It would make an inc­re­di­ble horror movie. The plot: stun­ningly con­vince at least hun­dreds of millions of indi­vi­duals world­wide that what has always been obvious, isn’t. That lea­ves only look green because of alien fil­ters in your eyes. That ripe apples fall because water pulls them down. That fire doesn’t really burn your skin; it’s just your imagination. 

And about hun­dred more schi­zoph­re­nic ying yangs. Because if those in autho­rity say so, it must be so. 

But the horror movie is a rea­lity, and I see it EVERY TIME I come into con­tact with peo­ple and the sub­ject of my thy­roid advo­cacy comes up. 

Like today. A cou­ple saw my book and struck up a con­ver­sa­tion. She was on Synth­roid; he was on Levoxyl. They had each been on their T4-only treat­ment for 12 and 14 years res­pec­ti­vely, felt their hypo was per­fectly trea­ted, belie­ved their doctors…and were now dea­ling with other pro­blems: his rising cho­les­te­rol, her depres­sion, his fati­gue, and her weight gain. BUT OF COURSE, THOSE HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH THEIR T4-ONLY TREATED HYPOTHYROID AND SOME OF IT IS THEIR OWN FAULT…leaves aren’t really green, water makes ripe apples fall, and fire doesn’t really burn. 

It just struck me. And it’s struck me before. There’s just a LOT of SILENT SUCKERS wal­king around. I was one; my mother was one; and there are obviously millions out there, still wal­king around trying to live with the side effects of a treat­ment that their doc­tors say are NOT cau­sed by their thyroid. 

Sad.

(Has your cho­les­te­rol and other lipids impro­ved since you switched to Armour and rai­sed without using the TSH? Your story of suc­cess is wel­come on the blog post below!)

39 Responses to “The walking SILENT SUCKERS of Synthroid, Levoxyl & Levothyroxine treatment”

  1. Michelle said:

    Jul 07, 08 at 5:52 am

    I have to totally agree with you about Synth­roid. I had a thy­roi­dec­tomy in Dec. of 07 and have diz­zi­ness, major body aches and pains, rapid heart­beat, sto­mach pain. I have told my doc­tors all along that it’s this medi­ca­tion but they will not lis­ten. So I am trying a little expe­ri­ment on myself. I take my Synth­roid every other day this past week. On the days I don’t take it I feel great! On the days that I do I get all the symp­toms back again. I did con­vince my doc­tor seve­ral months back to put me on Armour but I must be aller­gic to it as my ton­gue swe­lled twice it’s nor­mal size.. So now I won­der what I should do?? I have book­mar­ked your site as we have a bulle­tin board full of peo­ple suf­fe­ring with the same symp­toms.. Thanks! Even if I can­not take Armour, I hope I can help others who can.

  2. David J Michael said:

    Jul 07, 08 at 10:38 am

    I’ve been over being a suc­ker for a long time now, but I’ll be dam­ned if I can find an MD who’ll presc­ribe Armour or even Cyto­mel for me. The majo­rity of the time when I visit a new doc­tor, I have to wait for two or three drug co. reps to see the doc before I can. I still go in to see him/her, but I already know what the res­ponse will be. I am beyond frus­tra­ted, I am really pis­sed off!

  3. Darla said:

    Jul 08, 08 at 9:53 pm

    My cho­les­te­rol went up to 245 and sta­yed there the entire 20 awful years I took Synth­roid. After 6 months of Armour my cho­les­te­rol was 194. The doc said my good cho­les­te­rol was exceptional.

  4. lanette said:

    Jul 12, 08 at 2:20 pm

    I have been on levothy­ro­xine for 3 years. Every year I would tell docs I wan­ted off and was gai­ning weight. They told me I had to be on it for life and it does not cause weight gain. This last time I took in some prin­ted mate­rial I found on the web. They loo­ked back in my records and found out I was never sup­po­sed to be put on the stuff to start with. Now what.…..I quit taking it yes­ter­day and will go see a spe­cia­list I guess

  5. aprillv68 said:

    Jul 13, 08 at 3:34 pm

    After nearly 2 years now of being on Armour, my cho­les­te­rol is 134 (from being 150 – 192 range) my trigly­ce­ri­des are 63 (from 169)and my TSH is quite supres­sed at 0.01.

  6. Anna said:

    Jul 14, 08 at 7:40 am

    I am so glad that I found this web­site! I have been on levothy­ro­xine for 13years. I went to my Dr. about 5 months ago. Again asking to be put on Amour. He sta­ted no and if my lab came back nor­mal he would inc­rease my anti-depressant! Well, my lab was sent to me. The Dr. wote on it “All within NORMAL Limits”. I never heard from the Drs office. I have to say that at that point I change Drs. Now on Amour, I have lots of energy, cho­les­te­rol not 273 but 184 now!Lost 14 pounds in one month. I found a Dr. that lis­tens to me and not my lab. For ever­yone out there. KEEP SEARCHING FOR THE DR. THAT’S RIGHT FOR YOU! I only went thru about 14 of them in the 13 year of hyporthy­roid before I found the right one.
    GO ARMOUR!

  7. Jeanne Hixon said:

    Jul 21, 08 at 5:55 am

    I per­so­nally know some peo­ple on synthe­tic thy­roid meds. They are post meno­pau­sal — and have trou­ble with obe­sity, hair loss, energy levels, etc. One is a rela­tive, and swears by her doc­tor — after all — in her mind, doc­tors are seve­ral notches above the pope on the infa­lli­bi­lity scale!
    It’s too bad. I want to say to the one lady where I used to work — you’re bald and fat and your thy­roid meds make you “feel great” – huh?!?
    It’s sad.

  8. Laura said:

    Jul 22, 08 at 5:15 pm

    My ele­va­ted cho­les­te­rol had not res­pon­ded to extreme chan­ges in diet. Last May, after 5 years on a vegan oil-free diet, my cho­les­te­rol was 205. This May, after a year on Armour, it was 137. Thank you, Janie!

  9. Margretto said:

    Jul 26, 08 at 6:28 am

    Miche­lle,
    It may be the fillers in the Armour that you are aller­gic to. I used to take armour but I switched to Naturth­roid. It is the same drug with dif­fe­rent fillers. I switched from armour because of the fillers, i.e. msg hid­den in it. I wish you the best.

  10. Lynn Cruse said:

    Aug 04, 08 at 12:12 pm

    I had my thy­roid remo­ved due to gra­ves disease in May ’08. My doc­tor told me everything was nor­mal at my first post sur­gery visit and my extra weight and depres­sion would just fall away.

    Need­less to say, within 2 months I was prac­ti­cally sui­ci­dal and star­ving myself in order to die fat and tired. Also, no one men­tio­ned this would kill my sex life.

    I’m really lost right now.

  11. Kathryn said:

    Aug 11, 08 at 6:50 am

    After 18 months on Eltro­xin — T4 only treat­ment my impro­ved health star­ted to nose­dive. i began to feel cold again, feel tired, get heavy colds that went on for weeks and gain weight. I then also began to have pain in my arms and legs which has been diag­nio­sed as Fibromyalgia.I have been asking for natu­ral thy­roid or at least a T4/3 com­bi­na­tion for at least 3 years but keep being told that isn’t avai­la­ble in Thai­land where I live. This last week I recei­ved your book “Stop the Thy­roid Mad­ness”. You can ima­gine my sur­prise when I found the name of the manu­fac­tu­rers of Natu­ral Thy­roid here!! So I con­tac­ted them and have been able to purchase a supply– my doc­tor finally agreed.Now I am going to write to a num­ber of drs here till I find one who is more inte­res­ted in lear­ning with me about how to treatr my con­di­tion best. At the moment my cho­les­te­rol is high — about 240 so we shall see how that changes!

  12. Kathryn Galliers said:

    Aug 12, 08 at 4:09 pm

    Hi this a first time for me. After being diag­no­sed with hpothy­roi­dism I then chan­ged to hperthy­roi­dism and was told this was impos­si­ble howe­ver after a few yrs being trea­ted for the over– active thy­roid. I had radioac­tive iodine treat­ment twice. This then made my thy­roid unde­rac­tive again. I have had this con­di­tion now for almost 20 yrs I am currently 42. I have just recently found out that the shoul­der pro­blem I have is due to the thy­roid pro­blem. It was only as my hus­band was tal­king to a collea­gue in work that I became aware of the natu­ral forms of medi­ca­tion and have to say I was a bit skep­ti­cal about this. Howe­ver having spent almost 4 hrs this eve­ning loo­king at dif­fe­rent sites I have deci­ded to see my doc­tor. I am fed up of the weight as I feel this is killing me. I have tried all ways to loose weight being told by past doc­tors I need to eat less and exer­cise more. I have not got a big appe­tite and never have. Although I went from 7 and half stone to ten stone at the begin­ning of the con­di­tion in the last 6 yrs my weight has inc­rea­sed to over 13 stone. I am only 5 feet tall and find it really depres­sing. After seeing this site and the com­ments I know feel hope­ful that my pro­blem can be sor­ted. Pro­vi­ding my doc­tor is sym­pathe­tic to my cause and is open min­ded about alter­na­tive treat­ment. Fin­gers cross.

  13. Judy said:

    Aug 13, 08 at 11:02 am

    I had been doing so well on the Armour. then in April the phar­mi­cist star­ted giving me Thy­roid USP.
    He said he can­not get Armour. I have gone to 4 dif­fe­rent phar­ma­cies trying to find our what is hap­pe­ning and no one knows anything. I have even writ­ten to the com­pany and not a word. anyone out there hear anything?

  14. cheryl said:

    Aug 13, 08 at 12:10 pm

    Does anyone know what these natu­ral drugs are called here in Ger­many? Thanks!

  15. gwen said:

    Aug 15, 08 at 4:28 pm

    I am 51 years old. Up until a hys­te­rec­tomy 5 years ago, I was active, pea­nut size, and in good health. Now, I have 3 nodu­les, with neck ache, shoul­der ache, mild depres­sion, no energy, hair falling out, gai­ned 20 pounds so far. 4 months ago, my gyno put me on levothy­ro­xine, said i would loose weight, feel like a new woman — B.S. Not hap­pe­nin. In fact, I feel worse, have gai­ned more weight. Am strug­gling to get through the day, and feel as though I have the flu. I go back to my gyno next week, for which I will start the long and exhaus­ting pro­cess of trying to get a doc­tor on my insu­rance to presc­ribe a natu­ral thy­roid med. This is insane. Am not going to end up a sol­dier for the drug industry. Got to get some help or old age is not loo­kin’ too hot!

  16. Nikki said:

    Aug 16, 08 at 2:07 am

    Janie

    I am deve­lo­ping a move­ment on another forum infor­ming peo­ple of Armour. Unfor­tu­na­tely for me I had found out about Armour on my own and suf­fe­red nearly 5 yrs on T4 meds. I researched the heck out of hypothy­roi­dism and one day ban­ged into Armour not kno­wing another med even exsisted. 

    That sta­ted my per­so­nal battle trying to get a doc­tor to Rx it to me.

    Almost a year after finally get­ting on Armour I feel great. Bloa­ting issues stop­ped — mini­mal anxiety — energy retur­ning etc. Wor­king on the nasty 20lbs I gai­ned when told by the doc I was lazy! Then I found your site. Nice to have the reas­su­rance that I made the right deci­sion to switch meds. 

    I am howe­ver fin­ding that the dosa­ges are get­ting more dif­fi­cut to get from the phar­macy. I think there needs to be a move­ment on thy­roid forums to get this resol­ved with Forest Phar­ma­cu­ti­cals and stop Abbott labs from their des­truc­tion of get­ting Forest to supply the meds. I need your help and advice on how we can team up together and stop this war on Armour. It saves lives — it’s the right med and hypothy­roid patients deserve to lead nor­mal lives too! We have enough to battle when we are hit with thy­roid disease — we shouldn’t have to fight for our medi­ca­tion too!

    Slowly I am moving this other forum into the unders­tan­ding that they do not have to live sick just because their thy­roids don’t work. It’s been great for me when peo­ple con­tact me and say I’ve saved there lives. Somehow we Lea­ders — need to team together to keep this med an option to treat!

  17. Michele Mallet said:

    Aug 18, 08 at 1:50 am

    Is there a way that I can post/share this to my Face­book Pro­file? Do you have a face­book group on Stop­ping The Thy­roid Madd­ness? Thanks, Michele Mallet from Miami Taking Synth­riod since I was 2 years old.…So that’s would be 33 years…just recently switched to Armour Thyroid.

    (From Janie: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=35794027415)

  18. Laurie said:

    Aug 18, 08 at 7:26 am

    When I was 15 most of my thy­roid was remo­ved because of Gra­ves’ Disease. Ever since then (I’m 51), I’ve been on a gra­dually inc­rea­sing daily dose of Synth­roid (200 mcg now). I’m 5’5″ and 260 lbs, have high blood pres­sure, high cho­les­te­rol and thin­ning hair. I had heard about natu­ral thy­roid hor­mone a cou­ple of years ago and asked my doc­tor but she said all the nega­tive stuff you men­tio­ned and wouldn’t presc­ribe it. 

    I need to find actual scien­ti­fic stu­dies sho­wing all the won­der­ful results men­tio­ned anec­do­tally here, so that I can march back in to my doctor’s office and demand a presc­rip­tion for a natu­ral thy­roid hor­mone. After rea­ding all this, I’m fee­ling a lot more deter­mi­ned to go find those studies!

  19. Diana Cary said:

    Aug 29, 08 at 7:13 am

    I am on Synth­roid. I have fought and fought with my doc­tor con­cer­ning my thy­roid con­di­tion. I am
    going to “intro­duce” Armour to her and insist that she place me on it. If she doesn’t I will get another doc­tor. I have been on Synth­roid since I was a tee­na­ger, now I am 62. I lose weight only if I eat NOTHING. But that is not healthy either. My cho­les­te­rol has been diag­no­sed as high and now I am on medi­cine for that. I am going to win this battle!

  20. marydobek said:

    Aug 29, 08 at 6:34 pm

    i hope armour works ..imsick of being tired dizzy and lightheaded

  21. Carol diamond said:

    Sep 09, 08 at 3:16 pm

    Was on Armour many years, with a mini­mal 0.1 TSH. Dr. claims it will damage my heart and bones to be so HYPER. Well, if this is hyper, I hate to see what hypo feels like. Said I would give T4 a try. OOPS. What is this balloon doing around my middle? Why does my hip hurt so much? Next visit will ask for a combo-I need T3. Oh, did I men­tion my cho­les­te­rol went from 225 to 295?

  22. Lucero said:

    Sep 11, 08 at 2:06 pm

    I have just found a doc­tor in my area that pres­ci­bes Armour and I hope to get an appoint­ment soon. Have been on synth­roid for 21 months now and 22 pounds hea­vier since I star­ted. I have NEVER been over­weight in my entire life. Yes, I con­si­der this over­weight as I am only 5’4, so three pounds of weight gain can be dras­tic. I am so sad my doc­tor wrote write it for me. And, Carol the “balloon around the middle” I’m right there with you. So awful, why don’t they believe us patients?

  23. Helen said:

    Oct 05, 08 at 6:59 pm

    I pro­mi­sed God I would tell ever­yone loud and long if I found someh­ting to help with hair loss. I am 50+ and have been stea­dily losing hair for 10 years. What a coni­ci­dence! I have been taking levothy­rine for most of that time, synth­roid just prior to that!
    I am nearly 50 lbs over­weight and have extre­mely thin hair!
    I have wor­ked all sum­mer outside. Swea­ting like crazy and lost 4 lbs!!
    Sooo.…. when I had to have blood work done for a life insu­rance policy I apo­lo­gi­zed about the weight. The girl doing the check asked if I was on any thy­roid? I told her I had been on Levy. for years. She was the one that broke it to me about the Armour, she used it and was happy with it AND was SKINNY! I called my Dr. and told him I wan­ted to try the Armour. I got the nurse and she wan­ted to know why I wan­ted to change??? I told her I was not losing any weight and was tired of having no hair!
    So.. I have been on Armour for nearly 1 week. I don’t feel a whole lot dif­fe­rent, but after rea­ding this site I am more than a little exci­ted!
    THANKS to all for these posts! I am hoping for great results and will post some soon I hope!
    HK

  24. Karen said:

    Oct 11, 08 at 7:10 pm

    Are these posts really true? I get to rea­ding these posts only to doubt they are from REAL people.

    I want to post with some ques­tions, but afraid to.

  25. Angela said:

    Nov 03, 08 at 1:21 am

    I was put on levothy­ro­xine about 11 months ago. I have told my doc I feel worse than when I star­ted. I also had a blood pres­sure rea­ding ogf 102 over 68 before I star­ted and It is now 135 over 95. My doc will not presc­ribe armour, I’m afraid it is the levothy­ro­xine cau­sing this rise in blood pres­sure infact I’m sure it is. I have always had low or nor­mal low bp until now. I have Hashimotos.

  26. Kathie Wind said:

    Nov 15, 08 at 2:07 pm

    I had a thy­roi­dec­tomy in January 2007. Was told I had can­cer, but did not. Been taking Levothy­roine ever since. I also took Cyto­mel for a while. I have gai­ned nearly 40 pounds, am tired all the time and ache all over and am depres­sed. Also I deve­lo­ped high blood pres­sure and am taking medi­ca­tion for this. I was really glad to find this web­site. I will be asking my Dr. about amour.

  27. Angie said:

    Dec 17, 08 at 11:38 am

    My doc does presc­ribe Armour, although he says only a hand­ful of his patients take it. I have Hashi­moto, and was hoping to “fix” myself through Chi­nese Medi­cine prac­ti­tio­ner. I feel like crap, and don’t know how much lon­ger I can hold out from taking the presc­rip­tions. My doc­tor is Mark Ste­sin in Min­nea­po­lis, Min­ne­sota. If that helps anyone.

  28. Amy Hobitz said:

    Dec 19, 08 at 7:51 am

    I know this was pos­ted a while ago, but for the lady that asked what natu­ral thy­roid is called in Ger­many, one brand is called Thy­reo­gland.
    I just star­ted my first dose of it today, after levothy­ro­xine has made me feel like I would rather die than live on!
    Thy­reo­gland is hard to find, howe­ver a phar­macy in Munchen (Munich) sells it, Kloes­terl Apo­teke, Walthers­trasse, 80337 Muenchen. Phone: 089 54343211. I hope it’s okay to put their info here!!
    Good luck!!

  29. debra said:

    Jan 08, 09 at 1:00 pm

    Yes, Karen — we are real peo­ple with thr­yoid disease that have lear­ned the only way to treat it is through symp­toms. For over 10 years I had no qua­lity in my life while being trea­ted with Synth­roid. I went from doc to doc trying to find an ans­wer. I finally found a doc that recom­men­ded Armour and it chan­ged my life. I felt 20 years youn­ger; I could focus, I regai­ned a rea­so­na­ble weight, I have energy, my hair stop­ped falling out, I was finally warm again and the life came back into my being. I since have had to switch to another doc when mine left the area, and I told him that I could only take Armour and he works with me to self-regulate based on symp­toms. I am “low” accor­ding to the lab tests, but I feel great and have been sta­ti­cally low for years, even before the test levels were re-evaulated and lowe­red a few years ago. Please trust me when I tell you that the best way to treat hypothy­roi­dism is by symp­toms, not lab tests. You have to be willing to lis­ten to your body, record how you feel, and take an active part in your health. Some­ti­mes it seems like a tough row to hoe, but believe me, it is worth it to feel like your­self again ins­tead of a shell of who you used to be!

  30. Gina said:

    Jan 15, 09 at 1:22 pm

    Well, my doc­tor reluc­tantly presc­ri­bed Armour for me I think in April of 08. My TSH then was 3.43, T4 5.5 and T3 94.9 As of 12/10/08 it is now TSH 1.44 T4 5.1 and T3 a whop­ping 192.

    I was told by a phar­ma­cist that I was doing a lot of things wrong. First I was taking it on an empty sto­mach but I then would drink bar­ley and beet juice, follo­wed by fruit. He said not to eat for at least an hour after taking the Armour. Also that cru­ci­fe­rous veg­gies bloc­ked the Armour. I had been eating spi­nach with every meal and taking kelp also. So since 12/10 have been doing as he said. I then heard from my doc­tor that she wants me to come off Armour and to take the drea­ded Synth­roid!! She had me tes­ted again and as soon as I get the results I’ll post them here. I found online, con­flic­ting advice. One idea is to take a little T4 with my Armour, the other to stop the Armour right away! I’m so con­fu­sed! I live near Mexico and could try to get it there w/o a presc­rip­tion. Who can I turn to medi­cally here in Yuma AZ? I know now that my T3 of 345 had gone down to 294 as of 10/09. I also have high Cholesterol,(with Armour has now lowe­red from 345 to 294.) osteo­pae­nia, and Arryth­mia, all of which can be attri­bu­ted to my low thy­roid. Why did my doc­tor not figure that out? She wan­ted me on Fosa­mex and Lipi­tor ins­tead. I refu­sed. So now I want my thy­roid correc­ted to help with all those issues!

  31. Gina said:

    Jan 15, 09 at 6:07 pm

    I re-read my pre­vious reply and noti­ced I said that my T3 of 345 had gone down to 294 as of 10/09… I of course was refe­rring to my cho­les­te­rol not my T3 which has gone from 94.9 to 192 in 8 months.

  32. Chopsy said:

    Jan 28, 09 at 4:10 pm

    Hi
    I have an appt. with my doc here in the UK who wants to berate me about my cho­les­te­rol levels again. I have point blank refu­sed to take sta­tins (goo­gle The Great Cho­les­te­rol con if you want to know why). I am on 175mcg a day of levothy­ro­xine and I KNOW the 20lbs I have put on in the two years I have been taking it are down to the medi­ca­tion — although my endo doesn’t agree with me and thinks I need anti-depressants.
    So, I am about to have another point­less con­ver­sa­tion where I try and explain that, whether my blood tests sug­ges­ted I am on ‘ade­quate repla­ce­ment’ or not, I believe my cho­les­te­rol is still high because I am on the wrong medi­ca­tion.
    I have taken reams of evi­dence to my doc and Endo regar­ding T3 and Armor but nobody will lis­ten. Can anyone recom­mend a pri­vate GP in the south­west of England?

  33. wildbill562 said:

    Mar 10, 09 at 11:58 pm

    I had been on Synth­roid for 2 – 3 years and felt inc­rea­singly fati­gued and over­weight. Then I sig­ned up for Dr. Brownstein’s news­let­ter http://www.drbrownstein.com and he sent me 3 books as part of the deal. One of them was Over­co­ming Thy­roid Disor­ders. It was a reve­la­tion. Here is current promo: http://w3.newsmax.com/newsletters/brownstein/thyroid2.cfm?s=al&promo_code=7A93-1

    That’s when the war began with my VA doc­tor. She sent me to Bay Pines VA Hos­pi­tal to talk to the endoc­ri­no­lo­gist. He laughed at me for wan­ting to “take a giant step back­wards in time” and try Armour thy­roid. So I searched online for a holis­tic doc­tor in Palm Har­bor, FL and found Dr. Edward Pear­son. The first time I met him and rela­ted my story, he wrote me a scrip for Armour thy­roid — no pro­blem. He also recom­men­ded the 6 week detox pro­gram, which I did star­ting 12/22/08. I lost 22 lbs and feel bet­ter. I just joi­ned Snap Fit­ness and will begin wor­king with a per­so­nal trai­ner on Fri­day. Good luck to every one in your strug­gle to find pro­per medi­cal and nutri­tio­nal care.

  34. Wolffie57 said:

    Apr 01, 09 at 11:05 pm

    I just recently found out that I have an unde­rac­tive thy­roid. won­de­red why I gai­ned so much weight and was always depres­sed and going thru meno­pause like a bad night­mare. WOW I am not dea­ling with this very good. so I have done alot of research and I am trea­ting myself with all natu­ral vita­mins !!! So far I am get­ting some relief BUT not enough yet. so i am in the pro­cess of trying some other vita­mins, and hope­fully this will help. Time will tell.

  35. MISHA said:

    Apr 07, 09 at 7:43 pm

    I am 26 yr old female, had a par­tial thy­roi­dec­tomy (50%) and was put on 0.50 mcg synth­roid. I gai­ned 10 Kgs in a year!!! Pain­ful gas, feel horri­ble, my clothes don’t fit. I am over 75kgs and very dis­tres­sed!!! When I don’t take the medi­cine, I tend to deflate. when I get my periods I also tend to deflate! I feel heavy and ugly and I cant wear anything.

  36. Jill said:

    May 12, 09 at 2:34 pm

    Hi there,
    I’m con­fu­sed. The last time I had my blood drawn, my T3 and T4 levels came back fine. But my T4 uptake was high, which my doc­tor belie­ved was an indi­ca­tor that I had plenty of T4 and was con­ver­ted it to T3 well enough. My pro­blem might be an absorp­tion pro­blem he thought. In ansy case, he didn’t think Amour was a good option for me, since I am con­ver­ting to T3 just fine. Does this sound fami­liar to anyone?

  37. Raven said:

    May 31, 09 at 8:57 pm

    I highly recom­mend Dr. Phi­lip Zby­lot in Aus­tin, Texas. He is very know­led­gea­ble about thy­roid disor­ders. His web­site is http://www.doctorzmd.com. I hope this helps! I, too, have had a night­mare expe­rience with Synth­roid. I’ve gai­ned almost 60 pounds in the last four years since I had my thy­roid remo­ved. I never had a weight pro­blem before. Sigh. I’ve had great results with Armour, but no lon­ger take it because it’s not strong enough. I recently switched to Naturth­roid. I feel much bet­ter already. FYI — you can get the medi­ca­tion much chea­per at http://www.womensinternationalpharmacy.com. Hope this helps!

  38. Joyce said:

    Aug 13, 09 at 8:27 am

    I’ve also put on 28 pounds of weight before being diag­no­sed as hypothy­roid. Never had a weight pro­blem in my life before. After 5 years on levothy­ro­xine and currently taking 200mg per day my doc­tor has finally lis­te­ned to my con­cerns over my weight and presc­ri­bed orlis­tat (zeni­cal). I am hope­ful that this will do the trick and apart from my lack of sex drive and excess weight I have felt well on thy­ro­xine but did find the com­ments about Armour inte­res­ting. Not sure if this can be presc­ri­bed here in the UK though.

    From Janie: Joyce, for thought, unders­tand that having weight gain (com­mon with being on T4) and a lack of sex drive (com­mon being on T4) does not equate to doing well on T4, even if you feel well. There are going to be more pro­blems crop up, as well. Yes, you can get desic­ca­ted thy­roid presc­ri­bed in the UK. It’s just a bit har­der. If you want to pur­sue this further, use this page: http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/talk-to-others)

  39. Matt said:

    Sep 23, 09 at 7:57 am

    Be care­ful peo­ple. I don’t have all the ans­wers. I’ve read all the books, no one has all the ans­wers. The pat­terns, the dosa­ges, the dif­fe­rent meds, its still a mys­tery. I’ve been on Synth­roid for years, have always had a TSH around 5. I’ve felt nor­mal except had trou­ble losing weight (I’m very active and try to eat accor­ding to the Zone diet). I tried switching to Armour and it didn’t make me feel much dif­fe­rent. But right after star­ting it, my thy­roid star­ted get­ting nodu­les and star­ted fee­ling uncom­for­ta­ble. I’m back on Synth­roid, my thy­roid finally stop­ped hur­ting after 3 months. I encou­rage ever­yone to try wha­te­ver they think is best. Find a phy­si­cian that is willing to work with you. Most endoc­ri­no­lo­gists are a com­plete waste of your time. If you find a good one, exce­llent stick with them. Also get your levels chec­ked often (every cou­ple months) and keep a record for your­self of every test, test result, med level and how you feel. You may be able to spot pat­terns of figure out where you feel best.

    (From Janie: Hi Matt. There are defi­ni­tely some who do bet­ter than others on T4. You could be one. But your weight issue is from being on T4, and if you don’t already have other issues not yet noti­ced, they’ll creep up on you. Perhaps your expe­rience with Armour has an ans­wer here: http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/mistakes-patients-make Also, if you tried the newly for­mu­la­ted Armour, that was cau­sing most peo­ple problems.)


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