The following is from Chapter 7 and is just part of the above document by Dr John Lowe: Excerpt:
In the history of medicine is the endocrinology specialty’s modern guidelines for diagnosing and treating patients whose bodies are under-regulated by thyroid hormone. These guidelines and the beliefs they’re based on have caused a worldwide public health crisis. It involves the chronic ill-ness of scores of millions of people and the premature deaths of incalculable numbers more. Each year, billions of dollars are spent for drugs intended to control patients’ chronic symptoms; the drugs are largely ineffective and often induce adverse effects in the patients. Researchers who fail to recognize that the cause of the patients’ symptoms is under-regulation by thyroid hormone do studies looking for other causes. Since they are blinded to the real culprit, their fruitless efforts squander billions of research dollars.
We learned of this public health disaster through our study of fibromyalgia patients. Our research taught us the main underlying cause of most of the patients’ fibromyalgia symptoms: under-regulation of their bodies by thyroid hormone. After learning this, we developed metabolic rehab, a treatment method that helps patients recover normal metabolism. The treatment involves the use of thyroid hormone, but in ways that differ from the method the endocrinology specialty has imposed on most doctors and patients.
Most patients who undergo conventional thyroid hormone therapy remain ill. In stark contrast, some 85% of patients who undergo metabolic rehab fully and lastingly recover. In this chapter, we explain how patients use thyroid hormone in metabolic rehab.
Among those expressing this view is endocrinologist Anthony Toft. In 1999, he wrote of the use of T4 alone, “It should not be forgotten that the majority of patients taking a dose of thyroxine that satisfies the recommendations of the American Thyroid Association have no complaints about their medication.”
Not surprisingly, Toft provides no scientific evidence to back up his claim. The reason is that no scientific evidence supports his view. On the contrary, substantial evidence shows that enormous numbers of hypothyroid patients are disappointed with their T4 replacement therapy.
We receive thousands of requests for information through our website question-and-answer service at <drlowe.com>. One of the most common questions we receive comes from hypothyroid patients being treated with T4 replacement therapy. Why, they ask, do I still suffer terribly from hypothyroid symptoms? Our answer is that T4-replacement is the least effective approach to thyroid hormone therapy.
Over the past fifteen years, we have carefully evaluated the relative effectiveness of different types of thyroid hormone. Our evaluations have led us to a firm conclusion about T4-replacement: It enables some patients to recover from their hypothyroid symptoms. For most, however, it provides modest improvement at best. Many patients don’t benefit from it at all no matter how high they raise their dose of T4.
Toft’s opinion is contradicted by the popularity of websites that provide information on alternative approaches to thyroid hormone therapy. During 2002-2003, we’ve had an average of 22,000 visitors to <drlowe.com> each month, most of whom are hypothyroid patients dissatisfied with the kind of thyroid hormone therapy Toft advocates. Other popular websites are Mary Shomon’s thyroid information site and Thyroid-UK.
Totaled, hundreds of thousands of dissatisfied patients visit these sites and others, looking for information with which they can recover the health they’ve lost through T4 -replacement therapy.
Studies also contradict Toft’s opinion. The Thyroid Foundation of America conducted a survey of patients whose thyroid glands had been removed. The majority were dissatisfied with their treatment.
Also, in 2003, thyroid patient advocate Mary Shomon conducted a survey of more than 850 patients. Over half were dissatisfied with their thyroid hormone therapy. Results of the survey showed that many thyroid patients still suffer from symptoms even though they’re being treated with thyroid hormone. Table 1 gives the percentages of current symptoms reported by the thyroid patients who responded to Mary’s survey.
SAFELY GETTING WELL WITH THYROID HORMONE
Table 1.
Percentage of 860 hypothyroid patients with various symptoms despite treatment
Symptom Percentage still suffering from
• Fatigue 92%
• Inability to lose weight despite diet/exercise 65%
• Feel sluggish & lethargic 62%
• Trouble concentrating 60%
• No sex drive 58%
• Pains, aches, stiffness 51%
• Depression 45%
• Hair loss 43%
• Eyes dry & light sensitive 38%
• Strange feeling in neck or throat 38%
Interestingly, Dr. Toft has waffled in his viewpoint. At the 21st Joint Meeting of the British Endocrine Societies, April 2002, he made a concession that many thought they would never hear from him.
He cited studies showing that restoring normal levels of thyroid hormone in the cells of hypothyroid rats is possible only when they’re treated with a combination of T3 and T4. He then noted a study in which the use of both T3 and T4 by human patients was superior to that of T4 alone. The patients’ cognitive function was better when they used both hormones.
"It would appear,” he then stated, “that the treatment of hypothyroidism is about to come full circle.” By this, Toft meant that the use of T3 and T4 in combination—as was used throughout most of the 20th century—is the superior therapy.
Then, on August 14, 2002, he contradicted his recent public statements. On that date, he wrote a letter replying to thyroid patient advocate Linda Thipthor in Cornwall, UK. “I would reiterate,” he wrote, “that the overwhelming majority of patients feel perfectly well taking Thyroxine [sic] alone in a dose that restores serum TSH to normal.”
The absurdity of this view is obvious from the percentages in Table 1.
Rather than being satisfied with T4-replacement, as Toft claims,thousands of hypothyroid patients are highly dissatisfied with their continuing hypothyroid symptoms. Many are outraged at endocrinologists’ arrogant dismissal of their continuing symptoms as features of mysterious “new diseases” such as fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, or myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME). And some patients, although relieved when they promptly recover their health with the thyroid hormone therapy we describe in this chapter, are furious that conventional therapy kept them sick for so long.
TWO MAJOR SOURCES OF UNDER-REGULATION BY THYROID HORMONE Under-regulation by thyroid hormone results from one or both of two disorders: hypothyroidism and partial cellular resistance to thyroid hormone.
(it then goes on to explain the the above two disorders)
BTA members say An over-reliance on TSH as a sole marker of wellbeing reduced opportunities for clinicians to address patient symptoms.
Paradigm shifts in thyroid hormone replacement therapies for hypothyroidism - Nature Reviews Endocrinology
Have I Bought the Wrong Book by Dr Anthony Toft?
