I would like to tell you that I admire the work of WDDTY enormously.

With regard to the article by Doris Jones (‘The scandal of thyroid care’) and the suspension of Dr Barry Durrant-Peatfield (WDDTY, vol 12 no 5), it may interest your readers to know that I have had tremendous success in treating my underactive thryroid with the help of a nutritionist, medical herbalist and homoeopath, and through exercise, meditation and creative visualisation.

My GP has been extremely supportive of my decision not to take drugs over the past three years and is quite amazed at what I have achieved. Maybe she was prepared to go along with my ideas because my T4 levels never fell below the lower normal limit. (What is normal anyway?) However, on one occasion, my TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) level dropped down to 24 and she did wobble a little!

My TSH levels are now normal and I am pleased to say that my thyroid is now functioning normally.

I am gradually reducing the supplements I have been taking under the direction of a nutritionist. At present, I am taking a maintenance dose of 5 mL daily of underactive herbal thyroid tincture, TH 207 x 1 daily, Femforte 11 x 1 daily and one homoeopathic dose of Fucus. (Both TH 207 and Femforte 11 are available from BioCare.)

I took responsibility for my own health - against all the odds. As far as orthodox medicine is concerned, I now have an ‘active’ thyroid gland. I read everything I could lay my hands on about the thyroid gland. An article written by Helen Kimber - ‘Complete synergistic support for an underactive thyroid gland’ (reproduced in Nutri News, a newsletter published by The Nutri Centre) - was especially helpful and interesting.

My thyroid was also found to be normal on ultrasound. I arranged to have this test done myself at the Viveka Clinic in St John’s Wood, in London, in conjunction with ultrasound of my breasts. This gave me the confidence to continue with my regime.- E. Barnett, Bucks