In gathering the stories for my upcoming book, The Awakened Body, I asked a nurse friend of mine if she would be willing to share her story, to which she responded:
“I wish I could send you a success story regarding hormones . . . but it seems as if mine are ‘UNRULY’! Perhaps I shall be your ‘case study’ or success story after reading your book . . . specially suited for your second edition . . . maybe the ‘trailer’ or ‘tag’ to pick back up on next time. I laugh at the situation because it seems as if I have been out of control but WNL forever!”
In the case of the thyroid, disagreement exists among today’s practitioners in interpretation of lab work that comes back “WNL” (within normal limits). The lab work may very well be within the noted “WNL” range, and yet the patient does have a problem with his or her thyroid. As Drs. Shames addresses in Thyroid Power, “The standard lab tests are unable to identify the millions of borderline low thyroid sufferers. The thyroid tests used today are just not sensitive enough to identify mild thyroid failure. You could be uncomfortably low in thyroid and still show normal in tests. Individuals differ in what is ‘normal’ for them.”
Because of today’s current testing trends, people often have to be really sick before they are diagnosed and treated for their low thyroid symptoms. Drs. Shames goes on to say, “When blood tests are read, the range defined as normal for thyroid is so wide that it includes almost everyone, disregarding the unique metabolic needs of each person. Those diagnosed as really sick are actually only the tip of a large iceberg. There are many, many more who are mildly to moderately affected. These people can feel miserable for years with a variety of minor complaints that can keep a group of specialists quite busy, each surveying and treating the problem from their own limited perspective.”
In his book Hypothyroidism Type 2, Dr. Mark Starr, M.D., devotes an entire chapter to explaining the fallacies in our current thyroid testing. In it he sates, “Doctors currently ignore patients’ medical histories and physical findings consistent with hypothyroidism. The laboratory tests for the illness reign supreme.” Dr Starr goes on to say, “Modern doctors use the thyroid blood tests as guidelines for treatment as well as diagnosis. The end result is the health disaster that is upon us.”
Janie A. Bowthorpe’s fascinating book, Stop the Thyroid Madness, is filled with countless stories, case studies, and data demonstrating the enormity of this problem. Likewise, she presents a compelling amount of data concerning still yet another concern—that of thyroid replacement. Her book contrasts patients’ positive responses to natural, “desiccated,” porcine (pig) thyroid to the responses of synthetic thyroid replacement, manufactured by pharmaceutical companies. Synthroid is one of the most commonly used synthetic thyroid replacements, whereas Armour is a commonly used desiccated replacement. Bowthorpe explains that the desiccated thyroid contains “exactly what the human thyroid makes—T4, T3, T2, T1, and calcitonin.” Where have we heard this story before? Does it sound similar to the synthetic vs bioidentical hormone controversy?
When I offered the explanations regarding the “WNL”controversy described above, my friend wrote back:
“You mentioned using ‘my story’ in your book. Funny thing is . . . I didn’t realize I had a story . . . and just maybe that is the story!”
Some people like being sick if you are not one of them read on for some truth about Thyroid disease. Did you know that thyroid disease is really a very rare disease and yet there is an epidemic (1 in 4 people) of it in America. The truth is that an autoimmune disease such as Hashimoto’s or Graves disease probably (90%+) gave you your thyroid disease. Autoimmune diseases are very interesting, there are aprox 80 to 100 at this time with another 40 waiting for a name. Medical science cannot explain why and has not found a cure for even one. You can trigger one of them just by having an auto accident, taking aspirin or medicine, by starting a new exercise routine, or even stressing out says latest research. Naturopathic medicine says, “Look for the root cause. The cause is in the basics; beginning with what is on your fork, what toxins are in your body, what exercise do you do, what stress is in your life, what is your spiritual base”. Science has led us down the wrong path, we better stop and take a close look at what is happening. Every month an average of 150 new chemicals which are part of the autoimmune problem will be added too industry with no oversight control at all. Autoimmune disease is the worst kind of contradiction; for thyroid disease your immune system is attacking you at your own thyroid, a world upside down. God bless you in your search.
Thanks
Paul
Ps Here is a challenge, on a piece of paper write down as many diseases as you can think of then put them as a search on Google one at a time and add the word epidemic you will see that almost all of them are. Is anyone in modern medicine awake?
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