Newspaper Doc Peter Gott: Another Doc Without a Clue About Thyroid Disease

Dr. Peter Gott has a United Media syndicated Q&A medical/health column that appeared March 12, 2004 in newspapers around the country. Unfortunately, in the column, Gott has tackled an issue for which he is utterly unprepared: thyroid disease. Gott includes at least three glaring errors in his discussion of thyroid drugs, and patients need to be aware of the misinformation this doctor is disseminating. In the column, appearing in various papers -- see the column here -- a reader takes issue with Dr. Gott's position that patients should only take levothyroxine, and not Armour Thyroid, and asks him to revisit his recommendation. Gott begins the error-filled response with "Sorry, but I won't."

The first error in Dr. Gott's response is his assertion that "Armour thyroid is extracted from the thyroid glands of cattle." Dr. Gott is obviously not familiar with the drug Armour Thyroid, which is a prescription thyroid medication that has been on the market for more than a hundred years. The formulation for decades has been PORCINE (pig) thyroid, and NOT bovine (cattle). If Dr. Gott requires verification, he can read the prescribing information (drug insert) that is reproduced at the Armour Thyroid website.

The second error is Dr. Gott's statement that "Several years ago, researchers discovered that there was considerable variation in potency from batch to batch -- in short, a manufacturing quality issue." I have been a thyroid patient adovocate for the past decade. I have researched the issue extensively, and I have not yet found any research that reported "considerable variation in potency from batch to batch -- in short, a manufacturing quality issue." Dr. Gott is simply repeating a popular marketing pitch that is frequently given by drug reps for the manufacturers of levothyroxine (l-thyroxine), including the brand he chose to mention by name.

The third error is in his statement that "This was not found to be the case with synthetic thyroid supplements." Dr. Gott is wrong. Actually, the opposite is true, because in 1997, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a warning, via the Federal Register, that "no currently marketed orally administered levothyroxine sodium product has been shown to demonstrate consistent potency and stability and, thus, no currently marketed orally administered levothyroxine sodium product is generally recognized as safe and effective." (Federal Register, August 14, 1997) At that time, 35 years after their introduction, the FDA also issued notice that orally administered drug products containing levothyroxine sodium were officially classified as "new drugs" and needed to go through the NDA process because of the stability and potency problems that had come to light.

So, along with the reader who wrote to Dr. Gott, I take issue with Dr. Gott's position. As a thyroid patient advocate, and author of a number of books on thyroid disease and autoimmune thyroid problems, I have interviewed hundreds of thyroid experts, and most of them agree that the best thyroid drug is the drug that works safely and effectively for each patient. Even those responsible physicians who prefer levothyroxine, or who do not choose to use Armour Thyroid, back up their decisions with actual data and information, and not misinformation.

In spreading this misinformation, Dr. Gott has damaged his credibility with the millions of thyroid patients who know that Armour is porcine and not bovine, and who know about the very public concerns over levothyroxine's stability and potency. To compound the problem, in erroneously labeling Armour thyroid as a product of cattle, he also indirectly and needlessly raises readers' potential concerns regarding Mad Cow disease.

Dr. Gott has done a tremendous disservice to the estimated 27 million thyroid patients in America. And if Dr. Gott knows so little about thyroid disease, and fails to do even basic research on topics he writes about, what does that say for the quality of his other columns and information?

MARY'S UPDATE: March 18, 2004

I wrote to Dr. Gott at his office, and through his editors at United Media. Late today, I received an email, indicating that Dr. Gott will, in a future column, respond to my concerns, and I saw a draft of that column. But the proposed response from Dr. Gott that I saw was vague, and did not make it absolutely clear that:

1. Armour Thyroid is porcine (from pigs) and NOT bovine (from cattle.)
2. L-thyroxine, and not natural thyroid, has been the subject of FDA regulatory action based on concerns over potency and stability.

We'll see if Dr. Gott truly owns up to his errors and clarifies things for readers, or tries to save face and downplay the fact that he had multiple mistakes in his column.

Take Action

Readers, if you want to write to United Media and Dr. Gott to let them know that you don't appreciate their spreading incorrect information about thyroid drugs, you can write to:

Dr. Peter Gott
c/o United Media
200 Madison Ave., 4th fl.
New York, NY 10016

Fax United Media 212-293-8760

Call United Media at 212.293.8500

Email Dr. Gott at: drpetergottmd@hotmail.com

(But if you email, make sure you also send a hard copy by mail or fax to United Media, as I'm not sure if Dr. Gott will read or respond to these emails).

And if your local paper carries Peter Gott's column, send a copy of your letter or email to them as well, to let them know that they should think about finding a new health columnist who doesn't cavalierly put out misinformation about a condition that affects so many people.