After being diagnosed with hypothyroidism, I was wondering how much I still didn't know about the disease. My doctor explained the basics, but I still felt rushed and like I had no idea how any of it related to me. So my husband got me this book, and it answered all of my questions.

First, there's a lot of medical jargon here, so it could get confusing if you don't have the internet (or a doctor) handy. This book laid out for me all the symptoms associated with hypothyroidism, like fatigue, inability to lose weight (and I always thought I just wasn't trying hard enough), and a bunch of others that are often confused with other conditions.

What I really appreciated about the book is the discussion about current treatments available. My doctor started me out with a synthetic thyroid pill, but this book showed me that there are other treatments. I would recommend this to just about anyone.

After I was diagnosed, a friend gave this to me as a gift. While i was grateful for the thought, the book itself is dry and hard to follow. The amount of information is overwhelming, and it's not organized in a helpful manner. Too much info is almost as bad as not enough info. There is a lot of medical terminology. The writing style is very dry. I also didn't appreciate the scare tactics the book employs. This is a serious condition, but if you don't trust your doctor at all--find a new doctor. Be informed, but don't panic. That's not the message this book conveys. It has a sense of urgency and panic that I just didn't find useful.

I bought this book on amazon.com because I heard somewhere that hypothyroidism is often present in fibromyalgia patients. I have often wondered if I had a slight case of it myself. I also just like to read health books in general. There is tons of medical terminology in the book, so if you don't know much about medical things you may have some problems following everything. However there is a great depth of information on hypothyroidism, and it helps to explain why you feel the way you do, as well as why you end up gaining weight when you have this problem. It helps to explain why you would experience fatigue, depression and a lot of other symptoms, and how it is so easy to dismiss these as something else. This author does a great job with organization and keeping things interesting to read, but if you don't have a somewhat scientific or medical mind, you will probably get bored with it pretty quick. In my opinion, it is definitely worth reading because you will learn a lot about the effects of the thyroid on the body's overall health.