This patient-to-patient informational thyroid site may very well apply to you!
But if you think…nahh, this has nothing to do with me…go here. Or, you can listen to audio clips to help understand what this is all about.
STOP THE THYROID MADNESS! It’s not working! It never has! It still doesn’t!
We, as hypothyroid patients, have unwittingly become victims of a thyroid treatment madness that leaves us with lingering hypothyroid symptoms… all while being told by our doctors that we are “normal and without a thyroid disorder” or “normal and optimally treated for our hypothyroid”.
For nearly five decades, this medical scandal has occurred in two areas:
- for those who have obvious hypothyroid symptoms, yet no diagnosis due to the lousy lab work called the TSH. YOU may have been hypothyroid for years, yet your well-meaning but clueless doctor has proclaimed you “normal” because of a dubious normal range.
- for those already on treatment medications like Synthroid, Levoxyl, Unithroid, Levothyroxine, Eltroxin, etc (aka T4-only meds or thyroxine) which leaves nearly all patients undertreated and poorly treated no matter how high they are raised. Additionally, our situation is made worse when we are held hostage HOSTAGE to the lousy TSH lab (thyroid stimulating hormone) with its erroneous and dubious “normal” range.
The results: patients suffer. Those lingering symptoms can include, but are not limited to, chronic low-grade depression, poor stamina compared to others, low energy levels, dry hair, dry skin, hard or small stools, high cholesterol, brain fog, digestive problems, chronic illness, other mental health issues… the list is long and pathetic.
THINK YOU ARE DOING FINE ON A T4-ONLY MED? Think again. Your adrenals may be kicking in big time to keep you going on an inadequate treatment of only a storage hormone. And over time, they could wipe out. Also as you age on T4, there’s a strong chance you’re going to find yourself with rising blood pressure, and/or a buildup of cholesterol and other lipids, and/or increased depression, and/or a myriad of your own brand and intensity of inadequate side effects of a poor thyroid treatment.
WHAT PATIENTS HAVE DISCOVERED: Now, there is a huge and growing body of thyroid patients worldwide, and some wise, caring and open-minded doctors, who have discovered a far superior treatment with natural desiccated thyroid hormones, more commonly known by the brand name Naturethroid and others. Additionally, we are being dosed by our doctors according to the elimination of symptoms, and paying attention to the free T3 and free T4, not the TSH. And it’s working!
As thyroid patients, we have learned treatment protocols that work, things we have done wrong, as well as other issues which may need treatment, such as our adrenals. Our hope is that you, as a patient, can carry this information into your doctor’s office and press for change in your treatment. We’ve even got it in book form.
THE REALITY OF T4-ONLY MEDS: T4-only meds do NOT do the job, any more than an elevator which only rises to the fifth floor of a 50-story building “does the job.” Sure, you may feel slightly better, and notice some results, but you are still left with your own brand and intensity of symptoms due to inadequate treatment. And it will get worse as you age.
THE PROBLEM OF DOCTORS: God bless them. But many doctors, who tend to be cattle in the chutes of their pharmaceutically-financed medical school training, need to rethink the poor treatment they are bestowing on their thyroid patients.
You can cite all the research you want…You can quote all the statistics you desire…You can refer to all the medical reviews you know. You can ask “Where’s the science”?
You can even make spurious claims against the efficacy, stability and reliability of natural desiccated thyroid. But none of it is more important and revealing than the REAL LIFE EXPERIENCES of lives profoundly changed due to desiccated natural thyroid hormones, as well as dosing by symptom elimination first and foremost, NOT black ink marks on a piece of paper called the TSH lab result!
NOTE: this website represents the successful experience and knowledge of thyroid patients around the world and is NOT meant to be personalized, exact advice for YOU. Use this site for education, see what strikes home for you, then find a good doctor to work with proactively.
***ARE YOU A PRACTICING PHYSICIAN or MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL? You can talk with other professional colleagues about the information presented on STTM on the new talk group here: http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/nthphysicians/
Listen to the interview with Thyroid Patient Activist Janie Bowthorpe about STTM on Hot Flash Free!
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Want to order your own labwork?? STTM has created the right ones just for you to discuss with your doctor. Go here: https://sttm.mymedlab.com/
