Blimey! Thyroid disorders etc in a broadsheet

This is a surprise, from the Daily Telegraph website:

telegraph.co.uk/health/alte...

[shaws Administrator]

Absolutely fantastic. It's great to see all these doctors whom I will call humane with regard to thyroid gland treatment. Skinner, Peatfield, Myhill and others. Against, Toft, Weetman, et al.

[Marz]

So good to read all the truths we have read before all in one piece....hope it is well read and thought about....

[silverfox7]

Enjoyed that and pleased it covered other areas as well. I was a patient of Dr Skinner. I first found his recommendation on an American site so Googled him and found he was before the GMC but I still asked my then GP for a referral and told her about his present predicament. The GMC couldn't get rid of him due to the overwhelming support he received from his patients but no one has said that this man may have a point, lets look into it. My GP later reported him to the GMC for over medications as following a recent ankle fracture the hospital had insisted on a bone density scan and the results hadn't been good! I disagreed and tried to tell her my symptoms didn't scream hyper and I had volunteered the scan for research purposes! Moreover the appointment said to allow 3 hours for the appointment as if they found a problem they would do more testing. That didn't happen and my reply from the hospital said my results showed osteopenia in keeping with a lady of my age. I've now found another Endocrinologist who listened to my story, took copious notes and I'm now working through a series of tests. I have had another DXA and so asked my surgery for my last results. They stated the results, where normal for my age was 100%, my spine was 108% and my hips 110% so I had been misinformed.

I showed this result to the radiologist and she showed me the results from then graphically. I wasn't in the osteopenia range but just within the normal. If my GP had still been practising I'm pretty sure I would have lodged a complaint and the positive increase in my results is down to a year on Vit D3 and then a maintenance dose of AdCal.

It frightens me that results can be manipulated like that. So yes I should have got my results sooner but this wasn't some "quack" with different views but my tried a trusted GP apparently trying to justify her complaint.

So well done to Thyroid UK, HealthUnlocked and their administrators for their advice and trying to extend the treatment boundaries. And well done to the Daily Telegraph for their report.

[jimh111 in reply to silverfox7]

Just a note for you and others. It doesn't matter if a doctor has retired a complaint can still be lodged with the GMC. Often such doctors retire and later take up another appointment, or worse, move to a position where they end up giving advice to other doctors.

[silverfox7 in reply to jimh111]

Thanks for that! I also informed new Endo who had requested the test. See if I can get any comment from him. I posted it really as a warning to others I suppose to always get results and that its not always the Endo that's at fault but may be the person giving him the info-trust no one except how you feel!

[Hidden in reply to jimh111]

Interesting, thanks.

[Hidden in reply to silverfox7]

Your GP's behaviour was disgraceful and hopefully she has learned a big lesson. There is no mechanism of monitoring GPs as they're not subject to KPI's or customer feedback that every other organisation has to do.

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK]

A surprisingly long article!

Dayan at least looks to be interested in his experience with Dr Skinner.

[Hidden]

He's very careful in his wording though.

He must have known some patients on NHS who weren't well served by mainstream consultants who weren't there to help patients by conforming to their consensus /medical associations to maintain their job/status quo whilst patients suffered.

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

Agreed omega.

[Londinium]

I also noticed that Prof Dayan on the one hand seemed critical of Dr Skinner in the Telegraph's article but, and on the other hand, indicated that Dr Skinner might have actually been correct!

Great! After Dr Skinner was hounded for years (as many others have been) and is now dead, Prof Dayan is now wondering if Dr Skinner was correct all along?!

Terrific! Maybe Prof Dayan would like to now hold a seance and inform Dr Skinner of this?

[greygoose]

I have mixed feelings about this article, and I don't think it's100% on our side. They ask the question 'Could a 'renegade' doctor save your life?' but I get they feeling that deep down the writer thinks it couldn't.

[Framboise in reply to greygoose]

Yes I get that feeling too, but it's a start. I also get the feeling that this wasn't written just by chance. It could be that this journalist was approached by someone, probably a patient of one of the doctors mentioned, to write the article and then had to temper her copy to be acceptable to the newspaper's medical advisors, or whoever they have checking these sort of articles. I know that goes on because I was once interviewed for something similar, then had follow-up calls querying what I'd said because it didn't fit with their criteria and asking me to alter it, when I refused to do so my contribution was left out.

[Hidden in reply to greygoose]

The word 'renegade' doesn't sit well with me. It's misleading.

[Framboise]

Thanks for posting this, what an interesting article, although I think the current comments detract from the subject matter as they've gone off at a tangent. Perhaps we need to do something about that

[Clutter]

Thanks for posting, CG, I think it's a very good article. It's a shame that those doctors ahead of their time are hounded and described by their colleagues as renegades and mavericks but clones don't like people who are innovative in their treatment of people who haven't responded to conventional therapies. Research will prove them right in the long term, I'm quite sure.

[Hidden in reply to Clutter]

Clutter - I agree, it really is a scandal.

[greygoose]

I wonder who that JohnRobert is that contradicts everything anyone says in the comments? Could it be one of Weetman's Hench men??? He certainly is incredibly annoying!!!

[Clutter in reply to greygoose]

Just a smart assed troll, IMO.

[greygoose in reply to Clutter]

Could well be. But you never know!

[Hidden in reply to greygoose]

Definitely a troll cos if you look you can find a million and one other things that he's commented on. Best ignore him!

[greygoose in reply to Hidden]

Oh, I wasn't going to reply to him. But l'd rather he was a troll than anything more sinister!

[Clutter]

I agree, Londinium. Took some doing to persuade doctors 100 or so years ago that handwashing was necessary to prevent spreading contagion (shocking that it has had to be reinforced recently). The conservative establishment types will be proved wrong by the innovative doctors prepared to take a risk.

[Hidden]

Weird or what Londinium!! Sad person that I am every morning I speed-read the Guardian, Torygraph and Independent including their health sections.

Last night I caught up on your Weetman post and vid but seem to be generally running behind with what's happening on here!!

[Clutter]

Londinium, comments are after the ads at the bottom of the page.

[Lizzy1606]

Colin Dayan professor of Clinical Diabetes and Metabolism says years ago Armour was used as a slimming agent ,How are we to know this as not become a drug to these people.We don't want to end up with a rush of strokes .So i presume what he is saying he as proof about strokes .But what about the rush of type 2 diabetes ,which we all must be at risk of due to our weight caused by our poor care.I would likes to know is comments about that.

[Juliet in reply to Lizzy1606]

Agree - they never mention the risk of non-treatment.

I'd like to see Dayan's evidence of harm.