About Dr. John C. Lowe---fibromyalgia, hypothyroidism, thyroid hormone resistance

Chiropractic Doctor
Diplomate: American Academy of Pain Management
Director of Research: Fibromyalgia Research Foundation

Dr. John C. Lowe is a fibromyalgia, thyroid, and metabolism researcher and a board certified pain management specialist. As Director of Research for the Fibromyalgia Research Foundation, he has spearheaded the scientific study of two related topics: the metabolic causes of fibromyalgia, and the relief of fibromyalgia symptoms through the treatment approach he developed and named "metabolic rehabilitation." He is author of the internationally acclaimed book The Metabolic Treatment of Fibromyalgia, considered by

many the most important document every published on fibromyalgia. Under his chiropractic licenses, Dr. Lowe currently evaluates select patients' metabolic status with research quality instrumentation. He also provides long-distance educational consulting for thyroid and fibromyalgia patients and their clinicians.

Biography: Dr. Lowe holds B.A. and M.A. degrees in research-oriented general psychology from the University of West Florida. He also holds a B.S. degree in human biology and a doctorate in chiropractic from the Los Angeles College of Chiropractic, now the Southern California University of Health Sciences. He formerly taught psychology at the Miami Dade Community College and was a faculty member in the Clinical Sciences Division of the Texas Chiropractic College. Dr. Lowe is board certified by the American Academy of Pain Management, the United States' largest and only integrative pain management organization.

He has authored more than 150 articles, scientific papers, and book chapters. His writings have appeared many journals, including Psychological Reports; Medical Science Monitor; the Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry; the American Journal of Pain Management; Anabolism—A Journal of Preventive Medicine; Medical Hypotheses; Lyon Méditerranée Médical: Médecine du Sud-Est; the British Medical Journal; the Journal of Myofascial Therapy; the Clinical Bulletin of Myofascial Therapy; the Massage Therapy Journal; the Journal of the American Chiropractic Association; and Thyroid Science. Trade papers such as Dynamic Chiropractic, the Chiropractic Journal, and others have published articles and monthly columns by Dr. Lowe.

The authors of at least twenty-two books have cited or described Dr. Lowe's work. Among his published books are Spasm, Your Guide to Metabolic Health, and The Metabolic Treatment of Fibromyalgia. Study Sphere gave Dr. Lowe an excellence award for sections of The Metabolic Treatment of Fibromyalgia.

In 1977, the American Chiropractic Association awarded Dr. Lowe its Annual Scientific Paper Award. In 1992, for his contributions to the field of myofascial therapy, the National Association of Myofascial Trigger Point Therapists appointed him an honorary lifetime member. In September 2004, he became an official scientific reviewer on the International Reviewers' Panel of Medical Science Monitor. The Monitor is an international journal for experimental and clinical research. He does critical reviews for the Monitor of submitted research papers in the fields of hypothyroidism and thyroid hormone resistance.

Dr. Lowe is a member of the Board of Medical Advisors of Thyroid UK, and is a member of Index Copernicus Scientists, a global information networking system for scientists. He is Editor-in-Chief of the open-access electronic journal Thyroid Science, and formerly served on the Advisory Board of Inside Texas Running Magazine and the Editorial Review Board of the Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies. He is former Editor of the Journal of Myofascial Therapy and the Clinical Bulletin of Myofascial Therapy.

The 62nd edition of the premier biographical source Marquis Who's Who in American was published in 2008. Dr. Lowe was selected by the Marquis committee to be included. Marquis, which began publication in 1899, chronicles the lives and careers of America's most noteworthy men and women. (Dr. Lowe's comments on his inclusion in Marquis.)

Underpinnings of Dr. Lowe's Work: Underpinning Dr. Lowe's work are his two main intellectual interests: (1) theoretical-deductive science, the highest level scientific activity, which enables one to make the best possible sense of study findings in a research field; and (2) symbolic (mathematical) logic, the discipline one uses to determine the validity or invalidity of his own and others' arguments.

Dr. Lowe is a devout critical rationalist. This means that he subscribes to the hypothesis (proposed by Sir Karl Popper and articulated by David Miller and others) that the ultimate job of logical, scientific thinkers is to falsify ideas, beliefs, hypotheses, and theories. The reason for falsifying these is to eliminate their errors. Free of at least some of their errors, the ideas, beliefs, hypotheses, and theories may become more accurate representations of truth. If eliminating errors makes it obvious that an idea, belief, hypothesis, or theory is entirely false, then we can—having learned from the falsification—replace it with one that is hopefully more accurate.

He is also an active critical analyst. This means that he analyzes his own thinking and beliefs and those of others to learn whether or not these are accurate and rational. In recent years, drug and medical device corporations have largely co-opted medical research, the medical profession and its institutions, medical practice guidelines committees, and the US Congress. These corporations have essentially turned all of these, to varying degrees, into marketing tools for the products of the corporations. This has brought about a necessity for patients and health care practitioners to protect themselves from marketing disguised as scientific findings. Through critical analysis, Dr. Lowe is exposing such marketing disguised as science in the fields of fibromyalgia and thyroidology. He is doing this in two new books, Speeding Up to Normal and Tyranny of the TSH.

Examples of Dr. Lowe's critical analyses are his critiques of the T4 vs T4/T3 studies and the false and potentially harmful beliefs of the self-proclaimed "real thyroid expert," Dr. Richard Guttler.

History: Dr. Lowe began using myofascial therapy in 1980 under the tutelage of the late chiropractic radiologist David Ramby, D.C. For years, Dr. Lowe's main clinical focus was patients' chronically tense muscles, fascial adhesions, and myofascial trigger points. To help these patients, he used a broad-spectrum therapeutic approach. It included soft tissue manipulative techniques, Travell and Simons's stretch and spray, clinical nutrition, and various physical therapy modalities, especially ultrasound. After studying perpetuating factors as described by Drs. Janet Travell and David Simons (especially in the 1st edition of their famous Trigger Point Manual published in 1983), he began tenaciously studying biochemical abnormalities that render some patients resistant to otherwise effective myofascial therapy.

While studying the role of thyroid hormone deficiency in treatment resistance of myofascial pain syndromes, he found that hypothyroid fibromyalgia patients usually recover from their fibromyalgia symptoms when treated in one or both of two ways: (1) a thyroid hormone dosage greater than a replacement dose (the amount needed to keep the TSH level within the dubious "normal" range), and (2) with T3 rather than the customarily prescribed T4 (thyroxin). He also found that most fibromyalgia patients who aren't hypothyroid also improve or recover without overstimulation when treated with fairly high dosages of plain as opposed to sustain-release T3.

In 1995, one of Dr. Lowe's patients who had recovered from her fibromyalgia symptoms through his metabolic approach convinced him to established the Fibromyalgia Research Foundation (FRF). The three purposes of this 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization are to: (1) support scientific studies of the metabolic treatment of fibromyalgia patients; (2) determine the underlying molecular mechanisms of fibromyalgia; and (3) educate fibromyalgia patients, health care practitioners, researchers, and the general public about the findings of FRF-sponsored research.

Currently, Dr. Lowe and his multidisciplinary research team are studying the metabolic rates of fibromyalgia patients. In two studies published in 2006
(see Medical Science Monitor [scroll down to "Clinical Research"] and Thyroid Science), he and his colleagues found that fibromyalgia patients have abnormally low metabolic rates and low basal body temperatures compared to healthy controls. Results of these studies vindicate Dr. Lowe's hypothesis that fibromyalgia patients are hypometabolic, and that the most likely mechanism is too little thyroid hormone regulation.

Dr. Lowe has determined that some 90% of fibromyalgia patients have thyroid disease. The thyroid diseases include primary hypothyroidism, central hypothyroidism, and partial peripheral cellular resistance to thyroid hormone. Most hypothyroid patients fully recover when they undergo the metabolic rehabilitation that Dr. Lowe originated and developed. And most fibromyalgia patients with thyroid hormone resistance markedly improve or fully recover when they go through metabolic rehab.

Dr. Lowe is firm that he has determined the underlying mechanisms of most patients' fibromyalgia. Peter Warmingham of Thyroid UK pointed this out in 2002 in his article titled "Fibromyalgia has been solved" (Fibro Focus Supporter, 3:1-3, 2002). Dr. Lowe repeated Mr. Warmingham's announcement on August 19, 2005 in Sugarland, Texas at the Functional Endocrinology Symposium (sponsored by the Professional Compounding Companies of America), and he reiterated it on May 25, 2007 at the endocrinology symposium of the Institute for Functional Medicine in Tucson, Arizona. Overwhelming scientific evidence supports Mr. Warmingham's and Dr. Lowe's announcements.

Index Copernicus Scientists: In December 2005, Dr. Lowe became a member of Index Copernicus Scientists upon invitation from its CEO Mark R. Graczynski, MD, PhD. Index Copernicus Scientists is a global information networking system for scientists, designed by and for scientists.

According to Dr. Graczynski, “The aim of this web-based communication platform is to offer a set of essential tools to encourage the effective exchange of information between scientists worldwide as well as to promote and initiate international research collaboration.” He also notes, “The system encourages the effective exchange of information between scientists worldwide as well as to promote and initiate international research collaboration.”

Dr. Lowe's line of metabolism research over the last twenty years led to two significant outcomes: First was the solution to the problem of fibromyalgia, showing that its main underlying mechanism is too little thyroid hormone regulation, often complicated by nutritional deficiencies, low physical fitness, an unwholesome diet, blood sugar dysregulation, and the use of metabolism-impeding drugs; second was his creation and coining of “metabolic rehabilitation,” a high-precision, data-driven clinical approach for helping patients to improve or recover. His hope is that his interaction within the community of international scientists through Index Copernicus Scientists will lead to researchers in other countries becoming involved in the line of metabolic research he began and continues.

Dr. Lowe's Curriculum Vitae