Posted by Fletcher on September 18, 2008, at 0:30:33
In reply to Re: 'Normal' Body Temp » Fletcher, posted by Phillipa on September 17, 2008, at 20:39:48
Yes, I've seen all this stuff before in doing my research. When I sought assessment of my thyroid, I went first to an allopathic endocrinologist, who happily told me I was "normal" (based on the word NORMAL printed next to the numbers that came back from the lab).
I took this same test report to my wholistic practitioner (a gifted MD) recognized that the combination of some of my low-normal numbers and my slightly above-normal numbers and he painted the picture: my elevated TSH indicated that my pituitary was trying to get more out of my thyroid and that my thyroid was not responding. That gave me a little more indication of what was going on with me than "you're fine" did.
My doctor held, largely, the same view that the ATA does of Wilson's approach to treating the disease (that it's narrowly focused)-- and he strongly advocated supporting and treating the adrenals before doing anything for the thyroid. However, I do argue against the premise that that "otherwise healthy" individuals show a variety of temperatures throughout the day as an argument against 98.6 being a "normal" body temperature. Everyone's temperature does fluctuate, but you will find that, averaging it out (per the method I described above), does provide a pretty remarkably stable indicator.
You're right to address this, though-- I think Wilson's information is interesting to read, but in the end, he's kind of a nut (as far as his methods go).
I also understand how a vague listing of symptoms may seem like a non-indicator, although the thyroid ~does~ affect every single cell in the body-- and depending upon the individual, it can be different systems that "give in" to the lower energy.
Supposedly, the "other side" of the "complaints" is that many of the complaints were from other doctors treating patients with chronic conditions and his "stealing" those patients and "curing" them.
Two points that they don't address in the ATA "official" brief. One is that, even in Wilson's course, extended T3 therapy isn't recommended. The exact therapy is to administer the T3 until the body reaches and can maintain a 98.6 average temperature, then the T3 is discontinued.
The other point is that they say the T4 turns into T3 in other tissues in the body-- which is true-- but Wilson's premise is that T4 can also be turned into something called "Reverse T3" which supposedly does nothing, which is the argument against using T4 therapy and his argument for using T3.
Anyway, it's a complex issue, obviously. I also don't have that much faith in any of those A*A associations-- like the ADA that says "Mercury is fine!" As always, do your own research, your mileage may vary, don't believe any one thing you read. :)
poster:Fletcher
thread:851084
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20080915/msgs/852588.html