July 03, 2009

donewitharmourOnce again, I just appro­ved one more com­ment of someone who has had it with Armour, and is switching.   On the new Armour, she sta­tes she has a return of her for­mer hypo symp­toms: hair loss, joint pain, fati­gue, heart pal­pi­ta­tions, low body temps are back, etc.

And you see it hap­pe­ning all over thy­roid patient groups on the net.  Many folks are done with Armour.

It’s too chalky. It tas­tes terri­ble.  It doesn’t break into sma­ller pie­ces well any­more.  It’s lost the abi­lity to be done sublin­gually. And even worse, it has cau­sed a return of symptoms. 

In case you are won­de­ring what this is all about, read the 40 current com­ments attached to the June 2nd post Trying the Newly For­mu­la­ted Armour? Before that, you can read my May 7th post Why the party is over with Forest Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals and the current 37 com­ments.  And espe­cially power­ful is the April 28th post Patients say PHOOEY to new Armour for­mu­la­tion and Forest Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals with a current 57 posts.

So what’s their next step?

Right now, doc­tors of patients on Armour on being asked for a presc­rip­tion for Natu­reth­roid. Many report it wor­king won­der­fully; some state they need a little more to be as opti­mal as Armour. A small mino­rity aren’t sure about it yet. But ove­rall, the majo­rity are happy.

So let’s get an update of those who have switched: what pro­duct did you move to? Is the same amount giving you the same results? Did you have to more to a slightlyl higher amount, or lower amount? Was your phar­macy coo­pe­ra­tive for a dif­fe­rent brand?  Did you have to explain to your phar­macy that Natu­reth­roid can be drop-shipped directly to them?

P.S. Thy­roid patient Cheryl emai­led me and said she is sen­ding the above posts about Armour’s pro­blems to prac­ti­cally ever­yone on her email list, hoping they in turn will send it to their friends, and the word will get out.  If you want to do the same, this post is the most upda­ted, and inc­lu­des the links to the for­mer posts.

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

*Have depres­sion and you are on a T4 med like Synth­roid, Levoxyl, levothy­ro­xine, Eltro­xin, etc?? Read the blog post below.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 3rd, 2009 at 7:45 pm and is filed under Armour. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

68 Responses to “I am done with Armour, say a growing body of individuals”

  1. Priscilla said:

    Jul 04, 09 at 2:38 am

    I switched to Nature-Throid about 3 weeks ago. I would never go back to Armour now. I am on the same dose but the Nature-Throid is MUCH more effec­tive than the Armour ever was, even before the reformulation. 

    THe only down­side is that I just can­not get it to absorb sun­lin­gually. It wor­ked for me a few times when I first star­ted taking it, but since then it has not wor­ked. I’ve tried adding a little sugar under my ton­gue, and also tried rin­sing my mouth, etc… I’ve even tried crushing the entire pill before put­ting it under my ton­gue. It just will not absorb. I end up with a mouth full of saliva and a pile of foul-tasting meaty paste under my ton­gue. When that hap­pens I just wash the rest down with a glass of water and wait 10 or so minu­tes to eat or drink anything else. It is very anno­ying but a small incon­ve­nience con­si­de­ring how great I feel.

  2. stella said:

    Jul 04, 09 at 4:02 am

    It’s been nothing but a hea­dache for me. I have stock piled Nature-throid .… just in case. 

    It’s a bit gritty — but I’ll deal with that com­pa­red to Armour. 

    I hope patients rea­lize the Nature-throid has a grain value of 65mg — com­pa­red to the 60mgs Armour did.

  3. dawn said:

    Jul 04, 09 at 1:28 pm

    I just made the switch and I’m on day 3 with Nature-throid. So far, so good…I’m taking the same dosage, 3 grains and it seems to be more effec­tive than Armour. I’m noti­cing some of the hypo symp­toms begin­ning to leave, like the bloa­ting and the joint pain are sub­si­ding. I’ve been slee­ping bet­ter the last cou­ple of nights and that’s great for me. When ever I’m hypo I have horri­ble insom­nia. I slept all night through last night and that says a lot to me!

    dawn

  4. Helen said:

    Jul 04, 09 at 4:04 pm

    I am to see a REAL MD end of July who “gets it”. I assume I should ask for natu­reth­roid?? I’m on nothing now having seen 2 endos who are use­less. I have adre­nal exhaus­tion and hypo­pit and hypo­go­na­dism, hypothy­roi­dism. The last endo I saw over 2 months ago NEVER called me des­pite many requests. All I got were the labs in the mail that show a very low free T3 and an “impos­si­ble” FSH of 9 since I had a total hys­te­rec­tomy 7 years ago and LOW ferri­tin. He refu­sed to do a reverse T3, aldos­te­rone or renin.
    I intend to get him off of the “top thy­roid doc site” asap.
    He had MANY good res­pon­ses but he is a loser.
    Ok, do I ask for natu­reth­roid?? I know I need cor­tef too.

  5. Paul Blake ND said:

    Jul 06, 09 at 12:17 am

    It is part of the foo­lish search for the magic bullet that will cure your disease. Why do I say it is foo­lish? Well look who has done the most research for magic bullets: modern medi­cine. Modern medi­cine has not dis­co­ve­red a cure for anything in more then 55 years. Like any drug, Armour is a treat­ment so the per­son can con­ti­nue a poor lifestyle. Anyone in natu­ro­pathic and homeo­pathic medi­cine should take a les­son from this. The pro­mise of a magic bullet has always been a greedy ploy to make money off the sick. To cure any disease takes hard work on the 5 major areas of the lifestyle of the per­son: diet, eli­mi­na­tion, exer­cise, stress and spi­ri­tually. Depen­ding on the per­son, one of them is the main trig­ger for their disease. To cure their disease all of them must be wor­ked on simul­ta­neously. Paul

  6. Beverly said:

    Jul 06, 09 at 11:27 am

    I am going to try desec­ra­ted thy­roid; I’ve been on synth­roid for years, but my GP is open to let me try the other (I just dis­co­ve­red this site and didn’t rea­lize there was another option). The GP men­tio­ned Armour’s, but given all this, I see Natu­reth­roid.… are there others?

  7. Samantha said:

    Jul 06, 09 at 3:28 pm

    Our local Wal­mart phar­macy says they can only get the 1 grain size of the Natu­reth­roid in, and it is not pos­si­ble for them to get any of the other sizes because their sup­plier doesnt have it lis­ted. The local Safe­way phar­macy and one local com­poun­ding phar­macy are both saying the same thing. They are not acting like it is even worth it for them to take any steps to try at this point. For­tu­na­tely another local com­poun­ding phar­macy (Bel­mar phar­macy in CO) says that they can order it in without any trouble.

  8. S said:

    Jul 07, 09 at 2:36 pm

    Paul, I think it is iro­nic (and hila­rious) that you call all of us “foo­lish” for KNOWING that there is a porcine-based medi­ca­tion out there that can eli­mi­nate our symp­toms. Why? Well, because you claim that it’s part of “money-making scheme.” Yet, here you are, tou­ting your “cre­den­tials” and per­so­nal web­site in the com­ments sec­tion of a blog post dedi­ca­ted to arti­cu­la­ting patients’ dis­sa­tis­fac­tion with a par­ti­cu­lar treat­ment. One that is, I might add, a major com­pe­ti­tor to your own, “natu­ral” treat­ment regi­mes. Clearly you are attemp­ting to make money by attemp­ting to gar­ner more “clients.” Your pre­sence here is exactly the type of “greedy ploy” that you sup­po­sedly rail against in your post. Now sit down and let the grown-ups talk.

  9. mary said:

    Jul 07, 09 at 3:47 pm

    I hate it when peo­ple say that I am one stress reduc­tion pro­gram away from fee­ling well. I eat very well, pray, des­tress, take time for myself, eli­mi­nate fine, and still need natu­ral thy­roid medi­ca­tion to keep from fee­ling like a wal­king corpse. Armour or Nature thy­roid aren’t pills drea­med up in some evil lab, they are just iden­ti­cal subs­tan­ces to the hor­mo­nes most people’s bodies make natu­rally. I don’t know why Forest had to change the for­mula that was wor­king for patients.

  10. S said:

    Jul 07, 09 at 9:38 pm

    Mary, I’m pretty sick of peo­ple trying to derail us from being ade­qua­tely trea­ted, too. It is even more dis­con­cer­ting when the peo­ple doing this are sup­po­sed to be on our “team”- peo­ple who are sup­po­sed to believe in natu­ral treat­ments and sup­ple­men­ta­tion. Just a few days ago, I called a com­poun­ding phar­ma­cist and asked him if he knew any doc­tors who presc­ribe Natu­reth­roid. Ins­tead of giving me a name or two, the guy tried selling me on his OWN treat­ments– treat­ments which inc­lu­ded the purcha­sing of OTC thy­roid sup­ple­ments with ques­tio­na­ble potency. It was obvious that he’d get a chunk of the pro­fits if he sold them. It was sic­ke­ning. But I’m only wri­ting this to say the follo­wing to anyone who might still be rea­ding: no one is going to care about your health more than you do.

  11. yvette said:

    Jul 08, 09 at 8:26 pm

    i am having a lot of pro­blems on the new armour thyroid..i hate forest for chan­ging the drug. this affects so many peo­ple. i am a phar­ma­cist and i still have a hard time get­ting good treat­ment. i called forest to see what is going on with the new drug. they haven’t retur­ned my call. my hypothy­roid symp­toms have escalated.

  12. Theresa said:

    Jul 09, 09 at 6:04 am

    This is in res­ponse to com­ment by Paul Blake, ND

    Here we go again! One more expert telling us that it’s our own fault we’re sick! As someone who’s thy­roid was DESTROYED by autoim­mune thy­roid disease (Grave’s Disease and Hashimoto’s Autoim­mune Thy­roi­di­tis — I was first diag­no­sed in my 20’s!), I find it dis­tas­te­ful that someone would use a patient sup­port web­site to berate those very patients whom, I assume, he’s trying to rec­ruit for his prac­tice! What is one to do when one has no func­tio­ning thy­roid gland? Believe me, I have tried many, many alter­na­tive the­ra­pies, and not one will revive a dead thy­roid, or replace those mis­sing hor­mo­nes! I sup­pose you would deny Type-1 dia­be­tics their insu­lin! Stress reduc­tion, nutri­tion, exer­cise (very dif­fi­cult with no thy­roid hor­mo­nes, by the way), and spi­ri­tua­lity are all bene­fi­cial adjuncts to any treat­ment pro­to­col, but to sug­gest that they can replace life-giving thy­roid hor­mo­nes is just irres­pon­si­ble! Nobody here claims to be cured from hypothy­roi­dism by the use of natu­ral desic­ca­ted thy­roid hor­mo­nes, but repla­cing those thy­roid hor­mo­nes is the only effec­tive treat­ment for hypothy­roi­dism! There is a dif­fe­rence. Por­cine thy­roid has been avai­la­ble and used effec­ti­vely for around 100 years, with no side effects at the correct dosa­ges. Please do not ridi­cule those of us who have found an alter­na­tive to the synthe­tics mar­ke­ted by big pharma! My daugh­ter is a phar­ma­cist (win­ner of two natio­nal awards) and was not taught about natu­ral thy­roid hor­mo­nes in phar­macy school. It is up to us, as patients, to find ans­wers, hence the popu­la­rity of this web­site and others like it. It seems to me that some over­zea­lous prac­ti­tio­ners can see no farther than the noses on their faces, and cre­dit them­sel­ves with omnis­cient powers to diag­nose, and advise ever­yone on the pla­net. Please leave those of us who are doing the best we can to treat our veri­fia­ble ill­nes­ses with the best pos­si­ble the­rapy, rather than spou­ting your self-serving ideo­logy at us. We know why we suf­fer, we know how to treat it. Frankly, this is just one more stres­sor in our already dif­fi­cult lives!

  13. Glee said:

    Jul 09, 09 at 12:08 pm

    I will tell you why Forest Pharm. had to change the for­mula. They were get­ting heat from the FDA. Armour was hel­ping too many peo­ple at a lot chea­per cost for the con­su­mer. Why…WHy.…I just found something that was hel­ping me. Now I am going to have to start over??? Please give me some gui­dance here folks. What a conspiracy.…the drug com­panys of the world. This is so wrong and the docs and endo’s against the use of Armour are high fiveing each other because of it.

  14. Karen said:

    Jul 09, 09 at 12:49 pm

    I was on synth­roid (or the T4 gene­rics as far as I know)for 8 years (since July 2000). I am in the pathe­tic mili­tary medi­cal system(government run medi­cine is NOT GOOD). My TSH was at 15.9 in July 2000 when they finally put me on thy­roid repla­ce­ment hor­mone. (It took 10 years from when my TSH had already been too high for them to start me on the meds). Since then, my TSH lab results ran­ged from 3.08 — 9.6 while on T4 and whiche­ver pro­vi­der I saw (it is almost impos­si­ble to see the same one more than 2 visits, as they move all the time) never sho­wed any con­cern for me and all the symp­toms and pro­blems I was having, but they were happy to write presc­rip­tions for anti-depressants (5 dif­fe­rent ones in all) and then lec­tu­red me when I told them I wasn’t taking them, due to side effects. They were also on my case about my high LDL cholesterol,yet my diet and exer­cise pro­gram are actually good. Never did they test my T3. I star­ted self –edu­ca­ting and last sum­mer finally got a civi­lian (not mili­tary, yeah!) doc­tor to finally let me try Armour thy­roid. I felt won­der­ful, and got my life back, for the first time in years. Now Forest Labs chan­ged the for­mu­la­tion and for the past 2 months, my hypo symp­toms have come back, worse than I have ever had them in my life. It is back to square 1, if I can get out of bed or off the couch long enough to attempt this whole mess again, as I found out the civi­lian doc­tor I saw last sum­mer moved away.

  15. Amy said:

    Jul 09, 09 at 4:33 pm

    My part­ner was on the old Armour, and finally after years of fee­ling horri­ble had star­ted to feel bet­ter on 3 grains. Not per­fect, but get­ting there. They chan­ged the for­mula, and like many others she star­ted going downhill with all symp­toms retur­ning. She tried com­poun­ded des­si­ca­ted thy­roid (in Aus­tra­lia), but because they’re only in cap­sule form, they didn’t work (she was taking Armour sublin­gually). Also tried crushing the new armour and taking it sublin­gually with a little bit of sugar. Nothing see­med to be wor­king. We deci­ded to order a Cana­dian des­si­ca­ted pro­duct called Thy­roid by Erfa. It’s only been a day, but so far it dis­sol­ves per­fectly sublin­gually (like the old Armour). Fin­gers cros­sed. Will post results when it’s been a bit lon­ger. If this doesn’t work we’ll pro­bably try Nature-throid. 

    And to the guy who said that exer­cise, nutri­tion etc can cure hypothy­roi­dism, he has no idea and obviously hasn’t lived through this, or been close to any­body who has. When my part­ner began to get sick, she’d been exer­ci­sing at the gym 5 days a week, pla­ying sport and eating healthily. If your thy­roid isn’t wor­king, no amount of healthy living will fix it, in my opinion.

  16. Deborah said:

    Jul 09, 09 at 5:29 pm

    Star­ted out on Synth­roid around 1993, switched to Armour around 2003. My levels have been all over the charts – TSH from .066 — 3.60. I don’t feel good if it’s too low or too high – I want balance. Since the refor­mu­la­tion I’ve been VERY fati­gued, had some heart pal­pi­ta­tions, and some other issues. My doc­tor is open to Nature-throid but wants me to try Synth­roid again “because there is more research to back up that medi­cine.” [Been rea­ding Dr. Diana Schwarzbein’s book that says although Armour is a natu­ral hor­mone it is the wrong com­po­si­tion for humans.] If my num­bers don’t show impro­ve­ment she’s willing to switch it up. Am I nuts to con­si­der Synth­roid? I have a friend who got totally mes­sed up using Armour and now feels great on Synth­roid. I am so con­fu­sed – and scared. 

    (from Janie: patients whose lives have com­ple­tely chan­ged thanks to desic­ca­ted thy­roid would strongly disa­gree with Sch­warz­bein. And desic­ca­ted thy­roid does not mess anyone up. Other unre­cog­ni­zed and untrea­ted issues mess peo­ple up. Natu­reth­roid is being cho­sen by many now. Read this page: http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/mistakes-patients-make)

  17. Yvonne said:

    Jul 09, 09 at 5:44 pm

    I am so sick and I have been going in for all kinds of tests lately. If Forest Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals would have told all of us Armour Thy­roid patients they refor­mu­la­ted Armour, perhaps we would have loo­ked to side effects of the refor­mu­la­tion rather than my regu­lar doc­tor having me see a bunch of spe­cia­lists. My endoc­ri­no­lo­gist told me months ago I was just stres­sed when I felt abso­lu­tely horri­ble and was so groggy. I fell asleep in the exam room wai­ting for him and he saw nothing wrong with that. I am soooo exhaus­ted and my hair will not grow. Hmmmm.…who is the scoun­drel??? I’ll bet it’s that Armour thy­roid. I could just scream. I have been so groggy and have been having tons of hea­daches and have mis­sed so much work because I am too groggy to drive 30 miles into work. I think we all should start loo­king into a class action law­suit for the qua­lity of our lives going down the toi­let when most of us were pro­bably regu­la­ted pre-reformulation. I just left a mes­sage on their drug safety line saying how dis­gus­ted I am with them. I would not have known about the refor­mu­la­tion if it were not for a co-worker who is also hypothy­roid telling me yes­ter­day what was going on. I thought they were my angels when I couldn’t tole­rate Synth­roid but now they are the devil.

  18. Laurie said:

    Jul 10, 09 at 4:29 pm

    When I got sick last sum­mer, I had com­ple­ted a marathon & was trai­ning for a second one. Since then, I have gai­ned at least twenty pounds, I have been asked if I am preg­nant and I am slee­ping my life away. I don’t eat glu­ten, dairy or soy, I push myself to run when I can mus­ter up the energy and I was about to switch from Synth­roid to Armour. Now I see that I may have to find another option. I am so happy I found this site.

    So Paul, pre-disease I would have had the energy to kick your behind myself, now I’d have to rely on a magic bullet.….

  19. Maria said:

    Jul 11, 09 at 1:40 am

    I am really plea­sed I star­ted rea­ding up about Armour. I was about to go and beg, cajole, hold doctor’s chil­dren for ran­som to get some. Here in Aus­tra­lia it is next to impos­si­ble to get it in the first place. Doctor’s poo-pooh ‘that Ame­ri­can rub­bish!’ So, I am now lea­ning toward Natu­reth­roid. I finally con­vin­ced my doc­tor to do a Reverse T3 test. (He had no idea what it was or did, he is a nice guy but a little une­du­ca­ted, like most here!) All my symp­toms have been get­ting hypo-er each day (is that a word!?) But of course, it’s always take more T4, excer­sise more, rah rah rah…But I know my body the best and I am kic­king some butts here (nicely of course!)
    So, thank you guys for filling me in on the now chan­ged Armour and how it affects you. If I did get it, and sta­yed hypo I would have loo­ked like a right twit in front of the doc­tors, after all my carr­ying on. about nee­ding T3 sup­ple­ment. No doubt I would have been bran­ded ‘Hyperchon­driac!’
    Also makes no sense to me why we who have had TT’s are given only T4 meds in the first place…
    Keep up the good work Janie!

  20. dawn said:

    Jul 13, 09 at 12:43 am

    This is addres­sing Paul and his ridi­cu­lous com­ment. While you want to call us foo­lish for see­king the best pos­si­ble treat­ment, you are sho­wing your COMPLETE IGNORANCE regar­ding thy­roid disease.

    This disease is NOT brought on or cured by lifestyle and it’s regard to exer­cise, diet, eli­mi­na­tion, stress or one’s spi­ri­tual state. Had you done your home­work, you would know this. You should be com­ple­tely emba­rras­sed for ope­ning your mouth on this forum and pos­ting such a STUPID comment!

    I’ll use my own situa­tion as an exam­ple for you, lis­ten up you might learn something. My thy­roid disease is autoim­mune and here­di­tary. SEVERAL gene­ra­tions in my family have suf­fe­red with this disease and pre­sently I have more than a dozen female first and second cou­sins suf­fe­ring with thy­roid disease. My par­ti­cu­lar strug­gle began in the early 1980’s and no amount of pro­per diet, trips to see the homeo­path, exer­cise, stress redu­cing regi­mes or spi­ri­tual pur­suit has made any dif­fe­rence. Oh and by the way, the 20+ years of spi­ri­tual pur­suit did lead me to become an ordai­ned minis­ter, but even then the thy­roid issue did not disappear. 

    In fact it got worse. I ended up with a base­ball size goi­ter that was intra-thoracic. In case you don’t know what that means, this huge disea­sed thy­roid was IN my chest, up against my aorta, in the pro­cess of collap­sing my trachea. The other half, sma­ller ONLY the size of a lemon was still in my neck and it was collap­sing my esopha­gus and just made it so I couldn’t swa­llow, not a big deal, right? 

    Now you tell me how your “methods” are going to cure something like this? EVERYTHING you men­tio­ned I had been doing for MANY years! It didn’t work and it’s not going to work for peo­ple with thy­roid disease. If you have had any edu­ca­tion at all, you should know this.

    You and your kind are doing a HUGE dis­ser­vice to others by nega­ting and mini­mi­zing their work to find the right treat­ment. No one I’ve ever know with thy­roid disease is loo­king for a “magic bullet”! What a supre­mely stu­pid thing for you to say. What we are loo­king for, are good treat­ment options, that will help us sur­vive and live as close to a nor­mal life as can be. Key on the right words here Paul…“survive” and “close to”. No one is loo­king for magic!

    In my case I HAD to have a total thy­roi­dec­tomy, if I didn’t the goi­ter would have even­tually com­pro­mi­sed so many vital struc­tu­res I may not have sur­vi­ved. And…it was a com­pli­ca­ted sur­gery, requi­ring a ver­ti­cal break and a hori­zon­tal break to my ster­num, just to get it out. Don’t you dare try to tell me this was brought on or could be cured by lifestyle, pleeeass­seee… you can’t be that much of an idiot!

    I com­ple­tely and totally resent you coming into this forum spou­ting your non­sense about “lifestyle”. It’s peo­ple like you that give a bad name to your pro­fes­sion. Until you’ve wal­ked in my shoes, done your research and lear­ned some man­ners, don’t try to speak to me about my disease, you don’t have a clue what you’re tal­king about. You are only making your­self look like a pathe­tic, ridi­cu­lous, igno­rant, self-serving, self-righteous fool! I’m in agree­ment with “S”, sit down and SHUT UP!

  21. Karen said:

    Jul 13, 09 at 1:25 pm

    Boy, I am so glad I found this site! I have been on Armour for a few years now. Someone had told me that I should take the pills sl — one in the mor­ning, one around noon, which I have been faith­fully doing. I got the 60mg strength and cut it in 1/2, because it was more eco­no­mi­cal like that.
    I just re-filled my presc­rip­tion, and at first thought I had got­ten a wrong one — my pills did not split easily any­more, the pill frag­ments them­sel­ves tas­ted like chalk and did not really dis­solve, and the cha­rac­te­ris­tic pig-smell was not there.
    So, I just got off the phone with Forest Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals (if you go to goo­gle and type in Armour Thy­roid, their site comes up, and there is a con­tact but­ton, where you can either call or email them).
    Well, their com­plaint dept. ‘lady’ was more of a b*tch than a lady — she basi­cally told me to shove it.
    She said the pills are not sco­red, so they are not sup­po­sed to be cut, and also that it says to swa­llow the pills whole, not to take them sl. Then she slam­med the phone on me.

    At least now I know there are alter­na­ti­ves avai­la­ble out there, and I will see what I can do to get hold of either one of those!
    Thanks for a great site — I will have to start rea­ding up! ;)

  22. Sandra said:

    Jul 14, 09 at 1:19 pm

    Holy Smo­kes,
    I have been direc­ted to this site from a lovely friend as we are mem­bers of a thy­roid can­cer group. I have no thy­roid since ’94 and have expe­rien­ced severe symp­toms the last cou­ple of years but good ol doc says everything’s fine on my .15 level of levothy­ro­xine !! I used to be a natu­ral body­bui­der, 6 days a week, 2 hours at a time, hey I could bicep curl 80lbs and I weighed 115lbs, run 5 miles every day and today, well I’m lucky if I walk 4 times a week for 30 minu­tes on a flat sur­face, pla­gued with food sensitivities,adrenal fati­gue..
    Thanks for the words of such strong and inc­re­di­ble woman. I will now maybe get my life back once I can locate someone to help me. Anyone know a good doc in the GTA of Toronto Onta­rio who will get me some Naturethroid??

    San­dra

  23. Theresa said:

    Jul 14, 09 at 3:44 pm

    To San­dra,
    In Canada we are for­tu­nate to have access to des­si­ca­ted thy­roid (simply called “Thy­roid”) from Erfa Phar­ma­cue­ti­cals. Check around your area phar­ma­cies, you may have to try seve­ral before you find one which carries it. They should be able to tell you who presc­ri­bes it. Goo­gle “Erfa” for more infor­ma­tion. I have been taking it for almost three years, and even though I star­ted with a very low dose, within days I felt a zing of energy from the T3. Of course, when my T4 levels fell, I crashed and bur­ned. But since inc­rea­sing gra­dually over about a 2 year period, I now feel fairly opti­mi­zed on 240 mg’s per day, divi­ded into 3 sepa­rate doses (I take them 1/2 to 1 hour before break­fast, lunch and sup­per).
    Good luck,
    Theresa

  24. Gayle said:

    Jul 15, 09 at 4:46 am

    After much debate I finally tal­ked my Dr. into switching me to Armour today– just to find out about the new for­mu­la­tion. Someone said in another post that the FDA got on Forest. I don’t know why that would hap­pen since Big Pharma owns the FDA, any­way. But I did read up a little bit on Forest Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals and it’s CEO, and (surprise!)they are the owners of Paxil, Prozac,Celexa, and Lexi­pro to name a few.Prozac (Fluo­xe­tine), in fact, is lar­gely com­po­sed of Fluo­ride, which is known to b extre­mely inju­rious to the thy­roid as well as being almost as effec­tive as a pla­cebo in dea­ling with depres­sion. How could Pro­zac help depres­sion when fluo­ride helps create it by des­tro­ying the thyroid.I don’t know why this com­pany would choose to “reformulate“a pro­duct as effec­tive and in demand as Armour, unless they’re loo­king to bols­ter the old bot­tom line yet a little more. It’s — well, it’s depressing!

  25. Sandra said:

    Jul 15, 09 at 8:45 am

    Hey The­resa,
    Thanks for your taking the time to reply. I will do as you sug­ges­ted el pronto and I am very hope­ful. I still have to read all the info on this site but I am currently in a bit of a state of anger and shock over what has hap­pe­ned to me.
    Just won­de­ring if it is expen­sive and is it cove­red as a regu­lar medi­cal drug or is it a natu­ral the­rapy. I don’t have cove­rage for natu­ral the­rapy products.

    Have a glo­rious day!!

    San­dra

  26. Karen said:

    Jul 15, 09 at 4:11 pm

    I just filed a com­plaint at: http://www.consumeraffairs.com. Those of us who have been so nega­ti­vely impac­ted by Forest Labs and the change they made to Armour thy­roid need to let it be known. Go to that web­site. There is a red but­ton on the top right side that says “Com­plaint Button”.

  27. Theresa said:

    Jul 15, 09 at 5:16 pm

    Hi San­dra,
    It is a drug with a DIN num­ber, avai­la­ble only by presc­rip­tion. It is rela­ti­vely inex­pen­sive (my latest refill of 500 tablets cost $39.47, and my co-pay is $10.00). I’m sure Onta­rio and New Bruns­wick have simi­lar pri­ces and cove­ra­ges. Good luck,
    Theresa

  28. Judy said:

    Jul 16, 09 at 8:46 pm

    I have been on Armour for almost two years. After using the newly for­mu­la­ted Armour since the begin­ning of June, I noti­ced hair falling out (like it had years ago when I was on Synthoid). Thought the hair loss was strange, since I had found my opti­mal dose of Armour May this year and had felt great. I HAD noti­ced the weird tex­ture of the new pills when taken subli­gually, but didn’t think much of it. It finally daw­ned on me to check my basal temp, and, sure enough, I was an entire degree on the low side!
    Thank you, Janie, for brin­ging this to my atten­tion through your Face­book page! I imme­dia­tely called my (real!) doc­tor. His office was shoc­ked when I told them that corns­tarch had been added to Armour as a filler. This doc­tor is con­ti­nually edu­ca­ting him­self, and I have no doubt he researched what I had said. He then chan­ged my presc­rip­tion to Natu­reTh­roid. I just pic­ked it up today, and am loo­king for­ward to some impro­ve­ment! I will post again if/when I notice a dif­fe­rence.
    Thanks again! We ALL need to stick together to get the medi­cal care we deserve!
    Judy

  29. Sara said:

    Jul 17, 09 at 12:02 pm

    I just star­ted taking Armour in June…first at 30 mg and noti­ced no dif­fe­rence. My doc­tor, who is a mix­ture of holis­tic and “real” medi­cine, inc­rea­sed my dose to 60 mg. I have had a terri­fic boost of energy on this, although my heart has been racing a bit. Does anyone out there know if this is something that I will get used to . . or indi­ca­tes that I’m on too high of a dose? After about 8 years of having issues with depres­sion and terri­ble fati­gue, I finally found a doc­tor who recog­ni­zed that low “nor­mal” Throid lab results are often not “nor­mal” for peo­ple and can require thy­roid the­rapy. I am hope­ful that this will help, but I’m a bit frea­ked out by all of the dis­cus­sion of peo­ple moving away from Armour . . since I just star­ted it!

  30. Teresa said:

    Jul 18, 09 at 10:24 am

    I have been pla­ying the merry-go-round game of thy­roid treat­ment and medi­cine with doc­tors for over a decade. I even tried armour seve­ral years ago but I believe now I wasn’t given enough. I had been thin­king about trying it again and I saw these notes on the change of for­mu­lar. I am soooo angry about how the pharm. com­pa­nies and FDA con­trol the drugs! I am so sick of the emo­tio­nal abuse we have to take from the MD’s. If we trea­ted our chil­dren like the MDs treat us emo­tio­nally, we would be arres­ted for child abuse. Even when I have insu­rance cove­rage for a natu­ra­pathic doc­tor the ones in the HMO pro­grams are jokes. One of mine just hel­ped you only on female hor­mo­nes and did very little to help you other­wise. The other tur­ned out to be a chi­ro­prac­tor that had a small, cram­ped room (you could barely walk around in) with shel­ves pac­ked with intes­ti­nal and liver clean­sing pow­der and they called him a natu­ro­pathic doc­tor! He would talk to you inbet­ween (while run­ning back and forth) seeing his chi­ro­pathic patients. Also they and other HMOs have been known to refuse to pay for lab tes­ting. We do not have a choice in which we may choose alter­na­tive health­care when they won’t pay for the tes­ting! What can we really do to make a change and espe­cially when we can barely func­tion to raise our fami­lies and work to put food on the table. Then if we want a test done by a natu­ro­pathic, we have to pay for it along with having to pay for our horribly expen­sive HMO fees. If George Washing­ton was alive on this sad day, he would shri­vel up and vomit if he saw what our county has come to after he lite­rally sac­ri­fi­ced his life so we wouldn’t be con­tro­lled by tyrants. After reti­ring from the mili­tary, and pre­si­dency (which he never wan­ted to do in the first place!) he had a total of two years of reti­re­ment and then died.

  31. Debbie said:

    Jul 18, 09 at 8:55 pm

    I loved Armour. I’d been on it for a year and was just star­ting to feel myself again after 4 – 5 years of incom­pe­tent doc­tors. Then Forest switched Armour’s for­mula. At first, I didn’t rea­lize what was hap­pe­ning. I didn’t know if it was a pro­blem with my adre­nals (another pro­blem I’ve been trea­ting) or vitamin/mineral defi­cien­cies (also being trea­ted for them). I couldn’t figure out why any of that would be hap­pe­ning because I had been fee­ling so well. My hair fell out. I became inc­re­dibly depres­sed. I was cons­ti­pa­ted for weeks and in serious pain from it. My hair and skin became very, very dry. My fin­ger­nails got rid­ges. Pain from infla­med joints retur­ned. I gai­ned 8 pounds in 4 weeks after having just lost 10. The worst was losing my hair, I think, and the heart pal­pi­ta­tions and tachy­car­dia and high blood sugars. I’m a Type 1 dia­be­tic and have been so for more than 50 years (with no com­pli­ca­tions). My glu­cose became out of con­trol. I ques­tio­ned the strength of the insu­lin. I bought new insu­lin. I star­ted eating much, much less car­bohy­dra­tes. Nothing wor­ked. I had to inc­rese my insu­lin a tre­men­dous amount and it still didn’t help. Then I read about the change in Armour’s for­mula. Sud­dently, it all made sense. I switched to Nature-throid. My blood sugars retur­ned to nor­mal within a day or two !!! My hair stop­ped falling out and the depres­sion disap­pea­red. Forest put cellu­lose in Armour. I couldn’t take it sublin­gually any­more. Peo­ple with thy­roid pro­blems often have diges­tion pro­blems, too, so why would Forest put something into their medi­ca­tion which would require us to swa­llow it, the­reby for­cing us to try to digest it? And then that subs­tance they put into Armour is cellu­lose, WHICH HUMANS CANNOT DIGEST !!!
    Buy Nature-throid. I’m so glad that I read of other people’s suc­cess here taking that medi­ca­tion. I just hope it doesn’t become scarce due to so many peo­ple switching to it now.

  32. Gail said:

    Jul 19, 09 at 4:15 pm

    I can’t find when Armour was actually refor­mu­la­ted. Every site I find says “spring 09″. My bottle was filled in March — won­de­ring if I have the old stuff — it smells pretty bad still :)  —  and I don’t take it sublin­gually so I don’t know (but may try it that way tomo­rrow just to see!)
    I do know that I have gone from .05 to 8.0 TSH and Ft3 way low. Guess I’m chan­ging meds…

    (from Janie: taste it. If it has a sweet taste, it’s the old Armour. If not, I’d switch, too.)

  33. Gail said:

    Jul 19, 09 at 4:45 pm

    Well, does not hit me as “sweet” at all. Did the old stuff dis­solve quickly — this didn’t seem to want to dis­solve, just sit­ting on my ton­que — not even get­ting sort of mushy. (New Armour_)
    Janie = which site can I post test results to get some feed­back? (www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/talk-to-others)

  34. Aim said:

    Jul 19, 09 at 7:20 pm

    Hi! Love the web­site, have been an avid rea­der for a few years now. I’m having the same pro­blem with Armour. I’m seeing my doc­tor tomo­rrow who has already sug­ges­ted switching me to Natu­reth­roid. I just have a few ques­tions for those of you who have already switched…

    1.) Are you able to take it sublingually?

    2.) If so, are there any “tricks” to taking it sublingually?

    3.) If not, is it still effec­tive taking it via stomach?

    Like other rea­ders have sug­ges­ted, I feel the same about Natu­reth­roid and the FDA. As more and more peo­ple switch to Natu­reth­roid, the FDA will pro­bably pres­sure them to “refor­mu­late” as well!!! It’s really sad that the peo­ple run­ning things care more about their bot­tom­line than the actual health of patients!

  35. Marty G said:

    Jul 20, 09 at 5:31 am

    I am still using the Armour, but having more diges­tive pro­blems, which began before I was orgi­naly put on the Armour in ’99. I have Hashi’s and have just begun using LDN to see if that will help with the autoim­mune (I also have celiac).

    I have tried com­poun­ded T-4 and Cyto­mel (which I can­not seem to tole­rate) and also Thy­ro­lar (lac­tose gave me fre­quent, loose bowels).

    It seems that Natu­reth­roid has some lac­tose in it and I am con­cer­ned to try it. Does it seem to make any dif­fe­rence if the Armour is swa­llo­wed? Can the Natu­reth­roid be taken sublin­gually or does that need to be swallowed.

    Thanks for your help.

    Marty

  36. Liza C. said:

    Jul 20, 09 at 12:01 pm

    I star­ted Natu­reth­roid about two weeks ago (after being on Armour for 3 years) and I feel great already. Since the refor­mu­la­tion I was noti­cing very odd symp­toms, inc­lu­ding erra­tic body temps. 

    And the Natu­reth­roid seems to work bet­ter than the old Armour (and I was an Armour advo­cate because of STTM). On Natu­reth­roid my symp­toms and body temps are already much more sta­ble! And the terri­ble mood swings I always get on Day 19 of my cycle didn’t hap­pen, which was an abso­lute miracle. I am not sure if this is enti­rely rela­ted to Natu­reth­roid but it seems sig­ni­fi­cant. Ove­rall I feel more stable.

    But I am having to coor­di­nate with the Phar­macy & Sup­plier to get my next refill for Natu­reth­roid. But I gave the phar­ma­cist the phone for RLC labs and sat there while they called to coor­di­nate. Stay on top of it (like ever­yone here says) and you will succeed.

  37. Ingrid said:

    Jul 20, 09 at 1:20 pm

    I LOVE this site! I was loo­king around trying to figure out why I am losing unbe­lie­va­ble amounts of hair. I thought I would try Iodo­ral and a ferri­tin sup­ple­ment again to see if it could help. Then I found all this info on the new Armour (thought it was me who might be con­fu­sed about it being dif­fe­rent but had noti­ced). Will use my back stock of old Armour until I can get to the endo again for a scrip for Natu­reth­roid or Thy­roid. Thank you. This site has been inva­lua­ble on the path towards taking my health back and get­ting better.

  38. Lisa Robinette said:

    Jul 20, 09 at 1:47 pm

    I honestly think that if a tho­rough inves­ti­ga­tion was done, we would find that there is NO thy­roid at all in the reformulation…I think we’ve all been duped and are taking empty fillers. I have felt so awful for the last cou­ple months.…have had arth­ri­tic car­pal tun­nel symp­toms return, horri­ble anxiety and panic attacks, heart pal­pi­ta­tions, and a much lower body temperature…AGAIN…after having all that stuff rela­ti­vely under con­trol. I star­ted taking Natu­reth­roid a week ago and already feel so much better…my energy is retur­ning and I’m fee­ling some relief. No more Armour for me!

  39. Amy said:

    Jul 20, 09 at 4:33 pm

    Just an update on my partner’s expe­rience with Erfa’s thy­roid (from Canada). She was doing really well on 3 grains of the old armour, then went majorly downhill on the new for­mu­la­tion. She’s been on ‘thy­roid’ by Erfa for nearly two weeks now, and things are impro­ving again. It can be taken sublin­gually just like the old Armour and her symp­toms are star­ting to go away again. 

    Erfa might be worth con­si­de­ring for peo­ple in Aus­tra­lia, as it wasn’t too hard to get directly through the com­pany (your doc­tor needs to fax their form and a presc­rip­tion to them, then you just pay and they post it). Much chea­per than Armour and natu­reth­roid in Aus­tra­lia too.

  40. kendra said:

    Jul 20, 09 at 7:33 pm

    Yup, same ole same ole here, hair loss, scalp rash, weight gain des­pite very healthy diet and excer­size, fati­gue, and in the last 2 days, hea­dached, bad muscle aches, into­le­rance to cold, chest pain. irri­ta­ble,
    got a blood test today and thought Id try swa­llo­wing it ins­tead to see if it hel­ped it dis­sovle, now I think Ill just switch, feels like my body is wor­king so hard and loseing! I cant believe the FDA and Forest, what kind of tests did they do before they relea­sed this new for­mu­la­tion? I did talk to a woman at Forest Labs today and had a good expe­reince. so call them

    Best
    K

  41. kendra said:

    Jul 20, 09 at 7:35 pm

    Oh I for­got! sur­prise surprise

    CAN YOU TAKE NATURE THROID SUBLINGUALLY?
    ARE PEOPLE HAVING ADVERSE EFFECTS FROM ARMOUR
    HAD THEY BEEN TAKING IT SUBLINGUALLY?

  42. Sara said:

    Jul 21, 09 at 10:30 am

    Hey ever­yone… ques­tion… since I just star­ted taking Armour last month… I’m not sure if I’m taking the old or the new. I’m assu­ming it’s the new. It is a really small beige round pill that you swa­llow. Is this the new ver­sion? (Each pill is 30 mg.) I’m fee­ling quite a lot bet­ter and am not having any bad side effects. But… I didn’t “switch” to notice any side effects.
    Thanks!
    Sara

  43. Karen said:

    Jul 22, 09 at 1:53 pm

    I have been on Natu­reth­roid for exactly 2 weeks now. I am still really tired and nee­ding a nap every­day. Those of you who are now taking Natu­reth­roid and used to be on the Armour before the refor­mu­la­tion — are you on a lar­ger dose of Natu­reth­roid than you were on the ori­gi­nal Armour?

    I have felt a little bet­ter, but ove­rall, not a lot when com­pa­ring to how I felt on the refor­mu­la­ted Armour, which was really awful. Before the refor­mu­la­tion, I felt great, had lots of energy, and was get­ting lots of things done.
    Now I drag myself through the day.

  44. Judy said:

    Jul 23, 09 at 8:57 pm

    I have been on Natu­reTh­roid for a week now. It is very much like the “new” Armour, as far as trying to dis­solve sublin­gually (it doesn’t), so I just swa­llow them (not thri­lled about that, though…don’t really want to have to pro­cess through my liver and be con­cer­ned about what and when I eat). I am taking the same num­ber of pills, although each Natu­reTh­roid pill is a (slightly) higher dose. My doc­tor said to start with 3 and 1/2 pills, then raise to 4. I am figu­ring that I will “lose” some of the “extra” dosage in the diges­tive pro­cess… I really haven’t noti­ced any chan­ges in my basal temps or hair loss yet, but I think it’s too early to tell. I’ll keep you pos­ted!
    Judy

  45. SherleyC. said:

    Jul 23, 09 at 10:37 pm

    Hello!!! I am so happy to find you and this web­site! I am 31, had my first child in 2007. Last year had tin­gling on my shin/leg and got some blood tests done. No one from the doctor’s office called me back so I figu­red there was nothing to worry about. I have been fee­ling extre­mely tired lately, bed rid­den. My whole family thinks I am lazy but I know I have migra­nes and dizzy as If I am hung over from part­ying. I sleep 10-12hrs per day, can only fall asleep late at night and when I wake up my face is swo­llen, my eye­lids. I have to nap all the time. My period is a week early every time and only lasts 2 – 3 days. I feel bloa­ted. So I went back to the doc­tor. He read my last year’s blood results and my TSH was (exactly 1 hr ago) 12.5 which is very high. He orde­red more blood tests and will put me on meds on Tues, he said Synth­roid. Thanks so fin­ding your web­site I will as for Nature-throid. I ini­tally found outa­bout Armor but not I see it;s been refor­mu­la­ted, thanks so much for this info. I will be here a while
    Cheers

  46. michelle schrieber said:

    Jul 27, 09 at 9:44 pm

    I have been having some dif­fi­cult times. not kno­wing if it’s from my adre­nal or pos­sibly the new armour for­mula. while doing some research was on the armour web­sit and I found it inte­res­ting that forest labs also pro­du­ces: armour, thyrlar(synthetic t3,t4.and evothiad(synthetic t4) could this pos­sibly be a con­flict of inte­rest? could they be making these chan­ges to nega­ti­vely affect the armour pro­duct, so we all give up on it?then they can sell their other products.and to be reallly biza­rre — this adverse reac­tion peo­ple are having just helps the drs. who don’t advo­cate for natu­ral des­sic­ra­ted thy­roid to say” see it ‘s not stable,it doesn’t work,etc.” and force peo­ple back to synthi­tic thy­roid replacement.this may sound absurd to some ‚but i believe it is a conspiracy-especially after fin­ding out forest manu­fac­tu­res synthe­tic thyy­roid hormones.I know i sound paranoid,but just seems very weird to me.just some food for thought?

  47. Janet Smith said:

    Jul 29, 09 at 7:52 am

    Love this site.…thanks to friends for that! Tal­ked to my Natu­ro­pathic doc­tor as soon as I heard about the Armour flak. I just star­ted taking “BioThyro” made in New Zea­land from cows. I take it first thing in the AM(capsule form) and again around 2PM. It con­tains: iodine,zinc, cop­per, manganese,selenium. Thy­roid, n-Acetyl-Tyrosine, pitui­tary Ante­rior, Hypotha­la­mus and Bioperin.Other ingred: Rice Flour, Silica, Gela­tin.
    I also take “Cor­ti­sol Mana­ger” at bed­time. When I am having a very stress­ful time(ie taxes, etc) I often sup­port with lico­rice tincture(helps sup­port the adre­nals).
    My doc­tor is always researching my “sub­ject”. But he had not heard of the Armour reformulation.…again, THANKS so much to this site!
    I am fee­ling more ener­gi­zed already on this new medi­ca­tion. I will keep you all pos­ted on impro­ve­ments! I have had a lousy Spring into sum­mer with a swo­llen knee, extreme dry, itchy lower scalp and what I would term low-grade depression(ask my hubby!)
    Anyhoo, I look for­ward to get­ting a “handle” on all this. Our bodies are our tem­ples!
    Good Health to all!

  48. Sue Taylor said:

    Jul 30, 09 at 7:11 am

    Miche­lle,
    you’re not para­noid. They are.
    They are afraid peo­ple will get well and they will have to find a new way to swindle.
    It is a cons­pi­racy. There. I said it.
    You’re not alone or crazy. I sup­port your belief
    100%. Hope that helps.
    Onward then.

  49. Sue Taylor said:

    Jul 30, 09 at 7:13 am

    P.S. I have bad adre­nals too and it does com­pli­cate
    the issue. But it’s defi­ni­tely the Armor.

  50. Sue Taylor said:

    Jul 30, 09 at 7:16 am

    I agree with you Janet, that our bodies are our tem­ples.
    I was rai­sed with that teaching.

  51. Tiffany said:

    Jul 31, 09 at 5:06 pm

    I was put on Armour in 1979, 10 days after i was born. Had no pro­blems with it, but due to a doctor’s insis­tence was switched in 1994 to Synth­roid. imme­dia­tely had pro­blems, and tried Levoxyl and Cyto­mel for a few years as well, before going back to Armour. said i would stay on Armour for the rest of my life. well, today i star­ted Natu­reth­roid. Last month I got a refill and it was new Armour and had symp­toms within 2 weeks. thank God i have a good doc­tor, when i went in last week he already knew about the re-formulation and recom­men­ded Natu­reth­roid as an alter­na­tive. I am very ner­vous but hope­ful that Natu­reth­roid will work for me. I am very disap­poin­ted in Forest Lab. and plan to send them a let­ter let­ting them know of my switch. chan­ging it after 30 years is ridi­cu­lous and they deserve to lose me to another medicine.

  52. Ada said:

    Aug 01, 09 at 8:11 am

    Rea­ding ever­yo­nes sto­ries has been very help­ful but I’m afraid I’m even more con­fu­sed now :/…so I’m just gonna tell some of my tale and maybe it’ll get some feed back. I’m 28 and have been “ill” for over a year now. Prior to some diag­no­sis I was in per­fect health, livin and lovin life, couldn’t have been hap­per, loo­ked great, felt great etc. It all star­ted with the itchy swo­llen eyes and lids. Like aller­gies. Then it snow­ba­lled from there. Oi! it’s been awful!. Diges­tive trou­bles which led me to believe I con­trac­ted a para­site and Can­dida. Star­ted months of clean­sing type stuff. Then the hair­loss, brain fog, memory pro­blems, skin pro­blems, cold cold cold (it was win­ter). Got blood work done and all my hor­mo­nes across the board were low. No real weight chan­ges then or major fati­gue but now that’s chan­ged. I was then advi­sed to start preg­ne­ne­lone, pro­ges­te­rone cream, vit d, Can­dida diet, and armour thy­roid 1/2 a pill. This was in april. Took only the armour and felt a little bet­ter. So I took it for a month n stop­ped. To make this long tale short, I star­ted to have extreme fati­gue and hair­loss so I star­ted armour again and I SWEAR that my fati­gue, weak­ness, bloa­ting, and the worse thing the weight gain (lite­rally fat, cellu­lite gain) has got­ten so much worse on this medication!!…I eat extre­mely well and excer­sise often. I’ve never been this fat or tired in my life..at 28?..it doesn’t make sense if I’m hypothy­roid and on armour and get­ting worse?.!. I also take a adre­nal glan­du­lar to sup­port thea­dre­nals. I’m so sad and con­fu­sed. Do I ask to try thus naturethyroid?…(First read this: http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/adrenal-info, the read this: http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/mistakes-patients-make because you are on there, then join a patient group for further dis­cus­sion: http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/talk-to-others)

  53. Lisa said:

    Aug 01, 09 at 5:05 pm

    If you can stand to take the new Armour sublin­gually, is it still as effec­tive? Thanks, Lisa

  54. Vicki said:

    Aug 03, 09 at 10:49 am

    I was just dia­gi­no­sed with Hashi­mo­tos Fri­day. My TSH was 1.24 in February and the last two months has been 84 – 86 (yes, that high) My pero­xi­dase test was over 1000, so the doc­tor says that indi­ca­tes Hashi’s. My kid­ney func­tion has also been off. I am nor­mally very healthy but there is a family his­tory of thy­roid can­cer in my family. My thy­roid has been fluc­tua­ting for at least 20 years, was not trea­ted, now I have a disease. I have gone through terri­ble stres­sors in my life the last 10 years, in part which inc­lu­des a sui­cide in the family, the loss of my Mom and a divorce. I asked the doc to check my adre­nals and she said they were “nor­mal” but I have not actually seen the test results. I am losing faith in modern medi­cine and I am very frus­tra­ted with all the disc­re­pan­cies of how to treat this disease and now the meds themselves.

  55. chris said:

    Aug 05, 09 at 10:54 am

    I have had two good expe­rien­ces with thy­roid pro­ducts in my life. The first was in 2002 when Dr. Jorge Flechas gave me com­poun­ded T3 — after a few days my mind was so clear I could not believe it. I also felt some remorse in rea­li­zing that that was how I was sup­po­sed to feel — but never did. I got some weird reac­tion from the DHEA — and doc told me to stop everything. And for many rea­son I didn’t speak to him — mostly being busy at work and he’s 6oo miles away. This March I star­ted on Armor– and on only 1/4 grain I got the same fee­ling– I was ama­zed– but then it faded. I’ve never got­ten it again. But those great expe­rien­ces are what keep me going– because I now know what I can feel like. I just don’t unders­tand why the fee­ling left. On the recent Armor I have felt nothing good — my Tsh was at 4 but is now 3.10, my free T3 is 298 and reverse t3 is 20. i live in NYC if you know a good doc. (From Janie: you need to read this http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/mistakes-patients-make)

  56. Jill T said:

    Aug 08, 09 at 3:29 am

    I really appre­ciate this website!

    I star­ted fee­ling bad on Armour but since I didn’t know about the re-formulation I didn’t sus­pect it. My heart rate was through the roof plus other symp­toms. I thought maybe I nee­ded to reduce again as when I lose weight that often hap­pens and I recently lost weight because I am on more of a raw food diet now. I was fee­ling the best ever a few weeks ago. I called the Drs office and while wai­ting for a return call I retur­ned to this site and found the rea­son for my pro­blems. Thank you so much!

    Thanks to my won­der­fully sup­por­tive Dr and staff my phar­macy has Natu­reth­roid on order. The only thing I won­der about is she presc­ri­bed 16.25mg’s — 6/day and I was on 120mg of Armour. I had told her that I drop­ped to 90mg just that day hoping my heart rate would drop as it see­med dan­ge­rously high. I can try more per day but the more pills I take for more filler I take. I guess once I get sta­ble on Natu­reth­roid I can then ask for a dif­fe­rent presc­rip­tion. She did it this way so I can be fle­xi­ble with the dose until I find the amount that works.

  57. joan compton said:

    Aug 09, 09 at 2:38 pm

    Thanks for a won­der­ful web­site. I noti­ced the dif­fe­rence in the Armour after the last refill; the con­sis­tency and the taste. I feel like I am going downhill again. Always tired. But I’m not sure if I need more thy­roid sup­port or if it will take lon­ger for the adre­nal sup­ple­ment to kick in. It is eye-opening to read about the for­mula change.I will talk to my Dr. about this.I am on Adap­ta­cin, which has 300mg of bovine adre­nal cor­tex, which seems like a lot. Anyone else taking that?

  58. Bethlee said:

    Aug 10, 09 at 7:40 pm

    I am so gra­te­ful to find this site! I am also so con­fu­sed! I was told my thy­roid was on the low side so I was put on synth­roid. I felt awful imme­dia­tely. The doc­tors put me on then took me off. Then I lost all my hair. I boun­ced from dr to dr . I found out I had low ferra­tin, severe osteo­po­ro­sis, low wbc, and I star­ted having severe pain in my right side. Long story short they found blee­ding ulcers, no mea­su­ra­ble amount of B-6, empty sella, anti­body to pare­tial cell and told me I had per­ni­cious ane­mia. Once I star­ted b-12 shots I felt bet­ter and my mind came back. I also went on Armour thy­roid. Only I can’t take more than a tiny bit of it as imme­dia­tely I get hea­daches, and my heart races to 100 res­ting. Cor­ti­sol is nor­mal, T-4 is .7, t-3 is 2.8, tsh is 4.97. Can anyone tell me why I get sick when I try taking thy­roid meds? I just got the doc to order Cana­dian thy­roid but I’m afraid to take it . My heart will race and the hea­dache is unbea­ra­ble. But so is the aching joints, the itching, the no sleep, the cons­ti­pa­tion, the weight loss, the hair loss. If anyone can help me I’d appre­ciate it! Thanks so much!I am at the end of my rope, I feel so awful. 

    (From Janie: Read this page: http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/adrenal-info because I doubt your cor­ti­sol is “nor­mal”. You are expe­rien­cing clas­sic symp­toms of adre­nal stress, whether too high or some get­ting too low. Then use this page to get feed­back from patients: http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/talk-to-others)

  59. jodi said:

    Aug 11, 09 at 9:16 pm

    I am at a loss. I had my thy­roid taken out in January of this year, ’09 due to thy­roid can­cer. I was put on Levothy­ro­xine, but have felt horri­ble, with all of the symp­toms of hypothy­roi­dism. I was also diag­no­sed with Hashi­mo­tos disease. My endo. wouldn’t put my on Armour, so i went and found a doc­tor who would put me on the Armour. Well, I went to the phar­macy to get it, and of course like so many others are fin­ding out, it is on back order. I am also worried about the refor­mu­la­tion that every­body is tal­king about. Is it even going to work for me. I don’t know what to do now. Should I just stay on the levothy­ro­xine and add a T3 medi­ca­tion, or go ahead and take the Armour in which I have to cut one of my 60 pills in half to get my 90 that I was persc­ri­bed, which is hard to do because the pills just turn to dust. I need help. Thanks to anyone who has any ans­we­res for me. 

    I just want to cry, I want to feel like myself again. I am also sure my hus­band and 5 kids would like the mood swings to go away.

    From Janie: go to Natu­reth­roid. Read blog posts below. Then join a patient group for sup­port: http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/talk-to-others

  60. joan compton said:

    Aug 12, 09 at 2:05 pm

    My doc says his patients are still having suc­cess with the refor­mu­la­ted Armour, but it is impor­tant to take it 60 min. before eating, as oppo­sed to the 30 min. that I was wai­ting. This info might be help­ful to some. I was on 150mg of the Armour for a cou­ple of years with no pro­blem. Then my adre­nals began to be fati­gued though I didn’t know it at the time. That crea­ted a whole bunch of pro­blems because my body could no lon­ger handle the thy­roid. I became hyperthy­riod, had great anxiety, high blood pres­sure and pulse, sha­king, couldn’t eat though I was hungry all the time, couldn’t sleep. Took awhile to rea­lize that it was the wea­ke­ned adre­nals cau­sing this.

  61. joan compton said:

    Aug 12, 09 at 2:25 pm

    PS for Jodi — You can get 30mg tabs. and 15mg tabs. So you won’t have to cut them. I know this stuff is really hard to deal with. Some­ti­mes I think I will never reco­ver all of my energy, but I count every little bit of progress.

  62. joan compton said:

    Aug 13, 09 at 8:19 am

    To Beth­lee — Are you sure your cor­ti­sol is nor­mal? Have you done the saliva test? A regu­lar blood test or 24 hr. urine test won’t give you the correct result. J

  63. Bethlee said:

    Aug 20, 09 at 2:56 pm

    First of all THANK YOU for the coti­sol tip. I had cor­ti­sone at home and tried 10 mg’s and it hel­ped me immen­sely. And I tried my Armour under my ton­gue which hel­ped with get­ting such severe hea­daches. My pro­blem is I can’t take very much of it or I get immense hea­daches, fast heart­beat, tre­mors and much more. I went to the doc­tor today 8 – 20-09… and got him to switch to Nature-throid and went to the phar­macy and was told ALL natu­ral thy­roid is bac­kor­de­red and no phar­macy had any. So chec­king the web RCL labs says maybe Nov. What do we do till Nov?? I am going to try Cananda next.
    It is soooo hard to feel like crap and have tre­mors, plus these hea­daches plus trying to find a dr who thinks you don’t need a cor­ti­sol level or natu­ral hor­mo­nes. I have been hos­pi­ta­li­zed, seen 23 doc­tors and thought of suicide..which is saying something since I beat can­cer. At 90 pounds I just didn’t think I could take much more pain. This site has given me back hope. You all are tal­king about what is hap­pe­ning to me. I am not alone. And that we can’t get pro­per treat­ment or medi­ca­tion is a CRIME!

  64. joan compton said:

    Aug 22, 09 at 10:26 am

    My doc said to go to drugstore.com to order Nature-throid. They will fax the doc to get the presc­rip­tion and send the stuff directly to you. I haven’t done it yet, so I don’t know about back order. Good luck, hang in there! J

  65. Jane said:

    Aug 25, 09 at 5:56 pm

    (From Janie: the below is not a pro­blem with Natu­reth­roid. You have either low ferri­tin http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/ferritin and/or low cor­ti­sol http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/adrenal-info)

    I want to put my two cents in regar­ding natu­reth­roid. I first star­ted on gene­ric levothy­ro­xine .05 mg or 50 mcg and within 3 days noti­ced I felt bet­ter and was not drag­ging and my brain fog went away. I sta­yed on this a month until my lab TSH sho­wed 1.55 from pre­vious of high of 3.8 when I felt bad. Since I pre­fer natu­ral pro­ducts over synthe­tic I switched to natu­reth­roid 1/2 grain. Sta­yed on this for about 3 months and felt pretty good. I star­ted swea­ting more than usual and had a few heart flutters/palpitations so deci­ded I must be get­ting too high of a dosage. Star­ted then on 1/4 grain. Still too much and was trying 1/4 every other day, still too much. Stop­ped com­ple­tely because of the heart flut­ters because I didn’t want to hurt my body. I really wish natu­reth­roid wor­ked long term for me. I do think it is a medi­ca­tion very bene­fi­cial to some peo­ple with hypothy­roi­dism. A patient does not lie. My son is on natu­reth­roid 1.5 grains for the past few months with no symp­toms. I just think we are all so indi­vi­dual and we have to try what works best for us. Since stop­ping natu­reth­roid, for about a month I felt pretty good until after the month, symp­toms of exhaus­tion retur­ned. I am now trying Levoxyl and slowly fee­ling good again but do not know all the long term effects of the fillers/binders. That is a pro­blem with all meds. I am not espe­cially thri­lled yet about any thy­roid med so far but I know I need it to func­tion. I think that perhaps natu­reth­roid was too potent for me even at the lowest dose, maybe the active T3 in it. That said, my son is doing fine on it. There were bene­fits to natu­reth­roid if I could tole­rate it and that is inc­rea­sed sex drive and just ove­rall fee­ling nor­mal again. If it wasn’t for the heart flut­ters I would still take it, perhaps it made my body a bit hyperthy­roid. For those of you who are con­fu­sed, try dif­fe­rent meds until something works for you. I was so con­fu­sed about all the con­flic­ting com­ments that I have come to believe that what works for one does not work for another. No one is lying, it is just their per­so­nal expe­rience. Do what works for you!

  66. Nell said:

    Aug 26, 09 at 5:05 am

    Hi all,
    As with the majo­rity of com­ments here I am outra­ged at the con­tempt Forest has shown it’s pre­viously loyal cus­to­mers.
    I was bum­bling along rea­so­nably effi­ciently on an armour/T3 mix when the sky fell in. It only took 2 days on the new armour for all my symp­toms to return so I ope­ned the cup­board and found a dis­car­ded pack of thyroid-s. It hadn’t been as effec­tive as armour so I’d bun­ged it away. It tur­ned out to be a God­send short term. I even­tually deci­ded I was still going downhill, albeit more slowly than with armour so I’m now on Westh­roid. I have everything cros­sed that I will also find it to be even bet­ter than the old armour as lately I’ve spent quite a lot of my days slee­ping and the rest of the time moa­ning and fee­ling mildly paranoid.

  67. Barb said:

    Oct 12, 09 at 8:11 pm

    I noti­ced that there were hairs on my bath­room floor one day, which see­med very strange, as I have always had a good head of hair. Coin­ci­den­tally, I was having trou­ble get­ting my Armour thy­roid presc­rip­tion filled. When I went online to find out what was cau­sing the pro­blem, I saw an article with a list of symp­toms being cau­sed by the refor­mu­la­tion of Armour and sud­denly rea­li­zed how many of them I had, inc­lu­ding heart pal­pi­ta­tions, weight gain and extreme tired­ness, and hair loss. I also read about Nature-throid. I called my phar­macy to ask if they had Nature-throid and they said no. I called the local com­poun­ding phar­macy and they did have it, so I asked my doc­tor to change my presc­rip­tion and was able to make the switch. I imme­dia­tely regai­ned energy. And the heart pal­pi­ta­tions went away. My hair is still recovering.

    I’m just glad there has been so much com­mu­ni­ca­tion bet­ween hypothy­roid suf­fe­rers, or else I wouldn’t have known what was happening.

    Did Armour even test their refor­mu­la­tion first?

  68. Diana said:

    Oct 29, 09 at 1:21 am

    I had pro­blems with the new Armour as well. I now take a gene­ric ver­sion of Armour called Thi­royd. I have to say its fan­tas­tic. For the first time, I am no lon­ger irri­ta­ble. Believe me, with small chil­dren, its very help­ful not being irri­ta­ble. I purcha­sed it online (you can goo­gle it)- its so much chea­per than Armour as well.

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