Dr. Ladenson shares if thyroid hormones are being used to treat any other conditions other than thyroid.
Dr. Ladenson:
Because thyroid hormones have actions in virtually all of the tissues of the body, causing important changes, alertness in the brain, elevation of mood, increased strength and rate of heart contraction, in the liver burning up cholesterol more quickly, because of these widespread actions of thyroid hormones, scientists have wondered whether thyroid hormone analogues, drugs like thyroid hormone, might be designed to target specific thyroid hormone actions to help patients with diseases that aren’t due to the thyroid gland itself.
For example, in patients with a high cholesterol level, could one develop drugs that would target the liver with thyroid hormone effects and lower the cholesterol level, preventing heart attack and stroke? Could one develop a thyroid hormone that was targeted against the heart and in patients with heart failure, increase the strength of heart contraction, or in the brain that an analogue might be designed to target mood and thinking problems that could be improved by a targeted thyroid hormone-like molecule?
About Dr. Ladenson:
Dr. Ladenson is Director of the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, where he is the John Eager Howard Professor of Endocrinology and Professor of Medicine, Pathology, Oncology, and International Health. Dr. Ladenson was raised in Missouri and educated at Dartmouth College, Oxford University, and Harvard Medical School before training in Internal Medicine and in endocrinology and metabolism at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. He is also the past-president for the American Thyroid Association. Dr. Ladenson’s research interests include the effects of thyroid hormone on the cardiovascular system, applications of thyroid hormone analogs, novel approaches to thyroid cancer diagnosis and management, and health economic analyses related to thyroid patient care.
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http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/endocrinology/research/faculty/ladenson.html
American Thyroid Association:
http://www.thyroid.org/
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