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Patients and wise doctors continue to learn in leaps and bounds

IMG_2008 Just when you think we’re full of great information for better thyroid care, there’s still more to learn and find out.  Below is information that you might find interesting on STTM.

ADRENALS: For those who discovered via the 24 adrenal saliva test that they needed cortisol support, we have come to realize that some can’t do the ramping up schedule from a small amount to a larger amount without having problems from the feedback loop.

Instead, many simply need to “start” on the higher amount, which would range from 20-30 mg. You can read about that on the How to Treat page, and you’ll note that not one morning amount goes higher than 10 mgs.  With the exception of men, higher than 10 mg seems to suppress the ACTH and adrenals too much.

A NEW LOOK: To make the STTM home page more understandable to newcomers, the home page has broken down the information better into separate pages, and also has a new interesting way of using it.

LISTEN TO THIS INFORMATION: STTM has short audio clips you can listen to, or send someone else to, to help understand what this is all about.

STORIES OF OTHERS: Individual real-life stories continue to come in, proving over and over that this revolution for far better care really does work.

FEEDBACK and MORE FEEDBACK: I get emails daily about lives changed thanks to this patient revolution. It’s wonderful to see people finding out WHY they have depression, less stamina than others, rising cholesterol and blood pressure, hair loss plus other lingering symptoms of  hypothyroidism left untreated because of the lousy TSH, or undertreated because of the equally-lousy T4-only treatment like Synthroid. I can’t begin to post them all, but STTM does contain a sampling of this feedback.

DESICCATED THYROID BRANDS: Wow, the list is growing for desiccated thyroid brands around the world! We now have listings for Denmark, Germany, Italy and New Zealand, as well as more detailed information on compounded thyroid in Australia. Thanks to all who contributed.

KEEPING UP WITH ADDITIONS TO STTM: In case you didn’t know, there’s a page meant to inform you of what’s added to STTM. I may neglect to list a few additions occasionally, but think I’m pretty close to getting most of them up there.

MEDICAL RESEARCH TO PROVE WHAT WE ALREADY KNOW: Did you know that STTM has a page which compiles research and studies which prove what we as patients already know? It’s not loaded with research yet, but it’s growing. And if you have found more to contribute to that page, use the Contact Me form.

SITE MAP: And bottom line, you can always go to the Site Map, or review the information more compactly in the book, which patients are taking into their doctors offices.

*Want to be informed of these blog posts? Curious what’s on Janie’s mind? Use the Notifications on the left at the bottom of the links.

*Stop the Thyroid Madness T-shirts are now 50% off! I like sales, don’t you? And by wearing these shirts, you’ll never know what seed you put in the mind of someone walking past you who’s still on Synthroid or any other T4 meds, and doesn’t know WHY they have depression, rising cholesterol, easy weight gain, the need for naps, etc. You”ll also find humorous bumper stickers which definitely spread the word.

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Tips on how to do desiccated thyroid sublingually

Though this was originally posted in 2009, it’s been updated to the present day and time!

The brand of Natural Desiccated Thyroid called Armour used to be easy to do sublingually, even if the official line was they didn’t make it that way. That means letting it dissolve under the tongue which can potentially make its way to the sublingual gland under the bottom of the mouth and more directly to the cells.

And patients liked that sublingual ability with Armour.  It allowed them to work around the problem of swallowing desiccated thyroid several hours from having swallowed iron, estrogen or calcium–all which can bind ‘some’ of the thyroid hormones in your stomach.

It also helped those with digestive issues, since some of it may be bypassing the stomach.

But with the first newly formulated Armour in 2009, it became difficult. The pill became harder with less dextrose and more cellulose.  It now fell into the ranks of all other desiccated thyroid pills, including Naturethroid and other good brands, as a more dense tablet.

Tips from patients on how to do sublingual

Even for those NDT brands which are made quite hard, below are tips from patients on how to continue doing  desiccated thyroid sublingually. Let your doc know, too.

1) Some are adding a tiny touch of the contents of a Pixie Stix under their tongue. It’s flavored sugar in a straw, and the sugar seems to help the tablet dissolve sublingually through tissues under the tongue.

2) If you are using sublingual B12 lozenges to treat low B12, try adding it under the tongue with your desiccated thyroid. The action of the sublingual lozenge seems to move over to the thyroid tablet, say some.

3) Swish warm water in your mouth before you place the tablet under your tongue.

4) Crunch up the desiccated thyroid tablet before any of the above and before placing it all under your tongue.

Can’t I just swallow my NDT?

Definitely. You’ll just have to make sure you don’t also have a stomach full of iron rich foods, calcium or estrogen. Generally, it’s best to take your tablet away from any of the former, such as a two hour difference at the minimum.

*Have more sublingual ideas or experiences? Share it in the Comments section.

*Want to be informed of my blog posts? Curious what’s on my mind? Just use the Notifications to the bottom right of the links.

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Yes, Jessica Terry, it’s weird to have to self-diagnose, but thyroid patients have had to do the same thing!

Jessica Terry is an 18 year old student at Washington State high school in the Bay Area who had years of problems which doctors couldn’t figure out: vomiting, diarrhea, weight loss and stomach pains.  Doctors said she had irritable bowel syndrome or colitis, and said her intestinal tissue was just fine according to slides.

Yet, she just knew that wasn’t correct.

So she took some of her own intestinal tissue to her Biomedical Problems class, and voila…she diagnosed her own problem:  granuloma, and specifically, Crohn’s disease, an inflammation of her intestines.

Sound familiar??

Yup, thyroid patients have had to do the exact same thing–self-diagnose– for almost ten years because of continuing symptoms of hypothyroidism which doctors have routinely dismissed, pooh-poohed or blamed on something else.  It’s all been a horrific, wide-reaching and damaging 50 year medical scandal by the medical establishment upon thyroid patients.

And why has this calamity occurred? Because doctors have always been hoodwinked by their medical school training, continuing education and Big-Pharma-financed-research in believing that T4-only thyroxine medications like Synthroid, Levoxyl, Levothyroxine, Eltroxin, et. al. were from God Almighty, and the TSH lab test was just as holy.

And thanks to thyroid patients around the world who had the gall to use the internet and join patient groups, we figured out it’s all because those medications and labwork have not worked, and what has worked. Additionally, it was patients who discovered they had adrenal fatigue and/or low ferritin and how to treat it, and patients who have succeeded in beginning a wave of change around the world in the treatment and diagnosis of hypothyroidism (except for the UK, who has gone backwards to the dark ages).

You can read Jessica’s story first reported in the Sammamish Reporter,  and only recently reported to a wider audience in the Bay Area News newspaper. She also spoke to a CNN affiliate.

Thanks to Kem on NTH for informing me of this news.

P.S. Do ya think that any newspapers or major news outlets like CNN are going to finally get what a huge story thyroid patients have given them?? We’re still waiting……

*Want to be informed of Janie’s blog posts? Curious what’s on her mind? Just use the Notification link to the bottom left of the links.

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UK’s Royal College of Physicians continues to be deaf, blind and royally dumb.

throwingup1

Funny how things work. I had been wondering what the heck was going on with thyroid patients in the UK after the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) came out with their February 6th guideline stating that 1) thyroxine was the only medication needed for hypothyroidism, 2) “natural” medications were dangerous and 3) the only labs needed are the TSH and T4.

All the above goes totally against the life-changing experience of a growing body of patients.

Equally a part of this B-grade horror movie is the stand taken by the British Thyroid Association (BTA).  Read it. And UK-TPA thyroid patient advocate Sheila Turner began to go through her own hell when her Armour was taken away, which you can read about in the February 20th blog post here.

And suddenly, I get an email from Sheila, informing me that the RCP stand is as bad as it was three months ago for her and other thyroid patients.

Sheila states: This is absolutely unbelievable that out of the hundreds of references we sent to the Royal College of Physicians to show their guideline to be flawed, they have taken no account of one single one of them. They are publishing their previous guidance without one since change. The world has gone mad.

Dear Sheila, Further to my email of 6 April, the comments and materials received by the College have been reviewed. This position statement or guidance (not a guideline) was produced on behalf of the Royal College of Physicians, in particular its Patient and Carer Network and the Joint Specialty Committee for Endocrinology and Diabetes; the Association for Clinical Biochemistry; the Society for Endocrinology; the British Thyroid Association; the British Thyroid Foundation Patient Support Group and the British Society of Paediatric Endocrinology and Diabetes and is endorsed by The Royal College of General Practitioners. The President has asked me to let you know that this review has not resulted in any changes to that statement.  It should be noted that it is about the treatment of primary hypothyroidism and does not preclude other treatments for exceptional cases by specialist endocrinologists who can make clear to patients any associated risks. References supporting the statement are listed below. Yours sincerely, Catharine Perry Administrator -   Diagnosis and treatment of primary hypothyroidism. BMJ 2009;338:b725 -   Vaidya B, Pearce S. A Clinical Review of the management of hypothyroidism in adults. BMJ 2008;337:a801. This contains references for 35 articles and states that Armour thyroid is of no proved additional benefit to levothyroxine. – The Lancet Volume 363, Issue 9411, Pages 793 – 803, 6 March 2004.  This covers the history, epidemiology, pathophysiology, and clinical diagnosis and management of hypothyroidism and is written by Caroline GP Roberts and Paul Ladenson of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, USA.  This review, which references 164 clinical articles, states that the treatment of choice for hypothyroidism is levothyroxine sodium (thyroxine) and does not refer to Armour thyroid. -  Baloch Z, Carayon P, Conte-Devolx B, et al. Laboratory medicine practice guidelines. Laboratory support for the diagnosis and monitoring of thyroid disease.Thyroid 2003;13:3-126. -  Association of Clinical Biochemists BTA, British Thyroid Foundation. UK Guidelines for the use of thyroid function tests. http://acb.org.uk/docs/tftguidelinefinal.pdf -  Surks MI. Ortiz E, Daniels GH, et al. Subclinical thyroid disease: scientific review and guidelines for diagnosis and management. 2004;291:228-238.

And as your peruse the six references above which they use to defend their tunnel-visioned, moronic position, you realize that you, your words, and your positive-outcome experience on desiccated thyroid, as well as the use of far better labs, is about as important within the UK’s latest medical pronouncement as is dirt on the bottom of a rusted bucket in the middle of an empty field in nowhere. Yup.

Or as Harold Shipman stated about the RCP’s guidelines: What a brilliant wheeze.

******************************************

See below on the potential importance of potassium in your health and well-being. And on the May 7th post about the party being over with Forest Pharmaceuticals, comments continue to come in about experiences with the “new” Armour.

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A toxin which could explain why SO many of us have thyroid disease

perchlorate_manuf_users_mapEver heard of perchlorate?? It’s a salt taken from perchloric acid, and it’s used in rocket fuel and explosives.  It was also once used in a medication to treat hyperthyroidism.

And guess where residues of it are hiding? In our drinking water and in infant formula. (EPA map shows where perchlorate is manufactured just in the US—nearly every state)

In a recent article by the Environmental Working Group,  it’s estimated that 15 brands of infant formula are contaminated with it, and two of the most contaminated brands of those 15 made up 87% of powdered formula used in 2000…all according to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention).

As bad as that is, this goes beyond infant formula. It’s estimated that the drinking water of 28 states is contaminated by perchlorate, and other estimates are 35.  In addition,  the majority of women who breastfeed have it in their milk.  And you can find it in water-rich foods such as tomatoes and melons, or carrots and spinach.  It could even be found in milk.  Ouch.

So we not only have millions of US babies being exposed to a toxin which can diminish thyroid health, but adults who can be drinking their water and eating their food.

But guess what can counter the toxic effect of perchlorate? Iodine supplementation, if you take enough. In spite of some controversy with the use of iodine supplementation, this gives one pause in favor of it.

Luckily for all of us who know that desiccated thyroid like Armour is a better thyroid treatment, it also contains iodine. And some go beyond that, adding iodine to their supplements via Lugols or Iodoral.  It might be worth looking into.

P.S. The buck doesn’t stop with perchlorates in our water. We could also be exposed to a variety of pesticides, chemicals from deposed prescription drugs, and even mercury in our water.  Sad.  Our poor thyroids are assaulted.

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