• About this site
• Related conditions due to hypo

A thyroid patient and mother of two just informed me that her daughter’s psoriasis on her body completely went away thanks to being on desiccated thyroid, and all that’s left is some on her head. And, her son’s psoriasis completely went away thanks to desiccated thyroid.

Connection? Pretty obvious, isn’t it.

Psoriasis is an autoimmune skin disease that appears on the skin chronically due to an immune system going awry. It results in red scaly patches with a white dead-cell buildup. You can often see it hand-in-hand with Hashimotos. And Rosacea is another skin problem, though not autoimmune, that causes a redness of the skin, including the cheeks and nose, or the forehead and chin.

I personally had rosacea on my nose for years—my romantic “clown nose”.  But just like the mother’s son and daughter with psoriasis, my rosacea eventually went away, as well, after I had started on desiccated thyroid and raised it high enough to remove my hypo symptoms.

Chronic skin disease is just another reason to be adequately treated with desiccated thyroid.

*Below, you’ll find a post about T4 and depression–a very common connection with poorly treated or undiagnosed hypothyroidism, as well. Under that is information on how to do desiccated thyroid sublingually. And on June 2nd, comments continue to come in about the newly formulated Armour.

*Prefer having all this website in book form with more info? Many do, and you can decide by going here.

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 7th blog post!

As Susan Boyle of the UK had a dream which came true, I too wish from the deepest place in my heart that someday soon, SOMEONE from the mass media will FINALLY get smart and do a wide-reaching story for the hundreds of millions who are still on T4 meds like Sythroid, Levoxyl, Levothyroxine, Eltroxin, Oroxine…and who have depression or a myriad of other lingering symptoms of a sucky, laughable and shameful treatment.  This video inspires me today just as it did a few weeks ago.  Enjoy and dream with me. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFzS0wgwyW4&annotation_id=annotation_179773&feature=iv

Janie

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

*See below on how being on T4 meds can affect your liver. And below that–why I’m handing my promise ring back to Forest Pharmaceuticals.

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 20th, 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.