symptoms tags

A thy­roid patient and mother of two just infor­med me that her daughter’s pso­ria­sis on her body com­ple­tely went away thanks to being on desic­ca­ted thy­roid, and all that’s left is some on her head. And, her son’s pso­ria­sis com­ple­tely went away thanks to desic­ca­ted thyroid.

Con­nec­tion? Pretty obvious, isn’t it.

Pso­ria­sis is an autoim­mune skin disease that appears on the skin chro­ni­cally due to an immune sys­tem going awry. It results in red scaly patches with a white dead-cell buil­dup. You can often see it hand-in-hand with Hashi­mo­tos. And Rosa­cea is another skin pro­blem, though not autoim­mune, that cau­ses a red­ness of the skin, inc­lu­ding the cheeks and nose, or the forehead and chin.

I per­so­nally had rosa­cea on my nose for years — my roman­tic “clown nose”.  But just like the mother’s son and daugh­ter with pso­ria­sis, my rosa­cea even­tually went away, as well, after I had star­ted on desic­ca­ted thy­roid and rai­sed it high enough to remove my hypo symp­toms.

Chro­nic skin disease is just another rea­son to be ade­qua­tely trea­ted with desic­ca­ted thyroid.

*Below, you’ll find a post about T4 and depres­sion–a very com­mon con­nec­tion with poorly trea­ted or undiag­no­sed hypothy­roi­dism, as well. Under that is infor­ma­tion on how to do desic­ca­ted thy­roid sublin­gually. And on June 2^nd, com­ments con­ti­nue to come in about the newly for­mu­la­ted Armour.

*Pre­fer having all this web­site in book form with more info? Many do, and you can decide by going here.

When I  was ten years old, my mother had elec­tric shock treatment.

The memory stands out in my mind like a bea­con. And when my Dad brought her home, he took me aside and explai­ned that my mama was not going to remem­ber where things are for awhile, and we’d have to help her. That was espe­cially true with the 4-legged sewing basket.

She even­tually regai­ned her memory. But she was never again the same bright and quick wit­ted mother I used to have when I was younger.

Why was shock treat­ment done?  To coun­ter her mys­te­rious ongoing and disa­bling depres­sion.  And this was her last option.

It didn’t work.

She lived on anti-depressants, spe­ci­fi­cally a high dose of Ela­vil, the rest of her com­pro­mi­sed life.

And more than 40 years later, about a year after her death, a change in my own life with Armour hel­ped me rea­lize why she had to be depen­dent on an anti-depressant for so many years:  Synth­roid.  My mother was on Synth­roid almost her entire adult life — a medi­ca­tion, along with Levoxyl, Levothy­ro­xine, Unith­roid, Eltro­xin, Leva­xin, Nor­ton, Eutro­sig  and Oro­xine, which lea­ves nearly all patients with lin­ge­ring hypothy­roid symp­toms, inc­lu­ding one of the most com­mon one:  chro­nic on-going depression.

And a large body of doc­tors all around the world just don’t get it.

What brought this memory of my mother up in my mind? Because two days ago, I chat­ted with a gal on Synth­roid.   By all appea­ran­ces, she see­med to be doing well, as some will make you think.  She said she had enough energy, wasn’t losing her hair, and felt okay. But when I pro­bed dee­per, she admit­ted that her blood pres­sure was going too high (as hap­pe­ned to my mother on a T4-only med) and she had a pro­blem with depres­sion and was on Well­bu­trin.  Bingo.

See http://biopsychiatry.com/hypothyroidism.htm which is also here: http://www.theannals.com/cgi/content/abstract/34/10/1142

Want to be infor­med of these blog posts?? Curious what’s on Janie’s mind? Use the Noti­fi­ca­tion fea­ture on the bot­tom left of the links. 

The Bri­tish Medi­cal Jour­nal (BMJ) recently came out with yet another thy­roid article, benignly tit­led Diag­no­sis and treat­ment of pri­mary hypothy­roi­dism and autho­red by the Bri­tish Thy­roid Asso­cia­tion (BTA),  that at first blush, looks so caring.

Namely, they express deep con­cern that that since hypothy­roid symp­toms can mimic other con­di­tions, patients may be get­ting an inco­rrect diag­no­sis which could expose some patients to the harm­ful effects of excess thy­roid hor­mo­nes, while other serious con­di­tions may go undiagnosed.

And they add: In other patients, ade­quate repla­ce­ment with levothy­ro­xine does not resolve symp­toms, which are attri­bu­ted to hypothy­roi­dism rather than other con­di­tions that may coe­xist, such as depression.

The article con­ti­nues with:  Nor­ma­li­sa­tion of thy­roid sti­mu­la­ting hor­mone means a return to nor­mal health in most patients with pri­mary hypothy­roi­dism.

In other words, what you have above are the Three Stoo­ges of the sta­ted beliefs of the Bri­tish Thy­roid Association.

Stooge stated-belief #1: “Inco­rrect diag­no­sis allow other con­di­tions go undiag­no­sed” What is infe­rred is that there are a host of diag­no­ses of hypothy­roi­dism that are inco­rrect. Why? Because a wise phy­si­cian dared to lis­ten to clear symp­toms of hypothy­roi­dism or use the free T3, in spite of a so-called “nor­mal” TSH – a lab test which mea­su­res a pitui­tary hor­mone, not the cells abi­lity to receive enough thy­roid hormones.

Stooge stated-belief #2: “If ade­quate doses of levothy­ro­xine do not resolve symp­toms, those symp­toms are due to something else.” That is akin to saying if eating 100 calo­ries a day results in mal­nu­tri­tion and star­va­tion, your mal­nu­tri­tion and star­va­tion is due to something else. And one par­ti­cu­lar symp­tom they are refe­rring to is depres­sion–a clas­sic symp­tom of undiag­no­sed and under­trea­ted hypothy­roi­dism in MILLIONS of indi­vi­duals around the world.  And isn’t it just odd how that depres­sion resol­ves itself when the patient is put on Armour and allo­wed to dose by the eli­mi­na­tion of symptoms.

Stooge stated-belief #3: “A nor­mal TSH lab result equals nor­mal health in those trea­ted for hypothy­roi­dism”. Gee, funny how millions of thy­roid patients around the world have had a so-called “nor­mal” TSH lab result along with a diverse blend of con­ti­nuing and CLEAR hypothy­roid symp­toms.  Addi­tio­nally, we have a large and gro­wing body of patients who, when they switched to Armour desic­ca­ted thy­roid or other fine desic­ca­ted thy­roid presc­rip­tion meds,  had those symp­toms resol­ved when they were dosed accor­ding to the free T3, impro­ved blood pres­sure, strong heart beat, lowe­red cho­les­te­rol, and com­plete eli­mi­na­tion of symp­toms. Patients have lear­ned what works!

When you unders­tand the Bri­tish Thy­roid Association’s hell-bent and rigid stands against Armour desic­ca­ted thy­roid, their pro­mo­tion of one of the worst labs ever crea­ted to diag­nose and dose by, their love affair with the most ina­de­quate thy­roid medi­ca­tion ever thrust onto the mar­ket by money-grubbing phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals (levothy­ro­xine), and their com­plete fai­lure to lis­ten to patients and recog­nize con­ti­nuing symp­toms of hypothy­roi­dism while on synthe­tic T4, you come to rea­lize how mea­ning­ful any article on hypothy­roi­dism will be by the Bri­tish Thy­roid Association.

P.S.  Do ya won­der if the Bri­tish Broad­cas­ting Cor­po­ra­tion (BBC) has the smarts to report the other side of the story??

*Want to be infor­med of these blog posts? Curious what’s on Janie’s mind? Just use the Noti­fi­ca­tion fea­ture on the bot­tom  of the links to your left. 

Just as I was finishing up the post below about a short sum­mary on the Endoc­ri­no­logy Today web­site, I saw a link at the bot­tom of the page that inte­res­ted me.  It took me to a blog post on the same site from Decem­ber 10^th tit­led “Why can’t it be my thyroid?”.

And a slew of thy­roid patients around the world, as well as a gro­wing body of doc­tors,  would com­ple­tely disa­gree with this post.

Namely, a DO explains the pro­blem of patients arri­ving in doc­tors offi­ces with “innu­me­ra­ble pos­si­ble symp­toms of hypothy­roi­dism” inc­lu­ding “fati­gue, cold into­le­rance, dec­rea­sed energy, weight gain, depres­sion, hair loss, low libido, mens­trual irre­gu­la­rity and others.”

Yet, he bemoans, these patients have a “nor­mal TSH” which is “well within the nor­mal labo­ra­tory refe­rence range.” He also refers to their nor­mal free T3 and free T4, and sta­tes there is no his­tory to sug­gest pitui­tary dys­func­tion or that the TSH is unreliable.” 

He then pro­ceeds to pat him­self on the back because he 1) will treat some patients with a high-normal TSH and other cli­ni­cal fea­tu­res,  2) he will treat to a low-normal TSH of less than 2.0, but like the good-boy-doctor, “still within the nor­mal labo­ra­tory refe­rence range” and 3) he will not induce iatro­ge­nic hyperthy­roi­dism, even if symp­toms per­sist. (yikes)

“Iatro­ge­nic hyperthy­roi­dism”??  Since “iatro­ge­ne­sis” refers to harm­ful medi­cal pro­ce­du­res, he’s pro­bably refe­rring to a TSH below the range, which in his mind, equa­tes to hyperthyroidism.

***Then comes the obser­va­tion that has made many thy­roid patients shi­ver, since so many doc­tors have said it: because he feels that adding T3 to T4 has more nega­tive results than posi­tive, he explains to his patients “that there may be cau­ses of their symp­toms besi­des the thyroid.”

THUD.

So here is my 6-point res­ponse to any doc­tor who might share these beliefs: 

1) There’s hardly a thy­roid patient around who hasn’t had a so-called “nor­mal” TSH in spite of clear and obvious hypothy­roi­dism.  The TSH lab test fre­quently lags behind what is rea­lity in the body, and has been doing so since it’s crea­tion in the early 1970’s (see Chap­ter 4 in the Stop the Thy­roid Mad­ness book for his­tory).

2) Having a “nor­mal” free T3 and free T4 means nothing. It’s “where” the result falls in that range that means something. i.e. patients all around the world are noti­cing that having a free T3 mid-range or lower in the pre­sence of hypothy­roid symp­toms is usually a BINGO lab result poin­ting to hypothyroidism.

3) Exactly because doc­tors tend to dis­miss clear hypothy­roid symp­toms as “something else” thanks to a lousy TSH refe­rence range, a bur­geo­ning num­ber of thy­roid patients are falling into adre­nal fati­gue with its low cor­ti­sol, which ser­ves to mess them up even more.

4) A huge body of thy­roid patients who are on desic­ca­ted thy­roid hor­mo­nes (aka Armour, Natu­reth­roid, etc), and who finally have a com­plete remo­val of symp­toms with a nor­mal tem­pe­ra­ture and hear­trate, also have a sup­pres­sed TSH lab result, and not one iota of “iatro­ge­nic hyperthyroidism.”

5) When it appears that adding T3 to T4 is having nega­tive effects, the pro­blem is most likely adre­nal fati­gue that needs correc­tion, and/or low ferri­tin, NOT deci­ding that the symp­toms must be from another cause or T3 doesn’t work.

6) “Fati­gue, cold into­le­rance, dec­rea­sed energy, weight gain, depres­sion, hair loss, low libido, mens­trual irre­gu­la­rity and others” may be sha­red in other con­di­tions, but you are most likely mis­sing CLEAR symp­toms of hypothy­roi­dism, both in the undiag­no­sed patient with a so-called nor­mal TSH, or with a patient trea­ted with the lousy thy­ro­xine, which lea­ves most ever­yone with con­ti­nuing hypothy­roid symp­toms.

“I’m sorry. It IS your thy­roid” is exactly what patients need to hear.

I recei­ved a reply to a post below that I was una­ble to approve because it men­tio­ned someone by name. And the reply was not par­ti­cu­larly friendly, and defi­ni­tely not accu­rate. lol. But the reply brought up some good issues, which I have no pro­blem addres­sing.

Namely, can I agree that there are some peo­ple who do well on T4-only treat­ment such as Synth­roid or Levoxyl?? I can…sorta. I have a friend whose hus­band is one of those see­mingly lucky indi­vi­duals on T4, with no thy­roid, who leads a fairly active and happy life. Con­si­de­ring how lousy I did, he ama­zes me. But I did notice something else about him: he has high and rising cho­les­te­rol and is on sta­tins. That’s a clas­sic symp­tom of a poor treat­ment and con­ti­nuing hypothy­roid, even if he does have much bet­ter energy that I ever did. 

And by obser­ving him, and kno­wing a few others who sub­jec­ti­vely feel they do well on T4, I came to the follo­wing conc­lu­sion: though some may do bet­ter than others on T4, I have yet to find anyone on T4 who doesn’t have some kind of side-effect of a poor treat­ment, whether they are trea­ting it with sta­tins, trea­ting it with anti­de­pres­sants, or not trea­ting it at all & den­ying it. Sure, some may do bet­ter than others, but the proof is in the pud­ding if you look deep enough. And, at the very least, I’m just plain sus­pi­cious that ANYONE on T4, even doing sub­jec­ti­vely well, is going to have symp­toms of a poor treat­ment creep up on them as they age. The body was not desig­ned to live on con­ver­sion alone.

Can I agree that some peo­ple just can­NOT tole­rate desic­ca­ted thy­roid like Armour and need to be on T4? Ini­tially, that may be. The gal that wrote me sta­ted she felt a lot bet­ter on T4, and that no mat­ter what she did, she couldn’t tole­rate Armour. I believe her. If Armour was that mise­ra­ble, she should be on T4 for the time being, or even bet­ter, a synthe­tic T4/T3 com­bi­na­tion. But I also believe that even if she feels she did everything to a “t” and still couldn’t tole­rate it, there was more for her to learn that she didn’t get the first time around when it came to her adre­nal fati­gue treat­ment. I see it too many times. And perhaps, over time, it will become more clear. 

Do some pro­po­nents of desic­ca­ted thy­roid go over­board in their fer­vor? I don’t doubt it one bit. We’re human. And we hope you are for­gi­ving. But once you get past howe­ver you view are com­mu­ni­ca­tion short­co­ming, do know that our fer­vor is based on the fact that a huge volume of indi­vi­duals are having lives chan­ged due to desic­ca­ted thy­roid (and/or treat­ment of low ferri­tin, and/or treat­ment of adre­nal fati­gue). And it’s too wides­pread and glo­bal not to have fer­vor, besi­des com­mon sense that a treat­ment that gives us back what our own thy­roids would be giving us is just plain remarkable. 

So, do know that if you are on T4, and feel well, I’m behind you. It’s your life, not mine, and I believe you. But neither can I stop my belief and too many obser­va­tions that if you are truly hypothy­roid and need treat­ment, desic­ca­ted thy­roid is a supe­rior choice, now or later, whether you are lucky enough to have esca­ped adre­nal fati­gue, or whether you have a cha­llen­ging case of adre­nal fati­gue that can be ade­qua­tely treated!