6 replies to this topic

[GOLGO13]

I came across a blog written by an Endocrinologist who obviously has a bit of angst against alternative medicine.

 

While I believe the truth may lie somewhere between this information and alternative medicine, I find this blog very informative and it's got me thinking a bit.

 

The site is here and I recommend reading through it even if you don't agree with his perspective: https://hormonesdemystified.com/

 

I've also joined a group called Hashimoto's 411 on Facebook. Which I would call the exact opposite of the above blog. While I think there are some good nuggets in this group, they are a bit too hardcore alternative medicine in my opinion. The group has over 80K users. What this should tell you is there are a lot of Hashimoto's patients that are having issues. But the advice from this group is debatable and I had to calm down reading all of it. Obviously it's a lot of people who mostly have dabbled in alternative treatments. But sometimes the advice can be dangerous (not from the moderators per se). For instance, I saw one gal went to a functional medicine doctor who prescribed 30 different supplements. That should be red flag in my opinion, and I'd say most people thought so also. but there were also plenty of folks defending this. However, one of the supplements was Iodine which is an obvious no no. I hope the gal didn't end up taking all of those. 

 

Anyways...what do you think about these? I find our forum is a bit more practical, but not well traveled.

[Janey]

Thank you for posting this, what a great blog. She/he has written about so many things that I have often questioned in my mind.  I have been the chiropractor/natural doctor route and have been bothered by what I see there - mostly that they will diagnose you based on a lengthy symptom questionnaire and then sell you their all natural-pure-organic-super-vitamins that are supposed to heal you of everything.  Depending on who you see that have a few other tests they can run.

 

The only negative I see about the blog is that it is anonymous.  I'm left wondering why this doctor would wouldn't want to say who they are.  Perhaps it has to do with protecting their privacy.  I feel if they are going to be out there promoting their point of view it would be more credible if there was a name and credentials along with the blog.

[GOLGO13]

From what I understand he presents at Endocrinologist national meetings. My endocrinologist was familiar with him and said so.

 

So I think it's at least a counterpoint to functional medicine.

 

And maybe the truth is somewhere in the middle. But I would agree there are a lot of shady functional doctors out there. I'm sure there are some good ones also. 

 

For me, red flags are:

1) supplements they sell themselves

2) Treatments like foot baths etc

3) costs are going to be $5000 for 6 months

 

etc.

 

In my opinion, a better route on the functional side is to get books. I really like this one, and it's a cook book also: https://www.amazon.c...=gateway&sr=8-3

[Lovlkn]

The cookbook makes a lot of sense since diet impacts the thyroid so much. It all starts in th gut

[creepingdeath]

Scams to take your money.

They pray on the desperate.

 

The medical communititiy in my opinion needs to improve thyroid testing.

Any other test you take they use demographics like your sex and age and height and weight .

But with thyroid it's one test fits all.

They need to make it more customized to the individual.  

The thyroid association of America still insists that TSH is to be the only test needed to treat hypothyroidism.

Most doctors still believe thyroid disease is an easy fix with Synthroid and TSH.

 

"If they could only know what we know" 

[GOLGO13]

Creeping Death...I think they also need to do more studies on stuff related to things like testing. Endo's go by evidence based research, yet I'm finding there are not many studies on topics like Gluten, FT4/FT3 regulation, etc. 

 

They should realize there is a sizable amount of people not doing well out there (take the multitude of Facebook support groups with 80K folks in them). 

 

And I wish they would look a bit more holistically. I had to ask myself for simple tests that are important to being able to handle thyroid medication like Iron and Ferritin, vitamin D, etc. Many of the websites for these medications list that you need to have those things under control, but no one tested me for them until I asked.

 

Levo is I believe the most prescribed medicine in the U.S...so you'd think we'd have better help when it comes to dealing with this thing.

[creepingdeath]

I read somewhere that there are too many people on thyroid meds that don't need to be.

Again TSH is to blame.

Thyroid stimulating hormone changes along with other alments and doctors are too quick to dish out thyroid meds.

Synthetic hormone will shut down your natural hormone production and tries to take over which causes unstable levels and more symptoms that come and go.

 

I started thyroid meds because of a large swelling of my thyroid "goiter" .

I have no nodules and my thyroid levels "TSH" were within their ranges.

I took the synthetic medication and became worse than I was before seeing a doctor.

I stopped the synthetic hormone and my thyroid would swell again but the signs and symptoms stayed.

I ended up on desiccated thyroid which works the best for my situation so far. 

I could have lived with the swelling and regret even going to a clinic in the 1st place.

I'm now stuck taking a medication forever to servive.

I sometimes feel like a drug addict cause I know what it's going to feel like without it.