The Thyroid Solution: A Mind-Body Program for Beating Depression and Regaining Your Emotional and Phys ical Health - Hardcover

Arem, Ridha

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0345429192 ISBN 13: 9780345429193

Publisher: Ballantine Books, 1999

Synopsis

It's sometimes called a hidden epidemic: One in ten Americans--more than twenty million people--has a thyroid disorder. At any given time, millions of people have an undiagnosed thyroid disorder and experience a chronic mental anguish that almost certainly arises from the very same source. This health crisis flourishes in the shadows of the medical community because many primary-care doctors still don't recognize the importance of the thyroid in mind-body health. In fact, when they do diagnose a thyroid disorder, they treat it as a simple physical problem rather than what it really is: a complex blow to the body and mind--and an increasingly common cause of clinical depression, weight gain, fibromyalgia, high cholesterol, memory loss, anxiety, and other disorders. It's time to treat the source and not the symptom!

The Thyroid Solution is the first mind-body approach to identifying and curing thyroid imbalances. Written by a medical pioneer and leading authority in the field of thyroid research, this groundbreaking book offers Dr. Ridha Arem's practical program for maintaining thyroid health through diet, exercise, and stress control--and through his revolutionary medical plan, which combines two types of hormone treatments with astounding results. Inside you'll discover

- The thyroid basics--what it is, where it is, what it does
- How thyroid hormones affect the brain and alter mood, emotions, and behavior
- The difference between hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism and why both conditions are often undiagnosed or misdiagnosed
- What tests to ask your doctor to give you--and what they mean
- The facts your physician may not know about your thyroid, depression, fibromyalgia, and chronic fatigue syndrome
- The vital connection between stress and thyroid imbalance
- The benefits of antioxidants and essential fatty-acid foods and supplements
- How to recognize and cure the deep and lingering effects of a thyroid imbalance
- How thyroid hormone can work as an antidepressant when your thyroid gland is normal and conventional antidepressants have failed

Filled with remarkable and dramatic patient histories and interviews that document the dramatic results of Dr. Arem's bold new treatments, The Thyroid Solution now gives you and your doctor the tools you need to live a life with peace of mind . . . and body.

About this title

About the Author

Dr. Ridha Arem is Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. He is also Chief of Endocrinology and Metabolism at Ben Taub General Hospital in Houston. In addition to teaching medical students and physicians-in-training, he regularly speaks to primary-care physicians and specialists at various educational programs. Dr. Arem is a nationally recognized thyroid specialist. For the past ten years he has been the author and editor of Clinical Thyroidology, a well respected widely read periodical publication for physicians on thyroid disorders. He also contributes to Thyroid USA, the official newsletter of the American Foundation of Thyroid Patients, and participates in patient education programs.

From the Back Cover

"This book has had a profound impact on the way I think, on how I see patients, and on my perception of the connection between the brain and hormones."
--Mona Lisa Schulz, M.D., Ph.D.
Author of Awakening Intuition

"At last, a nationally known endocrinologist with impeccable credentials discusses vital issues of thyroid disease and treatment never previously addressed in print. Dr. Arem provides solid explanations for symptoms of hypothyroidism in patients with normal blood levels of thyroid hormones and particularly addresses the needs of women who have thyroid and hormonal disorders."
--Gillian Ford
Author of Listening to Your Hormones
and The Link Between Thyroid and Depression

"This book will be of tremendous help to the many people with thyroid disease and residual depressive symptoms. Dr. Arem elegantly addresses the important interplay of thyroidology and psychiatry."
--Lauren Marangell, M.D.

Baylor College of Medicine

Reviews

Arem, a clinical endocrinologist and researcher, says that 20 million Americans (one in ten) have a thyroid disorder. He argues that millions more suffer from undiagnosed thyroid dysfunction and the resulting mental and physical symptoms. Arem clearly and extensively examines the fundamentals of thyroid disease, including diagnosis and therapy, although his focus is on the significance of the thyroid in cognition and emotionAthe mind/body connection. Arem's thesis, derived from mainstream medicine but illustrated throughout by anecdotal reports, is that abnormal thyroid hormone production and dispersal can lead to health problems that range from the psychiatric to ophthalmologic. However, he may be overstating the case when he suggests that thyroid disturbances can underlie depression, anxiety, decreased motivation, and sexual difficulties even in those with normal blood tests. Further, he asserts that thyroid hormone is a bona fide antidepressant. Although thyroid hormone regulation can be important, it isn't the answer to all problems. This book should be of interest to those with thyroid disease; for others, it provides appropriate encouragement to remind their physicians to consider thyroid issues. Recommended for libraries with large budgets.ALinda M.G. Katz, MCP Hahnemann Univ., Philadelphia
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The thyroid can affect both body and mind. Arem writes clearly about how the gland can disturb a person and personal relationships. He relays much useful information about thyroid problems and mysteries, including moderately lengthy descriptions of hypothyroid and hyperthyroid conditions. Much still remains to be discovered, causes and effects need to be untangled, and the results of thyroid imbalances need to be identified and taken into account when determining treatment programs. What roles does stress play in thyroid problems? How does a thyroid problem affect fertility and pregnancy? How, indeed, can physician and patient be sure that a thyroid imbalance can be identified and treated? Most treatment programs require regular checking of drug effects to ensure that dosages are effectively maintained. Arem points out the pros and cons of many drugs and gives practical advice for their selection. Despite its primary function as advertising for Arem's T4/T3 thyroid solution, the book is helpful, right down to the appended reading list. William Beatty

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Could you have an overactive or underactive thyroid and not even know it? Millions of Americans--and a high percentage of women in menopause and perimenopause (the decade or so before menopause during which hormonal, emotional, and physical changes begin)--do. Thyroid imbalances are not always easy to recognize. Only recently have physicians even begun to accept that minimal thyroid imbalances have an important effect on mental and physical health.

Do you have any of the following symptoms?
Always fatigued or exhausted
Irritable and impatient
Feeling too hot or too cold
Depressed, anxious, or panicky
Bothered by changes in your skin or hair
At the mercy of your moods
Inexplicably gaining or losing weight
Losing your enthusiasm for life
Sleeping poorly or insomniac

Are you feeling burned out from having acted on an excess of energy for several months? Are you listless, forgetful, and feeling disconnected from your friends and family? Are people telling you that you've changed? Are you taking Prozac® or a similar drug for mild depression but still feeling that your mind and mood are subpar? Or have you been treated for a major depression in the past five years?

If you suffer from more than one of these symptoms or answered yes to one or more of these questions, you could be one of the many people with an undiagnosed thyroid condition. Although some of these symptoms may seem contradictory, all of them can be indications of a thyroid imbalance.

You could also be one of the many people who has been treated for a thyroid imbalance but still suffers from its often-overlooked, lingering effects--effects that may continue to haunt you even after treatments have presumably restored your thyroid levels to normal. If you've ever been treated for a thyroid imbalance, answer these questions:

Do you feel better but still not quite your old self?
Do you have unusual flare-ups of anger?
Are you less socially outgoing than you used to be?
Are you less tolerant of the foibles of family and friends?
Do you suffer from occasional bouts of mild depression?
Do you have frequent lapses in memory?
Are you often unable to concentrate on what you're doing?
Do you feel older than your chronological age?

If you've had a thyroid problem in the past but still answer yes to one or more of these questions, it is quite likely that your symptoms are thyroid-related. You don't have to suffer any longer. The Thyroid Solution will show you how you can work with your physician to heal these lingering symptoms.

The Thyroid and the Mind

At any given time in the United States, more than 20 million people suffer from a thyroid disorder, more than 10 million women have low-grade thyroid imbalance, and nearly 8 million people with thyroid imbalance remain undiagnosed. Some 500,000 new cases of thyroid imbalance occur each year. All of these people are vulnerable to mental and emotional effects for a long time even after being diagnosed. Incorrect or inadequate treatment leads to unnecessary suffering for millions of these people. But these are numbers. Behind the numbers are the symptoms and ravaging mental effects experienced by real human beings.

The 1990s have seen a major increase in the recognition and detection of previously unsuspected thyroid diseases among presumably healthy people. This stems in part from improved medical technology, which has led to the development of sensitive methods of screening and diagnosing thyroid disease. It also stems from the increased public awareness that thyroid disease may remain undiagnosed for a long time and that even mild thyroid dysfunction may affect your health. Recently, some medical associations such as the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists have initiated public screenings for thyroid disease, much as cholesterol testing has become available in shopping malls and other public places. At any given time, more than half the patients in our population with low-grade hypothyroidism remain undiagnosed. In a recent thyroid-screening program involving nearly two thousand people that I directed in the Houston area, 8 percent of those tested had an underactive thyroid. Many people screened had nev
er heard of the thyroid gland but rushed to be tested when they recognized that they were suffering many of the symptoms listed in the announcement of the screening. The public's awareness of thyroid disease was boosted by press reports about former president George Bush and his wife Barbara, Russian president Boris Yeltsin, and Olympic track champion Gail Devers when they were diagnosed with thyroid disease. Thanks to these factors, people with nonspecific, undiagnosed complaints are becoming increasingly likely to ask their physicians whether their symptoms might be related to an undiagnosed thyroid disorder.

As an endocrinologist who has focused his research, teaching, and patient care on thyroid conditions, I realized early on in my practice that taking care of thyroid patients was not as easy as I had expected. Treating and correcting a thyroid condition with medication may not always make the patient feel entirely better. I discovered that to care fully for my patients, to help them heal completely, I had to treat their feelings as well as their bodies. If they didn't feel better even though their lab tests said they were cured, I learned to listen to them, believe them, and work with them to help them become wholly cured. In taking care of thyroid patients, the physician's role is not merely to address physical discomfort, test the thyroid, and make sure blood test results are normal (indicating that the right amounts of the various thyroid hormones are circulating in the body). Addressing the effects of thyroid disorders on the mind, helping patients cope with their condition, and counseling them sympathetic ally are equally important.

Many physicians treat dysfunctioning thyroids, but few of them listen to the person attached to the gland. They concentrate on the blood levels. For these physicians, once the lab results say that a patient appears stabilized, the case is closed. Yet many patients go on to suffer for years from a variety of symptoms left over from the thyroid imbalance. A recent survey conducted in our outpatient endocrine clinic revealed that nearly a third of patients with underactive thyroid glands continue to have symptoms after their thyroid hormone blood levels are normal. Physicians should be treating the still-suffering patients with new protocols for as long as it takes for the mental effects to subside. The reality today, however, is that millions of patients suffer needlessly while their doctors continue to treat thyroid dysfunction as a simple physical disorder rather than what it is: a complex blow to the body and brain.

In general, primary care physicians have not been adequately trained to detect and manage thyroid disease and may lack the expertise needed to diagnose and treat a wide range of thyroid disorders. They also receive little teaching on the effects of thyroid disease on mental health or on understanding the interplay between the mind and the thyroid.

The majority of practitioners of internal medicine and family medicine complete their residency without having had a rotation (or semester) in endocrinology. Many physicians leave their training programs with inadequate knowledge of thyroid disorders and inadequate experience in diagnosing and treating these disorders. Physicians who do receive training in endocrinology realize that thyroid conditions are more widespread than most people think and are also some of the more complex problems in medicine.

Recently I talked with several residents who were about to complete their training in internal medicine. They had also just finished a two-month rotation in endocrinology (including attendance at outpatient clinics). One outstanding resident, who was about to start a primary care practice, pointed out the inadequate training for primary care physicians in diagnosing and treating thyroid conditions. He confessed:

I didn't see many thyroid patients during my three years of training prior to attending your outpatient clinics. The patients I recall were those who came into the hospital with acute thyroid conditions or patients with medical conditions known to be related to thyroid disease. In these cases, the diagnosis was easy to make based on obvious signs and symptoms. But even in the outpatient setting, we residents seldom look for subtle indications of thyroid disease.

Because both the physical and mental symptoms of thyroid disease masquerade as signs of many other illnesses, getting the proper diagnosis can sometimes take a long time. Often symptoms are misdiagnosed and mistreated. Until patients find the right doctor, they are left alone to deal with devastating effects, which may include depression or even upsetting changes in personal behavior. Inexperienced and poorly trained physicians sometimes make their patients feel crazy or hypochondriacal when they report their symptoms. The doctors may give them antidepressants and a pep talk instead of blood tests, proper medication, and counseling on how to cope with their problems. Female hypothyroid patients may be given estrogen replacement therapy instead of thyroid hormone. Yet what male and female patients really need is a program of medication and counseling. Thyroid imbalance can quickly escalate into a destructive brain chemistry disorder--as powerful and pervasive as major depression, an anxiety disorder, or manic-
depression.

Once the brain has been denied thyroid hormone or oversupplied with it because of thyroid disease, it takes a long time to recover. If the symptoms are ignored, they can intensify. A vicious cycle occurs wherein the patient gets depressed, the thyroid disease worsens, physical and emotional effects multiply, and mental health suffers further. This cycle is not widely understood or recognized, and many physicians do not know how important it is to halt the cycle--or indeed h...

Edition details

• Publisher: Ballantine Books
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0345429192
• ISBN 13: 9780345429193
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 400