Daily mail piece on over medication: My dad... - Thyroid UK

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Daily mail piece on over medication

VanessaB profile image
17 Replies

My dad brought over yesterday's daily mail so forgive me if someone else has mentioned it but the article mentioned a woman taking 25 tablets a day couldn't help but notice one of those tablets was thyroxine and the rest well tablets for all the things most of us sufferers mention.Just made me wonder I'll take a picture of the tablets she's taking and attach it.

Vanessa x

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VanessaB
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PinkNinja profile image
PinkNinja

Hi Vanessa. Is this the article? dailymail.co.uk/health/arti...

Carolyn x

helvella profile image
helvellaAdministratorThyroid UK in reply to PinkNinja

Helpfully they suggest going to

expertpatients.co.uk

Though they then say when I put my postcode in:

"Unfortunately EPP CIC have not been commissioned to deliver courses in your area. If you would like to be added to a waiting list please call us on 0800 988 5550 "

But they can't be all bad:

expertpatients.co.uk/thyroi...

:-)

Clarebear profile image
Clarebear in reply to helvella

I got the same message Rod :(

I wonder where they are delivering courses?

tracynoe profile image
tracynoe in reply to Clarebear

The expert patient programs are now delivered by local councils in conjunction with NHS. To find out if your local council is doing the program you would have to contact them or try looking on their website. I found ours through google and started it last November attended the first two and then went down with a cold followed up with a chest infection and then a stomach virus so never got to finish the course. It's not something that is suitable for everyone. I found that the things they were teaching were all things that I already do so didn't feel as if I had missed out when I was too ill to go.

VanessaB profile image
VanessaB

Yes you're a genius guess that's why you're admin I had just taken a picture :) I found it quite strange all the nerve treatment and statins the lady is taking.Still learning but it struck me this is what a lot of us thyroid patients are struggling and thanks for the link x

PinkNinja profile image
PinkNinja in reply to VanessaB

I know what you mean! I have seen different consultants about different things and prescribed different medications and most of them were down to my thyroid. Now that I'm on better thyroid treatment I'm not having to take nearly as much of the other medication now :)

It's a very interesting and pertinent article!

Marz profile image
Marz

I too saw the article and thought likewise. So many drugs for conditions linked to malfunctioning thyroid/adrenals etc. Did notice in the article that Docs are incentivised for prescribing - which just may have something to do with it. Also repeat prescriptions are a scandal. Apparently you get the whole lot repeated even if you no longer take them - what a waste of public money....or maybe that has changed. It happened with my Mum - but that was some years ago now.

Whatever we may feel about the article I do think it goes some way to illustrating that doctors are not prepared to get to the bottom of things.....as I've mentioned before - to be a good doc you need to be a good detective !

On a more humourus note - isn't it funny that no-one likes to admit to reading the DM - it is always someone else's !! If you lived in Crete you would be grateful for whatever UK paper is available in the winter ! Tuesdays ( available on Wednesday ! ) is a must - it's the Medical Day and I love to have a good rant and rave at all the nonesense quoted by experts !!

Glynisrose profile image
Glynisrose

No, never read the DM ! I too would have been on a huge amount of tablets per day except I am intolerant to maize which is the bulking agent in most tablets. That and the fact I refused some tablets I felt were not necessary, such as anti depressants and statins. How old was the lady in the article? There are still too many trusting in the premise that doctors are there to help you when in fact they are really about making money.

greygoose profile image
greygoose

This is what I've said over and over again! Big Pharma calls us hypos Milk Cows because they go on and on milking us - well, it's the NHS that pays - through the nose. This is why they don't want us to get well, why they invented synthetic T4 and the TSH test, why they say 'wait half an hour before eating' instead of an hour, so that it doesn't all get absorbed. When are we going to stand up on our hind legs and say: enough is enough! I'm not taking your wretched pills anymore, half of which will make me worse and none of which will make me better, when all I really need is a decent dose of decent hormone!!! Well, I've already said it. When are the rest of you going to join me?

Grey

PinkNinja profile image
PinkNinja in reply to greygoose

Already have :D Told my doctor I'm no longer taking psychiatric meds and made sure I got some decent thyroid hormones instead. And guess what? I don't need the pills the psychiatrist prescribed any more. I also refused statins, stating that getting my thyroid properly treated would sort that out - and it has. My blood pressure has also normalised :D The only other tablets I am taking (other than thyroid and supplements) are epilepsy tablets. It could be a bit risky to stop those ;)

greygoose profile image
greygoose in reply to PinkNinja

Well done you!!! You are an example to us all!

Do you know, after my back op (which I didn't need), I had to have an extra plate at every meal to put my pills on! I was taking that many, I lost count. And all of them had side effects, so the doc would just prescribe another pill to counteract the side effect, and then they would have side effects, and so on and so on and so on! And one day I said to him: I can't help feeling this isn't a very scientific approach. He looked at me as if I was mad. Scientific? he mumbled, frowning, put his coat on and left. Sigh.

That op of mine alone must have cost the nation a small fortune! And then they wonder why there's a deficit. Well, one day I said enough's enough and I stopped the lot cold turkey. I knew I was possibly taking a risk, but reading the patient info leaflet I couldn't see what good any of these tablets were doing, And I was right. I didn't feel any different after stopping them. Ouf!

But I just couldn't take it anymore! By the time I'd taken all my tablets, at every meal, with copious glasses of water, I didn't have any room left for food!

It's terrible, here in France, the doctors write out prescriptions as if they're writing their weekly shopping lists: well, let's give you a bit of this, just to see what it does, oh, and some of that, just in case, and I think I'd like to give you... on and on and on. The queues in the pharmacies are terrible! And the older the patient is, the more carrier bags he staggers out with - yes, carrier bags full of god knows what, two, three, four, even five of them! And then they complain about lack of funds for the health service! Pft!

Grey

PinkNinja profile image
PinkNinja in reply to greygoose

My goodness, that is scary! It's a good job you could see through the confusion of pills and see what was actually happening. It's quite frightening when there are so many people who aren't in a position to see what their medication is doing to them, especially the elderly. My father in law doesn't even know what half his tablets are for! He's hypothyroid too (after treatment for Graves). I noticed to that he is on Simvastatin and Amlodipine too, which is one of the combinations the DM caution against. I've told him to talk to his doctor - hopefully he'll remember!

mstp profile image
mstp

Hi Greygoose

Do you know if I have to wait an hour after eating to take a T3? I knew I had to wait to take my thyroxine but I noticed your comment and it got me wondering.

Sue

greygoose profile image
greygoose in reply to mstp

Well, actually, Sue, it's an hour BEFORE eating, after taking your thyroxine. If you eat first, you need to wait two hours before taking it.

As far as I know, T3 doesn't bind with calcium or iron in the way T4 does. Therefore, there would seem to be no reason to wait before eating. However, there seems to be some arguement about this, so I wouldn't like to say for certain. Perhaps someone else has some more definitive information?

Grey

shaws profile image
shawsAdministrator in reply to mstp

Dr Lowe's patients take T3 once per day and this is a link re eating if you cursor down to the question June 11, 2002 and also the question following

web.archive.org/web/2010122...

DeniseR profile image
DeniseR

I wasn't on quite as many as some but when they started giving me anti-depressants for pain and to aid sleep, that made me feel like a drunken zombie, I decided enough was enough. I stopped everything, thyroid meds too, which maybe wasn't very clever but I just wanted to exactly how I felt without all the drugs.

I now take T4 and T3 along with Vit D(prescribed) and that is all. After my next blood test I am going to try adding supplements of B12 and am considering nutri-adrenal. But no more pills to counter act this and that!!!! I'm in control :)

LinDonaldson profile image
LinDonaldson

Hi there,

I would dearly love to know how much the NHs wastes on drugs every year and how many people suffer (die) as a consequence of GP over prescribing. We all know that large drugs companies send their reps round to tout their drugs to hospitals and GP surgeries. We all know that these reps give little "gifts" to promote the latest remedy and that NHS workers snap up these little gifts and - voila - start prescribing the remedy paired with the gift. Oh glorious day, here is real evidence for carrot and stick learning and no regard to the poor 'patient' .

Thank goodness the poor woman featured in the Mail article was helped to reduce the contents of her toxic cocktail.

My doctor will not prescribe Liothyronine, yet she has variously tried to push pills to lower my blood pressure, pills to lower cholesterol, beta blockers to lower anxiety, very strong pain killers to stop me complaining and antidepressants to kill my brain and guess what stop me complaining. Oh there have been offers of steroids and so many other drugs I just cannot remember them all. I tried some of them and they caused everything from projectile vomiting to turning yellow and developing brown marks on my face.

Now, I take what I have to take. T3 therapy which I source and self-administer. Insulin for diabetes, asthma inhalers although I have reduced the amount I use. I go to acupuncture and do some meditation and gentle exercise. I take Siberian Ginseng and Vitamin D3. Sometimes I have to take iron tablets but god only knows they wreck my system.

Now without insulin I would die and without the asthma inhalers I could well die.. Without co-dydromol on occasion I would be in agony. I know of people that would not be alive without the medication they take. But we can reduce the amount of medication we take significantly. There is room in the world for the best from all health care practice whether it be spiritual, naturopathic or western inspired medical treatment. Integrative medicine must surely be where we need to go to treat the many complex illnesses produced by our need to pollute the world in various ways and our genetic makeup.

Anyway you have started me on a real rant.

Lots of love, lots of good, healthy food, lots of play and time for self reflection.

Regards

Lin

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