Diabetologists and endocrinologists provide advice to people of all ages after childhood including the transition to adulthood on a variety of metabolic and endocrine conditions.
Type 2 diabetes is a progressive condition of adulthood which eventually develops in 10% of the UK population, and through its impact on arterial disease consumes some 8-10% of health care resources. Type 1 diabetes and other forms are much less common, but often difficult for the person with the condition to manage, lifelong. They may have devastating impact on visual, cardiovascular, renal and nervous systems if expert professional advice is not available.
Endocrine conditions are diverse in their requirement for specialist medical advice, but their impact is also lifelong. Many pose a diagnostic challenge, and in some the application of new but only partially effective treatments requires fine judgement. Endocrine disorders affect many body systems, and call for expertise in metabolic disease, clinical biochemistry, cardiovascular disease. neurology, disorders of the ear nose and throat, and others.
Specialty website
- Society for Endocrinology
Statement on the diagnosis and management of hypothyroidism
Issued by the Royal College of Physicians, the Association for Clinical Biochemistry, the British Thyroid Association, the British Thyroid Foundation Patient Support Group, the British Society for Paediatric Endocrinology and Diabetes and the Society for Endocrinology, January 2009.
This statement has been prepared in response to widespread concerns about un-validated diagnostic tests and ‘natural’ treatments which are being offered by a variety of private individuals and companies. Patients with and without thyroid disease are being inappropriately diagnosed and managed in ways which compromise their safety and can leave the true cause of their symptoms undiagnosed and therefore untreated.