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Tag: depressed

Is grandpa sleepy? The innocent victims of the TSH lab.

lynn-doralynn-donna1 Most of us are in our prime when our health is slaughtered thanks to the lousy TSH lab result–a result which can be normal for years before it rises high enough to reveal our hypothyroidism, or a range which keeps us with lingering hypo symptoms.

But the elderly are also wide open targets of the scandal of  the use of the TSH test to diagnose hypothyroidism.

My father-in-law was stout, tall and healthy as an ox his entire life.  For the first eighty-eight years of his life, life was active and grand. Oh did I love him.

Yet as he was nearing ninety, fate became fickle. He became like a Rip Van Winkle,  sleeping more than being awake the final three years of his life.  He slept in the mornings, he slept after lunch, he slept before dinner, and he went to bed early.  And he seemed depressed.

Family concern (mine) prompted his doctor to test his TSH,  widely used by clueless doctors to ascertain thyroid function. The family doc proclaimed “Normal”

Sad. Because I had to watch him waste away in his fatigue until he died.

Hypothyroidism increases with age,  and many of our elderly fall victim to it. Using most any search engine on the net, you’ll find numerous articles on thyroid and the aged. But I suspect it’s an even greater problem that most any article can relay, since most of them are talking about the TSH and thyroxine. So the elderly, just like us,  suffer due to the infinitely lousy TSH lab, just like my dear father-in-law.

Read my latest article on OpEdNews titled “TSH: Thyroid Stimulating Hooey and the Loss of Wisdom” (Yup, the first part is the same title of Chapter 4 in the STTM book) : http://www.opednews.com/articles/TSH-Thyroid-Stimulating-H-by-Janie-Bowthorpe-090205-60.html

Have you noticed suspicious hypothyroid symptoms in your grandma or grandpa, or your own elderly patients? Tell your story by commenting on this blog post.

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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.

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