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Tag: T4-only

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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The intrusion of reality about levothyroxine, Synthroid, T4 and depression

 

STTM Depression and T4-only(This post was updated to the present day and time. Enjoy!)

I’ve been perusing comments in response to the UK’s Royal College of Physicians blundering and dark-age-constructed Diagnosis and Treatment of Primary Hypothyroidism. And though all comments are quite good and worth your read, I was struck by the comment titled May Reality Intrude? by a man named Charles.

Charles profound story about his wife’s depression

Charles explains that in 1999, his 67-year-old wife had RAI (radioactive iodine) and was then put on levothyroxine, a T4-only medication (aka Synthroid, Levoxyl, Eltroxin, Oroxine, levothyroxine, et al). And not long after, she complained of having depression.

He had an idea why after reading the New England Journal of Medicine about T3, and proceeded to buy her Armour off the internet. For those reading this, Armour is one of several brands of Natural Desiccated Thyroid–the latter which contains all five hormones that a healthy thyroid produces: T4, T3, T2, T1 and calcitonin.

Without her knowing, he switched medications. Lo and behold, he states “she promptly returned to her usual sunny disposition”. Her physician knew nothing of the switch either, and found nothing to be concerned about in her.

Charles then explained how, at age 74 in 2007, she was near death thanks to an ulcer bleed. And to continue treating her hypothyroidism, the hospital gave her levothyroxine, aka T4-only, all over again. Back came her depression and a feeling of wanting to go home and die.

So Charles brought her Armour to the hospital, and though her physical state was depressing enough, her sunny disposition returned. And that happy spirit while still on Armour continues today after a full recovery.

And Charles pondered: If his wife had been in a NHS (National Health Service) hospital under the care of a so-called thyroid specialist of the NHS, would she have failed to obtain T3 in her treatment and instead, sent to a psychiatrist as if her depression had nothing to do with her levothyroxine treated hypothyroidism–the very treatment that the Royal College of Physicians has a dogmatic love affair with?

He then concludes: My wife’s depression was obvious. Since she is equipped with much the same assortment of body parts and associated physiology as others, is it not likely that many levothyroxine-treated patients suffer from less-noticeable depression?

Our experiences as thyroid patients agree with Charles!

Well Charles, most any thyroid patient who decides to respond to this will tell you unequivocally YES, YES, YES. Because there’s no research, study or directive that is more profound and telling than the actual EXPERIENCE of patients all over the world with T4 treatment and depression…besides a slew of other side effects of continuing hypothyroidism on T4-only meds.

Why have so many experienced depression on T4-only?

Because we’ve learned repeatedly that the body is not meant to live for T4 alone, which is simply a storage hormone, not to live for conversion alone. T4 is meant to convert to the active hormone T3. Studies reveal that T3 influences the effect of the transmitters serotonin and catecholamine in the brain–both which effect mood. Without enough T3, an imbalance in serotonin seems to occur. So when one is forced to live for conversion alone, the body doesn’t appear to get enough of the powerful T3. Depression is just one of many side effects of a poor treatment with T4-only.

Go here to read several stories of patients whose depression went away with the right thyroid treatment.

* Did you have depression on a T4 med? Tell us about your experience in the Comments section of this post.

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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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Thyroid Tidbit: Desiccated thyroid in Denmark, Germany & Italy!

dancingpeopleSTTM’s Armour-vs-other-brands page now has information on desiccated thyroid in Denmark, Germany and Italy: www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/armour-vs-other-brands Thanks go to Julia Hendryx for alerting me about the brand in Denmark!

If I need to add more info or corrections, please use the Contact Me form at the bottom of any page on Stop the Thyroid Madness.

THIS PATIENT REVOLUTION for a better hypothyroid treatment is working! Desiccated thyroid brands which were almost extinct from low use are now seeing a comeback. Another comeback?? PATIENT HEALTH!! T4-only meds do NOT work, unless an elevator which only goes to the 5th floor of a 50 story building….works. My quote; my words.

p.s. See the post below about the importance of your potassium levels, and below that, how being hypothyroid can affect your liver, and my opinion of that fact with T4 meds vs. desiccated thyroid, which one comment disagrees with. For the May 7th post, comments are still coming in about the “New” Armour. Express yours, and let’s hope that just raising it will do the trick, in spite of the loss of being able to do it sublingually as easy as before–a sad loss.

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Another reason to question taking T4 meds without T3—your liver

Though this page was originally written in 2009, it’s been updated to the current day and time. Time does not change that your liver “may” be negatively effected by being on nothing but T4-only meds, or even being underdosed on NDT or T3. This is not a diagnosis–just information.  ~Janie, thyroid patient and site creator

I’ve been noticing several articles coming out about a strong association between hypothyroidism and a twice the risk of liver disease and problems, especially in females.

And then it dawned on me: another strong reason patients end up up playing basketball with their trash cans using bottles of Synthroid, Levoxyl, Levothroxine or Eltroxin, and being replaced with a working desiccated thyroid or T4/T3, or T3.

In other words, continued hypothyroidism (which being on T4-only meds has promoted, say patients for years) and undiagnosed hypothyroidism (because of the inadequacy of the TSH lab test) can ‘potentially’ promote the development of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, a more severe Fatty Liver disease, if these articles are right. The next progression is liver cancer, aka hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

Even worse, the study revealed that women who had been hypothyroid for more than 10 years had a threefold higher risk of liver cancer compared to women without a history of thyroid disorders. This will make you pause when you consider how many reports there are of patients having hypothyroid symptoms for YEARS with a normal TSH…and a clueless, TSH-worshipping doctor.

And if reading this bores you, understand that your liver is a HIGHLY important gland that you can’t live without. It plays a key role in detoxifying the toxins you ingest and breath in daily (including smoking), besides being a major fat burner. Make the liver diseased, and you become a breeding ground for toxins, the rise of other diseases…then death.

The solution? Patients are running from TSH and T4-only doctors, finding a doctor to put them on a working desiccated thyroid, or T4/T3, or T3, and avoiding the most common mistakes of dosing.

P.S. The original report came out in the May journal issue of Hepatology (the latter is now non-working–here’s the correct place it was to go.) (published by John Wiley & Sons on behalf of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases). Similar results were also reported in the Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology 2005.

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