WHO WE ARE?
A patient-run registered not-for-profit organization that advocates for better diagnosis, testing, and treatment for patients with all types of thyroid disorders. Thyroid disorders include hypothyroidism, hyperthyroidism, thyroid cancers, goiter, thyroid nodules, as well as chronic and acute illnesses and nutritional imbalances that distort thyroid hormones and TSH. We also provide science-based peer support to patients in our private Facebook group.
Our mission
We promote health by providing individuals with thyroid disabilities with patient-led peer support communities and science-based public education, and by publicly advocating for improvements to thyroid health care policy and research.
Thyroid disorders speak… But are people listening?
Thyroid diseases are a significant group of endocrine disorders in most countries. But no published scientific research has examined the prevalence of thyroid diseases across Canada, despite some organizations’ claim that 1 in 10 Canadians have a thyroid disorder.
Thyroid hormones co-regulate the healthy function of every tissue and organ in the human body. But most physicians do not understand the symptoms and signs of significant thyroid hormone changes in blood cells, brain, liver, kidneys, muscles, and gastrointestinal tract.
Delayed thyroid diagnosis, misdiagnosis, and mistreatment are tragic and costly. But the long-term personal and economic costs of thyroid hormone ignorance are much harder to calculate than the short-term cost savings of sweeping FT3 and FT4 test cancellations.
Thyroid science has the potential to improve the treatment chronic diseases in people with treated hypothyroidism. But scientists have barely begun to study how such patients’ chronic diseases respond to changes in LT4 doses and LT3-inclusive treatments. Treated hypothyroid patients are routinely excluded from studies of thyroid hormone levels in chronic diseases.