The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: 2012 in perspective for thyroid patients worldwide

2012 represented my tenth year as an activist, which has given me great perspective of where we are today as to compared to where we were ten years ago. And it’s huge. We had NO Stop the Thyroid Madness compilation of successful patient experiences to learn from and very few patient groups. We’ve come a long way, baby and the fight for better thyroid treatment and wisdom continues!

To summarize, Clint Eastwood couldn’t have said it better as to the mix of what 2012 gave us as informed thyroid patients!

THE GOOD: 

  • Armour returns to a softer tablet  After Forest Labs disastrous reformulation of Armour natural desiccated thyroid in 2009, which made the tablets harder and caused a return of our hypothyroid symptoms, we started to see Armour tablets becoming softer again in mid-2012. And that meant we could choose to do Armour sublingually once again. In the meantime, this disaster allowed many patients to discover NP Thyroid by Acella, which has turned out to be a great product.
  • More doctors are getting it! I probably see this in a more widespread way than individual patients do thanks to all the emails I get, but it’s clear that a growing body of doctors are finally understanding the efficacy of natural desiccated thyroid and the idiocy of the TSH lab test in diagnosing and dosing NDT. Sure, the field of Endocrinology is still as backwards as it gets, as are many other doctors, but others are listening here or there. (But do note that even the best doctors aren’t caught up in other areas, so become informed and expect to guide them as to patient experience! STTM book helps you do that.)
  • STTM book now in German and Swedish  I was proud and excited to offer these two translations to help spread the word to those who may not speak English.
  • Study being done comparing NDT with Synthroid Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland is doing a study, and seeking participants from the military, to compare the results of natural desiccated thyroid (which they call Natural Desiccated Extract or NDE, and will be Armour) and T4-only aka levothyroxine (and will be the infamous Synthroid). But there is a clear bad…..see below 
  • Wichita, Kansas says no to Fluoride in their waterConsidering that many of us suspect that the fluoride we are constantly exposed to could explain the huge influx of thyroid disease, this is extremely good news and we can only hope that other cities get this smart.
  • Thyroid Change In an attempt to unite all thyroid websites, leaders and focuses came this new website, Thyroid Change.

THE BAD:

  •  John C. Lowe dies  It was a terrible shock to lose this helpful medical professional in January due to the effects of a head injury the previous year. And his websites went with him for awhile due to probate. He will be sorely missed, as he was a champion for the use of NDT and understood SO much about better thyroid care.
  • The passing of Edna Kyrie  Edna of the UK worked hard on the website Thyroid History, aka Thyroid Research, compiling everything she could find pertaining to thyroid research and science, even while dealing with the effects of MS (multiple sclerosis).
  • US now confiscates medications if they come into the country  In July, Obama passed a bill called the FDA Safety and Innovation Act (S. 3187) which allows the government to destroy a package of personally imported drugs at their point of entry to the United States…even if some patients feel they need them when they can’t find any doctor wise enough to prescribe NDT, or enough NDT thanks to the poor use of the TSH lab test. And several patients have already had this happen to them.
  • Walter Reed National Military Medical Center study will sadly be using the TSH  i.e. though it looks exciting to see a study comparing NDT to Synthroid, they are going “to keep TSH in normal range” (which for the majority can mean they are still hypothyroid) and aren’t even testing the FREE T3, just using the total T3, total T4, free T4, T3 resin uptake, sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG), and a lipid panel.  Give me a break….
THE UGLY:

Good thyroid patient discussion groups here.

Things we have learned here.

What’s new on STTM here.

What your Road to Recovery can look like here.

The revised STTM book here.

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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3 Responses to “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: 2012 in perspective for thyroid patients worldwide”

  1. Monica

    Can it be confirmed somehow that Armour has in fact been reformulated a second time? I was prescribed Armour but managed to get Erfa instead. I am afraid to try Armour after reading about this disastrous reformulation. Also, there are rumors that not all Armour pills were re-reformulated, but only the 15, 30, 60, 90 and 120 mg pills. Does anyone know if this is true?

    (From Janie: many patients have been reporting getting softer tablets. But one gal just got harder tablets. The latter may be due to an older batch still at the pharmacy, though…)

    Reply
  2. Carrie Cohill

    Using the Archive.org website you can see some websites that have been removed from the Internet, such as John C. Lowe’s websites.
    Click on the link below. Then choose a blue dot to read a past version of Dr. Lowe’s websites.

    To access http://www.drlowe.com go to:
    http://wayback.archive.org/web/20110716154108*/http:/www.drlowe.com/

    To access http://www.thyroidscience.com go to:
    http://wayback.archive.org/web/*/www.thyroidscience.com

    To access http://www.thyroidscience.us go to:
    http://wayback.archive.org/web/*/http:/www.thyroidscience.us

    Reply
  3. karen

    i glanced at the articles at the bottom of the walter reed thing and one says in the title no difference between combined t3 t4 and t4 only and that was the only one that described the study outcome in the title so i bet they are doing this study to try to disprove that desicated thyroid works better than synthroid because so many people are switching to that from synthroid and they are losing $ ! so thats good that so many people are.

    Reply

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