Janie's Blog

When the shortages hit the United States for natural desiccated thyroid in 2009, we all had to figure out which way to turn, since the 110-year-old natural desiccated thyroid has been a far, far better treatment for our hypothyroid state than levothyroxine T4-only such as Synthroid, Levoxyl, Eltroxin, Oroxine, etc.

Additionally, Armour thyroid by Forest Labs was reformulated in early 2009, and patients worldwide reported a return of symptoms as well a stress on their adrenals.  So patients started an exodus away from Armour.

Luckily, the FDA loosened restrictions and allowed us to order the Canadian brand by Erfa Canada Inc, called simply “Thyroid”.   Erfa’s Thyroid proved to be an excellent desiccated thyroid for most, especially if they raised high enough once again to rid them of symptoms.  And since it contains sucrose, patients have been able to do it sublingually–a method which is not necessary for benefits, but is preferred by many.

I gathered a list of known Canadian online pharmacies, which you can view on the Options for Thyroid Treatment page.

And just recently, I sought opinions from patients about the pharmacies they have used:

Universal Drugstore aka Canadian Pharmacy Online: This pharmacy received the greatest kudos from US patients and with the best prices.

• Awesome – good prices and fast, friendly service. Will call your drug store and get your Armour script transferred.
• Faxed my prescription and it was mailed the next day. I believe it took a week and a few days to arrive to Florida.
• Great customer service, easy ordering, and was cheaper than paying the co-pay with my insurance. It takes about 10 to 14 business days to get your prescription, according to the company, but mine came sooner than that and it was the holiday mail rush season!
• Rapid service, excellent customer service, email reminders to refill, coupons
• They had the best price and were very professional and efficient.  My order arrived within ten days.
• I paid $43.25 for 200 60 mg pills
• Online forms were easy. I faxed my prescriptions and received my Thyroid in twelve days for $7 shipping

Pharmacies Online:

• Easy to register and the customer service was excellent. I faxed my prescription. A pharmacist called me to see if I had any questions. I paid $45.63 including shipping for 100 60mg pills

Cross Border Pharmacy:

• Excellent customer service, great prices, two week arrival from date of order, wish pharmacies here were this good.

Canada Drugs Online:

• Good experience, prompt (7-10) days service getting my Erfa thyroid

See more recommendations in the Comments section for this post. And I’m going to hope that no pharmacy “uses” this to advertise their pharmacy. This is FOR PATIENT COMMENTS ONLY.

What has been your experience with online Canadian Pharmacies? Do I need to remove any from the Options for Thyroid Treatment for any reason? Do I need to add any?

ARE YOU A CANADIAN PATIENT ON DESICCATED THYROID? Use the Contact Me form if you’d like to be interviewed by a well-known Canadian reporter about desiccated thyroid in Canada. I’ll need your name and email address. You need to contact me before Monday, January 25.

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Recent blog posts worth reading:

Read a guy’s email to me about his experience with doctors being afraid of HC, which patients know is safe and WORKS!

Will the FDA be more transparent for thyroid patients on desiccated thyroid with their new initiative?

Listen to the second interview, Episode 9, I had with Dr. John C. Lowe. What a brilliant man!

Several years ago, a large percentage of thyroid patients on yahoo groups like NTH were figuring out that they had adrenal fatigue, aka low cortisol, from years of adrenals working overtime due to the inadequate TSH lab test, or being on the lousy T4-only medications like Synthroid, Levoxyl, levothyroxine, Eltroxin, etc.

Not only does low cortisol keep desiccated thyroid from working well, it also causes all sorts of angst with paranoia, depression, anxiety, easy anger, sensitivity to light and/or sounds, reclusiveness, sleep issues and more.

First, patients discovered the importance of using the 24 hour adrenal saliva test rather than blood or urine. When low cortisol was confirmed, the treatment was using cortisol, aka hydrocortisone, to give themselves back what their adrenals were not, to allow thyroid hormones to reach the cells, and to give the pooped out adrenals a rest.

And success was achieved! When all other issues were discovered and treated, patients were finally able to heal their adrenals with cortisol use, wean off, and be successful in their continued treatment with desiccated thyroid! That success continues today!

Yet in spite of clear success in the treatment of low cortisol with supplemental cortisol in the correct amount for each individual (which can range from 15 to 40 mg generally–men often need the higher end), as well as excellent books on the subject by Wilson, Peatfield, Jeffries and the STTM book, patients like RD below still encounter doctors who fill their minds with all sorts of fear and warnings:

I bought your book and later on I discovered your website which are both great. They are a superb source of information and support for thyroid and adrenal fatigue sufferers. Thank you so much!

Personally I got adrenal fatigue by a sustained lack of sleep for several years (crying babies).  I found a doctor who prescribed Hydrocortisone (17.5 mg/day, 5-5-5-2.5), Fludrocortisone, DHEA and Testosterone. Symptoms disappeared in about 2 weeks.

A first attempt to wean off after 6 months made some serious symptoms reappear very quickly, so I returned to the original dose.

It is very stressful that many established doctors (our family doctor, and my wife’s thyroid-endocrinologist) are scaring me like hell that I am taking HC. They are saying I am destroying my body and I will never succeed in weaning off HC.

My wife is a T4-only thyroid-patient with low-cortisol symptoms. She also has been scared about dessicated thyroid and HC. Reading your book I was however convinced she could benefit a lot from a better treatment…

Keep up the good work, as patients we are really left alone in the dark by our doctors…

And unfortunately, it’s true. Thyroid and adrenal patients are left in the dark by many doctors about a variety of issues related to better thyroid treatment, adrenal issues, low ferritin, and more.  So here’s where you can read more, and in turn, take this important information into your doctors offices:

• All about the problem of adrenal fatigue
• How to treat
• Symptoms of having an adrenal problem
• The STTM book, which not only has more detail, but can be taken right into the doctor’s office
• Talk to other patients, including a group targeted for adrenal fatigue

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If you missed the excellent Part 2 with researcher Dr. John C. Lowe last Thursday evenings, you can listen to the recording, as well as sign up to be a Follower of the Thyroid Patient Community Call, here.

A press release just came out stating that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has “unveiled the first phase of its Transparency Initiative which is designed to explain agency operations, how it makes decisions, and the drug approval process.”

Of course, this doesn’t mean thyroid patients can stop what seems like an inane decision to require makers of desiccated thyroid to “prove” , via expensive clinical trials, that it’s a safe and effective medication. RLC Labs, for example, the makers of Naturethroid and Westhroid, will be affected.  Over 110 years of patient use, with 70 years by RLC, certainly reveal it’s a safe and effective treatment. But at least this transparency initiative will “potentially”  give us better information about the process. We’ll see.

About the upcoming Part 2 with Dr. Lowe (see the blog post right below this): Some folks were booted off last Thursday and had to quickly get back on. The problem is when you get back on, you may lose your ability to chat.  i.e. the system stops the chat ability once there are 300 individuals already on the chat.  You can listen, but you can’t chat after 300 are on.

So there are three things you can do to prevent being booted off and having to get back on:  first, make sure you have closed anything else on your computer–i.e only Talkshoe should be up. Second, make sure no other programs are running in the background, or will come on, like your anti-virus, and 3) ahead of time, download Live Pro from Talkshoe and use that. It’s more stable.

I, in turn, will be doing a strategy to strengthen this call from boots.  Additionally, if necessary, some who aren’t chatting out of the first 300 will have their option changed to no-chat to allow those who came in latter to do it.  It’s not personal because I don’t know who a lot of you are. It’s just spreading the ability into the call.

Do you take regular aspirin? Just as we warn about swallowing your meds when you have just eaten anything with calcium, iron or estrogen (they bind the thyroid hormones), you need to be aware that aspirin can have a negative affect on your thyroid levels, as well.  i.e. though it may help lower high thyroid levels, it’s not good for your thyroid treatment if you regularly take it.

How did we get to where we are with the FDA’s actions towards desiccated thyroid today? Go here.

Please note: Dr. Lowe is NOT an MD or DO who see’s patients and can prescribe. He’s a thyroid and fibro “researcher” with good knowledge about T3,  fibro, metabolism, supplements etc. Many questions have been coming in which are already answered on STTM, or are more targeted to a practicing physician, not a researcher. FYI.

On the heels of an informative and wonderful THYROID PATIENT COMMUNITY CALL on Talkshoe last week with Dr. John C. Lowe (see posts below), we’re going to do it again this coming Thursday, January 14th.  Join us for Part 2!

Dr. Lowe is a fibromyalgia, thyroid, and metabolism researcher who has always been such a champion for better diagnosis and treatment in thyroid patients. He is Editor-in-Chief of the open access journal www.thyroidscience.com as well as his own www.drlowe.com

And this time, Dr. Lowe is going to spend more time answering  your specific questions. Check out his websites above to get an idea what his expertise is, which includes the use of T3,  Hashimotos autoimmune thyroid disease, iodine, fibromyalgia, the tyranny of the TSH lab test, good supplements, the FDA, and more.

So here’s your chance: think of one or two questions you’d like to hear him answer. Please, if you have more more than two,  narrow them down to the two most important, and keep them brief.  No exceptions. Two max only, and brief.  Then use the Comments below to post them.  Be sure and check out if your questions have already been asked in other comments.

I’ll be collecting the questions ahead of time and will let him preview them. He wants to give you his best.

TIPS ABOUT TALKSHOE: Some reported being booted off and having to quickly rejoin. One step that may help is to download the Talk Shoe Live Pro ahead of time (takes 25 minutes for some) and use that software during the call, since it gives you far more stability.  Also, make SURE you have everything else closed and/or not running on your computer at the same time you are in the Talkshoe call. I will also be chatting with Talkshoe support and will get more ideas.

Also, don’t wait until the call occurs to mention your question. We found it difficult to try collecting them on the Chat. Ask now!!

Yes, you can also call in live during the Call, but it’s good to first let me know your question here.

And finally, at a certain point of those who join (after 300 on chat), Talkshoe participants are automatically unable to post on the chat. You can listen, but no chatting. So if you want to chat, join as soon as the Call opens up, which is 15 minutes before the actual audio begins. Times for the audio are 9 pm Eastern, 8 pm Central, 7 Mountain, and 6 pm Pacific.

The Stop the Thyroid Madness Talkshoe page: http://www.talkshoe.com/talkshoe/web/talkCast.jsp?masterId=62603&cmd=tc

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See the blog post below those about Lowe for a very insightful Guest Blog Post by Amy about her role as an Undercover Thyroid Advocate. Below that, you can read how I was wrong about what it was like to be thyroidless, and several great comments.

Anyone who listened to the Thyroid Patient Community Call last night will know that we were listening to a powerhouse of a man with an encyclopedia of valuable information: Dr. John C. Lowe.

He is the author of an exhaustive book on Fibromyalgia called The Metabolic Treatment of Fibromyalgia, which explains how the proper diagnosis and treatment of hypothyroidism is a good choice in the treatment of fibro. He also owns drlowe.com and the research website Thyroid Science.

I already knew he was great. He’s listed in the Acknowledgements of the Stop the Thyroid Madness book as one of a handful of medical professionals who played a huge role in educating and empowering patients all these years.  He, like the others, was a springboard for patients to move forward in gaining far better information about thyroid treatment and everything else we have have learned over the years!

And he has agreed to come back, since we had many more questions to ask him! I’ll announce that when we secure a date.

Below are some highlights from our talk with Dr. Lowe:

1. The use of high dose B-vitamins is very important for the thyroid patient, and even more so when you are feeling better in your treatment. Thyroid increases the production of protein, which drives energy, and you’ll need the B’s to help this higher energy production.
2. Sadly, it’s economics which dominant science and and researching, and it’s all for marketing purposes instead of the pursuit of truth and the real health of patients.
3. What drives your medical investigations? To gain wealth, or to help patients?
4. 75% of the time, if a doctor uses the TSH to either diagnose hypo or treat it, he will be wrong.
5. In the 1980’s, the top of the TSH range was 7.5.
6. Abbott Labs, the makers of Synthroid, gives one million dollars in an unrestricted educational grant to the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologist (AACE) i.e. no wonder Endocrinologists have a love affair with Synthroid, a medication like other brands which has left the vast majority of us undertreated. You can read more details from Lowe on this subject here.
7. Isocort, an OTC treatment for low cortisol, is protected by the 1994 Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act.
8. HC, aka hydrocortisone, is water soluble. Isocort is fat soluble. People need bile so the lipase enzymes are able to work on it.
9. There are no studies to compare Isocort to HC, and should be.
10. If swallowing, take thyroid one hour before eating for best absorption. If meal will have a lot of fat, 3-4 hours before eating.
11. Elderly people have less Hydrochloric Acid and do a worse job absorbing nutrients. (And so do undertreated hypo patients, reminded Diane)  Betaine is a good supplement to help.
12. Why it can be a bad idea to swallow thyroid with meals: we never know how many compounds are in the food that will bind it, like calcium and iron.  T4 is the most badly absorbed.

To hear more, just click above and listen to the recorded call. Thank you for being you, Dr. John C. Lowe.

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BRRRRR. In the US and many other countries,  we are having one of the coldest winters we’ve seen in a long time. And if you are out in it alot, you may need a tad more thyroid meds to keep yourself optimal.