Cancer diagnoses questioned

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Cancer diagnoses questioned

By Jeremy Olson STAR TRIBUNE

MINNEAPOLIS — Overdiagnosis of thyroid cancer in the United States could be causing thousands of patients to receive costly and unnecessary procedures that won’t increase the quality or length of their lives.

The findings, published last week in the British Medical Journal by doctors at the Mayo Clinic, have prompted the researchers to recommend a new diagnostic term that could spare people with small throat tumors from surgery, medication and radiation that they might not need.

• Modern high-tech imaging has identified thyroid lesions that once went undetected and fueled a tripling in the diagnosis of thyroid cancer in the U.S. over the past 30 years.

But the increases in diagnoses and treatment haven’t changed the death rate from thyroid cancer, leading the researchers to question whether the effort is wasted on patients who could lead healthy lives without medical intervention.

Many patients who undergo surgery need lifelong medication to compensate for the loss of the thyroid, a butterfly-shaped gland in the throat that regulates the release of hormones that control growth, energy, mood, body temperature and other functions.

• The problem is similar to the overdiagnosis of prostate cancer based on PSA blood tests that can be misleading.

(This is quite disturbing to me, tho not at all surprising.  It is common knowledge about the PSA tests and prostate cancer screening  which has been way overdone.  Many doctors have come out against this procedure which is frightening for the men who trust their doctors and go obediently along with it. But far too many docs have been unwilling to give up their money-pit.

With the thyroid issue, we aren’t dealing with so much a gender thing, because almost everyone in America is so vitally deficient  in iodine.  We all suffer from this in varying ways and some of us more than others.   I’ve dealt with this issue so often that I am reluctant to go into it again.  We are however victims to a massive conspiracy involving governmental decisions,  the inadequacy of the medical community and the greed of the corporate structure.   This, like so much else, is a question of just following the money — it’s a greed thing. 

As to the thyroid gland,  I’ve had the pleasure of reading about doctors who understand the importance of the body’s hormonal system and how to look at it and recognize its various functions;  understand what each gland needs and whether or not the needs are being met and if the members are playing nicely with each other.  They garner much acclaim, gain big reputations and write books.  It is however, hard for average people out here  to have access to  these illumined minds, which kinda throws us all back on ourselves, reading books and searching the internet for voices that sound potentially reasonable.  We need naturopaths and they are hard to find and many of them won’t struggle with the insurance games the world plays now. 

Anyway,  those iodine-deficient glands are going to very often have some degree of nodularity.  It’s to be expected.  To call a small “tumor” a possible cancer is just criminal – – but it appears that this is what’s happening.  Iodine (or Lugol’s solution) is a simple  and logical possibility that many thousands of people have taken to trying and  frequently gaining excellent and rewarding results.  Or you could get lucky and find a Dr Jonathan Wright in your home town. You know, someone sophisticated enough to be able to order and then read a complex blood test printout.  Keep your guard up and ask plenty of questions — and need I say, demand answers.   Jan)