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I think I need to start a DUHH hypothyroid reference page on STTM

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.

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

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!


  • Want to keep track of these “fringe web­site” blog posts? ;-) Curious what’s on Janie’s mind? Use the noti­fi­ca­tion on the lower left of the links, called a News­let­ter, or an RSS Feed.
  • The extre­mely hip and sophis­ti­ca­ted STTM t-shirts are half price! Great BUMPER STICKERS, too. Spread the word – YOU may make a dif­fe­rence in someone’s life.
  • Check out the patient-to-patient book with even more detail (and which doc­tors seem to res­pect more than websites).
  • Need to unders­tand all your best options for thy­roid treat­ment? Go here.
  • Keep infor­med of each live Thy­roid Patient Com­mu­nity Call on Talkshoe by sig­ning up as a follo­wer.

Endocrine society says T3 can be substituted for T4 – WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG!!!

Shock and amazement.

At the 90th annual mee­ting of the Endoc­rine Society, it was announ­ced that T3 can be an effec­tive subs­ti­tute for T4. And…the tar­get TSH was .5 — 1.5.

DUHHHHHHH.

But it’s GOOD news.

OK, so…

1) it’s light years behind what patients had already figu­red out for a longgggg time
2) it’s not as effec­tive as being on desic­ca­ted thy­roid (which has exactly what your thy­roid would be giving you: T4, T3, T2, T1 and cal­ci­to­nin)
3) the TSH needs be even LOWER when you are ade­qua­tely trea­ted.
4) NO THYROID TREATMENT SHOULD BE BY THE LOUSY TSH AT ALL.…

.…but it’s a GOOD STEP in the right direction!!

http://www.endocrinetoday.com/view.aspx?rid=28931

p.s. Maybe if some of those Endo’s would open their minds to what PATIENTS HAVE LEARNED on this site and the book, they might finally make the next great step!! TAKE THIS INFORMATION INTO YOUR DOCTOR’S OFFICE!! It’s the power YOU have to change this mess!


  • Want to keep track of these “fringe web­site” blog posts? ;-) Curious what’s on Janie’s mind? Use the noti­fi­ca­tion on the lower left of the links, called a News­let­ter, or an RSS Feed.
  • The extre­mely hip and sophis­ti­ca­ted STTM t-shirts are half price! Great BUMPER STICKERS, too. Spread the word – YOU may make a dif­fe­rence in someone’s life.
  • Check out the patient-to-patient book with even more detail (and which doc­tors seem to res­pect more than websites).
  • Need to unders­tand all your best options for thy­roid treat­ment? Go here.
  • Keep infor­med of each live Thy­roid Patient Com­mu­nity Call on Talkshoe by sig­ning up as a follo­wer.

Dumb as boards; blind as bats

I use those phra­ses often. I can’t help it. Because it’s exactly what doc­tors are when it comes to thy­roid treat­ment. It’s APPALLING.

Yes­ter­day, I had the first of two book sig­nings. It was announ­ced in the paper, and I wasn’t sure what the tur­nout would be. I shouldn’t have won­de­red. It was a great tur­nout. Peo­ple are GETTING IT that there is SOMETHING WRONG with their treat­ment. Around me stood seve­ral women, all still on T4 (Synth­roid, Levoxyl, et al), and ALL suf­fe­ring. All but one woman had weight pro­blems. Seve­ral had rising cho­les­te­rol. Some admit­ted to being on anti-depressants. Some obviously had adre­nal fati­gue. And ALL were being told by their doc­tors that their thy­roid treat­ment was now “nor­mal”. Where can I go beat my head against the wall?????? They were eager to get the book and the know­ledge it con­tai­ned to change their lives!

So far, the book has been sent to Nor­way, Ice­land, Bel­gium, UK, Aus­tria, Swe­den, Swi­tzer­land, Ire­land, Aus­tra­lia and Canada, besi­des all over the US. The STTM web­site star­ted the wheel to turn, and the book can only move it fas­ter. And add it to other thy­roid books which had begun to men­tion the truth (Broda Bar­nes being the first) as well as other groups and web­si­tes — we’ll even­tually knock some SENSE and SIGHT in doc­tors, don’t you think?

The Stop the Thy­roid Mad­ness book, the bible of correct thy­roid and adre­nal treat­ment, by patients for patients, can be orde­red here.

P.S. I live near one town which ser­ves a popu­la­tion of nearly 35,000 peo­ple, and near another of over 4000 peo­ple, and there are plenty of doc­tors around here. Yet, there is not ONE doc­tor in this area that “gets it”. I sym­pathize with YOU if you are in the same boat.


  • Want to keep track of these “fringe web­site” blog posts? ;-) Curious what’s on Janie’s mind? Use the noti­fi­ca­tion on the lower left of the links, called a News­let­ter, or an RSS Feed.
  • The extre­mely hip and sophis­ti­ca­ted STTM t-shirts are half price! Great BUMPER STICKERS, too. Spread the word – YOU may make a dif­fe­rence in someone’s life.
  • Check out the patient-to-patient book with even more detail (and which doc­tors seem to res­pect more than websites).
  • Need to unders­tand all your best options for thy­roid treat­ment? Go here.
  • Keep infor­med of each live Thy­roid Patient Com­mu­nity Call on Talkshoe by sig­ning up as a follo­wer.

If this is normal, I’m not impressed

I have a 40-something rela­tive who I’ve been get­ting to know bet­ter lately. When she found out I had writ­ten the STTM book, she got a copy and read it. Her eyes were appa­rently wide as to what she was rea­ding, espe­cially the Thy­roid Sti­mu­la­ting Hooey chap­ter. Turns out she has had fati­gue pro­blems for at least 14 years, right after her daugh­ter was born. And it shows in her eyes and demea­nor. But that’s not all. She’s con­ti­nually gai­ned weight all these years, even though she eats like a bird, and enough depres­sion to warrant an anti-depressant. She was also get­ting worried about her cho­les­te­rol. Typi­cal hypothy­roid symptoms.

And worse (any­body iden­tify with this?), she’s been told she is NORMAL for 14 years!!! Why? Because the TSH lab result said so. Tal­king about it brings her to tears.

I sent her to a MUCH bet­ter and hope­ful doctor.

In 2006, the World Health Orga­ni­za­tion defi­ned health as a state of com­plete phy­si­cal, men­tal and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infir­mity. So…if you stuck “nor­mal” in front of that defi­ni­tion of health, as igno­rant doc­tors so rou­ti­nely tell us we are, it means that we have the symp­toms expec­ted of one who is in com­plete phy­si­cal, men­tal and social well-being. THEN WHY DON’T WE FEEL THAT WAY?????

Yes­si­rree, somewhere along the medi­cal pers­pec­tive time­line, the abi­lity to pay atten­tion to CLINICAL PRESENTATION ran right down the sewer. And with that loss has come HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS of patients world­wide with the schi­zoph­re­nic diag­no­sis of “nor­mal” with raging symp­toms thanks to ink spots on a piece of paper called the erro­neous TSH range. Exactly why this web­site is neces­sary, as is the book and YOUR demands for bet­ter treatment.

I was schi­zoph­re­ni­cally nor­mal for over 17 years. My rela­tive has been for 14. How about YOU?


  • Want to keep track of these “fringe web­site” blog posts? ;-) Curious what’s on Janie’s mind? Use the noti­fi­ca­tion on the lower left of the links, called a News­let­ter, or an RSS Feed.
  • The extre­mely hip and sophis­ti­ca­ted STTM t-shirts are half price! Great BUMPER STICKERS, too. Spread the word – YOU may make a dif­fe­rence in someone’s life.
  • Check out the patient-to-patient book with even more detail (and which doc­tors seem to res­pect more than websites).
  • Need to unders­tand all your best options for thy­roid treat­ment? Go here.
  • Keep infor­med of each live Thy­roid Patient Com­mu­nity Call on Talkshoe by sig­ning up as a follo­wer.

Has progress been made with thyroid treatment??

Some­ti­mes I pon­der: the current move­ment away from Synth­roid & Levoxyl and all other T4-only meds to desic­ca­ted thy­roid like Armour (as well as the unders­tan­ding of the high pre­va­lence of adre­nal fati­gue with thy­roid patients), has been going on for ALL of the 21st cen­tury. In other words, patients were star­ting to talk about desic­ca­ted thy­roid like Armour by the year 1999, and Yahoo’s Natu­ral Thy­roid Hor­mo­nes group was star­ted in 2002. Other patient groups sprung up around the same time. The lat­ter group is also where the know­ledge about adre­nal fati­gue in thy­roid patients grew, which was further added to on STTM. So.…has there there been any chan­ges in the way thy­roid patients are trea­ted for their hypothy­roid and rela­ted conditions?

The YES

Some­ti­mes I can say a resoun­ding yes! There are many doc­tors around the world who are loo­king at Stop the Thy­roid Mad­ness (STTM) and lis­te­ning to what is says. STTM is about the real life chan­ging expe­rience of patients! Some doc­tors tell me outright, either via the Con­tact Me form or by res­pon­ding to my blog posts here, that they are rea­ding it and appro­ving the infor­ma­tion. Or, I find out about other doc­tors second hand by patients who tell me their doc­tor TOLD THE PATIENT to read STTM. The lat­ter defi­ni­tely makes me chuc­kle when so many doc­tors tell patients that infor­ma­tion on the inter­net is DANGEROUS! :lol:

I can also say yes when I read the com­ments of patients on various thy­roid patient groups on the inter­net. Because of the infor­ma­tion patients have lear­ned from STTM, which is in turn pas­sed into the groups, patients all over the world are making demands in their doctor’s offi­ces, and some pro­gress is being made all over the world.

And a final yes can be utte­red by me when I see a few but gro­wing num­ber of web­si­tes pro­mote desic­ca­ted thyroid.

The NO

But there are so many situa­tions where I have to say no. 1) When doc­tors on inter­net forums TO THIS DAY con­ti­nue to give lousy advice to thy­roid patients, it’s dishear­te­ning. 2) When patients on thy­roid patient groups TO THIS DAY con­ti­nue to have doc­tors state each and every ridi­cu­lous give me a break com­ment, it’s sad. 3) When a famous female talk show host con­ti­nues to ignore each and every email sent to her for years about the deplo­ra­ble situa­tion across the world with thy­roid patients, as well as seem to misun­ders­tand her OWN thy­roid and poten­tial adre­nal pro­blem, it’s mad­de­ning. 4) And when I can run into patients DAILY when I go to the gro­cery store, or to the gas sta­tion, or to any public place, who are still on Synth­roid or Levoxyl and coping with innu­me­ra­ble symp­toms of a poor treat­ment, not exc­lu­ding adre­nal fati­gue, it’s scandalous.

So the com­plete ans­wer? Yes and no. The ball has defi­ni­tely been rolling for bet­ter treat­ment. Some doc­tors out there are truly lis­te­ning. Many patients out there are lear­ning and deman­ding change. It’s hap­pe­ning. But baby, we have a LONG WAY TO GO. And the power will be in the hand of patients who ques­tion their treat­ment, find ans­wers via STTM and other web­si­tes and patient forums, and con­ti­nue to demand change from their doc­tors and the entire medi­cal esta­blish­ment. I just hope to see more change soo­ner than later, don’t you?!

p.s. Want to spread the word?? Go HERE to order a t-shirt or bum­per stic­kers. You CAN make a difference!


  • Want to keep track of these “fringe web­site” blog posts? ;-) Curious what’s on Janie’s mind? Use the noti­fi­ca­tion on the lower left of the links, called a News­let­ter, or an RSS Feed.
  • The extre­mely hip and sophis­ti­ca­ted STTM t-shirts are half price! Great BUMPER STICKERS, too. Spread the word – YOU may make a dif­fe­rence in someone’s life.
  • Check out the patient-to-patient book with even more detail (and which doc­tors seem to res­pect more than websites).
  • Need to unders­tand all your best options for thy­roid treat­ment? Go here.
  • Keep infor­med of each live Thy­roid Patient Com­mu­nity Call on Talkshoe by sig­ning up as a follo­wer.
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