Dr. Robert Whitfield discusses how chronic inflammation can produce blood markers and clinical pictures that mimic autoimmune thyroid disease (Hashimoto's) but may actually reflect inflammation-driven hypothyroidism. He distinguishes hypothyroid from Hashimoto's, notes that antibody titers can fall after interventions like explant, and critiques rote rheumatology diagnoses and treatments (plaquenil, methotrexate, steroids) when underlying inflammation is unaddressed. He gives a clinical example of a missed breast implant infection presenting only with fatigue and no overt signs or abnormal routine labs.
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So like I said, they would say you had Hashimoto's or whatever they told you. You don't. You had inflammation generated from. And I haven't seen all your genetics. I. I have my suspicions of what they are. But you. I had hypothyroid, not Hashimoto's. Different. It is. Okay, but many of the people who have Hashimoto's are hypothyroid. Got it. And they'll have antibodies, but then when you do their explant, their antibody titers will go way down. So they're getting all these diagnoses. Diagnoses. I don't even know how to say it, but diagnoses. Diagnoses that they wouldn't necessarily get if they weren't chronically inflamed. Yeah. I think when you look at it, rheumatology, the folks who end up seeing these patients, and it's very like rote. I get people who are put on plaquenil, methotrexate, steroids because of these different disorders. And the number of people that come to me with lupus and I'm just like, did you have lupus when you were a kid? No. Well, I don't believe you magically got lupus when you were 35. So I look at it as these traditional blood markers are showing signs of inflammation. And that's where I said the bridging the gap between traditional allopathic medicine and things like we do with functional genomics and understanding better, like what to test for, well provide, you know, clarity to this situation. The problem is if you don't show up with a red swollen breast, nobody thinks that's a problem. But I know it's a problem because I've take. I've missed one of these in 2016 where somebody had a breast implant infection. It's cancer patient. I took it out and afterwards found out they had an infection. I was like, how did I miss an infection? Because she didn't have any signs or symptoms. It wasn't red, it wasn't swollen. She didn't have anything on her blood work that was abnormal. Her main complaint was she was tired.
