GOOD HOUSEKEEPING EDITOR RESPONDS!

[Guest guest]

Dear All

I am passing on to you the response from the Editor of Good

Housekeeping and Janie's response to the Editor underneath.

Luv - Sheila

Good Housekeeping replies…and let’s set the record

straight!

Posted: 26 Jul 2011 12:44

PM PDT

Below this blog post, you will see my

original July 25th post about the potentially harmful thyroid article that

appeared in Good Housekeeping magazine’s August issue.

And sadly, though thyroid patients

can appreciate even getting a reply by the

Editors of Good Housekeeping (which is certainly better than the dead silence

thyroid patients got from Oprah Winfrey when they emailed numerous times

about this horrific thyroid treatment scandal), we certainly are saddened by

the continued poor understanding and false suppositions contained in the

reply:

We have read your postings and

letters with great interest and are moved by the depth of feeling that

underlies them. It is obvious that many of you write out of frustration with

your own unresolved symptoms, and we are sympathetic to your ongoing

difficulties.

Good Housekeeping’s August 2011 article on thyroid

disease describes one woman’s quest to understand her own

ambiguous diagnosis. As described in the article, there is a great deal of

controversy surrounding the diagnosis and treatment of low thyroid disorders

— among mainstream physicians as well as those with a more complementary or

integrative orientation. We recognize that much of the information on the

Internet serves to support patients who haven’t been heard or understood by

their own doctors — a terribly disheartening and frustrating experience for

anyone. But it is often difficult to discern what’s been scientifically

tested and proven versus what is still being explored. That is why this

article, like all health articles in GH, drew on research and advice that is

evidence-based; typically, such information comes from credentialed doctors

working at leading medical and academic centers. A careful reader of our

story will see that doctors we consulted acknowledged that low thyroid levels

might be treated if a patient has other problems like infertility or

depression or if she has Hashimoto antibodies and other factors.

It is our hope that better

understanding of the disease will lead to more effective treatment for all.

That’s really the goal and the motivation behind all of Good Housekeeping’s health

coverage.

We thank you for your valuable

feedback and encourage you to continue to send us your thoughts. You can

reach us at ghletters@....

And here is my reply to the

Editors of Good Housekeeping:

We, as thyroid patients around the

world, do appreciate that you took the time to reply. We have been the

recipients of dead silence all too often in our quest to inspire and educate

the media about this near 60-year thyroid treatment problem. Thank you.

But there are incorrect

observations and assumptions in your reply that need clarification and

intelligent re-thinking:

1.

This patient-to-patient

movement is far more than ‘frustrations

with our own unresolved symptoms’. This is about

hundreds of millions of us worldwide who have been subjected to a

brainwashed bias by medical professionals in the use of T4-only medications

and the TSH lab test (both

which have left us with lingering hypothyroid symptoms and denied as such by

our physicians).

2.

What you refer to as “a great deal of controversy

surrounding the diagnosis and treatment of low thyroid disorders†is,

in our experience and observation, only within the boundaries of a

dogmatically-trained medical profession comprised of those who seem to have

lost the art of paying attention to CLEAR symptoms of hypothyroidism with a

so-called “normal†TSH lab test or with the use of the laughable “gold

standard†of thyroid treatment–T4-only.

3.

This is far more than what is

“scientifically tested and

proven.†Do you REALLY believe that all scientific testing is

unbiased and correct?? Do you not understand that much science has been

done quite badly, and the results are often in conjunction to whoever or

whatever FUNDED the research? Instead, this is about real live and multiple patient

experience and outcome–patient experience where lives are changed

due to not going by the TSH but by symptoms; where labwork is used as the

cart pulled by the horse of symptoms; where desiccated thyroid has been

proven to be far more beneficial in the removal of our symptoms than

thyroxine ever was or will be…and more. (And here is science

that actually underscores our experience).

4.

You state that the article “drew on research and advice that is

evidence-based.†And what about the evidence of millions of thyroid

patients who have endured multiple and clear hypothyroid symptoms

for years before the TSH lab test rose high enough to reveal their obvious

hypothyroid state? What about all of us who have suffered for years in our

own kind and degree while on T4-only meds like Synthroid, levothyroxine, etc?

What about the irrefutable evidence

of those whose lives have turned completely around thanks to

desiccated thyroid and/or T3, especially after they treated the extreme side

effects of being undiagnosed or undertreated all these years thanks to a

clueless medical profession?

5.

You refer to “credentialed doctors working at

leading medical and academic centers†as your source of information:

would it shock you to hear that MANY credentialed doctors are the very ones

who have kept us completely sick for nearly sixty years?? Ask thyroid

patients about all those doctors they saw over the years who were “credentialedâ€, and your

eyes and ears will burn. And what about all the growing body of “credentialed doctors†who

now have the courage to state that the TSH lab test is lousy (except for

diagnosing hypopituitary), just as is T4-only treatment? They are many!

6.

And finally, if your “goal and the motivation behind all

of Good Housekeeping’s health coverage†is to find more

effective treatment for all, do a follow-up article in an upcoming issue

about the scandal of T4-only treatment, the poor use of the TSH lab test

(which is measuring a pituitary hormone, not cellular levels of thyroid

hormones), the experience of patients worldwide on T4, the experience of

patients who lives made a complete turn-around thanks to desiccated thyroid

or T3, the experience of patients with “credentialed doctors†who have been

nothing more than condescending, ignorant, biased and dogmatically

close-minded to our experience and wisdom in our own bodies!

Good Housekeeping do a

PATIENT EXPERIENCE article! Let your readers use their own wisdom about

the “mass experience of patients worldwide†vs the “dogmatic,

pharmaceutically-brainwashed “opinion†of a several misguided and

credentialed medical professionals.â€

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