Welcome to Doctor Thyroid with Philip James
This is a meeting place to hear from top thyroid doctors and healthcare professionals.
The Doctor Thyroid interviews are intended to be a resource for those wanting to thrive, regardless of setbacks related to thyroid disease. Seeking good health information can be a challenge, hopefully this platform provides you with better treatment alternatives as related to endocrinology, surgery, hypothyroidism, thyroid cancer, functional medicine, pathology, and radiation treatment.
Listen Now
Listen now
66: Five Important Things Your Thyroid Surgeon Maybe Not Telling You, with Dr. Akira Miyauchi
During this episode, the following topics are discussed:
1. Financial burden of surgery versus total cost of active surveillance over ten years.
2. Stretching Exercises for Neck
3. Setting patient expectations prior to FNA to manage anxiety
4. When the laryngeal nerve is severed during thyroid surgery, it can and should be repaired, with proper surgeon skill and training.
5. The most common question asked to Dr. Miyauchi by surgeons from around the world.
11: Professional Triathlete, Ironman Champion, and Facing Thyroid Cancer with Karen Smyers
In this episode, we hear Karen describe what the calls, ‘character building’ moments, including how she approached thyroid cancer in the midst of of preparing for the 2000 Olympics.
Other obstacles included a torn hamstring, being hit by a 18-wheeler, and a broken collar bone. Regardless of the obstacle, Karen was able to stay focused on and win the Pro National Ironman Championship.
At 42 and post thyroid cancer, Karen gave birth to her second child.
Listen to this episode and you will be inspired by Karen’s determination, perseverance, and approach to living life to the fullest. And, in some cases pushing boundaries and achieving what some would say not possible.
35: Rethinking Thyroid Cancer – When Saying No to Surgery Maybe Best for You with Dr. Allen Ho from Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles
Weighing treatment options for thyroid cancer, with deep consideration for the patient’s lifestyle, could become the new norm in assessing whether surgery is the best path.
Dr. Allen Ho states, “if a patient is a ballerina or an opera singer, or any other profession that could be jeopardized due to undesired consequences of thyroid cancer surgery, then the best treatment path maybe active surveillance.” Undesired consequences of thyroid cancer surgery could be vocal cord paralysis, damage to the parathyroid glands resulting in calcium deficiencies, excessive bleeding or formation of a major blood clot in the neck, shoulder nerve damage, numbness, wound infection, and mental impairment due to hypothyroid-like symptoms.
09: Thyroid Cancer Patients Experience Quality of Life Downgrade with Dr. Raymon Grogan and Dr. Briseis Aschebrook from the University of Chicago Medicine
“The goal of this study is to turn it into a long-term, longitudinal cohort,” said Grogan, who hopes to develop a tool that physicians can use to assess the psychological wellbeing of thyroid cancer survivors. “But, there was no way to do that with thyroid cancer because no one had ever studied quality of life or psychology of thyroid cancer before.”
63: Take a Step Back⎢Thyroid Surgery with a Clear Mind, with Dr. Bryan McIver from Moffitt Cancer Center
Bryan McIver, MD, PhD
Dr. McIver contributes to Moffitt Cancer Center almost 20 years of clinical experience in the care of patients with endocrine diseases, specializing in the evaluation of patients with thyroid nodules and thyroid cancer. He has a particular interest in the management of patients with advanced and aggressive forms of cancer and the role of genetic and molecular techniques to improve the accuracy of diagnosis.
Most nodules are benign
When to do a biopsy
How to interpret the results of biopsy
Advances in thyroid cancer
Ultrasound technology advancements
Molecular markers
Cytopathology categorizations
Molecular marker technologies
Gene expression classifier
90: The Results of 30 Years of Patients Receiving Active Surveillance Instead of Surgery → Dr. Akira Miyauchi from Kuma Hospital in Kobe, Japan
The result of over 1000 cases of active surveillance shows no resulting deaths of patients who choose no surgery for thyroid cancer Dr. Akira Miyauchi
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Doctor Thyroid with Philip James
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My goal is to bring you interviews from top thyroid doctors and health professionals, and feature patient stories of perseverance when facing thyroid-related disease.