English | 30 August 2024 | ISBN-10: 3031582861 | 174 pages| Epub PDF (True) | 22 MB
This book is for patients with thyroid diseases and anyone interested in the thyroid, including carers of thyroid patients, members of the lay public and healthcare workers who deal with thyroid patients. The intention is to provide the means by which good quality information about the thyroid gland and its diseases can be found, accessed, weighed and judged for scientific merit. The book can be read like a story, but can also serve readers as a reference manual when looking for information on a thyroid-related topic. Thyroid diseases affect 10% of the population. People with thyroid problems, their family, carers and health professionals often seek information. The available sources are disappointing and misleading. There is an unmet need and a desire by patients, the lay public, students and early career healthcare workers to learn how to access and appraise the evidence, which is rarely fulfilled by existing resources. The book consists of two parts. Part One contains six chapters. The first Chapter ("Obstacles to seeking the truth") discusses the common hurdles that can come between us and the knowledge we seek. Chapter Two ("Thyroid basics") is an overview of the structure and function of the thyroid gland and the common diseases that affect it, narrated through the convoluted history of discoveries relating to the thyroid. In Chapter Three ("What is the evidence") evidence-based medicine is discussed, how different medical publications are classified, the processes involved in publishing medical papers and how they are structured.