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 90th 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!)