Hypothyroidism Type 2: The Epidemic - Revised 2013 Edition

Incredible book. This really explains a lot about the hidden epidemic of low thyroid. Most people have no clue they have a thyroid problem and most doctors will not diagnose you correctly. They will not get all of the appropriate lab tests ordered. I was really excited about it once I read it because I recognized that I had so many of the symptoms. The tough part was finding a doctor who gets it. But, after searching a while I finally did and it made a life-changing difference in my health and how I felt physically. Truly life-changing. That was about 4 years ago I'd say now. I can say that not being properly treated for hypothyroidism took many years off of my life physically. I had zero energy; my muscles started hurting; I was told I probably had fibromyalgia according to my symptoms; I couldn't even put my hands behind my back; my thigh muscles hurt just riding in a car; I had started sort of shuffling my feet (like a really old person) and I was tripping a lot because of it & even fell a couple times. I was in my early 60s then but physically feeling more like late 70s and I've always been a physically active person. Being correctly diagnosed and being given a totally bioidentical, natural form of thyroid (Armour Thyroid or another brand of natural dessicated thyroid), I was a changed person. About that same time I also started eating more (not less) healthy fats and taking appropriate supplements. I also increased my protein intake. It was life-changing for real. I am a very healthy and active 67 year old now and I do much better than some of my younger friends. This book is definitely worth the read to see if it might be able to help you too. Stay away from synthetic thyroid meds though. They don't work the same. Most doctors will scoff at you and some will even refuse to prescribe Armour Thyroid. However, a few of them are beginning to “get it” now that their patients are becoming more knowledgeable and more educated on the topic and therefore more demanding. Dessicated thyroid (which is what Armour Thyroid is) is all natural and therefore it cannot be patented. That's why Big Pharma scoffs at it and will teach all the doctors that it is useless. They can't make any money off of it like they do all their other new, synthetic drugs that they keep trying to poke down our throats only to make us sicker than we ever were in the first place. Read the side effects on the drug manufacturers sheet sometime. It's downright frightening.

This book by Dr. Starr finally confirms what I've suspected for years. Ever since I was a child I’ve had a swollen thyroid and symptoms of thyroid disease, yet all my tests have come back normal. At the age of 32 my thyroid became very enlarged and I was so sick I couldn’t get out of bed for a year. I was diagnosed with CFS and fibromyalgia. Then at the age of 35, I was diagnosed with Hashimoto which went into “remission” with medication. Finally at the age 40 I was diagnosed with Graves Disease, which also supposedly went into remission. However to this day my thyroid symptoms are so debilitating that I am fully disabled and yet my tests are normal. Every endocrinologist I go to can even see my thyroid is swollen, that I have all the symptoms of hyperthyroidism and yet they do nothing. It is very depressing to see how incurious the medical community is about thyroid disease. Over the years I have tried every diet, vitamin and exercise regimen I could find. I have prayed, meditated and become a certified hypnotherapist in hopes of a cure, and to alleviate some of my symptoms and yet my symptoms continue to get worse. When I have a good days (which are becoming less and less) I tell myself I just need to accept that this is my lot in life. When I have a bad day I feel like giving up— but I have a son and so for his sake I will continue to look for a cure. My latest search has led me to Dr. Starr’s book. One thing is for sure, after reading Dr. Starr’s book I have a better understanding of all my my peculiar symptoms and I finally feel validated. Just a couple words of caution about Dr. Starr’s book. It is very detailed and gives pictures and examples of case studies. At times some of these images made me feel anxious and disturbed. Still, a big thanks to Dr. Starr for Shining a light on this terrible, overlooked disease and shame on the medical community for not listening to their patients.

This is a well organized and written book and a must read for those who have hypothyroid symptoms but the medical tests all show you are normal. Dr. Starr builds on the early work of Dr. Broada Barnes (also a good read) to explain why. In a nushell, hypothyroidism can exist at the cellular level in how your body uses the thyroid hormones it produces; therefore, you may need more of it to compensate for this cellular desensitization. However, your brain and pituitary are designed to keep things in the "normal" range, so you always test in the normal range when in fact your body requires more. Somehow doctors find this concept easy to believe for insuline (Type 1 & 2) but are resistant to believing the same thing can happen with thyroid hormones. Dr. Starr walks you through the history of thyroid hormone tests (perhaps a bit more than needed) and explain how doctors have come to believe this. Just to be a little criticle, I think he could have edited down the history section and beefed up the therapy section because that's really what we're all intrested in anyway. The book leaves you with three basic concepts: 1) Hypothyroidism is grossly underdiagnosed in America and that comes from doctors' reliance on the meaningless TSH lab test. 2) Body temperature is the best diagnostic tool for subclinical (Type 2) hypothyroidism and also the best tool to use for dosing thyroid medications. 3) NEVER let your doctor place you on synthetic thyroid medications, especially T4 only therapy. Most prople do much better with natural dessicated pig thyroid medications suchas Armour Thyroid. 4) Many patients who are being treated with thyroid medications are under dosed because (again) doctors use normal ranges of lab tests to guid them when body temperature is a much better tool. You body temperature is a direct reflection of the activity of thyroid hormones in you body, doesn't it make more sense to adjust the medication to keep youbody temperature in the "normal range"?

I am a fan and recommend this book. If you or someone you know suffers from a thyroid disease and you have been frustrated by the treatment you have recieved then read this book. Dr.Starr has a passion to help those suffering from thyroid disease including himself and his family members. This book is very indepth and has a lot of somewhat technical information. However, It's packed full of life changing information and explainations. Dr.Starr does an excellent job of pointing out exactly how modern mainstream medicine has actually declined in knowledge, diagnosis and treatment of thyroid diseases. Drawing from information and reseach around for 5 decades Dr. Starr illistrates his point very well. Some of the information is easier to accept than others. Dr. Starrs revolutionary ideas could change modern medicine.

THIS BOOK, “Hypothyroidism Type 2”, should be a primary reference for every doctor and patient, regardless of specialty or physical problems. Dr. Mark Starr not only clearly explains how the thyroid controls virtually every aspect of bodily functions, but he points to facts that prove that when it isn‘t working right it can be the cause of many illnesses and disease that plague the public. Most doctors are treating numerous diseases that result from a hypothyroid condition – and they know nothing about the thyroid. While reading his book it soon becomes obvious that Dr. Starr has probably done more research on hypothyroidism than any living being. After 76 years of outstanding good health (I only saw three doctors to get Viagra Rx) I went to a doctor with a tingle on the back and side of my skull. He asked to what I attributed my good health for all these years – I replied, “I avoid doctors and hospitals!” Then my health started to go downhill rapidly. For the past year I have seen several Nephrologists, GP’s, and a couple of homeopathic practitioners – had numerous MRIs, Sonograms, X-rays, CTs. EKGs, etc.. . and blood tests at various labs. I finally concluded that half-the-time the doctors didn’t know what they were talking about (and two MDs agreed). I purchased numerous books and spent hundreds of hours researching my symptoms on the Internet. It became somewhat obvious that I had some form of Hypothyroid problem. Then it was a problem to find someone who really knew about the thyroid. Searching the world via the web, I found a forum article on a UK website (LONDON) http://ukconspiracy.myfastforum.org/archive/help-for-hypothyroid-myxedema-natural-thyroid-101__o_t__t_93.html about Dr. Starr who appeared to be really be informed (based on the research I had done). I was certain that this was the person I must see to correct my problems, even if I had to fly to London, England. Was I surprised when I found his address - it turned out his office was just 4 miles from my house in Phoenix, Arizona. And I only encountered one typographical error in the book – in the Index

Hypothyroidism, Type Two by Mark Starr MD is a tribute to many of the great pioneers of thyroid medicine, Broda Barnes MD, Eugene Hertoge, and Lawrence Sonkin MD. The book is a sequel to the Broda Barnes classic on low thyroid and a compilation of evidence that modern lab testing is unreliable for the diagnosis of low thyroid, and the current treatment equally lacking. Partly to seek treatment for his own musculoskeletal pain, Starr went to New York to study pain medicine with Hans Krauss at Cornell Medical Center. Starr later opened his own pain clinic and quickly realized that the majority of his patients responded to thyroid medication with pain relief. If you have read the Broda Barnes book, Hypothyroidism, the Unsuspected Illness, you will find many of the same ideas explained and elaborated by Mark Starr's tribute to the earlier work. For example, the definition of Type Two Hypothyroidism is defined as cellular resistance to the action of thyroid hormone. While thyroid hormone's main action is to increase the size and number of mitochondria, the mitochondrial DNA is highly susceptible to genetic mutations because of maternal transmission. An unforeseen outcome of the medical victory over infectious diseases with modern antibiotics is the creation of new generations of low thyroid children who in earlier times would have succumbed to childhood infectious diseases. They now survive to adulthood thanks to antibiotics, and according to both Starr and Barnes, later develop heart disease as undiagnosed low thyroid adults. The book contains fascinating reprints of old medical book photos of patients with low thyroid before and after treatment, and adds a valuable chapter on clinical signs and symptoms of low thyroid. Another chapter covers Starr's area of expertise which is musculoskelatal pain syndromes and their relation to the low thyroid condition. Another useful chapter explains in detail why dessicated thyroid is more effective than the synthetic T4 commonly used by the medical system. Unlike the Broda Barnes book which was written at the end of a long medical career, Starr's book appears at the relative beginning of his, and one can only wonder what future additional insights he will share after 30 years of medical practice. Jeffrey Dach MD

As anyone knows who has used endocrinologists, it is totally frustrating to be treated by a doctor who treats lab tests, rather than symptoms. Mark Starr is a doctor who treats symptoms, and who is willing to use thyroid-suppressive therapies to get rid of all symptoms, so this puts him ahead of the pack. His description of thyroid resistance and its genetic under-pinnings is really helpful. However, I rate this book only 3 stars. I do this because Starr's account is incomplete. He completely fails to acknowledge the existence of rT3 (reverse T3, or DT3, the mirror image of LT3, which is the desirable left-hand form) and the use of the FT3/rT3 ratio as a diagnostic measure. As a survivor of celiac disease who understands how the deranged biochemistry of Celiac-Sprue can force the body into making excess rT3, I know why it is important for some patients to have combination T3+T4 therapy, or even T3-only therapy, which Starr does not do. I have closely followed the thought of John C. Lowe DC on the benefits of T3 therapy, as well as the thought of alternative practitioners like Kent Holtorf MD, who frequently uses time-release T3 on his patients. Starr appears to be unaware of the trends in treatment initiated by practitioners such as Lowe and Holtorf.

After decades of not getting help from Western Medicine Dr's (a.k.a. band aide medicine specialists), I set out to try to find out what my health issues were related to and if there was any treatment / cure. It all started with the late night talk show Larry King Live. I watched Suzanne Summers discuss hormone imbalances in women, which was part of what I knew I had. From there it led to learning about adrenal deficiency and then hypothyroidism (references from her book). I was reading my medical history in black in white print in this book, although I never met the author. I had pretty much had every single symptom / medical history listed and have the Germanic background (first generation US). I wanted to rub it into the face of every doctor who pretty much made me feel like a hypochondriac. It probably wouldn't have done anything though, since most Western Medicine Drs don't acknowledge Hypothyroidism Type II. I finally got assistance from endocrinologists after many painful years of trying to find doctors who prescribed bio-identical hormones (I had severe problems with almost every single pharmaceutical version as described in this book). The original Armour Thyroid medication along with adrenal deficiency treatment gave me temporary hope that I could live a "normal life". I was actually able to come off adrenal medication. Unfortunately, with the reformulation of Armour Thyroid I was back at ground zero. The new formulation sent my body into hell. Multiple dessicated hormones later, I finally found one that helped, although I am unable to come off of adrenal deficiency medication. It isn't as effective as the original formulation of Armour Thyroid. All the others I tried made me feel worse with varying negative symptoms. One comment I would like to make... when a doctor tells you to stay on a drug or hormone that makes you feel worse... trust your body and instincts if it tells you to stop taking it. Maybe do some research on your own if you are able to understand medical and technical information (try blogs & dedicated websites). I am a realist and have a research background / personality. This has helped me get to the healthier place where I am today. I am not sure why Dr's tell you to stay on drugs if you are having adverse events. In my case staying on medications that cause adverse events has never led to improved symptoms, so I now listen to my body instead. On the flip side, I started to feel a positive change from the original Armour Thyroid formulation on the very first day. With the medication I now take, I didn't initially feel worse, rather just the same. Since I didn't feel worse I decided to give it a try. In time it gradually did help. In this day and age, you really need to take your health into your own hands if you ever want to beat an illness. Listen to your body... it tells you everything!

Everyone on earth needs the wisdom, studies and treatments in this book. Because of electricity and microwaves - which are uninsulated electricity - we are all being slowly electrocuted. Our thyroid that controls our body voltage cannot keep up. Everyone I know has symptoms of hypothyroidism now. Mainstream Doctors are clueless as they are taught falsehoods. Help is needed. You will find it in this book.

Mark Starr makes a lot of sense and answered some long standing questions I've had about this condition. It was especially enlightening to learn about the mitochondrial DNA link and bodily appearance of those suffering with an under-performing thyroid. Mucin is vile stuff and very hard to rid your body of; this text fully explains the "bulk" that is neither fat, nor water retention found in key "tell-tale" areas of the body (upper arms especially). My only disappointment was with the ancillary essay by Jerry Tennant in support of Mark Starr's findings. The Tennant material is too "kooky" and "out there" for my tastes and unfortunately does make me hesitate to recommend this book to some of my friends and relatives. I was frustrated by this detraction from the credibility of an otherwise thoroughly sensible and fabulously researched text.

This book is a wealth of information based on studies It provides a good understanding of hypothyroidism and its effects. Provides good information to understand why you experience certain symptoms Technical but written in layman’s terminology therefore easy to understand.

Ce livre fait partie de mes bibles ! Il est clair, bien écrit et parfaitement documenté. Quant au contenu, les infos données sont intéressantes et novatrices sur pas mal de points. Un livre qui permet de mieux comprendre le problème de l'hypothyroidie et qui donne envie de se faire soigner par ce cher Dr Starr... Je dis "cher" car en plus d'être loin, il est cher (j'ai vu son site sur le Net). Mais c'est un autre débat et son livre est formidable ! Seul bémol: il est écrit en anglais, sinon je l'aurais bien offert à mon généraliste...

Aborda casos de hipotireoidismo subclínico, quando os exames médicos dão normais mas os sintomas do hipotireoidismo continuam presentes. Bastante útil tanto para quem quer fazer o tratamento por conta quanto para médicos.