t4 tags

I recently discovered a very humorous and appropo medical blog on the net, written by a United Kingdom General Practitioner who wisely stays incognito. His blog is called The Jobbing Doctor.

And his most recent and humorously brilliant post is titled Hairy legs are better than blood tests! He describes his occasional confusion when blood tests don’t agree with the patients symptoms.

Says the UK doc: “The textbooks teach that the level of circulating thyroid hormones (which are called T3 and T4) are inversely related to the Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH). If your T3 and T4 are low, your TSH will be high: this suggests an underactive thyroid gland. If the T3 and T4 are high and the TSH is low, then you have an overactive thyroid gland. That’s easy, huh!”

But his confusion sprang forth when a patient’s labs showed “a highish TSH, T4, and a normal T3.” Yet apparently her symptoms didn’t imply there was any problem, so he chose to do nothing as far as changing her treatment.

A month later at her next appointment, this patient expressed her approval that he didn’t change anything…because her leg hair and eyebrows were coming back.

And his conclusion?  “Pah! Who needs blood tests!”

Jobbing Doctor, you are discovering what thyroid patients have been learning over and over for years: it’s SYMPTOMS (or lack up) which need to pull the cart, NOT labwork. Sure, we love our labwork. They can give clues to areas where our bodies are screaming for help.  But they definitely do NOT tell the whole story.

Look at the ignoramus TSH lab test. Countless patients have walked into their doctors offices with clear and obvious hypothyroid symptoms–and desperate for a diagnosis–yet the ink spot on the office piece of paper called the TSH lab result proclaims they are “normal”. And that dubious “normal” diagnosis can go on for years before it rises high enough to reveal what was already there by SYMPTOMS.

Or, while on thyroid medication, patients will have a lamebrain “normal” TSH lab result, yet will continue to have their own brand and degree of continuing hypothyroid symptoms which the clueless doctor dismisses as an hysteric female interpretation, motherhood, stress, a need for psychological help….or just “something else”. Uh huh.

In fact, Jobber Doctor, patients have learned that when they are optimal (on desiccated thyroid), along with optimal ferritin and cortisol), they will generally have a free T3 in the upper part of the range, and a SUPPRESSED TSH, with no symptoms of hyperthyroidism.  That is general, and there can be some exceptions, but overall, it has spoken volumes to patients on how inadequate thyroid lab tests can be.  i.e. being in the “normal” range—anywhere in the normal range–can be mean squat.

Thanks for a great post,  UK Jobber Doc. And P.S.  Desiccated thyroid is an even better treatment than thyroxine.

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Thyroid problems have become rampant.

And it’s not just in the US with individuals like Oprah, fitness guru Jillian Michaels, Sex and the City’s Kim Cattrall, George and Barbara Bush, Kelly Osbourne and others.  A recent article in the Daily Mail-UK highlights the saga of  Clare Balding, the BBC TV sports presenter in the UK whose thyroid was gladly removed due to a malignant tumor.

Even the gal who wrote the well-written article about Clare, Pippa Jolly, reports having gone through the same removal 13 years previous due to an extreme case of Hashimotos and a nodule pressing against her trachea.

But within the informative and hopeful tone of the article are a few Rodney Dangerfield thuds of the continuing SCANDAL and idiocy of a particular thyroid treatment which even the most innocent of article writers can be fooled.

Thud #1: The very first sentence of the article says: Some good news for Clare Balding, the BBC TV sports presenter, is that her recent operation to remove her cancerous thyroid gland – a thyroidectomy – should be the end of the matter.

End of the matter? Only if she had been put on desiccated thyroid like Naturethroid, et al. Because it appears she’s on the delightfully enchanting synthetic “thyroxine“, the darling of most UK doctors and which serves to leave almost everyone with their own brand and intensity of continuing hypothyroid symptoms.  You can listen to my audio here about T4.

Thud #2: Diagnostic rates are on the increase, says Professor Monson, as thyroid tests are now done routinely at GP surgeries. ‘As a result there is a higher detection rate and the disease can be tackled earlier and if necessary followed up by surgery.

Right. Those increasing diagnostic rates, some which are based on the lousy TSH lab test, are overridingly catching someone’s hypothyroid state years after it started, which leaves a certain percentage with the misery of adrenal insufficiency and host of other problems from being undiagnosed so long.  And if one is treated after surgery based on the same holy TSH, you will only continue to have your brand of continuing symptoms. You can listen to my audio on the TSH here.

Thud #3: If the thyroid is removed or not functioning properly, thyroxine will need to be taken in drug form for life.

You and millions of others have been hoodwinked into thinking it’s thyroxine you will need the rest of your life, aka Eltroxine, Synthroid, or levothyroxine,  et al.  But those T4 meds force you to depend on conversion alone, a process not well done in many, and you miss out on what natural desiccated thyroid would be giving you as a much wiser treatment–exactly what your own thyroid gives: direct T4, T3, T2, T1 and calcitonin. Or even at the VERY least, giving yourself synthetic T4 with synthetic T3.

Thud #4: Now I have to have my hormone levels checked every three months and make sure I take my medication, but otherwise I feel fine.

I completely believe Pippa when she says she feels fine. But I want to warn her:  some CAN feel fine on a T4-only medication, but eventually and especially as she ages,  she’s going to have to watch out for those pesky little demons of being on an inferior, inadequate medication, which can include rising cholesterol, chronic low-grade depression, rising high blood pressure, or a host of other symptoms which are individual to each person on thyroxine.

Here’s hoping Clare and Pippa join the growing body of patients all over the world whose lives are being changed thanks to natural desiccated thyroid.

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Because you requested it….now you can listen to me explaining certain subjects here: http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/audio-shorts/ For slower connections, it may take up to 3 minutes to download each short.  For faster connections, it’s a breeze.

Know someone who you think has hypothyroidism but they have a “normal” diagnosis? Send them to the above page.

Know someone who’s on T4 who might listen to a new idea? Send them to the above link.

Know someone who has had problems with desiccated thyroid and threw in the towel? Send them to the above link.

*If you’re afraid of the newly formulated Armour, check out the post below about Naturethroid.  Below that, read about the Royal College of Physicians in the UK, desiccated thyroid in Denmark, Germany and Italy, and why you may need Potassium.

*Want to be informed of my blog posts? Curious what’s on my mind? Use the Notifications on the bottom left of the links.

*Have you read the STTM book?? It can be much easier to refer to than this website!

Funny how things work. I had been wondering what the heck was going on with thyroid patients in the UK after the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) came out with their February 6th guideline stating that 1) thyroxine was the only medication needed for hypothyroidism, 2) “natural” medications were dangerous and 3) the only labs needed are the TSH and T4.

All the above goes totally against the life-changing experience of a growing body of patients.

Equally a part of this B-grade horror movie is the stand taken by the British Thyroid Association (BTA).  Read it. And UK-TPA thyroid patient advocate Sheila Turner began to go through her own hell when her Armour was taken away, which you can read about in the February 20th blog post here.

And suddenly, I get an email from Sheila, informing me that the RCP stand is as bad as it was three months ago for her and other thyroid patients.

Sheila states: This is absolutely unbelievable that out of the hundreds of references we sent to the Royal College of Physicians to show their guideline to be flawed, they have taken no account of one single one of them. They are publishing their previous guidance without one since change. The world has gone mad.

Dear Sheila, Further to my email of 6 April, the comments and materials received by the College have been reviewed. This position statement or guidance (not a guideline) was produced on behalf of the Royal College of Physicians, in particular its Patient and Carer Network and the Joint Specialty Committee for Endocrinology and Diabetes; the Association for Clinical Biochemistry; the Society for Endocrinology; the British Thyroid Association; the British Thyroid Foundation Patient Support Group and the British Society of Paediatric Endocrinology and Diabetes and is endorsed by The Royal College of General Practitioners. The President has asked me to let you know that this review has not resulted in any changes to that statement.  It should be noted that it is about the treatment of primary hypothyroidism and does not preclude other treatments for exceptional cases by specialist endocrinologists who can make clear to patients any associated risks. References supporting the statement are listed below. Yours sincerely, Catharine Perry Administrator •   Diagnosis and treatment of primary hypothyroidism. BMJ 2009;338:b725 •   Vaidya B, Pearce S. A Clinical Review of the management of hypothyroidism in adults. BMJ 2008;337:a801. This contains references for 35 articles and states that Armour thyroid is of no proved additional benefit to levothyroxine. • The Lancet Volume 363, Issue 9411, Pages 793 – 803, 6 March 2004.  This covers the history, epidemiology, pathophysiology, and clinical diagnosis and management of hypothyroidism and is written by Caroline GP Roberts and Paul Ladenson of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, USA.  This review, which references 164 clinical articles, states that the treatment of choice for hypothyroidism is levothyroxine sodium (thyroxine) and does not refer to Armour thyroid. •  Baloch Z, Carayon P, Conte-Devolx B, et al. Laboratory medicine practice guidelines. Laboratory support for the diagnosis and monitoring of thyroid disease.Thyroid 2003;13:3-126. •  Association of Clinical Biochemists BTA, British Thyroid Foundation. UK Guidelines for the use of thyroid function tests. http://acb.org.uk/docs/tftguidelinefinal.pdf •  Surks MI. Ortiz E, Daniels GH, et al. Subclinical thyroid disease: scientific review and guidelines for diagnosis and management. 2004;291:228-238.

And as your peruse the six references above which they use to defend their tunnel-visioned, moronic position, you realize that you, your words, and your positive-outcome experience on desiccated thyroid, as well as the use of far better labs, is about as important within the UK’s latest medical pronouncement as is dirt on the bottom of a rusted bucket in the middle of an empty field in nowhere. Yup.

Or as Harold Shipman stated about the RCP’s guidelines: What a brilliant wheeze.

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See below on the potential importance of potassium in your health and well-being. And on the May 7th post about the party being over with Forest Pharmaceuticals, comments continue to come in about experiences with the “new” Armour.

I’ve been noticing several articles coming out the past week about a strong association between hypothyroidism and a twice the risk of liver disease and liver cancer, especially in females. And then it dawned on me: another strong reason to play basketball with your trashcan using your lousy Synthroid, Levoxyl, Levothroxine or Eltroxin bottles while being replaced with desiccated thyroid.

In other words, continued hypothyroidism (being on the lousy T4 meds) and undiagnosed hypothyroidism (because of the inadequacy of the TSH lab test) can potentially promote the development of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, a more severe Fatty Liver disease. The next progression is liver cancer, aka hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

Even worse, the study revealed that women who had been hypothyroid for more than 10 years had a threefold higher risk of liver cancer compared to women without a history of thyroid disorders. This will make you pause when you consider how many reports there are of patients having hypothyroid symptoms for YEARS with a normal TSH…and a clueless, TSH-worshipping doctor.

And if reading this bores you, understand that your liver is a HIGHLY important gland that you can’t live without. It plays a key role in detoxifying the toxins you ingest and breath in daily (including smoking), besides being a major fat burner.  Make the liver diseased, and you become a breeding ground for toxins, the rise of other diseases…then death.

The solution? Run from TSH-kissing doctors, get on desiccated thyroid like Naturethroid et. al.  and avoid the most common mistakes of dosing while ceasing to smoke, curtailing the alcohol, and eating healthy (except for the daily dose of chocolate I gotta have. haha).

P.S. The original report came out in the May journal issue of Hepatology (published by John Wiley & Sons on behalf of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases).  Similar results were also reported in the Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology 2005.

Want to be informed about my blog posts? Curious what I’m ranting about? Just use the Notifications on the left at the bottom of the links.

See below about my disappointment in Forest Pharmaceuticals.