A short YouTube monologue by McCall McPherson arguing that standard medical practice over-relies on TSH testing and one-size-fits-all levothyroxine (Synthroid) treatment, leaving many patients symptomatic despite “normal” labs. The speaker urges broader testing, individualized medication options, and offers Modern Thyroid Clinic as a resource where patients often improve.
Chapters
I want to start the process of offering you all some clarity on why you go to your doctor and he or she tells you that you're fine, your labs are normal, and this isn't your thyroid that's bothering you, even though you have every symptom of hypothyroidism. Okay, to be very honest, medicine and our medical training, I'm a pa. Doctors are trained the same. Our medical training, hypothyroidism is not really a super big deal. It's really common, it's really easy to fix. It's this one size fits all approach, right? People come in, they only get their TSH checked, which is absolutely a terrible, antiquated way of doing things. But again, this is how we're trained. And then everyone gets put on the same regimen, at least to start. And honestly, for most everyone's life, it is start them on the lowest dose of Levothyroxine or Synthroid. If they need more on their next round of labs, you increase them and you do that until their labs are normal. If they still have symptoms, then it's because they don't have a thyroid disorder that's causing them symptoms, when in reality that's not the case. So we are still waiting for medicine to catch up on the severity and the significance and the complexity of treating hypothyroidism. It is something that I describe to my patients as if you're being treated only by way of your TSH with a medication that's all inactive, like Levothyroxine or Synthroid. It is like throwing darts at a dartboard blindfolded, hoping to hit a bullseye and giving someone their life back. Anything outside of that bullseye, people are left with fatigue, brain fog, weight gain, no sex drive, depression, poor digestion, dry skin, hair loss, amongst a million other things. Okay, so the reality is eventually medicine will realize that, hey, you know, there are different medications that we can give these people that so much of the time are so much more helpful. Hey, we need to be checking these more in depth labs to get a true picture of what's going on in the lives of these human beings. For now, we're waiting. And for now, there are doctors out there doing this. Yes, they are few and far between. But if you are a thyroid patient and you're still having symptoms of hypothyroidism or Hashimoto's, don't give up hope, don't resign to the fact that it actually isn't your thyroid and that you need to lose weight or all of these other things, or this is just how you're supposed to feel for the rest of your life. I promise you that there is someone out there that can help you. Our patients at Modern Thyroid Clinic, we are the end of their road. We are their 16th, 20th doctor. And most of the time, these people start feeling better in days, weeks, max, a few months. So there's hope. You guys don't give up.
