Customer Reviews

Thyroid For Dummies

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

My spouse has been battling with Hyperthyroidism for 15 years, going on and off PTU and in and out of remission. Her latest annual blood work indicated that she was hyper again which re-opened the dialog about what treatment to choose (drug therapy, radioactive iodine, or surgery).

Thyroid for Dummies provided a detailed yet very readable review of what the function of the Thyroid glad is, Thyroid disorders, treatment options, etc. If you are facing a decision point about treatment for a thyroid disorder or have Thyroid wellness concerns then I think you will find this book very helpful and informative as we did.

In the end we choose Radioactive Iodine treatment. The unbiased facts and wealth of information provided helped us make this important and rather emotional decision in a manner that enabled us to move forward with confidence. Of note, the author Dr. Rubin prefers drug therapy as the first mode of treatment for Graves Disease. As this had already been tried in our case and did not provide a predictable and sustainable treatment we choose Radioactive Iodine over surgery.

I am a 4+ year Graves disease veteran who is currently in remission. I strongly believe that EVERY newly diagnosed person should read this book BEFORE they make any decision on any PERMANENT treatment procedure such as surgery or radioactive iodine ablation (RAI).

Dr. Rubin takes the often confusing subject of thyroid disease and makes it easily understandable to the newly diagnosed. Every person with a diagnosed thyroid disorder SHOULD be reading this book and educating themselves about their disease!

Misinformation is abundant when it comes to thyroid disease. Dr. Rubin makes no bones about HIS preference for treatment of hyperthyroidism/Graves disease and lays out his well thought out, logical, reasons behind HIS preference for treatment with anti-thyroid meds very well (page 73). I was thrilled to see this recommendation as this was the route I chose...and fought to continue using for 4 years...with success in the form of total remission after 4.3 years of anti-thyroid medication.

Thank you Dr. Rubin for speaking up and telling it like it is about anti-thyroid medication...that you CAN take it for as long as you need it...that there is NO time frame limit for these meds, and the adverse reaction risk is very low. You're my hero!

I just had thyroid surgery and I picked up a copy of Thyroid for Dummies so I could get informed about what was happening. Thyroid for Dummies answered all my questions, and gave me all the information I needed to understand what I was going through.After reading this book, I know more about the thyroid gland than I did before! The book is written in easy to understand language, and uses humor which put my mind at ease. I would highly recommend this book to anyone with thyroid disease, anyone undergoing thyroid surgery,and anyone who just wants to know more about their thyroid gland.

Wow, I bought this book based on the 100% 5 star reviews. But it was a big dissappointment. To the authors credit, there is a very good overview of both hypothyroid and hyperthyroid disease from an old school MD.

But Dr. Rubin's view is so entirely one sided, that he offers no mention of the other side of this highly controversial disease. This is outright dangerous. On P306 he says, "A good physician bases his or her treatment on evidenced-based medicine". So he is relying on TSH level to diagnose the amount of drug to give you. But any internet search will uncover millions of testimonials of people on synthroid with healthy TSH levels that continue to have hypothyroid symptoms. He completely discounts how the patient actually feels.

Further, there is no mention of Armour thyroid in this 353 page book! This has been a more reliable and effective treatment for hypothyroid than the Synthroid most MD's recommend. It contains T3 AND T4, both important for most hypothyroid patients. I could understand making a case for Synthroid - maybe even a chapter comparing the pro's and con's of the two - but to not even mention it when many doctors are having success with this treatment is down right dangerous!

So this is a good book to give "dummies" (no offense) since there are many valuable topics of interest. I will keep this as a reference on my shelf as well. But please do NOT make this your only book. Do a search on "armour thyroid" and find a plethora of alternative viewpoints.

As a person that has an underactive thyroid, myself, and finding that a LOT of other books on the matter barely scratch the surface, this book is an informative change. The sections are easily navigated and understood without the content being dumbed down to an elementary level of thinking. I was especially impressed that Dr. Ruben had touched on the psychological state of people with this medical issue, my pre-diagnosed years make more sense now. I have since lent this book to my mother so she can become more informed as well.

I highly recommend this to anyone who has, knows of or thinks they know of someone with a thyroid problem. It certainly gives you the information you need to understand.

This book gives basic and important information regarding this medical problem. The author will answer questions when you e-mail them to him, which is a nice 'extra' when you don't understand something.

A great introduction to the world of thyroid disorders. Includes everything from finding a specialist, the initial diagnosis, starting treatment and what to expect throughout the entire process. I have skimmed through other books on the subject and Thyroid for Dummies gives the best 'cram session' overview and has humor throughout the pages and even some cartoons! It really breaks up the monotony of page after page of grey text.

Easy to read and alot of information. Must read for anyone suspecting thyroid problems.

Easy to read and understand. Entertaining book with really helpful information that helped ease some of my worries.