Re: Alt Med-to Pam, Chris and Jody

[Guest guest]

Hi you guys-

I didn't want you to think I was against alternative medicine. There are

some things that make very good sense. That iodine in the diet can affect

greatly affect thyroid hormone manufacture is unquestionable and I don't

know why doctors insist on telling us that diet doesn't matter here. If you

have a finite amount of iodine available to make thyroid hormone, it is

impossible to infinitely make thyroid hormone regardless of how stimulated

the thyroid is by antithyroid antibodies.

Some pharmaceuticals are good and some are bad, in my opinion. ATDs are

good to get us over our hyperthyroidism but this willy-nilly administering

of SSRIs are bad (Zoloft caused terrible side effects in me). They haven't

studied the long-term effects of SSRIs and they're starting to find that

they permanently change neuron structure. Steroids, in my case, have been

good because they've allowed me to avoid the immune reaction that I had

before to the placenta. They aren't good enough for me to stay on them

indefinitely even though they do tamp down on immune responses (for example,

my autoimmune arthritis). They do have bad side effects. Antibiotics can

be a good thing, but when overused (as they are in this country) they can be

a bad thing because they are the only reason we have so many antibiotic

resistant bacteria now.

Most of the advertising I see for natural remedies is no different than the

recently allowed advertising by the pharmaceutical companies. Both of them

target a naive public.

I guess what I think is that we shouldn't be taking anything that we don't

have to. For example, my son is going to be 7 next week and we've never

given him an antibiotic pill/syrup. We've been lucky because he's never

been sick for more than 4 or 5 days with anything and as long as I see his

temperature continue to drop after 2 days, I'm happy that his immune system

is taking care of any pathogens. It would be a different story if he had

developed a secondary bacterial infection that didn't go away.

Anyway, I think that we should be extremely careful about what we put into

our bodies whatever the source. Americans like a quick fix whether it's

from alternative medicine or Western medicine.

Take care,

dx & RAI 1987 (at age 24)

" > It is my firm belief that the remission rates in this country are so low,

> because our doctors tell all of us, our diets do not matter. How logical

is

> that ?

>

> Then, the ones that do accidentally slip into remission, with out this

> knowledge, and very likely to go hyper again. Thus the lower rates for

> staying there.

>

> I know this sounds too simple, and all the medical jargon makes all new

> patients feel they will never understand Graves'...but I tell you...this

is

> NOT rocket science in my experience. "