Janie's Blog

I recently got an email from a sweet thy­roid friend and advo­cate, Bev, aka Thyro-butterfly, whom I’ve known for seve­ral years. And Bev has had two relap­sing and unner­ving bouts with a con­di­tion that’s not com­mon but under-diagnosed: Hashimoto’s Encepha­lo­pathy. She sta­ted “I think ever­yone who has Hashi’s should know that this exists because the symp­toms are so simi­lar to severe neu­ro­lo­gi­cal pro­blems. And the treat­ment, though not curea­ble, is rela­ti­vely easy to do.…” Hashimoto’s Encepha­lo­pathy (HE), a rare neu­roen­doc­rine disor­der which was ter­med and recog­ni­zed just 44 years ago in 1966, has a strong con­nec­tion to the autoim­mune thy­roid disease called Hashi­mo­tos, or Thy­roi­di­tis. i.e.  just as anti­bo­dies attack your thy­roid, there are rare cases where it can attack and des­troy your brain cells. Having a high thy­roid pero­xi­dase (TPO) anti­bo­dies lab result  is com­mon with Hashimoto’s Encepha­lo­pathy. Those with HE can share many symp­toms, or can have uni­que symp­toms from each other. Symp­toms include:

• tre­mors (most com­mon symptom)
• lan­guage dif­fi­culty, whether spea­king, wri­ting or read (also common)
• con­fu­sion
• limi­ted atten­tion span or concentration
• poor memory and retention
• demen­tia diagnosis
• diso­rien­ta­tion
• rest­less­ness
• sei­zu­res
• con­vul­sions
• symp­toms simi­lar to a stroke
• tre­mors
• muscle jer­king
• poor coor­di­na­tion (wal­king, fin­gers, hands, etc)
• par­tial right-sided paralysis
• hea­daches
• fati­gue
• sleep pro­blems
• psycho­sis
• coma

Luc­kily, treat­ment is fairly straight­for­ward and dra­ma­tic against symp­toms: ste­roid use, which is why it’s also ter­med “steroid-responsive encepha­lo­pathy asso­cia­ted with autoim­mune thy­roi­di­tis (SREAT)”. Says Elaine Moore in her article  tit­led Hashi­mo­tos encepha­lo­pathy: A Trea­ta­ble Form of Demen­tia,  “Patients with SREAT show a good res­ponse to cor­ti­cos­te­roids such as pred­ni­sone and rela­ted immu­no­sup­pres­sants because of the abi­lity of these medi­ca­tions to reduce thy­roid anti­body pro­duc­tion and reduce inflam­ma­tion. Researchers in India report a case of SREAT that did not res­pond to cor­ti­cos­te­roids but sho­wed a very favo­ra­ble res­ponse to plasma exchange, a tech­ni­que used to remove cir­cu­la­ting anti­bo­dies.” Doses of ste­roid can vary from indi­vi­dual to indi­vi­dual, but some do well on 4 – 6 mg cor­ti­sol for a few days. Others may need more.  Remis­sion is the norm for most. You’ll have to watch for relap­ses. Since mis­diag­no­sis is com­mon, it’s impor­tant to talk to your doc­tor about this poten­tial disor­der, tes­ting, and treat­ment if you have Hashi’s and symp­toms simi­lar to any of the above. Thanks to Bev for brin­ging this issue back up. ******************************** Have you sig­ned up to be noti­fied of these blog posts? To do so, go to the left and below the links right on the Stop the Thy­roid Mad­ness blog.

They both GET IT.

Jef­frey Dach, MD, who is foun­der of  True­MedMD cli­nic in Holly­wood, Flo­rida, has recently writ­ten just one more bri­lliant article tit­led Why Natu­ral Thy­roid is Bet­ter than Synthe­tic on OpEdNews. And patients can only deri­si­vely agree when Dach says “This non­sense really makes my blood boil and my eyes pop out of head” in res­ponse to artic­les on medi­cal web­si­tes which still pur­port that synthe­tic T4 is a bet­ter treat­ment  than natu­ral desic­ca­ted thyroid.

John O. Wycoff DO gra­ciously had me on his radio pro­gram a week ago, called Health and Well­ness Solu­tions radio, which runs each and every Satur­day mor­ning in Michi­gan or live strea­med. And I couldn’t help but be impres­sed by this warm, friendly, and caring doc­tor who runs the Wycoff Well­ness Cen­ter in East Lan­sing, Michi­gan. He defi­ni­tely see­med to unders­tand the use of desic­ca­ted thy­roid and adre­nals. Michi­gan patients are lucky to have this man.

And frankly, there seems to be a gro­wing body of doc­tors who are GETTING IT, making the large body who still don’t look like medi­cal cave­men and health ostriches.  Natu­ral desic­ca­ted thy­roid is a FAR bet­ter treat­ment, and millions of chan­ged lives prove this over and over.

Both Dach and Wycoff will go down in his­tory as being part of the foun­ding mem­bers of doc­tors who really GOT IT in the first decade of the 21^st cen­tury and have pla­yed a huge role to STOP THE THYROID MADNESS!!

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UPCOMING PROGRAM with Janie: You will be able to lis­ten to me on Jimmy’s Moore’s Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb pro­gram on Thurs­day July 22^nd, 2010 for what Jimmy has dub­bed “The Truth About Thy­roid Week.” As I see it, each time I’m on a variety of radio and inter­net pod­casts like this, it’s going to mean reaching MORE folks about why they have depres­sion, rising cho­les­te­rol or blood pres­sure, fati­gue, hair loss, dry skin or hair, osteo­po­ro­sis and more as a result of either the TSH lab test, or being on T4 meds like Synth­roid!  I’ll announce this clo­ser to the event, as well.

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MORE ABOUT MAGNESIUM: As I wrote about recently here, I found myself very low in my RBC Mag­ne­sium levels – the very bot­tom of the range. I am even lower than a friend who has Celiac disease, which affects diges­tion!!  No won­der I’ve had issues with muscle cramps for so long, as well as what I saw as a wor­se­ning of my MVP (mitral valve pro­lapse).   Since then, I’ve been on Mag­ne­sium Oil and a par­ti­cu­lar brand of buf­fe­red Vit. C which con­tains a good amount of mag­ne­sium. And lo and behold, I have found out that taking mag­ne­sium when you are defi­cient is like drin­king water when you are dying of thirst – your body TAKES IT IN fas­ter than you can give it to your­self.  So it’s impor­tant to take as high a dose as you can take in, and be patient for it all to level out.  And by the way, I’m already noti­cing an impro­ve­ment in my huf­fin’ and puf­fin’ when I go out wal­king.  I do it less!!

It hap­pens often – someone will join a patient group, and right off the bat, you notice they are very defen­sive about cer­tain sub­jects,  know-it-all argu­men­ta­tive, con­des­cen­dingly over­bea­ring, and/or paranoid.

They may quickly fly off the handle.  They might see impli­ca­tions in words that were never there. They can also be chil­dish in their reac­tions, obses­sive about cer­tain topics or peo­ple, mis­trust­ful of others, for­get­ful, com­ba­tive, and/or jittery.

Even worse, com­bine someone with inte­lli­gence and a way with words along with all of the above, and you’ve got a royal pain in the butt.

And the worst part?  Most have no idea how badly they are mani­fes­ting the above.

It’s called adre­nal fati­gue.  It starts out with exces­si­vely high cor­ti­sol, then falls to low cor­ti­sol with a bas­ket full of con­se­quen­ces when it comes to coping and inte­rac­ting with life and peo­ple. i.e. those with adre­nal fati­gue are all the above and more.  And it’s very very com­mon among thy­roid patients thanks to being left undiag­no­sed due to the lousy TSH lab test, or being put on T4 medi­ca­tions like Synth­roid, Levoxyl, levothy­ro­xine, etc.  It’s also unfor­tu­na­tely com­mon for many doc­tors to deny its exis­tence or be clue­less on how to treat it. So you can ima­gine the thrill when we hear of a few who are listening!

You can read about this con­di­tion here, as well as send others whom you sus­pect has this pro­blem. Or, there are more details in Chap­ters 5 and 6 in the Stop the Thy­roid Mad­ness book, which you can order from the publishing com­pany and have the book sent straight to them. There appear to be a huge body of thy­roid patients with this con­di­tion – at least 50% or more – and it’s a topic that needs unders­tan­ding and a con­di­tion that needs the right treatment.

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Janie will be on two radio shows this wee­kend, and these will be good to recom­mend to your family and friends of whom you think need to hear about desic­ca­ted thy­roid and bet­ter treat­ment strategies:

• SATURDAY: Michi­gan Talk Network’s “Health and Well­ness Show” by Dr. John Wycoff, D.O., an edu­ca­tio­nal & patient inte­rac­tive call radio show. Two hours long. Live steam here: http://www.wjimam.com/plus more infor­ma­tion here:  http://www.michigantalknetwork.com/dr%20wycoff/new/hws_home.html Time: 6 am Paci­fic, 7 am Moun­tain (groan), 8 am Cen­tral and 9 am Eas­tern. Dr. Wycoff and I will talk about pro­blems with thy­roid treat­ment,  desic­ca­ted thy­roid and bet­ter treat­ment strategies
• SUNDAY: Just Ask Nish, a new TRN natio­nally syn­di­ca­ted radio show heard on 53 sta­tions in 1400 cities. Time:  10am Paci­fic, 11 am Moun­tain, 12 noon Cen­tral and 1 pm Eas­tern http://ask-nish.com/radio_justasknish.php The host is  Nisha Jack­son, N.D. who has 18 years of expe­rience in research and prac­tice, as well as mul­ti­ple T.V. appea­ran­ces, moti­va­tio­nal spea­king, and two other radio shows (although this is her largest). I’ll be tal­king about thy­roid issues and well as bet­ter treat­ment strategies.

I am blown away by the mag­ni­tude of what I have dis­co­ve­red just recently. And this poten­tially invol­ves YOU.

I had seve­ral labs done just to keep track of how I stood in seve­ral areas. One was RBC Mag­ne­sium.  “RBC” (red blood cell) mea­su­res the intra­ce­llu­lar levels of mag­ne­sium – a more accu­rate pic­ture than a “serum” mea­su­re­ment of your mag­ne­sium, which only mea­su­res 1% (and sadly, most doc­tors only mea­sure your serum levels). i.e. even if your serum mea­su­re­ment was nor­mal, your cellu­lar levels may NOT be.

And my result?? My RBC mag­ne­sium mea­su­red at the bot­tom, very bot­tom, of the range. I was shoc­ked. I eat healthy, and have been giving myself liquid mine­rals off and on for awhile. But clearly, I have been una­ble to raise my mag­ne­sium level. When I tried to raise my sup­ple­men­ta­tion, I’d have to runnnn to the bathroom.

So I ope­ned a book that a good friend gave me: Trans­der­mal Mag­ne­sium The­rapy by Mark Sir­cus, OMD. And folks, I am blown away. Here is what I have lear­ned, and YOU may need to as well:

Mag­ne­sium Deficiency

• Affects at least 7 out of 10 rea­ding this
• Can be there even if you feel well (me); will be there if you have mal-absorption (think glu­ten issues)
• Is com­mon with dia­be­tes, liver disease, and if you take or eat a lot of calcium
• Is espe­cially pro­ble­ma­tic if you drink alcohol, sodas, caf­feine and excess sugar, have a stress­ful life, sweat a lot, or take birth con­trol pills
• Inc­rea­ses your risk of heart disease, stro­kes, musc­les pro­blems, can­cer and many other illnesses
• Is com­mon in a stress­ful life (and espe­cially so if you have adre­nal fati­gue, or you are a Type A personality)
• Can be even worse than a lab test reveals
• Is found in someone like me who eats right!!

How a defi­ciency of mag­ne­sium affects you

• Can cause heart disease (and exa­cer­ba­tes my Mitral Valve Pro­lapse), plus strokes
• Pro­mo­tes tooth decay, muscle cram­ping (me for over a decade)
• Lowers your immune sys­tem strength, energy levels, meta­bo­lism (I have to eat like a mouse, even on desic­ca­ted thyroid)
• Inc­rea­ses blood pres­sure (mine has risen at the same time I’ve noti­ced leg cramps…hmmmm)
• Dec­rea­ses your body’s abi­lity to use Vit. C and E
• Lowers the pro­duc­tion, func­tion and trans­port of insulin
• Cau­ses an inc­rease of toxins and acid in your body (think ciga­ret­tes, radia­tion, toxins in food/water/air)
• Makes you sus­cep­ti­ble to host of disea­ses and conditions

Why you need higher levels of magnesium

• Helps the meta­bo­lism of carbs, fats and amino acids and influen­ces 325 enzymes
• Coun­te­racts and regu­la­tes the influence of cal­cium, which can harm you if too much
• Is requi­red for the body to pro­duce and store energy (just like desic­ca­ted thyroid)
• Calms the brain
• Remo­ves toxins along with Vit. C
• Inc­rea­ses the effi­ciency of white blood cells (your immune system)
• Helps pre­vent can­cer and slows down the course of can­cer (along with zinc and selenium!)
• Can raise tes­tos­te­rone levels in men (and with zinc)
• Relie­ves pain! (impor­tant news for those with arth­ri­tis or other pain issues)
• Does the oppo­site of what is lis­ted above about how defi­cien­cies affect you
• Is nearly mira­cu­lous for the depth and scope of its application
• Saves billions of dollars as well as millions of lives

How will I treat my own low mag­ne­sium?? After con­fir­ming my situa­tion via the RBC Mag­ne­sium lab test (very impor­tant to first find out. My doc­tor did it through Quest Labs),  I know I can’t improve it with oral sup­ple­ments. The amount I would need simply cau­ses diarrhea.

Ins­tead, I am follo­wing the infor­ma­tion I’ve read in this book and heard about from others: the use of  “mag­ne­sium oil”, which is mag­ne­sium chlo­ride, and I’ll be rub­bing it on my skin and follo­wing the infor­ma­tion on how much. That is appa­rently the best way to give myself enough mag­ne­sium. I have per­so­nally orde­red the Ancient Mine­rals brand–found it on the net. I may also use mag­ne­sium salts in water, soa­king my feet in it. I plan on making sure my hus­band is tes­ted, as I strongly sus­pect he is low as a dia­be­tic with diges­tive issues.

Have ques­tions about this? Get the book from the web or your favo­rite books­tore. Half.com has seve­ral copies. There is much more detail than I lis­ted above which blew me away!

Yes, I feel really good with my natu­ral desic­ca­ted thy­roid in the treat­ment of my hypothy­roid. But I want to be healthy in all areas, and this is one that looks impor­tant to me. (Thanks Stephanie)

A patient recently repor­ted on Face­book that a par­ti­cu­lar large and well-known health cen­ter in Texas deci­ded to make their own com­poun­ded natu­ral desic­ca­ted thy­roid for their hypothy­roid patients…with cellulose.

Having read my blog posts about wides­pread nega­tive patient expe­rience with cellu­lose, she told the phar­macy that many of us have noti­ced dis­tinct pro­blems with the addi­tion of cellu­lose in our desic­ca­ted thy­roid medi­ca­tions – exactly why the newly for­mu­la­ted Armour cau­sed too many patients to see a return of their hypothy­roid symp­toms. Natu­reth­roid has not esca­ped the same fate for some.

When she asked if they could remove the cellu­lose, she recei­ved a firm and con­des­cen­ding “No” from the phar­ma­cist, refe­rring to cellu­lose as “a com­mon ingre­dient in many medi­ca­tions and not a problem.”

Not a pro­blem? Once again, patients are dis­mis­sed as if we couldn’t pos­sibly know what works, and what doesn’t work, in our treat­ment and in our own bodies. A sha­me­ful rea­lity. She left disap­poin­ted. 

What is cellu­lose? Cellu­lose is the most com­mon orga­nic subs­tance found on our pla­net – a fiber abun­dantly found in plants and trees, and most espe­cially in cotton.

Where is cellu­lose used? You wear it and you write on it! You eat it when you con­sume celery, pota­toes, or mush­rooms. It’s used to sta­bi­lize and thic­ken pro­ces­sed foods, and may be found in many chee­ses, dry milk, pud­dings, and more. And since it’s dif­fi­cult to find anyone aller­gic to wood, it’s been a com­mon ingre­dient in medi­ca­tions, used as a filler.

So where’s the pro­blem for thy­roid patients?

1. Unlike the happy cows in their pas­tu­res che­wing their cuds, human sto­machs  have a limi­ted abi­lity to break cellu­lose down. Cellu­lose is a fiber. And what does fiber do? It “binds”. It binds to the desic­ca­ted thy­roid that has gone down with it.  i.e. the life-changing effects of desic­ca­ted thy­roid are clearly dam­pe­ned by the pre­sence of cellu­lose. Our “expe­rience” has revea­led it all across the globe since Armour was refor­mu­la­ted with an inc­rease of cellu­lose in the mix.  i.e. we have wit­nes­sed a mas­sive return of hypothy­roid symp­toms on the newly for­mu­la­ted Armour, and to some degree, on Natu­reth­roid, whether the lat­ter switched to mic­rocrys­ta­lline cellu­lose or not (as com­pa­red to the lar­ger celled methylcellulose).
2. Hypothy­roid patients do not digest well. As one of many com­pli­ca­tions of hypothy­roi­dism,  espe­cially due to the ina­de­quate treat­ment of T4-only medi­ca­tions and poor diag­no­sis from the TSH lab test,  low sto­mach acid and poor diges­tion is COMMON in hypothy­roid patients.  So when you add cellu­lose to the mix, you are further dam­ning thy­roid patients.
3. Though not spe­ci­fic to just thy­roid patients, we are not too com­for­ta­ble with fin­ding out that cellu­lose can collect in our lungs, as revea­led in pub­med artic­les here and here.  (Thanks to thy­roid patient Danny for aler­ting me to this.)

Bot­tom line, desic­ca­ted thy­roid is a qua­lity and supe­rior treat­ment medi­ca­tion which has chan­ged the lives ten-fold for thy­roid patients around the world.

But cellu­lose and desic­ca­ted thy­roid DO NOT MIX. And BRAVO to those com­poun­ding phar­ma­cies who have lis­te­ned and have used the bene­fi­cial pro­bio­tic aci­dophi­lus as a filler. We appre­ciate you.

P.S. I abso­lu­tely loved this com­ment made by another patient on Face­book when we were dis­cus­sing the grief of taking our last pre-formulated Armour: Would love to get my hands on some old Armour again.…those were the days my friends…

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Want to know your options for bet­ter thy­roid treat­ment?? Go here.

Need help fin­ding a good doc­tor? Go here.

Think desic­ca­ted thy­roid didn’t work for you?? Go here.

See com­mon Ques­tions and Ans­wers here.