Canadian Patients Campaign Articles

[diogenes]

I've been sent two articles from this campaign which TUK will finding interesting. They've taken our line completely re the need for FT3 testing and its role in therapy. I can't myself find the articles - posed Jan 9th but have sent both to Louise Roberts at TUK for anyone wishing to read.

[fibrolinda]

Thank you as always 🙂

[Musicmonkey]

Thank you! 😊

[MissGrace]

Thank you. I’m so grateful for all you do. 🤸🏿‍♀️

[diogenes Remembering]

I've found now after a bit of searching how to get the whole article:

Type into Google:

Why the Free T3 test matters so much – Canadian Thyroid Patients Campaign

and a page will come up with the top site being the relevant one.

There's another:

T3 prescriptions in the UK

[LindaC in reply to diogenes]

Thanks you diogenes - much appreciated!

[m7-cola in reply to diogenes]

Very good article. Thanks for sharing it.

[diogenes Remembering]

The second one is on medscape.com.

Why Aren't Doctors Prescribing T3 (Liothyronine)? by Siobhan Harris

[SlowDragon Administrator]

Here's the actual links

thyroidpatients.ca/2019/01/...

medscape.com/viewarticle/90...

[Nanaedake]

Absolutely agree that testing FT3 is crucial. In the case of thyroid cancer patients, TSH is usually suppressed and then docs always want to tinker with the amount of levo we take but they don't test FT3 so how on earth do they or we know if we are actually over or under medicated. It's hard enough to manage our own thyroid hormone levels in between the very hard to get doctor apts and inconvenient times for blood tests.

How do we differentiate between symptoms from some other cause and imbalanced thyroid hormone levels if they don't actually test the active thyroid hormone? It's like hitting a nail in the dark, you might hit, you might miss or you might just whack your thumb and make everything worse.

[humanbean]

From the Canadian link :

If this is true, a false medical ideology could have harmed millions of patients on T4-monotherapy, unnecessarily and unknowingly. The professionals who maintain guidelines will have a vested interest in maintaining a strong bias against T3’s role in hypothyroid therapy.

It would also mean that a huge empire built around TSH monotesting and the safety of T4 monotherapy could be starting to crumble, and many vested interests will want to protect this empire as long as they can.

I have seen no evidence that an empire involving thyroid is crumbling in the UK. Even if the US or Canada might be starting to relax about T3 (is it?) UK doctors are very parochial and often only pay attention to UK research that they like personally and which reinforces their prejudices. The thyroid empire here in the UK has bolstered its walls, built them higher, and had the foundations strengthened with reinforced concrete.