Rotten Tomatoes!

Have you ever read nega­tive com­ments about STTM, whether the book or web­site, such as it has dan­ge­rous advice here or there, is too narrowly focu­sed, is writ­ten by a nutty person…or any other varie­ties of angst, ire, and quib­bling? They aren’t com­mon, but here are a few rot­ten toma­toes that have been reported…and our happy reply:

1. STTM is a “desic­ca­ted thyroid-only” site — narrowly focu­sed. Yup. You got it exactly right! This edu­ca­tio­nal patient-to-patient web­site is pur­po­sely and posi­ti­vely narrowly focu­sed about the fact that 1) natu­ral desic­ca­ted thy­roid is a far supe­rior treatment,and 2) patient expe­rience shows that with repea­ted tes­ti­mony of these patients…and has for deca­des. We are also focu­sed on the fact that nearly all thy­roid patients have lin­ge­ring symp­toms, soo­ner or later, due to a the ina­de­quate treat­ment with T4-only meds, and the use of the faulty TSH lab. Stop the Thy­roid Mad­ness is a patient-to-patient site with the goal to edu­cate patients on suc­cess­ful things we have lear­ned so you can take the infor­ma­tion into your doctor’s office and press for change.
2. Some infor­ma­tion on STTM is dan­ge­rous and scary. I couldn’t agree more! ANY health web­site could be dangerous…if it’s taken out of con­text by chan­ging one bit of edu­ca­tio­nal infor­ma­tion on the site to mean something else, or even more impor­tantly, if you choose not to use a good doc­tor to help you with this infor­ma­tion. STTM was, in fact, crea­ted to ins­pire and edu­cate you only, and to take that infor­ma­tion into your doctor’s office to dis­cuss and press for change in your treat­ment if you agree with it. That’s why you will see all over the web­site and the STTM book to do what it takes to find a good doc­tor to work with.
3. The infor­ma­tion on STTM is not based on solid cli­ni­cal research and scien­ti­fic study. That’s abso­lu­tely correct.  Ins­tead, it’s based on solid patient expe­rience. And that’s because solid cli­ni­cal research on what we have found out has not been out there, nor did doc­tors  have enough know­ledge to help us.  Patients were for­ced to figure a lot of the infor­ma­tion them­sel­ves via inter­net research, patient groups, and experience…and our expe­rience has been pro­found in crea­ting the com­pi­led infor­ma­tion you will find on this web­site.  Here you will find a small but gro­wing list of true research we have found since this patient move­ment began. When the day comes that the medi­cal esta­blish­ment learns to LISTEN to cli­ni­cal pre­sen­ta­tion sit­ting right there in their offi­ces, we will REJOICE!!
4. STTM is a self-treatment site. Abso­lu­tely not. STTM was crea­ted as patient-to-patient infor­ma­tion site with the pur­pose of giving you solid patient-experience infor­ma­tion which you need to take to your doctor’s office for far bet­ter treat­ment.  Because doc­tors are not going to change their love-affair with T4 meds like Synth­roid, Levoxyl, levothy­ro­xine, Eltro­xin, or their worship of the TSH test, unless you the patient bring far bet­ter infor­ma­tion into their offi­ces, one-by-one.  Do some patients use STTM to self-treat? Wouldn’t sur­prise me, just as they use many other web­si­tes and books to do the same. All we can do is con­ti­nually encou­rage anyone to do what it takes to find a good doc­tor, whom you can then take the info on STTM or the book to your appoint­ment and make your rela­tionship with your doc­tor a TEAM — your know­ledge, your body, and what your doc­tor can con­tri­bute based on his knowledge.
5. STTM looks non-professional: That could be.  Janie is not a web­site desig­ner – only adding the con­tent rather than the design. And she has had to improve on remo­ving so many CAPITOL LETTERS when trying to unders­core something, and ins­tead use ita­li­ci­zed words. lol. But none of that chan­ges the fact that the patient-to-patient infor­ma­tion pre­sen­ted on STTM is cons­tantly chan­ging lives.
6. STTM is a “fringe” web­site: That may defi­ni­tely be the obser­va­tion of doc­tors who hold firm to the TSH lab test and T4 meds, or a patient who wants to follow the crowd. But patients all over the world would cha­llenge anyone to call treat­ment with desic­ca­ted thy­roid a ‘fringe’ treat­ment, which is what STTM is about. 

What about the “nutty crea­tor” of this site? Here is a page spe­ci­fi­cally about Janie: who she is and who she is not in res­ponse to the actually “nutty” com­ments made about her.

Postsc­ript: what may be the most accu­rate about STTM is that there is more good infor­ma­tion to come! There is always valua­ble and cutting-edge insight out there which patients are lear­ning in order to best treat our hypothy­roid, our adre­nal fati­gue, and other rela­ted con­di­tions. And as we hear them, we’ll add them.