anti-depressant tags

(Mon­day April 5^th Postsc­ript to my blog post below: One of the patients inter­vie­wed by this repor­ter sta­tes the follo­wing: The report left the impres­sion that we (desic­ca­ted thy­roid users) are a teeny little group on the frin­ges of medi­cine, rather than a ground swell of well researched patients trying to improve our health (and every aspect of our lives) with ratio­nal, com­mon sense alter­na­ti­ves. We are still voi­ces crying in the wil­der­ness, and igno­red by the mains­tream medi­cal pro­fes­sio­nals. C’est la vie.)

Finally.

After years of near-complete silence by the mass media about the pro­found 60-year medi­cal scan­dal of T4-only treat­ment like Synth­roid, as well as lives chan­ged due to natu­ral desic­ca­ted thy­roid, we have some pro­gress.

A few weeks ago, I was con­tac­ted by health repor­ter Pau­line Dakin of CBC (Cana­dian Broad­cas­ting Cor­po­ra­tion) Radio. She was pre­pa­ring a report on thy­roid treat­ment and desic­ca­ted thy­roid, asking for names of Cana­dian patients and doc­tors who might speak of their own expe­rien­ces. Among others, I got her in touch with Cana­dian thy­roid patient The­resa Roberts, who has remin­ded me of this report.

And, Pau­line Dakin’s report on desic­ca­ted thy­roid will be pre­sen­ted TODAY, Eas­ter Sun­day, on CBC Radio One on “The World This Wee­kend” at 6:00 pm Eas­tern Time (5 pm Cen­tral, 4 pm Moun­tain and 3 pm Paci­fic). It’s a com­prehen­sive 1/2 hour news pro­gram that airs natio­nally on wee­kend eve­nings and takes an in-depth look at current issues.

And even if you aren’t in Canada, you can lis­ten to this pro­gram on CBC Radio One live at http://www.cbc.ca/worldthisweekend/ , or you can down­load the pod­cast (which may require free subscription).

HIGH FIVE to Pau­line Dakin and the Cana­dian Broad­cas­ting Corporation.

The 60-year use of T4-only medi­ca­tions like Synth­roid, Levoxyl, Eltro­xin and other brands has NOT wor­ked for hun­dreds of millions world­wide, resul­ting in each patient’s amount and degree of lin­ge­ring symp­toms of hypothy­roi­dism as well as the added misery of adre­nal fatigue.

We have also been ban­dai­ded with anti-depressants, sta­tins, pain meds, high blood pres­sure meds and more, all the while being told by our clue­less doc­tors that we are schi­zoph­re­ni­cally ’”nor­mal” because the also-lousy TSH test says so.

Or, like my own mother, we have been sub­jec­ted to Elec­tric Shock The­rapy because of depres­sion cau­sed by T4 meds and their ina­de­quate treat­ment.  You can read about my mother here.

Stop the Thy­roid Madness™!

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I think back about my mother.

At age twenty-one in 1939, she had most of her thy­roid remo­ved due to Gra­ves disease and hyperthy­roi­dism. Because a small part remai­ned, hyper set in once again by 1960 com­plete with bug­ged eyes. So Radioac­tive Iodine I-131 was the next step to once-and-for-all annihi­late the thy­roid.  Not long after, as her thy­roid hor­mone levels fell, she was one of the early vic­tims of the “new and modern” T4-only medi­ca­tion called Synthroid.

And all hell broke loose. Depres­sion enve­lo­ped her every­day life — one of her worst lin­ge­ring symp­toms of hypothy­roi­dism due to the shoddy treat­ment of a T4-only med as well as the TSH lab test.  I remem­ber her moods, her fre­quent anger and lack of patience, and her cons­tant coun­se­ling appointments.

By 1963, and right before Pre­si­dent Ken­nedy was shot, she sub­mit­ted her­self to Elec­tric Shock Treat­ment in a futile effort to con­trol her depres­sion.  What a crock.  She was never again the bright and quick-witted woman I remem­be­red as a youn­ger child. Her brain was fried and she had a new dull flat reac­tion to life. And for the rest of her life, she lived on her antidepressant/anti-anxiety med Ela­vil and had daily cons­tant naps, weight gain, rising cho­les­te­rol, dry hair, heart sur­gery, stiff joints, brain fog and ina­bi­lity to stand on her feet long – her own mani­fes­ta­tion of lin­ge­ring symp­toms while on the lousy thyroxine.

And she did the T4-horror show…all…by…herself. No inter­net,  no patient groups and forums, no Stop the Thy­roid Mad­ness web­site, blog or book,  no good doc, no thy­roid Face­book or Twit­ter groups, no other good thy­roid books or web­si­tes. Nada. I came along as a Thy­roid Patient Acti­vist too late for my mother, who died in 2003.

It makes me shud­der thin­king of that lonely hell. But then again, it’s not just in the far past: it hap­pe­ned to her only daugh­ter, me, for nearly 20 years. Com­plete lonely hell of my own with intense and disa­bling Dysau­to­no­mia indu­ced by my con­ti­nued hypo state while on Synth­roid and later Levoxyl.

And today, because the mass media or any media per­so­na­lity refu­ses to speak the truth of the 55 year scan­dal of T4-only meds like Synth­roid, Levoxyl, levothy­ro­xine, Eltro­xin, Oro­xine, or the cuckoo’s nest of the TSH lab test and range, HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS of indi­vi­duals still suf­fer. How stu­pid can they get.  This is a scan­dal that has effec­ted a huge mass of indi­vi­duals glo­bally, past and pre­sent,  inc­lu­ding those today who STILL lin­ger with undiag­no­sed hypothy­roi­dism thanks to the worth­less TSH lab test or lin­ge­ring hypo on the lousy T4-only medi­ca­tions. And all the above when we, as patients, have lear­ned a far bet­ter way to treat our thy­roid problems

Did you have rela­ti­ves like my own Mom (who died in 2003) who lived the T4-only scan­dal alone?  Use the Com­ment form to tell us about them.  Have YOU suf­fe­red from a T4 med? Report it to the FDA here.

Also below, read about Jane Pau­ley and the health issues that make you won­der, since they can all be con­nec­ted to a thy­roid pro­blem, either undiag­no­sed or untrea­ted.  Below that, you’ll see posts about Oprah, Reverse T3, the pro­blem of cellu­lose in our meds, the desic­ca­ted thy­roid shor­ta­ges, and more.

*HO HO HO! Have a STTM book sent to someone  you care about as a CHRISTMAS or HOLIDAY pre­sent. A card will be inc­lu­ded, and the book will be in an enve­lope with a red bow!! Save money the more you buy!

When I  was ten years old, my mother had elec­tric shock treatment.

The memory stands out in my mind like a bea­con. And when my Dad brought her home, he took me aside and explai­ned that my mama was not going to remem­ber where things are for awhile, and we’d have to help her. That was espe­cially true with the 4-legged sewing basket.

She even­tually regai­ned her memory. But she was never again the same bright and quick wit­ted mother I used to have when I was younger.

Why was shock treat­ment done?  To coun­ter her mys­te­rious ongoing and disa­bling depres­sion.  And this was her last option.

It didn’t work.

She lived on anti-depressants, spe­ci­fi­cally a high dose of Ela­vil, the rest of her com­pro­mi­sed life.

And more than 40 years later, about a year after her death, a change in my own life with Armour hel­ped me rea­lize why she had to be depen­dent on an anti-depressant for so many years:  Synth­roid.  My mother was on Synth­roid almost her entire adult life — a medi­ca­tion, along with Levoxyl, Levothy­ro­xine, Unith­roid, Eltro­xin, Leva­xin, Nor­ton, Eutro­sig  and Oro­xine, which lea­ves nearly all patients with lin­ge­ring hypothy­roid symp­toms, inc­lu­ding one of the most com­mon one:  chro­nic on-going depression.

And a large body of doc­tors all around the world just don’t get it.

What brought this memory of my mother up in my mind? Because two days ago, I chat­ted with a gal on Synth­roid.   By all appea­ran­ces, she see­med to be doing well, as some will make you think.  She said she had enough energy, wasn’t losing her hair, and felt okay. But when I pro­bed dee­per, she admit­ted that her blood pres­sure was going too high (as hap­pe­ned to my mother on a T4-only med) and she had a pro­blem with depres­sion and was on Well­bu­trin.  Bingo.

See http://biopsychiatry.com/hypothyroidism.htm which is also here: http://www.theannals.com/cgi/content/abstract/34/10/1142

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

Miche­lle, 40-or-50-something, came over to my house today to go over some paper­work. I hadn’t taken my Armour yet, and I said “Excuse me, I need to pop my thy­roid meds under my tongue.”

“Oh, I take thy­roid meds, too.  Synth­roid” she explai­ned as she was wri­ting on the papers with her pencil.

Now when I hear something like that, being who I am, I’m like a bear in a china cabi­net who sud­denly smells honey.  So as not to overwhelm,  I casually say “Oh, I used be on Synth­roid.” And after a long pause while we are going over the paper­work, I say “Did you know there’s a world­wide patient revo­lu­tion going on against medi­ca­tions like Synthroid?”

At the point, she rai­ses her head in curiosity.

I then stick my paw in the honey: “You and I and millions have been put on meds like Synth­roid and then told we are “nor­mal” because the TSH says so. But all of us have con­ti­nuing symp­toms of hypothy­roi­dism.  It’s a lousy medication. ”

And when I laid out what those con­ti­nuing symp­toms were, her eyes got as big as sau­cers and she was sha­king her head up and down in recog­ni­tion. “Depres­sion, rising cho­les­te­rol and blood pres­sure, easy weight gain, fati­gue, less sta­mina than others, dry hair and skin, fee­ling cold, etc”, I told her.

And the most pro­found aspect of Miche­lle? She lives her life like the Ener­gi­zer Bunny, going and going and going. She told me she often doesn’t get home until 6 pm doing her job, and she clearly has a lot of pro­fes­sio­nal responsibilities.

But does an active Miche­lle mean that Synth­roid works and is just as good a thy­roid treat­ment as desic­ca­ted thy­roid? You know the ans­wer. She revea­led that she’s quite tired when she comes home, wishes she had more energy, and still has issues with her weight, even though she lost some when she got on Synthroid.

And rea­ding bet­ween the lines, it was clear that Miche­lle is pro­bably on an anti-depressant, a sta­tin, and a blood pres­sure medi­ca­tion.  And…she clearly has an adre­nal pro­blem that’s only going to get worse. She has a terri­ble time falling asleep at night (high cor­ti­sol), and is very sen­si­tive to light and noise (high or low cortisol).

Sud­denly it daw­ned on me. I am sit­ting across hun­dreds of millions of women, and some men. I am lis­te­ning to how millions live their lives – making a living, main­tai­ning a home, loving their spou­ses and chil­dren, inte­rac­ting with peo­ple.  But under­neath it all, it’s not a pretty pic­ture. They cope, and they cope again.  And they dish out their money for more medi­ca­tions to treat the very symp­toms cau­sed by an infe­rior medi­ca­tion. And as they age, they’ll pay each of their millions of pri­ces, just as my mother did, and as I was hea­ded.  Ener­gi­zer bun­nies with faulty batteries.

P.S. Barack Obama has a health care reform plan. Will it change the lives of those 50 million with thy­roid disease in the US, or will it only con­ti­nue this T4-only tra­vesty and health care scan­dal?  Are we hea­ded in the same insane direc­tion as the UK when it comes to T4-only?  Express your opinion.

Even 1 1/2 years ago, over 2000 pro­fes­sio­nals from a variety of dis­ci­pli­nes called the US Con­gress to end Fluo­ri­da­tion of water, citing it’s toxi­city and the decep­tion of put­ting it in our water. You can read their call to action here.

The impor­tance of this call lies in each of us with thy­roid disease, since fluo­ride is a KNOWN inhi­bi­tor of our thy­roid function.

As of Feb. 9^th, 2009, the Cou­rier Post Online of South Jer­sey has an exce­llent article on the pro­blem of our extreme expo­sure to fluo­ride.  This article cites the follo­wing facts:

1) 53 US cities rejec­ted fluo­ri­da­tion during our last Novem­ber elec­tion
2) Inges­ted fluo­ride can damage kid­ney patients, bones, the thy­roid gland, high water drin­kers, and children’s teeth
3) Stu­dies lin­king fluo­ride to can­cer and lowe­red IQ are plau­si­ble.
4) In 2007, the Bri­tish Medi­cal Jour­nal indi­ca­ted that fluo­ri­da­tion never was pro­ven safe or effec­tive and may be unethi­cal.
5) Health Canada says the govern­ment should cut the recom­men­ded amount in drin­king water, encou­rage the use of low-fluoride tooth­paste by chil­dren and have makers of infant for­mula reduce levels.

I per­so­nally made a point to stop using any tooth­paste with Fluo­ride a few years ago.  I also sup­ple­ment with iodine, since fluo­ride dis­pla­ces iodine levels. Sadly, I still love iced tea, which con­tains fluo­ride.  But YOU can avoid more fluo­ride expo­sure by fin­ding a way to get off anti-depressants and osteo­po­ro­sis medi­ca­tions which con­tain fluo­ride, and that is espe­cially pos­si­ble when you are opti­mal with Armour desic­ca­ted thy­roid in pre­sence of strong adre­nals or opti­mal cor­ti­sol supplementation.