What is metabolic health?
The DrLowe.com website is about “metabolic health.” They define metabolic health in this way: A state in which the chemical processes in our cells are sufficient to provide us with at least two things: (1) resistance to sickness and disease, and (2) the vigor, stamina, and well-being needed to fully engage in all aspects of life. They focus on what impairs metabolic health, how to recover it, and how to optimize it.
Poor metabolic health affects different people in different ways, resulting in a variety of symptoms. Doctors usually give people with different symptoms different diagnoses. For example, the most prominent symptoms of some people are chronic widespread aches and pains. These people’s doctors are likely to give them the diagnosis of “fibromyalgia.” The main symptoms of other people are lethargy and fatigue. Their doctors may diagnose their condition as “chronic fatigue syndrome.” Still other people may have depression, and others poor concentration and memory.
Dr Lowe’s view is that different sets of symptoms, diagnosed as different disorders, have a common underlying mechanism ? abnormally slow metabolism (called “hypometabolism“) caused by one or more of the metabolism-impairing factors.
He maintains he has solved the problem of fibromyalgia using a treatment, “metabolic rehabilitation”, that relieves some 75% to 85% of patients from their fibromyalgia symptoms ? fully and permanently. He explains the solution and the treatment succinctly on various pages of DrLowe.com, and in depth in his book The Metabolic Treatment of Fibromyalgia which provides a well-researched, effective case for the use of thyroid hormone in the treatment of fibromyalgia.
Dr Lowe writes, “Slowly, through trial and error, meticulous record-keeping, and data analysis, my colleagues and I evolved a treatment protocol, now called metabolic rehabilitation, that was highly effective and safe in enabling most fibromyalgia patients to markedly improve or completely recover. Later, we conducted various controlled studies which confirmed that the effects we obtained in the clinical setting were real? they were not due to misperceptions, nor were they placebo effects.”
The book is full of information vital to any clinician treating patients suffering from this challenging malady. Published papers by Dr. Lowe and colleagues are included in full-text form, so readers can judge for themselves the validity of his research.
Dr Lowe’s latest publication Your Guide to Metabolic Health provides the essentials patients need to know to overcome their health problems caused by slow metabolism. The steps to improvement or recover can work whether the patient has hypothyroidism, thyroid hormone resistance, nutritional deficiencies, poor diet, low physical fitness, drugs that impair metabolism, or a combination of these metabolism-impairing factors.
Are you overstimulated?
Dr. Honeyman-Lowe has created a form patients can fill out as part of each reassessment. The completed form would make any symptoms of overstimulation obvious at a quick glance.
Developing symptoms of overstimulation would be easy to spot by comparing a patient?s latest filled-out form with previous ones. Dr. Honeyman-Lowe developed the form, which she named “Are You Overstimulated?”
This self-assessment form is a valuable tool for finding your safe dose of thyroid hormone.
Order the appropriate tests
Dr Lowe suggests you order (1) a TSH, (2) either a free T4 and possible free T3, or a total T4, FTI, and T3-uptake, and (3) thyroglobulin and thyroid peroxidase antibodies.
Number 3, he points out, is extremely important; patients who have high antibodies can have debilitating symptoms of hypothyroidism despite all the other test results being within their reference (so-called “normal”) ranges.
Clinical Care
To inquire about long-distance consulting services or treatment at the Center for Metabolic Health [1800 30th Street, Suite 217-A, Boulder, CO 80301 USA] please contact Diane Patterson. You can reach her by e-mail at MetabolicHealth@aol.com, or by telephone at (303) 413-9100.
