May 26, 2009

nature-throidWith so many folks repor­ting pro­blems with the newly-formulated Armour, there is a gro­wing body of indi­vi­duals sta­ting they are switching to Natu­reth­roid by RLC Labs (for­merly Wes­tern Research), another presc­rip­tion brand of desic­ca­ted thy­roid.  Here is info to carry with you if you switch:

1) Natu­reth­roid has a coa­ting on the outside, and some patients state they bite on the pill to remove the coa­ting, and still try to do it sublin­gually. No sugar, but some are determined.

2) One grain of Natu­reth­roid is 65 mg rather than the 60 mg that Armour users have been used to. Two grains are 130 mgs, etc. (One grain is actually 64.8 but it’s easier to round it up). Strengths are 1/4, 1/2, one grain, two grains, three grains.

3) The makers of Natu­reth­roid will be crea­ting a 1 1/2 grain tablet by next year to add to the sizes they currently have. Other sizes are in the works, as well.

4) Ingre­dients are:

  • Por­cine Thy­roid Pow­der, U.S. Pharmacopeia
  • Mic­rocrys­ta­lline Cellulose
  • Dical­cium Phosphate
  • Sodium Starch Glycolate
  • Mag­ne­sium Stearate
  • Hydroxy­propyl Methylcellulose
  • Stea­ric Acid
  • Car­nauba Wax
  • Pol­yethy­lene Glycol

5) Natu­reth­roid uses the same USP thy­roid pow­der as any good desic­ca­ted thy­roid pro­duct — it “adhe­res to full phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal purity and stan­dar­di­za­tion on the con­sis­tency of the hor­mo­nes along with full pre-and-post tes­ting pro­ce­du­res asso­cia­ted with qua­lity presc­rip­tion products.”

6) RLC Labs is a small and friendly phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal com­pany, and you are going to see impro­ve­ments to their web­site coming.

7) Twit­ter has a new Nature Throid website.

8 ) RLC labs also dis­tri­bu­tes Westh­roid, which is iden­ti­cal and mostly used by vete­ri­na­rians.  There won’t be newly-created strengths for Westh­roid as there will be for Naturethroid.

9) When switching, you will have to figure out if you need to be on a simi­lar amount as before, or a dif­fe­rent amount, accor­ding to symptoms.

10) And finally, it’s been around since the 1930’s – another tried and true desic­ca­ted thy­roid product!

*From the UK? The Royal College of Phy­si­cians isn’t too smart.  See below.  And for other still-very-relevant posts, scroll down.

*Want to be infor­med of my blog posts? Curious what’s on my mind? Use the Noti­fi­ca­tions on the lower left of the links.

  • Want to keep track of these “fringe web­site” blog posts? ;-) Curious what’s on Janie’s mind? Use the noti­fi­ca­tion on the lower left of the links, called a News­let­ter, or an RSS Feed.
  • The extre­mely hip and sophis­ti­ca­ted STTM t-shirts are half price! Great BUMPER STICKERS, too. Spread the word – YOU may make a dif­fe­rence in someone’s life.
  • Check out the patient-to-patient book with even more detail (and which doc­tors seem to res­pect more than websites).
  • Need to unders­tand all your best options for thy­roid treat­ment? Go here.
  • Keep infor­med of each live Thy­roid Patient Com­mu­nity Call on Talkshoe by sig­ning up as a follo­wer.

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61 Responses to “Are you switching to Nature-throid? Here’s 10 good things to know!”

  1. Kaia said:

    May 29, 09 at 9:24 pm

    Thank you for the infor­ma­tion. I’m inc­re­dibly disap­poin­ted with the new Armour, so I will be switching to Natu­reth­roid soon.

    Any idea if RLC Labs has any plans to create a sublin­gual for­mu­la­tion? (We can all wish)

  2. nichole said:

    Jun 02, 09 at 10:25 am

    I am so glad I have found this. I have been hypothy­roid for 20 years, and over the last 2 or 3 I have been com­plai­ning to my doc­tor about my horribly swo­llen legs (com­plete lack of ankles — I’m 35 and 140lbs.) and all he tells me is to wear sup­port hose. I recently dis­co­ve­red I have EXTREME High cho­les­te­rol too, there is no hist of it in the family, and I eat pretty healthy. Yet Doc can’t explain it just wants to put me on more pills.

    After fin­ding this sight I can finally hope­fully expe­rience what its like to be really happy again no more Eeyore

    I can’t say Thank you enough!

  3. Bridget said:

    Jun 10, 09 at 3:49 pm

    Is Nature-Throid as effec­tive as Armour? I have been doing some searches on one vs. the other, and am rea­ding that it isn’t. This is only based on a few hits.

  4. Jane C. said:

    Jun 16, 09 at 1:36 pm

    Bridget…give it a try. I switched from Armour to Natu­reth­roid about 3 weeks ago and I feel that I’m doing bet­ter on it. I take it sublin­gually and the new Armour wasn’t wor­king for me. My phar­macy had never heard of Natu­reth­roid but thank­fully they orde­red it for me.

  5. Becci said:

    Jun 23, 09 at 10:00 am

    Please also know that there are many of us out here who have sta­yed with Armour even after the for­mu­la­tion change. Up your dosage and then give it time…you don’t have to switch if you can be patient and find the correct dosage that works for you. It still works, just may need to work on the dosage a bit.

  6. Alex S. said:

    Jun 26, 09 at 1:11 pm

    How can I take Natu­reth­roid sublingually?

  7. Norah H. said:

    Jul 10, 09 at 8:18 pm

    My doc won’t give me Armour or anything but Levothy­ro­xine. I feel like total crap and keep having pro­blems. They keep tes­ting me for EVERYTHING and coming up with nothing else. The rheu­ma­to­lo­gist wants me to try Pla­que­nil, which is an immu­no­sup­pres­sant, so I’m thin­king about asking him to presc­ribe Natu­reth­roid for me first before I try that.….what kind of docs are let­ting you guys on the des­si­ca­ted thyroid??

  8. Sarah said:

    Jul 12, 09 at 12:02 pm

    I finally got my Dr.to presc­ribe Armour but she wouldn’t up my dose to help me feel better.So I went to see a Natu­ro­path and he is wor­king with me to inc­rease my dose safely(as desc­ri­bed on this website).I don’t feel well yet,since I am still slowly inc­rea­sing my dose but I am also not sure if I will feel well since I have just got my script refill and dis­co­ve­red it is the new Armour.I might switch to Natu­reth­roid if I don’t get results soon.Also, how do peo­ple do Natu­reth­roid sublingually?I am having a hard time doing the new armour sublingually:it is dis­gus­ting and takes a long time to dissolve.

  9. Ms. C Hill said:

    Jul 13, 09 at 10:13 am

    I am devas­ted because of the new armour. I did well on Armour until the for­mula change. I have expe­rien­ced The same pro­blems and then some. I am a type 1 dia­be­tic– since the age of 9. I am now 50. After 3 yrs. of being on Armour, the outer part of my eye­brows had just star­ted to fill in. Now I have lost almost all of my eye­brows. I look 65 –70 yrs. I can’t sleep, can’t con­cen­trate and my memory is just about lost. I feel horri­ble. Look worse and can not con­trol my blood sugars, thanks to Armour. My hair is falling out again and I am expe­rien­cing a roller coas­ter– emo­tio­nally. I’m afraid to make any major deci­sions. How can I con­tact Forest. I want them to know — that they are lite­rally –killing me.

  10. Marian said:

    Jul 13, 09 at 5:03 pm

    If you want to try Nature-Throid and have been get­ting denied by your phar­macy, you can have your phar­ma­cist call RLS directly or have RLS call them. RLS will pro­vide the order code they need to work with who­me­ver is their dis­tri­bu­tor. I called them to ask for a lead on which phar­macy to con­tact, and they took the bull by the horns and said they’d call my phar­macy for me. Now I will be get­ting my exact presc­rip­tion of Nature-Throid, no pill split­ting or subs­ti­tu­tions in strength. You can call them at 1 – 877-797‑7997. RLC labs is awe­some and indeed very friendly!!

  11. kendra said:

    Jul 19, 09 at 5:08 am

    Now I know whats going on with me! I wish i could be happy about they ans­wer, but i feel like, now what? Hope­fully the Natu­reth­roid will work but how to undo the damage already done? The days lost? the hair lost! I have scalp pso­ri­sis, so bad, been get­ting sick and have that anno­ying cough, sen­si­tive to cold, just feel so tired and unmo­ti­va­ted. Sigh, what do we do? could the FDA just keep thier noses out of a good thing? It is them that deman­ded this change in for­mu­la­tion.
    Best of luck to us all!!!

  12. Lizzo said:

    Jul 20, 09 at 2:43 pm

    I just began Nature-Throid today. I am on 3 grains since I was taking 112 of Synth­roid and 90 of Armour. I am anxious to see how long it takes to “kick” in and hope to see some of the effects of the other medi­ca­tions rever­sed. My phar­macy (Tar­get) had to order the Nature-Throid but it only took a day to get in. The phar­ma­cist did tell me that he has been una­ble to get Armour so I feel bet­ter kno­wing that I am not being held to a medi­cine that isn’t rea­dily available.

  13. MariBeth said:

    Jul 28, 09 at 5:33 pm

    Ken­dra – wow, totally expe­rien­cing the same!! I have the scalp pso­ri­sis too, can’t get rid of it…come to think of it, it star­ted after the Armour for­mu­la­tion change. I finally got my doc to switch me to Natu­reth­roid so will begin tonight, sure hope the symp­toms sub­side I have been barely han­ging in there. Glad to know though it is just not my ima­gi­na­tion and others are expe­rien­cing the same.

  14. Denise said:

    Jul 30, 09 at 5:20 am

    I don’t get it off the Doc. I order it off the web. Don’t trust the Doc’s. I pre­fer to self medi­cate as they nearly killed me on that Levo poi­son, I had seven months of Levo-Hell until I really had, had enough and orde­red Armour. I am not pre­pa­red to go back to where I was and I have now orde­red Nature-throid. There is no need to beg, cry and plead to the Doc’s order it for yourself!

  15. Stephanie said:

    Aug 03, 09 at 2:53 pm

    Denise,
    How do you order it without Rx? I would’ve done much bet­ter for many years if I could self medi­cate as you do.
    The drs nearly killed me too… long story…
    I’ve had thy­roid pro­blems and other hor­mone pro­blems since age 11– I’m 49. Natu­ral thy­roid is the only one that works. The synthe­tics make me worse. After being quite ill for many years lea­ding to seve­ral life-threatening things in the past two years, simi­lar expe­rien­ces to Nora H above, I finally con­vin­ced a dr that those pro­blems star­ted when I was taken off thy­roid a long time ago, and that I got bet­ter ONLY whe­ne­ver I’ve been on thy­roid (briefly because I’d have a bad reac­tion because no one unders­tood the dif­fe­rence in levo and natu­ral thy­roid, and my adre­nal pro­blem nee­ded to be trea­ted too).
    After 4 months and seve­ral drs reluc­tantly giving me only tiny amounts, finally the last one got the dose up to 30mg 3 times a day, and that was wor­king for two months, then the Armour for­mula change and I star­ted get­ting worse. My dr refu­sed to believe that, and said the insu­rance co will not allow her to raise it any higher without tests (that she wouldn’t do because they might show nor­mal des­pite my bad symp­toms), that only an endo can raise it– but I already know the few endos here are terri­ble.
    So I explai­ned about the Armour bac­kor­ders and shor­ta­ges as my rea­son I asked to be switched to Westh­roid. She agreed if I would find where to get it, (I was afraid Natu­reth­roid sounds too “natu­ral”). Westh­roid is on WalMart’s distributor’s spe­cial order list, but in the wrong dose, so Wal­Mart is trying to get what I need when no other phar­macy here would try. While wai­ting to get that, I had to call all over to find Armour, finally found a month supply, and when I got it, it is the OLD for­mula and I felt bet­ter with the first pill and it has been a cou­ple weeks and I’m still fee­ling bet­ter! Defi­ni­tely pro­blems with the new Armour! Now seve­ral weeks later Walmart’s dis­tri­bu­tor is still hag­gling with Wal­mart and with RLC labs who con­tac­ted Wal­mart for me (RLC offe­red to help me), to set up the order. RLC and Wal­mart have both been very help­ful… so far… but still no Westh­roid because of the dis­tri­bu­tor pro­blem… I’m afraid the dr might change her mind before Wal­mart can get it.
    So I wish I could order it myself…

  16. julie Hayes said:

    Aug 08, 09 at 2:03 pm

    I have Hashi­moto thy­roi­di­tis and have been on a low dose 1gr for nearly 2 years. Armour kept me sane but it never eli­mi­na­ted all the symptoms.

    Recently I have chan­ged to Nature-throid and felt the dif­fe­rence straight away. Although it took the depres­sion down within a few days I still feel very tired but feel even worse when I try to raise the dose. My body tem­pe­ra­ture (pm) is now reaching 37.0 which is something that didnt hap­pen with Armour.
    Recently the tem­pe­ra­ture went up to 37.4 bit high I think, pulse rate up too.

    I have used Cor­tef for a while. Is it still my adre­nals or do I need to drop the Nature-throid down to maybe .45mc as I think that it actually is wor­king and maybe over­do­sing a little. Feel quite anxious not. (from Janie: you are defi­ni­tely here: http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/adrenal-info and here: http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/mistakes-patients-make And use a patient group for feed­back: http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/talk-to-others)

  17. k said:

    Aug 09, 09 at 5:23 pm

    Stepha­nie I know you can order your westh­roid from womens inter­na­tio­nal phar­macy they have the one grain avai­la­ble you can get the num­ber from rlc labs.
    or goo­gle it it should be there but i have defi­na­tely found the num­ber on the natu­reth­roid website.

  18. robbielyn said:

    Aug 10, 09 at 2:55 pm

    CVS phar­ma­cies uses a dis­tri­bu­ter that can get nature-throid. Just got the doc to presc­ribe. Must be a good doc told him i wan­ted a 1/2 gr bid and he said fine but you should know I have never heard of it, its a presc­rip­tion? I said yeah its same as armour only dif­fe­rent fillers. Ok but I think bid is wierd but so be it. I didn’t tell him about taking it sublin­gually he was con­cer­ned that taken by mouth means less absorp­tion cause of food in the sto­mach. but he went ahead and presc­ri­bed for me.

  19. Stephanie said:

    Aug 11, 09 at 5:37 pm

    The CVS here refu­ses to even dis­cuss the pos­si­bi­lity of orde­ring Natu­reth­roid or Westh­roid. They are one of the most dif­fi­cult to deal with. And the other phar­ma­cies that can order it, the dis­tri­bu­tors have 1 gr but not 1/2 gr which is the dose that I need to get, because I take it either three times a day or two in am and 1 in after­noon. That is why it was neces­sary to find a store that would get the 1/2 grain. I think based on my symp­toms, even the (old, good) Armour might have nee­ded to be rai­sed by another 1/2 gr, which would make it pos­si­ble to use the 1 gr Naturethroid/Westhroid. But when my Rx was filled with the new Armour, I star­ted get­ting so much worse again that it was like taking nothing at all and this had the dr very con­fu­sed. But she also knows that the blood tests are very inac­cu­rate for me so she didn’t order them, because she explai­ned that if her records are audi­ted it would be ques­tio­ned why she had me on thy­roid Rx EVEN though my symp­toms show I still have my life­long hypothy­roi­dism. At least she unders­tands that, unlike most drs I’ve used in the last 30 yrs.
    So rather than hunt all over town for the use­less Armour that is bac­kor­de­red most pla­ces, I asked the Dr to switch me to Westh­roid and she agreed. To be sure that wouldn’t be a pro­blem obtai­ning it, I’d already chec­ked with the mfg, RLC, to set up so my phar­macy could get it. But when lots of peo­ple star­ted switching (pro­bably because of the exce­llent info on this web­site!), RLC had dif­fi­culty kee­ping up with sud­denly ship­ping out so many orders. But mine finally arri­ved at my local phar­macy today.

    From Janie: I war­ned RLC last month, but I figu­red war­ning them is quite dif­fe­rent from the actual rea­lity of so many switching. lol. I’m sure they are swea­ting with a smile.

  20. m. said:

    Aug 12, 09 at 2:45 pm

    i want to try nature-throid but not sure how to con­vince a doc, it seems from this site and my past expe­rien­ces it can be quite dif­fi­cult to get your doc to believe you when you know what you want/need. i have an appt next fri­day with an endo

    i have found a few pla­ces online to get natu­reth­roid, but how do i know its the real deal? if my doc wont Rx for me, i’m get­ting it myself. so i want to be sure i get the best stuff. my doc­tors have frus­tra­ted me to no end but i am hope­ful for a new one. again. sigh. but in the event i am told its synth­roid for a few months, or wha­te­ver else ever­yone on here has had to put up with, i am run­ning for the hills and get­ting my own natu­ral meds.

  21. Tanya said:

    Aug 13, 09 at 9:01 am

    Hi, I am from South africa, howe­ver do not know where to get Natu­rehth­roid. I have pho­ned some phar­ma­cies, howe­ver with no luck.

    Does anyone know where i can:
    1. Find a South Afri­can doc­tor that will con­si­der this as an alter­na­tive med
    2. Where I can purchase it in South Africa?
    3. If not, what alter­na­tive can be considered.

    One thing I know is that I can­not con­ti­nue like this anylonger.

    Thanks

  22. Kemi said:

    Aug 15, 09 at 7:43 am

    Hi Tanya,
    I’m currently loo­king into fin­ding Nature Throid in SA. Leave me an email and if I have any luck I will con­tact you to let you know.
    Bles­sings
    Kemi

  23. Michele said:

    Aug 16, 09 at 2:12 pm

    I did talk my Dr. into presc­ri­bing Natu­reth­roid for me, switching from synth­roid that was making me feel so horri­ble, dry hair & skin, migrains, lack of energy and con­cen­tra­tion, for­get­ful­ness. I went to my Costco phar­macy and they had filled a gene­ric thy­roid for me. I deci­ded to try it and the first two months were so great, this 3rd month I am fee­ling so horri­ble again, the exhaus­tion is overwhel­ming. I called Costco and asked if they could please just fill my ori­gi­nal presc­rip­tion and they said they could not get Natu­reth­roid or Armour; They were both on bac­kor­der. So I called RLS, who were so nice to me before and they told me that Natu­reth­roid was on bac­kor­der but to try Westh­roid which is the same as Natu­reth­roid.
    So I called my Dr. and she said she would write me another presc­rip­tion that would say no subs­ti­tu­tions. Costco said if they couldn’t fill it they would help me find another phar­macy that could. So I wish us all luck on our jour­ney to find the correct medication…

  24. lynn said:

    Aug 17, 09 at 9:42 am

    Tanya

    Yes you can import some Nature thy­roid or Westh­roid from here http://www.internationalpharmacy.com/en/products/search/thyroid/1. You do not need a presc­rip­tion for ship­ping to South Africa.

  25. Ingrid said:

    Aug 17, 09 at 1:40 pm

    Once again I feel com­pe­lled to thank this site for ans­we­ring my ques­tions. When I first came across STTM three years ago it was the begin­ning of a health revo­lu­tion for me. Now, after weeks of bewil­de­ring hair loss, EXHAUSTION, joint aches, etc., I imme­dia­tely rea­li­zed I was on the new Armour (actually con­si­de­red that I’d got­ten a ‘bad batch’) after I read this. Star­ted Natu­reth­roid three days ago and having some symp­toms that are pro­bably rela­ted to nee­ding a slightly higher dose. I often refer peo­ple to this site with the war­ning that everything they read here is true – no mat­ter how far-fetched it may seem. THANK YOU again.

  26. kendra said:

    Aug 17, 09 at 5:31 pm

    Hello all!
    have been On Natu­reth­roid now for a month, and am fee­ling bet­ter! yay! more energy for sure, still have a ways to go but hang in there it will work! I am taking 4 NT com­pa­red to the 3 Armour I was taking. Also taking it sublin­gually with a bit of sugar.
    Best!

  27. April said:

    Aug 19, 09 at 6:23 am

    Hey ever­yone. I’ve been on Armour for over a year and just pic­ked up my RX’s and rea­li­zed the RX was switched to Naturth­roid (it said Armour was una­vai­la­ble). I star­ted loo­king around online and rea­li­zed that many peo­ple have been expe­rien­cing prob’s w/Armour. I imme­dia­tely came to this site b/c I know the info here is very accurate.

    So any­way I’ve rea­li­zed that I’ve been having prob’s w/the Armour as well. The last time I went to my doc (a few months ago) I told him I was still fee­ling fati­gue and lack of moti­va­tion. He did a blood test and said that my thy­roid was actually ele­va­ted — which sur­pri­sed me. He put me on iodine (25mg) and dec­rea­sed my Armour dose. I went from 1 1/2 grains down to 1 grain. This hel­ped w/the little bit of pal­pi­ta­tions I was having, but I’ve still been really tired.

    Sooo…now I rea­lize that I’ve been taking a dif­fe­rent ver­sion of Armour all this time and I’m won­de­ring if that’s been my problem?

    The bottle of Natu­reth­roid says for me to take 3 tablets (1/2 grain each). But should I start out with 2 tablets since that’s the dosage of Armour that I was taking?

    Sorry this is so long! Any thoughts or advice would be appre­cia­ted! Thanks in advance…
    April

  28. Karl said:

    Aug 19, 09 at 6:37 pm

    Can you switch from synth­roid to Naturthy­roid straight across without any type of adjustment?

    (www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/things-we-have-learned)

  29. Lauren said:

    Aug 24, 09 at 5:24 am

    I have been on 100 mcg of synth­roid for a few months and star­ted my first dose of Nature Throid (63mg) today. I so far have noti­ced that my heart beat is very slow again as it was before I was inc­rea­sed to 100 mcg of synth­roid. I have tried to look for web­si­tes or any info about what to expect if any side effects after switching over to Nature throid but can’t find any info.…any per­so­nal expe­rien­ces or web­si­tes would be extre­mely helpful:)

    (This page is always help­ful for those star­ting on desic­ca­ted thy­roid: http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/things-we-have-learned follo­wed by this page: http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/mistakes-patients-make )

  30. Justine said:

    Aug 25, 09 at 6:00 am

    Help! I was on 88 mg Synth­roid but had the side effect of losing hair. So my nutri­tio­nist loo­ked at my num­bers, noti­ced I nee­ded both T3 and T4, and we wor­ked on get­ting Nature Throid. I had drop­ped to 44 mg of Synth­roid over the past 2 weeks while trying to find Nature Throid as the hair­loss was too drastic.

    They gave me 1/2 gr. (32.5 m) of Nature-Throid which I star­ted yes­ter­day. And imme­dia­tely got hot flushes, anxiety, etc. I see these are side effects – does this go away? Is this too strong for me and maybe I’ll have to work my way up? And can I cut these in half in the meantime.

    One more com­ment – yes, I have had exhaus­ted adre­nals and have been on Iso­cort for a year.

    Thanks for this great site.

    (from Janie: Bingo. You aren’t on enough cor­ti­sol. Use the NTH Adre­nals group here for feed­back which will help with your doc­tor: http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/talk-to-others)

  31. Michelle said:

    Aug 26, 09 at 7:52 am

    I am on the phone with Cigna and accor­ding to their phar­ma­cist, Natu­reth­roid has been dis­con­ti­nued in all strengths but one, with no other natu­ral thy­roid alter­na­ti­ves. I’m lost right now in figu­ring out how to get dosed pro­perly with just synth­roid and cytomel.

    (From Janie: see my latest blog post for August 25th. Erfa.)

  32. Jane said:

    Aug 31, 09 at 6:24 pm

    I’m trying to post again. My first post was not accep­ted for some rea­son but I believe the public should know. Be wary of anyone who is all against or all for any type of med. They all work dif­fe­rently for peo­ple. I switched from gene­ric levothy­ro­xine to natu­reth­roid because I belie­ved it was a bet­ter pro­duct and I pre­fer natu­ral over synthe­tic. Natu­reth­roid see­med to work fine until 3 months into it, I was get­ting heart palpitations/fluctuations that really bothe­red me. I was actually even redu­ced to 1/4 grain the sma­llest dose pos­si­ble and still it was not right for me. Perhaps too much T3 and maybe my body can con­vert T4 to T3 just fine. I do believe natu­reth­roid is a good med for some peo­ple and can enti­rely change how well one feels. You just have to lis­ten to patients who will tell you that. It is a life­sa­ver for some, just not for me. I tal­ked to my doc­tor who is a natu­ro­path and he said he’s only run into 4 cases like mine where synthe­tic works bet­ter. My son is on 1.5 grains of natu­reth­roid with no real side effects so far (5 months into it) and can tole­rate it quite well. I, on the other hand could not. Peo­ple need to be care­ful to com­ple­tely rule out one med over another and try them out to see what works best for an indi­vi­dual. I am back on synthe­tic levoth­ro­xine but a name brand this time and so far feel good.

    (From Janie: Jane, this is the first time a post like this from you has come through. Pro­bably something went wrong in it’s trans­mis­sion. As far as your expe­rience, it would be wise to do a 24 hour adre­nal saliva test as well as check your ferri­tin. One or the other may have been cau­sing your expe­rience with natu­reth­roid, not that it wasn’t right for you. :)

  33. Jane said:

    Sep 01, 09 at 6:59 am

    In res­ponse to Janie, I think I unders­tand the adre­nal part but how would ferri­tin affect that? Iron cau­ses low energy I know, anything else I need to know? My TSH is above the nor­mal range. At TSH 3.8 I could hardly func­tion with var­ying degrees in bet­ween. At 1.5 I feel good. My T4 and T3 levels are on the low end too. Since this already shows a thy­roid issue, I’m not one of those with nor­mal thy­roid tests with symp­toms. All I know is that without thy­roid meds, I feel so drai­ned and drag­ging. I con­si­de­red adre­nal fati­gue and had tests done and went that route before trying any thy­roid meds and did do the things sug­ges­ted to reco­ver from that for seve­ral months but my pro­blem seems to be my thy­roid affec­ting my adre­nal health making them work over­time. I also have a family his­tory of thy­roid pro­blems but I’m catching mine early. My aunt igno­red her symp­toms and had her thy­roid remo­ved at 50 due to a tumor. I am 37 and currently have the symp­toms she had.

    (From Janie: read these two pages: http://hwww.stopthethyroidmadness.com/ferritin and http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/mistakes-patients-make)

  34. April said:

    Sep 02, 09 at 2:40 pm

    I star­ted Armour in April for Hash­mo­tos at a 3.5 TSH, the real rea­son I did it was to get preg­nant as lowe­ring your TSH helps with this during IVF.

    My hair star­ted to fall out right way on the med (did nto have this before or ever in my life) and then got inc­rea­singly worse in June until I had to off of it. Thin­king, well hoping it was the new and bad for­mu­la­tion of Armour I switched to Nature throid. Within two week my hair was falling out again> My hair never fell out before these drugs. In bet­ween the meds my TSH reboun­ded and shot up to 6. So I had to can­cel IVF and now can’t do it at all because my TSH is WAY out of range.

    Next I tried Levothy­roine with MAJOR hair loss within two weeks again– and went off it two weeks ago> Now my hair is mas­si­vely falling out on its own> great.

    I am in hell now, crying as my hair is falling out beyond desc­rip­tion. I can’t even try IVF which is devas­ta­ting. I am free­zing in my hands and feet and have no doubt that my TSH has shot way up now. I think now my hair is falling out from my thyroid.

    I am thin­king about giving the Nature-throid another chance because I read there can be an inte­rac­tion with it and birth con­trol pills (who knows what just an “inte­rac­tion” I read) I was on birth con­trol for 2 weeks right when I was on the Nature-throid.

    Do peo­ple think I should give it another shot maybe at even a lower does like 1/4 ins­tead of 1/2? I feel horri­ble right now in so many ways, des­pair to put it lightly.

    Any sup­port or advise would help. Most peo­ple have their hair loss STOP on armour or Natu­reth­roid… I had it begin because of them and now is falling out on its own.

    (From Janie: you need to read these pages, because one or more of them can explain your expe­rience: http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/mistakes-patients-make and http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/adrenal-info and http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/ferritin)

  35. shelly said:

    Sep 03, 09 at 7:26 am

    Can you tell me if there are any dif­fe­ren­ces bet­ween westrh­roid and nature throid? I went from one to the other and have red itchy bumps ran­domly but daily now. I also chan­ged from gene­ric syntrhoid to brand at the same time sooo… I am trying to deter­mine which is to blame??

    From Janie: http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/armour-vs-other-brands

  36. Jennifer said:

    Sep 09, 09 at 9:59 am

    I con­tac­ted a com­poun­ding phar­macy near where I live and they advi­sed that Natu­reth­roid is on bac­kor­der. But they said that while it is on back order this allows them to mix up their own repla­ce­ment there in-house. has anyone ever heard of or tried this?

  37. Candice said:

    Sep 10, 09 at 11:12 am

    Jen­ni­fer, I also called my phar­ma­cist today and they can no lon­ger get Nature Throid/Westhroid — it is on back order for at least 3 – 4 months. My doc and the phar­ma­cist “believe” nature-throid and Westh­roid will be dis­con­ti­nued all together because this drug is NOT FDA appro­ved. They did say they can com­pound it — but most insu­rance com­pa­nies will not cover “com­poun­ding” and it’s pretty expensive.

    I called Nature Throid and they con­fir­med they are on back order — but did not spe­cu­late they will be dis­con­ti­nuing the drug.

    My doc­tor said Armour Throid, Westh­roid and Nature-throid are the ONLY alter­na­ti­ves to Synth­roid and Levohy­ro­xin (sp?). THIS STINKS!!!

  38. Margaret said:

    Sep 10, 09 at 6:53 pm

    Shelly,
    Our phar­ma­cies in VA are saying the same things to us. I have no clue what will hap­pen to us if the FDA shuts down our natu­ral thy­roid repla­ce­ments. I’m con­fu­sed as to how we all got scripts from our doc­tors for a non-approved FDA drug? Why is it sud­denly a pro­blem? I’m all for bet­ter natu­ral hor­mone replacement-and if there are pro­blems solve them, don’t remove them. I have severe itching on ALL thy­roid meds-Synthroid, Levothy­ro­xine, Refor­mu­la­ted Armour, Nature Throid. Pla­ying around with Adre­nal com­plex, Iso­cort, short term Pred­ni­sone, but thin­king it’s a pro­tein, or amino acid, defi­ciency. Oh, I also have Lyme, so I’m sure the FDA and WHO will ban any natu­ral Lyme reme­dies, as well. That will make us buy from pri­vate dea­lers. Oh, the insa­nity of it all, and thank God for STTM, and you won­der­ful peo­ple.
    Thy­roid­less in VA…

  39. catherine said:

    Sep 18, 09 at 7:59 am

    has anyone tried the iodine 6 mg/iodide 7.5mg for­mula of dr andrew jones of the women’s health ins­ti­tute of texas? my endo. says the natu­ral thy­roid meds are not going to be made anymore..i refuse to go on synth­roid or other drugs. i had a throi­dec­tomy in ’67 (i/2 remo­ved) been on 30mg armour for yrs w/no pro­blem, now hair loss, no energy, scalp itches etc..endo took blood test says everything is fine..boloney!..those blood tests are never accu­rate as far as t-4 is concerned..i want to try the iodine formula..would appre­ciate any feed­back. cathy

  40. catherine said:

    Sep 18, 09 at 8:08 am

    i really wld like to know if anyone tried the 6 mg iodine/7.5 mg iodide for­mula from the women’s health ins­ti­tute of texas. thank you. cathy

  41. Laura said:

    Sep 22, 09 at 8:28 pm

    Was told today all the natu­ral thy­roids meds will be dis­con­ti­nued EXCEPT Armour…it will be ship­ping again ..last of Sept first of Oct.

    I hate the idea of ONE sup­plier of our natu­ral thy­roid med…

    I have been on Armour for two years..BUT I am won­de­ring if the new for­mula is why I got better…but not as good as I think I should have gotten..

  42. Abbie10 or Judy said:

    Sep 24, 09 at 12:00 pm

    Any one that lives in Indiana is… you know what out of luck.
    Wally World, CVS and I do not know about Walgreens,or Tar­get for sure. If their warehouse does not carry it. They can not order it for you or do a drop ship­ment.
    We are, I believe the only state that has a law that does not allow drop ship­ments. This came from RLC labs
    I think this may be a res­tric­tion that invol­ved ship­ping of wine
    We still this law.
    RLC labs saved me a lot of money and stress lear­ning not to search in Indiana.
    My self and hus­band purcha­sed in dif­fe­rent sta­tes desic­ca­ted thy­roid tablets. We have a years supply each.
    I read it is wise and rec­co­men­ded to have a years supply on hand.
    We both became sick on the New Armour.
    Took me four months before I lear­ned of the Armour change.
    I will never buy their Armour pro­duct again.
    You can not tell me they did not know what they were doing to us. And to think I used and trus­ted this com­pany I used and advi­sed others to do so.
    It really ticks me off. What one will do for money or power.

  43. LauriefromPhili said:

    Sep 26, 09 at 4:12 pm

    Folks:
    I was on Armour for 2 years until around April 2009 when I star­ted to lose my hair (I lost 1/2 of my head of hair!!). I also noti­ced that my depres­sion came back and I gai­ned about 15 pounds (I was always hungry!). I was tired… It was after some research that I rea­li­zed that they alte­red the Armour for­mu­la­tion and that is why I’m having all these problems.…

    So I now order Armour out of Canada… only in Canada its called “Thy­roid.” Its been around for 30 years and they havent chan­ged the for­mu­la­tion. Since I’ve been on it, my hair stop­ped falling out and the depres­sion is almost gone. I’m fee­ling much much bet­ter. I orde­red it from

    http://www.crossborderpharmacy.com/

  44. Sarah said:

    Oct 06, 09 at 1:20 pm

    Help someone! I made a switch last week from Armour to Nature throid and am having such a tough time! I have gai­ned 5lbs although my appe­tite is totally gone. I also feel a bit jit­tery although I am on the same dose as when on Armour. I thought I should perhaps go down in dose because I was fee­ling so jit­tery with the switch but my weight gain and low body tem­pe­ra­ture (96.6) made me think it wouldn’t be a good idea. Has anyone have a hard time with the switch? Anyone have to change their dose from their set armour dose? Thanks for your help!!

  45. Amy said:

    Oct 07, 09 at 7:27 am

    (From Janie: here is what you can do during this shor­tage time: http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/options-for-thyroid-treatment Patients rou­ti­nely report desic­ca­ted thy­roid to give far bet­ter results than synthe­tic T4 and synthe­tic T3)

    I am currently taking levothy­ro­xine and cyto­mel – have been on t4 meds for 5 yrs. with no impro­ve­ments – did some research on my own – found this site and finally star­ted taking con­trol of my hypothyroidism! – started cyto­mel about 6 weeks ago – feel alot bet­ter but still having symp­toms – the more I read about the Natu­reth­roid the more I want to change over to it – but with all of the info about how hard it is to get from the doc and the pharm. and such I am surely con­fu­sed now about what to do – have doc. appt today – I have read so many suc­cess sto­ries about the natu­ral thy­roid meds that I was con­vin­ced to change but seems the more I read the more I find rea­sons NOT to change over– just stay on my levoxyl and cyto­mel? just dont know what to do now – how unfortunate–

  46. Dorie said:

    Oct 17, 09 at 1:40 pm

    I had a total thy­roid collapse about 5 weeks ago. Has any one else had their legs affec­ted by their hypo symp­toms? 8 years ago when I became hypo I was not get­ting enough thy­roid hor­mone in my legs and they actually buc­kled under me and I was bedrid­den for about 3 or 4 months till I got onto armour. The refor­mu­la­tion is a joke, Forest Labs should be sued for all our suffering.I would have rather not been on any armour than on a poorly regu­la­ted drug in the dis­guise as armour. My osteo­path doc­tor was not very help­ful so I thought I would give synth­roid a try since (plus it is so much easier to be medi­ca­ted on this drug regar­ding the doc­tors in this country) it was 8 years since I last went onto synth­roid with no luck, well after about 4 weeks of immense suf­fe­ring on synth­roid. Again I have become hou­se­bound and have very weak pain­ful cal­ves, so I went off the synth­roid and now am on Natu­reth­roid. 2 days and I think I am doing bet­ter. You never know right away, but I did not have to take my pain killers the minute I woke up so that is a very good sign. I have to go back to the osteo­path doc­tor because she presc­ri­bed the Natu­reth­roid, although I did see a link on this site to buy some kind of natu­ral thy­roid without a script. If I did not have the inter­net to see what other thr­yoid patients were expe­rien­cing I truly would have thought that I lost my mind. I had an entire years worth of Armour because I heard of the upco­ming shor­tage, but who would have thought Forest would have chan­ged the for­mula without con­tac­ting all the phar­ma­cies and infor­ming them of this change, which seems like they for­got to inc­lude any active thy­roid hor­mone in their new tablets. I knew the tablets loo­ked, sme­lled and felt very unlike the old armour tablets. I just wish we, all the thy­roid patients who did suf­fer could get some restitution.

  47. Dorie said:

    Oct 17, 09 at 7:46 pm

    If any one knows of a exce­llent endo doc­tor in the Tri-state NY area who can con­nect weak musc­les and pain­ful legs to this hypo con­di­tion please put a post on this web­site for me. Thank you

  48. Trini said:

    Oct 29, 09 at 7:56 pm

    Has anyone had a thr­yoi­dec­tomy? If so what dosage of Naturth­roid did you start with? I’m 5 months post-op and was switched from levothy­ro­xine to Naturth­roid 6 weeks ago at 2 grains and I deci­ded to inc­rease my dosage to 3 1/4 grains over a six week span but lab results recently came back really high on my t3. My doc­tor is now bac­king me down to 1.5 grains. Anybody??

  49. Traci said:

    Oct 31, 09 at 5:09 pm

    I switched from levothy­ro­xine to Natu­reth­roid at the end of August. My muscle pains impro­ved sig­ni­fi­cantly, but I have become inc­rea­singly fati­gued, to the point of com­plete and utter exhaus­tion all the time. I just had my labs done and my TSH had gone from 1.67 in mid August to 25.6 last week. It is no won­der I was exhaus­ted. It appears the Natu­reth­roid did not work AT ALL!

  50. Brenda said:

    Nov 01, 09 at 6:54 pm

    HI, I am on Levoxyl. I am having huge issues. Have no idea if it is the medi­cine. I feel bet­ter than I use to when I was on no meds. But am now seeing a neuro for pro­blems with my ner­ves. They are saying it is neu­ro­pathy. But my hubby researched and found you guys. I am won­de­ring if I switch to Nature will it help. Will my thy­roid pro­blems come back? And if I am on .050 Levoxyl daily. How much Nature do I take? Any ideas will help.

    (From Janie: Brenda, here is a page of patient groups you can join and get good feed­back: http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/talk-to-others Because yes, Natu­reth­roid will be much better)

  51. Catherine said:

    Nov 19, 09 at 11:04 am

    Dorie..from per­so­nal experience…Dr. Mar­cie Wolinsky-Friedland in Rid­ge­field, CT. She is brilliant.

  52. jackie hales said:

    Dec 08, 09 at 2:03 pm

    I chan­ged from Armour thy­roid to Nature-throid and feel so much bet­ter. I have two weeks left and cant get it any where any suggestions

  53. Regina G. said:

    Jan 15, 10 at 5:10 pm

    I would like to know if there is any class action against the Labs for Armour Thy­roid… Please let me know.

    I had the same pro­blems as most of you with weight gain, hair loss, exhaus­tion, insom­nia, hot flashes, etc…, all star­ted after the Armour Thy­roid chan­ged it’s formulation…

    We should be com­pen­sa­ted for our suf­fe­rings, because we PAID for our medi­cine to get bet­ter, not to get so much worse…

    Please let me know if there is any lawsuit.

    Thank you,

    Regina

  54. Shelly R. said:

    Jan 19, 10 at 4:10 pm

    I too,had the same pro­blems as most of you with weight gain, hair loss, exhaus­tion, insom­nia, hot flashes, etc…, all star­ted after the Armour Thy­roid chan­ged it’s formulation…

    We should be com­pen­sa­ted for our suf­fe­rings, because we PAID for our medi­cine to get bet­ter, not to get so much worse…

    Please let me know if there is any law­suit.
    Sin­ce­rely,
    Shelly

  55. amanda said:

    Feb 11, 10 at 7:55 pm

    was on synth­roid due to Hashi’s for 8 years, and stop­ped taking it 2 years ago due to the severe joint pain, muscle aches so pain­ful could’nt sleep or roll over in bed, no libido, hair falling out etc. TSH rose to 55 at first, then tape­red down to 15 even­tually. At first, I crashed but then I felt bet­ter NOT being on thy­roid meds than with synth­roid. I wan­ted to switch to armour, but was now too afraid to try anything! My endo wrote me a script for 30mg of armour last year, I filled the script but was still too frigh­te­ned to try it. Flash for­ward to decem­ber when the sheer exhaus­tion for­ced me to take something. The Armour script is from 2/11/2008. star­ted with the 30 mg for a month then upped it to 60mg for the past 2 weeks. At first slept ama­zingly well, but it seems that I have NO energy, am out of breath doing the sma­llest acti­vity, still have no libido and seem to have new joint pain. Could it be that the dosage it too low? Are the meds too old? I do believe that this is the old for­mula . Does my body need to adjust to any thy­roid med after not being on them for 2 years? Has anyone else had a big adjust­ment period or not felt well immediately?

    Any help or input would be appre­cia­ted,
    Amanda

    (From Janie: Hi Amanda. If you get no ans­wers here, which is really more for com­ments than ques­tions, it might be bet­ter to take this to patient groups for great feed­back: http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/talk-to-others )

  56. hope said:

    Mar 09, 10 at 3:28 pm

    Has anyone had to lower their dose when sitching from new Armour to Nature-throid?

    I just star­ted N-T a cou­ple of weeks ago (at the same dose as I was on Armour) but my heart feels like it’s bea­ting out of my chest and am having other hyper symptoms.

  57. B.Anna said:

    Apr 05, 10 at 7:55 am

    Hallo, I had to lower my dose on a !/4 GRain with the old Nature Thy­roid, when I switched from Armour.
    but now RLC­Labs has also chan­ged the For­mula!!
    the New Nature is not very good, I get hea­dache and diarrhoe from it.
    I’m very sad , now I must search to another Com­pany oder Gene­rika again.
    The “Old” Nature was the best pro­duct I ever had?
    can anyone tell me, WHY this Com­pa­nies always change their pro­ducts?
    could anyone of You write a mail to RLC-labs, to ask them, if they not could go back to the old for­mula of Nature?
    a lot of thanks!
    b.anna

  58. Sharon said:

    Aug 03, 10 at 9:55 am

    I lear­ned from your site that they chan­ged the for­mula of Nature Throid in early 2010. That explai­ned to me why my hair has been falling out since June, I have heart pal­pi­ta­tions and am so exhaus­ted. I am so glad that I found that infor­ma­tion here. Thank you! I wasn’t even satis­fied with the Nature Throid to begin with. The old Armour was tops!
    I am now trying a com­pound made with lac­tose. I have been on it for 4 days and am having a cou­ple of hours every­day where I feel really good and then it goes away. I hope it just needs to build up in my body and then I will be good to go.
    I had it made with lac­tose because maybe it is the methyl­ce­llu­lose in the new Armour that I couldn’t digest and the mic­ro­ce­llu­lose in the new Nature Throid that I can’t digest.
    I was told by a com­poun­der that lac­tose may not be a good filler because it is a food and the por­cine will bind to it ins­tead of pro­perly get­ting into my sys­tem. We will see. If it doesn’t work, I will try it with acidophilus.

  59. Denise Breslin said:

    Aug 04, 10 at 6:45 am

    OMG — thank you. Did not know new Nature Throid not good. Any recom­men­da­tions other than falling back on the not so great Armour?

    What a world. Thank you so much for all this up to date info. Never heard a word of this elsewhere.

    denise

    (From Janie: the new Natu­reth­roid is good if you chew it up before swa­llo­wing, or pul­ve­rize it with a mor­tar and pestle. You can even add sugar or honey to it. )

  60. Marsha said:

    Sep 01, 10 at 9:11 am

    I was on the natu­ral des­si­ca­ted (or com­poun­ded) for­mula and felt so much bet­ter. When Armour retur­ned I went back on it and my symp­toms are retur­ning as well. Yes you can get your presc­rip­tion com­poun­ded (or made on site) if you can find a com­poun­ding phar­macy. Search for a com­poun­ding phar­macy in your area.

    When your doc wri­tes the persc­rip­tion it needs to read: natu­ral des­si­ca­ted thy­roid. Check the spe­lling! I may be wrong! lol! I was on 60mg. A 90-day supply of the com­poun­ded ver­sion cos­ted me $50 because it was not cove­red by my insu­rance. But armour is cos­ting me nearly the same so I feel it is worth the extra $5 every 3 months to feel so much better.

    The com­poun­ding phar­ma­cies use the same active ingre­dients in armour and natu­reth­roid. These will usually come in cap­sule form rather than tablet form.

  61. Marsha said:

    Sep 01, 10 at 9:16 am

    See I was wrong it is “natu­ral desic­ca­ted thy­roid” oops!

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