• Armour
• fda
• Research studies
• t3
• Thyroid treatment

With the recent blog post by health writer Mary Shomon concerning Dr. Sidney Wolfe’s new 4-year term with the FDA’s Drug Safety and Risk Management Advisory Committee, there has been much brooha and fear-mongering on thyroid patient groups.

Why? Well look at it this way. This is a man of stature. He is an MD, an Adjunct Professor of Medicine, the director of Public Citizen’s health research group which promotes drug safety and public health, and editor of the newsletter Worst Pills, Best Pills, and since August of  ’08, a member of the Drug Safety Committee.  He also has a resume a mile long.

Yet in spite of his seemingly caring activism for our health and well-being, and his immense experience and education, he is clearly and completely off-base about Armour and other desiccated thyroid prescription drugs.

For example, as as editor of the Worst Pills, Best Pills newsletter,  Wolfe declared Armour desiccated thyroid as a “Do Not Use” product because it is not adequately guaranteed to provide appropriate blood levels of thyroid hormone and reliable alternatives are available”. (Gee, funny how our experiences are completely otherwise….)

Then in the May 2003 issue (of which you have to have a paid prescription to read), he wrote an article titled  “Do Not Use! Natural or Desiccated Thyroid (ARMOUR THYROID) For Thyroid Hormone Replacement Therapy.” In that article, the clueless Wolfe stated that he supported The American Thyroid Association’s statement “There is no evidence that desiccated thyroid, a biological preparation, has any advantage over synthetic thyroxine.” (I guess millions of us and our improved heartrate, stamina, cholesterol, depression and more…aren’t evidence?)

He then proposes that Armour is mostly prescribed for weight loss, is a niche market for the unscrupulous, and concludes with “if you are offered natural thyroid hormone replacement treatment for any reason, this is a red flag and you should get a second opinion.” In a letter to consumers, Wolfe and Public Citizen state that that T3 is only needed from conversion and is predictably found from conversion, that the T2 and T1 also found in desiccated thyroid has essentially no activity, that desiccated thyroid is an unpredictable mixture, that is has no predictable biological activity…plus so many more complete and total inaccuracies based on “intellectual head chatter” not on observation and experience.

Thud.

Mary Shomon, in 2003, did a bang-up job trying to communicate with Wolfe, Worst Pills, Best Pills, and Public Citizen about the inaccuracies of their beliefs and statements…basically to no avail. The TRUTH is here, and in more detail in Chapters 1 and 2 in the STTM book which are enlightening those reading it all!

So we are left wondering, six years later, what his four-year appointment to this committee will mean. But let’s make a few things quite clear to contrast some of the fears going on and expressed on thyroid groups:

1) Armour is not being banned.
2) Wolfe is one of a current 9 members of this committee. Wolfe is not “the committee”.
3) Wolfe and seven others currently have voting rights. He is the only “Consumer Representative”.
4) There are still six more vacancies.
5) The committee is NOT the power. They simply make recommendations. And historically, the FDA can be slow to act on their recommendations, or doesn’t follow them at all (which is a GOOD thing when it comes to a SAFE and EFFECTIVE medication like desiccated thyroid).

So what can you do? I challenge you to follow and act on the below, which puts our energies into communication, not feeding the ego and power of a misguided man with our overtly expressed fears as if they have actually come to pass :

1) Remember 1-5 above. Armour is fully available. Keep the facts straight, and fear-mongering down.

2) STTM has a powerful and growing page of testimonies of those who switched to desiccated thyroid.  Are you in there? If not, you need to be. This website currently has a huge audience. It’s noticed by doctors all over the world, as is the STTM book, which is YOUR book of YOUR experiences,  which is also being ordered by doctors. Use the Contact Me form at the bottom of that page.

3) Tell your experience with Synthroid or other thyroxine medications at the following websites:  www.rateadrug.com,  www.drugs.com,  www.askapatient.com They don’t include any of the desiccated thyroid meds yet, but you can tell of the negative experiences with all the T4-only drugs, including adrenal fatigue if you fell into that, and all your lingering thyroid symptoms.  The above links will take you to their Synthroid page–you can search for the other T4 meds.  Remember to mention Armour or other desiccated thyroid meds and how they have helped you!! Update: thyroid patient Gina found the drugs.com Armour page: http://www.drugs.com/comments/thyroid-desiccated/armour-thyroid.html

4) Report your T4-only experience to MedWatch, the FDA’s  program for reporting problems.  You will see an Online Reporting Form to download. Don’t fail to mention which problems were removed or greatly improved when you switched to Armour, or the fact that you now have to deal with adrenal fatigue thanks to the inadequacy of T4-only treatment. You can also call 1-800-FDA-1088, but remember: your call is not to draw attention to Wolfe’s opinions! It’s to draw attention to how lousy a treatment T4 is as compared to how much better Armour has been.

5) Go to my article titled Synthroid Sucks: the Rallying Cry of Thyroid Patients vs. Clueless Doctors and comment on this article, including mentioning what Armour, Naturethroid or other desiccated thyroid did for you. Rate it as well. Both keep this article in the media and in the eyes of others.

6) Go to www.medications.com where patients ask questions and YOU can answer, mentioning YOUR experience and how much better desiccated thyroid has been. Clicking on that will take you to the Synthroid patient questions. Answer them. Be careful with links–they may not catch them at first, but will remove them if they do.  You can mention website names, tho, like Stop the Thyroid Madness.

7) Send people here to follow all these steps. Power is in numbers!

8 ) Use the following website to email or write your senators and representatives: http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/ THEY DO READ THEM. And they will remember this!  Here’s a template letter you can use:  www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/template-letter-to-your-senator-or-representive/

If you have other ideas and places to write or call, add your comment to this post. Remember,  put your power in communication! LOTS of communication.

P.S. Did you know that the American Thyroid Association, in cooperation with the American Association of Endocrinologists, together support January as “Thyroid Awareness Month”…which is supported through an unrestricted grant from Abbott Laboratories, the makers of Synthroid?? Major UGH.

The British Medical Journal (BMJ) recently came out with yet another thyroid article, benignly titled Diagnosis and treatment of primary hypothyroidism and authored by the British Thyroid Association (BTA),  that at first blush, looks so caring.

Namely, they express deep concern that that since hypothyroid symptoms can mimic other conditions, patients may be getting an incorrect diagnosis which could expose some patients to the harmful effects of excess thyroid hormones, while other serious conditions may go undiagnosed.

And they add: In other patients, adequate replacement with levothyroxine does not resolve symptoms, which are attributed to hypothyroidism rather than other conditions that may coexist, such as depression.

The article continues with:  Normalisation of thyroid stimulating hormone means a return to normal health in most patients with primary hypothyroidism.

In other words, what you have above are the Three Stooges of the stated beliefs of the British Thyroid Association.

Stooge stated-belief #1: “Incorrect diagnosis allow other conditions go undiagnosed” What is inferred is that there are a host of diagnoses of hypothyroidism that are incorrect. Why? Because a wise physician dared to listen to clear symptoms of hypothyroidism or use the free T3, in spite of a so-called “normal” TSH–a lab test which measures a pituitary hormone, not the cells ability to receive enough thyroid hormones.

Stooge stated-belief #2: “If adequate doses of levothyroxine do not resolve symptoms, those symptoms are due to something else.” That is akin to saying if eating 100 calories a day results in malnutrition and starvation, your malnutrition and starvation is due to something else. And one particular symptom they are referring to is depression–a classic symptom of undiagnosed and undertreated hypothyroidism in MILLIONS of individuals around the world.  And isn’t it just odd how that depression resolves itself when the patient is put on Armour and allowed to dose by the elimination of symptoms.

Stooge stated-belief #3: “A normal TSH lab result equals normal health in those treated for hypothyroidism”. Gee, funny how millions of thyroid patients around the world have had a so-called “normal” TSH lab result along with a diverse blend of continuing and CLEAR hypothyroid symptoms.  Additionally, we have a large and growing body of patients who, when they switched to Armour desiccated thyroid or other fine desiccated thyroid prescription meds,  had those symptoms resolved when they were dosed according to the free T3, improved blood pressure, strong heart beat, lowered cholesterol, and complete elimination of symptoms. Patients have learned what works!

When you understand the British Thyroid Association’s hell-bent and rigid stands against Armour desiccated thyroid, their promotion of one of the worst labs ever created to diagnose and dose by, their love affair with the most inadequate thyroid medication ever thrust onto the market by money-grubbing pharmaceuticals (levothyroxine), and their complete failure to listen to patients and recognize continuing symptoms of hypothyroidism while on synthetic T4, you come to realize how meaningful any article on hypothyroidism will be by the British Thyroid Association.

P.S.  Do ya wonder if the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has the smarts to report the other side of the story??

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Right on the heels of the insane recommendation by the UK’s Royal College of Physicians and the British Thyroid Association (that thyroxine be the ONLY treatment for hypothyroidism–see Feb. 14th below) came an EXCELLENT and THOROUGH rebuttal by Dr. John C. Lowe titled Stability, Effectiveness, and Safety of Desiccated Thyroid vs Levothyroxine: A Rebuttal to the British Thyroid Association. WAY TO GO, John!!

p.s. Also see Sheila’s experience on the Feb. 20th post. Awful

Want to be informed of these blog posts? Curious what’s on Janie’s mind? Just go to the notification on the left and bottom of the links.

Now being announced on the Forest Pharm hotline at 866-927-3260, the following strengths of Armour are now completely available again:

1) 15 mg. (1/4 grain)
2) 30 mg. (1/2 grain)
3) 60 mg. (one grain)
4) 120 mg. (2 grains)
5) 180 mg. (3 grains)
6) 240 mg. (4 grains)
7) 300 mg. (5 grains)

Yessiree, the above represent the different size and strength tablets of natural desiccated thyroid via the Armour brand, most of which had been unavailable for quite awhile. The 90 mgs is still on backorder.

Rejoice!

P.S. And we thank RLC Labs for their continued availability of Naturethroid and Westhroid, plus Sriprasit Pharma Co., Ltd. in Thailand for their Thyroid-S.   Because no matter how hard any pharmaceutical company, Endocrinologist, certain hospitals,  or group of physicians (see below) tries to sing the praises of T4 treatment with Synthroid, Levoxyl, Levothyroxine, Eltroxin, Norton for thyroid disorders or hypothyroid….WE KNOW BETTER.

(Want to be notified of my blog posts? Curious what’s on my mind? Use the Notification method to be informed. Look on the bottom left of the links where you can sign up. )

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Recently, after we watched a semi-scary movie about being suckered, a friend brought up my blog post of last July where I described a terrifyingly-real horror movie.

The plot: stunningly convince hundreds of millions of individuals worldwide that what is obvious, isn’t. i.e. it’s all in your head, you are adequately treated on Synthroid, Levoxyl, Eltroxin, Norton, et al,  and not only that, we’ll bandaid your continuing problems with more medications.

A second plot: also completely hoodwink those with top notch higher medical educations and experience by churning out the the exact same poppycock, and reward their stupidity with gifts.

The central villian: Big Pharma, followed by the doctors who bought the lie

Exactly a year ago this month, Science Daily came out with an article, citing two York University researchers who estimated that the U.S. pharmaceutical industry spends almost twice as much on promotion as it does on research and development, contrary to the industry’s claim. In other words, the researchers estimated that $57.5 billion in US dollars was spent on pharmaceutical promotion in 2004–the year they were studying. Yes, I said BILLION.

Breaking that down, Big Pharma spent approximately $61,000 per physician in promotion of their products.  And they concluded that both figures were UNDERestimates.  In other words, they concluded that the US pharmaceutical industry is marketing-driven rather than “life-saving”.

And adding fuel to the fire: most doctors believe every thrust of that marketing. I recently participated in comments with other wonderful patients in response to a DO/Endocrinologist, Dr. Thomas Repas, who has clearly bought the Big Pharma marketing when it comes to levothyroxine. You can read his posts and our comments here, here, and here.   Dr. Repas is exactly the kind of doctor who has  starred in our horror movie, and the kind of doctor that patients have lamented about for years.  Read the  Give Me a Break list of comments made by doctors, as well as further comments on the January 1st blog.

But Dr. Repas is in good company. Doctors have believed the Big Pharma lie about T4-only medications, and against desiccated thyroid like Armour, Naturethroid, etc. for 50 years.  In the patient-to-patient  Stop the Thyroid Madness book, you can read about the first tableting of Synthroid in 1955 and the strategic and successful promotion of T4-only, in spite of the fact that T4 was known to be unstable for decades.

And today, more than 50 years later, very few of us have been untouched by the Big Pharma push for levothyroxine T4-only treatment.  My own mother was suckered, and I was suckered.  And until patients started to make a huge push for desiccated thyroid treatment the last few years, nearly every single doctor around the world had been suckered.

We still have a way to go. But we’ll get there, bit by bit.