If  you are, check out the com­ments on the May 7th post or the April 28th post, and add your own com­ment about the newly for­mu­la­ted Armour desic­ca­ted thy­roid by Forest Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals.  Let’s keep a run­ning tab on experiences.


  • 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.
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  • 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.

74 Responses to “Trying the newly formulated Armour?”

  1. Judy J. said:

    Jun 02, 09 at 5:07 pm

    I am taking 2 gr. tablets twice a day of the new for­mula. It is impos­si­ble to do sub-lingual. Also, I have to now take it with food. Don’t know what they added but it does not appear to be as diges­ti­ble as the old ones.

  2. Arlene said:

    Jun 05, 09 at 8:04 pm

    Regar­ding the new for­mula: I take one 2 gr. tab orally and a 2 gr. tab sublin­qually in the mor­ning. The old sweet taste is gone so the new is very bland; does take lon­ger for a 2 grain tab to dissolve.

  3. Danielle F said:

    Jun 05, 09 at 8:55 pm

    From what I had lear­ned from your site — I had recently asked my Endo to switch me from Synth­roid to Armour.… (His­tory — Diag­no­sed w/hyper & Grave’s in 2003 — 26 yrs old at the time… was put on nearly 9 pills a day for 2 years to get me out of hyper — finally after gai­ning 85 lbs — I went into remis­sion.) Then 5 years later after the birth of my 3rd and final child in Octo­ber 08 — took me 5 months to rea­lize that it was NOT post part-um but my thy­roid was cau­sing my mania!!! (I had been hit with hypothy­roi­dism.…. and let me tell you it is like NOTHING I have ever in my entire life dealt with…It is AWFUL!!!) Errr.… Anyhow my endo has been adjus­ting my for the past 3 months now — synth­roid
    As of June 3rd, 2009 went to phar­macy to get Armour filled — (90MG) 1.5GR… and they were sold out — they called all local phar­ma­cies and finally found one that had this…
    I went there and pic­ked it up…

    Honestly — I havent felt a bit bet­ter since chan­ging.…. if anything I feel more slu­gish… I slept for 5 extra hours the second day I took it.…. which is highly out of cha­rac­ter.…. Not to men­tion a hun­ger pain that will not disap­pear!!
    I hate this.….. I would love to hear some ones input.…anyone?
    I am not sure if this post will be any help — howe­ver if you want a pic­ture I can take it for you!

  4. Karen said:

    Jun 06, 09 at 1:41 pm

    My phar­ma­cist loa­ned me 4 days of Armour because they did not have enough to fill my presc­rip­tion. I put the tablet under my ton­gue before I left the store and imme­dia­tely went back to the phar­ma­cist to verify that she did not give me the wrong med. She loo­ked qui­zi­cal and said that it came from the Armour bottle, so I explai­ned that the taste and tex­ture was dif­fe­rent. I had a gene­ric brand of cyto­mel once that had that tex­ture. It tas­ted sort of like aspi­rin. Ugh. I am very unhappy about the refor­mu­la­tion. And I won­der why the phar­ma­cist was clueless.

  5. Jerri Langlais said:

    Jun 07, 09 at 3:34 pm

    I think it’s impor­tant to take the armour sublin­gually, so I’m thin­king of crushing it before put­ting it under my ton­gue. Other­wise it takes fore­ver to be assi­mi­la­ted, and it doesn’t taste so good either.

    What can a patient do to object to this new formulation?

  6. lynn said:

    Jun 09, 09 at 9:24 am

    Danie­lle F.

    You are fee­ling tired and hungry on armour because your cor­ti­sol is likely to be very low. Have you had saliva tests done? You can find great infor­ma­tion and sup­port at http://forums.realthyroidhelp.com

  7. Linda Moore said:

    Jun 09, 09 at 6:32 pm

    It’s been at least 2 – 3 weeks. My joints hurt daily, my hips, arms and cal­ves ache. I now nap each day for at least an hour. I’m going down hill. I take 3 Armour Thy­roid 60mg tablets a day. I do not feel a thing.…more and more tired.

    Am going to switch to something else.
    Linda

  8. Terrie said:

    Jun 09, 09 at 8:31 pm

    Just star­ted taking armour after 2 years of Levothy­ro­xine. 60 mg once a day– have gai­ned weight in a week… very bloa­ted and hot flashes. I was hoping for a bet­ter out­come. Maybe it is too short of a time but I am gro­wing out of my clothing fast!!! (Terrie, you need to read the page Things We Have Lear­ned. Janie)

  9. Twyla said:

    Jun 10, 09 at 10:21 am

    I was on Synth­roid for 3 yrs. before going to my new Dr. who put me on Armoour-thyroid. I am now taking 3 tabs. each mor­ning. I mis­sed my last appoint­ment with her and did not know there was any chan­ges being made. I did have trou­ble get­ting pres. filled seve­ral times. The last two times I have had this new for­mula. I., too, went back to the phar­macy to make sure it was ok to take, since it was terri­ble and dif­fi­cult to swa­llow. I chew it really quick and wash it down with a bit of water. Yuck! I recei­ved an email from my Dr. about all this and have since star­ted chec­king. I feel really run down and list­less. Have trou­ble con­cen­tra­ting and am always hungry. I am going to her and chan­ging to something else. Anything is bet­ter than this stuff.

  10. Terrie said:

    Jun 10, 09 at 3:42 pm

    Janie– thanks for the advice on rea­ding “The things we have lear­ned” page. I will move for­ward with inc­rea­sed dosa­ges. WQe shall see. I pre­fer natu­ral pro­ducts ver­sus synthe­tics and am hoping for the best. Is sore joints … fin­gers, hips a cause/ effect of Armour in the early sta­ges of use? Thanks so mmuch for res­pon­ses. It is a relief!

  11. Susan Quitzau said:

    Jun 11, 09 at 4:52 am

    Hi, Just chec­ked in to see what you knew about the new for­mu­la­tion of Armour. I refi­lled my presc­rip­tion of 60 mg (1GR) tablets (I take 2xday) at the end of April. I too noti­ced imme­dia­tely, the lack of sweet­ness and the “fat” fee­ling under my ton­gue. The damn thing wouldn’t dis­solve so I star­ted swa­llo­wing it ins­tead. I stop­ped back to the phar­macy and asked if they knew if something had chan­ged or if the batch of pills was old. They said no, and they didn’t know other­wise. After about 2 weeks of this, I called Forest Labs and spoke to a con­su­mer con­cerns per­son. I was told, YES, they did change the for­mu­lary (whew! I’m not crazy) and also that it should no lon­ger be taken sublin­gually. The new for­mu­lary is made to dis­solve by the enzy­mes in the sto­mach. Said it was in the info pamph­let. Well, after 2 years of taking the damn stuff… who reads the info pac­ked??? That’s all I know.
    Forest’s phone # is 1 – 800-678‑1605 x 66297 but you pro­bably already know that. Wish we had the old for­mu­lary back! Susan

  12. Angel Trujillo said:

    Jun 13, 09 at 10:38 am

    I have been on 4 grains armour for a year now.
    I got the new Armour at the beg­gi­ning of this month and I feel so horri­ble!! I am very hypO right now and it is a shame because I was fee­ling so good after being put on Armour after 4 years of Synthoid and the synthoid coma (very bad brain fog and IQ of a 2 year old)
    Now I have been fee­ling REALLY bad and going down the same hypO road. I do not like it to well!!
    I got this piece of infor in an email. I think all of us Armour peo­ple need to call in and tell them this. We all need to be nice doing this so it will pro­perly be docu­men­ted. Also do not let them know that you know about the for­mu­la­tion change as this leads to more cre­dia­blity to our case.

    “I just called Forest Labs and spoke with “Pam” (1 – 800 678 1605. You can then
    dial her exten­sion directly, 67023) and I didn’t let them know I’m aware of
    the pro­duct refor­mu­la­tion. I just told her I was con­cer­ned that all my old
    hypothy­roid symp­toms had retur­ned (in full swing), and that when I went back
    to an old bottle of Armour that was in a clo­set, I felt much bet­ter within
    two days. She told me there had been a refor­mu­la­tion in the pro­duct (the
    cellu­lose repla­ce­ment of the dex­trose), and she pas­sed me along to a lady in
    “qua­lity control.””

  13. Kay Colorado said:

    Jun 13, 09 at 11:11 pm

    Star­ted taking levothy­ro­xine 28 years ago and semed to be going fine, but now at 57, have had two months of the most horri­ble fati­gue, hair loss and nails thin and brittle. Went to my old doc and he said take Synth­roid. I didn’t like that ans­wer so went to a chi­ro­prac­tor I’d heard about and he said take Armour. Got the Armour from my gene­ral prac­tice do, but she’s not too know­led­gea­ble about it and won’t give me more than 90mg a day and I dont think that’s enough. Now news of Armour refor­mu­la­tion that is bothe­ring peo­ple makes me ner­vous. can I expect to feel bet­ter even­tually on Armour or is it too mes­sed up now with its new for­mula? Help — I’m going bald and the fat is accu­mu­la­ting by the minute…

  14. gg in USA said:

    Jun 14, 09 at 9:33 pm

    After one month on the newly for­mu­la­ted Armour, I’ve deve­lo­ped hyper-T symp­toms. My levels have been sta­ble for almost 2 years, so I’m won­de­ring if the change had something to do with it? With Doc’s advice, I’ve had to dec­rease my dosage in half — but taca­car­dia and other symp­toms remain! Also, I hate the taste! I too con­tac­ted Forest Labs to ask for advice, but got a-run-around — never spea­king to anyone!
    My doc said his patients haven’t com­plai­ned of pro­blems with new formula.

  15. Barbara said:

    Jun 15, 09 at 2:36 pm

    I have been taking the new Armour for a week and a few days. I first knew it was dif­fe­rent when I ope­ned my new bottle and it didn’t smell, so I thought it was old. Then I put it under my ton­gue and was totally sur­pri­sed. When I told the phar­ma­cist I thought it must be old she told me it had been refor­mu­la­ted. This I remem­ber hea­ring a few months back so I came to the STTM web­site (the book that saved my life)and read what ever­yone was saying. Howe­ver I deci­ded to try it and see. SO far so good. I take 2 grains in the AM and 2 around 1ish. I do not feel a dif­fe­rence. I just had my labs done TSH extre­mely low and T3 high (before new for­mula). My doc said I could pro­bably go down to 3 grains but since I was doing well to stay on the 4. But I star­ted expe­rien­cing hea­daches after the mid day dose so I drop­ped it to just 3 grains per day. With the new for­mula I take the 4 grains a day split and feel fine. I also don’t really mind the chal­ki­ness. At first it was dis­gus­ting but I am get­ting used to it. I still do mine Sublin­gually. I am get­ting to like it bet­ter because it dis­sol­ves much fas­ter. The ori­gi­nal for­mula would take 20 – 30 mins. this is gone in 10 mins. For me after 10 days it’s OK. I would have had symp­toms by now I would think

  16. Nigel said:

    Jun 17, 09 at 12:29 pm

    I’m really happy with Westh­roid and Nature-Throid. They work GREAT sublin­gual or even buc­cal. Split­ting the tablet in half with my teeth is essen­tial to get­ting it to dis­solve quickly. Never tried the new Armour, but this is a great change from the old Armour for­mu­la­tion even if there’s no sugar.

    –Nigel

  17. Terry F said:

    Jun 17, 09 at 3:55 pm

    My son war­ned me about the Armour chan­ges as he star­ted downhill quick when he got the “new” Armour. I expe­rien­ced new hypo symp­toms within a few days of get­ting the “new” Armour myself. I called Forest and they acted like it was news to them and then trans­fe­rred me to safety depart­ment and then a phar­ma­cist who was totally igno­rant, (pos­sibly on pur­pose). I then filed a com­plaint with the FDA through their Med­Watch pro­gram. It says if they get a few com­plaints it may start an action to look at the drug.

  18. Sam said:

    Jun 18, 09 at 5:45 pm

    Re new for­mu­la­tion of Armour Thy­roid, I have pos­ted my before&after lab (Free T3 & T4) results on the Realthyroidhelp.com site. Both levels dec­rea­sed with the new for­mu­la­tion. The pos­ting should be avai­la­ble at http://forums.realthyroidhelp.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=12972

  19. Susan said:

    Jun 21, 09 at 7:28 pm

    I star­ted using a refill Rx about a month ago and felt like I was on a pla­cebo. I kept thin­king something wasn’t right, as I felt as tired and foggy as I did before star­ting Armour 3 years ago. I also called Forest and they switched me to a depart­ment with a plea­sant woman who took down all my info. When I asked her if other peo­ple were calling in with the same ques­tions, she quietly said yes! I’m still fee­ling lousy. I should be get­ting my newest labs back tomo­rrow and will post again if sig­ni­fi­cant change. I just want to have a little energy, please?

  20. Barbara said:

    Jun 22, 09 at 12:09 pm

    It’s been 7 days since my first post and I need to give an update. I stea­dily went downhill since last week with symp­toms retur­ning. I also have been diag­no­sed with what is known as Fibrom­yal­gia, so when I was fee­ling run down I thought it was just another Fibro attack. But when The exhaus­tion got really bad and dry eyes, foggy brain, etc. I rea­li­zed it must be the Armour not wor­king. I have been taking dou­ble what I nor­mally take since Fri­day (4th day now)instead of 4 grains a day I’m taking 8! I feel bet­ter but have asked My Dr to call in a new presc­rip­tion for Nature Throid since it is get­ting good reviews here.
    I also work with someone that I beg­ged to see a Dr I knew would give her Armour because she had such bad symptoms-even seizures.I refe­rred her to this web­site and STTM Book. She has been on Armour for about 6 months with very good results and no more sei­zu­res. Today I told her about the refor­mu­la­tion and she couldn’t believe it. She said she thought she was going crazy because all her symp­toms were coming back and she had a sei­zure on Fri­day. She too is going to try to get her Dr to switch her to Nature Throid. Hope this helps and thanks for all the other infor­ma­tive posts.

  21. Elaine said:

    Jun 22, 09 at 1:17 pm

    Glad to get this infor­ma­tion on the Armour for­mual­tion change…I thought the pills were dif­fe­rent because last fall I inc­rea­sed my dosage and got a big­ger pill.…that wasn’t sweet and sublin­gually dis­sol­ves like chalk. I rea­so­ned it was the just the cha­rac­te­ris­tics of the big­ger dose pill. Doesn’t have that “fami­liar aroma” either.

    I’ll be for­war­ding this info to my Doc. Might explain my weight gain and retur­ning hypo-sypmtoms.
    thanks.

  22. Elenor Snow said:

    Jun 25, 09 at 3:05 pm

    I won­de­red if they’d had a pro­blem at the fac­tory — I use two (1-grain) pills buc­cally (mor­ning and) at night — and when I woke up with the new pills still undis­sol­ved (!!) I thought there was something wrong. My car­pal tun­nel came ROARING back. My phar­ma­cist couldn’t even GET the 1-grain pills for a while; said she’d get me 2 –grain, which I was exci­ted and plea­sed about” back to the good stuff I hoped! But she ended up get­ting me more of the “won’t-dissolve,” “don’t seem to work well” 1-grain pills… (darn.)

    I guess I’ll try Nature-throid or Westhy­roid too — what an idio­tic mis­take for Forest to make!!

  23. Samantha Vilppu said:

    Jun 26, 09 at 11:53 am

    This explains everything more clearly. I too noti­ced the dif­fe­rent taste and wasnt sure if I just got a batch without the sugar. I am fine without the sugar, since I think I was aller­gic to it, but from what these posts are indi­ca­ting, the other chan­ges they have made are making it less potent as well. I have mine cut into quar­ters and take sublin­qually throughout the day. I have a cou­ple of dif­fe­rent bott­les of this that I mixed together before I knew, so I some­ti­mes get a sweet one and some­ti­mes get the new formula.

    Con­si­de­ring all we have been told about not even chan­ging brands or from one gene­ric to another, this is quite a dirty trick Forest has pla­yed. There is no patient insert with my Rx, so if the phar­ma­cists dont know about this change, I ima­gine a LOT of peo­ple are having some serious pro­blems with this change. Does anyone have a clue why they did this? Is there some hid­den agenda to get us to stop taking the des­si­ca­ted thy­roid? More likely, we will simply change to Nature-throid ins­tead, so Forest loses out.

  24. Glynis said:

    Jun 26, 09 at 9:17 pm

    I’ve been taking the new Armour for a few months now. No pro­blems at all. I noti­ced the dif­fe­rent taste, called them, they even­tually called me back. Anyhow, I feel the same. I’m a per­so­nal trai­ner and exer­cise inten­sely, so I would notice if there was a pro­blem — and there is none. I’m abso­lu­tely fine. I’ll be having blood work at the end of July but all I know is that it has been a while and I am on 120 mg and there is NO difference.

  25. Shae said:

    Jun 26, 09 at 9:40 pm

    I have been on Armour for 8 weeks. I was on Synth­roid for 6 years (since diag­no­sis). I went off of synth­roid for 4 months because I could not afford lab tests. So, finally I found health­care through my college and got on Armour (not kno­wing anything about the “new” for­mula). In those 4 months of being off of meds, I gai­ned 20 pounds AND my TSH soa­red to 9.56. Ooops. Wha­te­ver, I could not afford medi­cal care — crap happens.

    Since being on the Armour, I have not had to nap as much — but I am a tad more “sen­si­tive” emo­tio­nally. Not depres­sed, just sen­si­tive. The food cra­vings have gone, but I haven not lost more than a cou­ple of pounds. I am not eating as much. I can­not speak of body aches, since I am way over­due for a chi­ro­prac­tic adjust­ment — which work really well for me.

    The dis­sol­ving fac­tor — well, mine dis­solve (2 in the mor­ning) and they are kind of chalky, but I know nothing dif­fe­rent and they do not have a bad taste so to speak. I know that I have the new stuff because my phar­macy ran out of my presc­ri­bed 90 and only gave me 5 and then I had to go back for the others.

    So, I am giving this a fair amount of time. After 6 weeks my TSH went down by 30% to 6.53. So, ins­tead of one I am taking 2 and we are hoping TSH will reduce another 30%. Howe­ver, I will not know until the Fall when I enroll in clas­ses and can be tes­ted again — as I STILL can­not afford heath care.

    I am willing to give this a shot for a few months. If nothing spec­ta­cu­lar hap­pens by the Fall, then I will con­si­der switching — I will have given it a fair 6 months. Oh and my doc­tor at the school also suf­fers from Hypothy­roid — so I am fee­ling VERY blessed!

  26. EG said:

    Jun 27, 09 at 1:03 am

    I really really really miss the old Armour… I had finally got­ten everything to a point where I wasn’t thin­king about it any­more!!! Alas, the not thin­king about my health and energy levels only las­ted about 8 months… I’ve recently gone to Westh­roid (I’m crushing it up and attemp­ting to take it sublin­gually) and it is get­ting me by… but I’m not quite right.

    I really really really miss old Armour.

  27. Cora said:

    Jun 27, 09 at 1:40 am

    When did they change it? I’ve only been on it a few months. I wasn’t taking anything before that, even though I was diag­no­sed 10 yrs ago. I was taking Synth­roid before and I didn’t feel it was wor­king so I just stop­ped. I currently take 120 mg of Armour Thy­roid. Since I’ve been on it, my legs have star­ted swe­lling. I thought it was just my legs, I can barely walk. But peo­ple star­ted asking if I’m preg­nant. And I can see that my face looks bloa­ted too. The fati­gue has been crip­pling and the muscle fati­gue unbea­ra­ble. I use to be so happy and friendly and full of life. I’m too tired and moody and sad. I’m not me. I’m not con­vin­ced it’s hel­ping enough, if at all. But now my blood tests are “nor­mal.” I feel like the test where trea­ted, not me. They are nor­mal but I’m most cer­tainly not.

    I don’t have anything to com­pare to. The ones I take, I’ve tried to put under my ton­gue. They taste like clay and they never dis­solve. They turn into a sticky clay clump of goo. I just even­tually swa­llow the clump because I just can’t bare having it in my mouth. Even with sugar under my ton­gue. They have been like this since I star­ted taking it. I wasn’t sure if I didn’t unders­tand how to do this, or what. But I was hoping to find a way to feel bet­ter. Des­pe­ra­tion will even have you put­ting clay clumps under your ton­gue. Who knew?

    So, I’m thin­king I have the new for­mu­la­tion? Looks like I star­ted taking it around April 10th (2009).

  28. paula said:

    Jun 27, 09 at 3:30 am

    I am fee­ling ill on the new armour. I tried rai­sing and feel even worse.ie crashing fat­gue, anxiety are the worst sym­toms. I am going back on thyriod-s and nature thyriod.

    This is such a shame.
    Paula

  29. Gary Rich said:

    Jun 27, 09 at 4:24 am

    I am new to Armour, well at least this new for­mu­la­tion, I took the old one years ago, but for­get how fast it absor­bed. I crush the pills in a pill crusher, and that helps I think. Still takes 20 to 30 min for gr. ii.

  30. Rainbow said:

    Jun 27, 09 at 5:02 am

    I swa­llow my Armour and HATE this new for­mu­la­tion because you can’t cut the darn things without them splin­te­ring into a million pie­ces! I could cut the old for­mula with my pill cut­ter just fine. This is NOT cool for those of us ram­ping up, who need to inc­rease their dosage by 15mg every week or two — or for those who split their dose up over the day. I’m going to see if my doc will switch me to Natu­reth­roid. I’ve heard that it can be cut easily without tur­ning to dust.

  31. Lulu Smith said:

    Jun 27, 09 at 10:57 am

    Yes, trying to cut these new for­mula pills is a disas­ter, I take a full pill in the am and half at lunch. Howe­ver, if you are taking a full pill, I recom­mend that you bite it before put­ting it under your ton­gue, it dis­sol­ves con­si­de­rably bet­ter. I noti­ced how much bet­ter the split pill broke down; must be the coa­ting. I had ori­gi­nally sha­red that I had been adding a little orga­nic sugar, which was partly to dis­guise the taste, but brea­king the sur­face is even more effec­tive.
    I think I’m going to need another inc­rease in dosage, but there also seems to be a daily variance. Some­ti­mes I’m cons­ti­pa­ted and get hea­daches and other days I’m OK. Please don’t let it be that Armour ful­fills the desc­rip­tion that the Endo’s love to throw at us.
    “Armour is uns­ta­ble“
    Forest Labs, what on earth were you thin­king. You had the best advo­cate in the world in Janie Bowthorpe. Bet­ter than any rep you could’ve had on pay­roll!
    King Labs/Levoxyl must love this debacle. My sister-in-law’s doc, just took her off Armour and put her on Levo because her TSH came back at 5.2,and her free’s were crappy too; so much for TSH sup­pre­sion!
    Good luck everyone.

  32. Denise Forster said:

    Jun 27, 09 at 11:58 am

    Wow, I’m glad I got this thread via Face­book — I, too, very recently had my Armour dose adjus­ted down from 90 mg/day to 75 and was crashing every after­noon. Thought I bet­ter go have labs done and surely be adjus­ted up, but it was so soon this time. This pro­bably explains the sud­den need for a nap or espresso, or some­ti­mes BOTH!! Gee, I hope it’s resol­ved soon so I can get my life back…and get off my esca­la­ting caf­feine addiction!

  33. Jim said:

    Jun 28, 09 at 9:37 am

    Chi­ming in with my com­plaints — I had no idea that they chan­ged their for­mu­la­tion, but a month ago I got a new refill and in the past week I’ve been fee­ling like I felt before being on any thy­roid medi­ca­tion. I’d already asked my doc­tor to switch me to a new brand before I’d read this thread. I can’t stand fee­ling this way — tired, no will to accom­plish anything, depres­sed… sure hope my doc­tor chan­ges the brand. Like others have said, what’s a shame is that my PCP now has even less faith in Armour. And FWIW, my last labs a few weeks ago sho­wed a TSH of 14. Not good.

  34. meg said:

    Jun 28, 09 at 11:30 pm

    I’ve taken the fake stuff since 95 and armour for a year or two. I got immense impro­ve­ments the few weeks I took the old for­mula sublingually/ buc­cally. So I was very upset by the new for­mula, drea­ding having the fati­gue etc back.
    But I have to say after two months on the new ones, I still feel bet­ter than when I swa­llo­wed the old ones.

    I had been afraid of over­do­sing armour, since that was so uncom­for­ta­ble on fake pills, but after rea­ding this site, I also upped the dosage and take 3 grains, dis­tri­bu­ting this to at least three times a day. I take a bite off my 2 grain pills and chew it to a slightly moist pulp and put it under my upper lip.
    Years ago I used to use snuff, tobacco that you put under your lip like this, so I am an expert at kee­ping things dry under my lip… I can tell you it does not dis­solve com­ple­tely. After a while, I mix in a little spit and that helps. But I sus­pect it only makes me not notice swa­llo­wing the rest? Not sure. If I put it under my ton­gue, it beco­mes wet­ter and dis­sol­ves quic­ker — again, I’m not sure if that means I’m swa­llo­wing more.

    It would be inte­res­ting to know how peo­ple who expe­rien­ced chan­ges have been taking the pills. I won­der if the chan­ges in effect depend on mana­ging to to taking the drug sublin­gually, or if there’s something else in the way it’s put together.
    Maybe that hard sur­face is sup­po­sed to pro­tect the drug from sto­mach acid so it dis­sol­ves later in the diges­tive tract? But then they should warn against biting off bits of the pill and swa­llo­wing. That would make sense, since selling more little pills would mean more pro­fit…
    I’m mys­ti­fied by how the manu­fac­tu­rer doesn’t say anything. Is this some sort of expe­ri­ment they do to see what hap­pens to us? Heh.

  35. Kalli said:

    Jun 29, 09 at 8:16 am

    I just star­ted the Armour, star­ted rea­ding all your blogs, and a little ner­vous now…
    I was on Synth­roid for 8 years, and sick, and had no clue it could be my thy­roid was still off so much, the Docs insis­ted I was fine, and that it must be something else.. They put me right over to the armour and I crashed, my adre­nals went kaput! BUT after I got my adre­nals back and up in wor­king order, I am star­ting to feel way bet­ter than I have in years!!!! My armour is the old perhaps? It stinks, and it tas­tes sweet… But, how long is the new for­mula going to take to get into my phar­macy and I will go back downhill again??? 8( I really don’t want to go back­wards, I just found this stuff!!!

  36. Lulu Smith said:

    Jun 29, 09 at 4:30 pm

    Kalli, if your Armour tas­tes sweet, it’s defo the old for­mu­la­tion. You might want to go back to your Phar­macy and get as much as you can, whilst they still have some left.

  37. Julie said:

    Jul 02, 09 at 6:26 am

    I feel awful on the new armour. All my symp­toms have retur­ned. I am now also get­ting my adre­nal ones at night, the panic has retur­ned bad. I hurt, hair is falling out, brain fog is back, dry skin, etc. I am get­ting labs done today and then pop­ping in my new natu­reth­roid. I pray it gets rid of my hypo symp­toms. I was so happy on the 4 grains of Armour. Why did they do this?

  38. Thyroid Paul said:

    Jul 02, 09 at 6:57 am

    I still have the old Armour so I can­not yet give you a per­fect opi­nion, but, I have Nature Throid also, and it is chalky and does not dis­solve sublin­gually. Nature Throid is not the ans­wer.…. By the way, I split my doses up, and take 5 — 30mg doses spread out over the entire day. If I don’t, I get weird pulse and blood pres­sure spi­kes late at night.

  39. Stephanie said:

    Jul 02, 09 at 1:44 pm

    I too had the return of hypo symp­toms after I switched to the new for­mu­la­tion. My thr­yoid was the one thing I didn’t have to worry about! Now this med change is affec­ting me badly. I called Forest to com­plain just as others have done. My dr is switching me to Natu­reTh­roid — but I have to wait a bit until the order comes in.

    I still had a few of the old pills so I had my chi­ro­prac­tor muscle test me against the old and the new and muscle tes­ting sho­wed that the new pills weren’t doing anything for me. Sigh. This sucks because Armour was the one thing I could count on to do its job. No longer.

  40. niki said:

    Jul 02, 09 at 5:30 pm

    I’ve been taking Synth­roid since 2004 when I was diag­no­sed as hypo.It wor­ked well for 3 years and then it didn’t work anymore.I went to 5 – 6 doc­tors in hope of fin­ding out why I’ve gai­ned 30 lbs,had no energy wha­tsoe­ver and had to take naps during the day so I would not fall down because of exaustion.A year and 1/2 ago I was for­tu­nate to find a Dr who put me on Armour and gene­ric Synth­roid and I felt nor­mal again.Everything was great again, until May this year when I noti­ced the fami­liar exaus­tion fee­ling after a long walk and today I have to take naps during the day,my hair is falling,constipation,my wrists are aching and my brain fog is dri­ving me mad.I thought I was crazy when the hypo symp­toms star­ted resur­fa­cing but it all made sense when I found out the Armour Thy­roid was reformulated.Honestly,my brain fog is so bad,I seem to for­get everything.

  41. Colleen said:

    Jul 03, 09 at 7:07 pm

    Just got a new scrip. Was sup­po­sed to be 30mg of Armour but they said they could not get any. They gave me 60mg tabs — I said I would cut them up, as this has never been a pro­blem before. Boy, was I wrong. For­tu­na­tely, was able to just use the 60, whole, as I am on 90,30, and 2-15s. Will post after a few days to let peo­ple know if symp­toms return. Had recently gone up 15mg to 150 and was fee­ling great!
    I think we should all not only call Forest to com­plain, we should be con­tac­ting the FDA to report the adverse affects, and write/call our con­gress­per­sons. If enough peo­ple do this, we CAN affect change. I will be calling Armour on Mon­day to com­plain about taste — which is horri­ble — and ask for the che­mi­cal break­down of the old and new ver­sions, and WHY they chan­ged the for­mula. Also want to check on what one ear­lier post said about it not being sublin­gual any more.
    I would seriously like to know why they would change a for­mula that was wor­king. It’s the old “if it’s not broke, don’t fix it theory”. I’m sure that refor­mu­la­tion was expen­sive, so why would they foot that bill without a good rea­son. Something is fishy. Not to sound all Mul­der, but, is this some “cons­pi­racy” to get us all on synthe­tics? It won’t work.

  42. kara said:

    Jul 03, 09 at 10:05 pm

    I am fee­ling all hypo symp­toms cree­pig back muscle aches,puffy eyes fati­gue to the point where peo­ple have asked me if i’m ok because my eyes being puffy this is since i have star­ted the new armour,i was doing so well ‚also myt3 is down from 166 now it is 144 hmmm,i’m do for labs again in a week in a half ‚i’m so con­cer­ned i made apt i may need to change to natu­reth­roid i’m sen­si­tive to synth­roid so thats the only option i have I’m gonna pray this all gets figu­red out i’m like a car low on gas not good,got peo­ple espe­cially my kids coun­ting on me by 4pm no energy in a fog.

  43. Jane said:

    Jul 03, 09 at 10:40 pm

    WOW!!!!
    I mana­ged to get my OB-GYN to presc­ribe Armour for me in Nov, after having called my (sort of, at the time) GP to have me switched. I DID have an endo, but he reti­red a year or so ago. The GP said he would have to have me tes­ted, etc., and I haven’t been very impres­sed with his doc­to­ring skills the past cou­ple of times I went to him, so that’s why I asked my OB-GYN. He wasn’t very com­for­ta­ble presc­ri­bing Armour at the time, and implied that I would have to find a new Endo.
    I don’t know if Armour has made any dif­fe­rence  — I’m pretty sure I need to be on more, AND I’m pretty sure my Adre­nals are shot, so how does one gauge this?
    Anyhoo, I just wan­ted to com­ment that I tried to take it sublin­gually intially (in Jan 09) but I had the pro­blem peo­ple are saying they’re having now i.e., it wouldn’t dis­solve  — I didn’t par­ti­cuarly like the taste either.
    Now I’m having pro­blems get­ting my presc­rip­tion filled, so that’s why I’m com­men­ting here. I’m having other pro­blems as well, so I’m just unsure as to whether it’s the change in Armour, whether I didn’t have a high enough dose, or there’s an adre­nal com­po­nent, or if it’s something enti­rely dif­fe­rent. I DID have blood drawn for over 10 tests 2 weeks ago, and am wai­ting for the test to come in. I went to see a sports medi­cine doc because of muscle pain, and he’s the one that orde­red all the tests. Although he came highly recom­men­ded, he has a god com­plex. He implied that I might have gome hyper, my res­ponse without even thin­king was “I doubt it”, He took offense at that. He did order a cor­ti­sol, and DHEA test, and I guess that’s the one that hol­ding things up. I guess I’ll see what the results are to decide what to do next.

  44. Martha said:

    Jul 04, 09 at 7:02 am

    Have been taking new for­mula (60 mg in am and 60 early afternoon)for about two months and other than the awful taste (I take it sublin­gually) and the fact that it does not split easily I don’t think I have expe­rien­ced any chan­ges. Just had blood work a cou­ple of days ago so it will be inte­res­ting to see if levels have chan­ged since the change. It bothers me that phar­ma­cist were not made aware of the change in formulation.

  45. Becci said:

    Jul 04, 09 at 11:39 pm

    I have now been tal­king the new Armour for 8 weeks and am doing fine. By the first week of taking the new for­mula all my hypo symp­toms star­ting coming back, and by the 2nd week I deci­ded to up my dosage from 2.5 grains to 3 grains. As another week went by I was still fee­ling a little uns­ta­ble but I was deter­mi­ned to give it a fair trial. At about 6 weeks I really star­ted to feel back to nor­mal again.

    I don’t have any pro­blems taking Armour under my ton­gue because I add just a little bit of sugar and boy it dis­sol­ves fast. I’m hope­ful I will be one of the ones who gets to stay on Armour. So far so good.

  46. Brad said:

    Jul 08, 09 at 1:06 pm

    I have been wor­king my way up on armour for the past few months. When I recie­ved my new script I was at 3 grains and had been for 6 weeks. The pills did not disolve as well under the tounge as the last ones did. I con­ti­nued to take them this way for a week and my temps began to fall into the 97.0 range. I stuck it out and began che­wing them and let­ting the con­tents break­down in my mouth. Within days my temps shot back up and star­ting to feel more like the old tabs did.

    I did put in a call to Forest and was sent from cus­to­mers ser­vice to some kind of nurse. I told them both the story and they acted like it was news to them. My wife works for a Pharm. Research Co. and said their clients will change their for­mu­la­tion if they recieve enough com­plaints from the con­su­mer. If you like the old Armour, I would defi­na­tely call and let them know.

  47. Laura said:

    Jul 08, 09 at 2:25 pm

    The last few months I have been fee­ling horrible-extreme fati­gue, cons­tantly cold, cons­ti­pa­tion, hair loss, nau­sea, retai­ning more water even though I’m on a diu­re­tic, vision dif­fi­cul­ties, weird hot flashes and more. I was begin­ning to think I was losing my mind or something horri­ble was going wrong with my health. My Doc­tor thought I nee­ded more so we upped my dosage and that just made things worse. Then I found out Armour had chan­ged their for­mu­la­tion. How could chan­ging filler ingre­dients do this? And why weren’t doc­tors and phar­ma­cists advi­sed? Is there more to this change than just the fillers? I have had to search for Nature-Throid in hopes that chan­ging to it will relieve all these horri­ble symp­toms. Just when I had my dosage down pat and I was fee­ling great, this hap­pens. What ever hap­pe­ned to “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it?” I will be regis­te­ring a com­plaint with the FDA, but I doubt it will do any good other than make me feel bet­ter that I made my voice heard.

  48. D Wood said:

    Jul 09, 09 at 5:04 pm

    I’m curious about the new Armour. Rea­ding the above, some peo­ple have done fine on it, some went hypo, and some went hyper, wha­te­ver their case, I’m curious if they will have the same repeat with a new bottle of new Armour, or are the bott­les, just not con­sis­tant. Food for thought.

  49. Chris said:

    Jul 10, 09 at 2:15 pm

    I just star­ted taking Armour May 1st after taking Levothy­ro­xine for two years. I had star­ted to see impro­ve­ment until, like ever­yone else on here, I recie­ved the new formulation.

    I deci­ded to ride it out with the “wait and see” atti­tude, but the fati­que, body aches, vision issues, hot flashes and depres­sion set in any­way. The depres­sion has sub­si­ded, but the other symp­toms per­sist. Is anyone else having issues with acne? I’m 48 and the last cou­ple of weeks my skin looks like I’m back in high school.

    I am extre­mely disa­poin­ted in Forest, just when I was star­ting to see impro­ve­ments the old hypo symp­toms returned.

    I spoke with my Phar­ma­cist yes­ter­day and asked if he was aware of the pro­blems with this drug. He said, yes and that Forest was wor­king on fixing the pro­blems, and that there is also a shor­tage of cer­tain doses until the issues get resolved.

    I asked if he knew if Forest was going back to the old for­mula, but that he couldn’t tell me.

    Hope­fully our voi­ces are being heard.

  50. MGC said:

    Jul 11, 09 at 10:38 am

    Wow, I’m so glad I star­ted loo­king up what was going on with Armour. I was just told by my phar­ma­cist that it was on bac­kor­der, although he didn’t know why. I too noti­ced the dif­fe­rent, non-sweet, chalky taste about two months ago. This is around the time I star­ted expe­rien­cing fati­gue, some hair loss and weight gain (6 lbs). I had been hol­ding strong for about 9 months prior with the old for­mula. Felt ama­zing with it. I was won­de­ring why now that I’m jog­ging approx 2 miles a day and die­ting, I haven’t drop­ped a sin­gle pound. Now, don’t get me wrong, the new for­mula is still wor­king, as I’m nowhere near as symp­to­ma­tic as I was prior to taking any thy­roid meds (I couldn’t even walk around the block).

  51. Scarlet said:

    Jul 12, 09 at 12:02 pm

    On May 1st, 2008 my thy­roid was remo­ved because of Papi­llary Car­ci­noma that had spread to both lobes as well as my lymph nodes.

    At my request I went straight on Armour thy­roid and obtai­ned won­der­ful results. On June 8th I pic­ked up a new three month supply and when I pla­ced the tablets under my tung I noti­ced that they were not the same. By July 7th I was prac­ti­cally bed rid­den. My joints ached and I was as weak as a kit­ten. I have three small chil­dren at home and it took every ounce of energy that I had left to walk to the phone and call my doctor.

    I do not want to cause alarm but my doc­tor belie­ves that the refor­mu­la­ted Armour is con­ta­mi­na­ted — (most likely the corns­tarch). He indi­ca­ted that we are get­ting sick and going hypo because our bodies are rejec­ting the pills due to toxins which is cau­sing us not to absorb the thy­roid properly.

    I recei­ved a presc­rip­tion for Nautre-Throid which does not work well sublin­gually. This is a hard time for all of us…

  52. Erika said:

    Jul 14, 09 at 12:29 am

    I never got to try the old armour. Was diag­no­sed hypo and tried sup­ple­ments and diet
    change as I did not want to go on meds. Last week my energy levels were super low and my
    moods all over the place. I’m subc­li­ni­cal but the rapid onset of the depres­sion
    and cons­tant fati­gue were enough to get me to start armour. I’m on 30 once a day and
    have noti­ced my moods are more sta­ble and not fati­gued. Cros­sing my fin­gers for
    ever­yone here.

  53. judy b said:

    Jul 20, 09 at 8:42 pm

    I have been hypo for 40+ years, some doc­tors would medi­cate, some wouldn’t. had been on synth­roid for last 10 years with not good results, thanks to this sttm, chan­ged doc­tors and star­ted armour 3 months ago, even tho it was the new for­mula, it still was bet­ter than synth­roid. went to get my refill last time, and they couldn’t get my dosage (90) so gave me 30’s (which i acu­tally liked bet­ter to split up thru the day). This time (thru my mai­lor­der phar­macy) they couldn’t get armour at all and had the doc­tor rew­rite to nature throid. from what i can tell from this blog, i may be bet­ter off with the change. Thanks!!

  54. Cris said:

    Jul 21, 09 at 9:25 pm

    Inte­res­ting you say your doc­tor sus­pects the new for­mula may be con­ta­mi­na­ted because almost all corn pro­ducts in Ame­rica are GMO (gene­ti­cally modi­fied) and the GMO pro­ducts can cause con­si­de­ra­ble damage to us at the cellu­lar levels.

    Also, someone men­tio­ned that the new for­mula is meant to be diges­ted so enzy­mes can work on the hor­mone, but inte­res­tingly enough, enzy­mes only work in a 98F envi­ron­ment; most if not all hypothy­roid patients suf­fer from low body temperature-I know I do, my basal tem­pe­ra­ture is around 93F (my ther­mo­me­ters only go that low so it could be lower).

    I just star­ted up the new for­mula. With the old for­mula I’d bite it and tuck it under my ton­gue when I went to bed and upon ari­sing. It would dis­solve within a half hour or so. This new for­mu­la­tion is still in my mouth when I wake up.

    I don’t get the sickly sweet nasty smell with the new pills, and they aren’t as sweet or dense either. Taste wise I pre­fer the new for­mu­la­tion, but I’d rather have the old for­mula because it works. So far the new stuff isn’t doing it for me. Forest is up to something, it’s like they’re slip­ping synthe­tic thy­roid hor­mo­nes to us or something. More com­plaints are neces­sary, and if the com­plai­ning doesn’t do it, hit­ting them where it hurts, their poc­ket­book, will.

  55. Laurie said:

    Jul 22, 09 at 1:01 am

    Just an update…have been taking 1 & 1/2 grains of Natu­reTh­roid for a week after finally get­ting (reluc­tantly!) a presc­rip­tion from my doc. Feel good! Got the runa­round from Winn-Dixie Phar­macy (after I prai­sed their efforts!) that NT ‘was on bac­kor­der inde­fi­ni­tely’ and would/could not even give me an esti­ma­ted deli­very date. Con­tac­ted RLC Labs and explai­ned my situa­tion. The rep was kind enough to give me the con­tact info of seve­ral phar­ma­cies in Bir­mingham, AL that buy directly from RLC Labs. I called the first name on my list, they veri­fied the pro­duct was in stock & avai­la­ble, they in tur­ned called Winn-Dixie, reques­ted the trans­fer of my presc­rip­tion, called me back for addy & pay­ment info and I recei­ved my 30-day meds the next day. My ins. does not cover NT either. I am thri­lled in fin­ding a source, can adapt to the taste of NT taken sublin­gually and know every day will be bet­ter. Call RLC Labs 1 – 877-797‑7997 as they do care. Thank you Janie for this site & your tire­less efforts to make us all aware.

  56. Lisa said:

    Jul 23, 09 at 5:40 am

    Sadly I’m another vic­tim of the Armour refor­mu­la­tion. All of my symp­toms have retur­ned and my TSH levels are through the roof! Unfor­tu­na­tely my endo just left town and I’m awai­ting the arri­val of the new one to get a dif­fe­rent Rx. It’s so sad that Forest Labs didn’t do more to check out the effects of their refor­mu­la­tion before they unleashed it on the population!

  57. Alexia said:

    Jul 23, 09 at 7:06 pm

    The new Armour was horri­ble. I am now on Westh­roid and my skin and hair as well as brain func­tion and energy levels are retur­ning to a health.
    I am so angry at Forest Labs for chan­ging Armour. But Westh­roid seems to be working!

  58. Ben said:

    Jul 23, 09 at 9:36 pm

    Thanks for pos­ting this. One of my patients is on Armour and she came in today asking if we had it, which of course we did not (at least the 1/4 grain that she takes). I told her I would track it down for her. She men­tio­ned that she wan­ted the “old” Armour, and that Forest had chan­ged their for­mu­la­tion at some point this year. Usually when peo­ple tell me this, about any drug, I brush it off as a psycho­so­ma­tic thing. I told her that I would do my best but since it was on long-term bac­kor­der (and has been off and on for as long as I can remem­ber), I may not have a choice.

    She ran down her list of symp­toms which were in-line with hypothy­roi­dism, so I was per­ple­xed and began to really pon­der if Forest really did change the for­mu­la­tion (which you should NEVER do with any NTI drug), and if they had why weren’t we (the phar­ma­cists) informed?

    She asked what she could do since the new-formulation isn’t wor­king for her, and I told her that she and her endoc­ri­no­lo­gist may want to con­si­der a trial run on synthe­tic T3, and she got and abso­lu­tely devas­ta­ted look on her face. I’m glad for rea­ding this because now I can sug­gest Westh­roid, which to be quite honest I’ve never heard of.

    I think I may have found the “old” for­mu­la­tion for her though, and it’s being UPS’d in from another part of the state. For anyone inte­res­ted, if you really want the old for­mu­la­tion, I will explain how to have a decent shot of get­ting it. And believe me, this is not sure-fire by any means, but it is the only way I’ve found so far.

    Again, it’s not a gua­ran­tee that you will get the “old” for­mu­la­tion and unfor­tu­na­tely there is not a way to know for sure until you actually take the medi­cine home and use it.

    Go to Wal­greens (other chains may be able to this as well), and have them pull up a list of every store in their dis­trict and neigh­bo­ring dis­tricts “inventory-on-hand” for Armour Thy­roid. This is an exact count of the num­ber of tablets that each store has. Off to the side is a column that says “Days of supply.” You need to pick a loca­tion that shows “NO SALES.” “NO SALES” means there hasn’t been any of that drug dis­pen­sed in the last 90 days, and the way the sys­tem is set up it will only order more pro­duct if you are acti­vely dis­pen­sing it. The­re­fore, if Forest chan­ged the for­mu­la­tion in April, there is a good chance that if a store has any pro­duct on hand and they haven’t sold any in 90 days, that the Thy­roid on the shelf is the old formulation.

    Again, I’m not gua­ran­teeing any luck. So please don’t go to your phar­macy and yell at them because you didn’t get the old for­mu­la­tion. It’s really hit-and-miss.

    As far as com­plai­ning to Med­Watch and the FDA, don’t bother. Armour Thy­roid is mar­ke­ted without an NDA, and without FDA appro­val. It was only allo­wed to stay on the mar­ket because it was grand­fathe­red. The FDA has no say-so with what Forest does to the formulation.

  59. Susan Quitzau said:

    Jul 25, 09 at 5:25 am

    I am sit­ting here in tears. 3+ months ago, I called Forest labs when I too, noti­ced a dif­fe­rence in the 60mg tablet. They con­fir­med the for­mu­lary change and I con­ti­nued to take my doses as presc­ri­bed. Howe­ver, My well­being, phy­si­cal and men­tal health has been dec­li­ning the last seve­ral months — so bad that I went back on Well­bu­trin, but actually on the gene­ric the first time. Fee­ling worse and worse, (depres­sion, weight gain, irri­ta­bi­lity, sen­si­ti­vity to everything!, etc.) I found out that the gene­ric Well­bu­trin also is pro­ving inef­fec­tive for some. So, after a month on the brand Well­bu­trin and still fee­ling my dec­line, I came back to won­der about the NEW Armour — and sure enough, all the info is here and on Mary Solo­mons About.com — I’m NOT nuts! The NEW Armour isn’t wor­king!!! Will be on the phone to my doc­tor as soon as his office opens this mor­ning!! Must read through your posts to see what resolve you all have had to this (what to take ins­tead??) Susan

  60. mair jones said:

    Jul 28, 09 at 9:55 am

    I had to go on armour thy­roid because I became seve­rely aller­gic to levothyroxine,eltoxine etc.The first batch in Feb 09 hel­ped me get bet­ter (I now assume this was old stock)it dis­sol­ved well under the tongue.The second batch see­med ok but did­not dis­solve well.In June the third batch has retur­ned me to a dread­full state of illhealth;all the old symp­toms back,and worse lethargy etc.I am seeing my pri­vate prac­ti­tio­ner tomorrow,and I will be asking him to put me on another type of extract.No more Armour for me!
    Everything the UK doc­tors warn you of about Armour is coming home to roost.

  61. Betty Longerich said:

    Jul 31, 09 at 10:14 am

    Almost 50 years of taking Armour Thy­roid with no pro­blems with my dosage. Encoun­te­red pro­blems twice in past when my doc­tor “insis­ted” that Armour was not relia­ble and star­ted me on Synth­roid and then on Levothy­roid. Recent Armour for­mu­la­tion has chan­ged everything for me. T3 higher than nor­mal. Recently,had to have for­mu­la­ted cap­sule pre­pa­red by Wal­greens as my mai­lor­der phar­macy and local phar­ma­cies could not get 90mg tablet. (By the way, I have che­wed my tablets for years, always with exce­llent results.) Now, after 10 days of cap­su­les (30mg) I FEEL HORRIBLE. Per­sis­tent nau­sea, hea­daches, and lethargy. Will call doc­tor on Mon­day and try to switch to something else-maybe Natu­reth­roid or West throid.
    50 years of good Armour gone! Too bad that Forest Labs can’t unders­tand that this change is not good.

  62. jackie said:

    Aug 07, 09 at 5:37 pm

    I post on mes­sage boards on The Best Life web­site and, because I was going down the tubes rapidly the gals were trying to get me to get my thy­roid rechec­ked. I have been hypo since 95 and was on Synth­roid till about Jan 08 when I switched to Armour.) I Had fan­tas­tic results with it fee­ling so much bet­ter — even mana­ging to lose twenty pounds over the past year on th Best Life prog. Any­way long story short.… these past two months I have been rapidly going down hill again — can’t budge the sca­les des­pite good wor­kouts and great nutri­tion, am get­ting soooo lether­gic again — no joy, tired all after­noon long. It never occu­rred to me that the meds might have been mes­sed with. I was put­ting it down to my endo cut­ting me way back on Armour — now I know it’s pro­bably both. One of the gals on BL just told me about this web­site — I had never heard of it but OMG I am so glad I have now. I intend to read more of the info this week and go armed to the teeth next week to see my endo — Thanks for all this new infor­ma­tion. JAckie

  63. Victoria said:

    Aug 17, 09 at 8:06 am

    I’ve been taking Armour 30mg for about a year to sup­press my thy­roid and mul­ti­ple (hot) nodu­les. I quit taking it for about 8 weeks to pre­pare for a thy­roid scan. So after the scan, I got my presc­rip­tion refi­lled and the dr. rai­sed the dosage to 45 mg. Ever since, I have felt like gar­bage! I never really had any hypo symp­toms before I even star­ted the thy­roid jour­ney (other than the lump in the throat thing)…but wow…I cer­tainly feel hypo now. Exhaus­ted all the time, hair falling out, lots of joint pain and my jaw hurts. The stran­gest thing is that the tip of my ton­gue has been very infla­med since star­ting the new refill. I can’t neces­sa­rily attri­bute that to the Armour because I haven’t read about anyone else having that problem…but now I’m sus­pi­cious! Calling my dr. for an appt TODAY.

  64. Julie said:

    Aug 18, 09 at 4:03 pm

    After a year on Syn and Lev, I was till not fee­ling well. I finally found a doc to presc­ribe Armour. I felt great for 2 years and got a refill about a month ago. I noti­ced that it sme­lled dif­fe­rent but did not think much of it. After about 2 weeks I felt HORRIBLE! All my hypo symp­toms were back. I bla­med my hor­mo­nes and kept calling my docs office. I was com­ple­tely frus­tra­ted until I went online to see if there were any issues with Armour and there it was.…Armour refor­mu­la­tion info was all over the inter­net. I have been on Natu­reth­roid for about a week and I feel a little bet­ter but not there yet. My hope is that ever­yone STOPS buying Armour and they change their for­mula back. If anyone has any luck with other meds can you post please?

  65. dharma said:

    Aug 19, 09 at 1:43 pm

    Hi ever­yone,

    A friend of mine infor­med me that the for­mula had chan­ged and I jum­ped on this site to see what ever­yone was saying.

    The more I think about, and after rea­ding this, I think my symp­toms have retur­ned. It has been a slow pro­cess, but things have chan­ged. I think I still have a batch of the old stuff because it has that fami­liar smell, but it’s hard to say since it seems the for­mula may have been chan­ged before my script date.

    Any­way, I have a ques­tion about Westh­roid and Nature-Throid.… Do you take it in the same man­ner as Armour? Ram­ping up? I take 6 grains of Armour a day. Any help on this would be awe­some as I am hea­ding to my doc in the next cou­ple of weeks and I would like to be armed with infor­ma­tion about this.

    Thanks in advance!

  66. Elizabeth Kenney said:

    Aug 29, 09 at 8:34 pm

    I feel like I’m the last one to find out about the change to the Armour for­mu­la­tion. In June/July I star­ted to become symp­to­ma­tic — this after a few years of rela­tive nor­malcy on Armour. I was diag­no­sed twenty years ago at 23 with Hashi’s and about four years ago, switched from Synthroid/Cytomel to Armour with very good results. In June of this year, it was as if I was back in my body 20 years ago — a long list of symp­toms. You know them all. I’ve had two straight months of my hair falling out like crazy, attack-like symp­toms where I had a migraine for five days, brain fog, extreme fati­gue, depres­sion, joints and musc­les aching so badly I can­not bring myself to do my nor­mal easy yoga and fit­ness rou­tine, and now, I’ve gai­ned 10 lbs — all around the middle and chest. I feel bloa­ted, have dif­fi­culty con­cen­tra­ting. In April, I had an IUD inser­ted and have had very heavy blee­ding since, so that threw me off and my OB thought I might be ane­mic. I wasn’t, so it was back to the inter­nist for exten­sive tes­ting. He put me on Natu­reTh­roid three weeks ago and sug­ges­ted I take Rho­diola for stress. I am com­ple­tely stres­sed out over the sligh­test things — I know it’s very extreme, even I can see it and really try not to ove­rreact to things. The days I’ve coun­ted the hairs in my brush, it’s 140 – 200 after I wash my hair. Today, after three weeks of Natu­reTh­roid, I coun­ted 104. This may be because I don’t have as much hair left to lose, but I’m taking it as a good sign things are get­ting bet­ter. I feel more ener­ge­tic, for sure. It’s almost as if in addi­tion to not mee­ting my Rx needs, the refor­mu­la­ted Armour cau­sed some other kind of damage at the same time. I’m wai­ting for some exten­sive blood work from the doc­tor plus I did a 24-hr saliva test for Adre­nal Fati­gue. Hope­fully ans­wers and some relief come soon. It’s affec­ting my job, my rela­tionships and my wellbeing.

  67. Susan said:

    Sep 03, 09 at 4:59 pm

    After 5 years of rarely catching anything, I have had 7 colds in the past 8 months, each las­ting approx. 2 weeks. This is exactly what my life was like before Armour Thy­roid. I’ve also noti­ced joint pain and I’m slee­ping way too well for someone who is perimenopausal.

    The thing that puzz­les me, though is that I just had a blood test done and my TSH was .01 — Do you think it’s pos­si­ble that my TSH could be fine, but the Armour still isn’t really wor­king? I’m not sure if they tes­ted my T4 and T3 levels. I have a doctor’s appt. sche­du­led for next week and I’d really like to go in with a plan in mind.

    I did notice a few refills ago that my pills didn’t smell bad any­more and won­de­red if they were using old pills since I had been told that the odor indi­ca­ted that they were “fresh”. Does anyone know exactly when the new pills star­ted coming out? I called Armour and left a mes­sage. Thanks for pos­ting the phone number.

  68. Sharon said:

    Sep 05, 09 at 8:17 am

    I’ve been taking the new for­mula since June. My tsh has always been very low in the past, and last week I had it chec­ked for the first time with the new for­mu­la­tion. My tsh was 6.2 and my doc­tor refu­ses to let me take armour or any other des­si­ca­ted thy­roid. He is making me take synth­roid, which I have taken before and I know it makes me feel horrible.I can’t seem to make myself go to his office to pick it up. I know I feel bet­ter now than I will with a lower tsh on synth­roid. I can’t find any doc­tor that will give me a presc­rip­tion for anything but synthroid.

  69. Sienna said:

    Oct 22, 09 at 8:39 pm

    I have taken Armour Thy­roid prior to the refor­mu­la­tion. After the refor­mu­la­tion I noti­ced I could not diss­solve the pills sublin­gually. Follo­wing another refill, my hair has been begun to fall out, my joints ache, and I have deve­lo­ped hideous acne. Good hea­vens! I thought I had over­come all this after being diag­no­sed with hypothy­roi­dism and being presc­ri­bed Armour Thy­roid. A year worth of pro­gress thrown down the drain with an unna­noun­ced refor­mu­la­tion? I am phy­si­cally exhaus­ted by the lead-suit of hypothy­roi­dism, and men­tally fed-up with the disho­nest con­ceit of medicine.

  70. Diana Anderson said:

    Nov 12, 09 at 8:46 am

    I have been fee­ling hypothy­roid symp­toms gra­dually for the past five months, and now finally know why. I did not put two and two together until rea­ding about the change in for­mu­la­tion of the Armour, and my health. The approaching win­ter weather has made my symp­toms of hypothy­roi­dism impos­si­ble to live with. I have been on Armour before the refor­mu­la­tion a total of 3 years, and all was well until these last five months, go figure. I con­tac­ted my doc­tor and reques­ted an inc­rease in the Armour in hopes to alle­viate my symp­toms. I do not know if an inc­rease of Armour is going to help alle­viate my symp­toms, but will soon find out. I will be dili­gently inves­ti­ga­ting all my options con­cer­ning natu­ral thy­roid repla­ce­ment alter­na­ti­ves if the Armour is not wor­king for me any­more. I love the fact that this “refor­mu­la­tion” was never announ­ced at least not to my know­ledge, and appa­rently not my doc­tors either! I am tired of all this mess as you all are, is it any won­der why we have no choice but to be proac­tive when it comes to our health.

  71. Jessica Williams said:

    Apr 08, 10 at 3:42 pm

    I won­der if we are con­cer­ned enough about where these little pigs hail from?
    I’ve left Armour behind, opting for a com­poun­ding phar­macy in my area. I take 4 grains, and some­ti­mes 5 daily. I dose orga­ni­cally accor­ding to how I feel. I’m female, 5 foot 11 and weigh 176, am 62 yrs old.
    I have good and bad days, but am not immo­bi­li­zed and still do my job.
    The phar­ma­cist tells me he has many sour­ces but con­fi­ded that the best source (the one his patients pre­fe­rred) was from New Zea­land.
    Con­si­de­ring how we treat our lives­tock in this country, this may be a cli­ni­cal fac­tor in results.

  72. Rene Parke said:

    Aug 08, 10 at 9:46 am

    Thank god for all your com­ments and insight… I can relate to so many of you!! It is sooo nice to have a forum where we can go, sup­port, and relate to one another!! I had my thy­roid remo­ved in 1999 com­ple­tely due to can­cer. I was on synth­roid and a combo of synthroid/cytomel when armour went off the mar­ket!! I was soo exci­ted when it finally came back and even star­ted to feel bet­ter imme­dia­tely within a week or two. But I haven’t been fee­ling well lately and feel like I’ve regres­sed and slowly dec­li­ning! Now, thank god after fin­ding this info here and on about.com, it makes sooo much sense! I too noti­ced it didn’t have the icky smell which was obviously what made it ‘effec­tive’!! I have many of the symp­toms you say, brain fog, exhaus­ted, water reten­tion, acne, weight gain and around the middle, etc… I have heard peo­ple saying they are going to bring back the old for­mula, but have my serious doubts that will hap­pen after being off the mar­ket this long!! But, maybe if we all ban together, we can force them to rethink this whole thing and what it is doing to so count­less many!! I am also going to check into the Westh­roid and Nature Throid actually this week with my doc­tor after he checks my levels. I’ve also been hea­ring howe­ver that they have also been ‘for­ced’ to refor­mu­late theirs due to the Govern­ments FDA regu­la­tions!! It’s an ongoing and fore­ver battle!! Best of health, Rene’ :)

  73. Rene Parke said:

    Aug 08, 10 at 9:59 am

    Please call Pam at Armour Thy­roid. She is in qua­lity con­trol with Forrest Labs! Her phone num­ber and direct exten­sion are: #1 800 – 678-1605 Ext. 67023. Please, please call her and/or leave a mes­sage on her voi­ce­mail rela­ying your con­cerns and dis­con­tent! I JUST DID!!!! :)

  74. Usha said:

    Aug 16, 10 at 10:50 pm

    Have been taking Levo for 6+ years. But switched to armour thy­roid since last year June. was get­ting my presc­rip­tion filled for 2 months and felt so great since armour. But all of a sud­den I hear this back-order news. then the re-formulated one doesn’t feel the same as the old. I feel tired, weight gain with con­tai­ned diet, hair loss. I am not sure if Forest is for­ced by FDA to refor­mu­late. do we have to fight for a natu­ral medi­cine which works so well for most of us? :( I don’t mind figh­ting if we get the qua­lity back. any place where we can voice our opi­nions which will be hope­fully heard?


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