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The New "T3 Treatment" Thyroid Solution or Unethical Experiment? - Page 3

© M. Sara Rosenthal

hormone replacement therapy?
5. How does T3 affect children?
6. How does T3 affect pregnant women or women who are breastfeeding?
7. How does T3 affect people of different races and ethnic backgrounds?
8. How does T3 therapy affect people with other health problems, such as heart disease, diabetes, or people who have undergone cancer therapy?
9. How does T3 therapy interact with other drugs?

Until we know the answers to these questions, T3 therapy remains experimental therapy. That doesn’t mean you can’t take advantage of this therapy if you feel you have something to gain; it simply means that you must be informed of the unknown risks before you go on this treatment.

T3 therapy can benefit some people, but harm others – particularly elderly patients with other health problems. For example, T3 therapy can cause you to become hyperthyroid. It is also not recommended in people taking certain antidepressants. Unfortunately, people anxious to receive promising new therapy may find themselves unwitting human subjects in medical research. Informed consent is one way to guard against possible harms associated with experimental therapies. Informed consent means that when you are being given a treatment – experimental or standard – your doctor ought to be disclosing, first and foremost, whether the treatment is experimental or standard.

Sources
1. Levine, R.J. Ethics and Regulation of Clinical Research. (1988, Yale University Press, New Haven.)
2. Mastroianni, Anna C., Ruth Faden, and Daniel Federman, Editors, Women and Health Research: Ethical and Legal Issues of Including Women in Clinical Studies, Volume 1. (1994, National Academy Press, Washington.)
3. Rosenthal, M. Sara, The Thyroid Sourcebook for Women. (1999, Lowell House)
4. Rosenthal, M. Sara, The Thyroid Sourcebook, 4th edition. (2000, Lowell House)
5. Sherwin, Susan, Patient No Longer: Feminist Ethics and Health Care. (1984, Temple University Press, Philidelphia.)
Reprinted from SarahealthNews, copyright www.sarahealth.com, Inc.,2000

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