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Tag: aches and pains

What in the world is the UK’s Royal College of Physicians thinking??

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(This post was updated to the present! Enjoy!)

2009 was a nauseating year for informed UK thyroid patients. UK’s Royal College of Physicians came out with a press release about the new guidelines on the diagnosis and management of primary hypothyroidism. And it hit the web with a resounding, stiff-necked **THUD**.

The press release was titled:

Thyroxine is the only treatment for primary hypothyroidism

Yup, as if nothing else could possibly exist, even though other hypothyroid treatments do exist, and one has been around for over 110 years changing lives called Natural Desiccated Thyroid. But no, it’s only the blinkered, horse-blinders pronouncement that   “Thyroxine is the only….”.

And to underscore the title, the first line of the press release pronounced:

New guidelines on the diagnosis and management of primary hypothyroidism state that thyroxine is the only treatment that should be given for this condition, which is caused by underactivity of the thyroid gland.

And it continues in all its blabbering, tunnel-vision glory:

The guidelines also state that the only validated method of testing thyroid function is on blood, which must include serum TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) and a measure of free thyroxine (T4).

For those who may not have caught up with the wisdom on thyroid patients and a growing body of entirely wise practitioners, the TSH lab test has proven to be the absolutely worst way to diagnose hypothyroidism, besides its use to find the right amount of medication. Far more important is the very test the UK College completely omitted: the free T3. T3 is the active thyroid hormone!

The came the final coup de grâce in the press release:

Patients, doctors and other health professionals are worried that people are being wrongly diagnosed and treated, due to the amount of unvalidated diagnostic tests and ‘natural’ treatments which are being offered by a variety of private individuals and companies. Wrong diagnoses and treatments can be dangerous, either because the wrong treatment can cause serious side effects, or the true cause of symptoms can be left undiagnosed and untreated.

Sadly, the danger is in using only one of five thyroid hormones, and forcing patients to live for conversion alone, resulting in a continuation of hypothyroidism in each patient’s degree and kind, sooner or later.

A concluding paragraph by Janie

In the 1600’s, Galileo was the first most prolific voice to proclaim that the earth revolved around the sun (Natural Desiccated thyroid), in contrast to the firmly held position that the sun revolved around the earth (Thyroxine).  He was denounced as being dangerous and heretical. Looks as if the UK Royal College of Physicians has a 17th Century mindset…. 

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** I wrote about it in the news media here: http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-Royal-College-of-Physi-by-Janie-Bowthorpe-090210-698.html

Are you from the UK? Tell us what you think.

11 replies

How’s your weight?? 6 Holiday Facts for Thyroid Treatment from Stop the Thyroid Madness

(Though this post was originally written in 2008, it has been updated to the present day and time and still applies to TODAY’S holiday! 🙂 )

With the holidays here and all the goodies, it can make us all shudder as we deal with all that great food!

I admit it: At Christmastime, I LOVE the easy Gingerbread Boy Cookies recipe I used when the boys were little, the Microwave Fudge recipe to die for, my world famous Chocolate Chip Meringue Cookies which I color red and green, my mother’s wonderful Pralines which I occasionally try to make myself,  and Grandma’s Fruit Cake–yeah an actual fruit cake I LOVE, which I order EVERY SINGLE YEAR at this time.

And it’s hard not to gain weight! Is that you, too?? So let’s go over 6 HOLIDAY FACTS about thyroid treatment with desiccated thyroid or T3:

1) WP Thyroid, NP Thyroid,  Naturethroid, T3, etc or any other excellent thyroid medication is not meant to be a Christmas weight loss pill. Desiccated thyroid medications consist of thyroid hormones: T4, T3, T2, T1 and calcitonin. They simply give you back what your own thyroid is not giving you…the same five hormones which give you a stronger immune system, a normal body temperature & improved metabolism, better energy, healthier hair and skin, less aches & pains, emotional happiness, better lipid profiles like cholesterol, stronger bones…and on and on.  But even with all that benefit, and even though it does improve your metabolism, desiccated thyroid, or even adding T3 to that T4, is not meant to be a weight loss pill.

2) NDT or T3 can only do its holiday job if you have strong adrenals or adequate cortisol treatment. Because cortisol is needed for thyroid hormones to move from your blood to your cells, you can only benefit optimally from desiccated thyroid during the holidays if you are lucky enough to have strong adrenals, or if you are giving yourself back the cortisol you need based on stable temps, blood pressure, and removal of most low cortisol symptoms.  So don’t forget that cortisol right now, and definitely consider adding a stress dose of cortisol if things get rough with the in-laws. (See Chapter 6 in the STTM book for even more details about stable temps, blood pressure, and stress dosing)

3) Don’t drink that NDT down with Egg Nog! Calcium is a known binder of thyroid hormones in your stomach, keeping you from benefiting from some of those health-giving thyroid hormones.  So if you swallow your desiccated thyroid or T3, get the water.  Or even better, do it sublingually.

4) Don’t expect NDT to keep you from looking like Santa Claus: you still gotta exercise & watch what you eat! It’s true: the optimal use of desiccated thyroid does raise your metabolism and eats those extra calories up like PacMan.  But if you’re like me, you can still have a tendency to put on those love handle butter pounds if you eat your fill of holiday foods.  ho ho ho. To curtail the gain, add exercise to your holiday regime, or increase what you already do. I try to aerobically walk a LOT during the holidays. And when I’ve eaten a Christmas stocking full of goodies, my next meal will be nothing but high protein, like  turkey, cheeses and nuts. Or, you can also balance your intake by choosing one meal a day to be low glycemic to somewhat balance out the high glycemics you know you are going to eat later. For example, I make my breakfasts only eggs and nitrate-free bacon, or plain yogurt with berries, nuts, and Stevia.

5) Building a holiday snowman outside?  Consider an extra 1/4 grain of NDT. It’s a fact that prolonged exposure to cold increases your demand for energy, which in turn can increase your demand for more thyroid hormones. As a result, many patients find that adding an extra 1/4 grain of desiccated thyroid to one’s daily amount helps meet the demands of Frosty the Snowman or that holiday sprinkling of lights all over your house in the cold air.  Talk to your doctor.

6) Give a gift of the STTM book to a loved one. There are other good thyroid books on the market, but unlike all of them, this is the bible of patient experience on successful thyroid treatment. You’ll find volumes of information that patients all around the world have learned. A true patient-to-patient guide to feeling wonderful again.  Go here to order.  And the publishing company is extending the time you can order a book to be sent DIRECTLY to your loved one.

HO! HO! HO!

JanieSignature SEIZE THE WISDOM