Dr. Eades has graciously agreed to write up a post on thyroid and iodine. Here’s what he says at the end of his most recent post:

I’ve been so busy lately that I haven’t posted a lot, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been thinking about posting. I’ve got a number of things I’ve been wanting to write about that I plan to have up as soon as the Colpo deal is finished. I want to add my two cents worth on a bunch of the problems some Paleo dieters seem to develop. And I’ve got a post cooking on the thyroid and iodine. One on fructose, and one on saturated fat. Plus the analysis of the next stupid study that will inevitably pop up and seize the imagination of the mainstream media types who will shout it from the rooftops.

Hooray! I’ll definitely owe him the sous vide meatball that I promised him. Then again, he might prefer if I wrote up a post on how to make them. (I have no idea… but here’s a hint.)

I know that I’ve been all gushy for Dr. Eades of late… but he deserves it! Dr. Eades — as well as Dr. Davis and others — have been extremely generous in their blogging. I’ve benefited so much from their medical experience — not just in my abstract understanding of the relevant science but in my rubber-meets-the-road well-being. They’ve earned my respect and my gratitude in spades.

Now to the real point of this post. In requesting a post on thyroid problems, I sent Dr. Eades the following questions as fodder. I have my own preliminary views and suppositions about some of them, but I’m very interested in his answers. Here they are, with links added:

• Why did you choose to put your patients on desiccated thyroid rather than T4-only meds?

• What do you think of using synthetic T4 plus T3 rather than desiccated thyroid? (Kurt Harris claims that synthetic hormones are exactly identical to those in porcine thyroid, and that the addition of T3 is the sole reason why people do better on porcine thyroid than T4-only meds.)
• What do you think of the claim that a person can be hypothyroid despite basically normal lab results? What do you think about the concept of “Type 2 Hypothyroidism“?
• Do you recommend dosing based on symptoms — or by TSH?
• Why do you think that hypothyroidism is so prevalent today? Why do you suspect that it affects more women than men?
• What do you think of the standard view that any dose of iodine above a few hundred micrograms is dangerous, even potentially a cause of hypothyroidism? What is a standard safe dose? Is high-dose iodine dangerous for some people?
• If a person suspects that they might be hypothyroid, what do you recommend that they do? Might iodine alone make a difference — or stave off full-blown hypothyroidism?
• Do you think that a low-carb diet can somehow cause, reveal, exacerbate, or otherwise affect a thyroid problem? (Matt Stone claims that, as do others. [See the PaNu smackdown.]
• Do you think that adrenal fatigue is a genuine problem for some hypothyroid people? If so, what do you recommend doing to treat it?
• What sources do you recommend that people read if they have been diagnosed with or suspect they have hypothyroidism?

I doubt that Dr. Eades can answer all those questions in a single blog post, but I hope that he addresses some of them.