Janie's Blog

I always know that when I get an email from Dr. John C. Lowe, it’s going to con­tain exce­llent infor­ma­tion. And he didn’t let me down.

Dr. Lowe is Editor-in-Chief of Thy­roid Science, an “open-access jour­nal for truth in thy­roid science and and thy­roid cli­ni­cal prac­tice”.  And in the recent issue, there is a remar­ka­ble and pre­cise TSH (Thy­roid Sti­mu­la­ting Hor­mone) hypothe­sis by none other than a bri­lliant UK  elec­tri­cal and elec­tro­nics engi­neer, Mr. Peter War­mingham.  In fact, his hypothe­sis about the TSH lab result when trea­ting one’s hypothy­roi­dism exactly corres­ponds to the suc­cess­ful expe­rience of thy­roid patients all over the world.

To quote Dr. Lowe in his intro­duc­tion about Warmingham’s paper (FYI: “exo­ge­nous” refers to the thy­roid hor­mone you give your­self;  “endo­ge­nous” refers to what hap­pens natu­rally in your body):

Mr. Warmingham’s hypothe­sis is straight­for­ward: When a hypothy­roid patient (whose cir­cu­la­ting pool of thy­roid hor­mone is too low) begins taking exo­ge­nous thy­roid hor­mone, a nega­tive feed­back sys­tem redu­ces the pitui­tary gland’s out­put of TSH. This dec­rea­ses the thy­roid gland’s out­put of endo­ge­nous thy­roid hor­mone, and des­pite the patient’s exo­ge­nous thy­roid hormone’s con­tri­bu­tion to his or her total cir­cu­la­ting thy­roid pool, that pool does not inc­rease — not until the TSH is sup­pres­sed and the thy­roid gland is con­tri­bu­ting no more thy­roid hor­mone to the total cir­cu­la­ting pool. At that point, adding more exo­ge­nous thy­roid hor­mone will finally inc­rease the cir­cu­la­ting pool of thy­roid hor­mone. The inc­rease must occur for thy­roid hor­mone the­rapy to be effec­tive. The patient’s sup­pres­sed TSH, then, does not indi­cate that the patient is over-treated with thy­roid hor­mone; ins­tead, it indi­ca­tes that the patient’s low total thy­roid hor­mone pool will finally rise to poten­tially ade­quate levels.

In other words, when your doc­tor says no to an inc­rease in your desic­ca­ted thy­roid simply because your TSH lab result is, or would become, below the so-called nor­mal range (and in the pre­sence of con­ti­nuing symp­toms or a low tem­pe­ra­ture), he will usually end up kee­ping you hypothy­roid! i.e. making an ink spot on a piece of paper more impor­tant than cli­ni­cal pre­sen­ta­tion is just one rea­son why the current thy­roid patient revo­lu­tion repre­sen­ted by Stop the Thy­roid Mad­ness exists!

You can read Warmington’s entire paper here on Dr. Lowe’s site. For further infor­ma­tion on the fallacy of the TSH lab test, go here or read Chap­ter 4, aka Thy­roid Sti­mu­la­ting Hooey, in your copy of the STTM book for more detail.

P.S. Dr. Lowe is pro­bably right on when he says he expects cri­ti­cism to flow for the fact that War­ming­ton is not an Endoc­ri­no­lo­gist and “how in the world can any­body but an Endo make a logi­cal hypothe­sis about the TSH lab test”. Read more on Lowe’s thoughts about this here.   But enligh­te­ned thy­roid patients around the world are collec­ti­vely shou­ting “GOD BLESS AN ELECTRICAL ENGINEER!”

I had a fun inter­view by the viva­cious and inte­res­ting Jimmy Moore of the Livin’ La Vida Low Carb Show. If you haven’t yet heard it, you can lis­ten to Jimmy and I by clic­king right here.

Jimmy Moore is a living suc­cess story about the bene­fits of a low carb diet – losing 180+ pounds in 2004 and regai­ning his health and vita­lity.  As I do about far bet­ter thy­roid treatment,  Jimmy has been on a one-man mis­sion to tell the whole world what livin’ la vida low-carb can do for them.

Eating low carb can be a very impor­tant stra­tegy for those with hypothy­roi­dism, espe­cially while on desic­ca­ted thy­roid and see­king to reverse the damage of being on T4 meds like Synth­roid, et al.

And for those of you with adre­nal fati­gue, follo­wing Jimmy’s low carb life style can be very bene­fi­cial when you need to be on cor­ti­sol, which can cause weight gain for some, but is an impor­tant treat­ment for your low cor­ti­sol situation.

Have a great day!

A huge dis­co­very over the last few years by thy­roid patients is the wides­pread pro­blem of high levels of Reverse T3, aka RT3, in many patients. And those thy­roid patients have to use a T3-only pro­duct for awhile to lower the high RT3, which comes from the T4 in desic­ca­ted thyroid.

Higher levels of RT3 can occur in the pre­sence of adre­nal fati­gue, low B12, low ferri­tin, and other issues, all which need treat­ment to stop the RT3 pro­blem. And in case you are one who is on the Pad­dock brand of T3, this comes from the FDA this week:

PRODUCT
Liothy­ro­nine Sodium Tablets, USP 5 mcg, RX only, Net con­tents 100 tablets, NDC0574-0220 – 01, UPC code (01) 00305740220016. Recall # D-695‑2010
CODE
Lot # 9C548
RECALLING FIRM/MANUFACTURER
Reca­lling Firm: Pad­dock Labo­ra­to­ries, Inc., Min­nea­po­lis, MN, by let­ter dated May 18, 2010.
Manu­fac­tu­rer: Metrics Inc., Greenville, NC. Firm ini­tia­ted recall is ongoing.
REASON
The recall is being con­duc­ted due to a sta­bi­lity fai­lure at the 12 month time­point; the assay value of this lot was found to be sub-potent.
VOLUME OF PRODUCT IN COMMERCE
11,064 bott­les
DISTRIBUTION
Nation­wide inc­lu­ding DC and PR

• Want to learn more about RT3 and the pro­blems it can cause you?? You can read about it here on STTM’s Reverse T3 page, plus more details in the STTM book chap­ter on T3.
• Like being infor­med?? Go directly to the STTM blog page and sign up for noti­fi­ca­tions on the left beneath the links.
• Need other thy­roid patients to talk to? Go to the Talk to Others page.
• Have ques­tions about what thy­roid patients have lear­ned? Check out the newest Ques­tion and Ans­wers page.

(To all my thy­roid friends, I thought you might enjoy my off-topic post con­cer­ning my high school reu­nion, since many of you may be approaching your own.  Janie)

As my 40^th high school reu­nion was approaching, I really wasn’t sure I wan­ted to go.

The 10^th was cer­tainly disap­poin­ting:  the for­mer cli­ques just see­med to draw together like metal filings to a mag­net. Zzzzzzzzz­zuippp   And the image of “high school class­mate A”  smac­king away on her pink gum like a 28 year old teeny­bop­per just put the pro­ver­bial exc­la­ma­tion mark on my disgust.

So when the 20^th, and later the 30^th arri­ved, I had sound excu­ses: I was moving into a new house not only during both years, but in the same months. Phooey on high school reunions.

So here it was approaching all over again: a high school reu­nion with the mas­sive 40^th in front of it.  There was no house relo­ca­tion going on.  So my other excu­ses not-to-go flo­wed with ease: I don’t want to watch the clique-zzzuip.  I’ve lived away from Dallas for too long. My memo­ries of high school were not too plea­sant. I don’t have any strong con­nec­tions to old class­ma­tes. My life has moved on. Yada, yada, yada.

But I got weak.

The first crack in my nega­tive resolve was my rea­li­za­tion that perhaps I just could form new friendships with for­mer high school class­ma­tes as one adult to another.  That was an exci­ting thought. If I had come a long, long way since those secon­dary school days, so could others.

The second crack was the rea­lity of decea­sed parents, a brother whom I never see, three sons living far away in three dif­fe­rent direc­tions, and the dread­lock, hug-a-tree hippie-dom of where we live, which had not pro­ved to be the best place to find sti­mu­la­ting adult friendships with com­mon backgrounds.

Besi­des, wouldn’t it be inte­res­ting, as the third and final crum­ble, to find out how ever­yone really is all these years later.  Face­book was already giving me a peek at that.  And this time, I was not plan­ning on sit­ting around “watching”.  I was going to put my hand out, wear my genuine smile, and say “How­do­yado?” to as many as I could.

And I did just that.

I arri­ved at the Dallas Hil­ton hotel as exci­ted as a pea­cock in full plume. And to make a full wee­kend of events short, my highest expec­ta­tions were met.

• I was proud to see cer­tain class­ma­tes, who might have swum in bit­ter­ness about their challenging/lonely/miserable high school expe­rien­ces, be right there with cou­rage and glory in their own value as an equal adult.
• I was impres­sed to see many for­mer shy and quiet high school class­ma­tes be just as social and out­going as their more demons­tra­tive classmates.
• I was in awe to dis­co­ver how this per­son or that, who really didn’t stand out in high school, had in fact achie­ved some impres­sive career goals and finan­cial rewards far above many of us.
• I was relie­ved to dis­co­ver how friendly many still were, or how friendly others had become in the matu­rity of adulthood.

Did I see those same old click-zzzuips?? Yup. There were still a few who nee­ded to lock emo­tio­nal arms against the crowd of other class­ma­tes. But those were the vast mino­rity, as clearly, most “got it” that there were trea­su­res to be had in get­ting to know other class­ma­tes.  I hope I made that clear in my social but­terfly rounds, and it didn’t pass me by that seve­ral others did the same.  I appre­cia­ted you.

As others have expres­sed on Face­book, it was a wee­kend I didn’t want to end. I wan­ted more small gathe­rings so I could have a chance to find out where you lived, what you’ve been doing, who you are. And I wan­ted time to tell you the same about me. But it appears that will take more gathe­rings. And this time, I’m coming.

When it was all ending, and many of us were crip­pling back to our hotels rooms in the wee hours of the mor­ning from the lounge on the 18^th floor open after-party,  it cer­tainly daw­ned on a few of us how MUCH peo­ple mis­sed by not coming. And it daw­ned on me what “I” would have mis­sed by not coming: rene­wing old friendships I had for­got­ten about, making new friendships that will mean a lot to me in the ensuing years, fin­ding out how silly some of the past really was, and fee­ling really proud of what I have become, as well as what others have become.

Oh, and let me not hesi­tate to men­tion that there was a freeing and humo­rous bene­fit of going to one’s 40^th reu­nion: that those Bar­bie doll and Fonzy bodies are prac­ti­cally no more. Yup, we all do share the fruits of time, whether it be those delight­ful under upper arm wings, sen­suous sag­ging chins, happy boun­ti­ful bellies, cot­tage cheese thighs, and/or our own ver­sions of Shar Pei wrin­kles.   

I almost made a huge mis­take by not coming. But thank good­ness, like so many others, I had reached a pin­nacle in my adulthood to know how impor­tant and worthwhile it might be to come back, as well as to take a pro-active stance to the entire event.  And I’m glad it did.

Love and warm thoughts to my high school class­ma­tes of Tho­mas Jef­fer­son High School! RRREB-BBBEL-REB-BEL-REBELS!

This past Satur­day, while brow­sing at the next-to-last garage sale (one of my favo­rite Satur­day mor­ning events), my ears per­ked up like a bunny when I heard a gal chat­ting with the owner of the house.  I heard things like “sick for 5 years…fibromyalgia…a lot of pain all over my body…had to quit my job and live with my parents…in bed for two years…they had to bath me...” and more mise­ra­ble ima­ges of something she was clearly glad to be over.

So, while my hus­band sat in the car with the patience of a saint, I lin­ge­red. When she finished chat­ting and was hea­ding to her car, I wal­ked towards her and said gin­gerly “I overheard your con­ver­sa­tion. Can I ask you about the fibrom­yal­gia and your expe­rience??” I couldn’t help myself.

As a Thy­roid Patient Acti­vist who has stood up to the inane allo­pathic fai­lure in the diag­no­sis and treat­ment of hypothy­roi­dism, I knew that the majo­rity of cases of “fibrom­yal­gia” were due to undiag­no­sed or poorly treat­ment hypothy­roi­dism, as well as the accom­pan­ying hell of adre­nal fati­gue,  thanks to the gar­bage can TSH lab test or the stu­pi­dity of T4-only treat­ment like Synth­roid.  Yet, here was a young woman, Mel, who was now the pic­ture of health. What was her story??

Mel’s story was a tale of sud­den onset follo­wed by five years of misery, all over body pain,  immense fati­gue, utter hel­pless­ness, debi­li­ta­tion, and neck lymph nodes SO swo­llen that they loo­ked like two huge goi­ters – right and left. It was also a sce­na­rio of no firm diag­no­ses, yet no hesi­ta­tion by doc­tors to make stabs– from fibrom­yal­gia to an unk­nown chro­nic fati­gue disorder.

But I knew right away what she pro­bably had: acute Eps­tein Barr Virus (EBV) reactivation.

I knew because I had the exact same malady which once took away more than a year of my life (as com­pa­red to Mel’s horri­fic five years).  And like her, with the use of medi­ta­tion (and in my case, intense ima­gery and homeo­pathics), I got well as if it never happened.

And we also sha­red a rea­son why the EBV virus became acti­va­ted in our bodies in the first place: STRESS.  For Mel, it appea­red to have nothing to do with anything thyroid-related, but an extre­mely stress­ful helping-vocation that was eating her alive. For me, it was the stress of having to be where I didn’t want to be, fee­ling overtly powerless…and on top of being on the lousy Synthroid.

And for thy­roid patients all over the world, inc­lu­ding you, the risk of reac­ti­va­tion of the Eps­tein Barr Virus is a cons­tant threat. It can result from one or more of the follo­wing bio­lo­gi­cal stresses:

• being undiag­no­sed thanks to the ina­de­quate TSH lab test
• being on a T4 medi­ca­tion like Synth­roid, Levoxyl, Levothy­ro­xine, Eltro­xin, Oro­xine, etc
• falling into low cor­ti­sol from adre­nal fatigue
• having chro­nic side issues pulling your body down such as glu­ten into­le­rance or celiac, low ferri­tin, poor diges­tion, or making mis­ta­kes in your treatment

Even worse, add life’s stres­ses as icing on the cake, and you’re a sit­ting duck for the risk of reac­ti­va­ted EBV.

What is EBV? Eps­tein Barr Virus,  also called human her­pes­vi­rus 4 ( HHV-4) is an oppor­tu­nis­tic virus that actually lies dor­mant in at least 95% of all adults over their 30’s. It’s what cau­ses mono­nuc­leo­sis, aka “mono”, as a tee­na­ger,  but you don’t have to have had mono to carry the dor­mant virus. Wiki­pe­dia sta­tes that it also pro­bably has a pri­mary role in many autoim­mune disea­ses, inc­lu­ding ” der­ma­tom­yo­si­tis, sys­te­mic lupus erythe­ma­to­sus, rheu­ma­toid arth­ri­tis, Sjogren’s syn­drome, and mul­ti­ple scle­ro­sis.” i.e. this is one nasty virus!

Why do so many thy­roid patients find them­sel­ves with it? Millions of thy­roid patients live their lives com­pro­mi­sed due to being on T4-only meds like Synth­roid, Levoxyl, levothy­ro­xine, Eltro­xin, Oro­xine, and other T4 med brands.  Addi­tio­nally, patients find them­sel­ves with poorly func­tio­ning adre­nals, poor diges­tion and other con­di­tions rela­ted to a poor treat­ment – all adding to a lowe­red immune sys­tem, which allows the oppor­tu­nis­tic EBV virus to take ahold, espe­cially in the face of extreme or chro­nic life stress.

What are symp­toms of a reac­ti­va­ted EBV? It can vary from patient-to-patient, but can inc­lude easy and excess fati­gue, achi­ness, joint pain, all over body pain, swo­llen lymph nodes, slight fever, rin­ging in the ears, and a gene­ral I-don’t-feel-well. When my EBV anti­bo­dies were acute, I would be in bed for 2 – 3 days after pulling weeds for just twenty minu­tes while sea­ted.  I couldn’t gro­cery shop; I couldn’t do hou­se­work. Nothing. Nada. I also had cons­tant rin­ging in the ears and achiness.

How do I find out if I have it?? Ask your doc­tor to send you to a lab to be tes­ted for it.   Or you can use Healthcheck USA–scroll down on the lat­ter link to find the test. Put STTM10 in the form to get a discount.

How do I treat it?? It’s not easy. I per­so­nally bene­fit­ted from taking a presc­ri­bed anti-virus medi­ca­tion. Though that les­se­ned my symp­toms by 50%, it wasn’t enough. I then moved to homeo­pathic medi­ca­tions and some dedi­ca­ted men­tal ima­gery to finally get rid of it, as well as lots of rest and the immune enhan­cing sup­port of vita­mins, mine­rals, sup­ple­ments plus healthy stra­te­gies i.e. wha­te­ver it takes to nou­rish your immune sys­tem. Nou­rishing sup­ple­ments inc­lude high dose Vit. C (2000 mg mini­mum),  Vit E as mixed tocophe­rals,  sele­nium (200 — 400 mcg), mush­room extracts, CoQ10, high dose B-vitamins, mine­rals plus plenty of healthy and raw foods.  And ulti­ma­tely as a thy­roid patient, being on a MUCH bet­ter hypothy­roid treat­ment with natu­ral desic­ca­ted thy­roid is the key, besi­des trea­ting one’s adre­nal fati­gue, glu­ten or diges­tive issues, low ferri­tin, and all other rela­ted conditions.

Bot­tom line, once you are ade­qua­tely trea­ting your thy­roid pro­blem (see the current Options for Thy­roid Treat­ment), addres­sing poten­tial adre­nal fati­gue, low ferri­tin, glu­ten issues, low B12, for exam­ple, and using good stress mana­ge­ment in the face of pres­su­res within your life, your risk of having a reac­ti­va­tion of the dor­mant EBV virus is very low.