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Dumb as boards; blind as bats

I use those phra­ses often. I can’t help it. Because it’s exactly what doc­tors are when it comes to thy­roid treat­ment. It’s APPALLING.

Yes­ter­day, I had the first of two book sig­nings. It was announ­ced in the paper, and I wasn’t sure what the tur­nout would be. I shouldn’t have won­de­red. It was a great tur­nout. Peo­ple are GETTING IT that there is SOMETHING WRONG with their treat­ment. Around me stood seve­ral women, all still on T4 (Synth­roid, Levoxyl, et al), and ALL suf­fe­ring. All but one woman had weight pro­blems. Seve­ral had rising cho­les­te­rol. Some admit­ted to being on anti-depressants. Some obviously had adre­nal fati­gue. And ALL were being told by their doc­tors that their thy­roid treat­ment was now “nor­mal”. Where can I go beat my head against the wall?????? They were eager to get the book and the know­ledge it con­tai­ned to change their lives!

So far, the book has been sent to Nor­way, Ice­land, Bel­gium, UK, Aus­tria, Swe­den, Swi­tzer­land, Ire­land, Aus­tra­lia and Canada, besi­des all over the US. The STTM web­site star­ted the wheel to turn, and the book can only move it fas­ter. And add it to other thy­roid books which had begun to men­tion the truth (Broda Bar­nes being the first) as well as other groups and web­si­tes — we’ll even­tually knock some SENSE and SIGHT in doc­tors, don’t you think?

The Stop the Thy­roid Mad­ness book, the bible of correct thy­roid and adre­nal treat­ment, by patients for patients, can be orde­red here.

P.S. I live near one town which ser­ves a popu­la­tion of nearly 35,000 peo­ple, and near another of over 4000 peo­ple, and there are plenty of doc­tors around here. Yet, there is not ONE doc­tor in this area that “gets it”. I sym­pathize with YOU if you are in the same boat.


  • Want to keep track of these “fringe web­site” blog posts? ;-) Curious what’s on Janie’s mind? Use the noti­fi­ca­tion on the lower left of the links, called a News­let­ter, or an RSS Feed.
  • The extre­mely hip and sophis­ti­ca­ted STTM t-shirts are half price! Great BUMPER STICKERS, too. Spread the word – YOU may make a dif­fe­rence in someone’s life.
  • Check out the patient-to-patient book with even more detail (and which doc­tors seem to res­pect more than websites).
  • Need to unders­tand all your best options for thy­roid treat­ment? Go here.
  • Keep infor­med of each live Thy­roid Patient Com­mu­nity Call on Talkshoe by sig­ning up as a follo­wer.

If this is normal, I’m not impressed

I have a 40-something rela­tive who I’ve been get­ting to know bet­ter lately. When she found out I had writ­ten the STTM book, she got a copy and read it. Her eyes were appa­rently wide as to what she was rea­ding, espe­cially the Thy­roid Sti­mu­la­ting Hooey chap­ter. Turns out she has had fati­gue pro­blems for at least 14 years, right after her daugh­ter was born. And it shows in her eyes and demea­nor. But that’s not all. She’s con­ti­nually gai­ned weight all these years, even though she eats like a bird, and enough depres­sion to warrant an anti-depressant. She was also get­ting worried about her cho­les­te­rol. Typi­cal hypothy­roid symptoms.

And worse (any­body iden­tify with this?), she’s been told she is NORMAL for 14 years!!! Why? Because the TSH lab result said so. Tal­king about it brings her to tears.

I sent her to a MUCH bet­ter and hope­ful doctor.

In 2006, the World Health Orga­ni­za­tion defi­ned health as a state of com­plete phy­si­cal, men­tal and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infir­mity. So…if you stuck “nor­mal” in front of that defi­ni­tion of health, as igno­rant doc­tors so rou­ti­nely tell us we are, it means that we have the symp­toms expec­ted of one who is in com­plete phy­si­cal, men­tal and social well-being. THEN WHY DON’T WE FEEL THAT WAY?????

Yes­si­rree, somewhere along the medi­cal pers­pec­tive time­line, the abi­lity to pay atten­tion to CLINICAL PRESENTATION ran right down the sewer. And with that loss has come HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS of patients world­wide with the schi­zoph­re­nic diag­no­sis of “nor­mal” with raging symp­toms thanks to ink spots on a piece of paper called the erro­neous TSH range. Exactly why this web­site is neces­sary, as is the book and YOUR demands for bet­ter treatment.

I was schi­zoph­re­ni­cally nor­mal for over 17 years. My rela­tive has been for 14. How about YOU?


  • Want to keep track of these “fringe web­site” blog posts? ;-) Curious what’s on Janie’s mind? Use the noti­fi­ca­tion on the lower left of the links, called a News­let­ter, or an RSS Feed.
  • The extre­mely hip and sophis­ti­ca­ted STTM t-shirts are half price! Great BUMPER STICKERS, too. Spread the word – YOU may make a dif­fe­rence in someone’s life.
  • Check out the patient-to-patient book with even more detail (and which doc­tors seem to res­pect more than websites).
  • Need to unders­tand all your best options for thy­roid treat­ment? Go here.
  • Keep infor­med of each live Thy­roid Patient Com­mu­nity Call on Talkshoe by sig­ning up as a follo­wer.

Patient experience in the doctor’s office makes you weep

I’m sick. I’m tired. I feel awful. I’ll go the my doc’s office for help.

We have all done it, filled with hope and pro­mise. I have done it!! Why not, since our doc­tor has had at least four years of medi­cal school trai­ning that we couldn’t fathom doing our­sel­ves, inc­lu­ding wor­king with patients under the super­vi­sion of licen­sed doc­tors, and 1 – 3 years of resi­dency follo­wing school. Oh and let’s not for­get the con­ti­nuing edu­ca­tion, besi­des expe­rience with thou­sands of patients before me.

I’m in good hands.

THUD. For thy­roid patients, it couldn’t be FARTHER from the truth. The expe­rience in the belo­ved doctor’s office has been nothing less than dis­mal, dis­gus­ting, and depressing.…and nothing more than pure malpractice.

Why? Because there’s not a thy­roid patient anywhere who hasn’t gone in with raging hypothy­roid symptoms…and 1) was dis­mis­sed, 2) told they nee­ded an anti-depressant/pain med/statin rather than bet­ter thy­roid treat­ment and/or 3) were told they were “nor­mal” simply because those ink spots called labs ‘said so.’ So we have left…sick, and for years.

Wha­te­ver hap­pe­ned to “cli­ni­cal presentation”????

And if you think that I am bar­king up the wrong tree, take heed. The follo­wing true story, which was rela­ted to me two days ago, is exactly like THOUSANDS we hear on this site every week:

I wal­ked into the Endo’s office, fee­ling awful. I had been told he was the best in the state and I knew he held a high posi­tion in the Uni­ver­sity. First, when I told him about my unre­len­ting brain fog, he dis­mis­sed it. When I told him my cho­les­te­rol keeps rising, he said I wasn’t eating correctly (I love veg­gies and eat fowl more than beef). When I told him my throat felt tight, he said it was a tem­po­rary inflam­ma­tion, take tyle­nol and it would pass. When I told him that I wan­ted a treat­ment with T3 in it like Armour to help my depres­sion, he laughed, saying there was no con­nec­tion bet­ween T3 and men­tal health. I left with my nor­mal script for 125 mcg Synth­roid, a pro­noun­ce­ment that I’m “nor­mal”, fee­ling crazy and stu­pid, moving to a sense of COMPLETE rage, and mostly, I felt like a com­plete fool for ever taking the time. What will hap­pen to me? I can only get worse with my symp­toms, which thanks to you site, I can now see are ALL hypo symp­toms. Will ANY doc­tor LISTEN TO ME???

I WEEP.


  • Want to keep track of these “fringe web­site” blog posts? ;-) Curious what’s on Janie’s mind? Use the noti­fi­ca­tion on the lower left of the links, called a News­let­ter, or an RSS Feed.
  • The extre­mely hip and sophis­ti­ca­ted STTM t-shirts are half price! Great BUMPER STICKERS, too. Spread the word – YOU may make a dif­fe­rence in someone’s life.
  • Check out the patient-to-patient book with even more detail (and which doc­tors seem to res­pect more than websites).
  • Need to unders­tand all your best options for thy­roid treat­ment? Go here.
  • Keep infor­med of each live Thy­roid Patient Com­mu­nity Call on Talkshoe by sig­ning up as a follo­wer.
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