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I recently dis­co­ve­red a very humo­rous and appropo medi­cal blog on the net, writ­ten by a Uni­ted King­dom Gene­ral Prac­ti­tio­ner who wisely stays incog­nito. His blog is called The Job­bing Doctor.

And his most recent and humo­rously bri­lliant post is tit­led Hairy legs are bet­ter than blood tests! He desc­ri­bes his occa­sio­nal con­fu­sion when blood tests don’t agree with the patients symptoms.

Says the UK doc: “The text­books teach that the level of cir­cu­la­ting thy­roid hor­mo­nes (which are called T3 and T4) are inver­sely rela­ted to the Thy­roid Sti­mu­la­ting Hor­mone (TSH). If your T3 and T4 are low, your TSH will be high: this sug­gests an unde­rac­tive thy­roid gland. If the T3 and T4 are high and the TSH is low, then you have an ove­rac­tive thy­roid gland. That’s easy, huh!”

But his con­fu­sion sprang forth when a patient’s labs sho­wed “a highish TSH, T4, and a nor­mal T3.” Yet appa­rently her symp­toms didn’t imply there was any pro­blem, so he chose to do nothing as far as chan­ging her treatment.

A month later at her next appoint­ment, this patient expres­sed her appro­val that he didn’t change anything…because her leg hair and eye­brows were coming back.

And his conc­lu­sion?  “Pah! Who needs blood tests!” 

Job­bing Doc­tor, you are dis­co­ve­ring what thy­roid patients have been lear­ning over and over for years: it’s SYMPTOMS (or lack up) which need to pull the cart, NOT lab­work. Sure, we love our lab­work. They can give clues to areas where our bodies are screa­ming for help.  But they defi­ni­tely do NOT tell the whole story.

Look at the igno­ra­mus TSH lab test. Count­less patients have wal­ked into their doc­tors offi­ces with clear and obvious hypothy­roid symp­toms – and des­pe­rate for a diag­no­sis – yet the ink spot on the office piece of paper called the TSH lab result proc­laims they are “nor­mal”. And that dubious “nor­mal” diag­no­sis can go on for years before it rises high enough to reveal what was already there by SYMPTOMS.

Or, while on thy­roid medi­ca­tion, patients will have a lame­brain “nor­mal” TSH lab result, yet will con­ti­nue to have their own brand and degree of con­ti­nuing hypothy­roid symp­toms which the clue­less doc­tor dis­mis­ses as an hys­te­ric female inter­pre­ta­tion, motherhood, stress, a need for psycho­lo­gi­cal help.…or just “something else”. Uh huh.

In fact, Job­ber Doc­tor, patients have lear­ned that when they are opti­mal (on desic­ca­ted thy­roid), along with opti­mal ferri­tin and cor­ti­sol), they will gene­rally have a free T3 in the upper part of the range, and a SUPPRESSED TSH, with no symp­toms of hyperthy­roi­dism.  That is gene­ral, and there can be some excep­tions, but ove­rall, it has spo­ken volu­mes to patients on how ina­de­quate thy­roid lab tests can be.  i.e. being in the “nor­mal” range — anywhere in the nor­mal range – can be mean squat.

Thanks for a great post,  UK Job­ber Doc. And P.S.  Desic­ca­ted thy­roid is an even bet­ter treat­ment than thy­ro­xine.

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

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 7^th blog post!

With the recent March out­break of swine flu in a few humans, I want to speak of facts.  This would involve all of you who use  desic­ca­ted por­cine pro­ducts, inc­lu­ding Armour, Natu­reth­roid, Westh­roid, Thyroid-S, etc.

Recent cases: As of April 26^th in the US, there are only 21 human cases of “swine flu” this year repor­ted by the CDC (Cen­ters for Disease Con­trol and Pre­ven­tion):  Cali­for­nia 7 cases;  Kan­sas 2 cases;   New York City 9 cases;  Ohio 1 case;  and Texas 2 cases. There have also been out­breaks in Mexico which may be rela­ted.  No one has died and none of the cases have been severe.  The current out­break is a com­bi­na­tion of swine, bird, and human influenza viruses.

What is the Swine flu? Swine flu is a type A influenza and has been in exis­tence with pigs for a long time.  Many pigs will get sick when it does go around; very few will die.

Why are humans get­ting it? The real irony is that humans can be ones who give it to pigs in the first place!  But in turn, new human infec­tion from infec­ted pigs is actually quite rare. In most all cases, a healthy human will get it from con­tact with a live pig, such as at a lives­tock show. Then, the infec­ted human will spread it to other humans.  So, when you see that “21” peo­ple have got­ten it,  some may have got­ten it from “one” per­son – i.e. a human-to-human contact.

The CDC also sta­tes that in a par­ti­cu­lar study, 76% of swine exhi­bi­tors tes­ted had anti­body evi­dence of swine flu infec­tion but no serious ill­nes­ses were detec­ted among this group. In other words, the majo­rity of those expo­sed don’t even get the ill­ness. If they do, it’s mild for most and only serious for a very small minority.

How com­mon is swine flu among pigs? Swine flu is com­mon in groups of pigs all across the world, espe­cially during the win­ter months.  Anywhere from 25 – 50% show evi­dence of having been infec­ted.  But many pigs are vac­ci­na­ted against it.

Can I get it from the use of Armour or other desic­ca­ted thy­roid pro­ducts? The stan­dards in the making of desic­ca­ted thy­roid pow­der as set by the U.S. Phar­ma­co­poeia is extre­mely rigo­rous.  So, it is impor­tant to unders­tand that your chan­ces of get­ting swine flu from taking a US Pharmacopoeia-approved pro­duct is remar­kably low, low, low. You have a much grea­ter chance of injury from riding in your car.

So, for me, with all the above facts, I’m going to take my Armour with ease and peace, because using desic­ca­ted thy­roid to treat my hypothy­roid is FAR FAR bet­ter than any other treat­ment. Perhaps you will decide to do the same.  If you stay worried about it, you might also want to avoid using your car, stop using stairs, and avoid most peo­ple at all costs.   P.S. Check out the com­ments to this post. Will also help put you at ease.

* Here’s John Lowe’s rebut­tal to the scare of swine flu: http://www.thyroidscience.com/index.htm It con­firms everything I’ve said plus a whole lot more. i.e. take your desic­ca­ted thyroid!

* Want to know what’s on my mind? Inte­res­ted in the latest infor­ma­tion on desic­ca­ted thy­roid? Just use the Noti­fi­ca­tions on the left at the bot­tom of the links. 

*If you find the web­site to be too enor­mous for your brain fog, or want bet­ter ease of get­ting the facts, the patient-to-patient STTM book is pro­ving to be a good choice, say many who write me.  Just make sure you have a yellow high­ligh­ter. haha

I can remem­ber a few peo­ple the past year who proc­lai­med fer­vently that Armour was being dis­con­ti­nued because of the shor­tage.  And I chuc­kle about it.  Hope­fully, my pre­vious posts hel­ped calm that fear. 

But in case you haven’t heard, those lar­ger sizes are back!  And you can keep track of what’s going via the Forest Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals cus­to­mer pro­duct avai­la­bi­lity hot­line: 1 – 866-927‑3260  As of today, April 19, they state that the one grain tabs (60 mg) and 1 1/2 grains tabs (90 mg) are on bac­kor­der, and will catch up with pro­duc­tion on April 20^th, tomo­rrow as I am wri­ting this.  We’ll see.

Unfor­tu­na­tely, the new for­mu­la­tion has made Armour lac­king in sweet­ness, and it’s almost impos­si­ble to do it sublin­gually.  Sad. Maybe another phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal will get the hint. In the mean­time, if you swa­llow your desic­ca­ted thy­roid, make sure to avoid cal­cium, iron and estro­gen at the same time. And if you’ve been doing it sublin­gually, and have to switch to swa­llo­wing, you may need a tad more.

Remem­ber: if you have any issues with natu­ral Armour desic­ca­ted thy­roid in the treat­ment of your hypothy­roi­dism, you can always ask your doc­tor for a presc­rip­tion switch to Natu­reth­roid or Westth­roid, both fine FDA-approved, US Phar­ma­co­peia stan­dard presc­rip­tion desic­ca­ted thyroid.

Janie

Want to be infor­med of my posts? Curious what I am raving about as a Thy­roid Patient Acti­vist? You can sign up for a Noti­fi­ca­tion at the bot­tom of the links to your left. 

P.S. If you haven’t bought the Stop the Thy­roid Mad­ness book yet, wan­ted to tell you that nume­rous patients are emai­ling me, sta­ting they find the book even easier to refer to than this vast web­site (plus it has more details and infor­ma­tion).  So if you want the ease of refe­rral, the book may be the way to go.

Update to the below: it was brought to my atten­tion that taking a second BP rea­ding is usually always lower any­way. Ah, I thought, that’s correct! So to test this infor­ma­tion based on research, I went back last night before bed­time. First took my BP with my arm in the upper correct posi­tion. Then the second time, took it with my arm down.

138/89 (up per­pen­di­cu­lar to body; level with heart) pulse 80
146/100 (arm down) pulse 82

The second did NOT go down. It went UP! Interesting.

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Last week, I had found my blood pres­sure quite high for me! Upper 140’s and some 150’s for my Sys­to­lic, and upper 90’s and lower 100’s for my Dias­to­lic.   Stage One hyper­ten­sion!  I was pretty sure my 4 grains may sud­denly be a tad too high since ente­ring meno.  My temps and hear­trate implied that, too.

I got off Armour for two days to use up some excess, got back on one, then on 2 grains multi-dosed.  My plan is to make my way back up to 3 1/2 grains by a week or slightly more…and see.

In the mean­time, I have been using some blood pres­sure lowe­ring sup­ple­ments (high dose potas­sium, grape seed extract, Braggs Apple Cider Vine­gar in juice, more CoQ10 than nor­mal, plus my regu­lar sup­ple­ments).  I was more faith­ful to my tread­mill wal­king (thanks to an April that still thinks it’s win­ter), and medi­ta­ting. The lat­ter two defi­ni­tely hel­ped lower both the Sys­to­lic and Dias­to­lic, even if not low enough for my ideal.

For the last five days, my BP rea­dings have still been too high. All those days, I had been sea­ted on our couch. I put a pillow in my lap, laying my arm on that pillow, which meant my arm was slightly down­ward.  Some­ti­mes my wrist would hang off the pillow.

Today, I deci­ded I wan­ted to test something I have read. Namely, it’s actually quite impor­tant how you place your arm. The recom­men­ded way is pla­cing your arm per­pen­di­cu­lar to your body and at the height of your heart or a tad higher, all while com­for­ta­ble res­ting on something.  Elbow can be fle­xed, but your arm must still be per­pen­di­cu­lar to your body and about heart height or slightly higher.

Below are four of my most recent after­noon BP rea­dings with pulse: two with the Left arm, then two with the Right arm.

L:  139/106   98  (arm han­ging down and res­ting on sea­ted leg)
L:  122/88 89  (arm up, per­pen­di­cu­lar to my body, sup­por­ted by pillows)
R:  141/87     92  (arm han­ging down and res­ting on pillow)
R:  123/85 89 (arm up, per­pen­di­cu­lar to my body, sup­por­ted by pillows)

What you should note is that the first L rea­ding, and the first R rea­ding, were with the arm rela­xed on a pillow but lower than my heart.  The second of each is with the arm on two pillows, put­ting it per­pen­di­cu­lar to my heart,  with elbow fle­xed, and all of arm com­ple­tely supported.

I was shoc­ked! Put­ting my arms in what research is saying is the CORRECT posi­tion gave me much bet­ter rea­dings. I am VERY plea­sed with the 122 and 123.  Much bet­ter. And though the 88 and 83 Dias­to­lics are not to my liking yet, and tell me I need more work, the dif­fe­rence bet­ween the arm posi­tions was stunning.…as is the dif­fe­rence in what I’ve been get­ting for five days.

*Want to be infor­med of the STTM blog pos­tings?? Curious what’s on my mind? Just use the Noti­fi­ca­tions to the left at the bot­tom of the links. 

**Are you in the US and want to help make sure we don’t end up like the UK, having our Armour taken away?? In the post below, I have given you SEVEN STEPS that I hope you will follow through on!  YOU can make a dif­fe­rence.