Last year we were hopeful that we might hear about some interesting new directions coming out of the symposium after reading the editorial preceding it. As it turns out our dear friend Dr. AP Weetman presented on "Challenges of Therapy: Dissatisfaction With Thyroid Hormone and Somatization Disorder". The ATA presented Dr. Weetman with an award. The ATA has now posted 20 videos from the symposium on Vimeo, including Dr. Weetman's, and they are available for download.
Thanks PR4NOW. God help those struggling with their thyroid hormone replacement at present.
See how he has tagged Somatization Disorder after Thyroid Hormone Dissatisfaction. He should have put Dissatisfaction with Levothyroxine and Continuing Symptoms with being prescribed an ineffective dose for many/
How are people awarded gongs for dismissing clinical symptoms as somataform and insisting on the TSH alone for diagnosis.
I shall watch the videos later today as you say there is only one re AW. I wonder if he is developing a Somataform Disorder?
I have just listened to Dr Weetman's video. At the end of it nothing has changed, i.e. if our TSH is normal (euthyroid) - below 2 any other problems are not thyroid hormone related. They are due to some other dysfunction. The doctors are told that it has to be explained to the patient who are euthyroid, ie. normal TSH, although patients pain/etc is 'real' it cannot possibly be due to the hypothyroidism because we have functional somatic symptoms which are real (but they (doctors) don't know what this really means.
They don't like to be confrontational with the patients and if patient wants to try T3 or T3/T4 that doctors should titrate T4 to below 2 as our problems are somatic but 'real' and we are euthyroid
There is no room for T4/T3 combination as it has been proven it doesn't work. He gives a scientific reasoning for the comibnation being too high (not comparable to our normal healthy thyroid).
He got a good round of applause at the end.
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This is my own view.
He did mention that a certain doctor (unnamed) who advises taking thyroid hormones due to symptoms and not going by blood tests. Considering this is how this particular doctor was trained before the blood tests were introduced and levothyroxine was unknown (and modern Endocrinology thinks it is out-dated) how is it that this doctor has diagnosed and helped many patients with his protocol.
shaws, AP is talking about Dr. P of course who was hypo himself and trained with Pat Puglio of the Barnes Research Foundation. In his 2006 monograph " Whose Thyroid Hormone Replacement Is It anyway? " AP used the Barnes Foundation as an example of a troublemaker and here he has moved on to a quote by Dr. P. on TPA UK, along with STTM. Nice to see he is keeping up with the world. The doctors that are effective tend to treat the patient first and realize that the TFTs are just rough clues whereas doctors like AP treat the test and ignore the patient. There is a lot of science about the limitations of the TFTs which is largely ignored.
Diogenes is very familiar with the limitations of testing. The other problem is that endocrinology is still basically on its knees peeking through the keyhole trying to figure out what is on the other side. There are many questions still unanswered and much that is not understood. PR
I have listened to another video when the scientists did a comparison on T4 alone or T3 alone.
It looked to me like T3 did best, especially on lipid levels and weight loss. The doctor at the end said that the 'subjects' didn't have a preference for either T4 or T3. He was also not promoting T3 instead of T4.
shaws, Dr. Celi has done some interesting work. It is curious to me that there is no patient preference, I find that odd. But Dr. Celi has done a lot to show the parameters of T3 in the body which hasn't really been looked at in several years. There are several videos that are quite interesting, I have gotten through all at least once but I need to listen again. They also left out a couple of presentations that I would like to hear. PR
I find it incredible that they don't listen to patients but go only on 'science'. Surely science cannot experience the actual affect on humans. I could have a serious reaction to one medication and someone else doesn't. I knew he was referring to Dr P. who again was hounded by the 'powers' by prescribing due to symptoms and NDT. Maybe send 'Tears Behind Closed Doors' to the ATA by Diana Holmes whose life Dr P saved after twelve years of medical interventions, ops on spine, etc. wheelchair bound and undiagnosed until Dr P. Not everyone fits into the same size 'round hole'.
When doctors are training they should be taught to 'listen to patient' and know clinical symptoms at the very least and nowadays they ignore/disregard family histories. We know many remain undiagnosed/untreated and some commit suicide like a young Irish Mother whose husband wrote a very touching letter to the forum at being left to care for 4 children, now without a mother. It is heartbreaking that she is just another statistic due, most probably, to guidelines and maybe not adequate hormones.
I should have put the full title of Dr Weetman's 'Presentation' It is" Challenges of Therapy: Disatisfaction with Thyroid Hormone and Somatization Disorder".
It is the patients' challenges that he is complaining about asking for NDT, T3, T3/T4 because they are still unwell on Levo. According to him these alternatives don't fulfill the Endocrinology's idea of the perfrect 'replacement' levo.
He doesn't like Stopthethyroidmadness site in particular for encouraging alternatives.
It has been pointed out to me that in Dr Weetman's video:-
He showed the slides of the hypo patient from Murray, given, he said, levothyroxine and healed. Eh, no. That patient was from 1910 or something and was given pig thyroid, containing everything!!
I am going to copy and paste onto a new post. I much prefered Posts and questions as everything is lumped together and gets pushed off the page too quickly.
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Thyroid Awareness Week - 19th to 25th October 2013!
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