Dr. Langer's book

[Guest guest]

Hi everyone. I just finished reading Dr. Langer's book TWICE " Solved,

The Riddle of Illness " . I must say I was very impressed. I think his book is

even better than Dr. (of course more up to date) but he does refer to Dr.

as a miracle worker.

So even though I am EXHAUSTED, I want to take some time to type up some

important points from his book to share with all of you regarding Hashi's. Okay

so he has a section just on Hashi's which he refers to as HAIT.

Chapter 18- THYROIDITIS/HAIT

What are Hashi's symptoms:

1). DEEP FATIGUE, often written off as chronic fatigue syndrome. Such patients

go to sleep exhausted and wake up even more so. Their endurance is often low to

non-existent. Usually, performing their day-day activities is beyond them.

2. DEPRESSION, Patient's exhaustion and inability to function normally brings on

feelings of futility. In any acute onset of depression-especially in adult

women- thyroiditis should be suspected and ruled out by proper testing for

antibodies to the thyroid. Thyroiditis is frequently a common cause of

postpartum depression.

3. MEMORY LOSS, characterized by severe problems with recent memory and ability

to concentrate, is often a disaster for working adults and students.

4. Nervousness ranges from mild anxiety to full blown panic attacks-some of

which are true psychiatric emergencies. These are puzzling to HAIT patients

and, often, to their physicians, who in desperation usually recommend

psychotherapy or prescribe powerful tranquilizers. Most patients with

psychatric symptoms brought on by thyroiditis tell me " I have no reason I know

of to feel this way. Something's wrong physically, yet all my medical exams are

normal " . (However, at this point, they haven't had autoimmune antibodies to

their thyroid gland checked.

5. Allergies, food and environmental

6. Heartbeat irregularity and palpitations

7. Muscle and joint pains

8. Sleep disturbances and insomnia

9. Reduced sex drive

10. Menstrual problems

11. Suicidal tendencies

12. Digestive disorders

13. Headaches and ear pain

14. Lumps in the throat

15. Difficulty Swallowing

Often the signs of thyroiditis are contradictory. Usually any elevation of

antithyroid antibodies is significant. Yet, in severe cases, there may be a

reading of low antithyroid antibodies, and in a mild case, markedly elevated

antibodies.

My policy is to treat patients medically for thyroiditis even when they have

just a small elevation of antithyroid antibodies if they also present symptoms

of this disorder.

I emphasize this point because many doctors become interested in this condition

only if antibody level is sky high.

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So anyway people, this is just a small section I thought I'd share with you

which I found to be significant. For the most part, he talks about the problem

with the tests, he doesn't use them to diagnose, he uses the temps, and he goes

my signs and symptoms which he validates with The barnes temperature test and

he'll always check for hashi's. He only treats with natural dessicated thyroid

and he doesn't use TSH to measure progress; he goes by symptoms and temps.