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And again, on the heels of my post below about Sheila Turner of the UK’s TPA (be sure and read it–good comments, too) comes a blog post by Dr. Richard B. Gutler of California, an Endocrinologist (why are we not surprised).  And his message?

1) That the NHS is correct to ban Armour

2) That Armour is a “second drug” that causes harm.

3) That it’s only “fringe” patients who don’t do well on T4

4) That none of the above patients are hypothyroid

5) That they don’t feel well on T4 because of other reasons

6) Therapy is not needed if the TSH is below 10

You know what patients have a fantasy about, Dr. Gutler?? That folks like YOU become hypothyroid and are put on T4. You’ll then see your blood pressure rising, or your cholesterol doing the same, or depression and fatigue setting in, or your adrenals overworking, or weight gain and a host of other continuing symptoms of hypothyroid while on T4, whether right away or down the line. OH WAIT. Those are all due to something else. Gee, let’s put you on anti-depressants, statins, blood pressure meds, pain meds, anti-anxiety meds since those “other” reasons never seem to be fixed.  OH WAIT. They DO get fixed when these same patients are switched to Armour or any other desiccated thyroid, and have addressed their low cortisol or low ferritin thanks to years of undiagnosis or undertreatment with T4.

SHAME ON YOU.

p.s. It’s because of opinions like yours that the Stop the Thyroid Madness book has been sent to patients in over 16 countries, so far. People want to find out the TRUTH.

Update: you can read Sheila’s and UK-TPA’s response here: http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/uk-tpas-response-to-the-rcp/

See more from Sheila that gives UK patients hope: http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/relationship-between-the-RCP-and-MHRA/

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Recently, after we watched a semi-scary movie about being suckered, a friend brought up my blog post of last July where I described a terrifyingly-real horror movie.

The plot: stunningly convince hundreds of millions of individuals worldwide that what is obvious, isn’t. i.e. it’s all in your head, you are adequately treated on Synthroid, Levoxyl, Eltroxin, Norton, et al,  and not only that, we’ll bandaid your continuing problems with more medications.

A second plot: also completely hoodwink those with top notch higher medical educations and experience by churning out the the exact same poppycock, and reward their stupidity with gifts.

The central villian: Big Pharma, followed by the doctors who bought the lie

Exactly a year ago this month, Science Daily came out with an article, citing two York University researchers who estimated that the U.S. pharmaceutical industry spends almost twice as much on promotion as it does on research and development, contrary to the industry’s claim. In other words, the researchers estimated that $57.5 billion in US dollars was spent on pharmaceutical promotion in 2004–the year they were studying. Yes, I said BILLION.

Breaking that down, Big Pharma spent approximately $61,000 per physician in promotion of their products.  And they concluded that both figures were UNDERestimates.  In other words, they concluded that the US pharmaceutical industry is marketing-driven rather than “life-saving”.

And adding fuel to the fire: most doctors believe every thrust of that marketing. I recently participated in comments with other wonderful patients in response to a DO/Endocrinologist, Dr. Thomas Repas, who has clearly bought the Big Pharma marketing when it comes to levothyroxine. You can read his posts and our comments here, here, and here.   Dr. Repas is exactly the kind of doctor who has  starred in our horror movie, and the kind of doctor that patients have lamented about for years.  Read the  Give Me a Break list of comments made by doctors, as well as further comments on the January 1st blog.

But Dr. Repas is in good company. Doctors have believed the Big Pharma lie about T4-only medications, and against desiccated thyroid like Armour, Naturethroid, etc. for 50 years.  In the patient-to-patient  Stop the Thyroid Madness book, you can read about the first tableting of Synthroid in 1955 and the strategic and successful promotion of T4-only, in spite of the fact that T4 was known to be unstable for decades.

And today, more than 50 years later, very few of us have been untouched by the Big Pharma push for levothyroxine T4-only treatment.  My own mother was suckered, and I was suckered.  And until patients started to make a huge push for desiccated thyroid treatment the last few years, nearly every single doctor around the world had been suckered.

We still have a way to go. But we’ll get there, bit by bit.

In honor of 2009,  a year we hope to see bold changes in the medical system, Stop the Thyroid Madness presents the Fifteen Most Annoying Phrases From the Mouths of Doctors. (Note that the word “Armour” has been used for simplicity sake; any prescription-grade desiccated thyroid product can be inserted there.)

Here’s raising our New Year’s stemmed glasses to change!

15) I’ll see you in eight weeks.
14) Here’s a script for [insert any non-thyroid medication to bandaid continuing hypo symptom]
13) The free T3 lab test is not necessary.
12) Your symptoms do not warrant a thyroid medication.
11) You’re tired because you are [insert any label like "a mother" "menopausal", etc]
10) That has nothing to do with your thyroid.
9) I can find nothing wrong with you.
8 ) You need to eat less and exercise more.
7) Your TSH is too low.
6) The TSH test is [insert any positive description, like "a reliable marker" or "sensitive measure"]
5) I do not believe in Armour.
4) Armour is [insert any negative adjective/description like "unstable" or "hard to regulate"]
3) You’re depressed.
2) You are hyper.

….and tah-dah, the #1 most annoying phrase that comes out of the mouth of a doctor:

1) You are normal.

Just as I was finishing up the post below about a short summary on the Endocrinology Today website, I saw a link at the bottom of the page that interested me.  It took me to a blog post on the same site from December 10th titled “Why can’t it be my thyroid?”.

And a slew of thyroid patients around the world, as well as a growing body of doctors,  would completely disagree with this post.

Namely, a DO explains the problem of patients arriving in doctors offices with “innumerable possible symptoms of hypothyroidism” including “fatigue, cold intolerance, decreased energy, weight gain, depression, hair loss, low libido, menstrual irregularity and others.”

Yet, he bemoans, these patients have a “normal TSH” which is “well within the normal laboratory reference range.” He also refers to their normal free T3 and free T4, and states there is no history to suggest pituitary dysfunction or that the TSH is unreliable.”

He then proceeds to pat himself on the back because he 1) will treat some patients with a high-normal TSH and other clinical features,  2) he will treat to a low-normal TSH of less than 2.0, but like the good-boy-doctor, “still within the normal laboratory reference range” and 3) he will not induce iatrogenic hyperthyroidism, even if symptoms persist. (yikes)

“Iatrogenic hyperthyroidism”??  Since “iatrogenesis” refers to harmful medical procedures, he’s probably referring to a TSH below the range, which in his mind, equates to hyperthyroidism.

***Then comes the observation that has made many thyroid patients shiver, since so many doctors have said it: because he feels that adding T3 to T4 has more negative results than positive, he explains to his patients “that there may be causes of their symptoms besides the thyroid.”

THUD.

So here is my 6-point response to any doctor who might share these beliefs:

1) There’s hardly a thyroid patient around who hasn’t had a so-called “normal” TSH in spite of clear and obvious hypothyroidism.  The TSH lab test frequently lags behind what is reality in the body, and has been doing so since it’s creation in the early 1970′s (see Chapter 4 in the Stop the Thyroid Madness book for history).

2) Having a “normal” free T3 and free T4 means nothing. It’s “where” the result falls in that range that means something. i.e. patients all around the world are noticing that having a free T3 mid-range or lower in the presence of hypothyroid symptoms is usually a BINGO lab result pointing to hypothyroidism.

3) Exactly because doctors tend to dismiss clear hypothyroid symptoms as “something else” thanks to a lousy TSH reference range, a burgeoning number of thyroid patients are falling into adrenal fatigue with its low cortisol, which serves to mess them up even more.

4) A huge body of thyroid patients who are on desiccated thyroid hormones (aka Armour, Naturethroid, etc), and who finally have a complete removal of symptoms with a normal temperature and heartrate, also have a suppressed TSH lab result, and not one iota of “iatrogenic hyperthyroidism.”

5) When it appears that adding T3 to T4 is having negative effects, the problem is most likely adrenal fatigue that needs correction, and/or low ferritin, NOT deciding that the symptoms must be from another cause or T3 doesn’t work.

6) “Fatigue, cold intolerance, decreased energy, weight gain, depression, hair loss, low libido, menstrual irregularity and others” may be shared in other conditions, but you are most likely missing CLEAR symptoms of hypothyroidism, both in the undiagnosed patient with a so-called normal TSH, or with a patient treated with the lousy thyroxine, which leaves most everyone with continuing hypothyroid symptoms.

“I’m sorry. It IS your thyroid” is exactly what patients need to hear.

My mouth just fell open last night.

Apparently, in December of 2002, an Australian doctor named JP Walsh (Department of Endocrinology and Diabetes of Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, Nedlands, Western Australia), and an Endocrinologist to boot, wrote an most interesting article in the journal Current Opinion in Pharmacology.

This incredibly stunning article was titled Dissatisfaction with thyroxine therapy — could the patients be right?

The abstract states:

In some patients with hypothyroidism, symptoms of ill health persist despite thyroxine treatment. It is unclear whether this arises from comorbidity or because standard thyroxine replacement is in some way inadequate for some individuals. Some patients feel better if they take a slightly excessive dose of thyroxine, but this carries a potential risk of adverse cardiac and skeletal effects. There are conflicting data on whether combined thyroxine/triiodothyronine treatment is preferable to thyroxine alone in dissatisfied patients

I am unable to read the full article, as it is required that you pay a sum I don’t have. But you definitely get the impression that this doctor was on the cusp of figuring out what we have known solidly all along.  Because Dr. Walsh, the patients WERE right, and still are.  Synthroid, Levoxyl, Eltroxin, levothyroxine and all other T4-only medications suck, and have sucked for a long, long time.  www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/t4-only-meds-dont-work and  www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/long-and-pathetic

I so hope to be able to contact Dr. Walsh.  Do you know him?  Because he and I need to have a long talk.

Janie

p.s. Thank you Gerry.