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• Thyroid treatment

Ever heard of perchlorate?? It’s a salt taken from perchloric acid, and it’s used in rocket fuel and explosives.  It was also once used in a medication to treat hyperthyroidism.

And guess where residues of it are hiding? In our drinking water and in infant formula. (EPA map shows where perchlorate is manufactured just in the US—nearly every state)

In a recent article by the Environmental Working Group,  it’s estimated that 15 brands of infant formula are contaminated with it, and two of the most contaminated brands of those 15 made up 87% of powdered formula used in 2000…all according to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention).

As bad as that is, this goes beyond infant formula. It’s estimated that the drinking water of 28 states is contaminated by perchlorate, and other estimates are 35.  In addition,  the majority of women who breastfeed have it in their milk.  And you can find it in water-rich foods such as tomatoes and melons, or carrots and spinach.  It could even be found in milk.  Ouch.

So we not only have millions of US babies being exposed to a toxin which can diminish thyroid health, but adults who can be drinking their water and eating their food.

But guess what can counter the toxic effect of perchlorate? Iodine supplementation, if you take enough. In spite of some controversy with the use of iodine supplementation, this gives one pause in favor of it.

Luckily for all of us who know that desiccated thyroid like Armour is a better thyroid treatment, it also contains iodine. And some go beyond that, adding iodine to their supplements via Lugols or Iodoral.  It might be worth looking into.

P.S. The buck doesn’t stop with perchlorates in our water. We could also be exposed to a variety of pesticides, chemicals from deposed prescription drugs, and even mercury in our water.  Sad.  Our poor thyroids are assaulted.

When I  was ten years old, my mother had electric shock treatment.

The memory stands out in my mind like a beacon. And when my Dad brought her home, he took me aside and explained that my mama was not going to remember where things are for awhile, and we’d have to help her. That was especially true with the 4-legged sewing basket.

She eventually regained her memory. But she was never again the same bright and quick witted mother I used to have when I was younger.

Why was shock treatment done?  To counter her mysterious ongoing and disabling depression.  And this was her last option.

It didn’t work.

She lived on anti-depressants, specifically a high dose of Elavil, the rest of her compromised life.

And more than 40 years later, about a year after her death, a change in my own life with Armour helped me realize why she had to be dependent on an anti-depressant for so many years:  Synthroid.  My mother was on Synthroid almost her entire adult life—a medication, along with Levoxyl, Levothyroxine, Unithroid, Eltroxin, Levaxin, Norton, Eutrosig  and Oroxine, which leaves nearly all patients with lingering hypothyroid symptoms, including one of the most common one:  chronic on-going depression.

And a large body of doctors all around the world just don’t get it.

What brought this memory of my mother up in my mind? Because two days ago, I chatted with a gal on Synthroid.   By all appearances, she seemed to be doing well, as some will make you think.  She said she had enough energy, wasn’t losing her hair, and felt okay. But when I probed deeper, she admitted that her blood pressure was going too high (as happened to my mother on a T4-only med) and she had a problem with depression and was on Wellbutrin.  Bingo.

See http://biopsychiatry.com/hypothyroidism.htm which is also here: http://www.theannals.com/cgi/content/abstract/34/10/1142

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Most of us are in our prime when our health is slaughtered thanks to the lousy TSH lab result–a result which can be normal for years before it rises high enough to reveal our hypothyroidism, or a range which keeps us with lingering hypo symptoms.

But the elderly are also wide open targets of the scandal of  the use of the TSH test to diagnose hypothyroidism.

My father-in-law was stout, tall and healthy as an ox his entire life.  For the first eighty-eight years of his life, life was active and grand. Oh did I love him.

Yet as he was nearing ninety, fate became fickle. He became like a Rip Van Winkle,  sleeping more than being awake the final three years of his life.  He slept in the mornings, he slept after lunch, he slept before dinner, and he went to bed early.  And he seemed depressed.

Family concern (mine) prompted his doctor to test his TSH,  widely used by clueless doctors to ascertain thyroid function. The family doc proclaimed “Normal”

Sad. Because I had to watch him waste away in his fatigue until he died.

Hypothyroidism increases with age,  and many of our elderly fall victim to it. Using most any search engine on the net, you’ll find numerous articles on thyroid and the aged. But I suspect it’s an even greater problem that most any article can relay, since most of them are talking about the TSH and thyroxine. So the elderly, just like us,  suffer due to the infinitely lousy TSH lab, just like my dear father-in-law.

Read my latest article on OpEdNews titled “TSH: Thyroid Stimulating Hooey and the Loss of Wisdom” (Yup, the first part is the same title of Chapter 4 in the STTM book) : http://www.opednews.com/articles/TSH-Thyroid-Stimulating-H-by-Janie-Bowthorpe-090205-60.html

Have you noticed suspicious hypothyroid symptoms in your grandma or grandpa, or your own elderly patients? Tell your story by commenting on this blog post.

For 2008, as a hypothyroid patient: I will:

1) expect that the relationship with my doctor will be a TEAM approach to my health care: not just his medical school/continuing education/experience, but also my own important knowledge and wisdom that I have gained (from reading sites like this), plus my subjective experience on my medication. My doctor does not live in my body or experience my symptoms; I do.

2) take the time to find a better doctor if my doctor refuses to respect the knowledge I have gained from reading sites like this, and/or will not listen to my subjective experience in my own body!

3) make my symptoms far more important than ink spots on a piece of paper called lab results, and will not passively allow a doctor to treat me ONLY according to those lab results.

4) give myself important supplements, including, but not limited to: selenium and zinc (helps conversion of T4 to T3), other minerals which may include magnesium, etc., plenty of B-vitamins (which are needed as I improve my thyroid function, besides supporting my adrenals), Vitamin C (also supports my adrenals) and more that I feel are suited for my needs.

5) be open to the fact that if Armour or other desiccated thyroid products don’t seem to be working, I am making one of several mistakes in my use of it, and will identify my mistakes and correct them.

Do you have others as a thyroid patient? Just respond to this post.

Cuz it ain’t the one WE live on, dah’ling.

For a few years now, patients have repeatedly written the Oprah show, begging her to address the thyroid scandal of decades of T4-only medication and the lousy TSH lab, both of which have left MILLIONS of patients with lingering hypo symptoms while our doctors proclaimed we were NORMAL…and about a FAR better treatment called natural desiccated thyroid and dosing by symptoms, NOT the TSH.

And when she finally has a program which somewhat addresses the thyroid issue this week, she allows her hallowed guest, Dr. Christiane Northrup, to state “your symptoms are actually your soul’s way of bringing deeper issues to your attention.” Hogwash! And thyroid patient Mary Shoman has rightly proclaimed that “thyroid disease is NOT your fault, despite what Dr. Northrup says.”

But the issue goes even further. Oprah implies, by her own experience, that taking a month vacation and eating fresh foods is enough to make one well from thyroid disease?? Double hogwash! Thyroid patients seek to live some of the healthiest lifestyles there are. All you have to do is observe the conversations in most any internet thyroid patient talk group, and you will see daily posts on the best supplements to take, healthiest foods to eat, and best ways to de-stress our lives. We are overall a VERY educated group of patients about health, and we practice it. We HAVE to be in light of how poorly educated most of our doctors are about our thyroid disease. And in spite of all the above, our thyroid condition persists.

What has CHANGED our lives is leaving the scandal of T4-only treatment in the dust, and learning about desiccated thyroid like Armour, switching to it, and dosing according to the elimination of symptoms, NOT simply labs. We have also faced the fact that at least 50% of us have adrenal fatigue, which leaves us impatient and angry, with headaches and body aches, chronic back pain and body aches, a loss of passion, and sleep issues. And we have tread new ground in our knowledge on how to treat it, when many of our doctors pooh-pooh the reality of adrenal fatigue.

I love ya, Oprah, as do millions of women out there. But taking a month vacation and eating fresh foods does NOT cure our thyroid disease. So time will tell what went on with you! So now, all we can do is hope eternal that Oprah will get on the planet that the rest of us live on, and help us to spread the word as to why millions of thyroid patients have been suffering and about a far better treatment. If you can continue to have persistence, you can email her here. STOP the thyroid madness!

P.S. Go here to read thyroid patient Anna’s humorous experience with following the same kind of advice given on Oprah’s show.