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Very sad news: Dr. Gordon P. Skinner of the UK has passed away!

skinner TPAStop the Thyroid Madness is saddened to report of the passing of Dr. Gordon P. Skinner of the UK on Tuesday, November 26th due to a stroke. Skinner was a champion of thyroid patients, plus a medical practitioner who was beloved for his willingness to look outside the box in the diagnosis and treatment of hypothyroidism. 

Dr. Skinner was a man of high education and esteem. He “graduated in Medicine at the University of Glasgow in 1965 and following house jobs in Glasgow and Midlands of England specialized in Obstetrics and Gynaecology and later in Virology and in 1976 became Senior Lecturer in Medical Microbiology at the University of Birmingham with Consultant status at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham. Dr Skinner’s research portfolio for which he was awarded the prestigious Doctorate of Science by the University of Birmingham can be found in his CV”.

Dr. Skinner was brilliant about the connection between ME/CFS and hypothyroidism. Years ago, he was one who saw the association between the condition of Myalgic Encephalopathy (which is also a term for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome) and hypothyroidism, in spite of so-called normal ranges. This was huge information and the same association was also seen by some thyroid patients around the turn of the century when they were moving over to natural desiccated thyroid (NDT) and doing so much better than they did on T4-only like Synthroid. Read about Chronic Fatigue Syndrome right on STTM.

Dr. Skinner was sadly challenged by the GMC. In June of 2005, Dr. Gordon Skinner, who was a private practitioner in the UK, was called before the General Medical Council to ascertain his “fitness to practice”. And why was he called before the board? Because of alleged “inappropriate clinical practice including maintaining medication for patients at dangerous levels and failures of communication with other medical practitioners.”  I mentioned this in October 2006. i.e. Dr. Skinner dared to listen to thyroid patient symptoms over what is deemed “normal” labwork via the TSH.  He also dared to use natural desiccated thyroid, aka porcine thyroid extract, to treat his patients until they saw the removal of symptoms. He began to receive restrictions in his ability to practice.

Dr. Skinner was now prohibited from seeing new patients unless they had been referred by a General Practitioner, and his decisions were to be reviewed by the GMC every six months for the next three years.

In 2007, I heard from Lyn Mynott, chair of Thyroid UK about Dr. Skinner being brought before the General Medical Council (GMC) because he dared to treat his patients with thyroid hormone when they have so-called “normal” blood lab test results. The GMC attempts to dictate what is “a good standard of practice and care” for patients and the “proper standards in medicine”. I spoke about this folly in the July 2007 blog post. His restrictions continued.

Dr. Skinner was appalled by the belief that a TSH up to 10 was normal. The Royal College of Physicians and the Royal College of General Practitioners had implied by 2010 that patients should not received a diagnosis of hypothyroidism if their TSH was less than 10, and Skinner found it senseless. They had also stated that the thyroid extract called Armour was a bad medication (in spite of the fact that millions of us worldwide have had our lives change thanks to NDT).

Dr. Skinner was free to practice fully again in November 2011. i.e. his restrictions were lifted and his Fitness to Practice was restored. But in May 2012, he was forced to appear before the GMC once again, where conditions were imposed on him, including being supervised by a particular Endocrinologist

Dr. Skinner was the creator of the World Thyroid Register. This was created to “address the parlous situation of patients who are hypothyroid and have yet not been diagnosed and indeed patients who are being managed with an unacceptably low level of thyroid replacement.”

Dr. Skinner wrote the book “Diagnosis and Management of Hypothyroidism” about the symptoms of hypothyroidism and issues with getting diagnosed.

Thyroid UK summed it up well: “He will be sadly missed by his family, friends and thousands of thyroid patients whom he has helped to regain their lives through his diagnosis and treatment of hypothyroidism. Many patients became firm friends with Dr Skinner, enjoying his quirky sense of humour and it is so sad that we will never be able to hear his lovely Scottish lilt again.”

SkinnerYou will be missed, Dr. Skinner, and remembered by Thyroid Patients worldwide with admiration! We send our condolences to your family and closest friends, as well as to all your patients who will miss you greatly. Rest in Peace!

**Photo on top from the TPA UK site; below from Thyroid UK 

 

 

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The outcome of this can affect YOU, as a thyroid patient, no matter WHERE you live!

Screen Shot 2013-02-10 at 10.22.58 AMWhat affects your neighbor can affect you. 

This is why you need to be aware of, and show support for, what is going on in Scotland. Namely, three Scottish residents….Sandra Whyte, Marian Dyer and Lorraine Cleaver…have submitted a petition to the Scottish parliament as of last week in defense of better thyroid diagnosis and treatment.

ThyroidChange has provided a video about this hearing, and it’s moving. You’ll hear mention of the following:

  1. the conversion failure of T4-only treatment, leaving these women suffering with low energy, high cholesterol or blood pressure, weight gain, anxiety, fibromyalgia joint pain, suicidal tendencies or more
  2. issues related to poor cortisol levels
  3. problems with testing only the TSH and T4 lab tests
  4. stress put on marriages because of these failures
  5. how the diagnosis of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia seem to have risen only after the TSH came into being along with thyroxine treatment

A mind boggling and brilliant comment came from Lorraine about the National Health Service (NHS) listing of medicines, which she stated includes 82 for Diabetes, 47 for depression, 45 for acne, 16 for athletes foot, 3 for hiccups, 3 for dandruff….AND ONE FOR THYROID. “There’s something very wrong” says Lorraine, when T4 is the only medicine listed (in spite of the availability of natural desiccated thyroid, also called thyroid extract, or T3.) 

When asked for evidence as to where the problem is with General Practitioners (GPs), it was mentioned there are no guidelines for the treatment and diagnosis of hypothyroidism, and everyone defers to the Royal College of Physicians guidelines, which is inadequate and does not provide for problems with T4-only or recommend T3 or thyroid extract (natural desiccated thyroid).

Sandra asks “Why are we keeping people ill?“.  She mentions that patients are told it’s in their heads, have “lazyitis”, and antidepressants are prescribed everywhere.  Lorraine sadly mentions being told by doctors that her problems are not thyroid related (when she knows they are, and so do millions of us).

Mention was made of a Swedish study showing that 70% of thyroxine-treated patients are not symptom-free, going against the idea that taking one little thyroxine pill is going to solve the problem. 

Lorraine mentioned that even doctors, like a particular Endocrinologist she has seen, feel ham-strung themselves (by the pressures put on them from their fellow professionals to prescribe T4-only).

BRAVO TO THESE THREE LADIES FOR BRINGING THIS TO THEIR PARLIAMENT!  And I can’t help but believe that if we see the right outcome in Scotland about this, it will play a role in spreading throughout the world. Have your own T4-only nightmare to share? You can send it to the Scottish parliament to back up what these ladies have already one, here: petitions@scottish.parliament.uk

And from Janie: we see many T4-only patients who do seem to convert well, yet still have issues related to a poor treatment. I was one. There are many others. Additionally, even those who convert well eventually find themselves with problems as they get older. T4-only treatment is not a pretty picture.

For further reading:

To see research which proves what we already know as thyroid patients, go here.

To see patient-recorded symptoms from being on T4-only, go here.

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Touching message from a near-91 year old New Zealand resident who feels his government is keeping him sick…

Screen Shot 2015-08-10 at 10.38.26 AM(Though this post was originally written in 2012, it is still appropriate even today! Enjoy!)

I am impressed if ANYONE over 70 years old is active on their computers, especially because they didn’t grow up with one, nor did their own children. So when I get a message via Facebook from a near 91-year-old man in New Zealand who clearly knows his stuff, I am doubly impressed.

But this story is poignant, aggravating, and the very reason Stop the Thyroid Madness exists–to educate YOU in the face of medical and government leaders who are completely clueless! Do we have to wait for our current crop of government officials to be forced or voted out of office  before we see this thyroid diagnosis and treatment travesty stop???

Dear Janie, I am 90 years and 10 months old, and have a TSH of 3.5 . My doctor, using the range of 0.4 to 4, declared me OK and not hypothyroid. This margin is used by the New Zealand Governments Ministry of Health (M.O.H). My letters to the M.O.H. of New Zealand to read the article written by the AACE in America of  January 2003 (to bring down the margin to 0.3 to 3.04) were not taken into consideration.

I am a permanent resident in New Zealand. Because of my repeated requests, they even blocked my letters to them, and in the meantime, leaving me suffering. Have been suffering about 3 years with “Chronic Fatigue Syndrome”.  Found your articles on the Internet and bought your book Stop The Thyroid Madness.

My doctor gave me Synthroid and when it didn’t work, wanted to raise the dosage. Fortunately I was in possession of the book Overcoming Thyroid Disorders by David Brownstein M.D. and refused. Indeed, I share all the “Common Experiences We All Share” as written in your book . My doctor has even referred me to a Psychiatrist—unbelievable! Of course I told the Psychiatrist who works for the N.Z. Public Health Department straight away that I will have nothing to do with him. Just to do something, he wrote me a prescription for a drug used for people who are lunatic. Gave the prescription to the doctor to throw it in his rubbish bin!

Am now looking for a knowledgeable N.D. but have not succeeded yet . They are either not knowledgeable enough about thyroid disorders or too expensive for my pensioner income. Have obtained dessicated thyroid from a compounding pharmacist, but don’t dare to take it without guidance. In the meantime, I have to eat frequent small meals just to prevent awful anxiety attacks or to feel reasonably well ..and the doctor calls me euthyroid?

Well Janie, that is my story. Am so glad that you have written your book, thanks, and that I just today received it by mail order on the Internet. With my best regards – ****

P.S. Of course you can publicise my letter to you. Hope that it will help a bit in our struggle to get proper treatment and that people all over the world will know how indifferent governments can be.

THINK THIS PROBLEM IS ONLY WITH NEW ZEALAND? PATIENTS AROUND THE WORLD SHARE THE SAME STRUGGLES!

Sheila Turner, a Thyroid Patient Advocate in the UK and creator of TPA-UK, has worked tirelessly to change the DARK AGE medical treatment protocols that UK thyroid patients have to endure. Here is a letter she wrote July 2012 to the President of the Royal College of Physicians in one of many attempts to change the inane poor practices: http://www.tpa-uk.org.uk/Report_RCP_et_al.pdf

DR. JOHN C. LOWE’S WEBSITE “THYROID SCIENCE” BACK UP!

http://www.thyroidscience.com/

JanieSignature SEIZE THE WISDOM

New to this?

* Read why the TSH lab test can be a huge failure. 
* See why Synthroid or any other T4-only med can be a problem, sooner or later.
* To read what happens when your brain doesn’t get enough of the thyroid hormone T3, go here.

* To have the Stop the Thyroid Madness revised book in reach for reference, go here.

* To get more tips, inspiration and information, Like the STTM Facebook page.

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The dark ages in the United Kingdom–don’t think it might not happen where YOU live!

I have lived in the United States my entire life.

And there are other countries I have felt were similar to my own as far as being modern, forward-thinking, and intelligent. The United Kingdom is one.

But there is one area in the UK that is as close to the Dark Ages as it gets: the treatment of all forms and degrees of hypothyroidism.

Because of the British Thyroid Association (BTA) and the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) ‘guidance’ on the Diagnosis and Management of Primary Hypothyroidism, most UK doctors refuse to prescribe any form of  T3, whether adding synthetic T3 to one’s T4, or using natural desiccated thyroid, either because they have fallen in line like ducks in a row, or they fear for their job.

Why? Because “overwhelming evidence supports the use of Thyroxine (T4) alone in the treatment of hypothyroidism, and we do not recommend the prescribing of additional Triiodothyronine (T3) in any presently available formulation, including natural thyroid extract, as it is inconsistent with normal physiology, has not been scientifically proven to be of any benefit to patients, and may be harmful”.

Anybody puking yet??

And, says thyroid patient advocate Sheila Turner of TPA-UK, “never has the RCP, BTA  produced any of the ‘overwhelming evidence’ they claim as supporting the use of T4-only, even though they have been asked to do so on numerous occasions. Overwhelming evidence supports the use of synthetic T4/T3 and natural thyroid extract.”

And don’t think it won’t happen where YOU live. Stupidity can abound.

What to do about it?? Answer a short questionnaire, created by Sheila and TPA-UK, which is for those with symptoms of hypothyroidism when treated with T4-only, who then tried a T3 thyroid hormone product with success. “The results of this questionnaire will enable us to create the first ‘World-wide Register of Counterexamples to Levothyroxine (T4) – only therapy'”, underscores Sheila. “The objective is to draw attention to the dire need for an urgent re-examination of the existing protocol for the diagnosis and management of the symptoms of hypothyroidism.”

Don’t wait until stupidity and narrow-mindedness comes to where you live, as it also has in the country of Columbia, where Cynomel (T3) was retired more than 10 years now.  Give this a voice NOW to head it off at the pass.

P.S. While you are at it, sign up with Dr. Skinner’s World Thyroid Register.

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The STTM patient-to-patient website needs your help! I had to move the website to a far larger server in order to handle the immense amount of visits this site gets. And a larger server means higher yearly costs to host it. I can’t do it alone, as my money tree was killed by pine beetles and my husband won’t tell me what his Swiss Bank Account number is. So your donations can help keep Stop the Thyroid Madness up and running for yourself and other patients just like you! If you appreciate STTM, please go here to make a donation to the hosting fees. I do not get it! The hosting company does.

The large size STTM t-shirts are now gone. If you can wear an X-large or XX-large and want to spread the word to others, go here. And the bumper stickers REALLY catch attention!! I am stopped in parking lots because of mine. YOU could change someone’s life!

The Contact Me page on STTM hasn’t been working for weeks. And I didn’t know it. 🙁  But it’s fixed now.  Remember: it’s not to ask questions about your personal treatment. Those need to go here.

The STTM book helps in your doctor’s office. Have brain fog? Many patients are telling me they take the book right in the office, bookmarked. I can’t promise how your doctor will respond, but it’s been positive for most when a book is referred to right in front of the doc. I hope it helps you, too.  P.S. Only books ordered directly from the publishing company get a bookmark of updated info. That’s also true if you have a book sent to a relative or friend.


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Sock it to ’em, Sheila of TPA-UK! She has asked some STRONG questions!

(Side note: I feel so stupid. If you have signed up to receive notification of STTM’s blog posts (see signup on left below links), I have inadvertently failed to check a particular box for the emails to go out. I won’t make that mistake again. See the two posts below, which you weren’t notified about when they came out. )

I recently chatted with Sheila Turner, a thyroid patient advocate in the UK who runs the website Thyroid Patient Advocacy–United Kingdom.

And she has become absolutely disgusted at what is happening in the UK–disgusted enough to stop being polite and to ask direct and pointed questions on the home page of her TPA-UK website.

What spurred her tough new stand?  Says Sheila, “The RCP (Royal College of Physicians), BTA (British Thyroid Association) et al are doing everything they can to boycott all T3 containing products and their latest ‘Statement’ on the diagnosis and management of primary hypothyroidism is banning general practitioners from prescribing T3 at all.“.

And, explains Sheila, it’s gotten to the point where most any General Practitioner is completely afraid to prescribe T3 or any T3-containing product like natural desiccated thyroid for fear of being reported. “The ONLY people allowed to recommend that T3 be prescribed are “accredited endocrinologists”, says Sheila. (And how many patients have experienced how close minded Endo’s can be towards desiccated thyroid.)

And here are her brilliant, in-your-face questions with links, which are pertinent for ALL of us, whether in the UK or not:

  1. WHY do the GMC, the RCP, the BTA et al. deliberately choose to ignore the scientific evidence that has been available for over 40 years ?
  2. WHY are medical associations ignoring the 13% failure rate of T4-only therapy for the past 50 years? Why are patient’s complaints dismissed?
  3. WHY has there been no correction to the RCP statement when there are patients who are counterexamples to the validity of T4-only therapy?
  4. WHY is the confusion of two definitions for ‘hypothyroidism allowed to continue?
  5. WHY are guideline authorship and concise guidance to good practice protocols ignored?
  6. WHY are individual symptoms of hypothyroidism stated to be “non-specific” when Baisier found groups of these symptoms may be quite specific?
  7. WHAT further investigations for non-thyroidal causes are recommended as relevant to the symptoms of hypothyroidism when pituitary and thyroid GLAND function tests are biochemically normal — Levels of fT3, rT3 and adrenal levels?
  8. WHY are the studies by Das (2007) and Lewis (2008), which found that patients could be successfully treated with thyroid extract being ignored?
  9. WHY is medicine ignoring false negative test results?
  10. WHY do doctors refuse to explain and/or justify their decisions, thereby withholding information necessary for valid consent to treatment?
  11. WHY does the NHS refuse to take steps to protect human rights when sufferers are put at risk through a disregard of the demand that patients should be treated with fairness, respect, equality, dignity and autonomy?
  12. WHY are laboratory discrepancies in serum testing being ignored?

I appreciate the tough stand Sheila is taking. We HAVE to take a strong stand in light of the worldwide ignorance about 60 years of patient suffering on T4 meds like Synthroid, Eltroxin et al, about better treatment with natural desiccated thyroid and T3 products, and about the lousy TSH lab test!

In fact, in light of practically NO mass media attention to this huge worldwide thyroid treatment scandal, we have to shout it wherever we can and hope that some WISE reporter or media personality gets this and will shine a media light at the idiocy going on out there towards thyroid patients. Stop the Thyroid Madness!â„¢

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