Short Review of “Solved: The Riddle of Illness” (4th Ed.) by Stephen Langer

Are you intolerant to cold? Do you have high cholesterol? Feeling tired often? Got the blues? Hard time concentrating, or problems reading at night?

It could be your thyroid.

Hypothyroidism, low metabolism, is a hard-to-spot condition that manifests itself in nearly as many ways as the number of patients suffering from it. This book aims to explain common ailments people tend to have today, and how there might very well be a large number of people that are, in fact, suffering from the same underlying problem, despite different diagnoses. Many diagnoses, such as fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, and even the common depression, are to blame on today's laboratory tests where patients earlier found hypothyroid now do not suffer from that but instead something else.

It is no wonder, then, why Broda O. Barnes, leading endocrinologist specialized on the thyroid gland, picked the title "Hypothyroidism: The Unsuspected Illness" for his 1976 book. Around that time, synthetic drugs were introduced to the market, where desiccated thyroid was previously used. Relying on the (nowadays) exact test results instead of noting the morning under-arm temperature, the clinical findings (i.e., the patient's story) as well the patient's medical history, has lead many to be proclaimed healthy and instead being told "it's all in your head", "exercise more", and similar.

Moreover, Langer, with over a decade of experience treating hypothyroid patients, discusses how he in addition to thyroid hormone treats his patients with mineral and vitamin supplements, often deficit in patients. But most of all, he gives examples of patients and their symptoms, and how they were successfully treated, where earlier doctors did not. Throughout the text, numerous studies and articles published in well-renowned medical journals, such as New England Journal of Medicin (NEJM) and Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), are used as references, backing the claim he makes in the book.

Reading this book I marked some passages I found informative, which should hopefully give you a taste of the book to make the decision to buy it yourself. However, I only started doing so midway through the book. Also, I did not cover in depth some of the chapters, such as the ones on typical female problems.

Below follows a list of chapters, some with selected parts copied in.

0. Special Note

   (...) certain conditions other than hypothyroidism (such as chronic viral infections) can reduce a person's basal body temperature, too. Therefore, it is incument (...) perform a complete battery of thyroid tests -- total and free T3, T4, TSH, and antithyroid antibodies, anti-TPO, antithyroglobulin -- in addition to the basal temperature test.

1. "Nothing Organically Wrong"

   "If your thyroid function is normal, your [morning] temperature should be in the range from 97.8F (36.5C) to 98.2F (36.8C) degrees. If it's lower, you're probably hypothyroid." The treatment--Armour Thyroid--brought gratifying results (...) ecstatic about painless menstruation and normal body temperature

2. Why So Much Hidden Hypothyroidism?

3. What's Sabotaging Your Thyroid?

4. Care and Feeding of the Thyroid

5. The Great Controversy: Synthetic Versus Natural

   In this age of stress, the adrenal glands of many--if not most--people are overworked and weakened. Even mild adrenal insufficiency can slow down this conversion [T4 to T3]. (...) If this T4 conversion doesn't happen, the patient experiences symptoms of an overactive thyroid gland: rapid heartbeat, palpitations and increased sweating.

6. Body Heat

   Dr. Broda Barnes never thought of himself as a maverick. It was obvious to him that natural thyroid would treat hypothyroidism more effectively than the synthetics. It was also obvious to him that temperature should be a major consideration in diagnosing hypothyroidism. After all, he had seen the normal rabbit grow cold, shivering and sick after its thyroid gland had been removed.

7. Thyroid and Sex -- for Women

8. Thyroid and Sex -- for Men

9. How to Enhance Fertility and Pregnancy

10. Thyroiditis: A Growing Menace

    What are Hashimoto's thyroiditis' classic symptoms?

    1. Deep fatigue (...) go to sleep exhausted and wake up even more so.
    2. Depression. (...)
    3. Memory loss, characterized by severe problems with recent memory and ability to concentrate (...)
    4. Nervousness ranges from mild anxiety to full-blown panic attacks (...) Many patients (...) tell me, "I have no reason I know of to feel this way. Something's wrong physically, (...)"
    5. Allergies, food and environmental.
    6. Heartbeat irregularity and palpitations
    7. Muscle and joint pains
    8. Sleep disturbances and insomnia
    9. Reduced sex drive
    10. Menstrual problems
    11. Suicidal tendencies
    12. Digestive disorders.
    13. Headaches and ear pain
    14. Lumps in the throat
    15. Difficulty swallowing

    Usually any elevation of antithyroid antibodies is significant. My policy is to treat patients medically for thyroiditis even when they have just a small elevation of antithyroid antibodies, if they also present sypmtoms of this disorder. I emphasize this point, because many doctors become interested in this condition only if the antibody level is sky high.

    During this trying period, she had been hospitalized for six months in a psychiatric unit and treated with lithium, a major anti-depressant, and had numerous rounds of shock therapy. (...) Noting that her thyroid levels were normal but that she had an elevation of antithyroid antibodies, I treated her with (...) a quarter grain of Armour Thyroid (..). Within ninety days, all of her major symptoms were under control, and she was on the road to recovery.

    (...) my clinical experience leads me to believe that Hashimoto's thyroiditis is caused, in part, by viral infections such as chronic Epstein-Barr virus [kissing disease].

11. How to Beat Hyperthyroidism

12. Selenium Deficiency and Hypothyroidism

    However, the T4 to T3 conversion requires the catalytic selenoenzyme iodothyroninedeiodenase. As a consequence, T4 and T3 deficiencies together are commonest in individuals living in environments depleted in both iodine and selenium.

13. A New Look at Iodine

14. Better Skin, Better Living

15. Mind and Emotion: The Thyroid Connection

    (...) even in seemingly mild cases of myxedema, there is an underlying irritability and hostility, in addition to mental and physical sluggishness.

    Dr. Hoskins noted a chip-on-the-shoulder attitude, an abnormal responsiveness to petty annoyances (...) retarded ability to think, inability to concentrate, introversion, and failing memory.

    Subclinical hypothyroidism can remain latent for years and not show itself in emotional or mental symptoms until after severe stress.

16. Reversing Depression

    In examining 350 inpatients and 44 outpatients at Fair Oaks Hospital in Summit, New Yersey, Dr. Mark Gold, MD, found a "significant incidence of low-level hypothyroidism", convincing him that depression is often the first sign of low-level thyroid failure not always detectable by the usual thyroid function tests. Traditional blood tests for thyroid function in depressed patients revealed only 10 percent hypothyroids.

    During the 1950s, blood tests came into vogue and were not always positive for hypothyroidism. Patients were told that they no longer needed thyroid, and most of them suffered decades of unnecessary depression, anxiety, and physical discomfort and limitation.

    "I do have good days and weeks, sometimes months. But it's worse this winter than last"

17. Medical Look-Alikes: Hypoglycemia and Hypothyroidism

    Another piece of evidence is that blood cholesterol is usually high in hypothyroidism.

18. Diabetes: A Preventable Illness

19. How to Prevent a Heart Attack -- Your Own!

    My experience with many patients is that elevated cholesterol is often caused by hypothyroidism, even subclinical hypothyroidism.

    [I. B. Friedland] concluded that thyroid hormone controls blood fat and cholesterol levels and recommended thyroid therapy in human beings with elevated fats in the blood serum.

    Some experts suggest "that patients with high cholesterol should be assessed for thyroid function before they are given cholesterol-lowering agents," continues the report.

20. Be Kind to Your Arteries!

    The relationship between low thyroid function and high serum cholesterol level found by three researchers, E. F. Gildea, C. B. Mann, and J. P. Peters, indicates that a serum cholesterol level below 275 mg/l (7 mmol/l) practically excludes the diagnosis of hypothyroidism.

    "On the average, the rise in cholesterol is approximately four times as great as the drop in metabolism."

21. Dramatic Treatment for Circulatory Problems

    "I find articles and books making the nonsensical statement that diabetes aggrevates or accelerates hardening of the arteries," Dr. Barnes said. "No way! Hypothyroidism is perhaps the leading cause of this condition."

22. Guard Yourself Against Cancer

    Subnormal thyroid function appears to invite cancer.

23. Alzheimer's Disease or Something Else?

    "I'm so forgetful. I sometimes forget where I parked my car at the supermakret--or even that I have a car. It's so hard for me to think that I almost have to push thoughts around in my brain by strength of will."

24. Better Coping with Menopause

25. Is Fibromyalgia Really Incurable?

    One study Dr. Lowe conducted of thirty-eight fibromyalgia patients revealed that twenty-four (63.2 percent) were deficient in thyroid hormones (...).

    Even if your TSH is within the so-called normal range, Dr. Lowe is convinced that you could still be suffering from one or more of sixty-four major symptoms of hypothyroidism

    Four false beliefs held by most doctors make it possible for you to be in what is called "the normal range" and still be hypothyroid:

    1. The sole cause of thyroid deficiency symptoms is hypothyroidism.
    2. (...)
    3. Hypothyroid patients should only be permitted to use synthetic T4 (levothyroxine formulas such as Synthroid and Levoxyl [and Levaxin]).
    4. Patients' replacement dosages should be limited only to amounts that keep the TSH within the normal range.

    (...) inadequate thyroid hormone regulation of many patients (...) doctors conclude that the illness is something differentt, such as fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue syndrome.

    "You know, come to think of it, I remember having these symptoms off and on since I was in my early teens" [says one patient]

    "I have found that many hypothyroid patients also have cellular resistance to thyroid hormone," states Dr. Lowe. "Most of these patients don't benefit from T4 alone, but some of them do from desiccated thyroid, presumably because of the relatively high T3 content (...) However, we've stopped altogether giving patients T4 alone."

26. Stress and Free Radicals

    (...) chlorine and fluoride in the water supply, (...)

    Unfortunately, some doctors still supplement low thyroid patients only with synthetic T4 on the erroneous assumption that conversion to T3 is automatic. When they fail to respond, the doctor may conclude that they are not hypothyroid, after all, and offer no treatment, causing frustration, accelerated stress, and continued symptoms of hypothyroidism.

27. Overweight? How to Be a Good Loser

    It is possible to be hypothyroid even with an adequate thyroid hormone output because of biochemical differences in the receptor sites in our cells, and this condition will show up on the basal temperature test.

28. Tobacco and Alcohol: Thyroid Gland Enemies

    (...) thiocyanate is a suppressor of the thyroid gland.

29. How to Thrive in a Polluted World

    However, several authorities now advocate a one-to-one ratio: 1,000 mg of magnesium to 1,000 mg of calcium, for example.

    "Studies have documented that mercury causes hypothyroidism, damage of thyroid RNA, autoimmune thyroiditis, and impairment of conversion of thyroid hormone T4 to the active T3 form....Mercury blocks thyroid hormone production by occupying iodine-binding sites and inhibiting hormone action even when the measured thyroid levels appear to be in the proper range."

30. Live Longer, Healthier, and Younger

    A Harvard University study showed that two-thirds of 312 patients with arthritis were hypothyroid.

31. Some Things You Ought to Know...

    Hashimoto's thyroiditis runs in families, and most individuals afflicted are between the ages of thirteen and forty-three. Symptoms range from mental to physical: a faulty memory; difficulty itn thinking; depression; nervousness; allergies; diminished interest in sex; (...) alternating constipation and diarrhea, pain in joints and muscles (...), headaches.

32. For Doctors Only

    To ignore the the thyroid connection, however, is merely (...) not to treat the underlying causative factor of their illnesses. Simple examples of this are patients with recurrent infections who are chronically treated with antibiotics.

    More than a hundred years of research has established a definite relationship between subnormal temperature, no matter how slight, and hypohtyroidism.. Broda O. Barnes, MD, PhD, (...). A clinical researcher in hypothyroidism for half a century, Dr. Barnes published more than a hundred papers on his investigations in the most reputable medical journals.

    Through the years, he found a much higher correlation of low BMR results with his patients' basal metabolic temperature than with results of any other test for hypothyroidism. In addition, many of these clinically hypothyroid patients actually had euthyroid blood tests.

    Basal temperature range reading is between 97.8F (36.5C) to 98.2F (36.8C). A lower temperature indicates possible hypothyroidism. The main complaint I encounter from physicians is that the basal temperature test is unscientific; they feel that hypothyroidism can be diagnosed only by the standard laboratory blood work. That is exactly what I once thought.

    (...) natural, desiccated thyroid preparation, as I do, based on the premise that what's natural is more complete and, so, should provide better clinical results. In a short time, my energy level increased. My ability to concentrate improved dramatically, and many minor, nagging symptoms disappear.

    The subtle development of hypothyroidism, too, makes diagnosis difficult. (...) Hypothyroidism is often such an extremely subtle disease that physicians misinterpret its symptoms, states Gerald S. Levey, MD, (...) in a journal article, "Hypothyroidism: A Treacherous Masquerader."

    Hypothyroids characteristically have thick and puffy skin, due to an accumulation of a mucinlike substance (...) which binds water. (...) The hypothyroid's common problems are loss of appetite with either no weight loss or an acual weight increase (...)

    Neurologically, the hypothyroid (...) often suffers decreased circulation to the brain, which may contribute to a generalized slowing of all intellectual functions, including speech. These persons frequently lack initiative and may even be described as slow-witted. Memory frequently appears impaired, (...) an increased level of irritability. Sleepiness is another common symptom.

    Hypothyroidism should always be considered in the differential diagnosis of children who are hyperactive.

    Many low-thyroid patients complain of night-blindness. (...) Slurred speech and hoarseness are likewise found occasionally in hypothyroidism, due to a buildup of mucopolysaccharides in the tongue and the larynx.

    The most common complaint of the hypothyroid adult male involving the reproductive system is a general dimunition of sex drive and libido.

    (...) vague muscular and articular pains as well as coldness and stiffness of the extremeties (...) are often worse in the morning or after immobilization and are exacerbated by cold and dampness.

33. Conclusion

    (...) and are often dismissed with such remarks as, "It's all in your head," "Go home and live with it," "You're depressed," "You're under stress," "It's just middle age," "This happens to elderly," "or "Everyone has the same complaints."

    Even worse, some are started on antidepressants or tranquilizers--a practice not unlike removing a flashing red light from your car's dashboard and feeling that the mechanical problem indicated has been solved.

I dearly recommend this book (89 SEK at Bokus.com) to anyone with a diffuse feeling of "there's something wrong", or possibly even suffering from a specific problem in the list.

Knowledge is power.