thyroid disease tags

In the maga­zine India Today, it’s esti­ma­ted that there are at least forty million indi­vi­duals with thy­roid disease, accor­ding to Dr. Gana­pathi Bant­wal, faculty mem­ber of the Indian Thy­roid Society (ITS) and Pro­fes­sor and Head of Depart­ment of Endoc­ri­no­logy, St John’s Medi­cal College, Bangalore.

He adds that most are women, and most hypothy­roi­dism is occu­rring after the birth of a baby, called post­par­tum hypothyroidism.

The Indian Thy­roid Society wants to observe January 2009 as Think Thy­roid Month with experts calling  thy­roid rela­ted disor­ders as the next dia­be­tes to affect the nearly forty million Indians.

A side note from Janie: Sadly, when you visit the web­site of the Indian Thy­roid Society (which by the way was crea­ted by the Depart­ment of Endoc­ri­no­logy at Amrita Ins­ti­tute of Medi­cal Scien­ces in India), there is a flashing ad on most pages for thy­ro­xine called Thy­ro­norm. And guess who makes “Thy­ro­norm”? Abbott Labs in India, the same phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal in the US which pro­du­ces Synth­roid.  Anyone hear the theme song from Twi­light Zone pla­ying in the background??

Cuz it ain’t the one WE live on, dah’ling.

For a few years now, patients have repea­tedly writ­ten the Oprah show, beg­ging her to address the thy­roid scan­dal of deca­des of T4-only medi­ca­tion and the lousy TSH lab, both of which have left MILLIONS of patients with lin­ge­ring hypo symp­toms while our doc­tors proc­lai­med we were NORMAL…and about a FAR bet­ter treat­ment called natu­ral desic­ca­ted thy­roid and dosing by symp­toms, NOT the TSH.

And when she finally has a pro­gram which somewhat addres­ses the thy­roid issue this week, she allows her hallo­wed guest, Dr. Chris­tiane North­rup, to state “your symp­toms are actually your soul’s way of brin­ging dee­per issues to your atten­tion.” Hog­wash! And thy­roid patient Mary Sho­man has rightly proc­lai­med that “thy­roid disease is NOT your fault, des­pite what Dr. North­rup says.”

But the issue goes even further. Oprah implies, by her own expe­rience, that taking a month vaca­tion and eating fresh foods is enough to make one well from thy­roid disease?? Dou­ble hog­wash! Thy­roid patients seek to live some of the healthiest lifesty­les there are. All you have to do is observe the con­ver­sa­tions in most any inter­net thy­roid patient talk group, and you will see daily posts on the best sup­ple­ments to take, healthiest foods to eat, and best ways to de-stress our lives. We are ove­rall a VERY edu­ca­ted group of patients about health, and we prac­tice it. We HAVE to be in light of how poorly edu­ca­ted most of our doc­tors are about our thy­roid disease. And in spite of all the above, our thy­roid con­di­tion per­sists.

What has CHANGED our lives is lea­ving the scan­dal of T4-only treat­ment in the dust, and lear­ning about desic­ca­ted thy­roid like Armour, switching to it, and dosing accor­ding to the eli­mi­na­tion of symp­toms, NOT simply labs. We have also faced the fact that at least 50% of us have adre­nal fati­gue, which lea­ves us impa­tient and angry, with hea­daches and body aches, chro­nic back pain and body aches, a loss of pas­sion, and sleep issues. And we have tread new ground in our know­ledge on how to treat it, when many of our doc­tors pooh-pooh the rea­lity of adre­nal fatigue.

I love ya, Oprah, as do millions of women out there. But taking a month vaca­tion and eating fresh foods does NOT cure our thy­roid disease. So time will tell what went on with you! So now, all we can do is hope eter­nal that Oprah will get on the pla­net that the rest of us live on, and help us to spread the word as to why millions of thy­roid patients have been suf­fe­ring and about a far bet­ter treat­ment. If you can con­ti­nue to have per­sis­tence, you can email her here. STOP the thy­roid madness!

P.S. Go here to read thy­roid patient Anna’s humo­rous expe­rience with follo­wing the same kind of advice given on Oprah’s show.

.…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.