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About Thyroid Disease
Review: The Everything Guide to Thyroid Disease
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.
About Mary Shomon | Thyroid Forum | Twitter | Facebook
Photo: clipart.com Review: The Everything Guide to Thyroid Disease originally appeared on About.com Thyroid Disease on Monday, February 6th, 2012 at 16:00:27. Permalink | Comment | Email this
Thyroid Patients: What's The One Thing You Would Change About Your Doctor?
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.
About Mary Shomon | Thyroid Forum | Twitter | Facebook
Photo: clipart.com
Thyroid Patients: What's The One Thing You Would Change About Your Doctor? originally appeared on About.com Thyroid Disease on Monday, February 6th, 2012 at 15:56:43. Permalink | Comment | Email this
The Ten Things A Thyroid Patient Should Never Do
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!
About Mary Shomon | Thyroid Forum | Twitter | Facebook
Photo: clipart.com
The Ten Things A Thyroid Patient Should Never Do originally appeared on About.com Thyroid Disease on Sunday, January 29th, 2012 at 14:06:04. Permalink | Comment | Email this
More Is Known About Autoantibodies That Cause Autoimmune Diseases
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
About Mary Shomon | Thyroid Forum | Twitter | Facebook
Photo: clipart.com
More Is Known About Autoantibodies That Cause Autoimmune Diseases originally appeared on About.com Thyroid Disease on Monday, January 23rd, 2012 at 21:33:33. Permalink | Comment | Email this
DearThyroid Sponsoring Thyroid Awareness Contest to Win Painting
Over at DearThyroid, by sharing your thoughts about thyroid disease, you may win an original painting by artist and advocate Allyson Jones Averell! Ally has donated an original butterfly painting to commemorate Thyroid Awareness Month.
Visit DearThyroid for details on how to enter this awareness contest.
About Mary Shomon | Thyroid Forum | Twitter | Facebook
Photo: Allyson Jones Averell DearThyroid Sponsoring Thyroid Awareness Contest to Win Painting originally appeared on About.com Thyroid Disease on Monday, January 23rd, 2012 at 20:26:15. Permalink | Comment | Email this
Alzheimer's / Dementia News From Medical News Today
Obama Plans To Combat Alzheimer's
A statement released by The Obama Administration claims there are going to be new measures taken against battling Alzheimer's disease. One of these efforts includes a $50 million increase in the amount of money that will be used towards new, advanced research. Also, the administration says their Fiscal Year 2013 budget will increase by $80 million for Alzheimer's exploration...
Smoking Speeds Up Male Cognitive Decline
A male regular smoker has a higher risk of rapid cognitive decline, compared to his counterparts who do not smoke, researchers from University College London, England, reported in Archives of General Psychiatry...
The Toxic Role Of Tau Oligomers In Alzheimer's
One of the most distinctive signs of the development of Alzheimer's disease is a change in the behavior of a protein that neuroscientists call tau. In normal brains, tau is present in individual units essential to neuron health. In the cells of Alzheimer's brains, by contrast, tau proteins aggregate into twisted structures known as "neurofibrillary tangles...
Mild Alzheimer's Might In Fact Be Mild Cognitive Impairment
New revised criteria could mean that a considerable number of patients currently diagnosed with mild or very mild Alzheimer's, might in fact be reclassified as having MCI (mild cognitive impairment), John C. Morris, M.D., of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, wrote in Archives of Neurology...
Insight Into Cell Aging Likely Following Discovery Of Extremely Long-Lived Proteins
One of the big mysteries in biology is why cells age. Now scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies report that they have discovered a weakness in a component of brain cells that may explain how the aging process occurs in the brain...
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