doctor tags

How many doc­tors can I stran­gle with my bare hands?? Grrrrrrrrrrr.

Today, I am once again appa­lled and sad­de­ned by the end­less body of thy­roid patients who con­ti­nue to plum­met into the abyss of adre­nal fati­gue, day after day after day. And it just never needs to hap­pen if doc­tors would simply pay atten­tion and be infor­med.

Belinda is the per­fect exam­ple. She didn’t par­ti­ci­pate in thy­roid patient groups any­more, living her life hap­pily, because she thought her post-RAI thy­roid treat­ment was under con­trol, being on 2 grains of Armour for a year. But sud­denly, she felt the need to return to her groups and seek feed­back. Because she has become more irri­ta­ble and moody, has a hard time falling asleep, and feels fre­quently anxie­tal. Labs are redone, and she finds her­self with a slightly over-range free T3 and a very sup­pres­sed TSH. Her doc­tor deci­des to lower her thy­roid meds, which in turn impro­ves her insom­nia and anxiety, but weight starts piling on. She’s con­fu­sed and won­ders how she can find her balance bet­ween being on too little with unwel­come weight gain and being on too much with uncom­for­ta­ble anxiety and insomnia.

What Belinda didn’t get, and what her doc­tor didn’t get, is that Belinda had now joi­ned the dubious cama­ra­de­rie of those with adre­nal fati­gue, a need­less con­di­tion of over-stressed and under-functioning adre­nals. As a result, T3 in Armour starts to pool in the blood, cau­sing anxiety, insom­nia, and all sorts of low cor­ti­sol symp­toms. Thy­roid patients just like Belinda have to first dis­co­ver what is going on, then face the com­pli­ca­ted balan­cing act of trea­ting adre­nal fati­gue AND hypothy­roi­dism. And it’s a path that never nee­ded to happen.

WHAT IS POTENTIALLY TAKING YOU DOWN THE DIRTY-YELLOW BRICK ROAD TO ADRENAL FATIGUE??

1) Being undiag­no­sed, or being dosed by, the faulty TSH lab test and its dubious “nor­mal” range, which will leave you with lin­ge­ring hypothy­roid symp­toms. (Belinda’s 2 grains tells me she was being dosed by the TSH)
2) Being trea­ted by T4-only medi­ca­tions like Synth­roid, Levoxyl, Eltro­xin, et al, which end up tea­sing your adre­nals to work har­der to take up the slack of an ina­de­quate treat­ment.
3) Lowe­ring your expec­ta­tions of what “nor­mal” is. No, it’s not nor­mal to have less sta­mina than others, to be on an anti-depressant to ban­daid your hypo depres­sion, to feel col­der than others, to require fre­quent naps, to feel the need to avoid peo­ple, to be bothe­red by lights or noi­ses, to be told by those you love that you are too defen­sive or over-reactive…and so on.

I hope anyone rea­ding this comes to an unders­tan­ding that you can­NOT enter your doctor’s office as if you are ente­ring the throne of a god. Your doc­tor, no mat­ter how edu­ca­ted or dedi­ca­ted, may not have a strong unders­tan­ding of the role of adre­nal func­tion in rela­tionship to bad treat­ment via T4-only meds or the TSH lab range. You may have to bring this know­ledge to your doc­tor, or find another one who is either lear­ned, or open-minded. Because your chan­ces of having adre­nal fati­gue are huge if you are on T4, if the TSH is worship­ped by your doc­tor whether on T4 or desic­ca­ted thy­roid, or if you keep wal­king into the doctor’s office and hang your own know­ledge on the hook outside his or her door.

(See Deborah’s story about cea­sing to smoke with adre­nal fatigue)

I called Rhea on the phone today.

Ear­lier today, Rhea was in the one-operator beauty salon at the same time as my 90 year old mother-in-law: one get­ting her gray hair dried while the other got her gra­yer tres­ses rolled. And as con­ver­sa­tions go in beauty salons, it tur­ned to per­so­nal topics (which can range from one’s mari­tal hap­pi­ness to whether Mrytle’s boobs are real or expan­ded.) And one of those topics was about Rhea’s hypothy­roi­dism as well as her daughter’s.

And of course, my very doting mother-in-law men­tions the STTM book writ­ten by her daughter-in-law, Janie, and hands her a copy from the car. Long story short…Rhea wants me to call her.

The phone con­ver­sa­tion went into the fact that she used to be on Armour, but then lis­te­ned to a local doc­tor seve­ral years later who switched her to Synth­roid – “a far more sta­ble medi­ca­tion”. (not) Since she switched, she says she’s felt terri­ble for years, and has recently retur­ned to Armour, and with the vast infor­ma­tion in the book, unders­tood now how she nee­ded to raise.

And then came the shoc­ker: THE DOCTOR WHO PUT HER ON ARMOUR WAS BRODA BARNES.

My eyes got as big as fiesta din­ner pla­tes and I exc­lai­med “THE Broda Bar­nes??” “Yes,” she replied. “I saw him in Love­land, Colo­rado and he was a dar­ling man.” She pro­cee­ded to tell me that when doc­tors ente­red the room back then, you stood. And she remem­bers his wife being there, and being just as sweet as he. She reca­lled him saying that when he was in medi­cal school, he was disap­poin­ted when the pro­fes­sor assig­ned him to study the thy­roid gland. “Such a little puny gland”, he thought. “But today, 50 years later, I still have so much to learn about that little gland.”

For those who don’t know the name of Broda Bar­nes, he was the father of the desic­ca­ted thy­roid move­ment and an autho­rity on the thy­roid. Even back then, he knew of the supe­rio­rity of desic­ca­ted thy­roid treat­ment like Armour, and presc­ri­bed it. He also wrote the clas­sic Hypothy­roi­dism: The Unsus­pec­ted Ill­ness. His book and legacy kept the idea of Armour and desic­ca­ted thy­roid alive all these years later when we, as patients, were paying attention.

Rhea is now up to 4 grains Armour and fee­ling much bet­ter, and may have to go a little higher before she’s opti­mal. Thank you, Rhea, for giving me and anyone rea­ding this a little peek into the won­der­ful Broda Barnes.

Star­ted with a new doc. He presc­ri­bes Armour and is rea­ding the STTM book. That lat­ter in itself is an eye-popping miracle.

And…as we were going over my exten­sive lab­work, which he does for new patients, and as I was lamen­ting the way too many doc­tors put their patients on the lousy sta­tins (when all they need to do is treat hypo CORRECTLY), he sta­ted, with a sigh of dis­may and humi­lity, something to the effect of: We doc­tors are simply too busy to keep up with the latest good infor­ma­tion that patients are fin­ding out far ahead of us.

I nearly fell off my chair!! He was honestly and hum­bling admit­ting that patients are fin­ding out good infor­ma­tion far ahead of doc­tors! i.e. he was NOT dis­sing the inter­net; he was NOT dis­sing that a patient could actually be more infor­med than him; he was not dis­sing infor­ma­tion that goes against the Big Pharma Con Job .

This doc is a keeper.

p.s. Think your doc is open-minded enough to read the STTM book?? You can have the publishing com­pany send one directly to your doc­tor. Click on the SEND A BOOK TO YOUR DOCTOR.

Shock and amazement.

At the 90^th annual mee­ting of the Endoc­rine Society, it was announ­ced that T3 can be an effec­tive subs­ti­tute for T4. And…the tar­get TSH was .5 — 1.5.

DUHHHHHHH.

But it’s GOOD news.

OK, so…

1) it’s light years behind what patients had already figu­red out for a longgggg time
2) it’s not as effec­tive as being on desic­ca­ted thy­roid (which has exactly what your thy­roid would be giving you: T4, T3, T2, T1 and cal­ci­to­nin)
3) the TSH needs be even LOWER when you are ade­qua­tely trea­ted.
4) NO THYROID TREATMENT SHOULD BE BY THE LOUSY TSH AT ALL.…

.…but it’s a GOOD STEP in the right direction!!

http://www.endocrinetoday.com/view.aspx?rid=28931

p.s. Maybe if some of those Endo’s would open their minds to what PATIENTS HAVE LEARNED on this site and the book, they might finally make the next great step!! TAKE THIS INFORMATION INTO YOUR DOCTOR’S OFFICE!! It’s the power YOU have to change this mess!

It would make an inc­re­di­ble horror movie. The plot: stun­ningly con­vince at least hun­dreds of millions of indi­vi­duals world­wide that what has always been obvious, isn’t. That lea­ves only look green because of alien fil­ters in your eyes. That ripe apples fall because water pulls them down. That fire doesn’t really burn your skin; it’s just your imagination.

And about hun­dred more schi­zoph­re­nic ying yangs. Because if those in autho­rity say so, it must be so.

But the horror movie is a rea­lity, and I see it EVERY TIME I come into con­tact with peo­ple and the sub­ject of my thy­roid advo­cacy comes up.

Like today. A cou­ple saw my book and struck up a con­ver­sa­tion. She was on Synth­roid; he was on Levoxyl. They had each been on their T4-only treat­ment for 12 and 14 years res­pec­ti­vely, felt their hypo was per­fectly trea­ted, belie­ved their doctors…and were now dea­ling with other pro­blems: his rising cho­les­te­rol, her depres­sion, his fati­gue, and her weight gain. BUT OF COURSE, THOSE HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH THEIR T4-ONLY TREATED HYPOTHYROID AND SOME OF IT IS THEIR OWN FAULT…leaves aren’t really green, water makes ripe apples fall, and fire doesn’t really burn.

It just struck me. And it’s struck me before. There’s just a LOT of SILENT SUCKERS wal­king around. I was one; my mother was one; and there are obviously millions out there, still wal­king around trying to live with the side effects of a treat­ment that their doc­tors say are NOT cau­sed by their thyroid.

Sad.

(Has your cho­les­te­rol and other lipids impro­ved since you switched to Armour and rai­sed without using the TSH? Your story of suc­cess is wel­come on the blog post below!)