iThyroid.com

BOOK REPORTS

There are numerous books in print on thyroid disease and on nutrition that are valuable to have.  No book is perfect and all have both accurate information and inaccurate information.  It's good to know which information is which.

In this section we'll have a list of books with people's reviews of them.  Many books are out-and-out promotions of current medical treatments like RAI for hyperthyroidism and Synthroid for hypothyroidism which try to convince readers that there is only one approach, "our approach," so don't bother looking anywhere else.  The bias and inaccuracies of these books need to be exposed.

Other books are valuable resources, such as many books on nutrition.  If the thought can always be held that the information may be wrong, then these books are excellent starting points for nutritional investigations.  They give insights on where to look for answers and what nutrients to study. 

If any of you have books you'd like to see on this list, let me know at BU007@aol.com.

BOOKS

The Doctors' Vitamin and Mineral Encyclopedia, Sheldon Hendler, M.D., Simon & Schuster, 1990. Good nutrition information with some data not found in other books.

Dorland's Illustrated Medical Dictionary, W. B. Saunders Company, 1994. This book is a must for anyone who wishes to study medical documents.

The Healing Nutrients Within, Eric Braverman, Keats Publishing, 1997. The best book I've seen on amino acids. Contains information on all the amino acids with descriptions of their functions and effects in the body. Contains information from Braverman's research on the effects of amino acids on different disease conditions.

Healthy Healing, Linda Rector Page, Healthy Healing Publications, 1997. This is a good book to own and is easy to use. Many good suggestions except for the ones concerning the thyroid.

Nutritional Balancing and Hair Mineral Analysis, Dr. Lawrence Wilson, self-published, 1998. Email Dr. Wilson at: Larry@drlwilson.com to purchase this book. This is the best book that I've seen on the interpretation of hair mineral analysis and the book has a lot of good information on the interaction of minerals. 

Nutrition Almanac, Fourth Edition, John and Gayla Kirschmann, McGraw-Hill, 1996.  I have used this book as my "nutrition bible" for over 25 years and buy every new edition. When you want  information look here first. No good information about thyroid disease, however.

Prescription for Nutritional Healing, James and Phyllis Balch, Avery Publishing, 1990. Nutrition book that has good information but I never have found it that valuable.

Textbook of Endocrine Physiology, James Griffin & Sergio Ojeda, Oxford University Press, 1996. Described as a "whistle-stop tour" of physiology because it touches on the high points without getting so deep you get lost. It is a good beginning book for those interested in endocrine physiology. 

Following is an article from NEJM on a book on Chinese Medicine:

From: The New England Journal of Medicine -- July 27, 1995 -- Vol. 333, No. 4

The Practice of Chinese Medicine: The Treatment of Diseases with Acupuncture and Chinese Herbs

By Giovanni Maciocia. 924 pp. New York, Churchill Livingstone, 1994. $110. ISBN 0-443-043051

The National Institutes of Health Office of Alternative Medicine is currently sponsoring nine pilot projects (with grants of $30,000 each) on research involving the use of acupuncture or Chinese herbal medicines. This summer, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is expected to decide whether to change the classification of acupuncture needles from class III (investigational) to class II (safe and efficacious) medical devices. Research and clinical data on acupuncture were submitted to the FDA in five areas of application: acute and chronic pain, emesis (associated with chemotherapy or pregnancy), substance abuse, central nervous system damage (paralysis), and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (asthma).

Fourteen schools or colleges of acupuncture have been accredited in the United States. Programs of study run from three to four academic years, and are offered at the postgraduate level. A national examination for certification in acupuncture is administered by the National Commission for the Certification of Acupuncturists. A prerequisite for this examination is 1300 hours of training in acupuncture. The examination is accepted by 26 states as the basis for the licensure of nonphysician acupuncturists. An examination that covers acupuncture and the use of Chinese herbs, administered by the Acupuncture Committee of the Medical Board of California, requires 2348 hours of training. There are 8000 licensed or certified nonphysician acupuncturists in the United States. Most of the 2000 physicians who practice acupuncture are trained through the American Academy of Medical Acupuncture, which has recently introduced a proficiency examination.

The Practice of Chinese Medicine is an excellent, scholarly contribution to the field of Chinese medicine for the English-speaking community. Chinese medicine has included both acupuncture and Chinese herbal formulas since its first recorded writings (Neijing Suwen and Lingshu [translated as Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine], Han Dynasty, 206 B.C. to A.D. 220). Maciocia's book is one of the first in English to deal with these time-honored methods, demonstrating how they are used in everyday clinical practice. The author has decades of clinical experience in England and has studied extensively at the Nanjing College of Traditional Chinese Medicine in China.

The 34 chapters of the book present information on the diagnosis and treatment of 34 medical conditions from the perspective of traditional Chinese medicine. However, there is not a simple one-to-one relation in which 34 conditions have 34 treatments. Traditional Chinese medicine involves a sophisticated system of differential diagnosis. Because the system is so old (over 2000 years), its terminology is ancient and "foreign" to Western medicine. For example, Chinese medicine often uses the name of an organ (such as "spleen") to refer to its function according to traditional Chinese medical theory (digestion) rather than to its function according to modern medicine (filtering and storing blood).

A strong point of Chinese medicine is its simplicity. For example, the pathologic factors examined in the differential diagnosis are limited in number and can be determined from the patient's history and the physical examination. These factors include heat, cold, dryness, pain, and various emotions. If a patient has received a Western medical diagnosis and presents for treatment with acupuncture and Chinese herbs, the traditional Chinese approach to the differential diagnosis is still considered important in its own right and is used for optimal results.

Most of the 34 chapters in this book focus on general symptoms or conditions (e.g., headaches, sinusitis, cough, mental or emotional problems, and chest pain). Some chapters address specific diseases (e.g., asthma, allergic rhinitis, nephritis, and Parkinson's disease). In each chapter (whether it discusses a symptom or a disease), the author provides the differential diagnosis according to traditional Chinese medicine and then discusses the selection of acupuncture points and Chinese herbal formulas for treatment.

An outstanding feature of the book is that for most of the differential diagnoses the author provides case studies. Even persons without prior knowledge of traditional Chinese medical terminology can read these cases with ease. Maciocia also provides a brief summary of Western differential diagnosis at the end of each chapter, as well as realistic prognoses when Chinese medical treatment is included.

Maciocia mentions the use of Chinese herbs and acupuncture concurrently with Western medicines. For example, he has observed no conflict between the use of inhalers and the use of acupuncture and Chinese herbs in patients with asthma. The patients become aware of improvement as the frequency of their need to use the inhalers diminishes. The author comments that, generally speaking, acupuncture and Chinese herbs can be given in conjunction with Western medication, as exemplified by their use with anticholinergic agents or levodopa (or both) in patients with Parkinson's disease.

In 1971, New York Times columnist James Reston wrote about his positive experience with acupuncture for abdominal discomfort after undergoing an appendectomy in China. Since then, there has been increasing interest in acupuncture in the United States. By 1991, according to a Time-CNN poll, 6 percent of Americans (15 million people) had been treated with acupuncture.

How acupuncture works is unknown, although there are some clues. Research has shown that many acupuncture points on the body have dramatically decreased electrical resistance, as compared with that of the surrounding skin (e.g., 10 kilo-ohms at the center of a point, as compared with 3 mega-ohms in the surrounding skin (J. Hyvarinen and M. Karlsson, "Low-Resistance Skin Points That May Coincide with Acupuncture Loci." Medical Biology 1977;55:88-94). Acupuncture-induced analgesia is mediated by the stimulation of peripheral nerves when acupuncture needles are inserted at the points of decreased resistance. When low-frequency stimulation (4 Hz) is used on the needles, endorphins (and cortisol) are released. High-frequency stimulation (200 Hz) releases serotonin and norepinephrine (B. Pomeranz and G. Stux, Scientific Bases of Acupuncture. New York: Springer-Verlag, 1989). Stimulation on surrounding skin points (sham, or nonacupuncture, points) does not release these neurotransmitters. Acupuncture also appears to promote vasodilation and to increase blood flow both locally and to distant organs (Y. Omura, "Pathophysiology of Acupuncture Treatment: Effects of Acupuncture on Cardiovascular and Nervous Systems." Acupuncture & Electro-Therapeutics Research 1975;1:68-76). Acupuncture points are sometimes stimulated with a low-level, red-beam laser (similar to the 5-mW laser pointer used during lectures) or an infrared-beam laser, instead of with needles, especially in treating children, because nothing is felt.

As more people become educated about acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine, these practices are likely to play a larger, complementary part with Western medicine in improving health care and reducing health care costs in this country. The book by Maciocia is an excellent beginning in this educational process.

Margaret A. Naeser, Ph.D.
Veterans Affairs Medical Center
Boston, MA 02130

Dear John,

Have you read "HYPOTHYROIDISM: The Unsuspected Illness", by Broda O. Barnes, M.D.? Since you were afflicted with hyperthyroidism you may not be interested, but I found it to be fascinating and quite helpful. Dr. Barnes developed an interest in the physiological effects of thyroid insufficiency while still in graduate school and subsequently devoted his practice to it. He is a strong proponent of relying on symptoms to diagnose hypothyroidism and explains why lab tests are often mistaken or misleading. He also was a pioneer in the use of the basal temperature test to help diagnose both hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism. Although published in 1976, it seems to me that many MDs would do well to read his book and the results he was able to obtain using natural thyroid hormone replacement as opposed to the synthetic versions.

The successful diet experiments in which he took part are also worthwhile reading. I myself am following the diet that was given to his subjects and have lost 23 lbs. in a few months. The only alterations I made to the diet was to reduce saturated fats (low-fat dairy, lean meat) and substitute monounsaturated fats and Omega-3 fatty acids to conform to more up-to-date information on the importance of these fats in the diet. While this is a high protein, high fat, low carbohydrate diet, it is not a ketogenic diet like Adkins. It provides plenty of fruits and vegetables which are so important to good health. I lost this weight consuming the same (or more) calories that I previously gained weight on while consuming a low fat- high complex carbohydrate diet!

For anyone suffering from low thyroid, it's worth a read.

With Best Regards,
Dolores

 The Thyroid Solution by Ridha Arem, MD

The Woman Who Knew Too Much. Alice Stewart and The Secrets of 
Radiation (may not be the exact title)

I picked up a book yesterday by a woman doctor who has worked in the nuclear industry for many years. Her book is about how unsafe nuclear medicine is and how data has been covered up. She describes how they jumped the gun in deeming radiation safe in the 50's.

The book is The Woman Who Knew Too Much. Alice Stewart and The Secrets of Radiation, The University of Michigan Press, 1999. Her work with Dr. Kneale and Thomas Mancuso on the Hanford nuclear workers directly contradicted the Hiroshima data on which international radiation standards are based. Earlier, as a doctor at Oxford, she discovered how just one prenatal x-ray doubled a child's risk of developing leukemia.