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Survey by Thyroid Patients as to How They View Their Doctors — not a pretty picture!

Screen Shot 2014-04-03 at 11.42.37 AMRecently, Stop the Thyroid Madness LLC implemented a survey to discern thyroid patient observations and opinions about the medical professionals they have used. And the results of this poll present alarmingly negative opinions by 1,870 thyroid patients about doctors they have used.

Of course, most informed thyroid patients aren’t surprised by the findings of this survey. But to see the responses, and especially the comments made in response to questions 2 – 5, it all certainly underscores how deep the problem is.

As far as which doctors gave the worst treatment according to patients, Endocrinologists led the pack with MD’s following in second. Conversely, Naturopaths gave the best treatment, even though they barely got 1/3 of the responses.

Comments made by patients in response to Question 3 (see below–actions which would have raised the opinions of patients of doctors) were the most enlightening. They ranged from having better knowledge about T3 or desiccated thyroid, understanding the right lab work instead of the TSH, listening to their patients (stated frequently), better understanding of thyroid symptoms, ceasing to tell patients to eat differently or exercise more, not being so afraid of higher doses of NDT, understanding nutrition, stop with the labeling/dismissiveness/arrogance/patronizing, respecting educated patients…and a great deal more which you can read under #3 in the linked page below.

The survey’s five questions with responses were:

Question 1: How satisfied have you been with the way the majority of medical professionals you have seen over the years have treated your thyroid problem? (Choose one response only)

1) VERY SATISFIED — Most medical professionals have helped my thyroid issues.

2) MODERATELY SATISFIED — Some have done well; others have not done as well

3) NEUTRAL — I have no opinion one way or the other

4) NOT SATISFIED — the vast majority of my experiences with doctors have been
negative when it comes to helping me

Question 2: If you chose #1 above, why do you feel very satisfied about your thyroid treatment by the majority of medical professionals you have seen over the years? (Choose any that apply)

1) I feel much better than I did before

2) I have no more symptoms that I understand are related to hypothyroidism.

3) The majority of those doctors were good listeners

4) The majority of those doctors seem to know what they are doing.

5) The majority of those doctors respect my opinions and see me as a partner in my healthcare.

6) Their fees were affordable

7) Other (133)

Question 3: If you chose either 2, 3, or 4 in the first question above: which of the following actions by medical professionals would have raised your opinion of the thyroid care you had gotten? (Choose any that apply)

1) Paying more attention to my symptoms rather than putting focus solely on lab results.

2) Understanding how to read lab results

3) Being offered Natural Desiccated Thyroid or T3 rather than T4-only

4) Going more by the Free T3 and Free T4 plus symptoms, not the TSH

5) Understanding the reality of cortisol problems, plus saliva testing and treatment

6) Understanding the problem of low iron, reading iron labs, treatment

7) Being more open-minded about non-traditional therapies

8) Understanding that my depression could be related to my hypothyroid state.

9) Other (395)

Question 4: When thinking about the types of health care providers you have used over the years, please choose one type that you feel did the WORST job in your treatment.

1) Endocrinologists

2) MD’s (Medical Doctor)

3) DO’s (Doctor of Osteopathy

4) NP’s (Nurse Practitioners)

5) PA’s (Physicians Assistants)

6) Naturopaths

Comments (122)

Question 5: When thinking about the types of health care providers you have used over the years, please choose one type that you feel did the BEST job in your treatment.

1) Endocrinologists

2) MD’s (Medical Doctor)

3) DO’s (Doctor of Osteopathy

4) NP’s (Nurse Practitioners)

5) PA’s (Physicians Assistants)

6) Naturopaths

Comments (565)

TO SEE THE RESULTS OF THIS SURVEY, head on over the SURVEY: Hypothyroid patients view of their doctors page.

Seize the wisdom!!

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20 replies

A real life horror movie: suckered by Big Pharma marketing. Part 2

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Recently, after we watched a semi-scary movie about being suckered, a friend brought up my blog post of last July where I described a terrifyingly-real horror movie.

The plot: stunningly convince hundreds of millions of individuals worldwide that what is obvious, isn’t. i.e. it’s all in your head, you are adequately treated on Synthroid, Levoxyl, Eltroxin, Norton, et al,  and not only that, we’ll bandaid your continuing problems with more medications.

A second plot: also completely hoodwink those with top notch higher medical educations and experience by churning out the the exact same poppycock, and reward their stupidity with gifts.

The central villian: Big Pharma, followed by the doctors who bought the lie

Exactly a year ago this month, Science Daily came out with an article, citing two York University researchers who estimated that the U.S. pharmaceutical industry spends almost twice as much on promotion as it does on research and development, contrary to the industry’s claim. In other words, the researchers estimated that $57.5 billion in US dollars was spent on pharmaceutical promotion in 2004–the year they were studying. Yes, I said BILLION.

Breaking that down, Big Pharma spent approximately $61,000 per physician in promotion of their products.  And they concluded that both figures were UNDERestimates.  In other words, they concluded that the US pharmaceutical industry is marketing-driven rather than “life-saving”.

And adding fuel to the fire: most doctors believe every thrust of that marketing. I recently participated in comments with other wonderful patients in response to a DO/Endocrinologist, Dr. Thomas Repas, who has clearly bought the Big Pharma marketing when it comes to levothyroxine. You can read his posts and our comments here, here, and here.   Dr. Repas is exactly the kind of doctor who has  starred in our horror movie, and the kind of doctor that patients have lamented about for years.  Read the  Give Me a Break list of comments made by doctors, as well as further comments on the January 1st blog.

But Dr. Repas is in good company. Doctors have believed the Big Pharma lie about T4-only medications, and against desiccated thyroid like Armour, Naturethroid, etc. for 50 years.  In the patient-to-patient  Stop the Thyroid Madness book, you can read about the first tableting of Synthroid in 1955 and the strategic and successful promotion of T4-only, in spite of the fact that T4 was known to be unstable for decades.

And today, more than 50 years later, very few of us have been untouched by the Big Pharma push for levothyroxine T4-only treatment.  My own mother was suckered, and I was suckered.  And until patients started to make a huge push for desiccated thyroid treatment the last few years, nearly every single doctor around the world had been suckered.

We still have a way to go. But we’ll get there, bit by bit.

5 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.