Fatigue, Pain, and Depression
Standard pharmaceutically-oriented medical training teaches doctors only to recognize extreme
disorders of metabolism, physiology, and hormonal balance. When it comes to hormones, they
are taught to think that either the gland is working or it is not; either the hormone levels are
within middle 95% of the tests done by that lab, or they are "low", in the bottom 2.5%--allowing
the physician to diagnose a deficiency. However, hormones don't work that way. Their effects
run a continuum from the lowest to the highest levels. A large percentage of "normal" persons
have inadequate hormone levels. Therefore many persons with levels within the reference
range have inadequate hormone effects for optimal health and quality of life; especially those
with levels in the lower third of the reference ranges.
Most persons with inadequate hormone levels go undiagnosed and untreated. They are
instead given non-specific labels like “chronic fatigue syndrome”, “fibromyalgia”, "depression",
"anxiety disorder", "PMDD", etc. These diagnoses are merely descriptions of symptoms. They
are not diseases. They have no known genetic/biochemical cause. They are the end result of a
large number of biochemical, vitanutrient, or hormonal disorders. Dr. Lindner finds that such
persons usually have inadequate levels of several hormones. These deficiencies produce
different symptoms in persons depending on their genetics and physiology. Since doctors don't
look for the cause, these symptom-diagnoses provide pharmaceutical corporations with a
tremendous opportunity for diagnose-and-drug schemes employing anti-depressants, anti-
psychotics, muscle-relaxants, stimulants, anti-epileptics, and other products. These drugs do
not correct the problem. They interfere with normal brain function producing alterations in
feelings, thought and mood that may be viewed as an improvement by the patient, parent, or
authorities. On the contrary, medical ethics require doctors to seek the cause and correct
the underlying physiological deficit or imbalance whenever possible!
Mild depression, fatigue, and pain can be caused by or worsened by insufficient sex hormone
and vitanutrient levels, but severe fatigue, aches, and depression are often due to mild-to-
moderate thyroid and/or adrenal insufficiency. The thyroid and adrenal glands produce
hormones that are essential to our mental and physical functioning, and thus our ability to live
productive, active lives. Even mild deficiencies can produce a hypometabolic syndrome that
manifests as depression, fatigue and pain along with many other more specific signs and
symptoms. When doctors do suspect a problem with these hormones, they make the mistake
of relying upon insensitive tests that can detect only some kinds of thyroid and adrenal
disorders. They rely on the TSH test, AM serum cortisol values, or ACTH stimulation tests. Such
tests cannot detect mild-to-moderate gland failure or hypothalamic-pituitary dysfunction--where
the glands are simply not receiving enough stimulation from the brain. In fact, even the best
tests, the free T3, free T4 and reverse T3 for thyroid hormones, or the saliva cortisol profile for
adrenal insufficiency do not tell us what is actually occurring in the various tissues throughout
the body. Some persons can have resistance to the hormone, or metabolize it too rapidly, and
therefore have inadequate tissue effects even when blood or saliva normals look fine. This
validates the age-old medical wisdom--"Treat the patient, not the tests".
When doctors do identify mild thyroid gland dysfunction with an elevated TSH level, they use
inadequate doses of levothyroxine to just "normalize" the TSH level. This frequently brings no
improvements because the TSH responds differently to once-daily oral thyroid replacement
than it does to the constant hormone production of the thyroid gland. They falsely conclude that
since their inadequate treatment does not help, therefore the patient's problem is not related to
thyroid hormone. Mild-to-moderate thyroid and adrenal insufficiency are thus USUALLY
undiagnosed and/or undertreated and people are instead given pharmaceutical products to
treat their various symptoms. These help only partially and often produce side effects that may
be treated with additional medications. This is all very good for pharmaceutical corporations--
which is why this unsatisfactory state of affairs persists.
Identifying and correcting vitanutrient, thyroid, adrenal, and sex-hormone deficiencies
brings significant relief to those with chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, depression, and other
"psychiatric" disorders. This natural-scientific approach should certainly be applied first
before resorting to pharmaceuticals.
Standard pharmaceutically-oriented medical training teaches doctors only to recognize extreme
disorders of metabolism, physiology, and hormonal balance. When it comes to hormones, they
are taught to think that either the gland is working or it is not; either the hormone levels are
within middle 95% of the tests done by that lab, or they are "low", in the bottom 2.5%--allowing
the physician to diagnose a deficiency. However, hormones don't work that way. Their effects
run a continuum from the lowest to the highest levels. A large percentage of "normal" persons
have inadequate hormone levels. Therefore many persons with levels within the reference
range have inadequate hormone effects for optimal health and quality of life; especially those
with levels in the lower third of the reference ranges.
Most persons with inadequate hormone levels go undiagnosed and untreated. They are
instead given non-specific labels like “chronic fatigue syndrome”, “fibromyalgia”, "depression",
"anxiety disorder", "PMDD", etc. These diagnoses are merely descriptions of symptoms. They
are not diseases. They have no known genetic/biochemical cause. They are the end result of a
large number of biochemical, vitanutrient, or hormonal disorders. Dr. Lindner finds that such
persons usually have inadequate levels of several hormones. These deficiencies produce
different symptoms in persons depending on their genetics and physiology. Since doctors don't
look for the cause, these symptom-diagnoses provide pharmaceutical corporations with a
tremendous opportunity for diagnose-and-drug schemes employing anti-depressants, anti-
psychotics, muscle-relaxants, stimulants, anti-epileptics, and other products. These drugs do
not correct the problem. They interfere with normal brain function producing alterations in
feelings, thought and mood that may be viewed as an improvement by the patient, parent, or
authorities. On the contrary, medical ethics require doctors to seek the cause and correct
the underlying physiological deficit or imbalance whenever possible!
Mild depression, fatigue, and pain can be caused by or worsened by insufficient sex hormone
and vitanutrient levels, but severe fatigue, aches, and depression are often due to mild-to-
moderate thyroid and/or adrenal insufficiency. The thyroid and adrenal glands produce
hormones that are essential to our mental and physical functioning, and thus our ability to live
productive, active lives. Even mild deficiencies can produce a hypometabolic syndrome that
manifests as depression, fatigue and pain along with many other more specific signs and
symptoms. When doctors do suspect a problem with these hormones, they make the mistake
of relying upon insensitive tests that can detect only some kinds of thyroid and adrenal
disorders. They rely on the TSH test, AM serum cortisol values, or ACTH stimulation tests. Such
tests cannot detect mild-to-moderate gland failure or hypothalamic-pituitary dysfunction--where
the glands are simply not receiving enough stimulation from the brain. In fact, even the best
tests, the free T3, free T4 and reverse T3 for thyroid hormones, or the saliva cortisol profile for
adrenal insufficiency do not tell us what is actually occurring in the various tissues throughout
the body. Some persons can have resistance to the hormone, or metabolize it too rapidly, and
therefore have inadequate tissue effects even when blood or saliva normals look fine. This
validates the age-old medical wisdom--"Treat the patient, not the tests".
When doctors do identify mild thyroid gland dysfunction with an elevated TSH level, they use
inadequate doses of levothyroxine to just "normalize" the TSH level. This frequently brings no
improvements because the TSH responds differently to once-daily oral thyroid replacement
than it does to the constant hormone production of the thyroid gland. They falsely conclude that
since their inadequate treatment does not help, therefore the patient's problem is not related to
thyroid hormone. Mild-to-moderate thyroid and adrenal insufficiency are thus USUALLY
undiagnosed and/or undertreated and people are instead given pharmaceutical products to
treat their various symptoms. These help only partially and often produce side effects that may
be treated with additional medications. This is all very good for pharmaceutical corporations--
which is why this unsatisfactory state of affairs persists.
Identifying and correcting vitanutrient, thyroid, adrenal, and sex-hormone deficiencies
brings significant relief to those with chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, depression, and other
"psychiatric" disorders. This natural-scientific approach should certainly be applied first
before resorting to pharmaceuticals.
For Health and Quality of Life
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