Armour tags

A large and gro­wing body of hypothy­roid patients have found out the hard way why they have felt like patooey crap for years…or at the very least, why they had pesky lin­ge­ring symp­toms of hypothy­roi­dism:  being on Synth­roid or any other T4-only med.

And the anger many have felt about mis­sed years of our lives because of such a lousy treat­ment has also trans­la­ted to ill fee­lings towards a par­ti­cu­lar phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal: Abbott Labo­ra­to­ries. Abbott Labs has put hun­dreds of millions of dollars in what patients deem “brain­washing” of doc­tors, espe­cially Endo­dri­no­lo­gists, about Synth­roid for years.

But I recently found a little news piece, in the form of the follo­wing video, which at least puts just a slight posi­tive note to the term “Abbott Labo­ra­to­ries”, even if the name con­jurs up a bit of nau­sea in the guts of infor­med thy­roid patients:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8o-e-iLsUM Hope you enjoy the irony of it the way I did.  lol. Her name was Grace Gro­ner, the sec­ret Millionaire.

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Get­ting older and beco­ming hypothy­roid: Below this post, you’ll see infor­ma­tion that can affect your parents, rela­ti­ves, spou­ses and friends and how they may face the same run-around we have all had to deal with — the lousy TSH lab test, being put on all sorts of band-aid drugs like sta­tins, anti-depressants, blood pres­sure meds and more, or being put on a T4 med like Synth­roid.  Go here.

FDA and shor­ta­ges: I also men­tion above about a recent sta­te­ment by the FDA:  Forest reports manu­fac­tu­ring issues invol­ving the raw mate­rial and RLC reports inc­rea­sed demand. FDA has not orde­red Forest or RLC to remove these thy­roid (desic­ca­ted) tablets from the mar­ket. A few patients are sus­pi­cious enough of the FDA to feel it means nothing.  Others, and I am one, have honestly felt like we simply had a shor­tage of desic­ca­ted thy­roid, not a cons­pi­racy by the FDA to remove it.  So I found that sta­te­ment con­fir­ming, even if there can be more to the story. But time will tell.

Natu­reth­roid: Here you can read infor­ma­tion about this med retur­ning to phar­ma­cies around the country, and what might have chan­ged in the tablets. Once again, phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals are not telling us what is going on ahead of time, and it’s aggra­va­ting when we dis­co­ver chan­ges in our medi­ca­tions. Thy­roid patients do not care to be trea­ted like buf­foons. I sus­pect that phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals are gui­ded to say so little because of legal advice. It’s still aggravating.

Why do I rarely men­tion Armour any­more? Because it doesn’t seem worth my time since it was refor­mu­la­ted. Too many patients con­ti­nue to report lin­ge­ring symp­toms, even occu­rring months after they thought they were doing great on it.  And too many report that after they switched to Erfa’s “Thy­roid”, Natu­reth­roid or com­poun­ded with aci­dolpho­lus as a filler,  they saw a reso­lu­tion of those lin­ge­ring symptoms.

Another rea­son to improve your Vit. D levels: Research shows that low levels of Vit. D in your blood can result in inc­rea­sed fat depo­sits around your waist and other areas.  From the Dia­be­tes Jour­nal.

As the one grain tabs of Natu­reth­roid desic­ca­ted thy­roid by RLC Labs are hit­ting phar­macy shel­ves again all across the nation here and there after the recent shor­ta­ges and the sad refor­mu­la­tion of Armour,  and patients are star­ting to use the new Natu­reth­roid, we are gathe­ring some good infor­ma­tion, both anec­do­tal and factual:

• The typi­cal smell of desic­ca­ted por­cine is less intense with the new tablets. We have no idea why.
• The tablets are now stam­ped with RLC on one side, and N over 1 on the other, whe­reas before you’d see just NT1 or a refe­rence to the fact that Time Caps Labs (TCL) used to make Natu­reth­roid for RLC Labs
• The pac­kage insert is no lon­ger inside the bottle but stuck on top of the cap
• Lot num­ber info used to be on the edge of the label run­ning ver­ti­cally, whe­reas now, it runs along the bot­tom of the label  under the ingredients.

One grain is still 65 mg, with the T3 con­tent being at 9 mcg and the T4 con­tent being at 38 mcg.  The T2, T1 and cal­ci­to­nin still unmeasured.

There are filler/inactive ingre­dients which have changed:

• Cal­cium filler has moved up from 16 mg to 17 mg (cal­cium binds thy­roid, but you just take more. Don’t swa­llow it with milk, please.)
• The old con­tai­ned Mag­ne­sium, Potas­sium, and Sodium (each at less than 1 mg), whe­reas in the new, potas­sium is now removed
• And here’s the best part: the old NT had Hydro­propyl Methylcellu­lose – that’s the lar­ger size cellu­lose struc­ture which we know binds some of the thy­roid hor­mo­nes. Now, the new NT has Microcrys­ta­line Cellu­lose, the sma­ller size. (Too bad we can’t see all cellu­lose removed!)

Below are the new NT fillers, which are iden­ti­cal to the old except for the cellu­lose change:

Car­naba Wax, Colloi­dal Sili­con Dio­xide, Dical­cium Phosphate, Hypro­me­llose, Lac­tose Monohy­drate, Mag­ne­sium Stea­rate, Mic­rocrys­ta­line Cellu­lose, Pol­yethy­lene Gly­col (PEG)-400, Sodium Starch Gly­co­late, Stea­ric Acid.

Most all the above comes cour­tesy of Stepha­nie Buist, owner of the Iodine group on Yahoo and thy­roid and adre­nal patient and advo­cate.  Thank you, Steph!  You can read about the fillers here by scro­lling down.

Oh and by the way, the new tablets are now sco­red. A help­ful addition!

In patient groups, we are seeing a variety of expe­rien­ces with the new Natu­reth­roid.  Most folks seem happy with it so far, and even some report it seems a tad stron­ger than the old (the cellu­lose change may have cau­sed that). Occa­sio­nally, someone will report pro­blems, but they appear to be from under­do­sing or a poten­tial RT3 pro­blem which has ari­sen and needs treat­ment with T3-only.  Chan­ging brands can also bring dif­fe­rent reac­tions, so you have to wig­gle the dosage around some­ti­mes to find your sweet spot once again.

All in all, it looks good.

P.S. If you are rea­ding this via the News­let­ter Noti­fi­ca­tion, just click on the above link to put your­self right on the actual blog post if you want to com­ment. Let’s gather all our expe­rien­ces with the new Naturethroid.

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If you mis­sed the last inter­net radio Thy­roid Patient Com­mu­nity Call with Dr. Kent Hol­torf, you mis­sed a VERY good one. Thank you Dr. Hol­torf for exce­llent infor­ma­tion. But good news! All the shows are recor­ded.  Just go to the follo­wing link, scroll down, and you can click on any past inter­views, inc­lu­ding two with Dr.  John C. Lowe and a great one with Endoc­ri­no­lo­gist Dr Pep­per – one of a rare breed of open-minded Endos.  (I’ve also stop­ped doing my long intro’s about me in the last two, figu­ring if someone wants to know, they can go to the About Me page, or read the Intro­duc­tion in the book which has even more detail. lol.)

http://www.talkshoe.com/talkshoe/web/talkCast.jsp?masterId=62603&cmd=tc

I’ve been dis­trac­ted the past week, having to do exten­sive research and tra­ve­ling to find the per­fect “new used car”.

Then I caught a cold from hell – rare for me.  I was taking zinc and Vit. C. But a good friend remin­ded me about Vit. D and it’s immune enhan­cing effect. OMG, I for­got about it!  So later last night, I took what I thought was 12,000 IU on the first night of being sic­ker than a dog.  They say to take 1000 mg per 10 lbs of weight. Tur­ned out the gel caps were not 1000 IU each, as I thought, but 2000 IU each. So I ended up taking 22,000 IU.  lol. But the long and short of it is this: though I woke up this mor­ning quite tired and weak, I’ve slowly got­ten bet­ter all day!! My con­ges­tion has hugely impro­ved.  Read this: http://pandemicsurvivor.wordpress.com/2009/11/28/eliminate-the-common-cold/

Love your green pow­der drink? Just a word of cau­tion: much of what is in many of those pow­de­red greens are goi­tro­gens, which inhi­bit thy­roid pro­duc­tion, such as wheat grass, bar­ley grass, broc­coli, spi­nach,  cab­bage, maca and spi­nach, plus much more. But that doesn’t mean you can’t use the green pow­der. You’ll just have to be sure to use it in mode­ra­tion, and not con­sume too many other goi­tro­gen foods each and every day. Or, raise your thy­roid meds.

Dr. Peter Gott can give even bet­ter infor­ma­tion to rea­ders. I noti­ced that a column on the Tulsa web­site by Peter Gott, MD of the News­pa­per Enter­prise Asso­cia­tion  could have given dif­fe­rent infor­ma­tion to a dis­tres­sed rea­der who couldn’t find Armour anywhere.  He recom­men­ded to this rea­der, who already sta­ted that Synth­roid is not a well-handled treat­ment, to see if her phy­si­cian could “alter the Synth­roid dosage to find a level”  that could be tole­ra­ted.  Actually, there are far bet­ter options during this bac­kor­de­red time, which I have com­pi­led here, and inc­lu­des Erfa’s Thy­roid and more.

Natu­reth­roid is appea­ring in phar­ma­cies! Yup, patients are repor­ting it! No, it’s not all phar­ma­cies. But you might want to call and see if YOUR local phar­macy has it. Other­wise, it’s coming.  For options during the current natu­ral desic­ca­ted thy­roid shor­ta­ges, go here. To see why we are where we are today, read this.

Is there research to prove having a free T3 in the upper quar­ter of the range when on desic­ca­ted thy­roid?? A gal emai­led me, wan­ting stu­dies to show her doc. But unfor­tu­na­tely, the ans­wer appears to be no. Ins­tead, this is what patients all over thy­roid groups dis­co­ve­red from their lab results when they were fee­ling fabu­lous again with no lin­ge­ring symp­toms.  So we simply spread the word. Patient expe­rien­ces DO count for something.  P.S. Here’s an ongoing list of research that DOES prove some things patients KNOW first hand.  And by the way, when you have a high free T3 and con­ti­nuing symp­toms, time to do labs for ferri­tin and adre­nal fati­gue.

By using a code, you can save on labs from Healthchec­kUSA. I was infor­med from Healthchec­kUSA that many patients were for­get­ting to men­tion the dis­count code. So look again, and be sure and use it from the Recom­men­ded Lab­work page.

Janie on radio shows, and a great guest for the upco­ming Talkshoe Thy­roid Patient Com­mu­nity Call. Can’t say much more, because it’s in the works. Watch for announ­ce­ments soon.

A new way to be infor­med of these thy­roid posts. The for­mer Noti­fi­xious noti­fi­ca­tions went out of busi­ness. But we have a new and GOOD one, refe­rring to the noti­fi­ca­tion as a new­let­ter, and you can sign up free and with no strings attached.  See on left below on the links.   Also, there are many more impor­tant posts right below this.

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!

The year of 2009 will long be remem­be­red for two night­ma­res straight out of Twi­light Zone for thy­roid patients: 1) Armour desic­ca­ted thy­roid by Forest Labs was refor­mu­la­ted with patients glo­bally repor­ted a return of symp­toms and new frus­tra­ting ones, and 2) shor­ta­ges of all US-made natu­ral desic­ca­ted thy­roid like Armour, Natu­reth­roid and Westh­roid occu­rred, as well as no more gene­rics thanks to the FDA.

Addi­tio­nally, as I write this, Natu­reth­roid and Westh­roid by RLC Labs are still hard to get – making too slow a return on phar­macy shel­ves which may not improve until 2010. You can read details and a good sum­mary about this on about.com.

But there’s been a sil­ver lining to this situa­tion: Canada’s “Thy­roid” by Erfa.

Many patients made a switch to this desic­ca­ted thy­roid pro­duct, using online phar­macy web­si­tes and their presc­rip­tions from their doc­tors. And ove­rall, the expe­rience of patients with Erfa’s Thy­roid has been extre­mely positive.

I had a won­der­ful chat this week with Dr. Henri Knafo, the Direc­tor of Medi­cal Affairs at Erfa Canada Inc.  My first and most impor­tant ques­tion: Is there enough Thy­roid for all your patient cus­to­mers?? And I got an une­qui­vo­cal “Yes” from Dr. Knafo.  He explai­ned there are no con­cerns with run­ning out and they have plenty in stock, now and in the future. He sta­ted that if their stock gets low from sud­den demand, they can easily get more and quickly.

I also asked: Is ship­ping timely? Defi­ni­tely yes, Dr. Knafo sta­ted. But he also qua­li­fied that Erfa is over­loa­ded with orders. And though they are kee­ping up, your presc­rip­tion order can take time to pro­cess. But, he sta­ted “Be Patient. It will arrive!”

What is going on with the FDA and Erfa? He unders­co­red that the FDA is coo­pe­ra­ting com­ple­tely, and they see a good future with the FDA.  They are com­ple­tely tole­rant, said Dr. Knafo, because they seem to unders­tand the shor­ta­ges. Erfa’s Thy­roid is also com­ple­tely appro­ved and regu­la­ted by Health Canada. As far as the future and the FDA, Dr. Knafo strongly feels that once the FDA is reas­su­red about desic­ca­ted thy­roid, things will only get bet­ter for US patients with brands and avai­la­bi­lity. He feels that issues with the FDA are far more posi­tive than many thy­roid patients and lea­ders seem to get or want to see.

Do you see chan­ges towards opi­nion of desic­ca­ted thy­roid?  Defi­ni­tely, yes. Dr. Knafo recently atten­ded a Euro­pean medi­cal con­fe­rence with over 50 spe­cia­lists and he saw many doc­tors not satis­fied with Synth­roid and noti­cing the bet­ter treat­ment with desic­ca­ted thy­roid. “It’s boo­ming in Europe”, he unders­co­red about Erfa and desic­ca­ted thy­roid  “Even Endo’s are noti­cing”.  He also said that Bel­gium was expe­rien­cing a huge medi­cal trend away from T4 and towards desic­ca­ted thyroid.

Why has the cost of Erfa’s Thy­roid gone up even more than 50%?? His expla­na­tion was three-fold:  it was first a finan­cial deci­sion, since they have never made much of a pro­fit on desic­ca­ted thy­roid. Second, Health Canada requi­res a lot of expen­sive tes­ting from Erfa on pro­ducts. And third, since they buy their pow­de­red desic­ca­ted thy­roid from Europe, an inc­rease in Euros meant they nee­ded to inc­rease the price.

Any final com­ments? Dr. Knafo cla­ri­fied: Erfa has been making Thy­roid for 30 years and not only will that con­ti­nue, they will not change the for­mula. He thinks the sugar in Thy­roid is what makes absorp­tion so good, and that will con­ti­nue as an ingre­dient just as it is.  Nothing will change! To see ingre­dients of Erfa’s Thy­roid and other brands, go here.

You can read more about Erfa from my Sep­tem­ber 2^nd post.   Thank you to Dr. Knafo for being so can­did and informative!

See my post below about my mother, who lived her entire adult life under­trea­ted on T4 with depres­sion and elec­tric shock treat­ment and had no inter­net to com­pare notes. If you have a rela­tive from the past with a simi­lar story, add the story to the Comments.

*HO HO HO! Have a STTM book sent to someone  you care about as a CHRISTMAS or HOLIDAY pre­sent. A card will be inc­lu­ded, and the book will be in an enve­lope with a red bow!! Save money the more you buy!