hypothyroid tags

(Note: this is a long post, but will be worth every penny if you read it all!)

When STTM first put out its shin­gle in Decem­ber of 2005 (with most of what you see today going up in ’06 and ’07 with con­ti­nual addi­tions),  my goal with this site was sim­ple: to edu­cate thy­roid patients.

And as I saw it, by edu­ca­ting patients on what we had been lear­ning, patients could in turn, take that infor­ma­tion into their doc­tors offi­ces and push for change. And it’s been wor­king, slowly. We now have more doc­tors than ever before who know about desic­ca­ted thy­roid and are willing to presc­ribe it, even if they are the mino­rity. STTM has a page on how to try fin­ding one of those good docs.

But as I wrote about this fact in my pre­vious post, cer­tain patients can still find them­sel­ves frus­tra­ted, angry and sick because of doc­tors. It’s not a pretty pic­ture for some.

I am lucky, as I’ve always mana­ged to have a fair doc­tor to work with, without com­pli­ca­ted issues. But a lot of patients aren’t as lucky.  They either can’t find a doc­tor to treat them correctly after trying repea­tedly, or they simply can’t afford to keep dri­ving to find a good doc (with no pro­mi­ses that they will get the good doc they des­pe­ra­tely need any­way). As a result, many thy­roid patients report being for­ced to self-treat.

Even though STTM was never crea­ted as a self-treatment site, I am aware that some patients use it that way.  And I can never con­demn them. Gran­ted, a few who make their own choice to self-treat can run into pro­blems, most espe­cially from undis­co­ve­red or undiag­no­sed low ferri­tin or low cor­ti­sol. But it’s a choice they seem to make out of desperation.

The follo­wing  post is by  Guest Blog pos­ter and UK’s thy­roid patient advo­cate Sheila Tur­ner of TPA-UK.  These are her cou­ra­geous thoughts con­cer­ning self-treatment, and her angst against anyone who tells patients not to do so.  Ove­rall, UK patients have a very tough situa­tion in the UK with doc­tors, but so do the vast majo­rity of patients around the world, as well as US patients. See what you think…

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It’s not uncom­mon to be told as a suf­fe­ring and debi­li­ta­ted thy­roid patient to never self-diagnose, never self-treat, never self-monitor.

And in an ideal world, we could take those admo­ni­tions on. But we are not living in an ideal world.

You might as well tell every­body with ill health to put up with wha­te­ver they are suf­fe­ring and leave their health in the safe hands of our ‘won­der­ful’ doc­tors whom we can trust impli­citly.  Sadly, many doc­tors have little (or no) edu­ca­tion in the wor­kings of the thy­roid system.

Or, you might just try tou­ring the country until you find one who will help. Well, if you have the energy and the money to do that, it could take a heck of a long time before fin­ding such a good doc­tor —  indeed, IF you ever find such a doctor.

I run a very suc­cess­ful Inter­net Thy­roid Sup­port group, plus web site for thy­roid disease, and I have seen at first hand (and expe­rien­ced it myself) the night­mare of having to put up with the terri­ble suf­fe­ring cau­sed by Doctors.

In the UK, for exam­ple, it is orga­ni­za­tions such as the Royal College of Phy­si­cians and the Bri­tish Thy­roid Asso­cia­tion who have terri­fied NHS doc­tors so much that they now no lon­ger presc­ribe any T3 hor­mone con­tai­ning pro­ducts, neither natu­ral nor synthe­tic, for fear of being repor­ted to the GMC  regu­la­tory body with the threat of losing their career and livelihood.

One com­ment I hear from those who con­demn self-treatment is the pro­blem of over-medicating. In rea­lity, it is the rec­kless prohi­bi­tion of all T3-containing drugs that cau­ses car­diac arrhyth­mia and risk of  sud­den death -  which would amount to at least mans­laugh­ter, and might even cons­ti­tute mur­der if the out­come is strictly fore­seea­ble - which it is. It is NOT patients who should be cri­ti­ci­zed. They have been dri­ven to buying presc­rip­tion medi­ci­nes for thy­roid and adre­nal insuf­fi­ciency. Cri­ti­ci­zing self-treatment is an outra­geous claim and one that the medi­cal regu­la­tors would no doubt be deligh­ted to hear. Seems that not only are doc­tors beco­ming sorely afraid of the Regu­la­tors, those who con­demn self-treatment are also falling into the same trap.

The “basic pre­mise” that under­lies my own pur­pose and advo­cacy is to help those being left to suf­fer because the medi­cal regu­la­tors and govern­ment are refu­sing to give a pro­per diag­no­sis — and for those who do get a diag­no­sis, giving them levothy­ro­xine sodium-only as a thy­roid hor­mone replacement.

Whe­ne­ver a new mem­ber comes to TPA, we encou­rage them to read, read and read again and to look at the infor­ma­tion in our FILES sec­tion which is there for all to see. We tell them about the asso­cia­ted con­di­tions that go along with being hypothy­roid such as low adre­nal reserve, sys­te­mic can­di­dia­sis, mer­cury poi­so­ning and ask them to request blood tests from their doc­tor to see if their levels are low in the refe­rence range for ferri­tin, vita­min B12, vita­min D3, mag­ne­sium, folate, cop­per and zinc. We have infor­ma­tion on the rea­sons they need to check these and if any of these are a pro­blem, make sure they are aware of just how essen­tial it is that they eli­mi­nate these con­di­tions, one by one, before star­ting thy­roid hor­mone repla­ce­ment – such con­di­tions are NOT auto­ma­ti­cally chec­ked by NHS doc­tors – and they put their patients at great risk by auto­ma­ti­cally presc­ri­bing levothyroxine.

We all know of the serious rami­fi­ca­tions for those patients who are not being given a correct diag­no­sis or treat­ment. Howe­ver, it is the endoc­ri­no­lo­gists and medi­cal regu­la­tors who are guilty of cau­sing much of the unne­ces­sary suf­fe­ring, not those patients who are dri­ven to self diag­nose, self treat and self moni­tor, as those who cri­ti­cize self-treatment would have us believe.

Mains­tream doc­tors do not appear to be even aware of the many com­mon and often undiag­no­sed symp­toms and dan­ge­rous con­se­quen­ces of low thy­roid. These inc­lude: serious men­tal pro­blems, sei­zu­res, heart disease, dia­be­tes inc­lu­ding mis­diag­no­sis and com­pli­ca­tions, cons­ti­pa­tion resul­ting in colon can­cer, all female pro­blems (due to high amounts of dan­ge­rous forms of oes­tro­gen), inc­lu­ding: tumours, fibroids, ova­rian cysts, PMS, endo­me­trio­sis, breast can­cer, mis­ca­rriage, heavy periods and cramps, blad­der pro­blems lea­ding to infec­tions, anae­mia, ele­va­ted CPK, ele­va­ted crea­ti­nine, ele­va­ted tran­sa­mi­na­ses, hyper­cap­nia, hyper­li­pi­de­mia, hypogly­ce­mia, hypo­na­tre­mia, hypo­xia, leu­ko­pe­nia, res­pi­ra­tory aci­do­sis and others.…

If suf­fe­rers of the symp­toms are NOT get­ting a pro­per diag­no­sis and the thy­roid hor­mone repla­ce­ment that would give them back their life and health through mains­tream doc­tors, how on earth would you recom­mend they do this, apart from scou­ring the country to find a doc­tor elsewhere who would help them, or recom­men­ding they get enough money together to see a pri­vate thy­roid spe­cia­list. Do you REALLY have such com­plete faith in the medi­cal pro­fes­sion to know that we should ALL leave our thy­roid health in their hands, sit back and do nothing – and pro­bably just wait to die? How can you recom­mend that they do NOT buy presc­rip­tion medi­ca­tions and should not self-medicate, self treat or self moni­tor when there is NO other option left open to them.

If those who cri­ti­cize self-treatment have per­so­nally heard from “DOZENS” of peo­ple who have follo­wed the “inc­rease my own dose of natu­ral thy­roid” self medi­ca­tion approach, then yes, something is seriously wrong with the ‘teachings’ or advo­cacy of such groups. Edu­ca­tion should be encou­ra­ged by all, and if mem­bers do not unders­tand the rea­sons why they need to take great care, such expla­na­tions should be given in such a way that they understand.

I rarely hear of mem­bers ending up in Emer­gency Rooms batt­ling poten­tially fatal heart arrhythmia’s, atrial fibri­lla­tion, and/or ending up in worse health than before, inc­lu­ding long-term and per­ma­nent heart damage through self-treatment. I have heard of many NHS patients being admit­ted to A and E, who had been trea­ted (or not) by mains­tream doc­tors who refu­sed them the correct the­rapy their symp­toms needed.

In good cons­cience, I do recom­mend that thy­roid patients self-diagnose, self-medicate and self-treat if they are being left to suf­fer, because orga­ni­za­tions such as the RCP, BTA TSH refe­rence range is so huge that they will never go outside of it. This refe­rence range is 0.5 to 10.0 in the UK – pro­bably the widest in the world. Then, we have to put up with the fact that the only thy­roid func­tion test that will be done is the TSH –  and doc­tors will not test Free T4 in a lot of cases, never mind free T3 level. Also, NHS Patho­logy labs refuse to test free T3 even if the doc­tor has spe­ci­fi­cally reques­ted it. So, many of us will NEVER get a pro­per diag­no­sis – being left to suf­fer their unne­ces­sary symp­toms for years and become wheelchair/bed bound in many cases, having to leave paid employment.

Such patients are told they have a ‘func­tio­nal soma­to­form disor­der’ when their TFT’s are nor­mal, when they con­ti­nue to com­plain of symp­toms – or –  those who are lucky enough to get a diag­no­sis, who are trea­ted with levothy­ro­xine only yet still com­plain of debi­li­ta­ting symp­toms are told also “you have a func­tio­nal soma­to­form disor­der” or “your symp­toms are non-specific” .

What mains­tream doc­tors do not recog­nize is that thy­roid func­tion tests ONLY test the amount of thy­roid hor­mone being sec­re­ted by the thy­roid gland.  TFT’s (more correctly should be called Thy­roid GLAND func­tion tests”, do not test to show whether there is periphe­ral resis­tance to the thy­roid hor­mo­nes at the cellu­lar level. This is not due to a lack of thy­roid hor­mo­nes sec­re­ted by the gland. Blood tests do NOT detect Type 2 hypothy­roi­dism. Type 2 is usually inhe­ri­ted. Howe­ver, envi­ron­men­tal toxins may also cause or exa­cer­bate the pro­blem. The per­va­si­ve­ness of Type 2 has yet to be recog­ni­zed by mains­tream medi­cine, but already is in epi­de­mic pro­por­tions. I think many suf­fe­rers of the symp­toms of hypothy­roi­dism know very much more than their medi­cal prac­ti­tio­ners. I do know which road I would like to follow – that is to find an exce­llent doc­tor I could trust impli­citly, but sadly, the ONLY road many of us have to follow to get back nor­mal health is the one where we have to self medicate.

Please do NOT blame patients who are dri­ven to self diag­nose and medi­cate as being the rea­son why the US govern­ment, or any other govern­ment for that mat­ter, are now eli­mi­na­ting the avai­la­bi­lity of natu­ral thy­roid and synthe­tic T3. You are being suc­ked into belie­ving what they want you to believe.

Levothy­ro­xine is a synthe­tic medi­ca­tion that can be paten­ted, and has made billions of pounds for the Big Pharma and for the regu­la­tors of hypothy­roid gui­de­li­nes. Natu­ral thy­roid pro­ducts can­not be paten­ted. Should doc­tors presc­ribe either synthe­tic or natu­ral T3, the majo­rity of suf­fe­rers of the symp­toms of hypothy­roi­dism would regain their nor­mal health – Big Pharma would suffer.

You should perhaps read the book “Dirty Medi­cine” by Mar­tin J Wal­ker if you have not already read it. Those who cri­ti­cize self-treatment appear to be accu­sing all those suf­fe­ring symp­toms of hypothy­roi­dism who have been dri­ven to buying medi­ca­tions without presc­rip­tion and self trea­ting as making it worse for the rest of those suf­fe­ring. It is NOT them who are abu­sing T3. If a T3 hor­mone con­tai­ning pro­duct was pro­perly presc­ri­bed, there would be NO NEED FOR PATIENTS TO BE SELF MEDICATING.

Self medi­ca­ting, wha­te­ver drug we are taking, whether using a T3 hor­mone con­tai­ning pro­duct or not, is always risky and patients must be fully edu­ca­ted in its use. Howe­ver, self medi­ca­ting with any drug runs risks, but I would rather self medi­cate with the chance of get­ting my health back than lea­ving my health in the hands of totally incom­pe­tent doc­tors –  incom­pe­tent because the teachers in our medi­cal schools are incompetent.

For those who are being left to die, without the treat­ment that will make them well, do-it-yourself medi­ca­tion is the only option left open to them. Would you really deny them this?  Lea­ving patients without the thy­roid hor­mone they need is appa­lling and one of the rea­sons TPA is cam­paig­ning to bring about chan­ges in the diag­no­sing and treat­ment of the symp­toms of hypothyroidism.

It can be appre­cia­ted to say to work with the right doc­tor, but what do you recom­mend if patients can­not find the ‘right’ doc­tor?? Perhaps you should all come over here to the UK and help those suf­fe­rers in fin­ding the right solu­tion and offer to help them help to find a “good doctor”.

Sadly, there are never any solu­tions given or alter­na­tive to self diag­no­sing, self-treating or self-monitoring, other than to “find a good doc­tor”. This does not help Inter­net thy­roid sup­port forum members.

Sheila
http://www.tpa-uk.org.uk/

It’s a con­ti­nuing tra­vesty, and you see it in patient groups.

i.e. many patients still find them­sel­ves sick and disa­bled, stum­bling mise­rably from one unin­for­med doc­tor to another…in spite of the won­ders of natu­ral desic­ca­ted thy­roid, the tes­ti­mony of chan­ged lives, the edu­ca­tion of patients thanks to the STTM web­site & book, and a small but gro­wing body of wise doc­tors who seem to be “get­ting it”,

So what’s the pro­blem?? It lays with our doc­tors and the entire medi­cal pro­fes­sion.

1. Heavy-handed con­trol over your medi­ca­tion: You go to pick up your presc­rip­tion, and find your medi­ca­tion has been lowe­red by your doc­tor without your agree­ment or know­ledge, as hap­pe­ned to Terry here (scroll down to find her post).
2. Igno­rance about adre­nal fati­gue and treat­ment: You clearly have an adre­nal pro­blem, and one doc­tor dis­mis­ses its exis­tence, another doc­tor poo-poos the saliva test, another doc­tor tells you cor­ti­sol sup­ple­men­ta­tion is dan­ge­rous, another doc­tor thrusts all his her­bal sup­ple­ments at you, another doc­tor thinks that 5 or 10 mg cor­ti­sol is enough…and on and on and on.
3. Dis­mis­sing the Ferri­tin test: You want to know what your ferri­tin is, but the doctor’s nurse unders­co­res that they’ve already chec­ked your iron levels, so there’s no need for more testing.
4. Dis­mis­sing you: You are wise thanks to rea­ding, researching and living in your own body, yet your doc­tor calls you a pro­ble­ma­tic patient on your charts, dis­mis­ses you, or gets angry.
5. RT3 huh? You have strong sus­pi­cions that your Reverse T3 is too high thanks to adre­nal fati­gue, low ferri­tin, undiag­no­sed glu­ten issues, or other rea­sons, yet this doc­tor refu­ses to test you, that doc­tor says an RT3 excess is rare.
6. Look at me! Look at me! You make an appoint­ment with that great doc who has a fabu­lous website/book and who shouts that he uses desic­ca­ted thy­roid with a big smile…yet any or all of the above and below occurs with him/her or his “trai­ned” associates.
7. Con­ti­nued worship of the TSH lab test:  Too many doc­tors still think the TSH lab test is from God Almighty. So when you finally start to feel well on desic­ca­ted thy­roid with a TSH at zero or below…WHAM…you must lower your meds because you are somehow “hyper” in spite of no symp­toms to match.
8. Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal addicts: You men­tion your lin­ge­ring hypothy­roid symp­toms, and you are ban­dai­ded with anti-depressants, anti-anxietal meds, sta­tins, BP pills, pain tablets, acid reflux pills, cal­cium for your thin­ning bones…instead of unders­tand that these are ALL side effects of poor treat­ment or undis­co­ve­red issues.
9. The country you live in: The des­pe­ra­tion of UK thy­roid patients is deep thanks to a thy­roid asso­cia­tion and a College of Phy­si­cians which tigh­tens the screws if a doc­tor dares to presc­ribe a life chan­ging medi­ca­tion with T3 in it.  Or just as frus­tra­ting, having a govern­ment which for­bids desic­ca­ted thy­roid to arrive to you in the mail.
10. Refor­mu­la­tions and Big Pharma apathy: Forest Labs tur­ned one of the most popu­lar and effec­tive desic­ca­ted thy­roid brand, Armour, into a pill with too much cellu­lose and too little suc­rose , cau­sing a mas­sive return of symp­toms in many, soo­ner or later. RLC also refor­mu­la­ted their Natu­reth­roid, and though some patients still do well on it, others do mise­rably, and we are left won­de­ring WHAT to take. (Thank God for Erfa’s Cana­dian “Thy­roid”, but will we be able to con­ti­nue with this fabu­lous desic­ca­ted thy­roid product?)

And there are more rea­sons you might want to bring up in the Com­ments part of this post.

So you see, it’s no won­der so MANY patients feel for­ced to self-treat, yet they are also con­dem­ned for doing so. I refuse to con­demn them for exactly the rea­sons above.  Petty. All I ask is that we all try to find a good doc, but it may be quite hard when you con­si­der all the above.

All-in-all, we still have  a way to go, baby, and espe­cially with the doc­tors we try so hard to get help from…but can’t.

P.S. Are you brave? Walk into your doctor’s office with the STTM shirt.

(Side note: I feel so stu­pid. If you have sig­ned up to receive noti­fi­ca­tion of STTM’s blog posts (see sig­nup on left below links), I have inad­ver­tently fai­led to check a par­ti­cu­lar box for the emails to go out. I won’t make that mis­take again. See the two posts below, which you weren’t noti­fied about when they came out. )

I recently chat­ted with Sheila Tur­ner, a thy­roid patient advo­cate in the UK who runs the web­site Thy­roid Patient Advo­cacy – Uni­ted Kingdom.

And she has become abso­lu­tely dis­gus­ted at what is hap­pe­ning in the UK – dis­gus­ted enough to stop being polite and to ask direct and poin­ted ques­tions on the home page of her TPA-UK website.

What spu­rred her tough new stand?  Says Sheila, “The RCP (Royal College of Phy­si­cians), BTA (Bri­tish Thy­roid Asso­cia­tion) et al are doing everything they can to boy­cott all T3 con­tai­ning pro­ducts and their latest ‘Sta­te­ment’ on the diag­no­sis and mana­ge­ment of pri­mary hypothy­roi­dism is ban­ning gene­ral prac­ti­tio­ners from presc­ri­bing T3 at all.”.

And, explains Sheila, it’s got­ten to the point where most any Gene­ral Prac­ti­tio­ner is com­ple­tely afraid to presc­ribe T3 or any T3-containing pro­duct like natu­ral desic­ca­ted thy­roid for fear of being repor­ted. “The ONLY peo­ple allo­wed to recom­mend that T3 be presc­ri­bed are “acc­re­di­ted endoc­ri­no­lo­gists”, says Sheila. (And how many patients have expe­rien­ced how close min­ded Endo’s can be towards desic­ca­ted thyroid.)

And here are her bri­lliant, in-your-face ques­tions with links, which are per­ti­nent for ALL of us, whether in the UK or not:

1. WHY do the GMC, the RCP, the BTA et al. deli­be­ra­tely choose to ignore the scien­ti­fic evi­dence that has been avai­la­ble for over 40 years ?
2. WHY are medi­cal asso­cia­tions igno­ring the 13% fai­lure rate of T4-only the­rapy for the past 50 years? Why are patient’s com­plaints dis­mis­sed?
3. WHY has there been no correc­tion to the RCP sta­te­ment when there are patients who are coun­te­re­xam­ples to the vali­dity of T4-only therapy?
4. WHY is the con­fu­sion of two defi­ni­tions for ‘hypothy­roi­dism allo­wed to continue?
5. WHY are gui­de­line authorship and con­cise gui­dance to good prac­tice pro­to­cols ignored?
6. WHY are indi­vi­dual symp­toms of hypothy­roi­dism sta­ted to be “non-specific” when Bai­sier found groups of these symp­toms may be quite spe­ci­fic?
7. WHAT further inves­ti­ga­tions for non-thyroidal cau­ses are recom­men­ded as rele­vant to the symp­toms of hypothy­roi­dism when pitui­tary and thy­roid GLAND func­tion tests are bioche­mi­cally nor­mal –  Levels of fT3, rT3 and adre­nal levels?
8. WHY are the stu­dies by Das (2007) and Lewis (2008), which found that patients could be suc­cess­fully trea­ted with thy­roid extract being ignored?
9. WHY is medi­cine igno­ring false nega­tive test results?
10. WHY do doc­tors refuse to explain and/or jus­tify their deci­sions, the­reby withhol­ding infor­ma­tion neces­sary for valid con­sent to treatment?
11. WHY does the NHS refuse to take steps to pro­tect human rights when suf­fe­rers are put at risk through a dis­re­gard of the demand that patients should be trea­ted with fair­ness, res­pect, equa­lity, dig­nity and autonomy?
12. WHY are labo­ra­tory disc­re­pan­cies in serum tes­ting being ignored?

I appre­ciate the tough stand Sheila is taking. We HAVE to take a strong stand in light of the world­wide igno­rance about 60 years of patient suf­fe­ring on T4 meds like Synth­roid, Eltro­xin et al, about bet­ter treat­ment with natu­ral desic­ca­ted thy­roid and T3 pro­ducts, and about the lousy TSH lab test!

In fact, in light of prac­ti­cally NO mass media atten­tion to this huge world­wide thy­roid treat­ment scan­dal, we have to shout it whe­re­ver we can and hope that some WISE repor­ter or media per­so­na­lity gets this and will shine a media light at the idiocy going on out there towards thy­roid patients. Stop the Thy­roid Mad­ness!™

A large and gro­wing body of hypothy­roid patients have found out the hard way why they have felt like patooey crap for years…or at the very least, why they had pesky lin­ge­ring symp­toms of hypothy­roi­dism:  being on Synth­roid or any other T4-only med.

And the anger many have felt about mis­sed years of our lives because of such a lousy treat­ment has also trans­la­ted to ill fee­lings towards a par­ti­cu­lar phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal: Abbott Labo­ra­to­ries. Abbott Labs has put hun­dreds of millions of dollars in what patients deem “brain­washing” of doc­tors, espe­cially Endo­dri­no­lo­gists, about Synth­roid for years.

But I recently found a little news piece, in the form of the follo­wing video, which at least puts just a slight posi­tive note to the term “Abbott Labo­ra­to­ries”, even if the name con­jurs up a bit of nau­sea in the guts of infor­med thy­roid patients:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8o-e-iLsUM Hope you enjoy the irony of it the way I did.  lol. Her name was Grace Gro­ner, the sec­ret Millionaire.

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Get­ting older and beco­ming hypothy­roid: Below this post, you’ll see infor­ma­tion that can affect your parents, rela­ti­ves, spou­ses and friends and how they may face the same run-around we have all had to deal with — the lousy TSH lab test, being put on all sorts of band-aid drugs like sta­tins, anti-depressants, blood pres­sure meds and more, or being put on a T4 med like Synth­roid.  Go here.

FDA and shor­ta­ges: I also men­tion above about a recent sta­te­ment by the FDA:  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. A few patients are sus­pi­cious enough of the FDA to feel it means nothing.  Others, and I am one, have honestly felt like we simply had a shor­tage of desic­ca­ted thy­roid, not a cons­pi­racy by the FDA to remove it.  So I found that sta­te­ment con­fir­ming, even if there can be more to the story. But time will tell.

Natu­reth­roid: Here you can read infor­ma­tion about this med retur­ning to phar­ma­cies around the country, and what might have chan­ged in the tablets. Once again, phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals are not telling us what is going on ahead of time, and it’s aggra­va­ting when we dis­co­ver chan­ges in our medi­ca­tions. Thy­roid patients do not care to be trea­ted like buf­foons. I sus­pect that phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals are gui­ded to say so little because of legal advice. It’s still aggravating.

Why do I rarely men­tion Armour any­more? Because it doesn’t seem worth my time since it was refor­mu­la­ted. Too many patients con­ti­nue to report lin­ge­ring symp­toms, even occu­rring months after they thought they were doing great on it.  And too many report that after they switched to Erfa’s “Thy­roid”, Natu­reth­roid or com­poun­ded with aci­dolpho­lus as a filler,  they saw a reso­lu­tion of those lin­ge­ring symptoms.

Another rea­son to improve your Vit. D levels: Research shows that low levels of Vit. D in your blood can result in inc­rea­sed fat depo­sits around your waist and other areas.  From the Dia­be­tes Jour­nal.

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. 23^rd, 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 (3^rd 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).