medical school tags

I’ve been sit­ting back silently, rea­ding all the bac­klash that star­ted with Newsweek’s Best Life or Risky Advice May 30^th article, a cri­ti­cal analy­sis of Oprah’s mul­ti­ple pro­gram topics of Wish Away Can­cer! Get A Lunch­time Face-Lift! Era­di­cate Autism! Turn Back The Clock! Thin Your Thighs! Cure Meno­pause! Har­ness Posi­tive Energy! Erase Wrin­kles! Banish Obe­sity! Live Your Best Life Ever!

And gran­ted, some of the cri­ti­cism seems jus­ti­fied.

Even thy­roid patients win­ced and squir­med when Oprah sta­ted that a month long Hawaiian vaca­tion and eating fresh foods with soy milk were a great way to treat her thy­roid con­di­tion.  Uh huh.   Patients equally gag­ged at her sup­port of Dr. Chris­tiane North­rup who made the the nutty insen­si­tive 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.”

But the ensuing array of blog posts and artic­les follo­wing in the foots­teps of the News­week cri­ti­cism of Oprah has pre­sen­ted quite an irony for thy­roid patients whose lives have been chan­ged thanks to natu­ral desic­ca­ted thy­roid. Adjec­ti­ves and/or desc­rip­tions of Oprah in these blogs and artic­les have included:

* dan­ge­rous

* pedd­ling alter­na­tive treat­ments that are ineffective

* fai­ling to pre­sent scien­ti­fic evidence

* fai­ling to lis­ten to bona fide, medi­cal school trai­ned,  medi­cal professionals

* being too gulli­ble about the so-called wis­dom and know­ledge of cer­tain patients (ala Suzanne Somers)

* fai­ling to give more atten­tion to science-based, sta­tus quo, mains­tream medicine

Any of the above sound fami­liar? Yup, it sure does.

How many times have thy­roid patients been told that desic­ca­ted thy­roid like Armour or Natu­reth­roid was dan­ge­rous, or rai­sing it by symp­toms rather than the TSH was dan­ge­rous. Or it’s dan­ge­rous to use because you’ll get heart pro­blems and oste­ro­po­ro­sis. Yet thy­roid patients on desic­ca­ted thy­roid have their lives CHANGED, with stron­ger hearts and inc­rea­sed bone density.

How many patients have had their doc­tors tell them that desic­ca­ted was inef­fec­tive as an alter­na­tive out-dated pro­duct, yet these same patients star­ted to LIVE again with relief from old symp­toms from this inef­fec­tive “alter­na­tive” medi­ca­tion that grandma once used.

How many artic­les by medi­cal pro­fes­sio­nals are there who claim that there’s no scien­ti­fic evi­dence to prove that desic­ca­ted thy­roid is effec­tive, in spite of CLEAR obser­va­tion and reports of a huge and gro­wing body of thy­roid patients and cer­tain doc­tors around the world about relief from depres­sion, lowe­red cho­les­te­rol, bet­ter blood pres­sure, weight main­te­nance, hair regrowth, bet­ter sta­mina, less sick­ness and a myriad of other improvements!

How many bona fide, medi­cal school trai­ned,  medi­cal pro­fes­sio­nals told us ad nau­seum that our symp­toms were not thy­roid rela­ted (when they were), that we are “nor­mal” because the TSH lab test says so (when we were far from it), that desic­ca­ted thy­roid is out­da­ted, unre­lia­ble, inef­fec­tive, and a ten ton load of other ridi­cu­lous com­ments from bona fide, medi­cal school trai­ned,  medi­cal professionals. 

How many doc­tors have told patients that they should NOT lis­ten to other patients on the inter­net or Stop the Thy­roid Mad­ness because patients can’t pos­sibly have any wis­dom or know what they are tal­king about. Yet, lo and behold, it’s been patients and what they have lear­ned who have star­ted a wide-reaching revo­lu­tion for bet­ter thy­roid treat­ment that works, and a gro­wing body of doc­tors are listening!

And how many times has science-based, sta­tus quo, mains­tream medi­cine com­ple­tely rui­ned the lives of thy­roid patients because many doc­tors are too lazy to dare ques­tion or think outside the phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal, medi­cal school box.

Yup, Oprah has made some blun­ders, gaf­fes and mis­judg­ments as out­li­ned in the News­week article.  She has gushed too quickly when North­rup opens her mouth or Oz walks in with his sur­gi­cal garb.  But isn’t it a bit iro­nic that some of the cri­ti­cism by others towards Oprah are the same blun­ders, gaf­fes and mis­judg­ments which most any thy­roid patient has heard about their use of desic­ca­ted thy­roid, and which has all been COMPLETELY wrong.

Bot­tom line, for every mis­take and mis­judg­ment Oprah has made – and CLEARLY she has done so in her unders­tan­ding of thy­roid treat­ment — she just might be ope­ning the doors to medi­cal truth, somewhere, somehow, bet­ween it all.

Janie

Oh jolly.

Diane, a thy­roid and adre­nal patient, infor­med me of a recent visit to a local Endoc­ri­no­lo­gist.  The doc sta­ted that she was on a com­mit­tee that is wor­king with the FDA to do away with saliva tes­ting, strongly pro­po­sing that it’s not accu­rate tes­ting and is “har­ming” people.

Well, let’s see. For a cou­ple of years now, thy­roid patients who strongly sus­pect they have adre­nal fati­gue by the reac­tions they have to desic­ca­ted thy­roid have been using saliva testing…and lo and behold,  the results they receive nearly com­ple­tely con­form with how they feel! i.e. saliva tes­ting, which tests one’s cor­ti­sol levels at four key times during a 24 hour period,  has wor­ked beau­ti­fully in hel­ping thy­roid patients with adre­nal fati­gue iden­tify their pro­blem, in hel­ping these patients doc­tors have a bet­ter unders­tan­ding of their pro­blem, and kno­wing bet­ter what might be their best treat­ment, which can range from using lico­rice root, to over-the-counter adre­nal sup­port, to hydro­cor­ti­sone (HC).

Harm­ful?? Give me a break. (And why are we not sur­pri­sed this is coming out of the mouth of an Endocrinologist.)

Could it be that medi­cal school trai­ned doc­tors just hate and des­pise any method which a patient might bene­fit from WITHOUT going to the doc­tor and paying big bucks??  hmmmm.  And once again, could it be that a method NOT taught in medi­cal school just MIGHT be a good one (just as desic­ca­ted thy­roid like Armour, Natu­reth­roid, etc. is far, far bet­ter than Synth­roid or Levoxyl, which ARE taught in medi­cal school)?

The FDA appro­ved saliva tes­ting for AIDS in 2005. They appro­ved saliva tes­ting for ovu­la­tion in 2003. They appro­ved saliva tes­ting to detect if a woman is going into pre­ma­ture labor in 1998. And there’s many more they have appro­ved.  So…perhaps this is all a gasp of a com­mit­tee who hates to see patients have some con­trol over their health (terri­ble, awful thing, isn’t it?) or the cry of a com­mit­tee that only reveals its ignorance.

p.s. Dr. Best of San Anto­nio recently pos­ted the follo­wing exce­llent article on saliva tes­ting: http://besthealthandwellnessinfo.com/hormone-testing-i-spit-on-your-blood-test/

HO! HO! HO! Laughing Grape Publishing will send the STTM book for you to a loved one or friend for the holidays!

For 2008, as a hypothy­roid patient: I will: 

1) expect that the rela­tionship with my doc­tor will be a TEAM approach to my health care: not just his medi­cal school/continuing education/experience, but also my own impor­tant know­ledge and wis­dom that I have gai­ned (from rea­ding sites like this), plus my sub­jec­tive expe­rience on my medi­ca­tion. My doc­tor does not live in my body or expe­rience my symp­toms; I do. 

2) take the time to find a bet­ter doc­tor if my doc­tor refu­ses to res­pect the know­ledge I have gai­ned from rea­ding sites like this, and/or will not lis­ten to my sub­jec­tive expe­rience in my own body! 

3) make my symp­toms far more impor­tant than ink spots on a piece of paper called lab results, and will not pas­si­vely allow a doc­tor to treat me ONLY accor­ding to those lab results.

4) give myself impor­tant sup­ple­ments, inc­lu­ding, but not limi­ted to: sele­nium and zinc (helps con­ver­sion of T4 to T3), other mine­rals which may inc­lude mag­ne­sium, etc., plenty of B-vitamins (which are nee­ded as I improve my thy­roid func­tion, besi­des sup­por­ting my adre­nals), Vita­min C (also sup­ports my adre­nals) and more that I feel are sui­ted for my needs.

5) be open to the fact that if Armour or other desic­ca­ted thy­roid pro­ducts don’t seem to be wor­king, I am making one of seve­ral mis­ta­kes in my use of it, and will iden­tify my mis­ta­kes and correct them. 

Do you have others as a thy­roid patient? Just res­pond to this post. 

.…if you will take the time to read here of what thou­sands of patients have found out about the medi­ca­tion you will PROBABLY be put on, and about the lab you will PROBABLY be dosed by. 

For those who haven’t heard, Oprah announ­ced on Sep­tem­ber 10^th during her Good Mor­ning Ame­rica inter­view that she “blew her thy­roid out”. Now that also sounds sus­pi­ciously like she also has adre­nal fati­gue, but time will tell.

And Oprah will now join the club of an esti­ma­ted “billions” world­wide with thy­roid disease. But even worse, she may also be joi­ning the club of those who for nearly 50 years, have been put on the lousy T4-only medi­ca­tions (Synth­roid, Levoxyl, Levothy­ro­xine and others) and who have been terro­ri­zed with the TSH lab and it’s dubious and pathe­tic “nor­mal” range.

Yes Oprah, begin­ning in the 1960’s, doc­tors star­ting put­ting ALL of us on T4-only meds, and in the early 1970’s, dosing by the TSH lab. And NEITHER have wor­ked. Sure, some will state they felt bet­ter. But many will tell you that NOTHING chan­ged. And ALL, to one degree or another, have been left with a variety of hypothy­roid symp­toms while doc­tors have been proc­lai­ming that those VERY symp­toms had nothing to do with hypothy­roid since we were now “ade­qua­tely” treated.

But we have NEVER been “ade­qua­tely” trea­ted, Oprah. Doc­tors became cattle in the chu­tes of their pharmaceutically-financed medi­cal schools, blindly belie­ving that T4-only meds were wor­king and that the man-made TSH was the gold stan­dard of diag­no­sis and dosing…and igno­ring cli­ni­cal pre­sen­ta­tions which sho­wed the opposite. 

And when we still com­plai­ned of symp­toms, we have been put on anti-depressants, sta­tins, anti-anxiety meds, and a variety of other pills to ban­daid our con­ti­nuing hypo symp­toms.

And we finally fought back Oprah. For the last 7+ years, patients like myself found out that there has always been a MUCH bet­ter treat­ment (desic­ca­ted thy­roid), MUCH bet­ter labs (free T3 and free T4) and much bet­ter dosing stra­tegy (by symp­tom eli­mi­na­tion). Our lives have become far bet­ter because of what we have lear­ned.

This web­site repre­sents the know­ledge of a large and cons­tantly gro­wing body of patients world­wide, and some wise doc­tors, which goes totally COUNTER to nearly 50 LOUSY years of piti­ful thy­roid treatment. 

You, Oprah, are a megaphone of influence. And if you can take the time to read this web­site, you might play a huge role in hel­ping to change MILLIONS of lives. Because right now, the vast majo­rity of the medi­cal com­mu­nity does NOT get this, and is con­ti­nuing to keep patients SICK and TIRED and/or with con­ti­nuing hypothy­roid symp­toms of some kind. And YOU are going to be one, with your own con­ti­nuing list of symp­toms, if you don’t con­si­der what thy­roid patients are trying to tell you by nearly 50 years of LIVING it. 

I’m sick. I’m tired. I feel awful. I’ll go the my doc’s office for help.