Every one of you has heard of this ,

When I worked in Suriname in the eighties this diagnosis was very rare[maybe under-diagnosed?] There was no TSH yet available.

Anyhow, hypothyroidea /hypothyroidie is now extremely common in Israel [and theUSA] [I don’t know about other countries]

We have sophisticated tests but even these can be misleading sometimes.The clinical picture is still the most important!

There is one simple test which I have found to be very reliable, and the most authoritative books will mention this text as being of real value but for some reason highly ignored by most doctors[if I ask my patients about this]

This is the Achilles tendon reflex [it may sometimes disappear and then can’t be examined of course] Everyone can do this test at home.

In the video -which I once took in my room-you will see that tapping on the tendon cause the foot to move quickly towards my hand but the -ONLY SLOWLY RETURNING [away from my hands]

This slow return is a typical sign of a slow functioning thyroid…..so simple, such an elegant physical diagnostic sign likely better than all lab tests!