Ken Blanchard - What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Hypothyroidism: A Simple Plan for Extraordinary Results

This book is written as a source of information only. It should not substitute for advice from your physician or a qualified health professional. You need to seek the advice of your health care professional before you use any recommendation herein. The authors and the publisher expressly disclaim responsibility for any adverse effects arising from the use of the information in this book.

The case histories included in this book are based on the authors experience with his patients, although their names and personal information have been changed to protect their privacy.

Copyright 2004 by Ken Blanchard, M.D. and Marietta Abrams Brill. All rights reserved.

The title of the series What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About and the related trade dress are trademarks owned by Warner Books and may not be used without permission.

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First eBook Edition: January 2004

ISBN: 978-0-7595-0865-1

Are you one of the millions of patients who has been dismissed by doctors because your lab tests were normal? Have you been misdiagnosed and unsuccessfully treated with potentially harmful drugs? Dont suffer needlessly anymore! If you answer yes to any of the following, you may have a treatable condition called hypothyroidism.

Are you always cold, carrying a sweater with you even in the summer?

Do you have trouble falling asleep or wake suddenly during the night?

Has your once-shiny hair lost its luster and begun falling out at the slightest touch?

Does your formerly smooth skin feel rough and dry despite moisturizing?

Have you noticed that your voice has become deeper or gruffer?

Are you plagued by head and body aches?

Are you unable to digest your meals the way you used to?

Is it hard to recognize the puffy-eyed person in the mirror?

Has your PMS become more severe?

Have you maintained your diet but suddenly gained weight?

Has your once-sharp memory dulled considerably?

Do you frequently feel depressed and out of sync with the world?

Despite what some doctors may have told you, you arenot doomed to a life of thyroid symptoms.

There IS an approach that can work for youandthe millions of others like you.

WHAT YOUR DOCTOR MAY NOT TELL YOU ABOUT
HYPOTHYROIDISM

For P.S.B.

M.A.B.

T his book exists because of the support of my family and my loyal secretaries over many years: Elizabeth Daniels, Carole Shander, Kay Kearney, Maggie MacLeod, and Betsy Spiro. My practice was helped tremendously by two very splendid laboratory technicians, Barbara Binns and Patty Marsh. The success of my practice since 1996 has been helped immeasurably by the compounding wizardry of Dennis Katz of Hopkinton Drug. Most of all, I thank my many hundreds of patients, who reenergize me every day in the office and who often give me ideas that make the treatment better.

K.R.B.

Many people created this book. Diana Baroni and Bob Castillo at Warner Books gave it shape and polish. Im ever grateful to Judith River, my agent, for her encouragement, wise counsel and good humor. Deep gratitude to Karren Abrams, Genia Gould, and Rutha Rosen for their editorial support and friendship, and to the many patients of Dr. Blanchard who courageously shared their stories to help others. For information, I am indebted to many excellent resources including thyroid-info.com (directed by Mary J. Shomon) and the Thyroid Fitness Support Group at Yahoo.com (directed by Charisse Beiswanger, a.k.a. BeeFuddled).

M.A.B.

A very common ritual experienced by many medical students at the end of their years in medical school is to hear an address by an eminent medical dean, who congratulates them and wishes them well in their internships, then says something like this: Half of what you learned in medical school is wrong, and your challenge now is to find out which half. This may sound whimsical, but it does reflect a very basic truth about the complexity of the human body and immensity of medical knowledge. It is also often said that the only people who are 100 percent sure about anything in medicine are medical students, malpractice lawyers, and well-compensated expert witnesses. In my opinion, much of the factual knowledge that has been taught to physicians about hypothyroidism falls into the wrong category, so that the original title of this work was The Many Myths of Hypothyroidism. It is my deep belief that the current status of the TSH test as the absolute yes-or-no arbiter for the presence of hypothyroidism and for the status of a patients treatment will eventually come to be regarded as one of the great mistakes of medical history.

W hat wont your doctor tell you about hypothyroidism? Unfortunately, most doctors wont tell you very much at all about this common but frequently overlooked condition.

One thing your doctor may not tell youor even be aware ofis the difficult situation many hypothyroid patients face in even getting diagnosed. The incidence of hypothyroidism is vastly underestimated. During the past fifteen years, experts have changed their estimates from fewer than 5 million, to 8 million, to 12 million, to as many as 20 million or more Americans affected. Hypothyroidism is also vastly undiagnosed. Symptoms can sometimes be vague or can mimic many other conditions, making diagnosis difficult. The bottom line: Millions of you are hypothyroid, and many millions more of you are hypothyroid but dont know yet or may never know.

What else wont your doctor tell you about hypothyroidism? Your doctor isnt likely to tell you that the thyroid hormone replacement drug you will probably receivesynthetic thyroxine, known as levothyroxine, l-thyroxine, or T4is a standard, cookie-cutter treatment given to most patients. And chances are that this standard treatment wont be enough to restore your optimal health.

Another thing your doctor may not tell you is what will happen if you still dont feel well after being treated. When you bring up unresolved symptoms and health complaints, you may be written off as a mental case and given antidepressants or packed off to see the psychiatrist. Or you may be told youre lazy and that the solution to your fatigue or weight gain is simply to get off the couch, get moving, and stop eating so much. And, because hypothyroidism affects women much more than men, many of you will be dismissed as hormonal, suffering from PMS, experiencing postpartum blues, or being in menopause, and given prescriptions for hormones, the pill, or more antidepressants.

What your doctor also may not tell you is that an apparent mob psychology rules the mainstream diagnosis and treatment process with an iron fist. And its been this way for quite a long time. Changes in thyroid treatment seem to move at a glacial pace. The standard operating procedureTSH test, followed by treatment with levothyroxineis not only the same today as it was when I was first diagnosed with hypothyroidism in 1995, but its been the same for thirty years.