Researcher Dr. John Lowe, editor of the journal Thyroid Science, has made it his mission to get to the truth of issues surrounding thyroid diagnosis and treatment -- without the influence of drug companies and potentially biased professional societies. Dr. Lowe's latest analysis focuses on the science behind natural desiccated thyroid (NDT) drugs, and the criticisms of natural thyroid made by a controversial and frequently volatile California endocrinologist, Richard B. Guttler, who for decades has been an extremely vocal and vehement opponent of natural thyroid drugs, synthetic T3 medications, and patient rights to choices in thyroid hormone replacement medication. Five years ago, Dr. Lowe wrote an in-depth analysis, titled "Fighting the Dogma of Dr. Guttler," which thoroughly debunked Dr. Guttler's unscientific thyroid dogma, vis a vis evidence-driven medicine.
Now, as patients face shortages of NDT, Dr. Lowe has gone into greater depth to investigate the unscientific attacks on desiccated thyroid. According to Dr. Lowe: In this paper, I provide more evidence that [Dr. Guttler's] allegation against NDT is false. I believe it is crucial to the health and well-being of many hypothyroid patients that Guttler open-mindedly acknowledge the falsity of his claim that NDT does not provide benefits. Some clinicians may accept without question his false claim and deny patients NDT as a potentially effective alternative when they fail to benefit from T4 replacement."
Read Dr. Lowe's analysis, titled: Natural Desiccated Thyroid: Dr. Richard Guttler's False Claim About It.
Find out more about the many controversies surrounding Dr. Richard Guttler
MORE INFORMATION:
- The Armour Thyroid and Nature-Throid Shortage Information Center
- Save Natural Thyroid Coalition Website
- Save Natural Thyroid Coalition Yahoo Listserv
Mary,
The following statement about Dr. Sydney Wolfe is not correct. I have sent you the e-mail concerning this in which he said he is not against natural thyroid. Please remove this portion from your article. You do not want to create an “enemy” when he isn’t one.
Thank you!
Jeannie
Making the situation even more concerning is the fact that Dr. Sidney Wolfe, editor of the WorstPills.org website, and co-founder — along with Ralph Nader — of Public Citizen’s Health Research Group, was appointed earlier this year to a four-year term on the FDA’s Drug Safety and Risk Management Advisory Committee. The committee’s role is to counsel the FDA regarding the safety of certain drugs. Wolfe is a major opponent of natural desiccated thyroid, and while remaining woefully uninformed about the drug — at one point Wolfe even publicly stated that desiccated thyroid on the market today is from bovine (cow) rather than porcine (pig) thyroid — he has campaigned against desiccated thyroid. Now he’s in a position to help get it taken off the market.
Jeannie,
If, as you claim, Dr. Wolfe is no longer opposed to the use of natural thyroid, he should say so publicly. Currently the following statements are still on the Worst Pills Armour page:
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We list this drug as a Do Not Use drug because it is not adequately guaranteed to provide appropriate blood levels of thyroid hormone and reliable alternatives are available.
We wrote in the first edition of Worst Pills, Best Pills, published in 1988, that natural or desiccated (dried) thyroid extract products, such as ARMOUR THYROID, should not be used except by those who have successfully taken it for years to control their symptoms of low thyroid hormone production (hypothyroidism).
http://worstpills.org/results.cfm?drug_id=624&x=32&y=16
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Until those statements are corrected or amended, I see no reason for Mary to change hers.
Is Dr. Wolfe a supporter of natural thyroid or not