• Doctors

Oh jolly.

Diane, a thyroid and adrenal patient, informed me of a recent visit to a local Endocrinologist.  The doc stated that she was on a committee that is working with the FDA to do away with saliva testing, strongly proposing that it’s not accurate testing and is “harming” people.

Well, let’s see. For a couple of years now, thyroid patients who strongly suspect they have adrenal fatigue by the reactions they have to desiccated thyroid have been using saliva testing…and lo and behold,  the results they receive nearly completely conform with how they feel! i.e. saliva testing, which tests one’s cortisol levels at four key times during a 24 hour period,  has worked beautifully in helping thyroid patients with adrenal fatigue identify their problem, in helping these patients doctors have a better understanding of their problem, and knowing better what might be their best treatment, which can range from using licorice root, to over-the-counter adrenal support, to hydrocortisone (HC).

Harmful?? Give me a break.

Could it be that medical school trained doctors just hate and despise any method which a patient might benefit from WITHOUT going to the doctor and paying big bucks??  hmmmm.  And once again, could it be that a method NOT taught in medical school just MIGHT be a good one (just as desiccated thyroid like Armour, Naturethroid, etc. is far, far better than Synthroid or Levoxyl, which ARE taught in medical school)?

The FDA approved saliva testing for AIDS in 2005. They approved saliva testing for ovulation in 2003. They approved saliva testing to detect if a woman is going into premature labor in 1998. And there’s many more they have approved.  So…perhaps this is all a gasp of a committee who hates to see patients have some control over their health (terrible, awful thing, isn’t it?) or the cry of a committee that only reveals its ignorance.

p.s. Dr. Best of San Antonio recently posted the following excellent article on saliva testing: http://besthealthandwellnessinfo.com/hormone-testing-i-spit-on-your-blood-test/

HO! HO! HO! Laughing Grape Publishing will send the STTM book for you to a loved one or friend for the holidays!

I was informed today that a very popular and well-liked doctor in Texas, who treats many hypothyroid patients, was disciplined recently.  And for what?  Under the column titled NONTHERAPEUTIC PRESCRIBING, it states:  The action was based on Dr. Launius’ prescribing Adipex, Adderal and Armour Thyroid to patients when such medications were not indicated. www.tmb.state.tx.us/news/press/2008/101608a.php

Adipex and Adderol are both central nervous system stimulants, and I can’t comment one way or the other. But the mention of Armour thyroid as “not indicated” is potentially worrisome, especially with similar disciplinary actions brought upon well-liked and wise doctors like Peatfield and Skinner of the UK, Derry of Canada, and  Springer in the US–all who dared to make obvious symptoms more important than ink spots on a piece of paper.

Take Kymm, a 45 year old woman.  She has manifested hypothyroid symptoms for 15 years since the birth of her daughter.  Yet during those entire 15 years, her TSH lab result has been completely “normal”…i.e. hypothyroidism has never been “indicated” based on the typical and widespread gold standard of diagnosis: the TSH.  But she has never, ever been normal with 15 years of easy weight gain, chronic depression, thinning hair, rising cholesterol, and other clear hypothyroid symptoms. And she has in fact started on Armour…and is soaring.

Kymm is not an oddity.  Thyroid patients on internet groups report going years with a normal TSH, no diagnosis, yet clear symptoms which are ignored by their TSH-obsessed doctors.   So their doctors may have avoided disciplinary action, but did they truly practise the art and science of healing??

I called Rhea on the phone today.

Earlier today, Rhea was in the one-operator beauty salon at the same time as my 90 year old mother-in-law: one getting her gray hair dried while the other got her grayer tresses rolled. And as conversations go in beauty salons, it turned to personal topics (which can range from one’s marital happiness to whether Mrytle’s boobs are real or expanded.) And one of those topics was about Rhea’s hypothyroidism as well as her daughter’s.

And of course, my very doting mother-in-law mentions the STTM book written by her daughter-in-law, Janie, and hands her a copy from the car. Long story short…Rhea wants me to call her.

The phone conversation went into the fact that she used to be on Armour, but then listened to a local doctor several years later who switched her to Synthroid–”a far more stable medication”. (not) Since she switched, she says she’s felt terrible for years, and has recently returned to Armour, and with the vast information in the book, understood now how she needed to raise.

And then came the shocker: THE DOCTOR WHO PUT HER ON ARMOUR WAS BRODA BARNES.

My eyes got as big as fiesta dinner plates and I exclaimed “THE Broda Barnes??” “Yes,” she replied. “I saw him in Loveland, Colorado and he was a darling man.” She proceeded to tell me that when doctors entered the room back then, you stood. And she remembers his wife being there, and being just as sweet as he. She recalled him saying that when he was in medical school, he was disappointed when the professor assigned him to study the thyroid gland. “Such a little puny gland”, he thought. “But today, 50 years later, I still have so much to learn about that little gland.”

For those who don’t know the name of Broda Barnes, he was the father of the desiccated thyroid movement and an authority on the thyroid. Even back then, he knew of the superiority of desiccated thyroid treatment like Armour, and prescribed it. He also wrote the classic Hypothyroidism: The Unsuspected Illness. His book and legacy kept the idea of Armour and desiccated thyroid alive all these years later when we, as patients, were paying attention.

Rhea is now up to 4 grains Armour and feeling much better, and may have to go a little higher before she’s optimal. Thank you, Rhea, for giving me and anyone reading this a little peek into the wonderful Broda Barnes.

Started with a new doc. He prescribes Armour and is reading the STTM book. That latter in itself is an eye-popping miracle.

And…as we were going over my extensive labwork, which he does for new patients, and as I was lamenting the way too many doctors put their patients on the lousy statins (when all they need to do is treat hypo CORRECTLY), he stated, with a sigh of dismay and humility, something to the effect of: We doctors are simply too busy to keep up with the latest good information that patients are finding out far ahead of us.

I nearly fell off my chair!! He was honestly and humbling admitting that patients are finding out good information far ahead of doctors! i.e. he was NOT dissing the internet; he was NOT dissing that a patient could actually be more informed than him; he was not dissing information that goes against the Big Pharma Con Job .

This doc is a keeper.

p.s. Think your doc is open-minded enough to read the STTM book?? You can have the publishing company send one directly to your doctor. Click on the SEND A BOOK TO YOUR DOCTOR.

Look at my blog post below and you’ll see the latest duhhh entry–i.e Endocrinologists finally reported that T3 was an effective treatment in place of T4. Finally!! Of course, patients know that desiccated thyroid is an even BETTER treatment, and that has been underscored by those that tried T3 with their T4 (without having a reverse T3 issue), then switched to desiccated thyroid like Armour, and noted they felt much better. But it’s still an announcement in the right direction.

But we now have another duhhh entry: The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism has reported that long-term levothyroxine replacement therapy in young adults is associated with cardiovascular abnormalities. Another finally. We as patients have already known that for years! We’ve experienced what Synthroid, Levoxyl and all other T4-only medications have done to our hearts! I watched my own mother have to have an angioplasty because of her long-term use of Synthroid…and we have NO heart disease or problems like this in our family history!

So yes, you will see the announcement that a new page is going to be created here on STTM which will highlight journal entries and medical announcements which only support what patients have been experiencing and trying to tell their doctors for a longgggg time. lol. And your contributions to this new page will be welcomed.

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The new page is here: www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/medical-research Check this page often, either to send me new research which supports what we already know, or to find meat to give your rigid doctor.

***You can order the STTM book here, which is a complete patient-to-patient book on far better thyroid treatment. It’s YOUR book!