Interesting page of info on all things hypoT

It's probably been posted before but I don't think it matters.

hormoneandlongevitycenter.c...

I was particular interested to read this bit:

In a published article in the British Medical Journal, the authors state, “For over 80 years, before the advent of TSH testing, physicians with outstanding ability have regularly treated thyroid patients with enough thyroid to clinically normalize their patients regardless of dose. The maxim of the day before TSH arrived was to give enough thyroid until the patient felt better. Medical students are still repeatedly told to treat the patient and not the lab values, but this quickly gets forgotten and disregarded when it comes to thyroid. The 80 years of experience with thyroid hormone treatment demonstrated that people would normally need 200-400 micrograms of T4, such as Synthroid, or 3 to 5 grains of desiccated thyroid. The long-term studies of over 40 years show no side effects from such doses and thyroid is probably the safest long-term drug of the Century. When TSH testing came into use in 1973, the average doses dropped to 1/3 of the doses previously used.”

British Medical Journal

That's astonishing.

[Clutter]

It's depressing how thyroid management has deteriorated with the advent of TSH testing. Thanks for posting, I'll have a proper read tomorrow but have c&p the para above for WLorenm to try and persuade her GP to prescribe a trial of T4.

[silverfox7]

Thanks for posting. Like Clutter will read carefully when I have more time. Too many medics are swayed by the drug companies and/or worried about being hauled up before the GMC. Think I read a few years back a research group, may be in Oxford, were trying to prove at the TSH reading was meaningless. Has anyone heard about this? I know the story behind the TSH value but why, when its supposed to be telling the thyroid we are under medicated then if the level is not measurable are we seemed to be over medicated? Don't they want us to feel well? Yes it can also be saying that we are taking too much and that's when we are asked what our symptoms are so why not ask for those and act on them in the first place like its been done before. Last week I did a bit of Googling around the people who hounded Dr Skinner etc he was allowed to continue due to the overwhelming evidence from many patients that testified he had given them their life back and yet no one has said, hang on a minute we should be looking into this as it works. Talk about blinkered! The evidence is out there!!!!!

[eeng]

Very interesting. I had always wondered whether there is a connection between dieting and hypothyroidism. It seems there is.

[gabkad]

If you consider history, look at Dr. Semelweiss who went crazy and committed suicide because other doctors wouldn't wash their hands when they went from doing autopsies to helping with birthing. Women were dying all over the place due to puerperal fever. We wouldn't be having killer bacterial infections spreading through hospitals even today if hospital staff would wash their hands..... plus ca change.

Then the Doctor in Australia who determined that Helicobacter pylori causes peptic ulcers. The medical community pooped on him until he gave himself the infection by drinking a culture of this bacteria. He got the Nobel Prize. Meantime in the 1950s peptic ulcer was treated with antibiotics until some 'genius' decided it was caused by emotional stressors....

Or the British physician who determined that malaria was transmitted by mosquitoes. He languished in obscurity because he was not a member of the Royal Society...blah blah.....

The majority of doctors are neither early adopters nor independent critical thinkers. They are like sheep following the leader. If some document is produced by the ministry of health/NHS (whichever) they follow recommendations because it's comfortable for them to do so and also out of fear. Keep in mind that students are admitted to medical school not on the basis of how well they think but on how well they can regurgitate information for examinations. Increasingly, doctors are part of 'group think' or 'group not think'.

[shaws]

Dr Holtorf has the same views as Dr Lowe, Dr Derry, Dr Skinner and Dr Peatfield and gets the same reaction from the 'Powers that Be' - in other words views that make patients well and opposed to the guidelines by the medical professions:- excerpt

His practice focuses on alternative therapies that are not yet standard practice with mainstream doctors,[2] maintaining that mainstream medicine tends to be an average of 17 years behind the emergence of new and advanced treatments; he has been criticized in the media for his controversial views on topics like bioidentical hormone replacement therapy and vaccines.[3][4][5] Most of his recommendations are contrary to the opinions of medical bodies and not supported by high-quality science.

******

They may not be supported by high-quality science, i.e. thyroid gland blood tests and TSH but they most certainly will be supported by his patients.