Member Comments are provided by individuals and reflect their personal opinions only. Under NO circumstances should you act on any advice or opinion posted in this forum. ALWAYS check with your personal physician before taking any action regarding your health! MedHelp International and our partners, sponsors and affiliates have no obligation to monitor any comments posted on this site, or the content and/or accuracy of such exchanges. MedHelp International does not endorse the views of any user.
Thyroid (Expert Forum)
looking for good endo in St Louis, MO?
Answered by
Mark Lupo, M.D. - Thyroid Nodules, Thyroid Cancer, hyperthyroidism, hypothyroidism, Thyroid Ultrasound
Thyroid & Endocrine Center of Florida
Sarasota - FL
Questions in the Thyroid forum are answered by Dr. Mark Lupo. Topics covered include goiter, graves disease, Hashimoto's thyroiditis, hyperthyroid, hypothyroid, thyroid cancers, thyroiditis, and thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH).
 |
looking for good endo in St Louis, MO?
by vickidugg, Jan 22, 2006 12:00AM
Can you recommend a few good endocrnologists anybody?
Doctor's Answer
My suggestion is; Take the example of Ancientmariner, whom I respect because though she is just as loyal an Armour advocate as you are, she has been respectful, in the spirit of healthy debate. GUESS WHAT!! Many of us out here actually do believe Amour is a superior treatment for many people (very possibly MOST people) but here's the problem we currently have:
There absolutely MUST BE documentation that proves a medical issue (we are afterall talking about people's lives), that is more recognizable than "my group has found", "thousands of us out here", "it is my opinion", "it has been my experience" etc.... These are all important (especially to you) but they WILL NOT get the attention that actually counts.
What really is needed for "absolutes"??? Answer; You have to conduct actual "research studies", with CONCLUSIONS, that can be medically recognized. It cannot be a research study done by a forum group, within themselves. It would have to be a study with significant numbers of people (not members of a forum group who will obviously be viewed as "biased"). If you have time and effort to hop around to different forums, advocating the same thing continually, then put some of that effort and energy/time into such a study, that will be recognized! When you do that, I guarantee you will have much greater respect and attention for your agenda.
AGAIN, saying "my group of thousands has found", won't cut it. If you already have studies with conclusions, conducted by unbiased researchers, with unbiased patients, could you please give those to us, rather than the insults and cut-down remarks?
coming behind folks to post?...uh, maybe i've been busy and just haven't visited here for a while. ya think? and why are you posting to me in this thread anyway? i didn't post anything here. geez. give me a break.
puke on duke is what us tarheels say. the reference is to Dr. Mark saying "go Duke" to the tarheel poster.
Not quite sure what you mean about needing studies and all about armour. Hello? Armour has been around for over 100 years. There were lots of studies and case histories...just not much since the TSH and synthetics. Spend a few weeks reading here: www.thyroidhistory.net which is a compilation of historical data, etc. quite interesting. And read all the great thyroid docs - Derry, Barnes, Peatfield...the ones who were in practice forever and got their hypo patients well - and not with a TSH test.
See - you're saying we need to REPROVE Armour is superior. that's silly. It's already been proven. It worked fine. Folks didn't have the problems they do today synthetics. End of story. What are you missing about that?
now - sorry to come off a bit sarcastic. Don't really mean anything that personal. You seem like a nice guy. And I'm a Christian gal too. But you're just a little to eager to kiss up to the medical profession. And I'm just not gonna do that anymore. I said "yes sir" and Yes madam" to the medical profession for most of my life. See- that's because I saw them all the time with my "normal" TSH. In and out of GPs and specialists offices all the time. So I know that kind of attitude can kill you and keep you sick. Also cost you lots of dollars. And I just hate to see it happening to other folks...and when they ask for help, i tell them what will help. Sorry that offends you. well actually, I'm not. I'm more concerned with helping those folks with miserable hypo symptoms because they're on a T4 synthetic med. Shame on me, huh?
Here again, you go from the actual point, into your predisposed position, that just automatically pops out, no matter what some else is saying.
Did I say Armour wasn't proven? Did I say it needs "reproved" (you're right, that is silly). Did I bring up anything about "TSH"?
What medical professionals am I "kissing up to"? Are you talking about Dr. Mark, the only medical person you are aware of, that I have supported (shame on him for helping patients)?
How about this question; Who makes this forum you come on to, to put forth your opinions, possible??????????
What do you find so wrong with Dr. Mark, who VOLUNTEERS his time on here?
I know you'll still shoot past this but let me give it one more try.>> The point is not to prove Armour works well, this IS NOT the problem. The problem is in saying it is superior in every case, for each patient and that Synthroid/synthetics ALWAYS "keep people sick", causes "osteoporosis and high cholesterol" etc... You mention Dr.s who have written about this, I've read ALL OF THEM (you listed) but this is not the "medically recognizable" conclusions that will get attention/cause change! In fact without the documentation I listed in previous post, the rest of the medical community sees these other Dr.s as "quazi-psuedo".
By my stating it needs medically documented, is not a kiss-up to medical community, it is because "PATIENTS" can't benefit, if it doesn't first go through medical channels (if it's a condition that must have medical treatment). It is disheartening to patients when you cause them to lose confidence in treatments they are already on!!
I say KEEP pushing to get info out you believe in but to extend that into huge accusations against the other treatments will backfire on you and the 'taking shots' at people in a sneaky way and other times directly insulting them, cheapens your campaign. Why are you not seeing this??
I'll end in your style; "geeze, ya think so?, huh"
I had not even posted in this thread...and you start up on me for no reason that I am aware of.
I have answered your accusations about me. There's not much more I can do.
You obviously don't like the message you're hearing from several posters here...and for some reason decided to take it out on me.
Yes, I suppose I do come off as sarcastic. Maybe it's my age. I'm 50 years old and I wasted far too much of my life (and money) listening to doctors tell me your thyroid is "normal". So I don't pussyfoot around. I say it like i see it. I'm blunt. Direct. To the point. As in "armour works" or "drop the T4 med, get on Armour". Either people "get it" or they don't. It's fine with me either way. It's their health. At least I won't feel guilty for not having spoke.
And speaking of studies, have you seen that study where when they first made synthetics, they compared synthetics versus desiccated thyroid extract to see if synthetics were better before they started giving it to everyone?
Also, ever wonder why if desiccated thyroid extract was working...why they would even make a synethic? you ever think about these things?
Also, I didn't know about the study you mention but would go a long way with me, if it was conducted as one is supposed be. Would you have a link for that one? I'm not being argumentative by asking that, I really would love to read one with significant conclusions and am asking in sincerity.
Please don't be hurt by my former statements, I didn't mean to be attacking, I hope you believe that.
I too am of Christian Faith and am sorry I came across harshly, forgive me for any offenses I brought to you. I never like disagreements that turn into hurts, it puts a terrible feeling inside me.
What I say to you, I want to say to everyone on here; I commit to never become argumentative to that point again, I'll drop off the forum again before I'll do that. I hope everyone can express disagreements in a more polite way because as I said before "healthy debate" actually helps bring perspective.
To give you an idea of where I actually stand, in a statement; I would suggest natural to synthetic to a patient 100% of the time.
Now - about that study I asked you about. Hashi, there wasn't one. That's the point of the question. Armour thyroid had been used for over 100 years successfully. And when they formulated a synthetic thyroid hormone, there were absolutely NO studies done to see if the synthetic worked as well as the desiccated thyroid extract. Does that make sense to you? I mean they were exchanging a product with T4, T3, T1, T2 and calcitonin for a T4 only medication.
The way I see it, it was not that Armour wasn't working. It was working quite well. But the pharmaceutical companies needed something new with a patent because that would be high $$$ for them. And that's how we got Synthroid...a more expensive patented synthetic chemical hormone.
It was supposed to be wonderful and scientific and they came up with the TSH test that was supposed to work wonderful too. Which by the way no one did any studies comparing whether treating hypo by symptoms worked as well (a happy and well patient that is) as treating them by the TSH number.
So I guess I get a little agitated when someone starts talking about studies and such. There is no science that shows synthetics are better FOR THE PATIENT than desiccated thyroid extract...in fact the historical and current anectodal evidence is in favor of Armour.
there are lots of stories of folks who were doing just fine on Armour and when synthetics came out, their docs told them how wonderful this new drug was and switched them...and then the patients later begged to be put back on Armour.
Honest to goodness, Hashi...it's the best choice for hypothyroidism. Now you would say that it doesn't work for everyone. Sorry, I just haven't met that person yet. But I've met dozens of folks for who T4 meds don't do the job.
anyway, I'm running on and on here. but let's be friends. God's children shouldn't be against each other i don't think. I'll try to watch my words in the future.
Again thanks for the input.
You'll love him. I feel better in 3 weeks on Armour than I ever did on Synthroid. Good Luck.
Hope this helps!!