A large and gro­wing body of hypothy­roid patients have found out the hard way why they have felt like patooey crap for years…or at the very least, why they had pesky lin­ge­ring symp­toms of hypothy­roi­dism:  being on Synth­roid or any other T4-only med.

And the anger many have felt about mis­sed years of our lives because of such a lousy treat­ment has also trans­la­ted to ill fee­lings towards a par­ti­cu­lar phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal: Abbott Labo­ra­to­ries. Abbott Labs has put hun­dreds of millions of dollars in what patients deem “brain­washing” of doc­tors, espe­cially Endo­dri­no­lo­gists, about Synth­roid for years.

But I recently found a little news piece, in the form of the follo­wing video, which at least puts just a slight posi­tive note to the term “Abbott Labo­ra­to­ries”, even if the name con­jurs up a bit of nau­sea in the guts of infor­med thy­roid patients:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8o-e-iLsUM Hope you enjoy the irony of it the way I did.  lol. Her name was Grace Gro­ner, the sec­ret Millionaire.

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Get­ting older and beco­ming hypothy­roid: Below this post, you’ll see infor­ma­tion that can affect your parents, rela­ti­ves, spou­ses and friends and how they may face the same run-around we have all had to deal with — the lousy TSH lab test, being put on all sorts of band-aid drugs like sta­tins, anti-depressants, blood pres­sure meds and more, or being put on a T4 med like Synth­roid.  Go here.

FDA and shor­ta­ges: I also men­tion above about a recent sta­te­ment by the FDA:  Forest reports manu­fac­tu­ring issues invol­ving the raw mate­rial and RLC reports inc­rea­sed demand. FDA has not orde­red Forest or RLC to remove these thy­roid (desic­ca­ted) tablets from the mar­ket. A few patients are sus­pi­cious enough of the FDA to feel it means nothing.  Others, and I am one, have honestly felt like we simply had a shor­tage of desic­ca­ted thy­roid, not a cons­pi­racy by the FDA to remove it.  So I found that sta­te­ment con­fir­ming, even if there can be more to the story. But time will tell.

Natu­reth­roid: Here you can read infor­ma­tion about this med retur­ning to phar­ma­cies around the country, and what might have chan­ged in the tablets. Once again, phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals are not telling us what is going on ahead of time, and it’s aggra­va­ting when we dis­co­ver chan­ges in our medi­ca­tions. Thy­roid patients do not care to be trea­ted like buf­foons. I sus­pect that phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals are gui­ded to say so little because of legal advice. It’s still aggravating.

Why do I rarely men­tion Armour any­more? Because it doesn’t seem worth my time since it was refor­mu­la­ted. Too many patients con­ti­nue to report lin­ge­ring symp­toms, even occu­rring months after they thought they were doing great on it.  And too many report that after they switched to Erfa’s “Thy­roid”, Natu­reth­roid or com­poun­ded with aci­dolpho­lus as a filler,  they saw a reso­lu­tion of those lin­ge­ring symptoms.

Another rea­son to improve your Vit. D levels: Research shows that low levels of Vit. D in your blood can result in inc­rea­sed fat depo­sits around your waist and other areas.  From the Dia­be­tes Jour­nal.