• +Audience
• dr. john c. lowe
• tsh

I always know that when I get an email from Dr. John C. Lowe, it’s going to con­tain exce­llent infor­ma­tion. And he didn’t let me down.

Dr. Lowe is Editor-in-Chief of Thy­roid Science, an “open-access jour­nal for truth in thy­roid science and and thy­roid cli­ni­cal prac­tice”.  And in the recent issue, there is a remar­ka­ble and pre­cise TSH (Thy­roid Sti­mu­la­ting Hor­mone) hypothe­sis by none other than a bri­lliant UK  elec­tri­cal and elec­tro­nics engi­neer, Mr. Peter War­mingham.  In fact, his hypothe­sis about the TSH lab result when trea­ting one’s hypothy­roi­dism exactly corres­ponds to the suc­cess­ful expe­rience of thy­roid patients all over the world.

To quote Dr. Lowe in his intro­duc­tion about Warmingham’s paper (FYI: “exo­ge­nous” refers to the thy­roid hor­mone you give your­self;  “endo­ge­nous” refers to what hap­pens natu­rally in your body):

Mr. Warmingham’s hypothe­sis is straight­for­ward: When a hypothy­roid patient (whose cir­cu­la­ting pool of thy­roid hor­mone is too low) begins taking exo­ge­nous thy­roid hor­mone, a nega­tive feed­back sys­tem redu­ces the pitui­tary gland’s out­put of TSH. This dec­rea­ses the thy­roid gland’s out­put of endo­ge­nous thy­roid hor­mone, and des­pite the patient’s exo­ge­nous thy­roid hormone’s con­tri­bu­tion to his or her total cir­cu­la­ting thy­roid pool, that pool does not inc­rease — not until the TSH is sup­pres­sed and the thy­roid gland is con­tri­bu­ting no more thy­roid hor­mone to the total cir­cu­la­ting pool. At that point, adding more exo­ge­nous thy­roid hor­mone will finally inc­rease the cir­cu­la­ting pool of thy­roid hor­mone. The inc­rease must occur for thy­roid hor­mone the­rapy to be effec­tive. The patient’s sup­pres­sed TSH, then, does not indi­cate that the patient is over-treated with thy­roid hor­mone; ins­tead, it indi­ca­tes that the patient’s low total thy­roid hor­mone pool will finally rise to poten­tially ade­quate levels.

In other words, when your doc­tor says no to an inc­rease in your desic­ca­ted thy­roid simply because your TSH lab result is, or would become, below the so-called nor­mal range (and in the pre­sence of con­ti­nuing symp­toms or a low tem­pe­ra­ture), he will usually end up kee­ping you hypothy­roid! i.e. making an ink spot on a piece of paper more impor­tant than cli­ni­cal pre­sen­ta­tion is just one rea­son why the current thy­roid patient revo­lu­tion repre­sen­ted by Stop the Thy­roid Mad­ness exists!

You can read Warmington’s entire paper here on Dr. Lowe’s site. For further infor­ma­tion on the fallacy of the TSH lab test, go here or read Chap­ter 4, aka Thy­roid Sti­mu­la­ting Hooey, in your copy of the STTM book for more detail.

P.S. Dr. Lowe is pro­bably right on when he says he expects cri­ti­cism to flow for the fact that War­ming­ton is not an Endoc­ri­no­lo­gist and “how in the world can any­body but an Endo make a logi­cal hypothe­sis about the TSH lab test”. Read more on Lowe’s thoughts about this here.   But enligh­te­ned thy­roid patients around the world are collec­ti­vely shou­ting “GOD BLESS AN ELECTRICAL ENGINEER!”

I am amazed.

The Society for Endoc­ri­no­logy in the UK recently repor­ted that taking higher doses of thy­ro­xine (which will lower the TSH lab result) may be safer than has been pur­por­ted for decades.

And how low a TSH lab result did they find to be safe? As low as 0.04 – 0.4, the research found, is still safe enough to not cause an inc­rea­sed risk of  “heart disease, abnor­mal heart­beat pat­terns and bone frac­tu­res”, aka HYPERthy­roid symp­toms.

And those of us world­wide who know about the supe­rio­rity of natu­ral desic­ca­ted thy­roid can also use these research results in our fight to be on enough desic­ca­ted thy­roid with TSH-obsessed doc­tors, who view research as the end-all to the truth rather than solid cli­ni­cal pre­sen­ta­tion, sadly. Because when we are on enough desic­ca­ted thy­roid to feel fabu­lous again with all symp­toms remo­ved (in the pre­sence of good cor­ti­sol levels, ade­quate ferri­tin, B12 and diges­tive issues), our TSH lab result is always low, aka sup­pres­sed, and without one iota of hyper symptoms.

Patients have expe­rien­tially known this truth about the lousy TSH lab test, without research, for years!

But here’s what’s mis­sing from their research:

1. Those “safe, low levels of an “ink spot on a piece of paper” do not mean the 16,426 patients they follo­wed will be without nume­rous issues rela­ted to being on a sto­rage hor­mone.  i.e. the body is not meant to live for con­ver­sion alone! A healthy thy­roid will con­vert T4 to the active T3, but it will also pro­vide direct T3 in addi­tion to the T2, T1 and calcitonin…none of which a T4-only med pro­vi­des directly.
2. Addi­tio­nally, the TSH lab test only reveals the action of a pitui­tary mes­sen­ger hor­mone called the Thy­roid Sti­mu­la­ting Hor­mone (TSH).  The lab test does NOT mea­sure whether your tis­sue is recei­ving enough thy­roid hor­mone, which is why so many patients on T4 end up with depres­sion, rising cho­les­te­rol, high blood pres­sure, low B12, low ferri­tin and many symp­toms, as well as adre­nal fati­gue thanks to the ina­de­quate treat­ment of T4.
3. Rai­sing T4 often encou­ra­ges an excess pro­duc­tion of Reverse T3 over time, which will block cell recep­tors and inc­rease the very symp­toms the researcher state is avoi­ded, as well as far more hypothy­roid symptoms.

But on the posi­tive side: this is just one more research study that ends up being on our side in our quest in teaching our doc­tors about far bet­ter treat­ment pro­to­cols. I have also inc­lu­ded men­tion of this study on the follo­wing page on STTM, where I keep a ongoing list of  research which sup­ports what patients already know by their expe­rience and cli­ni­cal pre­sen­ta­tion:  http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/medical-research/

“It is far bet­ter to grasp the Uni­verse as it really is than to per­sist in delu­sion, howe­ver satisf­ying and reas­su­ring.” –Dr. Carl Sagan

You may have seen the seg­ment on NBC’s Today Show this mor­ning, January 29^th, 2010, or you may have heard about it on the inter­net. But in case you didn’t, the Today Show had a rare short piece about hypothy­roi­dism and diag­no­sis which pre­sen­ted a Nurse Prac­ti­tio­ner, Eola Force, with clear symp­toms of hypo, inc­lu­ding extreme tired­ness, fee­ling like she’s dying, huge weight gain, depres­sion, and brain fog, to name a few.

Yet, she had a so-called “nor­mal  “TSH” lab test. The expla­na­tion for her symp­toms?? She’s FAT, HORMONAL and FEMALE, of course!

And because she is under the care of a wise and know­led­gea­ble doc­tor named Dr. Kent Hol­torf and his cli­nic, which uses addi­tio­nal tests besi­des the TSH, he diag­no­sed her clearly, put her on thy­roid hor­mo­nes, and chan­ged her life.

And the res­ponse by Dr. Sin­ger, an Endoc­ri­no­lo­gist? There is “no real scien­ti­fic basis” for what Hol­torf does in his prac­tice, and it was equi­va­lent to the “laying on of hands”.

Well my dear Dr. Sin­ger sir, if hun­dreds of millions of patients all over the world wai­ted on “science” to prove what they know by deca­des of mise­ra­ble expe­rience because of the TSH, we’d all still be sick as dogs. The mutually accep­ted delu­sion by the Endoc­ri­no­logy field about the TSH lab test has left millions of thy­roid patients undiag­no­sed and under­trea­ted for nearly 40 years of its exis­tence.

Other than to poten­tially diag­nose a pitui­tary pro­blem, no, the TSH lab test is NOT the gold stan­dard for thy­roid scree­ning any­more than rea­ding tea lea­ves tells me what kind of day I’m going to have.

Read more about the TSH lab test here, or find even more detail in Chap­ter 3 in the book called TSH: THYROID STIMULATING HOOEY.

See much bet­ter lab­work than simply the TSH here.  Find what your results mean here. And here’s how to find a much bet­ter doctor.

P.S. Thy­roid patient Lynn Dun­ning emai­led me about tal­king about the cra­zi­ness of current thy­roid treat­ment at her work, and one of her collea­gues put this up on the work web­site:
http://www.spunout.ie/health/Healthy-body/Thyroid-madness Good for Lynn and the Spu­nOut website!

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.

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.