Endocrine "Ethics" Blog: An unbelievable paper... - Thyroid UK

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Endocrine "Ethics" Blog

Tigreg profile image
39 Replies

An unbelievable paper about Hillary Clinton's thyroid treatment :

endocrineethicsblog.org/why...

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Tigreg profile image
Tigreg
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39 Replies
shaws profile image
shawsAdministrator

 Is someone 'palming hands'? It sure looks like it and who would take any notice of Quackwatch - bearing in mind the choice of name he/she chose i.e. Quack. I think he also 'mentions Dr. Peatfield, Dr Derry (a wonderful Canadian trained around the time of Dr P and Dr S) and 

What's behind this and being made to look like they are concerned about her health. Does Hilary look unwell or blooming with health.

Big Pharma sees immense danger in the thousands of people who are unwell wanting to try the same medication as Hilary and Oprah two high flying women and those already taking it.

Just look at them, healthy, energetic, able to go for hours doing whatever they want.

Great adverts for NDT. 

Jazzw profile image
Jazzw

It would be funny if it wasn't blatant scaremongering. Dr Sara clearly feels she has "right" on her side - but if it was her thyroid packing up, would she feel the same way???

Wonder how many hypothyroid doctors there are - there must be loads. Wonder *what* they take (if they've been hypo for more than a few years). Wonder how *much* they take...

greygoose profile image
greygoose in reply to Jazzw

I know one hypo doctor, and he's taking Armour! Don't know how much, though.

Jazzw profile image
Jazzw

I hadn't thought of the "Hilary" effect on pricing...

(Can't name Internet pharmacies here eljii - against forum rules)

shaws profile image
shawsAdministrator

Who foots the bill - for the Endocrinology conferences etc and the doctors who prescribe levo in the USA.

Jazzw profile image
Jazzw

Nice example of an n=1 study 😄

I despair sometimes, I really do.

shaws profile image
shawsAdministrator

But we aren't all the same. Some can take a paracetamol with no side effects and others can be unwell. 

Clutter profile image
Clutter

Tigreg,

How ethical is it for a bioethicist not involved in the patient's treatment to publicly criticise the treatment regime of Mrs. Clinton's doctor and the medication choice of Mrs. Clinton?

shaws profile image
shawsAdministrator in reply to Clutter

Money, money, money - speaks for a mountain of words. It is good when corruption begins to unfold and all is laid bare.

Maybe Mrs Clinton will expand on her treatment. They cannot force her to hold her tongue.

Clutter profile image
Clutter in reply to shaws

Shaws,

I doubt she will.  Most politicians and presidential candidates want to downplay adverse health conditions not expand upon them.

shaws profile image
shawsAdministrator in reply to Clutter

That's a pity.

gabkad profile image
gabkad in reply to Clutter

What happens when 'standard of care' is changed?  That has happened in the past for many things.

Oftentimes 'standard of care' is slow to change when science moves forward.  Consider that declaration recently that 'standard of care' for thyroid 'cancer' which is no longer a 'cancer' was lobectomy and now 'leave it alone'.  And that took someone with courage to speak up and change 'standard of care'.  

Clutter profile image
Clutter in reply to gabkad

Gabkad,

This is just out and out bias against an alternative to Synthyroid/Levothyroxine and probably posited as a mischief making political point.

gabkad profile image
gabkad in reply to Clutter

It was so repetitive, at first I  had to check the date on it.  Not April Fool's but may as well be.

Tunnel visioned expoundments are biggie time offputting.

Clutter profile image
Clutter in reply to gabkad

Gabkad,

I think it was just a very cheap shot at HC.  IMO it reflects very badly on the ethics and motives of the author.

gabkad profile image
gabkad in reply to Clutter

We've got Margaret Somerville here (faculty of Law, McGill University): a mouthpiece for the Roman Catholic church.  Anti-same sex marriage.  Too bad for her but Canada passed legislation that makes same sex marriage legal and legitimate.  Lots of blah blah out of her mouth about all sorts of medical issues as well.  I didn't originally think that bioethicists were supposed to be partisan but clearly they are. 

Clutter profile image
Clutter in reply to gabkad

Gabkad,

The fuss some people make you'd think same sex marriage had been made compulsory for everyone!

"Ethicists and bioethicists ask relevant questions more than provide sure and certain answers."

practicalbioethics.org/what...

Dr. Randall seems to have exceeded normal boundaries and leapt straight into judgmental pronouncement.

helvella profile image
helvellaAdministratorThyroid UK in reply to Clutter

Do bioethicists do anything more than sit and pontificate?

Do they actually have to go to visit probably the most powerful woman in the USA and explain to her that she really can't have the Armour that seems to be working remarkably well for her?

Do bioethicists represent possibly one of the most attractive targets for pharmaceutical companies to enveigle, influence, even outright buy off?

So, a very important question, who really funds bioethicists?

Clutter profile image
Clutter in reply to helvella

Helvella,

I think it's safe to say Armour do NOT :-D

nightingale-56 profile image
nightingale-56 in reply to gabkad

Gabkad, my standard of care over the past 6 years has fallen abysmally.

She's kind of hinting that Hilary won't be able to make presidentail decisions on NDT.  I would wager that she would not be able to make any decisions full stop on levo if it isn't working for her.

Brain washed eejit.

Clutter profile image
Clutter in reply to

Heirloom,

If Mrs. Clinton has found the stamina to cope with fund raising and gruelling campaigning for the primaries it's hard to see how anyone can suggest her treatment is substandard.

in reply to Clutter

Exactly!

On Levo I could barely make the school run twice a day. :0)

There is no doubt that Hilary is the absolute right medication for her - her energy speaks volumes. x

shaws profile image
shawsAdministrator

Should we all write to Mrs Clinton, thanking her for the wonderful exposure her treatment is bringing for all of us who are denied a thyroid hormone of choice. 

That despite the gruelling circuit for the Elections that she appears very well.

Women in particular,  wordwide who are desperate to get better are behind her due to the fact that they are refused anything other than levothyroxine and denied due to the restrictions the Endocrinolgy Depts lay down that only levo is to be prescribed. 

That False Statements are made by certain factions against NDT.

That we, who are well on NDT or T3 only, are thankful that others might have the opportunity due to her example of good health when hypo.

gabkad profile image
gabkad

Synthroid in Canada is cheap.  Eltroxen is cheaper.  Erfa is also cheap.  Cytomel is very expensive.  Not nearly as expensive as in the UK but still, too expensive.  100 5 mcg tablets are about $150 cdn, 100 25 mcg are $160 cdn.  ???  Ridiculous.  No sense no reason.  Made in the USA.

But Canadians cannot buy from the internet like people can in the UK.  The on line pharmacies do not sell to Canadian customers.  We are stuck with whatever the idiots at Health Canada decide in big brother fashion is in our 'best interests'.   Sort of like North Korea.  

Pookie50 profile image
Pookie50

Is Dr Rosenthal a Republican by any chance? 

crabapple profile image
crabapple in reply to Pookie50

Don't know about that but her resume on that blog states "Dr. Rosenthal is Past Chair of the American Thyroid Association’s Ethics Advisory Committee"

endocrineethicsblog.org/abo...

helvella profile image
helvellaAdministratorThyroid UK in reply to Pookie50

Ask her? :-)

msararosenthal.com/contact....

helvella profile image
helvellaAdministratorThyroid UK

Staggering naivety for a self-proclaimed bioethicist.

It denies the possibility of a doctor believing that desiccated thyroid is better for any patient, ever.

Assuming that because desiccated thyroid is not the standard of care, it must absolutely and inevitably be below the standard of care.

Has this bioethicist actually researched for herself whether desiccated thyroid is less stable than levothyroxine? Looks like it is taken as a direct lift from the American Thyroid Association. Anyone for Teva levothyroxine?

Would it be wrong if Hilary had been taking levothyroxine and was offered the possibility of trialling Armour not as a "better" or "worse" option, but simply as a different option to help to overcome remaining symptoms. If that trial were successful (i.e. Hilary felt and appeared better - quite possibly in many ways measurably so), what price the ethics that this person says can ONLY mean using levothyroxine to achieve standard of care?

kathy1029 profile image
kathy1029 in reply to helvella

he is not even worth a response from us (the article writer that is)

greygoose profile image
greygoose in reply to kathy1029

Isn't he a she? Sara?

greygoose profile image
greygoose

lol

serenfach profile image
serenfach

Dangerous stuff in my opinion.  Health professionals and people we know may read this, and label all of us who have taken our own health into our hands and buy NDT will be labelled "cranks".  I have not felt so well for years, but apparently that is beside the point.  I should conform and stick to T4 and be ill for the rest of my life.  I would have thought Mrs Clinton went through what we have been through, tried Levo, maybe even added T3, and still felt ill.  She has access to the best of health care and someone enlightened may have said "try NDT and see how you feel".  It may have been written as a political bias, but maybe Dr. Sara should open her mind and actually look at the facts.

scorpiojo profile image
scorpiojo

That's interesting as you would assume she had the best Endo in the world!! Is NDT desicated thyroid?

scorpiojo profile image
scorpiojo

Sorry I am new to getting my head around things although have taken levo for tooooo many yrs without causing a fuss re not helping me!! I'm on it now, but the jargon I need a hand with... What is

Armour?

NDT?

Sorry if that's really a thick question... Jo

Clutter profile image
Clutter in reply to scorpiojo

Scorpiojo,

Armour is one of several brands of Natural Dessicated Thyroid (NDT).  NDT contains a combination of T4 and T3.  The T4 and T3 in NDT is derived from pig thyroid.

scorpiojo profile image
scorpiojo in reply to Clutter

Thanks for that... That combo sounds nasty, although levo ingredients could be similar.. Sometimes ignorance is a blessing 😊

humanbean profile image
humanbean in reply to scorpiojo

I don't think of NDT as nasty. I eat pork chops and sausages quite happily, so why not a pill made with the thyroid as the raw material?

scorpiojo profile image
scorpiojo in reply to humanbean

I'm a veggie lol... I eat cheese and eggs tho... Like a leather handbag... So I was joking... It is what it is in tabs... I was the same when I found out hrt tabs had horses urine in them, saying "No wonder I'm allergic to Oestrogen" but whatever I get to help I'm taking it!! I'll just have to imagine it's something nice 😊 If you take NDT and it helps I'm glad... Humour is the only thing that keeps me sane through these illnesses 😊

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