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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.

More info: 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.

*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.

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.

Six years ago, when I got invol­ved in thy­roid patient advo­cacy by star­ting the Natu­ral Thy­roid Hor­mone Users group on Yahoo, I did it because I was ama­zed and shoc­ked what switching to desic­ca­ted natu­ral thy­roid did for me! There I was, on the brink of appl­ying for Social Secu­rity Disa­bi­lity after YEARS of misery & lack of ans­wers, and simply chan­ging to a dif­fe­rent thy­roid treat­ment com­ple­tely tur­ned my life around. I owe some of that change on what I found out on Mary Shomon’s Thy­roid group in early 2002.

And it daw­ned on me: if desic­ca­ted thy­roid with its T4, T3, T2, T1 and cal­ci­to­nin did this for ME, what could it do for others?!I  A group was NEEDED with a direct focus on desic­ca­ted natu­ral thyroid.

And over time, as NTH grew and other fine inter­net patient groups evol­ved and grew, other patients were just as ama­zed at what it was doing for them, as well.  This wasn’t coming across at ALL as a treat­ment only for “some”. It was coming across as a treat­ment that might just bene­fit quite a large body on indi­vi­duals! We also lear­ned by the seat of our collec­tive pants about low ferri­tin, low cor­ti­sol, low B-12, Celiac and glu­ten into­le­rance – you name it.

From all the above came the STTM move­ment: a patient-to-patient com­pi­la­tion of all we have lear­ned – and then the book with even more infor­ma­tion.  The STTM move­ment was crea­ted because “inter­net groups” were NOT enough to get the word out about the effi­cacy of desic­ca­ted thy­roid, nor were they enough to change the huge and rigid medi­cal esta­blish­ment. Change had to come from the bot­tom up – in other words, edu­cate patients, who in turn can take the new infor­ma­tion into their doctor’s offices.

But sadly, with the suc­cess of patient infor­ma­tion about the ama­zing results of desic­ca­ted thy­roid treat­ment has come vei­led cri­ti­cism and over­blown mis­con­cep­tions within our own ranks. And it’s a sad thing to behold!

Namely, we can now read a Sep­tem­ber 10^th inter­net blog “con­ver­sa­tion” by so-called thy­roid patient advo­ca­tes who imply that it is “dogma and narrow-minded” if anyone dares state there just might be a thy­roid treat­ment which JUST MIGHT BE bet­ter for most all thy­roid patients. IMAGINE the auda­city!! I guess it was just as “dog­ma­tic and narrow-minded” when it was first sug­ges­ted there were bet­ter ways to deal with cer­tain health con­di­tions than blood­let­ting. I can hear it now: “To deny blood­let­ting is just boxing peo­ple in!” “Offe­ring blood­let­ting as a choice is hel­ping peo­ple expand.”

And con­trary to the self-righteous tone, con­des­cen­ding mis­re­pre­sen­ta­tions, and vei­led cri­ti­cisms towards cer­tain patient groups, this patient move­ment is not a one size fits all move­ment.  Ins­tead, it’s a “one size JUST MIGHT BE a bet­ter alter­na­tive” than the other avai­la­ble alter­na­ti­ves, and we strongly encou­rage that each patient con­si­der fin­ding a doc­tor to help them give it a try.  And, if something about desic­ca­ted thy­roid isn’t wor­king, we strongly encou­rage patients to look at par­ti­cu­lar rea­sons that can under­lie problems.

If you think T4 is wor­king for you, go for it! The same goes for the use of T3 only, or synthe­tic T4/T3, or cer­tain ratios of T4 and T3.  Choice is a bles­sing we can all res­pect.  Just keep an eye out for depres­sion, rising cho­les­te­rol, less sta­mina than others, adre­nal issues and/or a myriad of other con­ti­nuing hypo symp­toms that just might creep up on you as you age on these treat­ments.  Or, con­si­der that we’ve seen many peo­ple on these treat­ments, who, when they switched to desic­ca­ted thy­roid like Armour, Natu­reth­roid, Westh­roid, etc, they repor­ted even bet­ter results. (The use of T3-only for high RT3 is a dif­fe­rent issue and is where T3-only may be abso­lu­tely nee­ded and good. We also res­pect those who have ethi­cal issues with ani­mal products.)

Finally, I encou­rage others who con­si­der them­sel­ves thy­roid patient advo­ca­tes to TAKE A BIG BREATH and TAKE THE TIME to be in open-minded dia­lo­gue with all patients, inc­lu­ding me and all of us over here, ins­tead of openly igno­ring our exis­tence or deci­ding what we pro­mote is simply narrow-minded dogma.  You might find that direct com­mu­ni­ca­tion and kind­ness is a far bet­ter method to help thy­roid patients ins­tead of the underhan­ded vei­led bashings and mis­re­pre­sen­ta­tions within this recent blog con­ver­sa­tion.

Have you ever had someone say something in JUST a way that it hits you bet­ween the eyes?? That’s what Diane did to me. She’s a thy­roid and adre­nal patient, and we were dis­cus­sing the way a huge medi­cal web­site still gives out back­wards and harm­ful thy­roid treat­ment infor­ma­tion, telling patients to “raise their Synth­roid” to coun­ter their con­ti­nuing hypothy­roid symp­toms (which doesn’t work), or pro­noun­cing that because their TSH is “nor­mal”, those symp­toms are not rela­ted to hypothy­roid (they are.) This huge web­site has kept patients sick for YEARS, and is one of the main rea­sons I crea­ted STTM!

And Diane said to me “Somehow the true mes­sage needs to get into the main stream.”

Boink! That just hit me squa­rely bet­ween the eyes! Sure, I’ve been saying the same in a dif­fe­rent way for years – that our mes­sage needs to get out. But when Diane men­tio­ned the “mains­tream”, it hit me.

Here we are, vic­tims of a medi­cal scan­dal which has been going on for 50 years, and which has effec­ted HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS all that time. Some of those vic­tims are dead; and many more are still alive, with new vic­tims hap­pe­ning DAILY. Yet, the “mains­tream media” has never taken the time or inte­rest to report on this. HUHHH??

Wiki­pe­dia defi­nes the mains­tream media as the sec­tion of the media spe­ci­fi­cally envi­sio­ned and desig­ned to reach a very large audience, and that might inc­lude tele­vi­sion, radio, news­pa­pers and maga­zi­nes. Yet, what do you see on any of those mediums? You see the regur­gi­ta­tion of the old-boy, Poll­yanna methods of hypothy­roid diag­no­sis and treat­ment – the use of the TSH and total T4, plus T4-only meds like Synth­roid, Levoxyl, Levothy­ro­xine, et al. And if there is men­tion of desic­ca­ted thy­roid, it’s bare. YAWN.

Some pun­dants feel that there is a form of lite­rary cen­sorship going on in the main media…i.e. if it’s not sen­sa­tio­nal, for­get it. Others will cite bias and mani­pu­la­tion by those that report, espe­cially in the poli­ti­cal arena.

But what I lean to believe is that there’s a monkey-see, monkey-do men­ta­lity in the media. Namely, the mains­tream media lazily con­forms itself to the lou­dest, lon­gest or most financially-influential voice. And who’s had that voice in the thy­roid treat­ment arena?? The money-grubbing phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals, who thrust billions of dollars into medi­cal schools, besi­des their bright-eyed reps, to even­tually con­vince every doc­tor since the early 1960’s that the lousy T4-only medi­ca­tions (Synth­roid, Levoxyl, et al), and the dubious TSH lab tests, are from God Almighty.

So, that lie keeps being repea­ted, ad nau­seum, and the TRUTH, which comes from every­day patients all around the world, gets igno­red by the mains­tream media. Thus, millions out there still sit, mise­ra­ble or com­pro­mi­sed in their day-to-day lives, and on a myriad of other pills to coun­ter the lin­ge­ring symptoms…because their main con­tact with the world – the mains­tream media – is deaf and dumb – and they have not yet found Stop the Thy­roid Mad­ness, and may not for years!

So.…what can YOU do?? Con­tact the mains­tream media. SCREAM at the mains­tream media. DOG the mains­tream media. I have wor­ked hard to put YOUR truth up here and in the book. You can help by sprea­ding that word, one by one, like the Lilli­pu­tians who moved the giant.

*To con­tact ABC, go here.
*To con­tact MSNBC, go here or email Health@MSNBC.com
*To con­tact CBS, go here. Use the drop down menu to click on a news pro­gram
*To con­tact Fox News, go here.
*To con­tact CNN, go here.
*The top 20 Women’s maga­zi­nes are here.

Want to add more emails or web­site URL’s for con­tact? Just add a com­ment to this post below.

**Patients are repor­ting that the STTM book is even bet­ter than the web­site! Yeehaw! To order your copy, go to the publishing web­site here. There are also options to order one for your doc­tor, and one for Oprah!

UPDATE: I am plea­sed to announce that the most gutsy, revo­lu­tio­nary, com­prehen­sive and prac­ti­cal book on the sub­ject of diag­no­sis, treat­ment, and medi­ca­tions for hypothy­roid, as well as rela­ted con­di­tions, inc­lu­ding low ferri­tin, adre­nal fati­gue and other pro­blems which befall hypothy­roid patients…is out! This is YOUR book as a patient-to-patient book.

The link below will take you to the Publisher’s web­site. On the home page, you can read about the publisher. Then click on the PRODUCTS page to see the book and infor­ma­tion. Click on the DOUBLE GREEN ARROWS to open up the entire text plus ship­ping infor­ma­tion.

www.laughinggrapepublishing.com

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

Yup, it’s done. It’s com­plete. And I can say without a doubt that there is NO book on hypothy­roid as hands-on as this one. Why can I say that? Because the book is based on YOUR EXPERIENCE and thou­sands like you. Because this is THE patient-to-patient book. Yes, I wrote it, but YOU wrote it, too.

Where is the STTM book avai­la­ble? It will FIRST be avai­la­ble right here on the site in appro­xi­ma­tely two weeks. It’s about 300 pages and will sell for 19.95. So keep coming back here.

Is the STTM book a copy of the web­site? Not exactly. Yes, you will see some things in the book that ARE on the web­site. That was impor­tant. But.…you will also find a chap­ter totally on T3. You will learn some his­tory that’s not on the web­site. You will get more details on adre­nal sup­port. You will have new sto­ries of others. You will read a chap­ter totally writ­ten for and about doc­tors. And there’s much more that is not right on the STTM site…little details inser­ted here and inser­ted there.

Why did I write it? Because though the STTM web­site has done WONDERS to reach peo­ple, MORE is nee­ded. There are folks out there who are NOT coming to the web, or even know to look for ans­wers, and this book will reach them. And.…it can simply be more pro­duc­tive to have a BOOK to refer to and a BOOK to read when you are tra­ve­ling in the air­plane or wai­ting in the doctor’s office. AND.….FINALLY, we have something to HAND THE DOCTOR when he or she doesn’t get what we are tal­king about…or to our family or friends when they don’t get it, either.

Get ready. I’m exci­ted. I hope you are too.

P.S. Guess what Oprah Win­frey may be drin­king daily?? Soy milk. And since soy is a known thy­roid inhi­bi­tor, guess what she’s doing to her thy­roid? Quo­ted directly from her site: Thanks to all the yogurt and calcium-enriched soy­milk she con­su­mes, she’s get­ting an ave­rage of about 1,100 mg of cal­cium daily OOPS.