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Archived
E-mail Newsletters Fibromyalgia Research Foundation
The Metabolic Treatment
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December
7, 2003 New Items: Doctor
Says No Patient Needs to Take T3, Last week, I received an email from a colleague who treats patients based on our protocol described in The Metabolic Treatment of Fibromyalgia. In his email, the colleague copied to me an email he’d recently received from another physician. The other physician made two statements in his email that left my colleague bereft of a reply: that no patient needs to use T3, and that using T3 can be dangerous. He asked me to reply to the statements. I agreed for the following reasons. Many patients can maintain good health only when they use T3. Understandably, some of these patients get confused and worried when they read a physician’s firm denouncement of T3 therapy. Showing such denouncements to be false is therefore important to the peace of mind of patients who must use T3. In addition, the interest of scientific truth is served only when these physicians come face-to-face with evidence that shows their denouncements to be false and potentially harmful to patients. I’ve replied to the physician’s statements about T3, showing his reasoning to be invalid and his conclusions wrong. We've published my reply on drlowe.com so that it’s available to anyone interested in the communications. Should
You Get a Flu Shot? Maybe Not if You Have a A few supporters of our work have urged me to publicly keep quiet about my not getting flu shots. Their argument is this: Conventional doctors accept without question that most people should get annual flu shots. If you openly disagree with them, they’re likely to brand you an irresponsible maverick. Once they do, they’re likely to also brand as irresponsible your beliefs about fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome and their relation to thyroid disease. Even if they’re wrong about flu shots, keep quiet about it. If they think you agree with them, they’re more likely to open-mindedly consider your beliefs about fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome. I do see the point to this advice. If I challenge any presumption of conventional doctors, I’m likely to pay a price. The best way to avoid paying the price is to quote some of their conventional colleagues who believe as I do. This is easy enough when it comes to flu shots. The beliefs of these conventional colleagues are important to fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome patients. We've included them in the section below for those who’re wondering whether they should get flu shots. In the Fall 2003 issue of The CFS Research Review, Kasia Faryna advised doctors to take a balanced view toward annual flu shots.[1] When patients with chronic fatigue syndrome ask about flu shots, Faryna wrote, doctors should balance risks against benefits. (Most researchers consider chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia the same disorder.) Faryna quoted Charles Lapp, MD, Director of the Hunter-Hopkins Center in Charlotte, NC. Dr. Lapp has clinical experience with thousands of chronic fatigue syndrome patients who’ve had flu shots. The shots often cause a relapse or worsening of the patients’ symptoms. Because of this, he advises them not to receive flu vaccine. "Not only do some patients relapse after the flu vaccination," Dr. Lapp said, "many don’t develop antibodies to the vaccination. Thus, you may suffer the discomfort of a shot plus the misery of a relapse, and not even develop immunity." In his opinion, though, there are two exceptions: when a patient has taken the vaccine and tolerated it well, and when a chronic fatigue syndrome patient also has a serious chronic illness such as emphysema, diabetes, or heart disease. Charles Shepherd, MD, shares Dr. Lapp’s view. He said a substantial percentage of his chronic fatigue syndrome patients have mild-to-moderate relapses after flu inoculations. In Dr. Shepherd’s clinical experience, two groups of patients seem more likely to have adverse reactions to flu shots: those who only recently developed chronic fatigue syndrome; and those with ongoing symptoms of infection, such as sore throats and swollen glands. Internist Alan Pocinki, MD commented that some antiviral part of the immune systems of chronic fatigue syndrome patients seems to be "upregulated." Because of this, these patients are more resistant to viral infections. "For them," he says, "I think the risks of an adverse reaction to the shot outweighs the potential benefit, unless they are at high risk for some other reason." In my view, the comments of Joseph F. John, MD reveal what I consider the most troubling issue about flu shots. "I think the benefits outweigh the risks because the effects of true influenza for [chronic fatigue syndrome] patients are devastating and may last a long time." Then he said: "There may be some downside from the vaccine, but it really has not been studied. That would make a good project." [Italics mine.] The potential downside for many patients, not just those with chronic fatigue syndrome, hasn't been studied or reported. Providing flu shots is a hugely profitable endeavor. Unfortunately, when a medical procedure such as flu shots is generating enormous amounts of money, corporate fellows and medical researchers begin working to persuade as many people as possible to submit to the procedure—regardless of any possible downside for those people. My personal view is that some small percentage of the public probably benefits from flu shots. But most people can raise their resistance to the flu, if they will, by harmless, non-invasive methods that contribute to their overall health. By using these methods rather than getting flu shots, most people could avoid altogether the question of whether flu shots pose a risk to their health. Whether flu shots pose health risks is a tough one to answer on scientific grounds. The reason is that this particular medical field, like so many others today, is rife with political intrigue, collusion for financial gain, and research fraud and incompetence. Because of this, we never know what research findings get pushed under the carpet, and it’s reasonable to hold suspect the data that does make it into journals. Moreover, we'd be foolish to accept as truthful the information that government health agencies fed to us through press releases. These tragic circumstances make it difficult, if not impossible, to reach factually accurate conclusions about any benefits or risks of flu shots. I sincerely wish I could celebrate flu shots as a triumph of medical science, but a commitment to scientific truth keeps me from doing so. Reference German Measles Vaccine: A Cause of Joint & Muscle Pain In 1996, researchers reported 124 claims for compensation for chronic joint pain after the people received rubella (German measles) vaccine. German measles is a contagious viral disease that's usually mild. Patients have fever, mild upper respiratory congestion, and a fine red rash that lasts a few days. If a woman contracts it during early pregnancy, it may cause serious damage to the fetus. Some of the 124 patients developed muscle pain in addition to joint pain, and some received a diagnosis of fibromyalgia. Most patients’ symptoms developed within 1-to-6 weeks after they were vaccinated. That the vaccine caused the patients' joint pain was the conclusion of both The National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program and the US Court of Federal Claims.[1] Reference
November
15, 2003 New Items: Anti-Armour
Propaganda Campaign: In the last few months, several people have written to me asking the same two questions about Armour Thyroid: First, "Is Armour dangerous?" and second, "Is Armour about to be taken off the market?" The typical answer I’ve given is posted at http://www.drlowe.com/QandA/askdrlowe/mostrecent.htm. Scroll down to "November 12, 2003." These questions are in response to a propaganda campaign that’s underway to discredit Armour as a safe and effective thyroid hormone product. The propaganda has also prompted a third question from a few doctors and patients: "Why does Forest Pharmaceuticals, the company that markets Armour, remain quiet, never defending the product? Since I had this same question, I phoned an official at Forest Pharmaceuticals to get an answer. What she told me should comfort those who’ve been concerned about Armour being taken off the market. According to her, Forest has no intention of stopping production of Armour. "Why," I asked her, "does Forest never reply to Armour’s critics?" She explained, "Other companies such as Abbott Laboratories [marketer of Synthroid] have sales reps who actively promote the companies’ products. We don’t have reps or even a department that promotes or markets Armour, and that’s why we don’t give rebuttals or do counter-detailing." I asked what "counter-detailing" is. She said it’s a marketing practice some drug companies use to outsell competitive drugs of other companies. This isn’t the first time other companies have used counter-detailing against Armour. "We’ve heard it all before," she said. "We’ve heard for years that Armour is being taken off the market, and people phone and ask us about it. I guess we’re just immune to it now." She assured me that sales of Armour have not been down and the future for the product is bright. Patients and doctors should seriously consider the implication of Forest not having to market Armour. Those of us who have open-mindedly evaluated its effectiveness have reached the same conclusion: Clinical results from the use of Armour are far superior to those of Synthroid and other T4 products. Armour’s effectiveness will keep the product selling well, as it has for a hundred years. In contrast, Abbott Laboratories will have to keep aggressively promoting sales of Synthroid—if it’s to continue selling. Lyn Mynott &
Thyroid UK Petition 10 Downing Street On October 30, 2003, Lyn Mynott, Chairwoman of Thyroid UK, and others delivered a petition to UK Prime Minister Tony Blair at 10 Downing St. The petition protests Blair’s proposed nationwide fluoridation of water supplies. Thyroid UK protests the proposal for several reasons, as explained in a letter to Thyroid UK members: (a) Government ministers have given Thyroid UK no assurances that they would seriously consider the available scientific evidence of the potential harm from fluoridation. Instead, ministers are uninformed, or they deliberately ignore or suppress the facts. (b) No credible evidence shows that fluorides in water improve dental health; instead, some scientific evidence shows that the fluorides worsen dental health. All European countries except Spain have discontinued water fluoridation. (c) Despite assurances from the British Medical Association and British Dental Association, fluorides are clearly toxic to humans. They disrupt the thyroid system in several ways and damage bone and teeth. (d) Fluoridation of water is a blatant abuse of human rights and is being proposed for a political reason. The petition, signed by several hundred thyroid patients, states: "Dear Mr Blair: I suffer from and receive treatment for thyroid disease. Having carefully considered all the evidence, it is clear to me that fluoridation of the public water supply will confer little or no benefit to the dental health of the nation. Fluorides are recognized Schedule 2 Poisons, and the evidence of their toxicity, even in small doses, is overwhelming. In particular, they are widely known to damage the production, control, and use of thyroid hormone in the body, which will have a serious effect on my health. I therefore formally deny you my permission to compel me, against articles 3, 5 and 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights, and against my own wishes, to be medicated with fluoride additives in the public water supply." Thyroid UK recommends that concerned individuals visit the website of the National Pure Water Association: www.npwa.freeserve.co.uk. We strongly recommend Thyroid UK’s website: www.thyroiduk.org. Patron:
Michael Rosen; Chairwoman: Lyn Mynott; Treasurer/Secretary: Eileen Elks. Dr.
Durrant-Peatfield's Views on Fluoridation of In a recent article, Dr. Barry Durrant-Peatfield writes, "To condemn an entire population, already having marginal levels of iodine, to inevitable progressive failure of their thyroid system by fluoridating the water, borders on criminal lunacy." As always, Dr. Durrant-Peatfield delivers his message eloquently and persuasively. Dr. Durrant-Peatfield covers fluoridation plus much more in his book "The Great Thyroid Scandal & How to Survive It." Dr. Lowe writes, "Every patient struggling with thyroid and/or adrenal disorders will benefit immensely from Dr. Durrant-Peatfield’s extraordinary book. http://www.baronsdownpublishing.com 4-Booklet Set Now Available From McDowell Publishing Company McDowell Publishing Company has now made available in a 4-booklet set the most requested articles by Dr. Lowe and his coauthors. Read about the set at: http://www.McDowellPublishing.com/4booklets/4booklets.htm Clinical Care To inquire about long-distance consulting services or treatment at Dr. Lowe's clinic, please contact us by email at Tammy@drlowe.com, or by telephone at (603) 391-6061. Sponsored by © 2003 John C. Lowe. All rights reserved. This Center for Metabolic Health, LLC Email Newsletter may be copied and distributed subject to three conditions: (1) All text within the full document or any section copied must be copied without modification with all pages included. (2) All copies must contain the following copyright notice: "© 2003 John C. Lowe" (3) Neither this full document nor any section of it may be distributed for profit. |
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