Books On Thyroid

Though none of the below may be quite as prac­ti­cal as the patient-to-patient book men­tio­ned above, these are books that we have found to still be use­ful in the study of thy­roid disease, rela­ted issues, and correct treat­ments. You can also view a gro­wing list of Recom­men­ded Web­si­tes.

Your Thy­roid and How to Keep it Healthy
by Dr. Barry Durrant-Peatfield. MB BS LRCP MRCS

This is Peatfield’s Second Edi­tion of The Great Thy­roid Scan­dal and How to Sur­vive It, and it filled with exce­llent infor­ma­tion about the thy­roid, hypo and hyper, iodine, female hor­mo­nes and tes­tos­te­rone, and an exce­llent chap­ter on your Adre­nals and how to use Cor­ti­sol when cor­ti­sol levels are low. Highly recom­men­ded by Janie.

Dr. Peat­field ente­red gene­ral prac­tice around 1962. His inc­rea­sing disenchant­ment with the NHS impe­lled him to enter pri­vate prac­tice where he was drawn to the diag­no­sis and treat­ment of thy­roid pro­blems. He was impres­sed with the work of Dr. Broda Bar­nes and was deter­mi­ned to improve the lot of patients with thy­roid ill­ness. He now lec­tu­res and holds nutri­tio­nal cli­nics spe­cia­li­sing in meta­bo­lic health.

Safe Uses of Cor­ti­sol
by William McK. Jef­fe­ries, M.D., F. A. C. P.

This one is for the “adre­nal stu­dent” wan­ting to know more, and is highly recom­men­ded by Janie. The­ra­peu­tic recom­men­da­tions and impor­tant aspects of cor­ti­sone or cor­ti­sol in patients with chro­nic aller­gies, autoim­mune disor­ders, and chro­nic fati­gue. I per­so­nally out­li­ned this book exten­si­vely. Inc­re­di­ble gems of information.

Dr. Jef­fe­ries gra­dua­ted from the Uni­ver­sity of Vir­gi­nia School of Medi­cine in 1940. He was appoin­ted a Cli­ni­cal Pro­fes­sor of Inter­nal Medi­cine after his reti­re­ment from Case-Western Reserve University.

You can order this chea­per than anywhere else by going directly to the publisher: www.ccthomas.com/

Adre­nal Fati­gue: The 21^st-Century Stress Syn­drome
by James L. Wil­son, N.D., D.C., Ph.D.

Another great book that’s easy to read about adre­nal issues, which are com­mon with hypothy­roid patients. The book opens with an over­view of the func­tion of the adre­nals, and how they are prone to chro­nic fati­gue given our hyper-stressed con­tem­po­rary lifesty­les. It con­ti­nues with infor­ma­tion on how to tell if you have adre­nal fati­gue. More infor­ma­tion and advice is given on mul­ti­ple stra­te­gies for treat­ment, such as lifestyle, food, food aller­gies and sen­si­ti­vi­ties, die­tary sup­ple­ments, adre­nal cell extracts, and repla­ce­ment hormones.

Dr. James Wil­son is one of the few peo­ple to hold 3 doc­to­rate degrees and 2 master’s degrees, all from dif­fe­rent dis­ci­pli­nes. He recei­ved his Ph.D. in Human Nutri­tion from the Uni­ver­sity of Ari­zona, with minors in immu­no­logy, mic­ro­bio­logy, phar­ma­co­logy and toxi­co­logy. In addi­tion, he holds degrees as a Doc­tor of Chi­ro­prac­tic and Doc­tor of Natu­ro­pathic Medi­cine. His master’s degrees are in bio/nutrition and expe­ri­men­tal psycho­logy. Dr. Wil­son was also one of the 14 foun­ding fathers of the Cana­dian College of Natu­ro­pathic medi­cine in Toronto, Onta­rio. He has hel­ped hun­dreds of peo­ple with adre­nal fati­gue regain their health and vita­lity during his 24 years of pri­vate practice.

The Thy­roid Para­dox: How to Get the Best Care for Hypothy­roi­dism
by James K. Rone MD

I was a little hesi­tant to put this thy­roid book on the list. Why? Because this doc­tor still regu­larly presc­ri­bes the lousy T4-only medi­ca­tions, is hung up on only trea­ting when the TSH goes over 4, and is an Endoc­ri­no­lo­gist – the kind of spe­cialty that has cau­sed innu­me­ra­ble pro­blems for thy­roid patients. But a gal who wrote me about it said this: This book’s main focus is explai­ning all the dif­fe­rent ways that your thy­roid func­tion can be affec­ted and how the stan­dard tests can be wrongly inter­pre­ted and the patient told “your tests are nor­mal”. The author covers cen­tral hypothy­roi­dism, human errors in medi­cal tes­ting, human errors in test inter­pre­ta­tion, thy­roid hor­mone resis­tance, and the fact that there may be dif­fe­rent “sha­des” of nor­mal. This book is highly worth rea­ding for the dis­cus­sion of all of these pro­blems in a logi­cal way. It will also sup­port the fact that the TSH is some­ti­mes wrong, and all the ways that it can be misin­ter­pre­ted and mis­diag­no­ses hypothy­roid patients when that is the ONLY test a doc­tor relies on. Dr. Rone also thinks that the patient’s symp­toms ARE impor­tant enough that they should never be igno­red (he has hypothy­roi­dism and has expe­rien­ced this him­self… that may be the rea­son he can think “outside of the box” more than the usual Dr.) So with that being said, it looks good in spite of its Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde ten­den­cies. I’ll let you be the judge.

Jame K Rone is is a board-certified endoc­ri­no­lo­gist in Mur­frees­boro, Tennessee

Could It Be B12?: An Epi­de­mic of Mis­diag­no­ses
by Sally M. Pacho­lok RN and Jef­frey J. Stuart DO

A silent crip­pler stalks millions of Ame­ri­cans and you may be one of them…is how this exce­llent book starts out about the com­mon pro­blem of a B12 defi­ciency. The book desc­ri­bes the dif­fe­rent mani­fes­ta­tions of low B12, inc­lu­ding the fact that it can mimic MS or other neu­ro­lo­gi­cal disor­ders, as well as cause men­tal ill­ness, lear­ning disa­bi­li­ties, impai­red immune func­tion, plus more. Low B12 can be a com­mon disor­der found in thy­roid patients, as well. A must read for those who sus­pect they have low B12.

Sally, an emer­gency depart­ment nurse, and her phy­si­cian hus­band Jeff wor­ked together to pro­duce this book since they strongly felt like low B12 has been over­loo­ked by the gene­ral medi­cal field and is often mis­diag­no­sed. Sally is a strong pro­po­nent for the methyl­ma­lo­nic acid test rather than the blood serum B12 test to accu­ra­tely detect low B12.

Your Guide to Meta­bo­lic Health , co-authored by Dr. Gina Honey­man, DC and Dr. John Lowe, DC.

This infor­ma­tive book out­li­nes poor meta­bo­lic health, which inc­lu­des low energy, aches and pains, depres­sion, poor memory and con­cen­tra­tion, anxiety, malaise.…etc, and moves into good infor­ma­tion on the two most com­mon cau­ses — untrea­ted or under-treated hypothy­roi­dism and thy­roid hor­mone resis­tance. Other cau­ses inc­lude imba­lan­ces of sex and stress hor­mo­nes, nutri­tio­nal defi­cien­cies, unwho­le­some diet, poor phy­si­cal fit­ness, some commonly-prescribed drugs, and man-made che­mi­cal con­ta­mi­nants. Most peo­ple can improve or reco­ver their meta­bo­lic health by con­tro­lling or eli­mi­na­ting these causes.

Honey­man is chi­ro­prac­tic phy­si­cian in the cli­ni­cal prac­tice of meta­bo­lic and func­tio­nal medi­cine. Lowe is a chi­ro­prac­tic phy­si­cian and board cer­ti­fied pain mana­ge­ment spe­cia­list. Both prac­tice indi­vi­dually in Boul­der, Colorado.

Hor­mo­nes, Health, and Hap­pi­ness
by Ste­ven F. Hotze, M.D.

In an 8-point pro­gram, Hotze desc­ri­bes a new model of health­care, using bio-identical hor­mo­nes and other natu­ral treat­ments. It goes against the pre­vai­ling medi­cal approach of trea­ting indi­vi­dual symp­toms with the fami­liar “anti” drugs — such as anti­bio­tics, antihis­ta­mi­nes, and anti­de­pres­sants, and ins­tead addres­ses the underl­ying cau­ses of poor health.
Inc­lu­des infor­ma­tion on air­borne aller­gies, food aller­gies, yeast over­growth, low thy­roid func­tion, natu­ral hor­mone repla­ce­ment, treat­ment of adre­nal fati­gue, nutri­tio­nally balan­ced eating, and vita­min and mine­ral supplementation.

From Hous­ton, Ste­ven F. Hotze, M.D.,obtained his medi­cal degree in 1976 from the Uni­ver­sity of Texas Medi­cal School at Hous­ton. He esta­blished a day and night cli­nic in North Hous­ton which he ope­ra­ted until esta­blishing the Hotze Health & Well­ness Cen­ter, in Katy, Texas in 1989. Dr. Hotze foun­ded the Ame­ri­can Aca­demy of Bio­lo­gi­cally Iden­ti­cal Hor­mone The­rapy in 2002 to train phy­si­cians in a stan­dar­di­zed method of trea­ting women’s hor­mo­nal pro­blems during and after mid life.

Hypothy­roi­dism: The Unsus­pec­ted Ill­ness
by Broda O. Bar­nes, M.D. and Law­rence Galton

The book from which much of our current know­ledge sprang and deve­lo­ped, this clas­sic explains the thy­roid gland, how it works, and pro­blems its dys­func­tion can induce. Inc­lu­des detai­led case his­to­ries of patients, often who were thought hope­less, whose pro­blems were dis­co­ve­red to be rela­ted to hypothy­roi­dism and were cured by Dr. Bar­nes’ sim­ple effec­tive techniques.

Broda Bar­nes, M.D. prac­ti­ced medi­cine for over 35 years. His expe­rience with patients suf­fe­ring from undis­co­ve­red cases of hypothy­roi­dism led him to write this book. Law­rence Gal­ton is an expe­rien­ced medi­cal writer.

Hypothy­roi­dism Type 2: The Epi­de­mic
by Mark Starr, M.D.

A clear and unders­tan­da­ble expla­na­tion of why so many peo­ple today are suf­fe­ring from hypothy­roi­dism, des­pite “nor­mal” blood tests. Has infor­ma­tion on the cause and suc­cess­ful treat­ment for obe­sity, heart attacks, depres­sion, dia­be­tes, stro­kes, hea­daches, chro­nic fati­gue, and others. In Dr. Starr’s desc­rip­tion of Type 2 Hypothy­roi­dism, he pre­sents overwhel­ming evi­dence sho­wing a majo­rity of Ame­ri­cans suf­fer this ill­ness, which is due to envi­ron­men­tal and here­di­tary fac­tors. This book also has exce­llent pho­to­graphs, his­to­ri­cal refe­ren­ces and per­ti­nent study sum­ma­ries. Dr. Starr empha­ti­cally sta­tes that labo­ra­tory tes­ting used to diag­nose hypothy­roi­dism is com­ple­tely ina­de­quate, and current treat­ment for hypothy­roi­dism is inef­fec­tive. Ground­brea­king research shows how per­sis­tent envi­ron­men­tal toxins pre­vent thy­roid and other hor­mo­nes from wor­king properly.

Dr. Mark Starr is a Diplo­mat of the Ame­ri­can Aca­demy of Phy­si­cal Medi­cine and Reha­bi­li­ta­tion and a Diplo­mat of the Ame­ri­can Board of Pain Medi­cine. He has stu­died with Pre­si­dent Kennedy’s famous pain spe­cia­list, Hans Kraus, M.D., and Law­rence S. Son­kin, M.D., Ph.D., renow­ned endoc­ri­no­lo­gist at the New York Hospital-/Cornell Medi­cal Center.

Living Well with Hypothy­roi­dism: What Your Doc­tor Doesn’t Tell You… that You Need to Know
by Mary J. Shoman

This book covers con­ven­tio­nal and alter­na­tive approaches to treat­ment – such as cha­llen­ging the gold stan­dard of Synth­roid as the thy­roid repla­ce­ment the­rapy of choice and new research on adding T3 to treat­ment.  Sho­man explains everything from how to choose a thy­roid spe­cia­list to how cal­cium, anti­de­pres­sants, and a high-fiber diet affect thy­roid hor­mone absorp­tion. The book dis­cus­ses depres­sion, which is a typi­cal mis­diag­no­sis of hypothy­roi­dism and covers infer­ti­lity, as well as thy­roid can­cer, one of the less com­mon cau­ses of hypothyroidism.

Mary J. Sho­man is pri­ma­rily a health wri­ter with an empha­sis on thy­roid. She also mana­ges a thy­roid Web site and wri­tes a news­let­ter on hypothyroidism.

Over­co­ming Thy­roid Disor­ders
by Dr. David Brownstein

Holis­ti­cally orien­ted and shows how a natu­ral treat­ment pro­gram con­sis­ting of natu­ral thy­roid hor­mone, other natu­ral hor­mo­nes, vita­mins, mine­rals, diet modi­fi­ca­tions and deto­xi­fi­ca­tion can suc­cess­fully treat many thy­roid con­di­tions. It inc­lu­des over 30 actual cases from his practice.

Dr. David Browns­tein is a Board-Certified Family Phy­si­cian and the Medi­cal Direc­tor for the Cen­ter for Holis­tic Medi­cine in West Bloom­field, Michi­gan. He is a mem­ber of the Ame­ri­can College for the Advan­ce­ment in Medi­cine and the Ame­ri­can Aca­demy of Family Physicians.

Sol­ved: The Riddle of Ill­ness
by Stephen E. Lan­ger, M.D. and James F. Scheer

Dis­cus­ses how to deter­mine if a per­son suf­fers from low thy­roid func­tion, the con­nec­tion bet­ween the thy­roid and the mind, how to dif­fe­ren­tiate bet­ween low thy­roid func­tion and hypogly­ce­mia, the truth about synthe­tic thy­roid hor­mone, and sim­ple treat­ments to use. High­lights the rela­tionship bet­ween thy­roid disease and many con­di­tions, such as arth­ri­tis, obe­sity, depres­sion, dia­be­tes, heart disease, can­cer, sexual pro­blems, and much more.

Stephen E. Lan­ger, M.D. is a renow­ned thy­roid expert. James F. Scheer has autho­red and coautho­red over fif­teen books on nutri­tion and health.

The Great Thy­roid Scan­dal and How To Sur­vive It
by Dr. Barry Durrant-Peatfield, MB, BS, LRCP, MRCS

This book is an exce­llent review of thy­roid disease and the treat­ment alter­na­ti­ves using natu­ral glan­du­lar extracts and adre­nal sup­ports. It should be requi­red rea­ding for those invol­ved with thy­roid treat­ment and patients them­sel­ves. The book takes you step by step through the diag­no­sis and treat­ment of thy­roid ill­nes­ses and reveals how poorly modern medi­cine unders­tands thy­roid disease.

Dr Barry Durrant-Peatfield obtai­ned his medi­cal degrees in 1960 at Guy’s Hos­pi­tal, Lon­don, and ente­red gene­ral medi­cine. Fin­ding that it was beco­ming inc­rea­singly dif­fi­cult to prac­tice medi­cine and to give the care that he was taught being a doc­tor meant, he resig­ned from the Natio­nal Health Ser­vice to set up a pri­vate prac­tice in 1980. During the next 20 years he enjo­yed a free­dom from the narrow con­fi­nes of esta­blish­ment medi­cine and the rela­tionship with his patients he had always felt was the basis of good medi­cine. During that time, he came to learn how impor­tant a role fai­lure in the glan­du­lar sys­tems, led by the thy­roid, pla­yed in ill­ness; and dra­wing ins­pi­ra­tion from the work of Dr Broda Bar­nes, his spe­cial inte­rest in thy­roid ill­ness grew. Fin­ding out that he was affec­ted by an under-active thy­roid him­self gave him a spe­cial insight into the diag­no­sis and treat­ment of the con­di­tion for which his patient’s sought his help.

The Thy­roid Diet: Manage Your Meta­bo­lism for Las­ting Weight Loss
by Mary J. Shoman

Even after opti­mal treat­ment, weight pro­blems can pla­gue many thy­roid patients. This book iden­ti­fies the many frus­tra­ting impe­di­ments to weight loss, and offers solu­tions – both con­ven­tio­nal and alter­na­tive – to help. There is dis­cus­sion of opti­mal die­tary chan­ges, thyroid-damaging foods to avoid, and metabolism-supporting herbs and supplements.

Mary J. Sho­man is a natio­nally known thy­roid patient advo­cate, health wri­ter and thy­roid patient her­self. She also mana­ges a thy­roid Web site and wri­tes a news­let­ter on hypothyroidism.

The Thy­roid Solu­tion: A Mind-Body Pro­gram for Bea­ting Depres­sion and Regai­ning Your Emo­tio­nal and Phy­si­cal Health
by Arem Ridha, M.D.

Exa­mi­nes the fun­da­men­tals of thy­roid disease, inc­lu­ding diag­no­sis and the­rapy, although the focus is on the sig­ni­fi­cance of the thy­roid in cog­ni­tion and emo­tions. It explains the link bet­ween stress and thy­roid imba­lance; how thy­roid imba­lance affects your emo­tions, sex life, and rela­tionships; and how to cope with the effects of this imba­lance. Because thy­roid pro­blems pri­ma­rily strike women, a whole sec­tion deals with women’s health issues, such as infer­ti­lity, mis­ca­rriage, post­par­tum depres­sion, pre­mens­trual syn­drome, and meno­pause. The book also covers lifestyle choi­ces that affect thy­roid health, such as diet, sup­ple­men­ta­tion, and exercise.

Dr. Ridha Arem is a Cli­ni­cal Pro­fes­sor of Medi­cine at Bay­lor College of Medi­cine in Hous­ton, TX. For years he ser­ved as Chief of Endoc­ri­no­logy and Meta­bo­lism at Ben Taub Gene­ral Hos­pi­tal, and Medi­cal Direc­tor of the Endoc­rine Labo­ra­tory at Metho­dist Hos­pi­tal. Dr. Arem currently runs a prac­tice spe­cia­li­zing in thy­roid disor­ders in the Texas Medi­cal Center.

Thy­roid – Guar­dian of Health
by Phi­lip G. Young, M.D.

Exce­llent ove­rall refe­rence book on hypothy­roi­dism! Exa­mi­nes the impact ina­de­quate thy­roid func­tion has on indi­vi­duals and the fact that hypothy­roi­dism is fre­quently mis­sed. Inc­lude his­tory, envi­ron­men­tal fac­tor, and fre­quent cli­ni­cal pre­sen­ta­tions of hypothy­roi­dism, blood tests and their faults. Thyroid’s rela­tionship to adre­nal hor­mo­nes is also dis­cus­sed. Very infor­ma­tive is how this book goes thru all the major areas of the bodily func­tions such as diges­tion, cir­cu­la­tion and tells how ina­de­quate thy­roid func­tion impacts each sys­tem. Major areas inc­lude thyroid’s role in heart disease, dia­be­tes, autoim­mune pro­blems, can­cer and infections.

Phi­lip Young MD has an unu­sual back­ground. Born in Burma of mis­sio­nary parents, he grew up along the Burma-China bor­der. As a four year old he fled the Japa­nese occu­pa­tion of Burma, wal­king over the hump into India, and then tra­ve­ling by boat around Africa to New York in the midst of furious sub­ma­rine acti­vity. Retur­ning to the bor­der area, he lived in China after the Com­mu­nist take over in 1949 for nine months, lea­ving in the midst of a local rebe­llion against that regime.
He gra­dua­ted from the Uni­ver­sity Of Nebraska College Of Medi­cine in 1963 and spent a cou­ple of years in the Navy off Viet Nam as that war was begin­ning to esca­late. Follo­wing a sur­gery resi­dency he hel­ped start a small mis­sion hos­pi­tal in the Phi­lip­pi­nes on the island of Pala­wan. Retur­ning to the U.S. in 1977, he became inte­res­ted in the thy­roid gland due to health pro­blems in his own family. He has been stud­ying the thy­roid gland since 1979. Now living in Eaton, Colo­rado, he is lar­gely enga­ged in writing.

Thy­roid Power: Ten Steps to Total Health
by Richard L. Sha­mes, M.D. and Kari­lee H. Sha­mes, R.N., Ph.D.

A holis­ti­cally orien­ted book that dis­cus­ses foods, vita­mins, and natu­ral reme­dies that sup­port thy­roid health; how to avoid envi­ron­men­tal and emo­tio­nal trig­gers; and offers tips from thy­roid sup­port groups. The authors out­line a step-by-step approach to healing.

Richard L. Sha­mes, M.D., is a gra­duate of Har­vard and the Uni­ver­sity of Pennsyl­va­nia Medi­cal School. A foun­ding mem­ber of the Ame­ri­can Holis­tic Medi­cal Asso­cia­tion, he has ser­ved as adjunct faculty at UCSF Medi­cal Cen­ter and Flo­rida Atlan­tic Uni­ver­sity and is a gene­ral prac­ti­tio­ner in Mill Valley, Cali­for­nia, spe­cia­li­zing in thy­roid treat­ment and telephone thy­roid coaching natio­nally via his web­site.
Kari­lee H. Sha­mes, R.N., Ph.D., is a cli­ni­cal spe­cia­list in psychia­tric nur­sing and a cer­ti­fied holis­tic nurse. She is an assis­tant pro­fes­sor of nur­sing at Flo­rida Atlan­tic Uni­ver­sity. A low thy­roid suf­fe­rer her­self, Kari­lee has led thy­roid reco­very sup­port groups for many years and works with Dr. Richard Sha­mes, pro­vi­ding natio­nal telephone consultation.

Tears Behind Clo­sed Doors
by Diana Holmes

This book is a exa­mi­na­tion of a serious medi­cal pro­blem (untreated/undertreated hypothy­roi­dism) and is the result of the author’s unti­ring cru­sade to pre­vent others from going through the phy­si­cal and emo­tio­nal hell she had to endure. It is a posi­tive per­so­nal account that will give com­fort and ins­pi­ra­tion. Meti­cu­lously researched and glo­wing with good humor and prac­ti­cal advice, this book ser­ves to focus public awa­re­ness on a pro­blem that has been neglec­ted far too long. Diana sets the scene by telling her own harro­wing story and explai­ning the triumphant way in which she over­came her illness.

Salt:Your Way to Health
by David Browns­tein, MD

Salt: Your Way to Health is chock full of glea­ming infor­ma­tion on the cli­ni­cal uses of unre­fi­ned salt, and it’s highly recom­men­ded for both patients and all health care prac­ti­tio­ners. Dr. Browns­tein not only debunks the low-salt diet = lowe­red blood pres­sure myth, he gives you clear and con­cise rea­sons for adding unre­fi­ned salt to one’s daily regi­men. He shows you how an ade­quate salt intake is neces­sary for pro­per func­tio­ning of the hor­mo­nal sys­tem and the immune system..and that inc­lu­des pro­per ADRENAL FUNCTION. In addi­tion, Dr. Browns­tein desc­ri­bes the the­ra­peu­tic uses of unre­fi­ned salt hel­ping to treat many dif­fe­rent con­di­tions inc­lu­ding: fati­gue, fibrom­yal­gia, hea­daches, adre­nal disor­ders, thy­roid disor­ders and much more.