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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.

The Bri­tish Medi­cal Jour­nal (BMJ) recently came out with yet another thy­roid article, benignly tit­led Diag­no­sis and treat­ment of pri­mary hypothy­roi­dism and autho­red by the Bri­tish Thy­roid Asso­cia­tion (BTA),  that at first blush, looks so caring.

Namely, they express deep con­cern that that since hypothy­roid symp­toms can mimic other con­di­tions, patients may be get­ting an inco­rrect diag­no­sis which could expose some patients to the harm­ful effects of excess thy­roid hor­mo­nes, while other serious con­di­tions may go undiagnosed.

And they add: In other patients, ade­quate repla­ce­ment with levothy­ro­xine does not resolve symp­toms, which are attri­bu­ted to hypothy­roi­dism rather than other con­di­tions that may coe­xist, such as depression.

The article con­ti­nues with:  Nor­ma­li­sa­tion of thy­roid sti­mu­la­ting hor­mone means a return to nor­mal health in most patients with pri­mary hypothy­roi­dism.

In other words, what you have above are the Three Stoo­ges of the sta­ted beliefs of the Bri­tish Thy­roid Association.

Stooge stated-belief #1: “Inco­rrect diag­no­sis allow other con­di­tions go undiag­no­sed” What is infe­rred is that there are a host of diag­no­ses of hypothy­roi­dism that are inco­rrect. Why? Because a wise phy­si­cian dared to lis­ten to clear symp­toms of hypothy­roi­dism or use the free T3, in spite of a so-called “nor­mal” TSH – a lab test which mea­su­res a pitui­tary hor­mone, not the cells abi­lity to receive enough thy­roid hormones.

Stooge stated-belief #2: “If ade­quate doses of levothy­ro­xine do not resolve symp­toms, those symp­toms are due to something else.” That is akin to saying if eating 100 calo­ries a day results in mal­nu­tri­tion and star­va­tion, your mal­nu­tri­tion and star­va­tion is due to something else. And one par­ti­cu­lar symp­tom they are refe­rring to is depres­sion–a clas­sic symp­tom of undiag­no­sed and under­trea­ted hypothy­roi­dism in MILLIONS of indi­vi­duals around the world.  And isn’t it just odd how that depres­sion resol­ves itself when the patient is put on Armour and allo­wed to dose by the eli­mi­na­tion of symptoms.

Stooge stated-belief #3: “A nor­mal TSH lab result equals nor­mal health in those trea­ted for hypothy­roi­dism”. Gee, funny how millions of thy­roid patients around the world have had a so-called “nor­mal” TSH lab result along with a diverse blend of con­ti­nuing and CLEAR hypothy­roid symp­toms.  Addi­tio­nally, we have a large and gro­wing body of patients who, when they switched to Armour desic­ca­ted thy­roid or other fine desic­ca­ted thy­roid presc­rip­tion meds,  had those symp­toms resol­ved when they were dosed accor­ding to the free T3, impro­ved blood pres­sure, strong heart beat, lowe­red cho­les­te­rol, and com­plete eli­mi­na­tion of symp­toms. Patients have lear­ned what works!

When you unders­tand the Bri­tish Thy­roid Association’s hell-bent and rigid stands against Armour desic­ca­ted thy­roid, their pro­mo­tion of one of the worst labs ever crea­ted to diag­nose and dose by, their love affair with the most ina­de­quate thy­roid medi­ca­tion ever thrust onto the mar­ket by money-grubbing phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals (levothy­ro­xine), and their com­plete fai­lure to lis­ten to patients and recog­nize con­ti­nuing symp­toms of hypothy­roi­dism while on synthe­tic T4, you come to rea­lize how mea­ning­ful any article on hypothy­roi­dism will be by the Bri­tish Thy­roid Association.

P.S.  Do ya won­der if the Bri­tish Broad­cas­ting Cor­po­ra­tion (BBC) has the smarts to report the other side of the story??

*Want to be infor­med of these blog posts? Curious what’s on Janie’s mind? Just use the Noti­fi­ca­tion fea­ture on the bot­tom  of the links to your left.

Just when we, as thy­roid patients, are not only pro­ving the supe­rio­rity of desic­ca­ted thy­roid treat­ment by our chan­ged lives, but are making good tiny steps in edu­ca­ting our doc­tors, comes a com­plete nation taking Armour away. Yup, the medical-Brit-authorities-that-be, in all their bri­lliant ludic­rous wis­dom, did just that last month, explai­ned here.

And then it was expe­rien­ced per­so­nally by a thy­roid patient in the UK on Feb. 20^th when her Armour was in fact, taken away.

Below is the hea­ding to the peti­tion, and don’t ya love the final sen­tence. GOOD FOR TPA-UK!

To:  UK Govern­ment Office of Fair Tra­ding We the under­sig­ned peti­tion the Government’s Office of Fair Tra­ding and the Euro­pean Com­mis­sion for medi­cal jus­tice in the diag­no­sis and treat­ment of patients suf­fe­ring from the symp­toms of hypothy­roi­dism, in spite of current medi­cal prac­ti­ces. The peti­tion is sup­por­ted by the fact that medi­cal science shows that through a pro­per appli­ca­tion of modern medi­cal and scien­ti­fic know­ledge those res­pon­si­ble for our well-being should be capa­ble of res­to­ring us back to opti­mal health.

Because of subs­tan­tial con­fu­sion in the endoc­ri­no­logy spe­cialty, patients con­ti­nue to suf­fer, and the follo­wing lament by Doc­tors Anthony Toft and Geof­frey Bec­kett must, once and for all, be put to rest.

It is extraor­di­nary that more than 100 years since the first desc­rip­tion of the treat­ment of hypothy­roi­dism and the current avai­la­bi­lity of refi­ned diag­nos­tic tests, debate is con­ti­nuing about its diag­no­sis and management.

http://www.petitiononline.com/tpauk123/petition.html

**Want to be infor­med of these blog posts when they appear? Curious what’s on Janie’s mind in her acti­vism for bet­ter thy­roid treat­ment? Just go to the Noti­fi­ca­tion on the left and at the bot­tom of the links.

Right on the heels of the insane recom­men­da­tion by the UK’s Royal College of Phy­si­cians and the Bri­tish Thy­roid Asso­cia­tion (that thy­ro­xine be the ONLY treat­ment for hypothy­roi­dism – see Feb. 14^th below) came an EXCELLENT and THOROUGH rebut­tal by Dr. John C. Lowe tit­led Sta­bi­lity, Effec­ti­ve­ness, and Safety of Desic­ca­ted Thy­roid vs Levothy­ro­xine: A Rebut­tal to the Bri­tish Thy­roid Asso­cia­tion. WAY TO GO, John!!

p.s. Also see Sheila’s expe­rience on the Feb. 20^th post. Awful

Want to be infor­med of these blog posts? Curious what’s on Janie’s mind? Just go to the noti­fi­ca­tion on the left and bot­tom of the links.

And again, on the heels of my post below about Sheila Tur­ner of the UK’s TPA (be sure and read it – good com­ments, too) comes a blog post by Dr. Richard B. Gut­ler of Cali­for­nia, an Endoc­ri­no­lo­gist (why are we not sur­pri­sed).  And his message?

1) That the NHS is correct to ban Armour

2) That Armour is a “second drug” that cau­ses harm.

3) That it’s only “fringe” patients who don’t do well on T4

4) That none of the above patients are hypothyroid

5) That they don’t feel well on T4 because of other reasons

6) The­rapy is not nee­ded if the TSH is below 10

You know what patients have a fan­tasy about, Dr. Gut­ler?? That folks like YOU become hypothy­roid and are put on T4. You’ll then have to eat dirt as you see your blood pres­sure rising, or your cho­les­te­rol doing the same, or depres­sion and fati­gue set­ting in, or your adre­nals over­wor­king, or weight gain and a host of other con­ti­nuing symp­toms of hypothy­roid while on T4. OH WAIT. Those are all due to something else. Gee, let’s put you on anti-depressants, sta­tins, blood pres­sure meds, pain meds, anti-anxiety meds since those “other” rea­sons never seem to be fixed.  OH WAIT. They DO get fixed when these same patients are switched to Armour or any other desic­ca­ted thy­roid, and have addres­sed their low cor­ti­sol or low ferri­tin thanks to years of undiag­no­sis or under­treat­ment with T4.

SHAME ON YOU.

p.s. It’s because of opi­nions like yours that the Stop the Thy­roid Mad­ness book has been sent to patients in over 16 coun­tries, so far. Peo­ple want to find out the TRUTH.

Update: you can read Sheila’s and UK-TPA’s res­ponse here: http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/uk-tpas-response-to-the-rcp/

See more from Sheila that gives UK patients hope: http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/relationship-between-the-RCP-and-MHRA/

Want to be noti­fied of my blog posts? Curious what’s on my mind? Use the Noti­fi­ca­tion method to be infor­med. Look on the bot­tom left of the links where you can sign up. )