Comment on The Thyroid Madness: Two Apparently Contradictory Studies. Proof?

Fri, 15 Apr 2016 20:29:52 GMT

I'm confused. Aren't these clinical symptoms of hypothyroidism?

Ah. They are clinical symptoms of hypothyroidism. But they are also symptoms of all sorts of other things. In fact they are symptoms that occur in people who have nothing wrong with them at all.

To diagnose it by clinical symptoms you have to be much more careful than that! See e.g. Billewicz paper.

More specific symptoms were apparently things like ankle tendon reflex, and cholesterol levels, but you need to be really careful. The disease was known as 'the great imitator'. It's easy to confuse with other things, and diagnosing it was really difficult and a job for trained professionals.

I got the impression that if they had strong suspicions, they'd just try thyroid hormones and see if they worked.

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