Stop the Thyroid Madness

Introduction

Stop the what??

Well, here’s the skinny. Many patients all over the world have come to the conc­lu­sion that for just over 50 years, a need­less, blun­de­ring and bona fide medi­cal scan­dal has com­pro­mi­sed their lives. It has affec­ted health, overwhel­med rela­tionships, and put money in the poc­kets of phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals who didn’t, and don’t, deserve it.

Could you, a friend or a loved one be a vic­tim of this scan­dal and not even know it? You betcha.

• The Non-Diagnosis Club: This huge glo­bal group con­sists of those who have genuine or unre­cog­ni­zed hypothy­roid symp­toms, yet no accu­rate diag­no­sis. Why? Because of well-meaning but clue­less doc­tors who fail to look at the entire clus­ter of your symp­toms, or have a rigid reliance on two lousy labs: the TSH and the T4. You are then proc­lai­med “normal”.
• The T4-Only Club: This also-gigantic glo­bal club con­sists of those who have been diag­no­sed with a thy­roid pro­blem, but trea­ted with Synth­roid, Levoxyl, Oro­xine, Levothy­ro­xine, Eltro­xin, et al, T4-only thy­ro­xine pills. But hypothy­roi­dism and the body is not meant to live on a sto­rage hor­mone alone and lea­ves most patients with their own brand or inten­sity of lin­ge­ring hypothy­roid symp­toms.

My name is Janie, and I am a thy­roid patient acti­vist, author, blog­ger and crea­tor of this infor­ma­tio­nal patient-to-patient site — STTM for short. It’s my sweet revenge in the face of a medi­cal treat­ment which has gone awry, and based on the expe­rience of patients world­wide to ins­pire, edu­cate and be taken into your doctor’s office.

Stop the thy­roid mad­ness! It’s not wor­king. It never has! It still doesn’t.
P.S. Still think this site may not apply to you? Go here for more information.

The Undiagnosed Club

Mem­bership quota: a glo­bal mass of medically-duped individuals

Dues: inc­rea­sing symp­toms of hypothy­roi­dism paid in full

Length of mem­bership: a few years lea­ding into deca­des for some

Mot­tos: “Your TSH is nor­mal. It’s not your thy­roid.” “You need to eat less, exer­cise more.” “Ever­yone needs to nap” “You need to see a the­ra­pist.” “Your pro­blems are due to being a mom/stress/genetics/your job.” “Here’s a script for your anti-depressant/statin/blood pres­sure med/psychotropic.” “Your hair loss is due to being a mom/stress/genetics.” “It’s just Chro­nic Fati­gue Syndrome/fibromyalgia” “I don’t know what’s wrong with you.”

Sound at all familiar?

Enligh­te­ned patients all over the world report going years while coping with the pesky flies of hypothy­roid symp­toms, sans a diag­no­sis. And it’s all because of the inane and lousy TSH lab test (see below) with its dubious “nor­mal” range, or the doctor’s fai­lure to notice cli­ni­cal pre­sen­ta­tion of the clus­ter of hypothy­roid symp­toms (see below) rather than simply an ink spot on a piece of paper which can mean squat.

As years go by without a diag­no­sis, the adre­nals take the hit trying to keep you afloat, resul­ting in high or low cor­ti­sol symp­toms inc­lu­ding anxiety, fear, dif­fi­culty coping, sleep pro­blems, not waking up refreshed and other symp­toms of an adre­nal beating.

How to stop this “unc­las­si­fied mad­ness”? Work with your doc­tor with the right lab tests and how to read them, and if all else fails, find a much bet­ter doc­tor (see below).  And P.S. wha­te­ver you do, don’t let your next step be obtai­ning mem­bership in the T4-only club.

The T4-Only Club

Think you are doing fine on a T4-only thy­roid med?

Think again! Synth­roid, Levoxyl, Levothy­ro­xine, Eltro­xin, Oro­xine, Nor­ton and a host of other brand names for synthe­tic T4-only are only giving you a thy­roid sto­rage hor­mone, meant to con­vert to the life-giving and active thy­roid hor­mone T3.  But a large and gro­wing body of patients in the T4-only club, as well as many wise doc­tors, have dis­co­ve­red that the body is not meant to live on con­ver­sion alone, no mat­ter how “nor­mal” your TSH lab result is or how fine you feel.

As a result of being in this club, your stress-busting adre­nals may be kic­king in big time with cor­ti­sol and adre­na­line to keep you going on an ina­de­quate treat­ment of T4-only.  Over time, there’s a high risk of those adre­nals beco­ming slug­gish, pre­sen­ting a much more com­pli­ca­ted pro­blem to treat. Low ferri­tin, aka sto­rage iron, can also raise its ugly head.

As one ages on T4, doc­tors are fin­ding patients with con­ti­nuing thy­roid symp­toms of a poor treat­ment, inc­lu­ding rising blood pres­sure, a buil­dup of cho­les­te­rol and other lipids, inc­rea­sed depression, fatigue and/or a myriad of other ina­de­quate side effects of a poor thy­roid treatment.

Accor­ding to the expe­rience of patients world­wide, T4-only meds do not do the job, any more than an ele­va­tor which only rises to the fifth floor of a 50-story buil­ding “does the job.”

Sure, you may feel slightly bet­ter with good results. But you will be left with your own brand and inten­sity of lin­ge­ring symp­toms of an ina­de­quate treat­ment that will get worse as you age. Yup.

Thyroid Treatment That Works

For more than 100 years, there has been a hypothy­roid treat­ment presc­ri­bed by doc­tors and used by patients that always was a cut above: natu­ral desic­ca­ted por­cine thyroid.

And today, there is a gro­wing body of thy­roid patients and their wise doc­tors world­wide who have dis­co­ve­red the far supe­rior treat­ment with Natu­reth­roid, Westh­roid, Armour, com­poun­ded desic­ca­ted thy­roid, Canada’s “Thy­roid” and other brands. (see Natu­ral Thy­roid 101 below)

All the desic­ca­ted thy­roid brands con­tain the same hor­mo­nes as your own thy­roid: T4, T3, T2, T1 and cal­ci­to­nin—all wor­king syner­gis­ti­cally and har­mo­niously in remo­ving lin­ge­ring symp­toms of hypothy­roid while on T4: depres­sion, aches and pains, easy weight gain or fati­gue, dry skin or hair, high blood pres­sure or cho­les­te­rol, weak heart func­tion or bone den­sity, and a host of others.

Addi­tio­nally, patients on desic­ca­ted thy­roid are being gui­ded by doc­tors to dose accor­ding to the eli­mi­na­tion of thy­roid symp­toms, bet­ter tem­pe­ra­ture, con­ti­nuing healthy hear­trate, and paying atten­tion to supe­rior lab­work like the free T3 and free T4, and not the TSH (see below).

As thy­roid patients on the desic­ca­ted thy­roid path, we have lear­ned what works, as well as mis­ta­kes we and our doc­tors have made or over­loo­ked that need correc­tion. (see below)

Stop the Thy­roid Mad­ness, both web­site and book, were crea­ted to edu­cate you, the patient, about desic­ca­ted thy­roid and bet­ter treat­ment.  In turn, this web­site helps you carry this infor­ma­tion into your doctor’s office and press for change in your thy­roid treat­ment.  It’s time to Stop the Thy­roid Madness.

NOTE: Go here to dis­cuss alter­na­ti­ves with your doc­tor if your phar­macy is backordered. 

Doctors

A mes­sage to Doctors:

In 2005,  I watched a doc­tor advi­sing on a popu­lar health web­site. And I also saw patient com­ments remo­ved simply because mem­bers dared to tell of their life chan­ging expe­rien­ces with desic­ca­ted thy­roid con­trary to his T4 advice. It was disheartening.

But the straw that broke the camel’s back was “mise­ra­ble mom”, plea­ding for help because of clear hypothy­roid symp­toms. His advice? Stay with the amount of thy­roid medi­ca­tion (that was clearly under-dosing her); her TSH was too low (as if an ink spot on a piece of paper is more impor­tant than cli­ni­cal pre­sen­ta­tion); and from a thy­roid stand­point, he conc­lu­ded, there isn’t much more to do.  He was com­ple­tely wrong, and lear­ned patients knew it! She never pos­ted again – miserable.

And from all the above star­ted the seed of sweet revenge in my mind. Namely, a web­site had to be crea­ted to edu­cate the patient, who in turn can take life-changing infor­ma­tion into each and every doctor’s office.

Stop the Thy­roid Mad­ness is a web­site not based on “my opi­nion”. It is almost com­ple­tely based on suc­cess­ful and lear­ned patient expe­rience around the world. Patient lives ARE chan­ging from this infor­ma­tion as they take into their doc­tors offi­ces, and doc­tors chan­ging their focus.

And you may ask: where’s the science?  My ans­wer to you is sim­ple: if patients had wai­ted on science to tell them what they already know by expe­rience, we’d ALL still be sick.

So may I res­pect­fully ask that if you con­si­der your­self to be a caring and wise phy­si­cian, lis­ten lis­ten to your patients, both in your office, on this web­site, and in more detail in the book. Because if you do, you just might become quite wiser than the ave­rage duck…and patients will adore you.

Information and Communication

“Know­ledge is power. Infor­ma­tion is libe­ra­ting.” —Kofi Annan

• STTM book: if you’d rather not be tied down to a com­pu­ter, plus want more detail, the Stop the Thy­roid Mad­ness book is boss! The only patient-to-patient book on the mar­ket, and it’s chan­ging lives.
• Audio Shorts: lis­ten to Janie explain what this patient revo­lu­tion is all about con­cer­ning the TSH lab test, T4 meds, desic­ca­ted thy­roid, adre­nals, etc.
• T-Shirts and Bum­per Stic­kers: a way to spread the word. Wear the T-shirt to your doc­tors office, or splash the humo­rous bum­per stic­kers on the car. T-shirts now 50% off!
• Janie’s Blog: read what Janie has to say about a variety of STTM sub­jects and make your own com­ments. Sign up with the Noti­fi­ca­tions link to be informed.
• STTM’s Face­book page:  a great place to talk to others, post on the Wall, exchange ideas, and get a mes­sage from Janie a few times a month.
• STTM’s Twit­ter:  One little sen­tence here & there to which you can res­pond with the same.
• Talk to others: Need feed­back? it was always patients-talking-to-other-patients which tur­ned T4 on its head and star­ted the revo­lu­tion for far bet­ter thy­roid care.
• Phy­si­cians group: Are you a legally qua­li­fied and licen­sed prac­ti­tio­ner of medi­cine with an active prac­tice? This is your group. (Patients need to use the Talk to Others link above)