Clinical guidelines are supposed to promote patient health and encourage evidence-based medicine and physician discernment, but thyroid guidelines aim to restrict testing, restrict medication, and prevent any change in therapy practices. Indeed, the enforcement of restrictions appears to be the main purpose of local and international thyroid therapy guidelines today. These thyroid therapy guidelines, and …

Continue reading How thyroid guidelines are being used to punish doctors

In recent years, Canadian and other international thyroid guidelines have enacted local policies that restrict thyroid therapy and testing, often citing the American Thyroid Association (ATA) & American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists' (AACE) guidelines in 2012. What most "guideline policers" fail to notice is that the 2012 ATA-AACE's guidelines begin with a disclaimer against their …

Continue reading 2012 ATA thyroid guidelines ask for clinicians’ independent judgment

There's a deep lie behind today's TSH-based definition of "euthyroid" status and today's policies of TSH normalization in therapy. The lie is that the loss of the thyroid and the initiation of thyroid hormone dosing has NOT altered and skewed natural TSH-FT3-FT4 hormone relationships. Yes, thyroid disease and therapy DO alter and skew these functional …

Continue reading The TSH-T3 disjoint in thyroid therapy

Sigh. Just sigh. Even some of our best thyroid patient advocates can unknowingly share misinformation about thyroid therapy. Mary Shomon's thyroid articles on Verywell.com are usually to be trusted. But yesterday I was saddened to see that an article supposedly authored by Mary Shomon was spreading unscientific myths about "normal" thyroid secretion ratios being 13:1 …

Continue reading Stop spreading the unscientific myth about the normal T4:T3 ratio!

Today is Canadian Thanksgiving Day. Today all thyroid patients in Canada and all over the world can reflect with gratitude toward all our good thyroid doctors past and present. To guide reflection and thanks, I'd like to outline 10 of the important things good thyroid doctors know and do. We all know there is no …

Continue reading Thank you, good thyroid doctors!

This week, a thyroid patient from British Columbia posted an image of a piece of paper handed to her at a LifeLabs laboratory. LifeLabs BC was using this paper leaflet to explain to her why "Free T3 and Free T4 will not be tested when the TSH is in reference range." THE LEAFLET GIVEN TO …

Continue reading LifeLabs BC handout reveals thyroid testing policy failure