Trendy to call hypothyroidism trendy disease ( going on in Finland)

[Justiina]

Needed to share this with you. Not long ago one doctor was interviewed on TV, doctor that probably has not even slightest idea how to treat thyroid issues. He said it is just so trendy to have thyroid issues these days, it is trendy disease. First we had burn out, then chronic fatigue and now thyroid issues is hot topic, everyone WANTS to have this disease! People just need an excuse for being fat and tired.

This doctor has written many books about normal diseases and he has his own TV show, shown as this really relaxed nice doctor from country side who has common sense. Awful thing is that many people seem to believe him, if he says you are just fat and lazy, that's what you are.

Well, some time after this statement, another doctor, who btw happens to have his own TV show called thyroid issues trendy as well. This doctor has his own column on many magazines. He is also shown as really patient friendly, caring and understanding.

Awful thing is that now it seems it is very trendy for doctors to call thyroid issues trendy. After xmas I talked with my uncle's wife, who has had hypothyroidism for at least four years. She has awful flu and her neck was hurting and she was coughing bad and barely been able to breathe. Was given many courses of antibiotics and told it is tonsillitis. She asked for thyroid tests as she was barely able to stand up feeling so fatigued and dizzy. "But oh no it cannot be thyroid issues, you are on thyroxine already! It is just so trendy to think it is your thyroid".

Took her long time to get her thyroid re-tested and her TSH was 10 and she was sent to ultrasound scan showing a lot of scar tissue. That doctor said it was bad inflammation not tonsillitis.

Yesterday I talked with a friend who has hypothyroidism as well, has had it for 20 years or so and never balanced. She had asked a doctor to re-test her and take ft3 as well. Her fT4 and fT3 was low, but the doctor said no reason to increase dosage of thyroxine, it i just so trendy to have thyroid issues, you are already medicated. She did increase her dosage and lied about losing prescriptions to see whether her symptoms improve. Don't know how she will continue as the doctors wont approve her higher dosage.

All these doctors are certain age group, guys with mullets and certain attitude. Yup, they all are men.

One doctor calling thyroid issues trendy on TV, can cause so much damage!

[helvella]

Justiina,

Makes me think:

There was no hypothyroidism before 1891.

There was no B12 deficiency before 1920.

There was no vitamin C deficiency before 1932.

There were myxoedema, pernicious anaemia and scurvy, of course...

At least to some extent, trendiness depends on the uncovering of mechanisms and recognising symptoms. As the very best research keeps on finding new things, so too should our understanding of what is really happening. Instead of which media darling doctors dismiss things with thoughts that are no brighter than the television screen - when it is switched off.

Thanks.

[Justiina in reply to helvella]

Exactly!

Besides how can you blame patients wanting to know what is going on. Patient usually knows themselves better than any doctor. They know when things started to go wrong. If they have been struggling with their health of course there is questions in their mind, and they want everything to be ruled out. In some cases patients just have bad habits causing them fatigue and ill feeling, true, but that cannot be the majority.

To be honest, over here in Finland one reason for lack of awareness is simply lack of language skills. Not many researchs are even translated, and those old school doctors might not speak English at all. Takes relatively long time before some of it is translated! So some of old school pigheaded doctors could be open to new ideas they might not have the tools for it.

[Hidden in reply to Justiina]

I still would like to live in Finland though - I hear their schooling is outstanding. Funny though, I always think that countries like Finland would be more progressive in terms of health. Grass is greener and all that. :0)

[Justiina in reply to Hidden]

Well. Schooling might be outstanding, but health care is sort of lacking behind. CFS or Lyme are not diseases over here. Most people have to seek help from Germany.

There are many illnesses that just don't exist in Finland. Period

But of course treatment in other illnesses might be one of the best in the world. We have some very skillful researchers doing research and inventing new treatments, but it is only very few so it is sort of slow progress.

So it is not all just negative about Finland and healthcare. But since our healthcare system is build so poorly getting proper diagnoses is taking ages or impossible. Good doctors are located in south. Over here in north it is impossible to find specialist.

If you live in north and you are about to have a baby you must be prepared to give a birth in a car as the nearest hospital dealing with delivering a baby might be 500 kilometers away, so you have to be very sure when it is the time as they will turn you back if you go too early.

[Hidden in reply to Justiina]

Blimey!

I may moan about my GPs but I'm exceedingly grateful to have the NHS at the end of the day!

H xxx

[Justiina in reply to Hidden]

I think Norway is better when it comes down to proper healthcare. Tho it might be down to they oil money they can allow patients choose between private or public healthcare and it cost pretty much nothing.

Money follows the patient and doctors are paid how many patients they have on their list. So it also encourages doctors do better, even though it might lead to doctors giving unnecessary treatments too in order to hoard patients.

[humanbean]

Anyone calling thyroid disease "trendy" obviously has no clue about the subject at all and has no idea what an impact it has on patients. It is also an easy way of demeaning a group of people (mainly women). It's just a put-down, patronising and condescending.

[Fruitandnutcase in reply to humanbean]

I was told by one of the endos that bothering about Vitamin D was a trend. If I could beg him any evidence that it made a difference then he would authors testing me. I had it done by City Assays!

[Hidden in reply to Fruitandnutcase]

Vitamin D is a trend?! Then rickets and an increased risk of some cancers must surely be the end goal of trendy people?

What planet are these people on?

There is a very real possibility here that HCPs are actually believing that their own opinion is indeed, fact!

[Fruitandnutcase in reply to Hidden]

I know I just ignored his trendy opinion and did my own thing. It's awful really that someone who on the surface was a great endo ( and he was) should hold views like that.

[humanbean in reply to Fruitandnutcase]

You might find this useful on the subject of vitamin D, if you see your ignorant endo again. It's from the National Osteoporosis Society, and has lots of references.

nos.org.uk/document.doc?id=...

[Fruitandnutcase in reply to humanbean]

Unfortunately someone posted something really good about vit D on here the week after I was told it was trendy and if I could bring him evidence that it worked he would prescribe it for me! He was one of the many I never saw again.

As I'm always saying on here my physiotherapist Pilates teacher is always telling us. It's D3 and vit K that we need for strong bones.

[Marz in reply to Fruitandnutcase]

....and magnesium ! B12 also involved

[Hidden]

He's a terrible communicator isn't he and a disrespectful, odius, ignorant ass to boot.

This is just my own opinion but I think it's all tied into faticism. It's okay to be a fatist, even if you're a HCP. Fat people are okay to have a pop at because:-

1. we eat too much

2. we're disgusting and have no sense of control

3. we take up too much room and resources; be it on the NHS, on the bus or plane or world resources.

4. we know what to do i.e. eat less and move more but refuse to do it and...

5. have the audacity to blame our glands!!!

6. it's a lifestyle choice

I am 4 stone overweight. This isn't a lifestyle choice. I blame my GPs for making me wait two years from the first borderline result to finally getting some meds.

I still blame my GPs for literally scoffing at me when I threw myself at their mercy to help me understand why I was still overweight and why I couldn't tolerate exercise.

This is just off the top of my head but... around 20% of women may have a thyroid disorder. Around 60% of those women may not know it.

Is it that big a step to conclude that we're not all choosing obesity as a lifestyle choice?

Is it too big a step to conclude that once diagnosed, you're very much on your own, floundering around trying to make sense of the mess your body is *still* in?

But yeah, let's call it trendy and put the blame squarley on the shoulders of ill people.

There was an intersting article last week in the Gaurdian. What is shocking is the vitriol and prejudice displayed in the comments section.

theguardian.com/commentisfr...

As a former HCP myself, I never judged an overweight person. Yo never know what's going in them physically, mentally and physiologically.

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

Sorry for the rant.

[Justiina in reply to Hidden]

It seems trendy to judge over weight people being lazy!

I agree, no one should judge, unfortunately we are given the idea losing weight is about will power, so many magic diets on the market and tv shows about ultimate make overs. I guess telling the truth is not that mediasexy!

[Hidden in reply to Justiina]

Ah! I forgot about lazy. :0)

I agree with you too. The people on those programmes though have been given a clean bill of health. It would be interesting but no doubt not mediasexy to take an unwell person and build them back up to their opitmal health.

[Allyson1 in reply to Hidden]

My thyroid problems were mistreated with boatloads of antidepressants- boom, 30lb weight gain without changing a thing. This happened in a matter of weeks. I was a teenager. Getting off the drugs took years, because they are physically addictive.

I got a personal trainer, and trained hard. She's measure me and scratch her head because I was gaining weight when the math said I should be losing. I was in a state of steady, slow weight gain.

Then I became temporarily hyperthyroid and dropped 20lbs in 4 weeks without doing a thing.

It's like my body has a mind of its own.

Anyone who calls diseases trendy like this is unprofessional and not practicing evidence-based medicine.

[SmallBlueThing in reply to Hidden]

Yup, the oedema can be due to ascites (non-fatty liver disease) and other causes, but thanks for telling me (again) I'm _morbidly_ obese

[Mouldyoledoll]

OMG! WTF? There is nothing remotely "Trendy" about Hashis!

How dare they fail us, then have the cheek to turn it around as if we love feeling this sh*t? Its beyond me, and also very worrying ☹

[Clutter]

Justiina, it's trendy to spout rubbish and outright lies to boost a programme's TV ratings.

[Hidden]

There is absolutely nothing trendy about hypothyroidism ,a very debilitating condition which every sufferer would willingly go without.I for one would have rather lived the past twenty years of my life in a good old fashioned way.

Statements like that are both nasty and damaging and only speak volumes about the people that make them.

[Hidden]

Ha! Well if they're going to be like that about it, I hope they're ready to lose patients, and one day their jobs. Because if they refuse to believe in a blatant, epidemic condition that has been well documented for centuries, what do they believe in? Nothing, apparently, until you break your leg, are dying of infection, or dying of something else preventable in an acute form - all things they can make money out of for drugs companies and look like they know what they're doing. Thankfully the internet might just change that. Eventually someone will set up a charity pot for people to see private, sympathetic doctors and specialists and everyone will start treating themselves. Actually that's a good idea, lol!

Trust me, if I wanted to still be overweight and slug like despite eating only enough to feel fairly hungry all the time, I would have found a less expensive way to do it. Is it convenient for me to have my joints in agony whenever I run? Do you think I enjoy my taught, swollen skin aching whenever I stay still for more than ten minutes? That I changed my diet 10 times over a year and a half for fun? Maybe I'm hallucinating the 34.6 C on my thermometer, or I have some obsessive compulsive shivering problem or something...and of course I love looking like I just ate 12 pizzas after consuming 1/2 an avocado and 200g of sweet potato. I am so nostalgic about my roaring ear infections and I look forward to October so I can start getting humungous, blue-red chillblains on my fingers. Also, I won't actually need to bemoan my difficulties to a chic waiting audience of choice because I never go anywhere - I'm too busy selling e-books online because I can't get any other job. And the icing on the cake I never eat is that delightful, constant uncertainty that I may never get better, may get worse, or live another decade or two like this and die early from clogged arteries which will be blamed on my eating too much and not exercising enough. When really its because the doctors don't believe in thyroid disorders.

Yeah, hypothyroid - so trendy! How glam! Not having a life is the best thing that ever happened to me!

Sorry got a little carried away there. Riled, I say, riled.