What’s new on STTM

To keep you upda­ted, this page is to inform you what has been added and when to the Stop the Thy­roid Mad­ness web­site by Thy­roid Patient Acti­vist Janie Bowthorpe. All new pages have also been added to the site map. Enjoy!

August 2010 Can’t believe I fai­led to add patient reports of heart pro­blems thanks to T4-only on the Long and Pathe­tic list of pro­blems while on T4 which went away on desic­ca­ted thy­roid.  So it’s done.

June, July 2010 Though these are busy sum­mer months for my hus­band and I,  these are also months where I have gone back to cer­tain pages and upda­ted them, clea­ned them up, made new hea­dings, etc. They inc­lude the page on TSH, the natu­ral thy­roid page, the options for thy­roid treat­ment, and my own story.

May 2010: If you or a family mem­ber have autism, you will appre­ciate Andrea’s Story, added to the Sto­ries of Others page.  I have also added more info on the Ferri­tin page about both high ferri­tin levels, plus addi­tio­nal tes­ting that can be nee­ded for a full iron picture.

April 2010: Have added a faci­lity for saliva labs in Ger­many here.  I also upda­ted the Rot­ten Toma­toes page for your rea­ding enjoy­ment.  Remin­der: To keep up with Janie’s blog post, you can sign up for the “news­let­ter” on the left below the links.

March 2010: Have added an inte­res­ting story on the Sto­ries of Others page about a MAN – Chuck – and his mise­ra­ble expe­rience on Synth­roid with weight gain, and the com­plete change thanks to com­poun­ded thy­roid.

February 2010: Thy­roid patient Terry sent me another study for the Medi­cal Research page which is just one more rea­son patients can need T3 with their T4: a varia­tion in the gene that con­verts T4 to T3.

January 2010: Added one more study, #5, under the hea­ding “T4 com­bi­ned with T3 gives bet­ter results” to the Medi­cal Research, Stu­dies and Artic­les page.  Also added two good blog posts, one about a clue­less for­mer Abbott Rep, and another about the Today Show. 

January 2009: Added more detail to the celiac/gluten into­le­rance page, inc­lu­ding non-GI symp­toms and the Stool test, which some say is the only way they dis­co­ve­red their into­le­rance. Also added more infor­ma­tion on the his­tory page about desic­ca­ted thy­roid and the FDA.

Late Decem­ber 2009: The year of 2010 is the start of thyroid-patient-guest-posting on STTM’s blog.

Decem­ber 2009: Have got­ten way behind on adding new good thy­roid and adre­nal rela­ted web­si­tes to the  Recom­men­ded Web­si­tes page, so am hope­fully more caught up. Note these are in no order as to make them all equal in value. P.S. Hope to see some of these web­si­tes also men­tion STTM in return. We’re in this together.

Decem­ber 2009: Healthcheck USA has finally crea­ted a “STTM page” on their web­site, plus a new code to get a 10% dis­count. I added the below to the Recom­men­ded Lab­work page plus the Adre­nal Info page:

LAB WORK pac­ka­ges desig­ned spe­ci­fi­cally for rea­ders of Stop the Thy­roid Mad­ness. Use the dis­count code STTM10 which will give you 10% off the already low pri­ces! STTM Thy­roid and Adre­nal Lab Pac­ka­ges You can choose just saliva for cor­ti­sol, or use Lab­Corp faci­li­ties around the US for blood draws.

Also added ingre­dients for Cyno­mel on the Armour vs. Other Brands page.

Decem­ber 2009: Added four more inte­res­ting refe­ren­ces to desic­ca­ted thy­roid on the page about older medi­cal books–#4 – 7. I love this page and your con­tri­bu­tions are nee­ded!  Novem­ber and Decem­ber have been two good months for infor­ma­tion on my blog, ran­ging from topics about cellu­lose as the pro­blem in thy­roid meds, to ques­tions about Jane Pau­ley, to good news from Erfa Canada and Ame­ri­can Labo­ra­to­ries, and much more.

Novem­ber 2009: There are more expe­rien­ces with Lyme disease from Mar­vin and Tim on the Lyme page. A must read in case you might have Lyme disease cau­sing your hypo and adre­nal fati­gue.  Have also pro­po­sed that cellu­lose in thy­roid meds is more of a pro­blem than we ever ima­gine in this blog post.

Octo­ber 2009: For­got to men­tion that I finally sepa­ra­ted “Thyroid-S” from “Thi­royd” as if they were made by the same Thai­land pharm, and gave the lat­ter it’s own desc­rip­tion on the Armour vs. Other Brands page.  I still need someone to let me know what the fillers are.

Sep­tem­ber 2009: Added a page to explain how desic­ca­ted thy­roid was grand­fathe­red in, being an unap­pro­ved drug, and the role of the FDA here.  Also dis­co­ve­red that the Rot­ten Toma­toes page wasn’t in the Site Map list, so added it. On the Sto­ries of Others page, you can read about Diana who got off Armour thanks to her use of iodine.  Had a good blog post from an inter­view with a com­poun­ding phar­ma­cist on Com­poun­ded Desic­ca­ted Thy­roid.

August 2009: a busy month with blog posts per­tai­ning to the shor­tage and the FDA. Also added a page of con­gress­per­sons to write about this cri­sis, plus a tem­plate let­ter to use and change as you may.  Added Siobhan’s inc­re­di­ble story to the Sto­ries of Others page.

August 2009: To the Medi­cal Research page, have added a third  study which shows that T4 com­bi­ned with T3 shows supe­rior results.  You will also see infor­ma­tion on the August 19^th blog post about the actual maker of desic­ca­ted thy­roid pow­der and how hard they are wor­king to keep up with demand.

July 2009: Have added the ingre­dients to Australia’s com­poun­ded desic­ca­ted thy­roid, which they call thy­roid extract, here.  Healthchec­kUSA has now added STTM-created lab­work for great pri­ces, which you will find here.

May 2009: I knew it was coming – when this patient revo­lu­tion gets just far enough into the offi­ces that of doc­tors that we find some patients who never had to get on T4, and ins­tead star­ted their treat­ment right on desic­ca­ted thy­roid. And Lauren’s story is that! Just added it.

May 2009: Added a good story about Jacki, whose trigly­ce­ri­des, LDL and cho­les­te­rol all came down, and HDL came up, simply from trea­ting her hypothy­roi­dism and adre­nal fati­gue correctly.

MAY 2009: I have added dosing infor­ma­tion on the adre­nal how-to-treat page, explai­ning that patients and doc­tors are fin­ding suc­cess with “star­ting” on 20 mg cor­ti­sol rather than buil­ding up.

APRIL 2009: I get so much email from folks whose lives are chan­ging that thought I’d share with you a sam­pling of what I get. I will be adding to this occa­sio­nally with more sam­ples of the vast amount of emails I get.  http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/feedback/

MARCH 2009: Have been com­pi­ling infor­ma­tion on iodine and your thy­roid the last few years, but never clea­ned it up.  Just now got it done: www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/iodine1234

MARCH 2009: Added two artic­les about UK-TPA’s fight for Armour:

www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/uk-tpas-response-to-the-rcp/
www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/relationship-between-the-RCP-and-MHRA/

JANUARY 2009: Added two links on smo­king to Deborah’s page.

JANUARY 2009: Added a page to help you inter­pret the STTM-designed lab results. www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/how-to-interpret-lab-results/

JANUARY 2009: Darla’s Story has been added to the Sto­ries of Others page. She was told to be tes­ted for Alzhei­mers when her pro­blem was being on Synth­roid for 20 years!

JANUARY 2009: You will now find STTM-designed, patient-inspired labs to order. They are men­tio­ned on the Recom­men­ded Lab­work page, the Adre­nal Info page, and in the January 6^th blog.

DECEMBER 2008: Added a Ger­man brand of desic­ca­ted thy­roid called THYREOGLAND to the Armour-vs-other-brands page.

NOVEMBER 2008: Join the STTM Face­book page. Check on the upper left of any page.

OCTOBER 2008: A page has been star­ted on Deborah’s quest to stop smo­king. She is a hypothy­roid and low cor­ti­sol patient who strug­gles with smo­king and her adre­nals abi­lity to adjust.  www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/deborahs-story I have also recently added a blog entry about smo­king and your adrenals.

SEPTEMBER 2008: I have been aware that when a few peo­ple are sent to STTM, and they read the home page, they find the mes­sage con­fu­sing or not to apply to them. Yet those that sent them KNEW it applies to them. SO for those peo­ple, a new page has been crea­ted, called For anyone who thinks this site doesn’t apply to you

AUGUST 2008: To the How To Treat Adre­nals page, I have added the follo­wing exce­llent tip for those who have pro­blems with higher amounts of HC: Another tip before rai­sing your HC higher or switching to Medrol: try adding an HCL (hydroch­lo­ric acid) sup­ple­ment to your HC dose, such as Hydroch­lo­ric Betaine. HCL repre­sents the majo­rity of your diges­tive fluids, and many hypothy­roid folks can be low, making diges­tion less effec­tive. Adding HCL can be the trick to absorb your HC better.

JULY 2008: I have now added a page where we can list Medi­cal Research, Artic­les and Con­sen­sus which sup­ports what patients already know. www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/medical-research It will give you ammu­ni­tion to sup­port bet­ter thy­roid treat­ment when you have a doc­tor who’s not only clue­less and unfa­zed by the expe­rience of hun­dreds of thou­sands of patients world­wide, but a doc­tor who is rigid and needs research stu­dies like a baby needs a bottle.

May 2008: www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/book

April 2008: The Stop the Thy­roid Mad­ness book is out! See the April 12^th blog entry. The book con­tains most everything you see on the site, plus much more. Publishing web­site is here.

April 2008: Have added an iron sup­ple­ment recom­men­da­tion on the Ferri­tin page by a phy­si­cian who con­tac­ted me. See last para­graph under hea­ding “What’s the solution?”

April 2008: Tracy has writ­ten a fine article on her expe­rience with Radioac­tive Iodine (RAI) and gives you food for thought.

April 2008: Added another saliva lab faci­lity on the Recom­men­ded Lab­work page – Direct Labs – which enough folks have used and plea­sed with that I deci­ded it’s time to get it up. Louisiana-based.

Also, on the home page towards the bot­tom, you will find a link to hear Janie being inter­vie­wed on an inter­net radio call-in show.

February 2008: STTM now has bum­pers­tic­kers which are both infor­ma­tive and humo­rous. Spread the word!!

Decem­ber 2007: WEAR A THYROID ADVOCACY T-SHIRT. Because you asked for it, a t-shirt to wear in YOUR revo­lu­tion for bet­ter treat­ment. Spread the word!

Octo­ber 2007: OPTIMAL LAB VALUES This page tells you where you want to be with your lab results – thy­roid, adre­nals, ferri­tin, and B-12…and more as nee­ded. It’s been crea­ted because being “in range” does not always equal “opti­mal”.

Octo­ber 2007: ANNA TAKES DR. NORTHRUP’S ADVICE When Dr. Chris­tiane North­rup appea­red on the Oprah show in Octo­ber, she implied that thy­roid pro­blems are due to a pro­blem with how we live our lives. Oprah also implied that she cured her thy­roid pro­blem by taking a month off on vaca­tion and eating right. This is patient Anna’s tongue-in-cheek res­ponse. It it lin­ked from Janie’s blog con­cer­ning Oprah.

Octo­ber 2007: ROTTEN TOMATOES This page is an over­view of any pos­si­ble cri­ti­cism of STTM and the rea­so­na­ble rebut­tal.