book tags

You might have already known about her, but it was only a few days ago when I found out that the effer­ves­cent Jane Pau­ley, for­mer host of the The Today Show and Date­line NBC, has had cer­tain medi­cal strug­gles in her life­time. They have inc­lu­ded hives (trea­ted with ste­roids), depres­sion (trea­ted with an anti-depressant), a bip0lar disor­der (trea­ted with lithium), and the autoim­mune thy­roid disease called Hashi­mo­tos (trea­ted with Levoxyl).

Hives are sud­den small rai­sed bumps which can mass into patches, and are often itchy and mise­ra­ble.  Bipo­lar, also called Manic Depres­sive Disor­der, invol­ves swings bet­ween extreme mania (exci­ted, ener­ge­tic) follo­wed by depres­sion (extreme sad­ness or lowe­red res­ponse to life).

And all the above four issues made me pause.  Con­si­der the following:

1. Hives have not only been lin­ked to hashi­mo­tos disease, they have both been suc­cess­fully trea­ted with the most bri­lliant medi­ca­tion for hypothy­roi­dism ever crea­ted: natu­ral desic­ca­ted thy­roid. That hea­ling con­nec­tion was revea­led by the belo­ved Dr. David Derry of Canada here.  Hives is also men­tio­ned as a lin­ge­ring hypothy­roid symp­tom while on T4 meds which went away with desic­ca­ted thyroid.

2) Depres­sion is all too com­mon for those with undiag­no­sed hypothy­roi­dism (thanks to the lousy TSH lab test) or under­trea­ted thy­roid disease (thanks to the lousy T4-only meds like Levoxyl which pro­mo­tes depres­sion and other lin­ge­ring symp­toms). Many patients report a reso­lu­tion of their depres­sion with desic­ca­ted thyroid.

3) Bi-polar can often be a mis­diag­no­sis for Hashi­mo­tos disease, since the lat­ter can cause the same swings. Even without Hashi’s, bipo­lar and other men­tal health issues can be a com­mon mani­fes­ta­tion of low cor­ti­sol aka adre­nal fati­gue, also cau­sed by undiag­no­sed hypo because of the TSH, or under­trea­ted hypothy­roi­dism with T4.  At the very least, bipo­lar can be a com­mon mani­fes­ta­tion of a hypothalamus-pituitary – adre­nals (HPA) axis dys­re­gu­la­tion, again com­mon with those undiag­no­sed or under­trea­ted hypothyroidism.

4) Lithium, iro­ni­cally, is a known cause of hypothy­roi­dism, only making one’s thy­roid situa­tion worse, as well as pro­mo­ting poten­tial adre­nal fati­gue and low cortisol.

Now gran­ted, Jane’s big four of hives, depres­sion, bipo­lar, and thy­roid disease could be coin­ci­den­tal.  But there’s so much con­nec­tion in one way or another bet­ween them that you are left won­de­ring if she’s been a vic­tim of mis­diag­no­sis and under­treat­ment just like hun­dreds of millions of us thanks to labs and medi­ca­tions which do not work. And she may need a good doc­tor to be ree­va­lua­ted, besi­des put on desic­ca­ted thy­roid and dis­co­ver what patients have lear­ned about bet­ter treatment.

And on another note: I fear it’s going to take someone just as power­ful, and as stric­ken with health issues which could be rela­ted,  as Jane Pau­ley is, to FINALLY break open the pro­found and des­truc­tive media silence about this scan­dal of thy­roid treat­ment diag­no­sis and treat­ment which has left hun­dreds of millions SICK with pro­found sto­ries,  and is the very rea­son Stop the Thy­roid Mad­ness exists. Do we dare hope? We’ll see.

Do you have a simi­lar story of men­tal health issues that ended up being con­nec­ted to your thy­roid and/or adre­nal state? Use the Com­ment form and let’s talk. Who knows – maybe Jane will see this, pon­der, and become far bet­ter edu­ca­ted like we’ve had to become!

*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!

The news this mor­ning about Oprah made me pause.

Yes, it’s being announ­ced today that there will be no more Oprah Win­frey Show on CBS after Fall of next year.  She’s saying goodbye. And the rumor is that she will move her talk show to The Oprah Win­frey Net­work, which repla­ces the Dis­co­very Health Chan­nel. We’ll see when she for­mally announ­ces it today on her show.

But the change sure does shine a bright spot­light on a colos­sal and com­plete fai­lure by Oprah and The Oprah Win­frey Show for hun­dreds of millions of thy­roid patients. Though she had her own bout with thy­roid disease (and may still be dea­ling with it when you con­si­der her weight issues), we all win­ced a year ago when she sta­ted that a month long Hawaiian vaca­tion and eating fresh foods with soy milk (a goi­tro­gen) were a great way to treat her thy­roid con­di­tion. Yikes.   We equally squir­med in our seats when Dr. Chris­tiane North­rup made the 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.” Dou­ble yikes.

And since then, we have watched nothing, zilch, zero from Oprah and The Opray Win­frey Show about a horren­dous 55-year medi­cal scan­dal of thy­roid treat­ment that has nega­ti­vely affec­ted the lives of hun­dreds of millions of thy­roid patients world­wide. T4-only meds like Synth­roid, the dar­ling medi­ca­tion of the medi­cal com­mu­nity for hypothy­roi­dism treat­ment, has left hun­dreds of millions sick.  The TSH lab test has equally sent us to hell.  Because we have been for­ced to live with con­ti­nuing symp­toms of hypothy­roi­dism, we’ve endu­red much more tes­ting and have been put on many other medi­ca­tions to ban­daid our con­ti­nuing symp­toms. And a majo­rity of us have had to deal with the addi­tio­nal bur­den of adre­nal fati­gue thanks to all the above.

It’s been hell, Oprah. But you never lis­te­ned.  So for me per­so­nally, I could care less what you do now. You’ve let millions of us down.

********************************

On a far bet­ter note:  Last night’s Thy­roid Patient Com­mu­nity Call on Talkshoe was exce­llent. From thyroid/adrenal patient Vale­rie Tay­lor, who is abso­lu­tely one of the most know­led­gea­ble patients in the world about adre­nals and RT3, we gai­ned good infor­ma­tion how it rai­ses its ugly head when you have high or low cor­ti­sol, low B12, low ferri­tin and other untrea­ted issues, and how to treat it. You can go back to Talkshoe and lis­ten to the broad­cast, which was Epi­sode 7.  See my blog post right below this. As far as future Talkshoe Com­mu­nity Calls: they will always be announ­ced here first.

Below that, you’ll read how cellu­lose as a filler just may be a huge pro­blem in natu­ral desic­ca­ted thy­roid meds. But we are also dis­co­ve­ring that a good desic­ca­ted thy­roid like Natu­reth­roid, even with its cellu­lose, can seem even worse if we have undis­co­ve­red and untrea­ted issues like low B12, low Vit. A, low ferri­tin, low Vit. D and other con­di­tions com­mon with hypothy­roi­dism.  Make sure you have tes­ted for these.

*HO HO HO! Have a STTM book sent to someone  you care about as a CHRISTMAS or HOLIDAY pre­sent. All the work is done for you!

In 2002, when I first got on desic­ca­ted thy­roid and it abso­lu­tely chan­ged my life, it hap­pe­ned to be the brand name called Armour by Forest Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals.  And I swoo­ned.  You could do it sublin­gually (even if it wasn’t made that way), and I prai­sed Armour for that. So did other patients after we spread the word on patient groups, on the STTM web­site and in the Stop the Thy­roid Mad­ness book.

My fond­ness for Armour did not take away my prai­ses for other presc­rip­tion brands, though, inc­lu­ding Natu­reth­roid or Westh­roid by RLC Labs.  I simply made a doe-eyed com­mit­ment to Armour for my per­so­nal treat­ment because you could do it sublin­gually. I have also used the name “Armour” interchan­geably to repre­sent all good desic­ca­ted thy­roid products.

But because of a suc­ces­sion of three events, I think it’s time to give back my going-steady ring.

The first blow to my romance with Armour cen­te­red around the extreme tight-lipped sec­recy from Forest when the refor­mu­la­tion of Armour began. We can sur­mise the trou­ble begin in 2007 when patients were fin­ding Armour in the lar­ger sizes to be sud­denly inef­fec­tive.  For the entire year of 2008, sup­plies were extre­mely limi­ted and only the one grain size or lower could be found, if at all.  Patients were worried and unhappy.  I even sup­por­ted Forest in my blog posts, assu­ring patients that everything would be fine.  But Forest said prac­ti­cally nothing. Why was and is Forest mum about why this was happening ?

The second blow to our courtship was the change to the “refor­mu­la­ted” Armour. Sud­denly, patients find that doing Armour sublin­gually was a thing of the past. Now all we get is a never-ending chalky pasty resi­due.  Addi­tio­nally, many patients have been repor­ting that the amount of Armour that once remo­ved all symp­toms, was now brin­ging them back.  Huh?? In spite of an appa­rent draw­back in some batches in 2007, why would Forest take an effec­tive pro­duct and change it?

And the third and final straw to my affair of the heart? I made a phone call to Forest using the same 800 num­ber you all can use. That was Tues­day, May 5^th. My intent was to ask about the word anhy­drous which is now after the ingre­dient dex­trose in the Armour ingre­dients lis­ting. (It means that all mois­ture has been with­drawn, but I wan­ted to con­firm the details for the brands page.)  When I reached the repre­sen­ta­tive for Forest, and after she asked my name and I gave it (oops),  the tune of the con­ver­sa­tion chan­ged.  She said she could not ans­wer my ques­tion since I own a public web­site, and would have to inform the “Media group” from Forest, and they would call me back. When I asked when, the ans­wer was a vague as Synth­roid is in trea­ting hypothy­roi­dism i.e. she didn’t know. I even called back the next day to get the same drib­ble.   Why have repre­sen­ta­ti­ves on the Forest hot­line been ins­truc­ted not to ans­wer a sim­ple ques­tion from someone like myself,  and I still have not recei­ved a phone call from Forest?

Sob.  Yup, brea­king up is hard to do, but a gal can only take so much strange betra­yal, tight-lipped silence…and igno­ring a sim­ple ques­tion from someone who has done a LOT to put money in their poc­kets out of extreme gra­ti­tude. Besi­des, there’s another phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal cour­ting me at my door:  RLC Labs. Thank good­ness there are other fish in the sea.

When I work up this mor­ning and later got on my com­pu­ter, I read an email which infor­med me that Dr.  Jef­frey Dach had revie­wed the Stop the Thy­roid Mad­ness book in a sur­prise article which came out today: www.opednews.com/articles/A-Review-of-Stop-the-Thyro-by-Jeffrey-Dach-090218 – 801.html

Yes, I write on the same site, yet had no idea he was going to do this…

You can also see my res­ponse to his review, on his blog, here: http://jeffreydach.com/2009/02/06/stop-the-thyroid-madness-by-jamie-bowthorpe.aspx#Comment

Hum­ble thanks, Dr. Dach.  With the sha­red expe­rien­ces of thou­sands of hypothy­roid patients around the world, I clim­bed a steep moun­tain to get that book out – a labor of love and the firm com­mit­ment to edu­cate patients because of a medi­cal com­mu­nity which has been kee­ping us sick.  Stop the Thy­roid Madness!

(Want to be noti­fied of my blog posts? Curious what’s on my mind? Use Noti­fi­xious to be infor­med. Look on the bot­tom left of the links where you can sign up. )

Recently, after we watched a semi-scary movie about being suc­ke­red, a friend brought up my blog post of last July where I desc­ri­bed a terrifyingly-real horror movie.

The plot: stun­ningly con­vince hun­dreds of millions of indi­vi­duals world­wide that what is obvious, isn’t. i.e. it’s all in your head, you are ade­qua­tely trea­ted on Synth­roid, Levoxyl, Eltro­xin, Nor­ton, et al,  and not only that, we’ll ban­daid your con­ti­nuing pro­blems with more medi­ca­tions.

A second plot: also com­ple­tely hood­wink those with top notch higher medi­cal edu­ca­tions and expe­rience by chur­ning out the the exact same poppy­cock, and reward their stu­pi­dity with gifts.

The cen­tral villian: Big Pharma, follo­wed by the doc­tors who bought the lie

Exactly a year ago this month, Science Daily came out with an article, citing two York Uni­ver­sity researchers who esti­ma­ted that the U.S. phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal industry spends almost twice as much on pro­mo­tion as it does on research and deve­lop­ment, con­trary to the industry’s claim. In other words, the researchers esti­ma­ted that $57.5 billion in US dollars was spent on phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal pro­mo­tion in 2004 – the year they were stud­ying. Yes, I said BILLION.

Brea­king that down, Big Pharma spent appro­xi­ma­tely $61,000 per phy­si­cian in pro­mo­tion of their pro­ducts.  And they conc­lu­ded that both figu­res were UNDE­Res­ti­ma­tes.  In other words, they conc­lu­ded that the US phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal industry is marketing-driven rather than “life-saving”.

And adding fuel to the fire: most doc­tors believe every thrust of that mar­ke­ting. I recently par­ti­ci­pa­ted in com­ments with other won­der­ful patients in res­ponse to a DO/Endocrinologist, Dr. Tho­mas Repas, who has clearly bought the Big Pharma mar­ke­ting when it comes to levothy­ro­xine. You can read his posts and our com­ments here, here, and here.   Dr. Repas is exactly the kind of doc­tor who has  sta­rred in our horror movie, and the kind of doc­tor that patients have lamen­ted about for years.  Read the  Give Me a Break list of com­ments made by doc­tors, as well as further com­ments on the January 1^st blog.

But Dr. Repas is in good com­pany. Doc­tors have belie­ved the Big Pharma lie about T4-only medi­ca­tions, and against desic­ca­ted thy­roid like Armour, Natu­reth­roid, etc. for 50 years.  In the patient-to-patient  Stop the Thy­roid Mad­ness book, you can read about the first table­ting of Synth­roid in 1955 and the stra­te­gic and suc­cess­ful pro­mo­tion of T4-only, in spite of the fact that T4 was known to be uns­ta­ble for decades.

And today, more than 50 years later, very few of us have been untouched by the Big Pharma push for levothy­ro­xine T4-only treat­ment.  My own mother was suc­ke­red, and I was suc­ke­red.  And until patients star­ted to make a huge push for desic­ca­ted thy­roid treat­ment the last few years, nearly every sin­gle doc­tor around the world had been suckered.

We still have a way to go. But we’ll get there, bit by bit.