Dr. Theodore Friedman is one of the most respected endocrinologists in the country, and at the same time, he breaks out of stereotypes by being especially open-minded and patient-oriented. Find out about the 2012 updated version of his book, The Everything Guide to Thyroid Disease, in my review of this new edition.

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If you're a thyroid patient, finding the right thyroid doctor, being an empowered thyroid patient, and maintaining good communications with your doctor can all be challenges.

I asked thyroid patients who are part of my Facebook Thyroid Support group to share the one thing they would change about their doctor. A few people happily answered that they love their doctors and wouldn't change a thing, But overwhelmingly, the responses were similar.

The one thing many patients would change is that they want their thyroid practitioner to:

• Be more proactive
• Be more open-minded, in terms of willingness to prescribe T3 or natural thyroid drugs
• Be more willing to listen
• Be closer in proximity -- some people drive hours or even fly to see their doctors
• Take a big picture view, instead of considering each symptom separately
• Be willing to read, research and learn about thyroid disease on an ongoing basis
• Be on-time, and not keep patients waiting for hours
• Address symptoms, and not just lab test results
• Be available -- it's impossible to get appointments with some practitioners
• Return phone messages more promptly
• Look at the patient as a person, and not a number on the scale or lab result
• Take more than 5 minutes during appointments
• Have greater understanding of nutrition
• Show greater compassion and empathy
• Not excuse symptoms, as in "Everyone has dry skin, it's winter time." "Of course you're tired, you don't get enough sleep."

And what was the most common complaint -- the one that underlies much of the concerns? Patients wish their thyroid practitioners would LISTEN.

What one thing would you like to change about your thyroid practitioner? Feel free to share in the comments section below.

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If you have a thyroid condition, you'll want to do everything you can to take good care of yourself, and do whatever possible to stay healthy, and on top of your condition. It's no surprise that we often hear about all the things that we should do. But I thought it might be helpful to take a look at the ten things a thyroid patient should never do.

Have any thoughts about other things thyroid patients shouldn't do? Feel free to comment on the blog!

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A new study has found that more than 32 million people -- or nearly 14% of the US population -- have autoantibodies in their bloodstream. Autoantibodies are proteins produced in the immune system that can attack the body's own tissues, glands, organs and cells. Autoantibodies are at the root of autoimmune diseases, attacking the body's own orogans, such as the joints (rheumatoid arthritis), the skin (psoriasis), the pancreas (type 1 diabetes), and the thyroid (Hashimoto's disease, Graves' disease), among many others.

What the researchers found, in assessing samples from almost 5,000 people from the 1994-2004 U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) was that antinuclear antibodies (ANA), the most common autoantibody, showed up in almost 14% of the people studied.

The prevalence of ANA was slightly higher in African-Americans, compared to Caucasians. ANA levels increased with age, and were higher in women than in men. The peak prevalence for women was between 40 and 49 years of age.

"The peak of autoimmunity in females compared to males during the 40-49 age bracket is suggestive of the effects that the hormones estrogen and progesterone might be playing on the immune system," Linda Birnbaum, director of U.S. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and an author on the paper.

Want More Information on Autoimmune Disease?

Take this Quiz: Could You Have an Autoimmune Disease?

_{Source: NIH study shows 32 million Americans have autoantibodies that target their own tissues}

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