• Armour
• Big Pharma Pharmaceuticals
• desiccated thyroid
• naturethroid

In 2002, when I first got on desic­ca­ted thy­roid and it abso­lu­tely chan­ged my life, it hap­pe­ned to be the brand name called Armour by Forest Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals.  And I swoo­ned.  You could do it sublin­gually (even if it wasn’t made that way), and I prai­sed Armour for that. So did other patients after we spread the word on patient groups, on the STTM web­site and in the Stop the Thy­roid Mad­ness book.

My fond­ness for Armour did not take away my prai­ses for other presc­rip­tion brands, though, inc­lu­ding Natu­reth­roid or Westh­roid by RLC Labs.  I simply made a doe-eyed com­mit­ment to Armour for my per­so­nal treat­ment because you could do it sublin­gually. I have also used the name “Armour” interchan­geably to repre­sent all good desic­ca­ted thy­roid products.

But because of a suc­ces­sion of three events, I think it’s time to give back my going-steady ring.

The first blow to my romance with Armour cen­te­red around the extreme tight-lipped sec­recy from Forest when the refor­mu­la­tion of Armour began. We can sur­mise the trou­ble begin in 2007 when patients were fin­ding Armour in the lar­ger sizes to be sud­denly inef­fec­tive.  For the entire year of 2008, sup­plies were extre­mely limi­ted and only the one grain size or lower could be found, if at all.  Patients were worried and unhappy.  I even sup­por­ted Forest in my blog posts, assu­ring patients that everything would be fine.  But Forest said prac­ti­cally nothing. Why was and is Forest mum about why this was happening ?

The second blow to our courtship was the change to the “refor­mu­la­ted” Armour. Sud­denly, patients find that doing Armour sublin­gually was a thing of the past. Now all we get is a never-ending chalky pasty resi­due.  Addi­tio­nally, many patients have been repor­ting that the amount of Armour that once remo­ved all symp­toms, was now brin­ging them back.  Huh?? In spite of an appa­rent draw­back in some batches in 2007, why would Forest take an effec­tive pro­duct and change it?

And the third and final straw to my affair of the heart? I made a phone call to Forest using the same 800 num­ber you all can use. That was Tues­day, May 5^th. My intent was to ask about the word anhy­drous which is now after the ingre­dient dex­trose in the Armour ingre­dients lis­ting. (It means that all mois­ture has been with­drawn, but I wan­ted to con­firm the details for the brands page.)  When I reached the repre­sen­ta­tive for Forest, and after she asked my name and I gave it (oops),  the tune of the con­ver­sa­tion chan­ged.  She said she could not ans­wer my ques­tion since I own a public web­site, and would have to inform the “Media group” from Forest, and they would call me back. When I asked when, the ans­wer was a vague as Synth­roid is in trea­ting hypothy­roi­dism i.e. she didn’t know. I even called back the next day to get the same drib­ble.   Why have repre­sen­ta­ti­ves on the Forest hot­line been ins­truc­ted not to ans­wer a sim­ple ques­tion from someone like myself,  and I still have not recei­ved a phone call from Forest?

Sob.  Yup, brea­king up is hard to do, but a gal can only take so much strange betra­yal, tight-lipped silence…and igno­ring a sim­ple ques­tion from someone who has done a LOT to put money in their poc­kets out of extreme gra­ti­tude. Besi­des, there’s another phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal cour­ting me at my door:  RLC Labs. Thank good­ness there are other fish in the sea.

As the “newly” for­mu­la­ted Armour desic­ca­ted thy­roid pills, made by Forest Pharmaceuticals/Laboratories, have been hit­ting the mar­ket, so are com­ments coming out from some thy­roid patients…and they are not in the least complimentary.

The rea­son that Armour had been favo­red by so many thy­roid patients among all the desic­ca­ted thy­roid brands is the abi­lity to take it sublin­gually.  Sure, Armour was never offi­cially made to be taken sublin­gually, but it worked.

Sublin­gual refers to the admi­nis­tra­tion of a medi­ca­tion via the millions of tiny capi­lla­ries that line your mouth and mucous mem­brane. The pill was pla­ced under the ton­gue and allo­wed to dis­solve – most of it ente­ring the body directly via your sublin­gual glands, and only a small amount swallowed.

Some patients who switched from swa­llo­wing to sublin­gual noti­ced the dif­fe­rence, too.

But the beauty of sublin­gual has gone even farther than noti­cing anything dif­fe­rent. First, it was always a known “baddy” to swa­llow any pills that might con­tain iron, estro­gen or cal­cium at the same time we swa­llo­wed Armour or any other desic­ca­ted thy­roid brand. Why? All three inter­fere with and bind a cer­tain per­cen­tage of the thy­roid hor­mo­nes in our sto­machs.  We were for­ced to take any of those hours apart from swa­llo­wing our pill. So doing the Armour sublin­gually allo­wed us to swa­llow the above pills, or drink milk, or eat high iron foods, at our own timing and not hours away.

Second, the old for­mula was usually gone in our mouths within 30 minu­tes give or take. Now, patients who take their newly for­mu­la­ted pills sublin­gually (which now has less dex­trose and more cellu­lose) des­pise the “chalky, pasty, gritty resi­due” left in one’s mouth.  It also results in Armour taking far too long to be pro­perly absorbed.

Third, those with adre­nal fati­gue can find them­sel­ves waking up with nau­sea due to the mor­ning low cor­ti­sol. And being able to take Armour sublin­gually bypas­sed the need to swa­llow a liquid to take a pill and pro­mote more nausea.

Fourth, those with Celiac disease, and even those with stan­dard low thy­roid diges­tive issues, found sublin­gual admi­nis­tra­tion to help their absorp­tion of what desic­ca­ted thy­roid offers, which they didn’t get well if they swa­llo­wed the pill.

All in all, the buzz around patient groups or on com­ments here  about the newly for­mu­la­ted Armour is not com­pli­men­tary.  It doesn’t work well sublin­gually. It’s too chalky. It lea­ves a gritty paste in your mouth.  And patients are highly disap­poin­ted.  Let’s hope that one of the phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals takes the ball and runs to create a sublin­gual desic­ca­ted thy­roid.

What is your expe­rience with the new for­mu­la­tion? Are you still trying to do it sublin­gually?  Have you found doing Natu­reth­roid sublin­gually works? Are you switching to Natu­reth­roid or Westh­roid out of prin­ci­pal, as many are sta­ting they are doing? Use the com­ment sec­tion and let’s talk.

*Express your opi­nion to Forest here: 1 – 800-678‑1605, ext. 66297.

*Want to know what’s on Janie’s mind? Want to read the latest about desic­ca­ted thy­roid and bet­ter treat­ment? Use the Noti­fi­ca­tions on the left at the bot­tom of the links.

With the recent March out­break of swine flu in a few humans, I want to speak of facts.  This would involve all of you who use  desic­ca­ted por­cine pro­ducts, inc­lu­ding Armour, Natu­reth­roid, Westh­roid, Thyroid-S, etc.

Recent cases: As of April 26^th in the US, there are only 21 human cases of “swine flu” this year repor­ted by the CDC (Cen­ters for Disease Con­trol and Pre­ven­tion):  Cali­for­nia 7 cases;  Kan­sas 2 cases;   New York City 9 cases;  Ohio 1 case;  and Texas 2 cases. There have also been out­breaks in Mexico which may be rela­ted.  No one has died and none of the cases have been severe.  The current out­break is a com­bi­na­tion of swine, bird, and human influenza viruses.

What is the Swine flu? Swine flu is a type A influenza and has been in exis­tence with pigs for a long time.  Many pigs will get sick when it does go around; very few will die.

Why are humans get­ting it? The real irony is that humans can be ones who give it to pigs in the first place!  But in turn, new human infec­tion from infec­ted pigs is actually quite rare. In most all cases, a healthy human will get it from con­tact with a live pig, such as at a lives­tock show. Then, the infec­ted human will spread it to other humans.  So, when you see that “21” peo­ple have got­ten it,  some may have got­ten it from “one” per­son – i.e. a human-to-human contact.

The CDC also sta­tes that in a par­ti­cu­lar study, 76% of swine exhi­bi­tors tes­ted had anti­body evi­dence of swine flu infec­tion but no serious ill­nes­ses were detec­ted among this group. In other words, the majo­rity of those expo­sed don’t even get the ill­ness. If they do, it’s mild for most and only serious for a very small minority.

How com­mon is swine flu among pigs? Swine flu is com­mon in groups of pigs all across the world, espe­cially during the win­ter months.  Anywhere from 25 – 50% show evi­dence of having been infec­ted.  But many pigs are vac­ci­na­ted against it.

Can I get it from the use of Armour or other desic­ca­ted thy­roid pro­ducts? The stan­dards in the making of desic­ca­ted thy­roid pow­der as set by the U.S. Phar­ma­co­poeia is extre­mely rigo­rous.  So, it is impor­tant to unders­tand that your chan­ces of get­ting swine flu from taking a US Pharmacopoeia-approved pro­duct is remar­kably low, low, low. You have a much grea­ter chance of injury from riding in your car.

So, for me, with all the above facts, I’m going to take my Armour with ease and peace, because using desic­ca­ted thy­roid to treat my hypothy­roid is FAR FAR bet­ter than any other treat­ment. Perhaps you will decide to do the same.  If you stay worried about it, you might also want to avoid using your car, stop using stairs, and avoid most peo­ple at all costs.   P.S. Check out the com­ments to this post. Will also help put you at ease.

* Here’s John Lowe’s rebut­tal to the scare of swine flu: http://www.thyroidscience.com/index.htm It con­firms everything I’ve said plus a whole lot more. i.e. take your desic­ca­ted thyroid!

* Want to know what’s on my mind? Inte­res­ted in the latest infor­ma­tion on desic­ca­ted thy­roid? Just use the Noti­fi­ca­tions on the left at the bot­tom of the links.

*If you find the web­site to be too enor­mous for your brain fog, or want bet­ter ease of get­ting the facts, the patient-to-patient STTM book is pro­ving to be a good choice, say many who write me.  Just make sure you have a yellow high­ligh­ter. haha

I can remem­ber a few peo­ple the past year who proc­lai­med fer­vently that Armour was being dis­con­ti­nued because of the shor­tage.  And I chuc­kle about it.  Hope­fully, my pre­vious posts hel­ped calm that fear.

But in case you haven’t heard, those lar­ger sizes are back!  And you can keep track of what’s going via the Forest Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals cus­to­mer pro­duct avai­la­bi­lity hot­line: 1 – 866-927‑3260  As of today, April 19, they state that the one grain tabs (60 mg) and 1 1/2 grains tabs (90 mg) are on bac­kor­der, and will catch up with pro­duc­tion on April 20^th, tomo­rrow as I am wri­ting this.  We’ll see.

Unfor­tu­na­tely, the new for­mu­la­tion has made Armour lac­king in sweet­ness, and it’s almost impos­si­ble to do it sublin­gually.  Sad. Maybe another phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal will get the hint. In the mean­time, if you swa­llow your desic­ca­ted thy­roid, make sure to avoid cal­cium, iron and estro­gen at the same time. And if you’ve been doing it sublin­gually, and have to switch to swa­llo­wing, you may need a tad more.

Remem­ber: if you have any issues with natu­ral Armour desic­ca­ted thy­roid in the treat­ment of your hypothy­roi­dism, you can always ask your doc­tor for a presc­rip­tion switch to Natu­reth­roid or Westth­roid, both fine FDA-approved, US Phar­ma­co­peia stan­dard presc­rip­tion desic­ca­ted thyroid.

Janie

Want to be infor­med of my posts? Curious what I am raving about as a Thy­roid Patient Acti­vist? You can sign up for a Noti­fi­ca­tion at the bot­tom of the links to your left.

P.S. If you haven’t bought the Stop the Thy­roid Mad­ness book yet, wan­ted to tell you that nume­rous patients are emai­ling me, sta­ting they find the book even easier to refer to than this vast web­site (plus it has more details and infor­ma­tion).  So if you want the ease of refe­rral, the book may be the way to go.

Before my thy­roid disease of hypothy­roi­dism was dis­co­ve­red, I had horri­fic and debi­li­ta­ting con­se­quen­ces from exer­cise or any acti­vity.  You can read about it all here or even more detail in the Intro­duc­tion of the patients-to-patients Stop the Thy­roid Mad­ness book.

When my so-called “bor­der­line hypothy­roid” was dis­co­ve­red by age 30, I thought whoo-hooo, I’ll finally get rid of this strange night­mare whe­ne­ver I tried to do ANYTHING.  I was put on Synth­roid and my anti­ci­pa­tion for a bet­ter life was profound.

But my hope was dashed. Not only did my body con­ti­nue to ove­rreact to acti­vity, it got worse over time.  Horribly worse.  Nearly twenty years after I had star­ted on a T4-only medi­ca­tion, and was told by one doc­tor after another that my pro­blem was not my thy­roid, I was going to apply for social secu­rity disability.

But they were all dead wrong. Sure, turns out I have a form of Dysau­to­no­mia, a mal­func­tion and ove­rreac­tion of my auto­no­mic ner­vous sys­tem, cau­sing my body to far ove­rreact to stress. But remai­ning hypothy­roid, as we all do on the sucky t4-only medi­ca­tions, had made it far worse. And I pro­ved it. When I switched to Armour desic­ca­ted thy­roid in 2002 and rai­sed it accor­ding to what patients have lear­ned, a miracle occu­rred.  My severe auto­no­mic reac­tions made an almost com­plete tur­na­round.

And my expe­rience of change or impro­ve­ment when it comes to other disea­ses or con­di­tions has been sha­red by others.

Last week, I recei­ved an email from a man whose brother has MS – Mul­ti­ple Scle­ro­sis.  And though Armour has not taken his MS away, it allo­wed him to move from this wheelchair to a wal­ker! That is impressive.

So I am left won­de­ring:  what other con­di­tions or disea­ses, which are uni­que in them­sel­ves, are wor­se­ned being undiag­no­sed thanks to the lousy TSH lab test or the ina­de­quate treat­ment of Synth­roid, Levoxyl, levothy­ro­xine, Eltro­xin and all other T4-only medi­ca­tions? It’s awful to think about it.

Want to be infor­med of my blog posts? Curious what’s on my nind? Just use the Noti­fi­ca­tion on the bot­tom of the links to the left.