Hypothyroidism Type 2: The Epidemic

Dr. Starr returns to the essence of medicine: Listening to what the patient has to say and looking at the patient and finding evidence to make the diagnosis. He pays great homage to the early pioneers in thyroidology, referencing their publications and insights, and provides photographs clearly showing the physical consequences when thyroid hormones, despite "normal" laboratory tests, are not working. At last, someone has stepped up to the plate and decried the medical profession's reliance, no, blind faith, in third-party medicine (blood, spit, urine lab tests). Skepticism helped medicine leap forward centuries ago. Dr. Staar's excellent book brings it on. After reading this book, you will know, you, or someone dear to you, will have some expression of hypothyroidism type 2 (thyroid hormone resistance syndrome). His book will empower you to seek, no, insist, on getting the proper treatment. Dr. Staar's assessment that this is an epidemic is true. This is a must-read for all healthcare professionals.

I have traveled from Florida to see Dr. Starr and will continue to do so because he is right on target with my diagnosis and treatment. His book shows how this problem is an epidemic and is being totally ignored. When blood tests actually do show a problem it is being ineffectively treated, which I can attest to. Now that I understand the issues I can better deal with my health problems that grow less and less each day. I've sent my mother and my sister to see Dr. Starr. His claim that this disease runs in families is true in my case as well. I'm the fourth generation with thyroid problems. I finally feel as if I have found a health practitioner that truly understands my problems.

If anyone has any doubt that hypothyroidism is not an epidemic, or you want to convince your doctor to listen to you, please run out and buy this book. It will make you understand the issues and the interactions with heart disease, diabetes, obesity and many others.

I have a family history of thyroid disease including both Hashimoto and Graves Disease. I took radioactive iodine for Graves disease 19 years ago, and have been on synthetic thyroid for many years. (Now supplemented with T3 dessicated thyroid hormone).

When my kids started experiencing severe medical problems we went to psychiatrists, endocrinologists and even a homeopath in search of answers. Their illnesses were described as non-specific depression, immune disorder, adrenal fatigue, etc.

I finally found a terrific internist who understood natural hormone balancing and who also shared Dr. Starr's belief that thyroid disorder has reached epidemic proportions, particularly among women. She immedietely started treating my daughter with thyroid hormone, but ignored thyroid disorder as a possible cause of my son's problems. It was this doctor who actually suggested that I read this book, and she gave a copy of this book to my son's psychiatrist as well. The psychiatrist had diagnosed my son with adrenal fatigue and was treating him with hydrocordisone and lexapro. He seemed to be improving, but he still was not ready to return to college this fall due to severe insomnia, inability to wake up, inability to deal with stress (adrenal fatigue) and fuzzy thinking.

Our last appointment was two days ago and the doctor had not only read the book, but had contacted Dr. Hertoghe in order to make sure that he knew exactly how to test patients. In a very short time was able to integrate all of Dr. Starr's ideas into his understanding of how our bodies work, and more importantly for us, saw my son's problems in a totally new way which I believe will be a breakthough in his long illness. Armed with this new knowledge, he was able to explain to us that my son's low basal temperature (it was 95.6 underarm mid afternoon and 3 degrees higher orally) was way too low for him to wake up in the morning. It had also been overlooked on earlier labs that his T3 was below range because his T4 was within range.

Clearly, we were very lucky to find an extraordinary doctor who isn't afraid to embrace new ideas. If everyone who reads this book gives this book to just one doctor, maybe we can make mainstream medicine take notice!

As anyone knows who has used endocrinologists, it is totally frustrating to be treated by a doctor who treats lab tests, rather than symptoms. Mark Starr is a doctor who treats symptoms, and who is willing to use thyroid-suppressive therapies to get rid of all symptoms, so this puts him ahead of the pack. His description of thyroid resistance and its genetic under-pinnings is really helpful.

However, I rate this book only 3 stars. I do this because Starr's account is incomplete. He completely fails to acknowledge the existence of rT3 (reverse T3, or DT3, the mirror image of LT3, which is the desirable left-hand form) and the use of the FT3/rT3 ratio as a diagnostic measure. As a survivor of celiac disease who understands how the deranged biochemistry of Celiac-Sprue can force the body into making excess rT3, I know why it is important for some patients to have combination T3+T4 therapy, or even T3-only therapy, which Starr does not do. I have closely followed the thought of John C. Lowe DC on the benefits of T3 therapy, as well as the thought of alternative practitioners like Kent Holtorf MD, who frequently uses time-release T3 on his patients. Starr appears to be unaware of the trends in treatment initiated by practitioners such as Lowe and Holtorf.

I have seen well over a dozen books on thyroid. Too many contain mostly regurgitated conventional beliefs, a few were written mainly to sell the author's own nutrition products. Most insist thyroid medical tests are reliable. (How do they know this, anyway?)

This one is different. The author is a hypothyroid specialist and provides much evidence that over 50% of the US (and no doubt UK) population has low thyroid problems - whether your own doctor's much-touted tests show it or not.

This is the book that really helped me understand my low thyroid problems and I have also learned how to see the signs in others (from pix and explanations in the book of things like the arm pinch test and swollen necks). The only negative for me is that it did not really agree with the warning in one other excellent thyroid book about adrenal exhaustion preventing recovery (that other book is "Your Thyroid and How to Keep It Healthy: The Great Thyroid Scandal and How to Survive It" by Barry Durrant-Peatfield and there is only one page in it about having to build up the adrenals first - easy to overlook, as I almost did). Be warned: if you have had low thyroid for several years (in my case over a decade before I finally self-diagnosed and thus was able to take the first steps towards recovery) then you will almost certainly have adrenal exhaustion.

The thyroid tablets did not work for me (and I ended up taking three times the normal "dose" for several months before this became clear) until I stopped them and took adrenal support tablets for several weeks before restarting thyroid on a smaller dose. I also continued the adrenal support tablets for several months. Finally, I am seeing clear improvements. There is even a spring in my step! I never really expected to experience that again...

The adrenal exhaustion involvement is a major problem because, even if you are able to get thyroid tablets, they may not work and you would then assume you don't have a low thyroid problem, that it must be something else. This happened to me at the start of my long illness and was one of the major reasons I did not try thyroid tablets again for over a decade - even though I very gradually gained over 100 pounds while eating very carefully indeed - it must be easier to realize a low thyroid involvement if you gain three stone in three months, as a friend of mine did. (Another one was that I have very thick head hair and every list of symptoms includes thinning hair - so please don't let this sort of thing put you off too.)

Also, if you are diabetic or TATT (tired all the time, even CFS) or overweight (and can't lose it by dieting) or have high blood pressure or high cholesterol, etc, etc, then you MUST read this book. If you have chronic health problems (and who doesn't, these days!) the information in this book may save your life in the long run and relieve pain in the shorter term.

P.S. The MUST-READ book on low thyroid now is "Stop the Thyroid Madness", passionate and comprehensive. I also recommend the book "Iodine: Why You Need It, Why You Can't Live Without It".

P.P.S. Now also recommending "Why Do I Still Have Thyroid Symptoms?" which explains that if taking natural thyroid still leaves you with a number of symptoms, it is an autoimmune disease, not a primary thyroid problem.