Thyroid for Dummies

031727 Cover_2.qxp 12/14/10 3:02 PM Page 1

Includes information on

The expert guide to

the latest thyroid treatments

UK Edition

taking control of your condition

Thyroid

Thyroid

Tell if you have a thyroid

problem

Understand and manage

your thyroid condition

Understand the

treatments on offer

Don’t get pushed around by the little gland in your neck. Whether you

Deal with your condition

suffer from an underactive or overactive thyroid, nodules, or a goitre,

day-to-day

Thyroid For Dummies
has all the jargon-free information you need to get to grips with the problem and expert advice on how to get your

Get the right diet and

condition under control.

exercise

Alan L. Rubin, MD
has over thirty years’ experience treating thyroid

Manage thyroid

conditions and is the co-author of
Diabetes For Dummies.
Dr Sarah

conditions in children and

Brewer
is the co-author of
Arthritis For Dummies,
a health writer and

older people

broadcaster, and a former Health Journalist of the Year.

Explanations in plain English

@

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Online cheat sheet

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subject categories

Top ten lists

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Browse our free articles

A dash of humour and fun

Alan L. Rubin, MD

Co-author of
Diabetes For Dummies

ISBN 978-0-470-03172-8

Dr Sarah Brewer

£15.99 UK

Co-author of
Arthritis For Dummies

Rubin

A Reference for the Rest of Us!™

UK Edition

Health

Brewer

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01_031727 ffirs.qxp 9/6/06 10:44 PM Page i

Thyroid

FOR

DUMmIES‰

by

Alan L. Rubin, MD

Dr Sarah Brewer

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Thyroid For Dummies®

Published by

John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

The Atrium

Southern Gate

Chichester

West Sussex

PO19 8SQ

England

E-mail (for orders and customer service enquires): [email protected] V
isit our Home Page on www.wiley.com

Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, Chichester, West Sussex, England Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, Chichester, West Sussex All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except under the terms of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 or under the terms of a licence issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London, W1T 4LP, UK, without the permission in writing of the Publisher. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, England, or emailed to [email protected], or faxed to (44) 1243 770620.

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Wiley, the Wiley Publishing logo, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, A Reference for the Rest of Us!, The Dummies Way, Dummies Daily, The Fun and Easy Way, Dummies.com and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Wiley Publishing, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.

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ISBN-13: 978-0-470-03172-8

ISBN-10: 0-470-03172-7

Printed and bound in Great Britain by Bell & Bain Ltd, Glasgow 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

01_031727 ffirs.qxp 9/6/06 10:44 PM Page iii

About the Authors

Dr Sarah Brewer
qualified as a doctor in 1983 from Cambridge University.

She was a full-time GP for five years and now works in nutritional medicine and sexual health. Sarah is currently completing an MSc in Nutritional Medicine at the University of Surrey, Guildford.

Although her first love is medicine, her major passion is writing. Sarah writes widely on all aspects of health and has written over 40 popular self-help books. She is a regular contributor to a number of newspapers and women’s magazines, and appears regularly on TV and radio. She was voted Health Journalist of the Year 2002.

Alan L. Rubin, MD,
is one of the US’s foremost experts on the thyroid gland in health and disease. He is a member of the Endocrine Society and has been in private practice specialising in thyroid disease and diabetes for over 30

years. Dr. Rubin was Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine at UC Medical Center in San Francisco for 20 years. He has spoken about the thyroid to professional medical audiences and non-medical audiences around the world. He is a consultant to many pharmaceutical companies and companies that make thyroid products.

Dr. Rubin has written extensively on the thyroid gland as well as diabetes mellitus. As a result, he has been on numerous radio and television programs, talking about the cause, the prevention, and the treatment of conditions of the thyroid. He is also the best-selling author of
Diabetes For
Dummies
and
Diabetes Cookbook For Dummies
.

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Dedication

From Alan:
This book is dedicated to my wife, Enid, who was there for every page. She smilingly let me do my work, sometimes into the wee hours of the morning, and missed many an opportunity to go out to dinner or a movie so that I could produce this book for you. If you have a fraction of the support in your life that she has given me, you are a lucky person, indeed.

Authors’ Acknowledgements

From Alan:
The great publisher and midwife, Kathy Nebenhaus, deserves enormous appreciation for helping me to deliver yet another bright-eyed baby. Her optimism and her enthusiasm actually made this book possible.

Her assistant, Natasha Graf, played a huge role in ironing out the inevitable problems that arise when book-publishing and medicine meet.

My editor, Joan Friedman, did a magnificent job turning my sometimes-incomprehensible prose into words that you can understand. She also conducted a whole orchestra of other editors who contributed to the book, including Robert Annis, Christy Beck, Mary Fales, Alison Jefferson, and Greg Pearson.