cholesterol tags

As informed thyroid patients, we’ve all been talking about it in patient groups, blog posts, and amongst each other.  About.com’s Mary Shomon did a good write up in her blog post, and you can see one of several different Facebook group conversations here as well as the article and our comments after it, here.

And if you haven’t caught up with it all yet, here is a summary of the extremely sad misinformation and implications contained in an article of the latest issue in the Good Housekeeping magazine:

1. that the first step to diagnosing your potential hypothyroid problem is the use of the thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) lab test  (a test which informed patients worldwide exclaim has left them either undiagnosed for years or undertreated! http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/tsh-why-its-useless)
2. that your TSH may only point to hypothyroidism if it comes back at 10 or higher (Hogwash!! say informed thyroid patients, who have been hypothyroid with a TSH in the two’s! See above.)
3. that the only other tests you may need are the T4 and antibodies  (which informed patients have found is only PART of what you need, which needs to include the very important  free T3!  http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/recommended-labwork)
4. that it’s worthy to quote a Dr. Daniels who states ”There’s no compelling evidence that medication helps patients whose TSH is in the 5.0 to 10.0 range,”  (exactly the kind of doctor which nearly all informed thyroid patients state has kept them repeatly sick for years!  http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/give-me-a-break )
5. that if you have “other problems”, such as infertility or depression, your doctor might suggest medication (when, oh when, are doctors going to GET IT that depression and infertility are key symptoms of ongoing hypothyroidism!! http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/long-and-pathetic )
6. that T4 meds like Synthroid are T4 hormone are the go-to medication (and are the very medications which have kept patients sick, disabled, or with problematic hypothyroid symptoms  for  over 50 years! http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/t4-only-meds-dont-work )
7. that the “potency can vary” for desiccated thyroid…as if that’s a good reason to be concerned about its use  (potency is set in a predictable range and is made according to the strict guidance of  the United States Pharmacopeia , say the makers of desiccated thyroid, and desiccated thyroid has been changing lives ten fold for decades!  http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/natural-thyroid-101)
8. And last but not least…that you need to be on-guard about online patient information (yet wise and repeated “patient experience” has changed not only patient lives, but the way open-minded doctors are practicing in their own offices!! http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/things-we-have-learned 

All the above, appearing in what we all thought would be considered a long-standing good magazine, only underscores the irresponsibility and ignorance of the media about REAL LIFE!! Who wants to subscribe to any magazine, or listen in seriousness to any news program, talk show, or internet website that allows this kind of DARK AGES BALONEY on its pages??  I don’t.

P.S. One particularly personal tragedy is the author of this article, Susan Carlton. She is clearly hypothyroid, yet completely duped by the pharmaceutically-brainwashed medical field which clings blindly to a poor medication and inadequate labwork.  She is ALL OF US LOOKING AT OURSELVES all those years when we believed in the doctors we went to and emptied our pocketbooks to try and find out why we had depression, infertility, rising cholesterol and blood pressure, linger aches and pains, poor stamina and fatigue, weight gain, hair loss, anxiety…and so many more symptoms of undiagnosed or undertreated hypothyroidism. 

And sadly, how many of us also thought that actions similar to “drinking more java (for energy)”, or “honing crossword skills (for focus)” or attending a “spinning class”  (for our weight gain) was going to help us!  They didn’t help at all. They just sent us closer to adrenal dysfunction and disability.

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If you could speak to the author, Susan Carlton, in kindness and wisdom, what would you say to help her get past the brainwashing she is a victim to, as you were??

If you could speak to Good Housekeeping and all media like Oprah, CNN, MSNBC, ABC, FOX, what would you say about the repeated misinformation?

(4-30: Paula has informed me that you can download Dr. Myhill’s complete website to your computer via this zip file: www.drmyhill.co.uk.zip – Windows Live )

Today, it has been announced by the GMC (General Medical Council) of the UK that Dr. Sarah Myhill is now straitjacketed. She is forbidden to prescribe medications, is bound by other medical practice restrictions (see the details on the Support Dr. Myhill Facebook page), and most egregiously, has been ordered to remove parts of her website (thanks to Lethal Lee for pointing this out), some of which you will not see two weeks after I have posted this.

Why remove parts of her website? Because by daring to educate the public, especially if that education goes against “standard medical practice”, it seems to be deemed “harmful”. In other words, you as a patient are not allowed to discover, or are too “vulnerable to get it,  that there just might be a TOTALLY different story to the medical practice you are subjected to.

For example, here is part of a page on Dr. Myhill’s website which is completely correct, informative, and wise, and I want to see her words stay sharp and viewable, especially for thyroid patients. It fits our experience. The page is titled “Test results and what they mean”. If you want to be informed, read all the below.

http://www.drmyhill.co.uk/wiki/Category:Test_results_and_what_they_mean

Only too often people come to me with tests results which have not been properly interpreted. The reasons why this happens are as follows:

• Test results are flagged up and considered to be abnormal if they are outside the reference range, but one’s individual normal range is not the same as the population reference range. This is a particular problem in the interpretation of thyroid tests.
• Reference ranges for tests change. Reference ranges are based on random bloods from the population. The trouble is anyone following a Western lifestyle is not evolutionarily correct and many not normal! So labs change their reference ranges to adjust for this. So, for example, the normal range of a gamma GT used to be up to 36, it is now up to 70. This enzyme is induced by alcohol and prescription drugs and because so many people drink alcohol it is considered normal to run a high gamma GT! The lab I use has a normal reference range for thyroid hormone T4 of 12-22pmol/l but some labs give ranges of 5.6-17pmol/l!
• Tests are often incomplete. So someone with a thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) within reference range will be told they have no thyroid problem, when in fact one also needs a free T4 and a free T3 together with a clinical history to assess if there is a thyroid problem.
• Drug companies influence normal ranges. The normal range for cholesterol has come down steadily since statins have been such big money earners for Big Pharma.
• Incorrect breakdown of test results. Many people are prescribed statins on the basis of a single cholesterol level. This is faulty for many reas ons – firstly one needs a breakdown of good (HDL) and bad (LDL) cholesterol to get the ratio. If the ratio is not favourable then this is likely to be a symptom of arterial disease. Cholesterol lowering drugs are often irrelevant. See Cholesterol – the common causes of raised levels
• Results close to the limits of normal may be abnormal for that person. For example, a high normal bilirubin may mean Gilbert’s syndrome – this means someone is a poor detoxifier. A high mean corpuscular volume (MCV) could point to hypothyroidism, B12 or folic acid deficiency.
• Normal tests do not mean no pathology. A normal ECG at rest does not mean there is no heart disease, yet many people are told this is the case.
• Tests may ask the wrong question. So many people come to me with severe fatigue syndromes having been told nothing is wrong because all the tests are normal! But ask the right question and do Mitochondrial Function Profile and you find gross abnormalities with respect to energy supply at the cellular level.
• Tests for poisonings are particularly misleading. For years doctors have promoted levels of cholinesterase as a good test for organophosphate poisoning. It is a rotten test and misses the majority of cases! Much better would be Fat biopsy for pesticides or Volatile Organic Compounds

GOOD FOR YOU, Dr. Sarah Myhill!

I and many other thyroid patients, struggling to fight the inane thyroid treatment protocols, have a strong feeling that though this progressive doctor may be restricted as a physician, we’re going to hear a lot more good information from the courageous and wise Sarah Myhill.

Yup, we’re all heading in the same direction—being just a tad older every single year and getting that first mailing from AARP.  Yup.

And getting older increases the incidence of thyroid disease.

Even worse, those who acquire it at an older age are probably going to go through the same bunk and bull those younger have gone through–having depression, rising cholesterol, osteoporosis or ostepenia, weight gain, easy fatigue, couch potato syndrome, dry skin and hair, plus more–-all classic symptoms of undiagnosed or undertreated hypothyroidism.

But older folks are told it’s all just part of aging so here’s your latest tablet for your handy-dandy Wal Mart pill box.

I recently found a great blog by Pam whose Feb. 23rd, 2010 post is titled Older Women and Low Thyroid. She turned 65 in 2009 (and she looks a lot younger) and writes how she found herself with hypothyroid at a later age as well.  And Pam is WAY ahead of the game in her knowledge. She understands that most older folks are put on Synthroid (which can be a lousy way to treat hypothyroidism for many), that getting older means conversion from T4 to T3 can be more difficult,  that being on desiccated thyroid or T3-only just might be the better treatment, and you can get adrenal fatigue at an older age as well (thanks to poor treatment with T4, the TSH lab test, or being underdosed even on desiccated thyroid).

You can read Pam’s post here, as well as about the phone call from her friend who is 50 lbs overweight, has brain fog, is out of work, has no energy…and voila–is on Synthroid so it can’t POSSIBLY be her thyroid. Sad. In fact, what has happened to Pam’s friend is what I keep stating to those who feel they are just doing peachy on T4: watch out, because as you age, the truth about T4 will reveal itself!

Pam, I love your blog posts, and I’m going to hope to see more of those in the “venerable age range” be just as wise as you are!!

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FDA HAS MADE A STATEMENT ABOUT NATURAL DESICCATED THYROID: Just before I was going to plop into my bed for the evening, I checked my notifications to discover that right on the FDA website and their 2010 Drug Shortages page (3rd column up from bottom), it states: Forest reports manufacturing issues involving the raw material and RLC reports increased demand. FDA has not ordered Forest or RLC to remove these thyroid (desiccated) tablets from the market. BINGO. I’ve been waiting for this for months, because though websites and groups were formed last year as if we needed to “rescue” desiccated thyroid from being banned, I couldn’t join the fearful rally of a few because my gut was telling me something quite different.  And a few others, I discovered, had the same feeling.  And hooray! Our guts were right on!

Does this mean the FDA “gets it” about desiccated thyroid? Maybe, or maybe not. Yes, their timing WAS awful last year with Time Caps Labs, right when we were starting a shortage. And there does appear to be some kind of future requirement “proving” the safety and efficacy of dess. thyroid–two things we ALREADY KNOW from 110 years of safe and effective use. Duhhh on the FDA. But it’s FAR more hopeful now, and realistic, and will hopefully promote more reasonable thinking from now on.

Onward and upward, folks.

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Naturethroid is coming back in pharmacies all over the US! See the blog post below or here for information about  the “new” Naturethroid.

(If you are reading this via the Newsletter email notification, just click on the title of this blog post to come directly to the site where you can Comment).

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!

I have been driving all day, bringing my husband back home after serious hand surgery yesterday. And while I was away from the computer, I received the below via the Contact Me form of STTM, written by Mary Budinger for the Arizona Net News journal, September 16, 2009:

Dr. Mark Starr’s office team wanted to send over a portion of an article just written for an Arizona health magazine:

Desiccated thyroid from pigs is a bio-identical, complete hormone preparation, containing the entire spectrum of thyroid hormones including T4, T3, T2, and T1 that are in the human thyroid gland.

Current FDA approved thyroid medications include Synthroid, Unithroid, Levoxyl, and Levothyroxine (all only contain T4), and Cytomel (only T3). These hormones are synthetic and contain only a portion of the thyroid’s hormones.

Dr. Mark Starr of Phoenix, Arizona, said patients have called him, frantic that desiccated thyroid is unavailable. “It is so key to my practice, I have enough for my patients. So far, it appears that when supply catches up with demand in a few months, the shortage will be over.”

Dr. Starr is the author of “Hypothyroidism-Type 2.” He said synthetic thyroid acts energetically differently in the body. “All living things have a right spin, and synthetic medications have a left spin. The desiccated thyroid is better tolerated.”

Dr. Broda Barnes did a study that revealed a relative intolerance to a synthetic thyroid product containing T3 and T4 (Thyrolar). One-fifth of the patients who had done well on desiccated thyroid developed rapid heart beats and palpitations when switched to Thyrolar. Dr. Barnes also did a major research study on desiccated thyroid that involved thousands of patients over 30 years; it showed a 94 percent reduction in the number of expected heart attacks. This study is the subject of the 1976 book “Solved: The Riddle of Heart Attacks.”

Lipitor is the best selling drug in the world. But for the first half of the 20th century, desiccated thyroid was the standard treatment for high cholesterol. Elevated cholesterol and triglycerides are one of the myriad symptoms of hypothyroidism. Dr. Barnes’ book included a chapter entitled “The Demise of the Cholesterol Theory.” Desiccated thyroid normalized cholesterol and triglycerides in 95% of the patients Dr. Barnes treated. The 5% who had persistently elevated levels had no increased incidence of heart attacks. Desiccated thyroid therapy also resolved a long list of other hypothyroid symptoms such as fatigue, cold intolerance, joint and muscle pain, dry skin, inability to lose weight, headaches, and menstrual problems. One of the most important benefits that Dr. Barnes demonstrated in studies on both animals and his patients was that desiccated thyroid increases immunity and allows the body to fight off infections. As we come into swine flu season, this is particularly important.”

Dr. Starr, I love the way you put it: “All living things have a right spin, and synthetic medications have a left spin. The desiccated thyroid is better tolerated.” And that’s exactly why the website Stop the Thyroid Madness exists–patients all over the world have found out what a far better “right spin” treatment desiccated thyroid has been for them!  So we present this information, hoping that more and more patients can learn from the paths walked before them, and take this right into their doctors offices.

And about Thyrolar, which is a combination of synthetic T4 and synthetic T3:  we’re glad it exists. But…there have been numerous patients over the years who tried the combination of synthetic t3/ synthetic T4, and who then switched to desiccated thyroid. And they identically report on the NTH thyroid group that they got far better results from desiccated thyroid. That is powerful information.

And yes, Dr. Starr, we are looking forward for supply to catch up, because natural desiccated thyroid is a godsend.

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Join the Thy­roid Patient Com­mu­nity Call on Talk Shoe this Friday. UPDATE: the President of Hook’s Apothecary, a compounding pharmacy that serves Illinois and Indiana, will be in the chat to talk about compounding desiccated thyroid.

Also check out the post below concerning possible hints that we are closer to seeing more desiccated thyroid on our shelves?