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• desiccated thyroid
• hypothyroidism

Just when you think we’re full of great information for better thyroid care, there’s still more to learn and find out.  Below is information that you might find interesting on STTM.

ADRENALS: For those who discovered via the 24 adrenal saliva test that they needed cortisol support, we have come to realize that some can’t do the ramping up schedule from a small amount to a larger amount without having problems from the feedback loop.

Instead, many simply need to “start” on the higher amount, which would range from 20-30 mg. You can read about that on the How to Treat page, and you’ll note that not one morning amount goes higher than 10 mgs.  With the exception of men, higher than 10 mg seems to suppress the ACTH and adrenals too much.

A NEW LOOK: To make the STTM home page more understandable to newcomers, the home page has broken down the information better into separate pages, and also has a new interesting way of using it.

LISTEN TO THIS INFORMATION: STTM has short audio clips you can listen to, or send someone else to, to help understand what this is all about.

STORIES OF OTHERS: Individual real-life stories continue to come in, proving over and over that this revolution for far better care really does work.

FEEDBACK and MORE FEEDBACK: I get emails daily about lives changed thanks to this patient revolution. It’s wonderful to see people finding out WHY they have depression, less stamina than others, rising cholesterol and blood pressure, hair loss plus other lingering symptoms of  hypothyroidism left untreated because of the lousy TSH, or undertreated because of the equally-lousy T4-only treatment like Synthroid. I can’t begin to post them all, but STTM does contain a sampling of this feedback.

DESICCATED THYROID BRANDS: Wow, the list is growing for desiccated thyroid brands around the world! We now have listings for Denmark, Germany, Italy and New Zealand, as well as more detailed information on compounded thyroid in Australia. Thanks to all who contributed.

KEEPING UP WITH ADDITIONS TO STTM: In case you didn’t know, there’s a page meant to inform you of what’s added to STTM. I may neglect to list a few additions occasionally, but think I’m pretty close to getting most of them up there.

MEDICAL RESEARCH TO PROVE WHAT WE ALREADY KNOW: Did you know that STTM has a page which compiles research and studies which prove what we as patients already know? It’s not loaded with research yet, but it’s growing. And if you have found more to contribute to that page, use the Contact Me form.

SITE MAP: And bottom line, you can always go to the Site Map, or review the information more compactly in the book, which patients are taking into their doctors offices.

*Want to be informed of these blog posts? Curious what’s on Janie’s mind? Use the Notifications on the left at the bottom of the links.

*Stop the Thyroid Madness T-shirts are now 50% off! I like sales, don’t you? And by wearing these shirts, you’ll never know what seed you put in the mind of someone walking past you who’s still on Synthroid or any other T4 meds, and doesn’t know WHY they have depression, rising cholesterol, easy weight gain, the need for naps, etc. You”ll also find humorous bumper stickers which definitely spread the word.

Louis Neipris, M.D., a staff writer who has written many fine articles for myOptumHealth.com, recently wrote one article titled Adrenal Fatigue: Is it for real? It appeared on Upper Michigan News, TV 6 website on July 16th and is making the rounds on other sites. His answer to his own question?  “Not really”. He adds  “it’s not an accepted medical diagnosis.”

Oops.

Dr. Neipris, thyroid patients all over the world beg to differ, as do a growing body of colleagues in your profession. Adrenal fatigue, aka low cortisol, has been discovered on the back of a huge body of thyroid patients, wearing them down with  irritability, anxiety, shakiness, feeling dizzy or lightheadedness, sleep issues, sweating, salt craving, nausea in the face of stress, and a host of other symptoms unique to each individual with adrenal fatigue. My personal observation, as a thyroid patient activist, is that up to 50% of millions of thyroid patients all over the world, may have adrenal fatigue, or at the very least, a sluggish feedback loop.

Even worse, the widespread occurrence of adrenal fatigue, especially in thyroid patients, has caused problems when they try raising a far superior thyroid medication called desiccated thyroid. Because cortisol is needed to facilitate the move of thyroid hormones from the blood to the cells, the direct T3 in desiccated thyroid pools in the blood, causing low-cortisol-induced hyper symptoms like a pounding heartrate and irritability. The first-pass treatment then has to start with hydrocortisone like prescription Cortef from their doctors.

Why have such a large body of thyroid patients found themselves with adrenal fatigue and its low cortisol? It’s clear. The TSH lab test sucks, giving one a “normal” reading for years in spite of obvious clinical presentation of hypothyroid symptoms, and pushing one’s adrenals into overdrive with high cortisol and adrenaline to keep the patient going, and ultimately leading to adrenal fatigue.  On page 65 of the Stop the Thyroid Madness book, you’ll read about a 44 year old woman who went 15 years with a “normal” TSH result, in spite of obvious clinical presentation of hypothyroidism, and which led to her own low cortisol. This is not uncommon.

Second, the risk of adrenal fatigue is high due to the inadequate treatment of T4 medications like Synthroid, Levoxyl, levothyroxine, Eltroxin and other T4-only meds. They all leave patients with their own brand and intensity of lingering symptoms of a poor treatment, forcing the adrenals to kick in too long for many.

Even William Mck. Jeffries MD., who wrote the medical classic Safe Uses of Cortisol around 1984, understood the preponderance of adrenal fatigue even without the diagnosis of Addison’s, and the need for physiologic doses of cortisol treatment, or the amount needed by each individual.  And he would certainly be amazed by the explosion of adrenal fatigue that has occurred since then in thyroid patients thanks to the lousy TSH and synthetic T4-only ‘affaire de coeur’ with doctors.

Adrenal fatigue may not be an “accepted diagnosis” by many.  But medical professionals and doctors who think it’s not real or an acceptable diagnosis will have to face a huge body of patients globally who DO have real live adrenal fatigue. And adrenally-fatigued patients can get realllllly hostile and angry because of low cortisol, and be very impatient when you deny their reality.  (You’re going to see a lot of comments to this post which I highly suggest reading.)

P.S. Even desiccated thyroid like Naturethroid and the pre-reformulated Armour are not considered to be the standard of practice for treating hypothyroidism, yet thyroid patients all over the world are having lives CHANGED thanks to it.

***Want to be informed of my blog posts? Curious what’s on my mind? Use the Notifications to the left and right below the links.

***Read below why thyroid patients are not happy with Armour and switching to brand names like Naturethroid.

The following comment by RLC Labs, a pharmaceutical which has made desiccated thyroid like Naturethroid since the 1930′s, was sent in a letter to a pharmacy. You may find it interesting as compared to problems so many have reported with Forest Labs and the newly formulated Armour:

We have never had any mandatory or voluntary recall of any of our thyroid medications due to inconsistency in dosages. Our formulation and preparation is able to stabilize the T3 and T4 hormones through its entire expiry period (3 years from manufacturing) providing additional assurance to both physician and patient alike in quality and consistency of our strengths.

Kudos for RLC Labs and Naturethroid! Patients whose lives have changed ten-fold thanks to desiccated thyroid need a good product. (And we’re going to hope down the line that “someone” will create desiccated thyroid in a sublingual form.)

P.S. If you don’t know what has happened to Armour and patient experiences with it, scroll down.

*Want to be informed of these blog posts? Curious what’s on Janie’s mind? Just use the Notifications to the left and below the links.

*SALE! Stop the Thyroid Madness T-shirts are now 50% off just because I like sales. A great way to spread the word about our patient revolution for the superiority of desiccated thyroid over T4-only meds. You’ll also see funny bumper stickers. Also…when you order the STTM book and request it,  you get a Calvin peeing on….(you’ll see) bumper sticker for FREE, and it’s a hoot.

One of many discoveries made by thyroid patients is that “normal” lab results don’t tell the whole story. And thyroid and adrenal patient advocate Valerie Taylor sure found out the hard way while dealing with worsening muscle spasms and weakness.

“I have been to at least 6 doctors over the past seven years and read thousands of websites, hunting for the cause of my severe muscle spasms”, explains Valerie. “They all ruled out potassium, a potentially likely cause,  because my serum lab result, 4.2, was right smack in the middle of the normal range.”

So Valerie was forced to live with her worsening muscle issues– spasms, weakness and pain–because all labs were normal and those that weren’t, didn’t pertain.  Even her insulin-dependent Type 2 Diabetes was well-controlled. And she knew it was all threatening to put her out of work as a pet groomer.  It was bleak.

But a surprising change was to come.

“About 2 months ago,” says Valerie, “someone on one of my groups mentioned potassium helping with fluid retention–the latter I’ve had for the last 15 years and took  Dyazide, a potassium sparing diuretic.”

She also learned about getting an RBC (red blood cell) potassium lab as it shows what’s inside the cells rather than in serum (as usual labs show).  And the results? It came back LOW.

Valerie has since worked her way up to 2850 mg. Potassium in a combo of chloride and gluconate…and below, in her own words, are the results:

• No more muscle spasms and the weakness and pain is leaving more daily!
• My IBS suddenly STOPPED!
• My insulin needs are HALF what they were before this supplement, and blood pressure & pulse are both down.
• ALL fluid retention is gone! I dropped 18 pounds the first month in just fluid weight.

Valerie is currently waiting for lab results to see if she needs to adjust further.

She concludes: I have since learned that being hypothyroid causes potassium losses, as does ANY steroid which I had been on for necessary adrenal support. Diabetes with a low carb diet also predisposes us to lose intracellular potassium into the serum which is probably why my serum labs looked normal in the face of extreme shortage. I hope many will see this and at the very least get RBC potassium labs done and if you have high BP or fluid retention, reach for potassium before a diuretic!

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Even without being inspired by Valerie’s discovery, there is good research out there for eating potassium rich foods, or like Valerie, using supplementation if your levels are low.  The LA Times reported a study which stated that consuming twice as much potassium as sodium might halve your risk of dying from cardiovascular disease,  stated by epidemiologist Paul Whelton, president and chief executive of the Loyola University Health System in Chicago and one of the authors of the study.

Here’s a list of potassium rich foods: http://www.hoptechno.com/bookfoodsourceK.htm

Here’s a list of symptoms of low potassium: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/signs-and-symptoms-of-low-potassium.html

And remember: ask your doctor to do an Red Blood Cell Potassium lab rather than simply serum. And don’t go as high as Valerie with supplementation unless you have proof of low potassium.

P.S. Magnesium helps pump sodium out of your cells, and potassium into the cells–a good reason to get magnesium tested as well.

*Want to be informed of my blog posts? Curious what’s on my mind? Use the Notifications to the left and below the links.

*What is your experience with the newly formulated Armour? Found a way to get around the problems? Express your opinion in the May 7th blog post!

There’s an over-the-counter weight loss drug called Alli made by the huge pharmaceutical GlaxoSmithKline. You can see it on the shelves of most any Wal Mart or local drug store.  It’s also called Orlistat which is marketed under the trade name of Xenical by the pharmaceutical Roche.

It’s promoted as safe, and it works by limiting the absorption of fats from what you eat, which in turn reduces your intake of calories.  (What has always turned me off about Alli or Orlistat is that is creates oily and loose stools. Bleck. )

Medscape just today reported about an FDA warning: the Use of orlistat may decrease L-thyroxine (T4) absorption and lead to hypothyroidism. Clinicians are advised to administer levothyroxine and orlistat at least 4 hours apart…

Oh jolly. So now we have the FDA giving a warning about Alli causing problems with “thyroxine” use,  yet it’s the VERY “thyroxine” use that causes a certain large percentage of those using Alli to need to use it in the first place. You can see that reality in the questions about the hypo problem on the Alli forum.  i.e They are all on thyroxine!

Hitting my head against the wall.

P.S. Reported in Endocrine Today and from just a month ago, and article titled Hypothyroid patients required increased levothyroxine during pregnancy.  Zombie Endocrinologists. Zombies. That’s like having an article titled Sick patients need more blood-letting. i.e LEVOTHYROXINE SUCKS AND SHOULD BE IN THE PAST just as much as blood-letting.  WAKE UP ENDOCRINOLOGISTS!! WAKE UP!!

*Check out patient response to the newly formulated Armour below, and add your own comments.