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The Metabolic Treatment
of Fibromyalgia

by Dr. John C. Lowe
Readers' Comments



June 23, 1999
Larry Updike interviewed
Dr. John C. Lowe on
CJOB radio (Manitoba, Canada)

Larry Updike interviewed Dr. John C. Lowe  on CJOB radio, wpe2.jpg (4135 bytes)Winnipeg, Canada, on Monday, June 28, 1999, 2-3 PM. Larry and Dr. Lowe discussed the regulation of the thyroid gland and some problems within conventional medicine with the diagnosis and treatment of thyroid dysfunction. Dr. Lowe also answered questions from callers. Because of the fast-paced nature of the program, however, Dr. Lowe was not able to cover a number of important issues. Information on these issues is critical for improving the care of patients with hypothyroidism and/or thyroid hormone resistance. Patients in Manitoba are in particular need of this information. To provide the information not covered during the interview, we will publish here Dr. Lowe's summary. We hope to have this most important information posted here soon. Please check back. (Dr. Lowe extends his thanks to Larry Updike for providing air time, and to Manitoba health activist and medical critic Susan Caine for helping arrange the interview.)

Original Post: June 12, 1999
The Licensed  Dietitian Act--
A Letter from Dr. John C. Lowe to
Texas Governor George W. Bush

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On June 8, 1999, Mart Whittekin, a health liberties activist with Texans for Health Freedom, e-mailed Dr. John C. Lowe. She explained that Governor George W. Bush had a bill on his desk that had been slipped past in the closing moments of the Texas Legislature. She explained that the Governor had 20 days to either sign the bill or veto it. Senate Bill 1525 would give licensed dietitians a virtual monopoly on professional services related to diet and nutrition. Health care practitioners licensed in Texas, such as MDs, DCs, D.O.s, DDSs, and nurses, would be exempt. (Mart correctly pointed out, "Of those exempted, only chiropractors usually have any nutrition training.") However, practitioners for whom there was no licensing would, with passage of the bill, be prohibited from charging a fee for dietary and nutritional counseling and therapy. Who would be excluded? Clinical nutritionists, naturopaths, non-MD homeopaths, PhD nutrition counselors, and many other professionals. Passage of the bill would deny these practitioners an income from their professional services. As Martie explained, these professionals "will be either criminals or unemployed unless Governor Bush vetoes the Act." 

Martie was correct. A copy of Senate Bill 1525 was posted at "Texas Legislature Online." Section 3(c) of the proposed Act stipulated: "Unless the person is licensed under this Act, a person may not for compensation provide nutrition services or hold that person out as authorized by law to provide nutrition services." According to Section 3(d), violation of the law would be a Class B misdemeanor. Section 15A(a) read: "In this Section, 'giving advice concerning nutrition' or 'providing nutritional advice' means giving information on the use and role of food and food ingredients, including dietary supplements."

After communicating with Martie, Dr. Lowe promptly wrote and sent a letter to Governor Bush. In it, he requested that the Governor veto SB1525. Read Dr. Lowe's full letter to the Governor.

We posted a request here for concerned citizens to contact the Governor's office before June 20th, 1999. By asking him to veto the bill, citizens would help ensure citizens' rights and freedom of choice in health care professionals.

In another e-mail dated June 12, 1999, Martie wrote: "Activists in Austin are meeting to protest SB1525. They will be on the Capitol steps at 10AM on Monday June 14. How appropriate. That is flag day and we are standing up for our rights that the flag represents. Please spread the word to anyone you know in Austin."

Updated Post: June 21, 1999
Outcome

The efforts of many people to influence the Governor's decision paid off--he vetoed the bill. In an e-mail send out by Martie Whittekin on June 21, 1999, she wrote: "History tells us that only massive pressure from citizens could have created the motivation and comfort level for the Governor to go against the nearly unanimous action of the legislature. He stood up for the people against the big money special interests. A call or fax to give him an 'attaboy' might help him understand that we will still be watching should he become President." We praise Martie for the time and effort she invested to  successfully rally opposition to SB1525.

March 11, 1999
Two Patients Take Conventional
Endocrinology to Task

Physicist John Ziman wrote an excellent book on the grounds for belief in science.  In it, he said: "The experts in a particular field can become so indoctrinated and so committed to the current paradigm that their critical and imaginative powers are inhibited, and they cannot 'see beyond their own noses.'"  When the experts can no longer see beyond their noses, the public has grounds for not believing in their science. In recent years, steadily growing numbers of people have expressed the belief that the experts in conventional endocrinology can't "see beyond their noses." Why do people express this belief about the experts? Mainly for one reason: The experts' beliefs about thyroid hormone treatment keep many people sick. And these people remain sick until they undergo treatment by  practitioners who don't share the experts' beliefs. Obviously, the expert's beliefs are wrong. Yet despite the continuing illness of patients and their subsequent recovery under the care of other practitioners, the experts hold tenaciously to their false beliefs. It is little wonder then that patients question the credibility of  conventional endocrinology "experts."  

Professor Ziman also wrote, "In these circumstances, scientific progress may come to a halt--knowledge may even regress--until intellectual intruders come through the interdisciplinary frontiers and look at the field without preconceptions."

Scientific progress in the treatment of hypothyroid patients has regressed. Before the early 1970s, most hypothyroid patients were satisfied with the safe and effective treatment doctors provided. But in the early 70s, the TSH and other modern thyroid tests came into widespread use. With the advent of these tests, endocrinologists agreed among themselves to permit patients to take only half the dosage of thyroid hormone previously used. In addition, one powerful pharmaceutical company purchased the allegiance of conventional endocrinology. In accord with the implicit financial deal, conventional endocrinology used its authority for the good of the company. The "experts" influenced patients and their doctors to believe that the only legitimate thyroid product to use was that company's brand--a brand we now know often provides patients with inferior treatment results.

In recent years, out of this sorry state of affairs, examples of the "intellectual intruders" Ziman referred to have come forth. Some of these "intruders" are doctors outside the endocrinology fraternity. They are dedicated foremost to the welfare of patients, and they couldn't care less for the affluence and prestige derived through allegiance to the interests of powerful pharmaceutical companies.

Also among the "intellectual intruders" are some patients forsaken by conventional endocrinology. The beliefs of the experts in conventional endocrinology are partly a product of financial manipulations by pharmaceutical companies. But the beliefs of these intruding patients are a product of personal experience with the miseries caused by the beliefs of the endocrinology experts. These intruding patients are the salvation of other patients who have remained ill because of the beliefs of the experts.

Recently, two such patients, Mary Shomon in the US and Karen Goodfellow in England, have publicly spoken out. These "intruders," with intelligence and eloquence, have taken conventional endocrinology to task. In that most patients' fibromyalgia is a product of too little thyroid hormone regulation of tissues, I urge fibromyalgia patients to read what Mary and Karen have written. I also recommend that physicians--especially endocrinologists--read with an open mind what these two patients have to say. Their views may help melt away the cognitive shackles buckled into place by vested corporate interests through conventional medical education. ---Dr. John C. Lowe

Reference
John Ziman: "Reliable Knowledge: An Exploration of the Grounds for Beliefs in Science." Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1978.

Mary Shomon
(Mary Shomon is an author and producer of
the popular and award winning thyroid disease
Web site and the newsletter Sticking Out Our Necks)

Karen Goodfellow
(Karen Goodfellow is Research and Development
Officer of the International Thyroid Group in England.)