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: TSH
Six Commonly Missed Diagnoses: Subtly Underactive Thyroid
Posted 05/28/2012 I went to medical school in London for awhile and quite honestly didn’t learn much. But it was the 1960s and if you were going to be anywhere on the planet, central London was the place to be. The fact that the hospital to which I was assigned had a pub in its […]
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.)
Iodine and You
You don’t see many people with goiters anymore. I remember seeing them as a kid, pointing out some poor person’s huge neck to my mother while asking, “Hey, what’s growing on that woman’s neck?” before getting an educational jab in the ribs. To see a mild goiter click here.
Low Thyroid and Taking Your Body Temperature
If your basal temperature (armpit temperature, taken when you awaken in the morning) is below 97.6, you might benefit from a small dose of natural thyroid replacement, usually in the range of one half grain to 1 grain daily, available by prescription, to improve your energy.