Elle Russ chats with Paul Robinson about his latest book The Thyroid Patient’s Manual. Paul is a thyroid patient who became ill with hypothyroidism in his late 20s. He was eventually able to recover using T3-only replacement therapy. He has written 2 other books: Recovering with T3 and The CT3M Handbook.
At first, Paul, was put on the most common thyroid treatment - Levothyroxine (also known as Synthroid or T4-only). However, the majority of his symptoms remained, much like they do for many on T4-therapy. Over time he became even more ill, with both low cortisol and low thyroid symptoms.
Paul saw many endocrinologists and doctors as he got more desperate and worried. During this time, he was told, "You will have to live with it”, “You have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome", "You cannot have a thyroid issue, as your thyroid results are within range". Even though these statements were nonsense, Paul was written-off by the medical profession.
Eventually, he realized that he had to figure out what was wrong himself. Natural dessicated thyroid (NDT) did not help him. T4/T3 combinations did not help him. The struggle over many years cost him his career and damaged his relationships. He had lost all of his thirties and some of his forties on this struggle.
Paul got well by using T3 on its own - with no T4 at all. He calls this T3-Only treatment. He developed a safe and effective protocol for using T3 (Liothyronine) and developed a way of raising cortisol levels if needed. Paul has now been taking T3-Only (T3-monotherapy) for over 20 years and has worked with thousands of hypoththyroid and low cortisol patients.
He knows that every individual thyroid patient needs a solution that suits him or her.
With good clinical judgment, and all the available thyroid treatments, there is no reason for anyone to stay unwell for a long time on poor thyroid treatment. When this happens it can seriously affect someones's life.
Paul wrote his third book The Thyroid Patient’s Manual to help any patient, whether they merely suspect thyroid disease, or are already under treatment that may not be going well. It covers all types of thyroid medications (not just T3). It is also consistent with recent research findings, regarding thyroid diagnosis and treatment and will help patients and doctors alike. The new book has been described by Thyroid UK as ‘essential reading’ for all hypothyroid patients and it has been awarded 5 star reviews by most readers on Amazon. Its main goal is to provide enough information to enable a thyroid patient to get well as fast as possible.
SELECTED LINKS:
Paul's website: http://recoveringwitht3.com
Paul on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/recoveringwitht3),
Twitter (https://twitter.com/RWT3Paul)
YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/user/RecoveringwithT3/videos).