• +Audience
• Research studies
• tsh

I am amazed.

The Society for Endoc­ri­no­logy in the UK recently repor­ted that taking higher doses of thy­ro­xine (which will lower the TSH lab result) may be safer than has been pur­por­ted for decades.

And how low a TSH lab result did they find to be safe? As low as 0.04 – 0.4, the research found, is still safe enough to not cause an inc­rea­sed risk of  “heart disease, abnor­mal heart­beat pat­terns and bone frac­tu­res”, aka HYPERthy­roid symp­toms.

And those of us world­wide who know about the supe­rio­rity of natu­ral desic­ca­ted thy­roid can also use these research results in our fight to be on enough desic­ca­ted thy­roid with TSH-obsessed doc­tors, who view research as the end-all to the truth rather than solid cli­ni­cal pre­sen­ta­tion, sadly. Because when we are on enough desic­ca­ted thy­roid to feel fabu­lous again with all symp­toms remo­ved (in the pre­sence of good cor­ti­sol levels, ade­quate ferri­tin, B12 and diges­tive issues), our TSH lab result is always low, aka sup­pres­sed, and without one iota of hyper symptoms.

Patients have expe­rien­tially known this truth about the lousy TSH lab test, without research, for years!

But here’s what’s mis­sing from their research:

1. Those “safe, low levels of an “ink spot on a piece of paper” do not mean the 16,426 patients they follo­wed will be without nume­rous issues rela­ted to being on a sto­rage hor­mone.  i.e. the body is not meant to live for con­ver­sion alone! A healthy thy­roid will con­vert T4 to the active T3, but it will also pro­vide direct T3 in addi­tion to the T2, T1 and calcitonin…none of which a T4-only med pro­vi­des directly.
2. Addi­tio­nally, the TSH lab test only reveals the action of a pitui­tary mes­sen­ger hor­mone called the Thy­roid Sti­mu­la­ting Hor­mone (TSH).  The lab test does NOT mea­sure whether your tis­sue is recei­ving enough thy­roid hor­mone, which is why so many patients on T4 end up with depres­sion, rising cho­les­te­rol, high blood pres­sure, low B12, low ferri­tin and many symp­toms, as well as adre­nal fati­gue thanks to the ina­de­quate treat­ment of T4.
3. Rai­sing T4 often encou­ra­ges an excess pro­duc­tion of Reverse T3 over time, which will block cell recep­tors and inc­rease the very symp­toms the researcher state is avoi­ded, as well as far more hypothy­roid symptoms.

But on the posi­tive side: this is just one more research study that ends up being on our side in our quest in teaching our doc­tors about far bet­ter treat­ment pro­to­cols. I have also inc­lu­ded men­tion of this study on the follo­wing page on STTM, where I keep a ongoing list of  research which sup­ports what patients already know by their expe­rience and cli­ni­cal pre­sen­ta­tion:  http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/medical-research/

Last May, a very inte­res­ting article appea­red in the May 2009 issue of the Jour­nal of Cli­ni­cal Endoc­ri­no­logy and Meta­bo­lism, tit­led For Some, L-Thyroxine Repla­ce­ment Might Not Be Enough: A Gene­tic Ratio­nale and pre­sen­ted by Endoc­ri­no­lo­gists in Bris­tol in the UK. It’s accom­pa­nied with an edi­to­rial by Endoc­ri­no­lo­gists Brian W. Kim and Anto­nio C. Bianco.

This is the same article refe­rred to by Endoc­ri­no­lo­gist Dr. Gary Pep­per on the last Thy­roid Patient Com­mu­nity Call on Talkshoe.

Basi­cally, the article sta­tes that a gene­tic varia­tion in the enzyme that con­verts T4 to T3, deio­di­nase D2 (also called Type 2 Deio­di­nase, or 5′-Deiodinase), may be res­pon­si­ble for why so many thy­roid patients don’t do well on Synth­roid, Levoxyl, levothy­ro­xine, etc, and in turn, do so much bet­ter on natu­ral desic­ca­ted thy­roid like Natu­reth­roid, Erfa’s Thy­roid, or the com­bi­ned synthe­tic T4 and synthe­tic T3 (Cytomel).

In other words, where some may have a strongly func­tio­ning deio­di­nase D2 enzyme which con­verts T4 to the active T3 well, others may have a modi­fied deio­di­nase D2 enzyme, cau­sing less opti­mal conversion.

In the Edi­to­rial, the two Endos Kim and Bianco explain the rea­lity of “polymorphism” – a con­di­tion in nature in which chan­ges or varia­tions occur, and in one patient from another, a change in the DNA.  As rela­ted to con­ver­sion of T4 to T3,  some thy­roid patients have a less effec­tive deio­di­nase D2 enzyme in the con­ver­sion of T4 to T3.  Spe­ci­fi­cally, there is a com­mon variant of the gene, threo­nine (Thr) 92 ala­nine (Ala), and it results in dec­rea­sed D2 enzy­ma­tic activity.

The study pro­po­ses that this alte­ra­tion from poly­morphism occurs in 16% of those stu­died, and conc­lu­des that the majo­rity don’t have this pro­blem, and thus, “most do fine on T4-only medi­ca­tions”. But 16% do have this pro­blem and need the com­bi­ned the­rapy of T4 with T3.

Bris­tol was also men­tio­ning this rea­lity in 2004 here, even if they thought it was as low as 5%.

As Dr. Pep­per hin­ted, this study could do won­ders to open the eyes of Endoc­ri­no­lo­gists about the use of desic­ca­ted thy­roid, or at the very least, about com­bi­ned hypothy­roid treat­ment with synthe­tic T3 added to synthe­tic T4.  And I’m glad for that when so many patients have found Endoc­ri­no­lo­gists to be narrow-mindedly stuck on Synth­roid or other T4-only thy­ro­xine products.

Of course, infor­med thy­roid patients know this is only a baby step in the right direc­tion, even if a good one! So we’ll rejoice for this study, and watch for more pro­gress from the medi­cal com­mu­nity and Endoc­ri­no­logy in gene­ral. For exam­ple, saying that “most do fine on T4” simply because they have may a non-variation might be pro­ven wrong as phy­si­cians take the time to really look at those “fine” patients, espe­cially as they age and symp­toms of an infe­rior treat­ment do pop up. And though the com­bi­na­tion of synthe­tic T3 with synthe­tic T4 defi­ni­tely gives bet­ter results, thy­roid patients who then moved to desic­ca­ted thy­roid with it’s T4, T3, T2, T1 and cal­ci­to­nin report even bet­ter results and cli­ni­cal pre­sen­ta­tion!  We’ve also lear­ned that the TSH lab test abso­lu­tely sucks when it comes to diag­no­sis and treat­ment.  Read TSH Why It’s Use­less, or see even more detail in Chap­ter Four of the STTM book, tit­led Thy­roid Sti­mu­la­ting Hooey.

And finally: do thy­roid patients really believe that pro­blems with T4-only treat­ment is simply due to a gene­tic abnor­ma­lity or varia­tion? Maybe. But isn’t it funny that a healthy human thy­roid does NOT depend solely on con­ver­sion, but also gives direct T3. hmmmmmm

P.S.  Patients also know that the use of the sup­ple­ment Sele­nium helps with con­ver­sion, by the way, but has never stop­ped our first-hand know­ledge that desic­ca­ted thy­roid rocks!

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

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.

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. 14^th 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. 20^th 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.