treatment tags

How many doc­tors can I stran­gle with my bare hands?? Grrrrrrrrrrr. 

Today, I am once again appa­lled and sad­de­ned by the end­less body of thy­roid patients who con­ti­nue to plum­met into the abyss of adre­nal fati­gue, day after day after day. And it just never needs to hap­pen if doc­tors would simply pay atten­tion and be infor­med.

Belinda is the per­fect exam­ple. She didn’t par­ti­ci­pate in thy­roid patient groups any­more, living her life hap­pily, because she thought her post-RAI thy­roid treat­ment was under con­trol, being on 2 grains of Armour for a year. But sud­denly, she felt the need to return to her groups and seek feed­back. Because she has become more irri­ta­ble and moody, has a hard time falling asleep, and feels fre­quently anxie­tal. Labs are redone, and she finds her­self with a slightly over-range free T3 and a very sup­pres­sed TSH. Her doc­tor deci­des to lower her thy­roid meds, which in turn impro­ves her insom­nia and anxiety, but weight starts piling on. She’s con­fu­sed and won­ders how she can find her balance bet­ween being on too little with unwel­come weight gain and being on too much with uncom­for­ta­ble anxiety and insomnia.

What Belinda didn’t get, and what her doc­tor didn’t get, is that Belinda had now joi­ned the dubious cama­ra­de­rie of those with adre­nal fati­gue, a need­less con­di­tion of over-stressed and under-functioning adre­nals. As a result, T3 in Armour starts to pool in the blood, cau­sing anxiety, insom­nia, and all sorts of low cor­ti­sol symp­toms. Thy­roid patients just like Belinda have to first dis­co­ver what is going on, then face the com­pli­ca­ted balan­cing act of trea­ting adre­nal fati­gue AND hypothy­roi­dism. And it’s a path that never nee­ded to happen. 

WHAT IS POTENTIALLY TAKING YOU DOWN THE DIRTY-YELLOW BRICK ROAD TO ADRENAL FATIGUE??

1) Being undiag­no­sed, or being dosed by, the faulty TSH lab test and its dubious “nor­mal” range, which will leave you with lin­ge­ring hypothy­roid symp­toms. (Belinda’s 2 grains tells me she was being dosed by the TSH)
2) Being trea­ted by T4-only medi­ca­tions like Synth­roid, Levoxyl, Eltro­xin, et al, which end up tea­sing your adre­nals to work har­der to take up the slack of an ina­de­quate treat­ment.
3) Lowe­ring your expec­ta­tions of what “nor­mal” is. No, it’s not nor­mal to have less sta­mina than others, to be on an anti-depressant to ban­daid your hypo depres­sion, to feel col­der than others, to require fre­quent naps, to feel the need to avoid peo­ple, to be bothe­red by lights or noi­ses, to be told by those you love that you are too defen­sive or over-reactive…and so on. 

I hope anyone rea­ding this comes to an unders­tan­ding that you can­NOT enter your doctor’s office as if you are ente­ring the throne of a god. Your doc­tor, no mat­ter how edu­ca­ted or dedi­ca­ted, may not have a strong unders­tan­ding of the role of adre­nal func­tion in rela­tionship to bad treat­ment via T4-only meds or the TSH lab range. You may have to bring this know­ledge to your doc­tor, or find another one who is either lear­ned, or open-minded. Because your chan­ces of having adre­nal fati­gue are huge if you are on T4, if the TSH is worship­ped by your doc­tor whether on T4 or desic­ca­ted thy­roid, or if you keep wal­king into the doctor’s office and hang your own know­ledge on the hook outside his or her door.

(See Deborah’s story about cea­sing to smoke with adre­nal fatigue)

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! 

It would make an inc­re­di­ble horror movie. The plot: stun­ningly con­vince at least hun­dreds of millions of indi­vi­duals world­wide that what has always been obvious, isn’t. That lea­ves only look green because of alien fil­ters in your eyes. That ripe apples fall because water pulls them down. That fire doesn’t really burn your skin; it’s just your imagination. 

And about hun­dred more schi­zoph­re­nic ying yangs. Because if those in autho­rity say so, it must be so. 

But the horror movie is a rea­lity, and I see it EVERY TIME I come into con­tact with peo­ple and the sub­ject of my thy­roid advo­cacy comes up. 

Like today. A cou­ple saw my book and struck up a con­ver­sa­tion. She was on Synth­roid; he was on Levoxyl. They had each been on their T4-only treat­ment for 12 and 14 years res­pec­ti­vely, felt their hypo was per­fectly trea­ted, belie­ved their doctors…and were now dea­ling with other pro­blems: his rising cho­les­te­rol, her depres­sion, his fati­gue, and her weight gain. BUT OF COURSE, THOSE HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH THEIR T4-ONLY TREATED HYPOTHYROID AND SOME OF IT IS THEIR OWN FAULT…leaves aren’t really green, water makes ripe apples fall, and fire doesn’t really burn. 

It just struck me. And it’s struck me before. There’s just a LOT of SILENT SUCKERS wal­king around. I was one; my mother was one; and there are obviously millions out there, still wal­king around trying to live with the side effects of a treat­ment that their doc­tors say are NOT cau­sed by their thyroid. 

Sad.

(Has your cho­les­te­rol and other lipids impro­ved since you switched to Armour and rai­sed without using the TSH? Your story of suc­cess is wel­come on the blog post below!)

UPDATE: I am plea­sed to announce that the most gutsy, revo­lu­tio­nary, com­prehen­sive and prac­ti­cal book on the sub­ject of diag­no­sis, treat­ment, and medi­ca­tions for hypothy­roid, as well as rela­ted con­di­tions, inc­lu­ding low ferri­tin, adre­nal fati­gue and other pro­blems which befall hypothy­roid patients…is out! This is YOUR book as a patient-to-patient book. 

The link below will take you to the Publisher’s web­site. On the home page, you can read about the publisher. Then click on the PRODUCTS page to see the book and infor­ma­tion. Click on the DOUBLE GREEN ARROWS to open up the entire text plus ship­ping infor­ma­tion.

www.laughinggrapepublishing.com

******************************************

Yup, it’s done. It’s com­plete. And I can say without a doubt that there is NO book on hypothy­roid as hands-on as this one. Why can I say that? Because the book is based on YOUR EXPERIENCE and thou­sands like you. Because this is THE patient-to-patient book. Yes, I wrote it, but YOU wrote it, too. 

Where is the STTM book avai­la­ble? It will FIRST be avai­la­ble right here on the site in appro­xi­ma­tely two weeks. It’s about 300 pages and will sell for 19.95. So keep coming back here. 

Is the STTM book a copy of the web­site? Not exactly. Yes, you will see some things in the book that ARE on the web­site. That was impor­tant. But.…you will also find a chap­ter totally on T3. You will learn some his­tory that’s not on the web­site. You will get more details on adre­nal sup­port. You will have new sto­ries of others. You will read a chap­ter totally writ­ten for and about doc­tors. And there’s much more that is not right on the STTM site…little details inser­ted here and inser­ted there. 

Why did I write it? Because though the STTM web­site has done WONDERS to reach peo­ple, MORE is nee­ded. There are folks out there who are NOT coming to the web, or even know to look for ans­wers, and this book will reach them. And.…it can simply be more pro­duc­tive to have a BOOK to refer to and a BOOK to read when you are tra­ve­ling in the air­plane or wai­ting in the doctor’s office. AND.….FINALLY, we have something to HAND THE DOCTOR when he or she doesn’t get what we are tal­king about…or to our family or friends when they don’t get it, either. 

Get ready. I’m exci­ted. I hope you are too. 

P.S. Guess what Oprah Win­frey may be drin­king daily?? Soy milk. And since soy is a known thy­roid inhi­bi­tor, guess what she’s doing to her thy­roid? Quo­ted directly from her site: Thanks to all the yogurt and calcium-enriched soy­milk she con­su­mes, she’s get­ting an ave­rage of about 1,100 mg of cal­cium daily OOPS. 

Some­ti­mes I pon­der: the current move­ment away from Synth­roid & Levoxyl and all other T4-only meds to desic­ca­ted thy­roid like Armour (as well as the unders­tan­ding of the high pre­va­lence of adre­nal fati­gue with thy­roid patients), has been going on for ALL of the 21^st cen­tury. In other words, patients were star­ting to talk about desic­ca­ted thy­roid like Armour by the year 1999, and Yahoo’s Natu­ral Thy­roid Hor­mo­nes group was star­ted in 2002. Other patient groups sprung up around the same time. The lat­ter group is also where the know­ledge about adre­nal fati­gue in thy­roid patients grew, which was further added to on STTM. So.…has there there been any chan­ges in the way thy­roid patients are trea­ted for their hypothy­roid and rela­ted conditions?

The YES

Some­ti­mes I can say a resoun­ding yes! There are many doc­tors around the world who are loo­king at Stop the Thy­roid Mad­ness (STTM) and lis­te­ning to what is says. STTM is about the real life chan­ging expe­rience of patients! Some doc­tors tell me outright, either via the Con­tact Me form or by res­pon­ding to my blog posts here, that they are rea­ding it and appro­ving the infor­ma­tion. Or, I find out about other doc­tors second hand by patients who tell me their doc­tor TOLD THE PATIENT to read STTM. The lat­ter defi­ni­tely makes me chuc­kle when so many doc­tors tell patients that infor­ma­tion on the inter­net is DANGEROUS!

I can also say yes when I read the com­ments of patients on various thy­roid patient groups on the inter­net. Because of the infor­ma­tion patients have lear­ned from STTM, which is in turn pas­sed into the groups, patients all over the world are making demands in their doctor’s offi­ces, and some pro­gress is being made all over the world.

And a final yes can be utte­red by me when I see a few but gro­wing num­ber of web­si­tes pro­mote desic­ca­ted thyroid. 

The NO

But there are so many situa­tions where I have to say no. 1) When doc­tors on inter­net forums TO THIS DAY con­ti­nue to give lousy advice to thy­roid patients, it’s dishear­te­ning. 2) When patients on thy­roid patient groups TO THIS DAY con­ti­nue to have doc­tors state each and every ridi­cu­lous give me a break com­ment, it’s sad. 3) When a famous female talk show host con­ti­nues to ignore each and every email sent to her for years about the deplo­ra­ble situa­tion across the world with thy­roid patients, as well as seem to misun­ders­tand her OWN thy­roid and poten­tial adre­nal pro­blem, it’s mad­de­ning. 4) And when I can run into patients DAILY when I go to the gro­cery store, or to the gas sta­tion, or to any public place, who are still on Synth­roid or Levoxyl and coping with innu­me­ra­ble symp­toms of a poor treat­ment, not exc­lu­ding adre­nal fati­gue, it’s scandalous.

So the com­plete ans­wer? Yes and no. The ball has defi­ni­tely been rolling for bet­ter treat­ment. Some doc­tors out there are truly lis­te­ning. Many patients out there are lear­ning and deman­ding change. It’s hap­pe­ning. But baby, we have a LONG WAY TO GO. And the power will be in the hand of patients who ques­tion their treat­ment, find ans­wers via STTM and other web­si­tes and patient forums, and con­ti­nue to demand change from their doc­tors and the entire medi­cal esta­blish­ment. I just hope to see more change soo­ner than later, don’t you?!

p.s. Want to spread the word?? Go HERE to order a t-shirt or bum­per stic­kers. You CAN make a difference!