What is Normal??

[Guest guest]

I loved reading this. The quote below is from an

article written by Dr. Teitelbaum on Hormonal

Issues in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia

ImmuneSupport.com.

http://www.immunesupport.com/library/bulletinarticle.cfm?ID=7002

<snip>

“Pretend your lab test uses 2 standard deviations to

diagnose a “shoe problem”. If you accidentally put on

someone else’s shoes and had on a size 12 when you

wore a size 5, the normal range derived from 2

standard deviations (~95% of people have a shoe size

between say 5 and 13) would indicate you had

absolutely no problem. You would insist the shoes did

not fit although your shoe size would be in the normal

range. Similarly, if you lost your shoes, the doctor

would pick any shoes out of the “normal range pile”

and expect them to fit you.”

To make matters more difficult, if the thyroid is

under active because the hypothalamus is suppressed,

the TSH test, which most doctors rely on for thyroid

function, is almost useless and may appear to be

normal, or even suggest an overactive thyroid in a

hypothyroid patient. <snip>

Ruth

__________________________________________________