Is hypothyroidism your problem?

For millions of Americans, fatigue, weight gain, hair loss, depression, and other symptoms often go undiagnosed and untreated. Endured by weary patients and ignored by doctors, common warning signs of hypothyroidism are often attributed to depression, stress, age, or simply dismissed as "all in the patient's head." Even diagnosed, hypothyroidism is frequently treated improperly, preventing countless numbers of people from feeling and living well.

This book, exhaustively researched by a professional writer and hypothyroidism patient, is written for patients, their families, their doctors, and the countless number of people with undiagnosed or undertreated symptoms of the disease---frustrated, as the author was, by the lack of information on the subject.

Living Well With Hypothyroidism includes dozens of compelling, first-person accounts from people who have learned to triumph over the disease and thoroughly answers such questions as:

Shomon knows of what she speaks: she's a health writer and thyroid patient herself. She also manages a thyroid Web site and writes a newsletter on hypothyroidism. In Living Well, she offers an extensively researched guide to this complex condition. She covers conventional, alternative, and late-breaking approaches to treatment--such as challenging the gold standard of Synthroid as the thyroid replacement therapy of choice. (Synthroid replaces T4, the less active of the two thyroid hormones, and Shomon features new research on adding T3--the more potent thyroid hormone--to treatment.)

With her down-to-earth, patient-centered approach, Shomon explains everything from how to choose a thyroid specialist to how calcium, antidepressants, and a high-fiber diet affect thyroid hormone absorption. The book includes a chapter on depression, which is a typical misdiagnosis of hypothyroidism--as well as a symptom that often persists even after treatment. She also covers infertility (women who are hypothyroid don't ovulate as regularly and miscarry more frequently) and thyroid cancer, one of the less common causes of hypothyroidism. She explains how to spot hypothyroidism in kids, and ends with a glossary, international resources, and journal references.

Shomon creates a sense of community by excerpting e-mails from her vast network of patients--voices that bring a sense of humor so often missing from health books. One quibble: she could have avoided the antidoctor stance in the beginning of her book, where she blames physicians, rather than incomplete science, for the misdiagnosis and treatment of hypothyroidism. --Rebecca Taylor