The gnarly man and what we can do in the face of this crisis

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There once was a gnarly, bottom-scratching and tuna-breathed man who terrorized a neighborhood as if he was above the law. He intimidated people, used threats to stop others from telling the truth about his actions, and he mooned his hairy buttamous to anyone he didn’t like. He brought other criminals into his large house, took bribes to do some of their own dirty work, and stole every single vegetable and fruit from all his neighbors gardens.

Finally, all the fearful, frustrated and hungry neighbors got angry, sick and tired of it all. So they sent him emails, letters and phone calls, asking him to stop what he was doing, and explaining how he was hurting their lives and well-being, and speculated how he was going to do this or that.

And do you think he stopped doing what he always did?

Finally, the neighbors got wise. They reached out to the police, to local radio and TV stations, to the newspaper, and even to local political leaders. They stated the facts as they knew them, how specific actions affected their lives, how they had speculations that they couldn’t prove but were quite uncomfortable…and they made sure everyone knew what was going on to get the help and support they needed.

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For over 100 years, thyroid patient lives have made a huge and positive turn-around on natural porcine desiccated thyroid, a superior, safe, and effective medication as expressed by all our lives for over a century. But today, we face a crisis.

The most popular desiccated thyroid brand, Armour, was reformulated by 2009 and most patients reported a return of their hypothyroid symptoms. Then, the only other major pharmaceutical, RLC Labs, has their quality Naturethroid and Westhroid on backorder in August of 2009. The only North American makers of the desiccated powder, American Laboratories, is out.

And finally, the remaining two generic makers, Time Caps Labs and Major Pharmaceuticals, are told to cease production by the FDA.

We are now without desiccated thyroid other than the remaining 10 tablets there, or 5 tablets here. They will all be gone soon.

The facts we know are this: because of the 1962 “Drug Effi­cacy Amend­ment”, the FDA is suddenly demanding phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal drug manu­fac­tu­rers (with medications which have been used successfully for 80-110 years) pro­vide proof of the effec­ti­ve­ness and safety of their drugs before they can receive true FDA appro­val, aka potential cli­ni­cal trials and the data that results. i.e. 110 years of patient success, and a website like Stop the Thyroid Madness, and testimonies all over the net and in patient groups with desiccated thyroid…is somehow…just…not…enough. What is obvious, is not enough.

In other words, they want proof of efficacy and safety of desiccated thyroid—a medication which has a safe and effective track record in a huge body of patients for 110 years…in the same way they give an FDA-stamp-of-approval on a whole variety of drugs which, in 2004, killed 783,936 individuals per year (according to the article Death by Medicine, co-authored by By Gary Null, PhD; Carolyn Dean MD, ND; Martin Feldman, MD; Debora Rasio, MD; and Dorothy Smith, PhD).

Does THAT make any sense to you?

And now, because there is hint that they may require RLC Labs to apply for a New Drug Application…and because we wonder if that will mean expensive and drawn out clinical testing to provide data…and because we wonder if they will allow RLC to continue manufacturing our only good supply of desiccated thyroid which saves our lives in a completely healthy way…we are left with a lot of uncomfortable and unanswered questions.

Of course, we can admit that all the above is pure speculation. We don’t know what will happen until it happens. But we are strongly uncomfortable with the unknowns, frustrated by the possibilities, and scared to death we might lose the only medication which has removed our lingering and debilitating symptoms while we were once on synthetic T4–aka Synthroid, Levoxyl, levothyroxine, etc.

And by the way, synthetic T4 is an FDA-approved medication which has left most of us sick or with lingering symptoms to our own degree and intensity for YEARS. Perhaps THAT is what you need to write the FDA about.

So do we email the FDA about this situation?? I am of the belief that writing/emailing the FDA is no different than asking the neighborhood ogre to change. I could be wrong, but it is my deep suspicion. In fact, I am suspicious that the onslaught of communication with the FDA is going to do more harm than good…if it hasn’t already…just as writing and emailing the neighborhood ogre would probably cause him to laugh and do even MORE harm.

So what seems the best and most logical action to take with our current situation? Write/email your senators. Write/email your representatives. Write/email newscasters, talk show hosts, radio personalities, newspapers of merit, and anyone who has the power to spread the word. In my mind, we cannot expect to face what may be with power unless we inform the world of our plight ahead of time.

How to say what we need to say? I think, for our integrity in the eyes of whom we speak/email/write to, it’s important to state facts first and foremost. For me, if I need to mention speculation, I turn them into questions: Will RLC be able to afford clinical trials? Will the FDA stop all desiccated thyroid? You may not agree but that’s what seems wise for me.

I have compiled a list of particular congresspersons who just last year, made a resolution against the FDA. You will see a list of those supporters at the bottom of the page with their contact info. Email them. You will also find links to contact each and every other political office. If I have missed something, let me know and I’ll add it.

I have also compiled a simple template letter you can use, or change exactly as you need it changed, for these emails. It will not fit every single individual who uses it, so change it as you may. But keep it short and succinct. Too much to read will turn off the reader.

I have tried hard in this post to communicate my thoughts and intuition. I also still have some strong hope and faith that this IS going to work out, one way or the other. I’m just not into fear-mongering based on speculation. Some of you may not agree with my sentiment, but that’s okay. And some of you may agree that it’s time to strongly communicate with our congresspersons, and I will hope you follow through. All of us need to follow through. I need to follow through. You need to follow through.

NEED OPTIONS FOR THYROID TREATMENT during this hard time? Go here. You’ll also find several Canadian Pharmacies to use with a prescription, as well, that is much easier than ordering directly from Erfa.

NEED A GOOD DOCTOR? Go here.

NEW TO DESICCATED THYROID? Here’s everything patients have learned.

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Important notes: All the information on this website is copyrighted. STTM is an information-only site based on what many patients worldwide have reported in their treatment and wisdom over the years. This is not to be taken as personal medical advice, nor to replace a relationship with your doctor. By reading this information-only website, you take full responsibility for what you choose to do with this website's information or outcomes. See the Disclaimer and Terms of Use.

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13 Responses to “The gnarly man and what we can do in the face of this crisis”

  1. Bill Sanders

    Janie, Thanks for sharing your wealth of knowledge and research. I found YasminPharmacy.com offered 2000 x 60mg of Armour Thyroid generic for $199. That’s .10 each. Since I take 1 x 60mg a day, that’s a 6 year supply! Has anyone dealt with this supplier before? Any problems?

    There seems to be a concerted dragnet closing in on the American people. It appears that we will be forced to take the swine flu vaccine twice against our will. Since the FDA exists to help the pharma industry, turning to them for help is extremely naive. Ditto for congress.

    There must be some holistic doctors out there who are willing to certify that natural thyroid and insulin are necessary – while that avenue of supply is still available. Otherwise, I am thinking that the USA is targeted for destruction and depopulation by the NWO. It may be time to move overseas NOW, before it’s too late.

    Reply
  2. Starrie

    I wrote my senator and congressman. Thanks!

    Reply
  3. jpatti

    They won’t care if there’s no one but patients complaining.

    Even now, there are diabetics who swear that the current insulins don’t work as well for them as beef and pork insulins do. These insulins can only be imported from other countries if you have a doctor’s letter saying that none of the legal insulins work for you.

    Now, I never used insulin when the beef and pork ones were available myself, so have no idea if they might work better for me. It seems to me that Regular (which is “bio-identical”) ought to be better than the old types. But folks who swear the old insulins worked better for them cannot get them. Unless you have a doctor certify that your bg won’t go down with any of the modern insulins, you can’t get the older types… even if you *know* you did better on them.

    Imagine if the only way to get natural thyroid were to have a doctor *verify* that your TSH could not be controlled by Synthroid?

    And since you won’t get a doctor to say that, they’ll be able to say, “See, these patients who swore they needed Armour were a bunch of hypochondriacs and we just took their placebo away…”

    Reply
  4. nutralady2001

    I use Thyroid-S personally find it the same as Armour in Strength (old Armour that is).Wonder where Thyroid-S sources it’s thyroid from

    Reply
  5. Jamie

    Anyone using Erfa or Thyroid-S yet? What is your experience so far?

    Reply
  6. Paul

    Janie, thanks for your leadership on this. I’ve emailed my Congressman tonight using your template as a guide. Thanks to the help from your website, I also have my Thyroid by Erfa ordered and on the way!

    Reply
  7. Amy

    To Theresa.. we are in Australia and my partner uses Thyroid by Erfa. I was told by Henry Knafo at Erfa, that Thyroid is already approved by the FDA equivalent in Canada, and because of this I would think it shouldn’t have the same issues.

    It’s all very concerning what is happening with the FDA and I really feel for everyone who’s affected by it. I hope a positive outcome happens soon!

    Reply
  8. kendra

    Love the idea of bombarding one media source at once, how about CNN health correspondant Sanjai Gupta? (pardon my spelling)

    Reply
  9. Nancy

    I have written and called my representatives. I was told it was best to call their Washington office as they have staff that deal with different issues. This unfortunately comes under ‘healh care’ so the rep’s are very tied up.

    I am trying to put together a letter that gets to the point that people can sign underneath ( petitions), as numbers of people maybe be the only way to get their attention.

    Second, I would like to see us organized to get our NTH from sources from other Countries. At this time I see panic and hoarding which is only normal as we without thyroids could be facing death, or returning to being severely disabled.

    We need some assurances from the Canadian system that will allow us to obtain our NTH from them without a problem. This would calm the fear while we attempt to educate and change our country’s current position against us. Even if it means we have Representatives go to Canada to obtain the supply without hassles from US Customs to get our life critical hormone.

    Reply
  10. Cynthia K

    I agree that our power to influence the outcome should not be directed at the FDA, and your characterization of it as the ogre/bully is right on target.

    I’ll write to my representatives, but I am not confident that our doing so will have a lot of impact.

    What I wish we do is to choose 1-3 media organizations and go for “shock and awe.” ALL of us, bombarding some powerful media source with an S.O.S. might go far. What do you think?

    Reply
  11. Pam Blehert

    Thanks. When my prescription of Armour ran out and I went for a refill to Giant, I was told that it was on backorder. Since I needed it, I asked my dr to prescribe Synthroid for the interim. But when — one month later — it was still on back order, I got suspicious. The synthetic thyroid, as I recall, has only the T4 factor. I believe that the Armour is better.

    Reply
  12. Theresa

    I am following this potential crisis with interest, even though I am Canadian, and not directly affected by the FDA. My concern is that when the US FDA sneezes, Health Canada catches a cold (to paraphrase a term used often to portray the financial ties between our two countries). If the FDA stops the production of dessicated thyroid, can Health Canada be far behind? I hope that this situation is resolved soon and common sense prevails.

    Reply
  13. Julie

    Thanks Janie! I wrote my congressman in az! I hope others do too. Your template made it easy to complete it fast. I also wonder if we should have a call in day to congress like the BHRT movement had last year:
    http://www.iacprx.org/site/DocServer/full_page_ad.pdf?docID=4641

    Reply

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