 Dr.
Gordon Skinner, a distinctly Scottish man, and dedicated doctor
loved by his patients, has chosen a road seldom travelled by
medical doctors. He advocates common sense hand in hand with
mainstream medical science.
Some ten years ago he was asked by colleagues to see patients
who were deemed to have myalgic encephalopathy or chronic
fatigue syndrome or post viral syndrome or post viral fatigue on
account of his interest in virus disease. He noted that a number
of these patients had clinical features of hypothyroidism but
had ‘normal’ levels of thyroid hormones which would lead most
workers in the field to reject a diagnosis of hypothyroidism.
Dr Skinner has since treated and returned to health many
patients who were clinically hypothyroid but had normal thyroid
chemistry and has reported these results in a preliminary paper
entitled “Clinical response to thyroxine sodium in clinically
hypothyroid but biochemically euthyroid patients”.
A second issue concerns use of a porcine thyroid extract (Armour
Thyroid) which was used extensively in the United Kingdom until
introduction of synthetic hormones but was removed from the
British National Formulary for reasons which remain unclear.
He is disappointed that many doctors have little enthusiasm or
will to examine this critical shortfall in patient care
which in part motivated his book “Diagnosis and Management of
Hypothyroidism”.
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More ,
Dr G. Skinners Short Biography (MS Word)
, Dr G. Skinners Full CV (MS Word)
Please
feel free to have a look around the site which contains useful
information.
Detailed
information on the problems of hypothyroidism and discussion on
general problems in the delivery of medical care can be found on
the FAQS page and other links.
What
Is Hypothyroidism?
An
official description of hypothyroidism states:
Hypothyroidism n. subnormal activity of the thyroid
gland. if present at birth and untreated leads to *cretinism. In
adult life it causes mental and physical slowing, undue
sensitivity to cold, slowing of the pulse, weight gain, and
coarsening of the skin (myxoedema). The condition can be
treated by administration of thyroxine. (Copyright OXFORD
REFERENCE, Concise Medical Dictionary, Third Edition 1990 from
Oxford University Press)
Dr Gordon R B Skinner is concerned that in General and Hospital
Practice the diagnosis of hypothyroidism is based almost
entirely on thyroid chemistry and many patients remain
undiagnosed for in some cases as long as 20 years. He believes
that this shortfall represents a further example of a current
misunderstanding of the meaning of evidence based medicine where
the best evidence namely what the patient tells you (clinical
features) is considered less important than laboratory tests and
indeed is often totally ignored by medical pracitioners.Read More
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