Interesting comments by Dr. Lowe on Thyroid

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Subject: Newsletter: Center for Metabolic Health, April 18, 2003

*************************************************************NEWS from theCENTER for METABOLIC HEALTHby Dr. C. Lowe & Dr. Honeyman-LoweApril 18, 2003------------------------------------------------------------------------(If you would prefer not to receive our newsletter, send us an e-mail at MetabolicHealth@.... Just write "remove" in the subject line.)(To read this newsletter in color and with links at drlowe.com, go to: <http://www.drlowe.com/emailnewsletter/2003archive.htm>)NEWS ITEMS1. At Last---"Your Guide to Metabolic Health" to be Shipped!2. Thyroid Hormone Products: Which Have Potency Problems?3. Trigger Point Therapist Referral Network***************************************************At Last---"Your Guide to Metabolic Health" to be Shipped in Two Weeks!**************************************************In a couple of weeks, those who've ordered "Your Guide to Metabolic Health" will begin receiving them. If you're thinking of ordering a copy, April 20th is the cutoff point for the discounted price of $17.95. The full cost of the book after that time will be $24.95. By ordering now, you'll get a $7.00 discount. In addition, if you order before the 20th, we'll send you a packet of the four most requested articles we've published. The articles are reprinted as booklets. McDowell Publishing Company usually charges $20.00 for the set, but you'll get them at no charge.Our main purpose in writing "Your Guide to Metabolic Health" was to help as many people as possible get well. To this end, we packed as much information as possible into its 384 pages, and we designed it to be a user-friendly self-help guide. We expect that the book will help many people get well.Our efforts to help those who use the book, however, won't end with their buying it. As useful as we believe the book will be, we anticipate that some patients will need more help. To try and meet their needs, we've created an online trouble shooting section. The section is designed to help patients using the book get past obstacles to their full recovery. When your book is shipped, it will contain the web address to the trouble shooting section.If the trouble shooting section leaves you with problems unresolved, we'll try to help further by answering your questions at AskDrLowe@.... With the book, you'll receive word of a code you should include in the subject line of your e-mails to AskDrLowe@.... We'll give priority to e-mails with the code in the subject line.**************************************Problems with Potency of Thyroid Hormone Products***********************************I (JCL) began working with patients who were hypothyroid in the late 1980s. To learn about the treatment of hypothyroid patients, I spent a lot of time talking with other doctors about thyroid hormone therapy. I soon learned that most doctors tenaciously held two beliefs that had been shrewdly planted in their minds by the corporation that marketed Synthroid. The beliefs were: (1) the potency of Synthroid tablets was perfectly reliable, and (2) the potency of the tablets or capsules of other products—especially Armour Thyroid—was highly unreliable. Based on these two beliefs, the doctors dogmatically pronounced that all hypothyroid patients should be treated with Synthroid. The doctors' pronouncement was thoughtless parroting of a sound bite from the corporation's marketing campaign—a campaign so effective that Synthroid eventually became the third most-prescribed drug in the U.S.In my view, the doctors who parroted the Synthroid marketing hype should feel shame; they allowed themselves to be duped by a sales campaign for a product that was—and still is!—no more reliable than any other thyroid hormone product. In previous publications, Shomon and I have cited the FDA evidence for Synthroid's lack of reliability.Of course, Synthroid isn't the only thyroid hormone product with reliability problems. In our experience, no brand of thyroid hormone is especially reliable. By this, we mean that fairly often, patients find that the potency of the thyroid hormone products they're taking is lower than the label states.In our experience, the reliability problem has been worse with products from compounding pharmacies, but the problem is also common for the products of large pharmaceutical companies. It appears to us, then, that all thyroid hormone products are highly vulnerable to influences that reduce their potency. Accordingly, no claim that a product has superior reliability is legitimate. If you're new to the use of thyroid hormone, and you're up to a dose that should be working for you, but you're not benefiting from it, be sure to let your doctor and your pharmacist know. The dosage range that's safe and effective for most patients is between 2-to-4 grains (120-to-240 mg) of desiccated thyroid. The equivalent dosage range for T4 is 200-to-400 mcg (0.2-to-0.4 mg). If you're not improving with this dosage range, you may have thyroid hormone resistance, or the potency of the tablets or capsules you're using may be lower than what's stated on the label. If your thyroid hormone product was prescribed, the bottle containing the pills or capsules will have a batch number. Your pharmacist will probably replace your thyroid hormone tablets or capsules with others from another batch. If you're using an over-the-counter product such as Nutri-Meds desiccated thyroid, the bottle won't have a batch number, but you can ask the company to replace the capsules or tablets your currently using.If thyroid hormone has effectively relieved your hypothyroid or thyroid hormone resistance symptoms, but some of your symptoms have reappeared, you should consider whether the capsules or tablets your presently using have a lower-than-stated potency. You should let your doctor and pharmacist know the symptoms that have recurred. It will also help to have objective evidence, such as a decreased basal body temperature. Your doctor may find that your Achilles reflex that had become normal with thyroid hormone therapy has become slow again. If your TSH level was within the reference range, it may now be much higher now. And if your free T3 level was within the reference range, it may be much lower now. (This is a rare time during treatment when thyroid function testing can actually be of help.) Clearly, all thyroid hormone products occasionally have potency problems. Because of this, it's important for patients to stay vigilant for signs that the potency of the capsules or tablets they're taking isn't consistent. ************************************************Trigger Point Therapist Referral Network***********************************************We often hear patients say doctors have told them there is no effective treatment for myofascial pain, and that the patients just have to learn to live with it. The doctors' statements are patently false. Most patients with myofascial pain can overcome it, as long as they find practitioners trained and skilled at trigger point myofascial therapy.It's recently become much easier to find such a practitioner. A few weeks ago, we received notice of the new referral service of the National Association of Myofascial Trigger Point Therapists (NAMTPT). Through the service, patients with myofascial pain and dysfunction can find therapists certified by NAMTPT. Certified myofascial trigger point therapists are educated and trained to accurately find the source of myofascial pain and to effectively relieve it. A small percentage of practitioners in other health care professions are good at myofascial trigger point therapy. But certified myofascial trigger point therapists are the only practitioners who exist strictly to provide the public with effective myofascial trigger point therapy. If your doctor has told you there is no effective treatment for myofascial pain, and that you'll have to live with it, disregard the information as false. Then contact the NAMTPT referral service. They will help you find a certified therapist who can show you that in fact you don't have to live with myofascial pain. After you experience the relief, please let your doctor know. And be sure to give him or her the contact information for the referral service. Perhaps he or she will refer others to the service so that they, too, can get relief from their myofascial pain.Website: MyofascialTherapy.orgE-mail: info@...Phone: (800) 845-3454*************************************************Previous Issues of our E-mail Newsletter************************************************We archive issues of our e-mail newsletters on www.drlowe.com. The latest issues appear first. The webpage containing the archived issues is: http://www.drlowe.com/emailnewsletter/2002archive.htm*****************Clinical Care****************To inquire about long-distance consulting services or treatment at the Center for Metabolic Health, please contact Diane . You can reach her by e-mail at MetabolicHealth@..., or by telephone at (303) 413-9100.Best wishes,Dr. C. LoweDr. Honeyman-LoweCenter for Metabolic Health1800 30th Street, Suite 217-A, Boulder, CO 80301 USATel (303) 413-9100 Fax (303) 413-9101 MetabolicHealth@...