First, because the word metabolism is involved with virtually everything in our bodies, it helps to know exactly what we’re talking about. “Metabolism” means the sum total of all the chemical processes going on inside you that are necessary to keep you alive. When your metabolic rate is normal you feel pretty good. If it’s […]
Tag: T3
A Newly Discovered Cause of Women’s Fatigue
Posted 12/12/2011 Given the number of women who walk around feeling tired all the time, it’s truly unfortunate that the important piece of research we’re discussing today didn’t generate more publicity. Tucked away in the small-circulation medical journal Thyroid, whose readership is probably limited to endocrinologists specializing in thyroid disorders, there appeared an article about […]
Stop the Thyroid Madness
I went to medical school for awhile in London and, it being the late 1960s (and London), I really don’t remember much about it. The school, that is.
However, two lessons from a certain professor have always remained with me:
1. If you listen to your patient carefully enough, and use your diagnostic skills, she’ll tell you her diagnosis. You won’t need anything else. Just listen! (By the way, this idea is widely attributed to the early 20th century physician Sir William Osler, but I was an impressionable med student in the classroom of a speaker who sounded and looked like Winston Churchill…in a white coat.)
If You Take Thyroid Hormones
As the tens of thousands of patients who use Armour thyroid tablets have discovered, the product has simply vanished from pharmacy shelves across America. Without getting into details of why this occurred, let me say first that the product allegedly will be back sometime in mid-2010. Here’s a bit of investigative reporting on the subject. Used to treat underactive thyroid gland, Armour thyroid is often called “natural thyroid.”