Re: Case of Dr. Derry and old-fashioned diagnosing via symptoms not TSH...

[Guest guest]

I can't get this link to work even cutting and pasting

Case of Dr. Derry and old-fashioned

diagnosing via symptoms not TSH...

Anybody read this story? I think Dr. Derry is a GREAT doctor. Boy

do I hate the modern endo-Nazis!

http://216.239.37.104/search?q=cache:3ZwAvYT7V9oJ:www.bites-

medical.org/dderry/media/sun020327.html+I+don%

27t+believe+in+thyroid+medication+ & hl=en & lr=lang_en & ie=UTF-8

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[Guest guest]

> I can't get this link to work even cutting and pasting

>

I'm sorry, here's the article:

BITES

Breast Iodine Thyroid Effectiveness Society Articles

Summary of " In defence of an old-school doctor: Patients say a ban

preventing Dr. Derry from prescribing thyroid medication

jeopardizes their health "

History of the situation

Before July 2001, the College had [routinely] reviewed Dr. Derry's

practice twice, and they had found no negligence or malpractice.

[in July 2001] Dr. , a Vancouver endocrinologist,

complained to the College about the dose Dr. Derry prescribed after

his patient, Georgia Parry, left him to go to Dr. Derry. Georgia

Parry has also complained to the College about Dr. .

The College appointed two doctors to investigate Dr. Derry. The two

doctors did not interview any patients, but only looked in patient

files to get their information. Their report about Dr. Derry's

treatment contained the description " unconventional, medically

inappropriate and dangerous. "

About 50 patients [and other supporters] came from as far away as

Toronto for the hearing with Dr. Derry and [his lawyer ] Doyle.

The patients were ready to testify about their treatment, but a

security guard prevented them from entering. (However, the final

hearing, in which it will be decided whether or not Dr. Derry can

keep his medical licence, will be open to the public, deputy

registrar Van Andel said in a later interview.)

Two days later, the College temporarily banned Dr. Derry from

prescribing thyroid medication.

Patients were extremely upset. The College said that other physicians

can still fill the prescriptions, but up to seven doctors or walk-in

clinics have refused to prescribe the high doses that [some of] Dr.

Derry's patients are on. Reasons for this refusal were to avoid

getting in the middle of the dispute, or because the doctors couldn't

take any more patients.

Gram quotes Barry Hile's wife e: " We are trembling [with

anxiety]*….We were finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel

and the light is being taken away. This is impossible. We will do

anything possible for Dr. Derry. He is revered as a very warm,

concerned doctor. There are not many like him. "

The ruling was appealed to the British Columbia Supreme Court [in

December 2001], but the judge deferred to the College. The claim for

Dr. Derry's appeal to the British Columbia Court of Appeal lists " 11

points of procedural unfairness, including a charge that opinions

were made without ever assessing the health of the patients, or

interviewing them. "

The appropriateness of the treatment

In response to the question about why patients were never

interviewed, Van Andel said: " Why should they be? Testimonials

do not make guidelines. No matter what the treatment, there are

always patients who feel better. It is a very inaccurate method of

measuring well-being. "

He also says that " it is not appropriate to use an unproven treatment

on unsuspecting patients…. "

Doyle quotes the Helsinki Accord: " The physician, with informed

consent from the patient, must be free to use unproven or new

prophylactic, diagnostic, and therapeutic measures, if in the

physician's judgement if offers hope of saving life, re-establishing

health or alleviating suffering. " Canada is a signatory to this

international agreement on health care.

Dr. Derry says that he monitors his patients carefully, and that he

would have reduced the dose if the patients had had overdose symptoms.

The Ontario situation

In 2001, a number of Ontario physicians who felt that their College

had unfairly targeted them commissioned a report by Code, a

former deputy attorney-general and law professor. Code wrote

in his report that " he found extensive irregularities in the way the

college had targeted 10 physicians….[and he] found a strong bias

against doctors working in innovative ways and an abuse of the

Ontario college's powers in the way it treated physicians. "

Dr. Derry says that he is being targeted in a similar way.

The last words

Dr. Derry to Gram: " I'm not giving up. "

* These brackets were in the original article.

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updates, and to join BITES, see the Join page.

Copyright © 2002 Breast Iodine Thyroid Effectiveness Society (BITES)

unless otherwise specified. All rights reserved.

Legal Disclaimer and Notices

Supporting Freedom of Choice for Patients and Doctors

[Guest guest]

Oops sorry I copied page TWO of the article before page ONE - here is

page ONE

BITES

Breast Iodine Thyroid Effectiveness Society Articles

Summary of " In defence of an old-school doctor: Patients say a ban

preventing Dr. Derry from prescribing thyroid medication

jeopardizes their health "

An article with the above title by Gram appeared in The

Vancouver Sun on March 27, 2002. The Sun did not give BITES

permission to reproduce the article at this site, so instead, here is

a summary of the article. The original article appears to have had

some informational details edited out for space reasons; minor

details have been added in square brackets to this summary only to

fill out the context. The section about hypothyroidism was not

included because an explanation is already at this site on the

Hypothyroidism page.

~~~~~

The latest action: complaints to British Columbia's ombudsman

Patients of Dr. Derry have recently sent in numerous complaints

about the College of Physicians & Surgeons of British Columbia to

British Columbia's ombudsman, Kushner. The College Executive

Committee has temporarily banned Dr. Derry from prescribing thyroid

hormone [see the History page for more details], and the patients'

complaints against each of the doctors on the Executive Committee

stated that " the committee's action seriously jeopardized their

health. "

Background

Dr. Derry diagnoses and treats patients with hypothyroidism the way

he was taught 40 years ago in medical school, which is different from

what the medical establishment currently accepts. He diagnoses

hypothyroidism far more often, and the dosage he prescribes is

sometimes three to four times the [current] standard doses of thyroid

hormone medication. Instead of synthetic medication, he prefers to

mostly use natural, desiccated thyroid, which is more complete, he

says. His supporters describe him as warm, caring, and " the victim of

a closed-minded and heavy-handed regulatory body determined to

protect the interests of conservative specialists. "

According to the College, Dr. Derry's treatment puts patients at risk

because modern lab tests often indicate that the patients don't need

these doses. The College is investigating his treatment. They and

local endocrinologists say that the College " is acting in the

public's interest, even if the public doesn't realize it. "

Dr. Derry believes that thyroid dysfunction is the cause of numerous

health problems, including arthritis, breast cancer, chronic fatigue

syndrome, depression, fibromyalgia, and multiple sclerosis and some

other autoimmune diseases. Gram writes: " He says he has made

thousands of people feel healthy for the first time in years. "

The patients

Phyllis son of Vanderhoof [british Columbia] had been on

synthetic thyroid medication since having iodine radiation therapy to

treat her overactive thyroid 20 years ago. However, she needed pain

medication to get through the day or to sleep because of her muscle

and bone pain, and cysts in her breasts were a constant problem.

At her first visit to Dr. Derry last January, he switched her

medication to desiccated thyroid and increased her dose considerably.

She now sleeps well, and her fatigue, pain, and breast lumps are gone.

She told Gram: " I feel 10 times better. I live on a farm and

now I am doing outside work and I don't take pain killers. "

At the end of January this year, she drove [about 880 kilometres]

from Vanderhoof to Vancouver to protest the College's treatment of

Dr. Derry in front of the College office on January 31 [and February

1].

~~~~~

Barry Hile of had had a lifelong weight problem. A few years

ago, he weighed more than 350 pounds. He also had [the hypothyroid

symptoms of] fatigue—needing 14 to 16 hours of sleep a day—severe leg

cramps, and the inability the concentrate or remember things.

A number of specialists over the years had diagnosed him with various

ailments and prescribed treatments that didn't make any difference,

he said.

Three years ago, Barry first went to see Dr. Derry, who diagnosed

hypothyroidism and prescribed a low dose of desiccated thyroid,

gradually increasing it until Barry felt consistently better. He has

lost 100 pounds, he has a clear mind, he doesn't have leg cramps any

more, and he feels refreshed in the morning after seven hours of

sleep. The daily dose required to relieve his symptoms is 850

milligrams, which is considerably higher than a standard dose.

The controversy

Because Barry's thyroid levels were in the normal range, the College

says that Dr. Derry should not have given Barry thyroid medication.

Dr. Derry says that if he hadn't, Barry would probably be dead by now

from a heart attack caused by his extra weight.

Before the 1970s, the doses that Dr. Derry prescribes were standard.

Although medicine has advanced in the past 40 years, he says, there

have been no studies indicating that the previously standard

treatments are dangerous. In addition, he says that because doctors

today are taught to rely on the TSH test, which does not properly

diagnose many people who have thyroiditis [or hypothyroidism], most

doctors don't recognize the symptoms of this condition.

According to Toronto endocrinologist Dr. Volpe, " The TSH is a

very sensitive indicator of hyperthyroid, even within the normal

range. " He continues, " You have to have significant abnormalities on

the TSH test before you can attribute it to problems with the

thyroid. " Dr. Volpe says that Dr. Derry's patients feel better

because of the placebo effect.

" This attitude infuriates the patients, " writes Gram.

Mainstream endocrinologists also believe in the TSH test, and believe

that high doses of thyroid medication could be dangerous for the

heart.

While Dr. Derry agrees that the TSH test is sensitive, he doesn't

agree with what is normal according to this test. He says that many

people who have low thyroid symptoms such as depression, dry skin,

fibromyalgia, hair loss, and heavy menstrual periods have normal TSH

levels.

When physicians took a detailed history of the patient and listened,

Dr. Derry says, they used to recognize the many classic symptoms that

are related to the thyroid. Based on this diagnosis, they would

prescribe a small dose of thyroid medication and raise it gradually

until the patient improved. Today, however, if the TSH test results

are in range, doctors tend not to believe that the thyroid could be

the cause of the symptoms.

Dr. Don of Indiana uses the same approach as Dr. Derry, and

he also believes that it is not good to rely on the TSH test.

Traditionally, he says, doctors' diagnoses are based 85 percent on

patient history, 10 percent on examination, and five percent on the

results of lab tests. Today, however, the common practice is for

doctors to depend completely on lab test results for thyroid problem

diagnosis. " In my opinion, " he told Gram, " that is malpractice. "

continued on the next page › › ›

To receive email notifications whenever this site has additions or

updates, and to join BITES, see the Join page.

Copyright © 2002 Breast Iodine Thyroid Effectiveness Society (BITES)

unless otherwise specified. All rights reserved.

Legal Disclaimer and Notices

Supporting Freedom of Choice for Patients and Doctors

[Guest guest]

Jamy,

You have to put the whole link in to get it to work and remove the

space before the " http " thingy. I had to do that in two parts because the

line had been truncated by the email program and made into three separate

lines, but only one of them had the highlight of a " link " .

Dianne

At 06:53 AM 1/31/04 -0800, you wrote:

>I can't get this link to work even cutting and pasting

> Case of Dr. Derry and old-fashioned

> diagnosing via symptoms not TSH...

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

thanks

Case of Dr. Derry and old-fashioned

> diagnosing via symptoms not TSH...

>

>

>