Small But Mighty: A Thyroid Life

May '09 saw the first ever Thyroid Awareness Week, publicised on thyroid sites. So far as I could tell, the media didn’t refer to it. For such a common condition which is often mis/undiagnosed, this is ludicrous and is why I write this blog. Thyroid disease, so commonly un/misdiagnosed, can be dangerous and even, in some cases, life threatening. Even where symptoms are generic it is a tiny gland powerful enough to run a life. The Thyroid: Small but Mighty

Which Charity

Which Charity was a website set up by myself and friends, with the aim of allowing users to find causes they are interested in and ways of helping they prefer. It also had the aim of raising awareness of and supporting various charities through free advertising. Check out the official video here: http://www.youtube.com/user/WhichCharity ..and 'The Charity Supplement' here: http://www.scribd.com/Which%20Charity (note that there are many thyroid awareness documents included in this list) The website has now been handed over to a new team of keen, qualified individuals who have the time to take it further.

Tuesday, 11 August 2009

The Thyroid and its Diseases: Popular or Ignored?

03:48 | Posted by Louise Sopher |

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I am going to conduct an online study, attempting to find out what the true state of awareness of thyroid disease is. Previously, I have written articles on this blog directly targeting or questioning the state of awareness in the UK, namely this are: '13 Reasons for a Poppycock State of Awareness' and 'Awareness in the UK VS the US: This Needs to be Changed,' however the articles which I will write after this study will be based on larger evidence and will be much more detailed.

THE STUDY

AIM: To find out to what extent thyroid disease is publicised across the media and therefore what the state of awareness is.

METHOD: I am going to surf the net for approximately one hour. I am going to search Google for the following terms:

tiredness
stomach problems
conditions
diseases
women
common problem
top diseases
poor concentration
poor memory
infertility

I am going to look through:

BBC online
ITV online
Sky news online
Five news online
Four news online

...and see if I can find any websites or single terms of the following:

thyroid
hypothyroid
hyperthyroid
thyroid cancer
thyroid disease
underactive thyroid
overactive thyroid
metabolic diseases
endocrine disorders

I am going to record the amount of results whose title or description on Google contains any of those terms above. I am only going to search through the first 3 pages of search results on any website.

Any results which I judge to be related to a thyroid or thyroid disease I will click on. I am then going to record each website or term with the following points:

Single mention/term: 2 points
Brief entry (paragraph) on website: 4 points
Blogs: 8 points
YouTube videos by ordinary people (a collection of videos by one person will gain only a single collection of points): 8 points
Non-blog website: 10 points
Old news article (old being more than a year old exactly): 11 points
Present news article: 12 points
Any present radio entry on usual stations e.g. BBC Radio 4: 12 points
Section on an official website e.g. the health section of the BBC: 13 points
Entire present news section: 14 points
Present News video entries: 14 points (per entry)

If radio or video I will record what time they are published and by whom.
I will record anything else of interest e.g. whether videos are US or UK; whether US news sites give coverage and whether the UK ones will.

I will record the results and then analyse and compare where necessary. I will present my results as best as possible and write as many articles as I feel necessary.

----------------------------------------------------

Aside from this study...

I also hope to research the following:

Is thyroid disease in the school syllabus?

If yes, when did it enter the syllabus?
If it isn't, was it ever?
And when do people start learning about it in education? University - what courses, what levels? Medicine, yes, but any others?
Are there any other qualifications in which you learn at least briefly about it?
And, if it's not on our syllabus, is it on the US one, or anywhere else in the world?

Who should know about thyroid disease? (profession wise)

This will be useful when it comes to analysing the results of a survey I have created about thyroid awareness (see above for the link). At present, I cannot find this information and do not know how to go about it - if you have any ideas, please let me know.

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I think that if I am going to actively campaign through direct articles as I am doing, for an increased awareness of thyroid disease, then I should do my research properly so that I can respond to what I find properly.

Labels: General, Media Thyroid Awareness Studies

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Read Stories Told by a Tribe & Help them Save the Jungle

Please click here to purchase a copy of this unique book. 'IF someone says to you: 'the forest is nothing,' I will come and say: 'come and live with me, with nothing. No money. Come and live with me in the forest for a few months – you will survive. And I will go with you to the cities with nothing – no money - how do you survive?'' - Nelson Kelesau

Synopsis: FOR SIX weeks in mid-2010 I lived in a village named Long Lamai with a tribe in Borneo known as the Penan, a once fully-nomadic, now mostly settled community. Whilst volunteering to teach English in the village I also got to work on my own project to collect stories from the villagers and to publish it in a book and sell it for the benefit of the community. HERE then is that book, containing thirty stories from twenty-one people; stories to entertain all ages with tales from Penan music, myth and legend to more serious ones about struggles in poverty, education and the need for the jungle to survive.

Whilst the information on this blog is well-researched and where opinions are presented, it is said so, I am an 20 year-old hypothyroid sufferer who is investigating and encouraging awareness of thyroid disease - I do not have any advanced medical training: DON'T take my word as fact. But you can still try it.

All feedback is welcomed - just click the 'contact me' link or leave a comment on the blog.

Small But Mighty: A Thyroid Life by Louise Sopher is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://thyroidlife.blogspot.com/2009/12/contact-me.html.

Small But Mighty: A Thyroid Life

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