The Thyroid Paradox: How to Get the Best Care for Hypothyroidism [Paperback]

James K. Rone (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 15, 2007

If you suffer low thyroid--or think you might--and want to learn more, especially if you're unsatisfied with the answers you're getting from your doctor, this book is for you. An estimated 5.8% of women and 3.4% of men in the United States are hypothyroid. Low thyroid is common, yet, paradoxically, may be rampantly overlooked. Why? As you'll discover in "The Thyroid Paradox," there is a pervasive oversimplification of thyroid science and mainstream treatment of thyroid patients today. Current thyroid testing has weaknesses and should be interpreted, not in a vacuum, but as part of a diagnostic process based on all the evidence. Too often, doctors simply stick to test results and miss patients suffering with subtle hypothroidism. The "Thyroid Paradox" is for the person who's been told "It's not your thyroid," without then being told convincingly what it is. Maybe you've been told nothing is wrong but know there must be some reson for your chronic fatigue, body aches, weight gain, dry skin, constipation, "brain fog," depression, or menstrual irregularity. This book provides the answers for you. You'll learn about: * The loopholes in current thyroid testig *Hidden forms of hypothyroidism and how to detect them *The best strategies for thyroid replacement The path out of the thyroid paradox is engaged teamwork involving both doctor and patient. This book should provide you with knowledge you need to communcate and work with your doctor to get the treatment you deserve.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

James K. Rone, M.D., is a board-certified endocrinologist in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. He pursued medical studies at the University of South Carolina, his residency at Keesler U.S. Air Force Medical Center, in Biloxi, Mississippi, and his fellowship in endocrinology at Wilford Hall U.S. Air Force Medical Center, in San Antonio, Texas.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Basic Health Publications; 1st edition (June 15, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1591202043
• ISBN-13: 978-1591202042
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #728,388 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #5 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Men's Health > Hair Loss

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars One of the better thyroid books I've read, February 24, 2009

By 

J. Cockrum "Knowledge Seeker" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Thyroid Paradox: How to Get the Best Care for Hypothyroidism (Paperback)

And let me start by saying that I've read many. Note: This book specifically covers hypothyroidism. If you have hyperthyroidism, you might find this book useful in some ways, but it was not be written specifically for that spectrum of the disease.

Dr. Rone is a uniquely qualified author for this book for many reasons:

1) He is a board certified endocrinologist.

2) He has done a lot of specialized work with the thyroid.

3) He has hypothyroidism, so he understand what it is like to live with the disease.

4) He has been told by doctors that his thyroid numbers were fine and that his problems couldn't be thyroid related.

Most of us who have suffered with thyroid disease clearly understand how difficult it is to get a doctor to listen to us when we tell them our symptoms and how we think our symptoms are caused by our thyroid. Many have been told, "it's not your thyroid. Your numbers are normal." Unfortunately, the doctors then rarely help us figure out what the problem is, so we go through life, sometimes for years, feeling miserable, and not knowing what the problem is. Dr. Rone explains the problem of modern medicine's approach to diagnostics (looking only at blood work) vs. the approach used by doctors before blood tests were available (signs and symptoms). He recommends that doctors should be using a mixture of both the modern and the old, so as to not miss patients whose numbers might not be that high, but whose symptoms are off the charts.

Dr. Rone does an excellent job of describing medical terms in a way that the average reader will be able to understand. In the book, he explains:

1)the different types of thyroid disease

2)the different tests available to monitor for it

3)the shortcomings of those tests

4)the interpretation of those tests

5)the symptoms (and how the non-specificness of the symptoms works against us in getting diagnosed)

6)the history of thyroid disease, tests, treatments, and studies

7)the different treatment options available

8)where and how the medical community has failed to diagnose many (up to half) people with thyroid disease

9)the description and results of several studies done on thyroid disease through the years

Overall, I think this book is very good. I didn't give it 5 stars because I think he does do a disservice to some of the natural alternatives available. He states that Synthroid and other synthetic T4 drugs are just as good for treating thyroid disease as Armour and other natural dessicated thyroid drugs. While he certainly doesn't have the bias against Armour that most doctors and pharmacists do, I believe he (like most doctors) takes all his information on the drugs from the studies done by Big Pharma. The problem that I personally have with this approach is that I have read hundreds of stories (and know of thousands more) from women and men who have not been helped at all by synthetic T4 drugs, and even did poorly when placed on a combination of T4/T3 synthetics. Their stories aren't a double blind study, funded by a pharmaceutical company, so to a medical professional (especially a mainstream medical profession), these stories are invalid as evidence. But beyond not taking them into account, he goes on to renounce their stories by stating that the only reason they feel better on Armour vs. the synthetics is because they are getting too much T3, and this creates an upper effect. And on top of that, he states that the trace chemicals (T2, T1, and Calcitonin) found in Armour don't really do any good, even though he admits that no double blind studies have been done to prove or disprove this point. In one sentence, he implies that nothing should be assumed to be true without a scientific study, but in the next, he is making his own assumptions as to why a medicine is working better for some people than the synthetic version.

In conclusion, I do think that Dr. Rone has a very good grasp on thyroid disease. He has written a lot about his own experiences in dealing with thyroid disease, as well as what he has learned through the years in his personal clinic. He is certainly moving in the right direction. If you suspect that you have thyroid disease, I would recommend you read this book. It will give you a clear understanding of what hypothyroidism is and why the medical community seems to be so confused about it. Then head over to Mary Shomon's site ([...]), [...], and to Stop The Thyroid Madness ([...]) to read some of the stories of those who struggled against the medical community.

Lastly, don't assume your doctor knows everything. Only you know your body and your symptoms. If your doctor isn't working with you to find out why you are having your symptoms (and note that depression is a symptom of thyroid disease, because many doctors will just slap the "you're depressed" label on you and hand you a prescription for an antidepressant), then find a new doctor. And keep finding new doctors until you find one that will be willing to work with you and help you solve your problems.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Mixed bag, December 18, 2009

By 

qulteresq "quilteresq" (NH US) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Thyroid Paradox: How to Get the Best Care for Hypothyroidism (Paperback)

This book is a mixed bag. Dr. Rone is a practicing endocrinologist, but he's a member of the American Thyroid Association. If you haven't read it elsewhere, it's a professional organization that gets about 1/2 of its grant funding from Abbott Labs, maker of Synthroid. Dr. Rone tries to please both camps in the Thyroid world - he adamantly states he believes that T4 supplementation is perfectly OK for most thyroid patients, while at the same time hemming and hawing that certainly mixed therapy with Armour and other natural thyroid hormones seems like it would be helpful for many patients. He doesn't define "many," so it's not clear whether taking the book with you to the doctor's office would be helpful. Still, he probably risked his reputation with the American Thyroid Association going as far as he did.

His condescending attitude toward patients made me glad I'm not from Tennessee, though. There are certainly better books out there for your own knowledge, but it's worth buying if you need to show your doctor something from an endocrinologist.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A formerly 1-star review, upgraded, June 1, 2011

By 

Brian Foreman (Lincoln, NE United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Thyroid Paradox: How to Get the Best Care for Hypothyroidism (Kindle Edition)

This review started out as a 1-star review, based on my belief that the book made an erroneous claim about levothyroxine chemistry. I stand corrected.

After a well-deserved and authoritative spanking at the hands of the author (see comments), I am both impressed with his knowledge of the true chemistry involved, and grateful for the edifying, if somewhat painful, education. In truth, my ego would have preferred to delete my original review and start over, to hide said spanking, but in the hope that it could be educational for others, I have just modified the review, and left the comments intact.

The good news in either case is that I can now heartily recommend this book. As I said (even on my original review), it's informative, well-written, and shows the conflicts a good modern endocrinologist deals with.

If I still reserve a single star, it is partly because I would have preferred that the author had lent more credence to the idea that when different patients respond differently to different medications with identical active ingredients, it's not all in their heads. He doesn't state that it is, mind you; he just doesn't *emphasize* that it isn't, and I have personally endured many rolling eyes when I have stated different reactions to medications with identical ingredients.

However, personal experience has taught me on three occasions now that generics are NOT always as effective as brand names, and now in this case, that synthetic thyroid hormone has not been as effective for me as a natural medication. Something else is going on here, and anybody that figures out what it is, or even validates that it's really going on, could really help improve the state of the art.