Customer Reviews

Hypothyroidism: The Unsuspected Illness

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This text was an absolute delight to read. Dr. Barnes presented his theories on hypothyroidism and its relation to various disease states in a clear and easily readable format. This text can be used by obviously the layperson, but also the professional alike. As a physician assistant in family practice medicine, I have recommended this text to many of my patients. One of my biggest challenges is to convince my peers in medicine to accept Dr. Barnes' theories and put them into practice. One of the most difficult is the use of synthroid (T-4) vs natural dessicated thyroid. As stated in his book, those patients on the synthetics alone may have two symptoms left that won't dissapear: a dry, rough skin and retention of water. When these patients are switched to the natural thyroid, those symptoms are gone within 4 to 6 weeks and do not return. This has convinced Dr. Barnes that we have yet to isolate the entire hormone - perhaps there is another factor other than T-3 and T-4. This man was light years ahead of his time,and the medical profession needs to become more aware, and indeed I believe this is happening; slowly, but it is. This man has researched the thyroid gland for 52 years of his life! Even if you were to take three steps ahead and fall back two, you are still one step ahead, and over a 52 year period that is quite a bit of knowledge. The number of patients Dr. Barnes has helped over the years is staggering; he deserved a Nobel Prize in medicine.

Despite the fact that Broda Barnes was an M.D., his book Hypothyroidism: The Unsuspected Illness is the bible for alternative medicine's view of hypothyroidism. Frankly, I think Dr. Barnes was a pioneer in identifying the many ways thyroid problems affect us that conventional medicine today doesn't recognize. If you've ever wondered if hypothyroidism is causing certain symptoms, or how it may be affecting you, this book is excellent. It also describes the controversial -- but still used by some -- Barnes Basal Temperature method of diagnosing hypothyroidism. Amazingly, Dr. Barnes also describes an optimal diet in his 1976 book that is remarkably similar to the popular "Zone" diet which is finding favor with many people with hypothyroidism today, 20 years later. Dr. Barnes really often seems to be one of the only doctors who truly understand the impact of thyroid disease on overall health and the difficulty medicine seems to have with it. Here's a quote from his book. "It may seem almost incredible that scientists can sit quietly on earth and follow the activity of the heart of a man walking on the moon and yet they have had so much difficulty in measuring the amount of thyroid hormone necessary for health and in developing effective and reliable tests to determine when thyroid function is inadequate." Dr. Barnes is also one of the doctors who regularly prescribed Armour Thryoid, the naturally- derived T4/T3 drug, for his patients instead of the sythetic T4 only preparations (i.e., Synthroid, Levoxyl, generic levo-thyroxine) that are currently popular. He says in the book: "[Synthetic] thyroxine...proved to have only one-tenth to one-twentieth of the metabolic activity of the natural Levo-thyroxine." Dr. Barnes also felt that doctors needed to gauge symptoms as well as blood tests when treating patients. Again, from his book: "The efforts though the various tests to measure thyroid activity by determining the amount of hormone stored in the gland or alternatively the amount present in the bloodstream fail to do what really counts: provide an indication of the amount of thyroid hormone available and being used within cells throughout the body. They are somewhat akin to trying to get an idea of a thrifty man's spending habits from the amount of money in his wallet or the size of his bank account. The amounts of money in wallet or bank account, like test for the amount of hormone in gland or bloodstream, tell us nothing about how much is being spent." Mary Shomon, Editor, The Thyroid Disease Website and Newsletter, http://thyroid.miningco.com

After reading many books and doing countless hours of research about hypothyroidism, I have come to the conclusion that Dr. Broda Barnes really knew what he was talking about. I wish that all of today's doctors would read this book and use it to diagnose and treat hypothyroidism. Dr. Barnes understood the connection of the many symptoms of hypothyroidism to the low functioning thyroid gland. He diagnosed and treated many, many patients in his time without the new TSH tests used today. It is no coincidence that these patients got better when he treated them. To truly understand hypothyroidism you must read this book. It may be a little outdated, but it is fundamentally correct in what it says. More doctors need to understand and use the information that Dr. Barnes has written about in this book.

I highly recommend Dr. Broda Barnes' book based on my family's personal experience with its author and his groundbreaking work.

I first heard of Dr. Barnes and his theories on the importance of hypothyroid diagnosis and treatment back in the 1970's, when he was semi-retired and living in Fort Collins, Colorado. My mother, then in her late 50's, asked him to see her when her doctor was unable to diagnose or treat her numerous symptoms adequately. I went with her. After thoroughly examining her, her history, her blood work and the basal body temperature chart she'd kept beforehand at his request, Dr. Barnes prescribed hypothyroid medication and also made dietary suggestions that were decades ahead of their current popularity. He also gave her a copy of his then just-published book, which he inscribed to her. Within weeks, my mother's health and body shape were back to normal. We both stayed in touch with Dr. Barnes until his death.

Today (2004), my 86-year-old mom is healthy, slim, active and still taking that same medication. She plays 18 holes of golf twice a week and walks the entire course. She still has Dr. Barnes' signed book; in fact, she takes it with her to appointments whenever a doctor mentions changing her prescription from natural to synthetic compounds.

I am now the same age my mother was when Dr. Barnes attended her and showing the same symptoms she had then. I'm so glad to find his book still in print. I've just ordered my own copy so I can help my doctor recognize the most probable cause quickly and easily. With luck, I'll be playing golf with my mother again soon.

Dr. Barnes, you and your work live on in your excellent and highly readable book. Thank you for all you have done for my mother and for many, many others.

I am SO glad I got this book; I was sick with unknown things and problems from chronic fatigue to being overweight for all my life. A hospital doctor told me about this book particularly; He has hypothyroidism himself and when I was in the ER with something else (Turned out to be urinary tract infection) he told me I had all the symptoms of it, and he gave me the title of this book. It's such a relief to know that the doctors calling me a hypochondriac for all these years were full of BS and were just sadly uneducated about this illness. This is just a great book and really thuroughly explains hypothyroidism, causes, effects, symptoms, treatments, etc etc, I could go on and on. Great book. Get it!

Excellent source for the lay person on diagnosing your hypothyroidism and understanding why standard thyroid test are not always "right". Easy to follow instruction and a lot of common sense application. Not for the purest as it is not scientific enough. This book helped to improve my quality of life and got me and my doctor on the right track to treating my disease. Have recommended this book to many friends and gave a copy to my doctor.

Hypothyroidism the Unsuspected Illness, by Broda Barnes MD, is a medical classic and should be required reading for every medical student and doctor. I have read the book many times. The book contains the condensed wisdom of a lifetime of research and clinical experience with the thyroid, and it rings true today as it did in 1976. Thyroid blood tests come and go, yet human physiology remains the same.

Broda Barnes estimated that up to 40% of the population suffers from a low thyroid condition and would benefit from thyroid medication. Of course, Barnes' opinion differed with that of mainstream medicine of his time which relied dogmatically on thyroid blood tests to make the diagnosis of low thyroid. Barnes felt the blood tests were unreliable and instead used the basal temperature, history and physical examination. This medical debate regarding unreliability of thyroid blood testing continues today.

Being an astute clinician, Dr. Barnes makes a number of observations about the low thyroid condition. Firstly, low thyroid is associated with a reduced immunity to infectious diseases such as TB. Before the advent of modern antibiotics in the 1940's, most low thyroid children succumbed to infectious diseases before reaching adulthood. Secondly, low thyroid is associated with a peculiar form of skin thickening called myxedema which causes a characteristic appearance of the face, puffiness around the eyes, fullness under the chin, loss of outer eyebrows, and hair thinning or hair loss.

A third observation by Dr. Barnes is that low thyroid is associated with menstrual irregularties, miscarriages and infertility. Barnes treated thousands of young women with thyroid which restored cycle regularity and fertility. In his day, the medical system resorted to the drastic measure of hysterectomy for uncontrolled menstrual bleeding. Although today's use of birth control pills to regulate the cycles is admittedly a far better alternative, Barnes found that the simple administration of desiccated thyroid served quite well. Again, Barnes noted that blood testing was usually normal in these cases which respond to thyroid medication.

A lengthy chapter is devoted to heart attacks and the low thyroid condition. Based on autopsy data from Graz Austria, Barnes concluded that low thyroid patients who previously would have succumbed to infectious diseases in childhood go on years later to develop heart disease. Barnes also found that thyroid treatment was protective in preventing heart attacks, based on his own clinical experience. Likewise for diabetes, Dr. Barnes found that adding thyroid medication was beneficial at preventing the onset of vascular disease in diabetics. Again, blood tests are usually normal.

Dr. Barnes devotes separate chapters in the book to discussion of chronic fatigue, migraine headaches and emotional/behavioral disorders all of which respond to treatment with thyroid medication.

The final chapter describes Dr. Barnes work on obesity when he resided over a hospital ward of volunteer obese patients, and monitored everything they ate. He found that the obese patients invariably ate a high carbohydrate diet, and avoided fat. Barnes added fat back into the menu and reduced the refined carbohydrates and found that his obese patients lost 10 pounds a month with no hunger pangs.

Missing from the book are discussions of Iodine supplementation and the role of the Adrenal, both of which are covered in later updated versions of Barnes thyroid book by other authors. See Hypothyroidism Type Two by Mark Starr, and Your Thyroid by Barry Durrant Peatfield. Iodine supplementation is covered by both Derry and Brownstein. The Safe Uses of Cortisol by William McK Jefferies is the companion medical classic devoted to the adrenals and cortisol.

Jeffrey Dach MD

Dr Barnes is still the master of Hypothyroidism. It's really sad todays doctors are listening to the AMA & drug salesmen, they have their head in the sand. Money is the object of anyone not willing to use Dr Barnes ideas for treating this disease.

My Mother was in hospital for 3 months deathly sick only to be removed in a comatose condition. All hospital Staff & Drs treating her with ?? had a fit.

She had been ill since 1960. This year 2000 she is 92 years old.

After using Dr Barnes to help all symptoms are gone.

The only reason the Medical profession won't use his theory is money.

GET THE BOOK THERE HAS NEVER BEEN ANYTHING PRINTED THAT WILL HELP YOU MORE THAN THIS BOOK. :EXCEPTION: BIBLE

Dr Barnes methods are very simple & easy to understand, it may save your life, most doctors won't.

Anyone with hypothyroidism or other unexplained symptoms should read this book. Dr Barnes views on infectious disease and its possible relationship to low thyroid function are insightful. If you have diabetes read this book, Dr Barnes points out that the symptoms for diabetes and hypothyroidism are identical except for the metabolism of carbohydrates. Many diabetics also have hypothyroidism.
While the medical profession continues to treat atherosclerosis as a separate and distinct disease Dr Barnes points to the fact that the thyroid regulates the levels of cholesterol in our bloodstream. He cites studies where animals with healthy thyroids were fed obscenely large levels of cholesterol with no adverse effects. But when animals that had their thyroids removed were fed high levels of cholesterol they developed atherosclerosis. This book has changed my life because I had many of the early signs of low thyroid function mentioned by Dr Barnes, that no doctor picked up on. I suffered for over 20 years before my elevated TSH levels finally showed up in a blood test. Read this and Dr Arem Ridha's book on Hypothyroidism. If you need more help contact the Broda Barnes Foundation.

I have successfully used Dr. Barnes' method for over thirty years. During that time, for a brief period, a new Doctor changed my medication to Synthroid and only followed thyroid blood test results. This change was disasterous and caused me serious health problems. I am now working with a Doctor who believes in his theory and I am back to following Dr. Barnes' method and will not change. It is sad that modern medicine does not learn from the past.