In a message dated 5/9/2002 12:01:21 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:

> Addison's Disease - Low steroid production by the adrenal
>  glands (one adrenal is associated with each kidney).  If
>  chronic or acute, Addison's can be fatal. Commonly
>  caused by auto immune malfunction. When someone loses
>  their adrenal glands through surgery or otherwise, they
>  require lifelong supplementation of the adrenal hormones,
>  just like those who lose their thyroid gland require lifelong
>  supplementation of thyroid hormones. Named for English
>  physician Thomas Addison, 1793-1860

Sometimes it's amazing how long mankind has known about things.  We think we
are the smartest generation and then we hear about things they knew how to do
in earlier generations.  Like supposedly some of the rocks used for the
pyramids couldn't be put there by modern machinery and some say it wasn't
done by manpower, and perhaps in the days B.C. (Before Christ as far as I
know that's not a Latin acronym for anything unlike A.D. which most people
say stands for after death but really is Anno Domini which means "In the year
of our Lord" which some Writers used to spell out in their letters) in the
days BC I think the Chinese fed some sick people animal thyroid soup and it
helped those who were hypothyroid.  (The closest I've heard today's
generation coming to that was when some butchers were grinding up too much
thyroid gland in hamburger, there was supposedly an outbreak of
hyperthyroidism, those with an unsympathetic doctor, access to farm animals
to butcher and enough brains left to figure out how much to grind into your
own hamburger, that's an idea.  You probably have to do that yourself since I
think they made thyroid illegal in ground beef, but this is only a vague
story I remember reading.)

So they knew about problem adrenals in the 1800s.  I wonder if they had some
kind of treatment.  I also wonder if President John F. Kennedy had true
Addison's which I think means cortisol level of zero, or if like some of us
he just had low adrenals and was treated anyway back in the 1950s because he
was rich and powerful and most of us aren't.  (Even if we were, people like
famous actress Fran Drescher had to go to 8 doctors before she could find one
to run the test for the cancer she thought she had.)

Today if that Addison's disease, or adrenal insufficiency was fatal, because
it wasn't treated, the doctors and the coroner probably wouldn't  admit it. I
kind of wish I had an autopsy performed on my mother, who I know died of
hypothyroidism.  There are signs that are obvious after death, I believe, and
then I could have tried to sue the doctors who let her suffer in misery all
those years.  If nothing else, I know she had a goiter and had edema for as
long as I can remember.  Perhaps if your loved ones die and you suspect it
was for that reason, maybe you should consider an autopsy and a lawsuit.  If
enough doctors/drug companies pay, eventually thyroid will be treated better.

Skipper Beers


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