• +Audience
• Armour
• Health Care
• Medical Insurance

Wendy is one of those gals that tries to adhere to “natural” in regards to her medication choices. She switched over to Armour from Synthroid about three months ago.

The transition was slightly trying, says Wendy. Her doc didn’t believe her that she shouldn’t be on a low dose for more than a couple weeks without upping it. So she  went hypo all over again. (See why here.)

But after successfully upping the dose, she will now shout that it’s been the BEST thing  in every way!  She tells folks that being on Synthroid was like having your hand amputated and replaced with a hook, while being on Armour was like have it replaced with a fully functional prosthetic.  Her skin is softer, hair is not shedding nearly as much, her mood has changed in a good way, memory has returned, fogginess has faded. She feels closer to her old self than she has in almost give years.

Now the bad news…

All this time, she only paid $15 for her Armour at the local Walgreen’s. But as of April 1st, it will be considered a Tier 3 drug under her insurance plan–United Healthcare.  Exclaims Wendy in outrage and sadness:  “This means that the natural drug I love, that has restored my in so many ways that the synthetic t4 only drugs never could, will now cost 85 bucks! Who can afford that?! ”

And here’s the awful irony: Synthroid, the worst medication ever thrust upon us in the treatment of hypothyroid, is Tier 2 (i.e. costs less), and generic T4-only is Tier 1 (costs even less).  i.e. if you are under this insurance, you have to pay big bucks to feel a thousand times better.  She has no clue why this is happening, but warns that it might start to happen across the board for others as well!

Here’s what happened: most insurance companies classify drugs under Tiers.  Tier 1 is generally generics.  And since the Acella “generic” brand of desiccated thyroid entered the market last November, her insurance company decided Armour is now a brand name, thus under Tier 3 and now $85 for Wendy. Seems a bit greedy when it could have risen to Tier 2….

But here is potentially good news for some of you. There is a bill to stop the Tier expense. You can read about it here. Unfortunately, tho, it “will not impact self-funded health plans which cover about half of all employees with health insurance. Federal legislation is needed to change that.”

Does your health insurance cover your desiccated thyroid?

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Canadian Pharmacy price updates for Erfa: See the latest prices here.

How medical journals affect the prescription practice of your doctor: An interesting article on this found here. And here’s an article about how the author of a medical article fails to state his association with the pharmaceutical of the product he is writing about–one more conflict of interest and influence on your doctor!

Ridiculous! Basing “normal” for Hashimotos patients by the TSH, a pituitary hormone, NOT a thyroid hormone: Read it here and weep.

Vit. D can help you stay sharp: So many benefits from optimizing your Vit D, and here’s one with your brain.

Need to talk to others? See all your alternatives here.

If you have 1/2 grain (30 mg)  tablets, a label error caused some one grain tablets (60 mg)  to be labeled as 1/2  grain tablets (30 mgs). That would mean you could be overdosing yourself if you are taking 1/2 grains.  Both sizes need to be returned to your pharmacist with this information and exchanged.  i.e. COPY THIS when you take them back.

NOTE: they would be Lot #: 1077413 with an expiration of  9/30/2011  This is what your pharmacist would need to know.

PRODUCT

Armour Thyroid (thyroid tablets, USP), 1/2 grain (30 mg) , each tablet contains 19 mcg levothyroxine (T4) and 4.5 mcg liothyronine (T3), 100-count bottle, NDC 0456-0458-01. Recall # D-231-2011
CODE
Lot #: 1077413, Exp. 9/30/2011
RECALLING FIRM/MANUFACTURER
Recalling Firm: Forest Pharmaceuticals Inc., Earth City, MO, by telephone and letters on October 6, 2010. 
Manufacturer: Forest Pharmaceuticals Inc., Cincinnati, OH. Firm initiated recall is ongoing.
REASON
Labeling: Label error on declared strength; some bottles are mislabeled as containing 1/2-grain tablets but actually contain 1-grain tablets. The entire lot is being recalled even though some bottles are labeled correctly because bottles of 1/2-grain and 1-grain could be shrink-wrapped together.
VOLUME OF PRODUCT IN COMMERCE
31,172 bottles approx.
DISTRIBUTION
Nationwide, PR, Belgium and the United Kingdom

http://www.fda.gov/Safety/Recalls/EnforcementReports/ucm242808.htm

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“A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because it opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it” – Max Planck

And the above quote is probably eggsactly what is going to have to happen for desiccated thyroid to finally become mainstream!  Stop the Thyroid Madness!

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HOW DIFFERENT BRANDS OF DESICCATED WORK FOR SOME, NOT FOR OTHERS: Many patients, for a variety of reasons, have switched from one desiccated thyroid brand to another.  I, for example, was on the pre-reformulated Armour from 2002 to 2009, and successfully treated. When I heard about all the horror stories from folks who picked up their “newly reformulated” Armour, I just let my old Armour run out, and I started on Erfa Thyroid from Canada. And it was an easy and successful switch for me.

For others, a switch has not been that smooth. One brand seemed to serve them well, while other brands caused them to tank.

What causes the switch problems? For many, it could be the adrenals/HPA dysfunction. On one product, they may have felt fine, yet due to an underlying adrenal issue they hadn’t caught, a different brand with that “something different” may have been the umpff that caused their adrenals to rebel.

For others, the issues on the new brand could be from a sensitivity to one or more of the fillers. You can read about all fillers in each brand here.

And for still others, there is a mystery of why one didn’t work and another did.

What has been your experience? What did you switch from and to? Armour? Naturethroid? Erfa? Compounded? Thyroid-S? Let’s share.

HYPOTHYROID and/or ADRENAL WEIGHT GAIN: Have you ever heard of the gal who calls herself nonstickpam? I’ve known Pam for a good 8 years, and she has spent most of that time giving helpful advice on low carb eating and how to maintain your weight while dealing with thyroid and/or adrenal issues. Recently, she wrote an article for STTM about this very issue: http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/hypothyroid-and-weight-issues/

Have you found something that has worked for you in maintaining or losing weight? Let’s share our successes which might help others.

CANADA

I recently attended a lecture at a restorative medicine conference (kinda snuck in), and had a wonderful chat with a surgical nurse from Canada who is on Armour and didn’t even know about Erfa–the Canadian version of desiccated thyroid simply called “Thyroid”. She was thrilled to find out about it, but it was shocking to me that she didn’t know about a VERY good desiccated thyroid product right on her turf!

But even more concerning to me was being reminded that Canada has a severe shortage of doctors. Because that means it can be even harder for Canadians than Americans to find a good doctor when it comes to better thyroid treatment. It’s hard enough here: how it must be in Canada is chilling. And even if you do find one–because there are some there–the wait has to be long.

ARE 90% OF ALL MEDICAL STUDIES and CLINICAL RESEARCH WRONG?

Yes, according to meta-researcher and influential scientist Dr. John Ioannidi, and which was outlined in the recent issue of The Atlantic by David H. Freedman. Freedman states:  Much of what medical researchers conclude in their studies is misleading, exaggerated, or flat-out wrong.

AND DO THYROID PATIENTS EVER KNOW THIS TO BE TRUE!! How many studies are there that imply that T4-only medications work ever-so-brilliantly, yet our experience with T4-only has profoundly debunked that “research outcome”.

Patients have noted that much of what is achieved in research is to obtain money for those sponsoring the research, i.e via the sales of the product studied, like T4.  Even Freedman states:

This array suggested a bigger, underlying dysfunction, and Ioannidis thought he knew what it was. “The studies were biased,” he says. “Sometimes they were overtly biased. Sometimes it was difficult to see the bias, but it was there.” Researchers headed into their studies wanting certain results—and, lo and behold, they were getting them. We think of the scientific process as being objective, rigorous, and even ruthless in separating out what is true from what we merely wish to be true, but in fact it’s easy to manipulate results, even unintentionally or unconsciously. “At every step in the process, there is room to distort results, a way to make a stronger claim or to select what is going to be concluded,” says Ioannidis. “There is an intellectual conflict of interest that pressures researchers to find whatever it is that is most likely to get them funded.”

Hooray for Ioannidi!  Thyroid patients have royally suffered for over 60 years partly due to poor research outcomes favoring T4-only treatment, and we appreciate individuals like this man for exposing the truth! To read the entire brilliant article, go here.

IS ARMOUR CHANGING BACK…OR WHAT IS GOING ON?

Rumors often start on the patient groups, and I usually just note them, and do nothing. But one rumor which continues is that Armour tablets by Forest Labs seem to be back to the old formulation. One gal emailed me and said her bottle seemed to contain both the newly reformulated Armour (harder, unable to do sublingually) and the older version (softer, can be done sublingually.  What’s that about??  It’s odd.

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In case you are missing comments on my previous posts, there is a potential solution to the problems encountered with both the reformulated Armour by Forest Labs, and the reformulated Naturethroid by RLC.

Namely, by either crushing your tablet with a mortar and pestle, or chewing it up in little pieces, patients are starting to report far better symptom relief!! i.e., this process is probably breaking down the ridiculous coatings and cellulose and allowing your body better access to the desiccated thyroid within.

And if you just can’t stomach the pulverized pill method, add a touch of honey to the powder, and lick it all up.

Let us know how it works for you!

Want to see the newest Question & Answer page on STTM? Go here.

PREVIOUS BLOG POSTS:

To read my Editorial Response, go here (or if you are reading this on the blog, right below)
To read my informal survey on the new Armour, go here.
To read UK Sheila Turner’s Guest post on those who criticize self-treatment, go here.
10 reasons thyroid patients are frustrated, angry and sick, here.