An American physician spent over fifty years of his professional career detecting disease through a handshake.
Soon after obtaining his Ph.D in physiology, Dr. Broda Barnes went around the world shaking hands with people. You may think he was just an over-friendly person. His main goal was to feel people’s body temperature by a handshake. Barnes believed that people differed even due to their ethnic background. Blondes and red headed individuals had the lowest body temperatures, followed by Mediterraneans and Africans. Dr. Barnes knew his stuff from the time he completed his Ph. D. in physiology. He firmly believed that body temperature upon waking up in the morning was the best indication of basal body temperature. If a person’s temperature is not between 97.6 F and 98.2 F that person is either low or high thyroid.
When Barnes wrote his first book about thyroid deficiencies he already felt that about 50 percent of the American population had a low thyroid problem of some degree that dates back to over hundred years ago. Barnes criteria didn’t match blood tests for thyroidism. All a person needs to do is take his or her thyroid in the morning upon waking up and for a few days. Of course low thyroid is linked to a number of health problems which include: low energy, repeated infections, headaches, circulatory disturbances, menstrual difficulties, and heart attacks. High thyroid, on the contrary can cause weight loss, irritability, poor equilibrium, muscle aches, mental depression, memory loss, and difficulty concentrating. Very few people have been helped because their thyroid problem was not detected by standard thyroid tests. Many skin disorders have yielded to thyroid treatment. One of Dr. Barnes most dramatic cases was a two-year-old boy with eczema over his whole body and face. This child had been hospitalized twice and received competent medical care without success. Within a few months after thyroid therapy, this boy’s skin was clear. A retired Dean of the University of Denver had psoriasis for fifty years which didn’t respond to any therapy. It cleared entirely with thyroid medication. About 90% of acne patients with low basal temperatures have responded to thyroid treatment.
Menstrual disorders patients respond to thyroid therapy. Dr. Barnes suggested that basal temperatures be taken in all cases of menstrual irregularities including girls who have not started their period by age 14 and those who started but are irregular, those who flow excessively and those who tend to miscarry. One of Dr. Barnes patients had seven pregnancies and gave birth to three babies only. She was hypothyroid and knew it and had been treated several times with thyroid and had stopped treatment when she began to feel well. Dr. Barnes found that this woman had her babies while on thyroid. She had her miscarriages while off it. Sometimes it is the husband rather than the wife who needs treatment in infertility. Many women with menstrual problems run low basal temperatures for whom thyroid therapy is very valuable. Dr. Barnes has reported relief of painful menstruation in 90 percent of his patients. Many young hypothyroid patients with repeated colds with complications such as tonsillitis, sinus infections, draining ears, mastoid infections or rheumatic fever may be treated with antibiotics with more repeated infections until placed on thyroid therapy. Dr. Barnes observed that some of his patients were born tired, never having felt fresh and vigorous. Some have complained that they were born lazy as children and as adults, have had difficulty getting through daily tasks – and were tired of being tired.
While headaches have many causes, many hypothyroid people have headaches because of easy fatigue, particularly under stress and fatigue maybe related to poor circulation. Because of poor circulation, hands and feet may feel cold even in hot weather. Low energy in teenagers, anemia, urinary, symptoms, bed wetting in children, and frequent urination in adults also may sometimes be linked to low thyroid activity. Dr. Barnes earned Ph. D. in physiology as well as a M.D. and has taught endocrinology at the University of Chicago. His long professional career, prepared him to understand the wide ranging effects of thyroid deficiencies. In 1950 however, a new problem was suddenly trusted upon him. A friend of his had a heart attack. Going over this friend’s history Barnes found that the man had suffered for several years from hypothyroidism. Dr. Barnes directed his attention to a new but very common disease in America – heart disease.
Beginning in 1950 Barnes realized then that heart disease was also linked to hypothyroidism. He then start to ask his patients questions related to heart disease including cholesterol and blood chemistry. He would do routine chest x-rays, electrocardiograms and other heart studies. There was no reduction of fats or cholesterol rich foods in his patients. The only change was the addition of thyroid. There were 490 thirty-nine year old women none found having heart disease. Another group of 182 women age sixty and over with no occurrence of heart problems. Barnes believed that over 40 percent of the American population (in the early fifties) had a hypothyroid problem and predicted that the number would increase to 50 percent in another decade. The rising epidemic of heart attacks has been related to the rising incidence of hypothyroidism. In the 20th century half of all children died before reaching adulthood. Most of them from infectious disease. However, now adults are composed of two groups – those who are resistant to infection and those who are prone to infectious diseases and other chronic diseases including cancer.
Heart attacks were first associated with infectious diseases during World War 1. Pneumonia is an indication of low resistance to infectious diseases. Instances of hypothyroidism has further been increasing because hypothyroid tend to marry hypothyroids which perpetuates the trait. Dr. Barnes tells a story of one patient, a man who had been grossly overweight and had just enough energy to get through a day’s work. With thyroid therapy and a change in diet, he lost weight, became energetic and then returned nine months later complaining that he couldn’t go out with his wife. She was tired, irritable and unwilling to go out evenings. When she was reminded that he used to come home from work, eat, read the paper and go to bed, he realized the incompatibility had grown out of the change in his energy level. “Nature”, say Dr. Barnes “had thrown them together originally and, if they were to enjoy life, the doctor must be called upon to treat both of them in order to maintain a balanced team.
How to get help
What can you do if you want to check yourself, a member of your family – and get help if it is indicated? You can start with basal body temperature test. If your morning basal temperature, taken for 10 minutes upon waking up, doesn’t reach 97.6, you may be suffering from hypothyroidism.
Dr. Broda Barnes reported his findings on hypothyroidism in medical journals and at medical meetings in the USA and abroad. His book – Hypothyroidism: The Unsuspected Illness has been in print for about thirty years. It is still available from most major book stores including Barnes & Noble and Borders. It is amazing that after so many years the number of physicians who are fully aware of the link between low basal temperature and hypothyroidism has been growing, but is still small. However, only a small amount of physicians have looked into the connection between hypothyroidism and its many problems. According to Dr. Barnes, no physician can afford to deny any patient any help he/she can give. Only the cost of a thermometer and a willing hear are needed.
Thyroid is inexpensive and safe when started in small doses and worked up only to the extend needed to bring basal temperatures to normal. The program, of course, must be prescribed and supervised by a physician. It may take several months before beneficial results fully take hold. But if your temperature is sub-normal now, the chances that you will feel better are good and the odds that some thyroid therapy will not only avoid premature heart attacks but will prevent many other complications that accompany the aging process.
Very Cordially yours,
Robert Karlsson, CCN
