blood pressure tags

I’ve been sit­ting back silently, rea­ding all the bac­klash that star­ted with Newsweek’s Best Life or Risky Advice May 30^th article, a cri­ti­cal analy­sis of Oprah’s mul­ti­ple pro­gram topics of Wish Away Can­cer! Get A Lunch­time Face-Lift! Era­di­cate Autism! Turn Back The Clock! Thin Your Thighs! Cure Meno­pause! Har­ness Posi­tive Energy! Erase Wrin­kles! Banish Obe­sity! Live Your Best Life Ever!

And gran­ted, some of the cri­ti­cism seems jus­ti­fied.

Even thy­roid patients win­ced and squir­med when Oprah sta­ted that a month long Hawaiian vaca­tion and eating fresh foods with soy milk were a great way to treat her thy­roid con­di­tion.  Uh huh.   Patients equally gag­ged at her sup­port of Dr. Chris­tiane North­rup who made the the nutty insen­si­tive com­ment that our thy­roid pro­blems were due to an “energy bloc­kage in the throat region, the result of a life­time of ‘swa­llo­wing’ words one is aching to say.”

But the ensuing array of blog posts and artic­les follo­wing in the foots­teps of the News­week cri­ti­cism of Oprah has pre­sen­ted quite an irony for thy­roid patients whose lives have been chan­ged thanks to natu­ral desic­ca­ted thy­roid. Adjec­ti­ves and/or desc­rip­tions of Oprah in these blogs and artic­les have included:

* dan­ge­rous

* pedd­ling alter­na­tive treat­ments that are ineffective

* fai­ling to pre­sent scien­ti­fic evidence

* fai­ling to lis­ten to bona fide, medi­cal school trai­ned,  medi­cal professionals

* being too gulli­ble about the so-called wis­dom and know­ledge of cer­tain patients (ala Suzanne Somers)

* fai­ling to give more atten­tion to science-based, sta­tus quo, mains­tream medicine

Any of the above sound fami­liar? Yup, it sure does.

How many times have thy­roid patients been told that desic­ca­ted thy­roid like Armour or Natu­reth­roid was dan­ge­rous, or rai­sing it by symp­toms rather than the TSH was dan­ge­rous. Or it’s dan­ge­rous to use because you’ll get heart pro­blems and oste­ro­po­ro­sis. Yet thy­roid patients on desic­ca­ted thy­roid have their lives CHANGED, with stron­ger hearts and inc­rea­sed bone density.

How many patients have had their doc­tors tell them that desic­ca­ted was inef­fec­tive as an alter­na­tive out-dated pro­duct, yet these same patients star­ted to LIVE again with relief from old symp­toms from this inef­fec­tive “alter­na­tive” medi­ca­tion that grandma once used.

How many artic­les by medi­cal pro­fes­sio­nals are there who claim that there’s no scien­ti­fic evi­dence to prove that desic­ca­ted thy­roid is effec­tive, in spite of CLEAR obser­va­tion and reports of a huge and gro­wing body of thy­roid patients and cer­tain doc­tors around the world about relief from depres­sion, lowe­red cho­les­te­rol, bet­ter blood pres­sure, weight main­te­nance, hair regrowth, bet­ter sta­mina, less sick­ness and a myriad of other improvements!

How many bona fide, medi­cal school trai­ned,  medi­cal pro­fes­sio­nals told us ad nau­seum that our symp­toms were not thy­roid rela­ted (when they were), that we are “nor­mal” because the TSH lab test says so (when we were far from it), that desic­ca­ted thy­roid is out­da­ted, unre­lia­ble, inef­fec­tive, and a ten ton load of other ridi­cu­lous com­ments from bona fide, medi­cal school trai­ned,  medi­cal professionals. 

How many doc­tors have told patients that they should NOT lis­ten to other patients on the inter­net or Stop the Thy­roid Mad­ness because patients can’t pos­sibly have any wis­dom or know what they are tal­king about. Yet, lo and behold, it’s been patients and what they have lear­ned who have star­ted a wide-reaching revo­lu­tion for bet­ter thy­roid treat­ment that works, and a gro­wing body of doc­tors are listening!

And how many times has science-based, sta­tus quo, mains­tream medi­cine com­ple­tely rui­ned the lives of thy­roid patients because many doc­tors are too lazy to dare ques­tion or think outside the phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal, medi­cal school box.

Yup, Oprah has made some blun­ders, gaf­fes and mis­judg­ments as out­li­ned in the News­week article.  She has gushed too quickly when North­rup opens her mouth or Oz walks in with his sur­gi­cal garb.  But isn’t it a bit iro­nic that some of the cri­ti­cism by others towards Oprah are the same blun­ders, gaf­fes and mis­judg­ments which most any thy­roid patient has heard about their use of desic­ca­ted thy­roid, and which has all been COMPLETELY wrong.

Bot­tom line, for every mis­take and mis­judg­ment Oprah has made – and CLEARLY she has done so in her unders­tan­ding of thy­roid treat­ment — she just might be ope­ning the doors to medi­cal truth, somewhere, somehow, bet­ween it all.

Janie

One of many dis­co­ve­ries made by thy­roid patients is that “nor­mal” lab results don’t tell the whole story. And thy­roid and adre­nal patient advo­cate Vale­rie Tay­lor sure found out the hard way while dea­ling with wor­se­ning muscle spasms and weakness.

“I have been to at least 6 doc­tors over the past seven years and read thou­sands of web­si­tes, hun­ting for the cause of my severe muscle spasms”, explains Vale­rie. “They all ruled out potas­sium, a poten­tially likely cause,  because my serum lab result, 4.2, was right smack in the middle of the nor­mal range.”

So Vale­rie was for­ced to live with her wor­se­ning muscle issues– spasms, weak­ness and pain – because all labs were nor­mal and those that weren’t, didn’t per­tain.  Even her insulin-dependent Type 2 Dia­be­tes was well-controlled. And she knew it was all threa­te­ning to put her out of work as a pet groo­mer.  It was bleak.

But a sur­pri­sing change was to come.

“About 2 months ago,” says Vale­rie, “someone on one of my groups men­tio­ned potas­sium hel­ping with fluid reten­tion – the lat­ter I’ve had for the last 15 years and took  Dya­zide, a potas­sium spa­ring diu­re­tic.”

She also lear­ned about get­ting an RBC (red blood cell) potas­sium lab as it shows what’s inside the cells rather than in serum (as usual labs show).  And the results? It came back LOW.

Vale­rie has since wor­ked her way up to 2850 mg. Potas­sium in a combo of chlo­ride and gluconate…and below, in her own words, are the results:

• No more muscle spasms and the weak­ness and pain is lea­ving more daily!
• My IBS sud­denly STOPPED!
• My insu­lin needs are HALF what they were before this sup­ple­ment, and blood pres­sure & pulse are both down.
• ALL fluid reten­tion is gone! I drop­ped 18 pounds the first month in just fluid weight.

Vale­rie is currently wai­ting for lab results to see if she needs to adjust further.

She conc­lu­des: I have since lear­ned that being hypothy­roid cau­ses potas­sium los­ses, as does ANY ste­roid which I had been on for neces­sary adre­nal sup­port. Dia­be­tes with a low carb diet also pre­dis­po­ses us to lose intra­ce­llu­lar potas­sium into the serum which is pro­bably why my serum labs loo­ked nor­mal in the face of extreme shor­tage. I hope many will see this and at the very least get RBC potas­sium labs done and if you have high BP or fluid reten­tion, reach for potas­sium before a diuretic!

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Even without being ins­pi­red by Valerie’s dis­co­very, there is good research out there for eating potas­sium rich foods, or like Vale­rie, using sup­ple­men­ta­tion if your levels are low.  The LA Times repor­ted a study which sta­ted that con­su­ming twice as much potas­sium as sodium might halve your risk of dying from car­dio­vas­cu­lar disease,  sta­ted by epi­de­mio­lo­gist Paul Whel­ton, pre­si­dent and chief exe­cu­tive of the Loyola Uni­ver­sity Health Sys­tem in Chi­cago and one of the authors of the study.

Here’s a list of potas­sium rich foods: http://www.hoptechno.com/bookfoodsourceK.htm

Here’s a list of symp­toms of low potas­sium: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/signs-and-symptoms-of-low-potassium.html

And remem­ber: ask your doc­tor to do an Red Blood Cell Potas­sium lab rather than simply serum. And don’t go as high as Vale­rie with sup­ple­men­ta­tion unless you have proof of low potassium.

P.S. Mag­ne­sium helps pump sodium out of your cells, and potas­sium into the cells – a good rea­son to get mag­ne­sium tes­ted as well. 

*Want to be infor­med of my blog posts? Curious what’s on my mind? Use the Noti­fi­ca­tions to the left and below the links.

*What is your expe­rience with the newly for­mu­la­ted Armour? Found a way to get around the pro­blems? Express your opi­nion in the May 7^th blog post!

Update to the below: it was brought to my atten­tion that taking a second BP rea­ding is usually always lower any­way. Ah, I thought, that’s correct! So to test this infor­ma­tion based on research, I went back last night before bed­time. First took my BP with my arm in the upper correct posi­tion. Then the second time, took it with my arm down.

138/89 (up per­pen­di­cu­lar to body; level with heart) pulse 80
146/100 (arm down) pulse 82

The second did NOT go down. It went UP! Interesting.

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Last week, I had found my blood pres­sure quite high for me! Upper 140’s and some 150’s for my Sys­to­lic, and upper 90’s and lower 100’s for my Dias­to­lic.   Stage One hyper­ten­sion!  I was pretty sure my 4 grains may sud­denly be a tad too high since ente­ring meno.  My temps and hear­trate implied that, too.

I got off Armour for two days to use up some excess, got back on one, then on 2 grains multi-dosed.  My plan is to make my way back up to 3 1/2 grains by a week or slightly more…and see.

In the mean­time, I have been using some blood pres­sure lowe­ring sup­ple­ments (high dose potas­sium, grape seed extract, Braggs Apple Cider Vine­gar in juice, more CoQ10 than nor­mal, plus my regu­lar sup­ple­ments).  I was more faith­ful to my tread­mill wal­king (thanks to an April that still thinks it’s win­ter), and medi­ta­ting. The lat­ter two defi­ni­tely hel­ped lower both the Sys­to­lic and Dias­to­lic, even if not low enough for my ideal.

For the last five days, my BP rea­dings have still been too high. All those days, I had been sea­ted on our couch. I put a pillow in my lap, laying my arm on that pillow, which meant my arm was slightly down­ward.  Some­ti­mes my wrist would hang off the pillow.

Today, I deci­ded I wan­ted to test something I have read. Namely, it’s actually quite impor­tant how you place your arm. The recom­men­ded way is pla­cing your arm per­pen­di­cu­lar to your body and at the height of your heart or a tad higher, all while com­for­ta­ble res­ting on something.  Elbow can be fle­xed, but your arm must still be per­pen­di­cu­lar to your body and about heart height or slightly higher.

Below are four of my most recent after­noon BP rea­dings with pulse: two with the Left arm, then two with the Right arm.

L:  139/106   98  (arm han­ging down and res­ting on sea­ted leg)
L:  122/88 89  (arm up, per­pen­di­cu­lar to my body, sup­por­ted by pillows)
R:  141/87     92  (arm han­ging down and res­ting on pillow)
R:  123/85 89 (arm up, per­pen­di­cu­lar to my body, sup­por­ted by pillows)

What you should note is that the first L rea­ding, and the first R rea­ding, were with the arm rela­xed on a pillow but lower than my heart.  The second of each is with the arm on two pillows, put­ting it per­pen­di­cu­lar to my heart,  with elbow fle­xed, and all of arm com­ple­tely supported.

I was shoc­ked! Put­ting my arms in what research is saying is the CORRECT posi­tion gave me much bet­ter rea­dings. I am VERY plea­sed with the 122 and 123.  Much bet­ter. And though the 88 and 83 Dias­to­lics are not to my liking yet, and tell me I need more work, the dif­fe­rence bet­ween the arm posi­tions was stunning.…as is the dif­fe­rence in what I’ve been get­ting for five days.

*Want to be infor­med of the STTM blog pos­tings?? Curious what’s on my mind? Just use the Noti­fi­ca­tions to the left at the bot­tom of the links. 

**Are you in the US and want to help make sure we don’t end up like the UK, having our Armour taken away?? In the post below, I have given you SEVEN STEPS that I hope you will follow through on!  YOU can make a dif­fe­rence.

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. 

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.