• +Audience
• self treatment

I am plea­sed to note that Mary Sho­mon of about.com,  who in her blog post on Thurs­day, April 22, 2010, has not only sof­te­ned her wor­ding about self-treatment by hypothy­roid patients, but has also writ­ten expres­si­vely con­cer­ning surroun­ding issues. These are also issues which I pre­sen­ted in two blog posts ear­lier this week con­cer­ning the immense pro­blem with doc­tors as expres­sed by patients, and self-treatment.

Good for Mary!

As wit­nes­sed by Sheila Turner’s exce­llent edi­to­rial towards those who cri­ti­cize self-treatment, as well as angst expres­sed by many patients toward those who cri­ti­cize,  self-treatment is an impor­tant issue and can’t be dilu­ted down as simply “self-destructive” in our current medi­cal climate.

The follo­wing are dif­fe­ren­ces in how this is vie­wed, though, with one com­mon thought:

• Is self-treatment one  of the “most con­tro­ver­sial” issues with thy­roid patients? The ans­wer is “only to those who make it so”. Far more trou­bling to thy­roid patients is a medi­cal esta­blish­ment which worships a medi­ca­tion which has left millions under­trea­ted, and which makes a pitui­tary hor­mone lab called the TSH as if it’s from God Almighty. Equally as trou­bling to patients are doc­tors whom they report as con­des­cen­ding, close-minded, robo­tic, and/or igno­rant about issues that keep thy­roid patients sick – low ferri­tin, adre­nal fati­gue, and more. Self-treatment is only the symp­tom of a much lar­ger, more con­tro­ver­sial problem.
• Does self-treatment have “obvious draw­backs” for thy­roid patients who feel for­ced to do it? The ans­wer is “yes”, but no dif­fe­rent and pro­bably far less than the “obvious draw­backs” patients face with clue­less doc­tors.  The com­ments on my blog posts are bloa­ted with patients who have been left sick, or made sic­ker, by one doc­tor, after another doc­tor, after one more.  It’s not a pretty picture.
• Is there a “risk of under­treat­ment” for thy­roid patients who self-treat? Yes, but pro­bably far less  than the huge num­ber of patients who report being left “under­trea­ted” by doc­tors who are blind to the pro­blems of T4, or doc­tors who remain clue­less about the ina­de­quacy of trea­ting by the TSH.
• Is the “grea­test con­cern” about self-treatment the pro­blem of being “over-medicated”? You betcha. But in the vast majo­rity of these unfor­tu­nate cases with patients who choose to self-treat, the pro­blem is undiag­no­sed or under­trea­ted low cor­ti­sol and/or low ferri­tin, which results in thy­roid hor­mo­nes poo­ling in the blood and crea­ting hyper-like symp­toms.  This is a risk for self-treatment.
• Have “dozens of thy­roid patients” ended up in emer­gency rooms due to over-medication? “Dozens” is spe­cu­la­tion.  It may be more rea­lis­tic to state that “some”, yes, have sta­ted this unfor­tu­nate out­come when they made the choice.  But research and com­ment all over the inter­net shows anyone that hun­dreds of thou­sands of all patients can end up in the emer­gency room due to poor doc­to­ral deci­sions, or bad reac­tions to phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal medi­ca­tions which doc­tors love to presc­ribe. Ending up in an emer­gency room is not solely con­nec­ted to self-treatment.
• Do “patients face many major obs­tac­les that pre­vent them from get­ting accu­rate and effec­tive thy­roid diag­no­sis and treat­ment?” Yes! That is where Mary is in agree­ment with me with her six exce­llent  points, inc­lu­ding the tra­gic situa­tion in the UK. And here are 10 rea­sons patients are frus­tra­ted, angry and sick.
• Has one nega­tive jour­nal article about someone who self-treated “resul­ted in desic­ca­ted thy­roid  get­ting grea­ter scru­tiny by the FDA?” The ans­wer can easily be:  no worse than the body of patients who were made fear­ful that the FDA was ban­ning desic­ca­ted thy­roid, and who follo­wed a strong cam­paign to con­tact the FDA about desic­ca­ted thy­roid. I was also per­so­nally told by two phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal repre­sen­ta­ti­ves that this action to con­tact the FDA made the pharms very uncom­for­ta­ble and put too much atten­tion on desic­ca­ted thy­roid. Time will tell, but it’s not help­ful to blame anything.
• Does “acti­vely pro­mo­ting self-medication” with natu­ral desic­ca­ted thy­roid “work against thy­roid patient inte­rests”. The ans­wer to this loa­ded ques­tion resi­des in who you ask. Whether “acti­vely pro­mo­ted” or simply “read about”, there seems to be a body of patients who report that fin­ding out about desic­ca­ted thy­roid, and fee­ling for­ced to self-treat because of not fin­ding any doc­tor to help them, was one of the best deci­sions they ever made.

And to the last com­ment above, and since there have been “impli­ca­tions”, I want to unders­core (and ad nau­seum) that the patient-to-patient Stop the Thy­roid Mad­ness was not crea­ted as a self-treatment site, nor does it “acti­vely pro­mote” it.  STTM is a site with a goal to edu­cate patients who can, in turn, take that infor­ma­tion into their doc­tors offi­ces and push for change. And it’s been wor­king, one doc­tor at a time, as wit­nes­sed by patients who report those doc­tors on patient groups, and by emails I get from some of those doctors.

But it’s also clear that those who self-medicate may be using STTM, as well as many other web­si­tes and books out there by doc­tors, advo­ca­tes and non-professionals alike, to help them. So at least there is edu­ca­tion out there to help those who choose this, even if none was crea­ted for that purpose.

Sum­mary

There are impor­tant dif­fe­ren­ces in opi­nion, and much more to the story as I out­li­ned above.

But the bot­tom line is this: for up to 60 years, hun­dreds of millions of thy­roid patients around the world have been sub­jec­ted to

1. a medi­ca­tion called thy­ro­xine which has left a heap of lin­ge­ring hypothy­roid symp­toms,
2. a new debi­li­ta­ting con­di­tion like adre­nal fati­gue,
3. a lab test (TSH) which has dela­yed diag­no­sis for years or kept patients under­trea­ted, and
4. too many doc­tors who aren’t up to speed about most any of this, and have left patients frus­tra­ted, angry and still sick.

And all the above is a far worse sce­na­rio which only pushes some patients to self-treat as a side-effect. But if  you aren’t totally wiped out finan­cially and emo­tio­nally in trying to find an infor­med doc, two sug­ges­tions: http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/how-to-find-a-good-doc as well as pos­ting your city/state in the sub­ject line of patient groups here: http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/talk-to-others

P.S. Please note that you will never see this blog, or this web­site, kno­wingly allow non-professional,  nega­tive, nasty, false, abu­sive and/or pro­found slan­der about a collea­gue, as has been done elsewhere.

(Note: this is a long post, but will be worth every penny if you read it all!)

When STTM first put out its shin­gle in Decem­ber of 2005 (with most of what you see today going up in ’06 and ’07 with con­ti­nual addi­tions),  my goal with this site was sim­ple: to edu­cate thy­roid patients.

And as I saw it, by edu­ca­ting patients on what we had been lear­ning, patients could in turn, take that infor­ma­tion into their doc­tors offi­ces and push for change. And it’s been wor­king, slowly. We now have more doc­tors than ever before who know about desic­ca­ted thy­roid and are willing to presc­ribe it, even if they are the mino­rity. STTM has a page on how to try fin­ding one of those good docs.

But as I wrote about this fact in my pre­vious post, cer­tain patients can still find them­sel­ves frus­tra­ted, angry and sick because of doc­tors. It’s not a pretty pic­ture for some.

I am lucky, as I’ve always mana­ged to have a fair doc­tor to work with, without com­pli­ca­ted issues. But a lot of patients aren’t as lucky.  They either can’t find a doc­tor to treat them correctly after trying repea­tedly, or they simply can’t afford to keep dri­ving to find a good doc (with no pro­mi­ses that they will get the good doc they des­pe­ra­tely need any­way). As a result, many thy­roid patients report being for­ced to self-treat.

Even though STTM was never crea­ted as a self-treatment site, I am aware that some patients use it that way.  And I can never con­demn them. Gran­ted, a few who make their own choice to self-treat can run into pro­blems, most espe­cially from undis­co­ve­red or undiag­no­sed low ferri­tin or low cor­ti­sol. But it’s a choice they seem to make out of desperation.

The follo­wing  post is by  Guest Blog pos­ter and UK’s thy­roid patient advo­cate Sheila Tur­ner of TPA-UK.  These are her cou­ra­geous thoughts con­cer­ning self-treatment, and her angst against anyone who tells patients not to do so.  Ove­rall, UK patients have a very tough situa­tion in the UK with doc­tors, but so do the vast majo­rity of patients around the world, as well as US patients. See what you think…

*********************************************

It’s not uncom­mon to be told as a suf­fe­ring and debi­li­ta­ted thy­roid patient to never self-diagnose, never self-treat, never self-monitor.

And in an ideal world, we could take those admo­ni­tions on. But we are not living in an ideal world.

You might as well tell every­body with ill health to put up with wha­te­ver they are suf­fe­ring and leave their health in the safe hands of our ‘won­der­ful’ doc­tors whom we can trust impli­citly.  Sadly, many doc­tors have little (or no) edu­ca­tion in the wor­kings of the thy­roid system.

Or, you might just try tou­ring the country until you find one who will help. Well, if you have the energy and the money to do that, it could take a heck of a long time before fin­ding such a good doc­tor —  indeed, IF you ever find such a doctor.

I run a very suc­cess­ful Inter­net Thy­roid Sup­port group, plus web site for thy­roid disease, and I have seen at first hand (and expe­rien­ced it myself) the night­mare of having to put up with the terri­ble suf­fe­ring cau­sed by Doctors.

In the UK, for exam­ple, it is orga­ni­za­tions such as the Royal College of Phy­si­cians and the Bri­tish Thy­roid Asso­cia­tion who have terri­fied NHS doc­tors so much that they now no lon­ger presc­ribe any T3 hor­mone con­tai­ning pro­ducts, neither natu­ral nor synthe­tic, for fear of being repor­ted to the GMC  regu­la­tory body with the threat of losing their career and livelihood.

One com­ment I hear from those who con­demn self-treatment is the pro­blem of over-medicating. In rea­lity, it is the rec­kless prohi­bi­tion of all T3-containing drugs that cau­ses car­diac arrhyth­mia and risk of  sud­den death -  which would amount to at least mans­laugh­ter, and might even cons­ti­tute mur­der if the out­come is strictly fore­seea­ble - which it is. It is NOT patients who should be cri­ti­ci­zed. They have been dri­ven to buying presc­rip­tion medi­ci­nes for thy­roid and adre­nal insuf­fi­ciency. Cri­ti­ci­zing self-treatment is an outra­geous claim and one that the medi­cal regu­la­tors would no doubt be deligh­ted to hear. Seems that not only are doc­tors beco­ming sorely afraid of the Regu­la­tors, those who con­demn self-treatment are also falling into the same trap.

The “basic pre­mise” that under­lies my own pur­pose and advo­cacy is to help those being left to suf­fer because the medi­cal regu­la­tors and govern­ment are refu­sing to give a pro­per diag­no­sis — and for those who do get a diag­no­sis, giving them levothy­ro­xine sodium-only as a thy­roid hor­mone replacement.

Whe­ne­ver a new mem­ber comes to TPA, we encou­rage them to read, read and read again and to look at the infor­ma­tion in our FILES sec­tion which is there for all to see. We tell them about the asso­cia­ted con­di­tions that go along with being hypothy­roid such as low adre­nal reserve, sys­te­mic can­di­dia­sis, mer­cury poi­so­ning and ask them to request blood tests from their doc­tor to see if their levels are low in the refe­rence range for ferri­tin, vita­min B12, vita­min D3, mag­ne­sium, folate, cop­per and zinc. We have infor­ma­tion on the rea­sons they need to check these and if any of these are a pro­blem, make sure they are aware of just how essen­tial it is that they eli­mi­nate these con­di­tions, one by one, before star­ting thy­roid hor­mone repla­ce­ment – such con­di­tions are NOT auto­ma­ti­cally chec­ked by NHS doc­tors – and they put their patients at great risk by auto­ma­ti­cally presc­ri­bing levothyroxine.

We all know of the serious rami­fi­ca­tions for those patients who are not being given a correct diag­no­sis or treat­ment. Howe­ver, it is the endoc­ri­no­lo­gists and medi­cal regu­la­tors who are guilty of cau­sing much of the unne­ces­sary suf­fe­ring, not those patients who are dri­ven to self diag­nose, self treat and self moni­tor, as those who cri­ti­cize self-treatment would have us believe.

Mains­tream doc­tors do not appear to be even aware of the many com­mon and often undiag­no­sed symp­toms and dan­ge­rous con­se­quen­ces of low thy­roid. These inc­lude: serious men­tal pro­blems, sei­zu­res, heart disease, dia­be­tes inc­lu­ding mis­diag­no­sis and com­pli­ca­tions, cons­ti­pa­tion resul­ting in colon can­cer, all female pro­blems (due to high amounts of dan­ge­rous forms of oes­tro­gen), inc­lu­ding: tumours, fibroids, ova­rian cysts, PMS, endo­me­trio­sis, breast can­cer, mis­ca­rriage, heavy periods and cramps, blad­der pro­blems lea­ding to infec­tions, anae­mia, ele­va­ted CPK, ele­va­ted crea­ti­nine, ele­va­ted tran­sa­mi­na­ses, hyper­cap­nia, hyper­li­pi­de­mia, hypogly­ce­mia, hypo­na­tre­mia, hypo­xia, leu­ko­pe­nia, res­pi­ra­tory aci­do­sis and others.…

If suf­fe­rers of the symp­toms are NOT get­ting a pro­per diag­no­sis and the thy­roid hor­mone repla­ce­ment that would give them back their life and health through mains­tream doc­tors, how on earth would you recom­mend they do this, apart from scou­ring the country to find a doc­tor elsewhere who would help them, or recom­men­ding they get enough money together to see a pri­vate thy­roid spe­cia­list. Do you REALLY have such com­plete faith in the medi­cal pro­fes­sion to know that we should ALL leave our thy­roid health in their hands, sit back and do nothing – and pro­bably just wait to die? How can you recom­mend that they do NOT buy presc­rip­tion medi­ca­tions and should not self-medicate, self treat or self moni­tor when there is NO other option left open to them.

If those who cri­ti­cize self-treatment have per­so­nally heard from “DOZENS” of peo­ple who have follo­wed the “inc­rease my own dose of natu­ral thy­roid” self medi­ca­tion approach, then yes, something is seriously wrong with the ‘teachings’ or advo­cacy of such groups. Edu­ca­tion should be encou­ra­ged by all, and if mem­bers do not unders­tand the rea­sons why they need to take great care, such expla­na­tions should be given in such a way that they understand.

I rarely hear of mem­bers ending up in Emer­gency Rooms batt­ling poten­tially fatal heart arrhythmia’s, atrial fibri­lla­tion, and/or ending up in worse health than before, inc­lu­ding long-term and per­ma­nent heart damage through self-treatment. I have heard of many NHS patients being admit­ted to A and E, who had been trea­ted (or not) by mains­tream doc­tors who refu­sed them the correct the­rapy their symp­toms needed.

In good cons­cience, I do recom­mend that thy­roid patients self-diagnose, self-medicate and self-treat if they are being left to suf­fer, because orga­ni­za­tions such as the RCP, BTA TSH refe­rence range is so huge that they will never go outside of it. This refe­rence range is 0.5 to 10.0 in the UK – pro­bably the widest in the world. Then, we have to put up with the fact that the only thy­roid func­tion test that will be done is the TSH –  and doc­tors will not test Free T4 in a lot of cases, never mind free T3 level. Also, NHS Patho­logy labs refuse to test free T3 even if the doc­tor has spe­ci­fi­cally reques­ted it. So, many of us will NEVER get a pro­per diag­no­sis – being left to suf­fer their unne­ces­sary symp­toms for years and become wheelchair/bed bound in many cases, having to leave paid employment.

Such patients are told they have a ‘func­tio­nal soma­to­form disor­der’ when their TFT’s are nor­mal, when they con­ti­nue to com­plain of symp­toms – or –  those who are lucky enough to get a diag­no­sis, who are trea­ted with levothy­ro­xine only yet still com­plain of debi­li­ta­ting symp­toms are told also “you have a func­tio­nal soma­to­form disor­der” or “your symp­toms are non-specific” .

What mains­tream doc­tors do not recog­nize is that thy­roid func­tion tests ONLY test the amount of thy­roid hor­mone being sec­re­ted by the thy­roid gland.  TFT’s (more correctly should be called Thy­roid GLAND func­tion tests”, do not test to show whether there is periphe­ral resis­tance to the thy­roid hor­mo­nes at the cellu­lar level. This is not due to a lack of thy­roid hor­mo­nes sec­re­ted by the gland. Blood tests do NOT detect Type 2 hypothy­roi­dism. Type 2 is usually inhe­ri­ted. Howe­ver, envi­ron­men­tal toxins may also cause or exa­cer­bate the pro­blem. The per­va­si­ve­ness of Type 2 has yet to be recog­ni­zed by mains­tream medi­cine, but already is in epi­de­mic pro­por­tions. I think many suf­fe­rers of the symp­toms of hypothy­roi­dism know very much more than their medi­cal prac­ti­tio­ners. I do know which road I would like to follow – that is to find an exce­llent doc­tor I could trust impli­citly, but sadly, the ONLY road many of us have to follow to get back nor­mal health is the one where we have to self medicate.

Please do NOT blame patients who are dri­ven to self diag­nose and medi­cate as being the rea­son why the US govern­ment, or any other govern­ment for that mat­ter, are now eli­mi­na­ting the avai­la­bi­lity of natu­ral thy­roid and synthe­tic T3. You are being suc­ked into belie­ving what they want you to believe.

Levothy­ro­xine is a synthe­tic medi­ca­tion that can be paten­ted, and has made billions of pounds for the Big Pharma and for the regu­la­tors of hypothy­roid gui­de­li­nes. Natu­ral thy­roid pro­ducts can­not be paten­ted. Should doc­tors presc­ribe either synthe­tic or natu­ral T3, the majo­rity of suf­fe­rers of the symp­toms of hypothy­roi­dism would regain their nor­mal health – Big Pharma would suffer.

You should perhaps read the book “Dirty Medi­cine” by Mar­tin J Wal­ker if you have not already read it. Those who cri­ti­cize self-treatment appear to be accu­sing all those suf­fe­ring symp­toms of hypothy­roi­dism who have been dri­ven to buying medi­ca­tions without presc­rip­tion and self trea­ting as making it worse for the rest of those suf­fe­ring. It is NOT them who are abu­sing T3. If a T3 hor­mone con­tai­ning pro­duct was pro­perly presc­ri­bed, there would be NO NEED FOR PATIENTS TO BE SELF MEDICATING.

Self medi­ca­ting, wha­te­ver drug we are taking, whether using a T3 hor­mone con­tai­ning pro­duct or not, is always risky and patients must be fully edu­ca­ted in its use. Howe­ver, self medi­ca­ting with any drug runs risks, but I would rather self medi­cate with the chance of get­ting my health back than lea­ving my health in the hands of totally incom­pe­tent doc­tors –  incom­pe­tent because the teachers in our medi­cal schools are incompetent.

For those who are being left to die, without the treat­ment that will make them well, do-it-yourself medi­ca­tion is the only option left open to them. Would you really deny them this?  Lea­ving patients without the thy­roid hor­mone they need is appa­lling and one of the rea­sons TPA is cam­paig­ning to bring about chan­ges in the diag­no­sing and treat­ment of the symp­toms of hypothyroidism.

It can be appre­cia­ted to say to work with the right doc­tor, but what do you recom­mend if patients can­not find the ‘right’ doc­tor?? Perhaps you should all come over here to the UK and help those suf­fe­rers in fin­ding the right solu­tion and offer to help them help to find a “good doctor”.

Sadly, there are never any solu­tions given or alter­na­tive to self diag­no­sing, self-treating or self-monitoring, other than to “find a good doc­tor”. This does not help Inter­net thy­roid sup­port forum members.

Sheila
http://www.tpa-uk.org.uk/

I think back about my mother.

At age twenty-one in 1939, she had most of her thy­roid remo­ved due to Gra­ves disease and hyperthy­roi­dism. Because a small part remai­ned, hyper set in once again by 1960 com­plete with bug­ged eyes. So Radioac­tive Iodine I-131 was the next step to once-and-for-all annihi­late the thy­roid.  Not long after, as her thy­roid hor­mone levels fell, she was one of the early vic­tims of the “new and modern” T4-only medi­ca­tion called Synthroid.

And all hell broke loose. Depres­sion enve­lo­ped her every­day life — one of her worst lin­ge­ring symp­toms of hypothy­roi­dism due to the shoddy treat­ment of a T4-only med as well as the TSH lab test.  I remem­ber her moods, her fre­quent anger and lack of patience, and her cons­tant coun­se­ling appointments.

By 1963, and right before Pre­si­dent Ken­nedy was shot, she sub­mit­ted her­self to Elec­tric Shock Treat­ment in a futile effort to con­trol her depres­sion.  What a crock.  She was never again the bright and quick-witted woman I remem­be­red as a youn­ger child. Her brain was fried and she had a new dull flat reac­tion to life. And for the rest of her life, she lived on her antidepressant/anti-anxiety med Ela­vil and had daily cons­tant naps, weight gain, rising cho­les­te­rol, dry hair, heart sur­gery, stiff joints, brain fog and ina­bi­lity to stand on her feet long – her own mani­fes­ta­tion of lin­ge­ring symp­toms while on the lousy thyroxine.

And she did the T4-horror show…all…by…herself. No inter­net,  no patient groups and forums, no Stop the Thy­roid Mad­ness web­site, blog or book,  no good doc, no thy­roid Face­book or Twit­ter groups, no other good thy­roid books or web­si­tes. Nada. I came along as a Thy­roid Patient Acti­vist too late for my mother, who died in 2003.

It makes me shud­der thin­king of that lonely hell. But then again, it’s not just in the far past: it hap­pe­ned to her only daugh­ter, me, for nearly 20 years. Com­plete lonely hell of my own with intense and disa­bling Dysau­to­no­mia indu­ced by my con­ti­nued hypo state while on Synth­roid and later Levoxyl.

And today, because the mass media or any media per­so­na­lity refu­ses to speak the truth of the 55 year scan­dal of T4-only meds like Synth­roid, Levoxyl, levothy­ro­xine, Eltro­xin, Oro­xine, or the cuckoo’s nest of the TSH lab test and range, HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS of indi­vi­duals still suf­fer. How stu­pid can they get.  This is a scan­dal that has effec­ted a huge mass of indi­vi­duals glo­bally, past and pre­sent,  inc­lu­ding those today who STILL lin­ger with undiag­no­sed hypothy­roi­dism thanks to the worth­less TSH lab test or lin­ge­ring hypo on the lousy T4-only medi­ca­tions. And all the above when we, as patients, have lear­ned a far bet­ter way to treat our thy­roid problems

Did you have rela­ti­ves like my own Mom (who died in 2003) who lived the T4-only scan­dal alone?  Use the Com­ment form to tell us about them.  Have YOU suf­fe­red from a T4 med? Report it to the FDA here.

Also below, read about Jane Pau­ley and the health issues that make you won­der, since they can all be con­nec­ted to a thy­roid pro­blem, either undiag­no­sed or untrea­ted.  Below that, you’ll see posts about Oprah, Reverse T3, the pro­blem of cellu­lose in our meds, the desic­ca­ted thy­roid shor­ta­ges, and more.

*HO HO HO! Have a STTM book sent to someone  you care about as a CHRISTMAS or HOLIDAY pre­sent. A card will be inc­lu­ded, and the book will be in an enve­lope with a red bow!! Save money the more you buy!

You might have already known about her, but it was only a few days ago when I found out that the effer­ves­cent Jane Pau­ley, for­mer host of the The Today Show and Date­line NBC, has had cer­tain medi­cal strug­gles in her life­time. They have inc­lu­ded hives (trea­ted with ste­roids), depres­sion (trea­ted with an anti-depressant), a bip0lar disor­der (trea­ted with lithium), and the autoim­mune thy­roid disease called Hashi­mo­tos (trea­ted with Levoxyl).

Hives are sud­den small rai­sed bumps which can mass into patches, and are often itchy and mise­ra­ble.  Bipo­lar, also called Manic Depres­sive Disor­der, invol­ves swings bet­ween extreme mania (exci­ted, ener­ge­tic) follo­wed by depres­sion (extreme sad­ness or lowe­red res­ponse to life).

And all the above four issues made me pause.  Con­si­der the following:

1. Hives have not only been lin­ked to hashi­mo­tos disease, they have both been suc­cess­fully trea­ted with the most bri­lliant medi­ca­tion for hypothy­roi­dism ever crea­ted: natu­ral desic­ca­ted thy­roid. That hea­ling con­nec­tion was revea­led by the belo­ved Dr. David Derry of Canada here.  Hives is also men­tio­ned as a lin­ge­ring hypothy­roid symp­tom while on T4 meds which went away with desic­ca­ted thyroid.

2) Depres­sion is all too com­mon for those with undiag­no­sed hypothy­roi­dism (thanks to the lousy TSH lab test) or under­trea­ted thy­roid disease (thanks to the lousy T4-only meds like Levoxyl which pro­mo­tes depres­sion and other lin­ge­ring symp­toms). Many patients report a reso­lu­tion of their depres­sion with desic­ca­ted thyroid.

3) Bi-polar can often be a mis­diag­no­sis for Hashi­mo­tos disease, since the lat­ter can cause the same swings. Even without Hashi’s, bipo­lar and other men­tal health issues can be a com­mon mani­fes­ta­tion of low cor­ti­sol aka adre­nal fati­gue, also cau­sed by undiag­no­sed hypo because of the TSH, or under­trea­ted hypothy­roi­dism with T4.  At the very least, bipo­lar can be a com­mon mani­fes­ta­tion of a hypothalamus-pituitary – adre­nals (HPA) axis dys­re­gu­la­tion, again com­mon with those undiag­no­sed or under­trea­ted hypothyroidism.

4) Lithium, iro­ni­cally, is a known cause of hypothy­roi­dism, only making one’s thy­roid situa­tion worse, as well as pro­mo­ting poten­tial adre­nal fati­gue and low cortisol.

Now gran­ted, Jane’s big four of hives, depres­sion, bipo­lar, and thy­roid disease could be coin­ci­den­tal.  But there’s so much con­nec­tion in one way or another bet­ween them that you are left won­de­ring if she’s been a vic­tim of mis­diag­no­sis and under­treat­ment just like hun­dreds of millions of us thanks to labs and medi­ca­tions which do not work. And she may need a good doc­tor to be ree­va­lua­ted, besi­des put on desic­ca­ted thy­roid and dis­co­ver what patients have lear­ned about bet­ter treatment.

And on another note: I fear it’s going to take someone just as power­ful, and as stric­ken with health issues which could be rela­ted,  as Jane Pau­ley is, to FINALLY break open the pro­found and des­truc­tive media silence about this scan­dal of thy­roid treat­ment diag­no­sis and treat­ment which has left hun­dreds of millions SICK with pro­found sto­ries,  and is the very rea­son Stop the Thy­roid Mad­ness exists. Do we dare hope? We’ll see.

Do you have a simi­lar story of men­tal health issues that ended up being con­nec­ted to your thy­roid and/or adre­nal state? Use the Com­ment form and let’s talk. Who knows – maybe Jane will see this, pon­der, and become far bet­ter edu­ca­ted like we’ve had to become!

*HO HO HO! Have a STTM book sent to someone  you care about as a CHRISTMAS or HOLIDAY pre­sent. A card will be inc­lu­ded, and the book will be in an enve­lope with a red bow!! Save money the more you buy!