Assessing facts and tone of discussion

[Guest guest]

Hi everyone,

Guess I feel that being an academic (an adjunct professor at a university, with

a PhD) gives me (and redhen -- are you out there?) the authority (since that

seems to be an issue lately) to address the recent debate regarding the veracity

of the information we post or read about on this list.

I think it's vitally important to separate tone and content, if we can.

Scholars of all sorts, even when they see the exact same phrase or fact, often

disagree. The key to continuing our relationships as colleagues, and even

friends, is to keep our tone friendly and avoid words that connote blame or ill

will. Occasionally, those of us on this list slip a bit from this policy, but

we always find our way back. I'm confident we will this time too! I hope we

can each phrase our criticism carefully, so that we continue to monitor, yet

support, each other.

Second, after reading no small number of endocrinology textbooks myself and

following research/theories on autoimmune thyroid disease for three years now,

it's clear that this is a contentious, controversial, and elusive field of

research, even for those clinicians and researchers who've made autoimmune

thyroid disease their life study. I have brought my own research and my own

clinical history to several doctors, who have each interpreted the " facts " in

front of them differently -- sometimes drawing conclusions that would result in

entirely different paths for treatment, and entirely different recommendations

for lifestyle changes.

The endo I saw at the Mayo clinic may have summed it best when he said that

knowledge about thyroid disease is changing rapidly, so much so that the very

categories we currently rely on: graves, hashimotos, etc., may be replaced

within a few years.

Knowledge production is itself a complete category of study -- actually, sort of

a 'hip' category in the academy these days. Lots of scholars devote themselves

to figuring out how 'knowledge' is produced and to interrogating why/how we come

to believe a certain thing is a " fact. " So, in a way, we're simply doing what

the experts are doing and, I think, doing it pretty darn well.

Oh, I wanted to have a pithy summary and check my spelling, but my three year

old just rolled out of bed and deposited herself on my lap. Time's up, hope I

got some sort of point across.

B