adult.
  • I was impressed to see many former shy and quiet high school classmates be just as social and outgoing as their more demonstrative classmates.
  • I was in awe to discover how this person or that, who really didn’t stand out in high school, had in fact achieved some impressive career goals and financial rewards far above many of us.
  • I was relieved to discover how friendly many still were, or how friendly others had become in the maturity of adulthood.

Did I see those same old click-zzzuips?? Yup. There were still a few who needed to lock emotional arms against the crowd of other classmates. But those were the vast minority, as clearly, most “got it” that there were treasures to be had in getting to know other classmates.  I hope I made that clear in my social butterfly rounds, and it didn’t pass me by that several others did the same.  I appreciated you.

As others have expressed on Facebook, it was a weekend I didn’t want to end. I wanted more small gatherings so I could have a chance to find out where you lived, what you’ve been doing, who you are. And I wanted time to tell you the same about me. But it appears that will take more gatherings. And this time, I’m coming.

When it was all ending, and many of us were crippling back to our hotels rooms in the wee hours of the morning from the lounge on the 18th floor open after-party,  it certainly dawned on a few of us how MUCH people missed by not coming. And it dawned on me what “I” would have missed by not coming: renewing old friendships I had forgotten about, making new friendships that will mean a lot to me in the ensuing years, finding out how silly some of the past really was, and feeling really proud of what I have become, as well as what others have become.

Oh, and let me not hesitate to mention that there was a freeing and humorous benefit of going to one’s 40th reunion: that those Barbie doll and Fonzy bodies are practically no more. Yup, we all do share the fruits of time, whether it be those delightful under upper arm wings, sensuous sagging chins, happy bountiful bellies, cottage cheese thighs, and/or our own versions of Shar Pei wrinkles.   

I almost made a huge mistake by not coming. But thank goodness, like so many others, I had reached a pinnacle in my adulthood to know how important and worthwhile it might be to come back, as well as to take a pro-active stance to the entire event.  And I’m glad it did.

Love and warm thoughts to my high school classmates of Thomas Jefferson High School! RRREB-BBBEL-REB-BEL-REBELS!

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