hypothyroid tags

This past Satur­day, while brow­sing at the next-to-last garage sale (one of my favo­rite Satur­day mor­ning events), my ears per­ked up like a bunny when I heard a gal chat­ting with the owner of the house.  I heard things like “sick for 5 years…fibromyalgia…a lot of pain all over my body…had to quit my job and live with my parents…in bed for two years…they had to bath me...” and more mise­ra­ble ima­ges of something she was clearly glad to be over.

So, while my hus­band sat in the car with the patience of a saint, I lin­ge­red. When she finished chat­ting and was hea­ding to her car, I wal­ked towards her and said gin­gerly “I overheard your con­ver­sa­tion. Can I ask you about the fibrom­yal­gia and your expe­rience??” I couldn’t help myself.

As a Thy­roid Patient Acti­vist who has stood up to the inane allo­pathic fai­lure in the diag­no­sis and treat­ment of hypothy­roi­dism, I knew that the majo­rity of cases of “fibrom­yal­gia” were due to undiag­no­sed or poorly treat­ment hypothy­roi­dism, as well as the accom­pan­ying hell of adre­nal fati­gue,  thanks to the gar­bage can TSH lab test or the stu­pi­dity of T4-only treat­ment like Synth­roid.  Yet, here was a young woman, Mel, who was now the pic­ture of health. What was her story??

Mel’s story was a tale of sud­den onset follo­wed by five years of misery, all over body pain,  immense fati­gue, utter hel­pless­ness, debi­li­ta­tion, and neck lymph nodes SO swo­llen that they loo­ked like two huge goi­ters – right and left. It was also a sce­na­rio of no firm diag­no­ses, yet no hesi­ta­tion by doc­tors to make stabs– from fibrom­yal­gia to an unk­nown chro­nic fati­gue disorder.

But I knew right away what she pro­bably had: acute Eps­tein Barr Virus (EBV) reactivation.

I knew because I had the exact same malady which once took away more than a year of my life (as com­pa­red to Mel’s horri­fic five years).  And like her, with the use of medi­ta­tion (and in my case, intense ima­gery and homeo­pathics), I got well as if it never happened.

And we also sha­red a rea­son why the EBV virus became acti­va­ted in our bodies in the first place: STRESS.  For Mel, it appea­red to have nothing to do with anything thyroid-related, but an extre­mely stress­ful helping-vocation that was eating her alive. For me, it was the stress of having to be where I didn’t want to be, fee­ling overtly powerless…and on top of being on the lousy Synthroid.

And for thy­roid patients all over the world, inc­lu­ding you, the risk of reac­ti­va­tion of the Eps­tein Barr Virus is a cons­tant threat. It can result from one or more of the follo­wing bio­lo­gi­cal stresses:

• being undiag­no­sed thanks to the ina­de­quate TSH lab test
• being on a T4 medi­ca­tion like Synth­roid, Levoxyl, Levothy­ro­xine, Eltro­xin, Oro­xine, etc
• falling into low cor­ti­sol from adre­nal fatigue
• having chro­nic side issues pulling your body down such as glu­ten into­le­rance or celiac, low ferri­tin, poor diges­tion, or making mis­ta­kes in your treatment

Even worse, add life’s stres­ses as icing on the cake, and you’re a sit­ting duck for the risk of reac­ti­va­ted EBV.

What is EBV? Eps­tein Barr Virus,  also called human her­pes­vi­rus 4 ( HHV-4) is an oppor­tu­nis­tic virus that actually lies dor­mant in at least 95% of all adults over their 30’s. It’s what cau­ses mono­nuc­leo­sis, aka “mono”, as a tee­na­ger,  but you don’t have to have had mono to carry the dor­mant virus. Wiki­pe­dia sta­tes that it also pro­bably has a pri­mary role in many autoim­mune disea­ses, inc­lu­ding ” der­ma­tom­yo­si­tis, sys­te­mic lupus erythe­ma­to­sus, rheu­ma­toid arth­ri­tis, Sjogren’s syn­drome, and mul­ti­ple scle­ro­sis.” i.e. this is one nasty virus!

Why do so many thy­roid patients find them­sel­ves with it? Millions of thy­roid patients live their lives com­pro­mi­sed due to being on T4-only meds like Synth­roid, Levoxyl, levothy­ro­xine, Eltro­xin, Oro­xine, and other T4 med brands.  Addi­tio­nally, patients find them­sel­ves with poorly func­tio­ning adre­nals, poor diges­tion and other con­di­tions rela­ted to a poor treat­ment – all adding to a lowe­red immune sys­tem, which allows the oppor­tu­nis­tic EBV virus to take ahold, espe­cially in the face of extreme or chro­nic life stress.

What are symp­toms of a reac­ti­va­ted EBV? It can vary from patient-to-patient, but can inc­lude easy and excess fati­gue, achi­ness, joint pain, all over body pain, swo­llen lymph nodes, slight fever, rin­ging in the ears, and a gene­ral I-don’t-feel-well. When my EBV anti­bo­dies were acute, I would be in bed for 2 – 3 days after pulling weeds for just twenty minu­tes while sea­ted.  I couldn’t gro­cery shop; I couldn’t do hou­se­work. Nothing. Nada. I also had cons­tant rin­ging in the ears and achiness.

How do I find out if I have it?? Ask your doc­tor to send you to a lab to be tes­ted for it.   Or you can use Healthcheck USA–scroll down on the lat­ter link to find the test. Put STTM10 in the form to get a discount.

How do I treat it?? It’s not easy. I per­so­nally bene­fit­ted from taking a presc­ri­bed anti-virus medi­ca­tion. Though that les­se­ned my symp­toms by 50%, it wasn’t enough. I then moved to homeo­pathic medi­ca­tions and some dedi­ca­ted men­tal ima­gery to finally get rid of it, as well as lots of rest and the immune enhan­cing sup­port of vita­mins, mine­rals, sup­ple­ments plus healthy stra­te­gies i.e. wha­te­ver it takes to nou­rish your immune sys­tem. Nou­rishing sup­ple­ments inc­lude high dose Vit. C (2000 mg mini­mum),  Vit E as mixed tocophe­rals,  sele­nium (200 — 400 mcg), mush­room extracts, CoQ10, high dose B-vitamins, mine­rals plus plenty of healthy and raw foods.  And ulti­ma­tely as a thy­roid patient, being on a MUCH bet­ter hypothy­roid treat­ment with natu­ral desic­ca­ted thy­roid is the key, besi­des trea­ting one’s adre­nal fati­gue, glu­ten or diges­tive issues, low ferri­tin, and all other rela­ted conditions.

Bot­tom line, once you are ade­qua­tely trea­ting your thy­roid pro­blem (see the current Options for Thy­roid Treat­ment), addres­sing poten­tial adre­nal fati­gue, low ferri­tin, glu­ten issues, low B12, for exam­ple, and using good stress mana­ge­ment in the face of pres­su­res within your life, your risk of having a reac­ti­va­tion of the dor­mant EBV virus is very low.

I am blown away by the mag­ni­tude of what I have dis­co­ve­red just recently. And this poten­tially invol­ves YOU.

I had seve­ral labs done just to keep track of how I stood in seve­ral areas. One was RBC Mag­ne­sium.  “RBC” (red blood cell) mea­su­res the intra­ce­llu­lar levels of mag­ne­sium – a more accu­rate pic­ture than a “serum” mea­su­re­ment of your mag­ne­sium, which only mea­su­res 1% (and sadly, most doc­tors only mea­sure your serum levels). i.e. even if your serum mea­su­re­ment was nor­mal, your cellu­lar levels may NOT be.

And my result?? My RBC mag­ne­sium mea­su­red at the bot­tom, very bot­tom, of the range. I was shoc­ked. I eat healthy, and have been giving myself liquid mine­rals off and on for awhile. But clearly, I have been una­ble to raise my mag­ne­sium level. When I tried to raise my sup­ple­men­ta­tion, I’d have to runnnn to the bathroom.

So I ope­ned a book that a good friend gave me: Trans­der­mal Mag­ne­sium The­rapy by Mark Sir­cus, OMD. And folks, I am blown away. Here is what I have lear­ned, and YOU may need to as well:

Mag­ne­sium Deficiency

• Affects at least 7 out of 10 rea­ding this
• Can be there even if you feel well (me); will be there if you have mal-absorption (think glu­ten issues)
• Is com­mon with dia­be­tes, liver disease, and if you take or eat a lot of calcium
• Is espe­cially pro­ble­ma­tic if you drink alcohol, sodas, caf­feine and excess sugar, have a stress­ful life, sweat a lot, or take birth con­trol pills
• Inc­rea­ses your risk of heart disease, stro­kes, musc­les pro­blems, can­cer and many other illnesses
• Is com­mon in a stress­ful life (and espe­cially so if you have adre­nal fati­gue, or you are a Type A personality)
• Can be even worse than a lab test reveals
• Is found in someone like me who eats right!!

How a defi­ciency of mag­ne­sium affects you

• Can cause heart disease (and exa­cer­ba­tes my Mitral Valve Pro­lapse), plus strokes
• Pro­mo­tes tooth decay, muscle cram­ping (me for over a decade)
• Lowers your immune sys­tem strength, energy levels, meta­bo­lism (I have to eat like a mouse, even on desic­ca­ted thyroid)
• Inc­rea­ses blood pres­sure (mine has risen at the same time I’ve noti­ced leg cramps…hmmmm)
• Dec­rea­ses your body’s abi­lity to use Vit. C and E
• Lowers the pro­duc­tion, func­tion and trans­port of insulin
• Cau­ses an inc­rease of toxins and acid in your body (think ciga­ret­tes, radia­tion, toxins in food/water/air)
• Makes you sus­cep­ti­ble to host of disea­ses and conditions

Why you need higher levels of magnesium

• Helps the meta­bo­lism of carbs, fats and amino acids and influen­ces 325 enzymes
• Coun­te­racts and regu­la­tes the influence of cal­cium, which can harm you if too much
• Is requi­red for the body to pro­duce and store energy (just like desic­ca­ted thyroid)
• Calms the brain
• Remo­ves toxins along with Vit. C
• Inc­rea­ses the effi­ciency of white blood cells (your immune system)
• Helps pre­vent can­cer and slows down the course of can­cer (along with zinc and selenium!)
• Can raise tes­tos­te­rone levels in men (and with zinc)
• Relie­ves pain! (impor­tant news for those with arth­ri­tis or other pain issues)
• Does the oppo­site of what is lis­ted above about how defi­cien­cies affect you
• Is nearly mira­cu­lous for the depth and scope of its application
• Saves billions of dollars as well as millions of lives

How will I treat my own low mag­ne­sium?? After con­fir­ming my situa­tion via the RBC Mag­ne­sium lab test (very impor­tant to first find out. My doc­tor did it through Quest Labs),  I know I can’t improve it with oral sup­ple­ments. The amount I would need simply cau­ses diarrhea.

Ins­tead, I am follo­wing the infor­ma­tion I’ve read in this book and heard about from others: the use of  “mag­ne­sium oil”, which is mag­ne­sium chlo­ride, and I’ll be rub­bing it on my skin and follo­wing the infor­ma­tion on how much. That is appa­rently the best way to give myself enough mag­ne­sium. I have per­so­nally orde­red the Ancient Mine­rals brand–found it on the net. I may also use mag­ne­sium salts in water, soa­king my feet in it. I plan on making sure my hus­band is tes­ted, as I strongly sus­pect he is low as a dia­be­tic with diges­tive issues.

Have ques­tions about this? Get the book from the web or your favo­rite books­tore. Half.com has seve­ral copies. There is much more detail than I lis­ted above which blew me away!

Yes, I feel really good with my natu­ral desic­ca­ted thy­roid in the treat­ment of my hypothy­roid. But I want to be healthy in all areas, and this is one that looks impor­tant to me. (Thanks Stephanie)

A patient recently repor­ted on Face­book that a par­ti­cu­lar large and well-known health cen­ter in Texas deci­ded to make their own com­poun­ded natu­ral desic­ca­ted thy­roid for their hypothy­roid patients…with cellulose.

Having read my blog posts about wides­pread nega­tive patient expe­rience with cellu­lose, she told the phar­macy that many of us have noti­ced dis­tinct pro­blems with the addi­tion of cellu­lose in our desic­ca­ted thy­roid medi­ca­tions – exactly why the newly for­mu­la­ted Armour cau­sed too many patients to see a return of their hypothy­roid symp­toms. Natu­reth­roid has not esca­ped the same fate for some.

When she asked if they could remove the cellu­lose, she recei­ved a firm and con­des­cen­ding “No” from the phar­ma­cist, refe­rring to cellu­lose as “a com­mon ingre­dient in many medi­ca­tions and not a problem.”

Not a pro­blem? Once again, patients are dis­mis­sed as if we couldn’t pos­sibly know what works, and what doesn’t work, in our treat­ment and in our own bodies. A sha­me­ful rea­lity. She left disap­poin­ted. 

What is cellu­lose? Cellu­lose is the most com­mon orga­nic subs­tance found on our pla­net – a fiber abun­dantly found in plants and trees, and most espe­cially in cotton.

Where is cellu­lose used? You wear it and you write on it! You eat it when you con­sume celery, pota­toes, or mush­rooms. It’s used to sta­bi­lize and thic­ken pro­ces­sed foods, and may be found in many chee­ses, dry milk, pud­dings, and more. And since it’s dif­fi­cult to find anyone aller­gic to wood, it’s been a com­mon ingre­dient in medi­ca­tions, used as a filler.

So where’s the pro­blem for thy­roid patients?

1. Unlike the happy cows in their pas­tu­res che­wing their cuds, human sto­machs  have a limi­ted abi­lity to break cellu­lose down. Cellu­lose is a fiber. And what does fiber do? It “binds”. It binds to the desic­ca­ted thy­roid that has gone down with it.  i.e. the life-changing effects of desic­ca­ted thy­roid are clearly dam­pe­ned by the pre­sence of cellu­lose. Our “expe­rience” has revea­led it all across the globe since Armour was refor­mu­la­ted with an inc­rease of cellu­lose in the mix.  i.e. we have wit­nes­sed a mas­sive return of hypothy­roid symp­toms on the newly for­mu­la­ted Armour, and to some degree, on Natu­reth­roid, whether the lat­ter switched to mic­rocrys­ta­lline cellu­lose or not (as com­pa­red to the lar­ger celled methylcellulose).
2. Hypothy­roid patients do not digest well. As one of many com­pli­ca­tions of hypothy­roi­dism,  espe­cially due to the ina­de­quate treat­ment of T4-only medi­ca­tions and poor diag­no­sis from the TSH lab test,  low sto­mach acid and poor diges­tion is COMMON in hypothy­roid patients.  So when you add cellu­lose to the mix, you are further dam­ning thy­roid patients.
3. Though not spe­ci­fic to just thy­roid patients, we are not too com­for­ta­ble with fin­ding out that cellu­lose can collect in our lungs, as revea­led in pub­med artic­les here and here.  (Thanks to thy­roid patient Danny for aler­ting me to this.)

Bot­tom line, desic­ca­ted thy­roid is a qua­lity and supe­rior treat­ment medi­ca­tion which has chan­ged the lives ten-fold for thy­roid patients around the world.

But cellu­lose and desic­ca­ted thy­roid DO NOT MIX. And BRAVO to those com­poun­ding phar­ma­cies who have lis­te­ned and have used the bene­fi­cial pro­bio­tic aci­dophi­lus as a filler. We appre­ciate you.

P.S. I abso­lu­tely loved this com­ment made by another patient on Face­book when we were dis­cus­sing the grief of taking our last pre-formulated Armour: Would love to get my hands on some old Armour again.…those were the days my friends…

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Want to know your options for bet­ter thy­roid treat­ment?? Go here.

Need help fin­ding a good doc­tor? Go here.

Think desic­ca­ted thy­roid didn’t work for you?? Go here.

See com­mon Ques­tions and Ans­wers here.

I am plea­sed to note that Mary Sho­mon of about.com,  who in her blog post on Thurs­day, April 22, 2010, has not only sof­te­ned her wor­ding about self-treatment by hypothy­roid patients, but has also writ­ten expres­si­vely con­cer­ning surroun­ding issues. These are also issues which I pre­sen­ted in two blog posts ear­lier this week con­cer­ning the immense pro­blem with doc­tors as expres­sed by patients, and self-treatment.

Good for Mary!

As wit­nes­sed by Sheila Turner’s exce­llent edi­to­rial towards those who cri­ti­cize self-treatment, as well as angst expres­sed by many patients toward those who cri­ti­cize,  self-treatment is an impor­tant issue and can’t be dilu­ted down as simply “self-destructive” in our current medi­cal climate.

The follo­wing are dif­fe­ren­ces in how this is vie­wed, though, with one com­mon thought:

• Is self-treatment one  of the “most con­tro­ver­sial” issues with thy­roid patients? The ans­wer is “only to those who make it so”. Far more trou­bling to thy­roid patients is a medi­cal esta­blish­ment which worships a medi­ca­tion which has left millions under­trea­ted, and which makes a pitui­tary hor­mone lab called the TSH as if it’s from God Almighty. Equally as trou­bling to patients are doc­tors whom they report as con­des­cen­ding, close-minded, robo­tic, and/or igno­rant about issues that keep thy­roid patients sick – low ferri­tin, adre­nal fati­gue, and more. Self-treatment is only the symp­tom of a much lar­ger, more con­tro­ver­sial problem.
• Does self-treatment have “obvious draw­backs” for thy­roid patients who feel for­ced to do it? The ans­wer is “yes”, but no dif­fe­rent and pro­bably far less than the “obvious draw­backs” patients face with clue­less doc­tors.  The com­ments on my blog posts are bloa­ted with patients who have been left sick, or made sic­ker, by one doc­tor, after another doc­tor, after one more.  It’s not a pretty picture.
• Is there a “risk of under­treat­ment” for thy­roid patients who self-treat? Yes, but pro­bably far less  than the huge num­ber of patients who report being left “under­trea­ted” by doc­tors who are blind to the pro­blems of T4, or doc­tors who remain clue­less about the ina­de­quacy of trea­ting by the TSH.
• Is the “grea­test con­cern” about self-treatment the pro­blem of being “over-medicated”? You betcha. But in the vast majo­rity of these unfor­tu­nate cases with patients who choose to self-treat, the pro­blem is undiag­no­sed or under­trea­ted low cor­ti­sol and/or low ferri­tin, which results in thy­roid hor­mo­nes poo­ling in the blood and crea­ting hyper-like symp­toms.  This is a risk for self-treatment.
• Have “dozens of thy­roid patients” ended up in emer­gency rooms due to over-medication? “Dozens” is spe­cu­la­tion.  It may be more rea­lis­tic to state that “some”, yes, have sta­ted this unfor­tu­nate out­come when they made the choice.  But research and com­ment all over the inter­net shows anyone that hun­dreds of thou­sands of all patients can end up in the emer­gency room due to poor doc­to­ral deci­sions, or bad reac­tions to phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal medi­ca­tions which doc­tors love to presc­ribe. Ending up in an emer­gency room is not solely con­nec­ted to self-treatment.
• Do “patients face many major obs­tac­les that pre­vent them from get­ting accu­rate and effec­tive thy­roid diag­no­sis and treat­ment?” Yes! That is where Mary is in agree­ment with me with her six exce­llent  points, inc­lu­ding the tra­gic situa­tion in the UK. And here are 10 rea­sons patients are frus­tra­ted, angry and sick.
• Has one nega­tive jour­nal article about someone who self-treated “resul­ted in desic­ca­ted thy­roid  get­ting grea­ter scru­tiny by the FDA?” The ans­wer can easily be:  no worse than the body of patients who were made fear­ful that the FDA was ban­ning desic­ca­ted thy­roid, and who follo­wed a strong cam­paign to con­tact the FDA about desic­ca­ted thy­roid. I was also per­so­nally told by two phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal repre­sen­ta­ti­ves that this action to con­tact the FDA made the pharms very uncom­for­ta­ble and put too much atten­tion on desic­ca­ted thy­roid. Time will tell, but it’s not help­ful to blame anything.
• Does “acti­vely pro­mo­ting self-medication” with natu­ral desic­ca­ted thy­roid “work against thy­roid patient inte­rests”. The ans­wer to this loa­ded ques­tion resi­des in who you ask. Whether “acti­vely pro­mo­ted” or simply “read about”, there seems to be a body of patients who report that fin­ding out about desic­ca­ted thy­roid, and fee­ling for­ced to self-treat because of not fin­ding any doc­tor to help them, was one of the best deci­sions they ever made.

And to the last com­ment above, and since there have been “impli­ca­tions”, I want to unders­core (and ad nau­seum) that the patient-to-patient Stop the Thy­roid Mad­ness was not crea­ted as a self-treatment site, nor does it “acti­vely pro­mote” it.  STTM is a site with a goal to edu­cate patients who can, in turn, take that infor­ma­tion into their doc­tors offi­ces and push for change. And it’s been wor­king, one doc­tor at a time, as wit­nes­sed by patients who report those doc­tors on patient groups, and by emails I get from some of those doctors.

But it’s also clear that those who self-medicate may be using STTM, as well as many other web­si­tes and books out there by doc­tors, advo­ca­tes and non-professionals alike, to help them. So at least there is edu­ca­tion out there to help those who choose this, even if none was crea­ted for that purpose.

Sum­mary

There are impor­tant dif­fe­ren­ces in opi­nion, and much more to the story as I out­li­ned above.

But the bot­tom line is this: for up to 60 years, hun­dreds of millions of thy­roid patients around the world have been sub­jec­ted to

1. a medi­ca­tion called thy­ro­xine which has left a heap of lin­ge­ring hypothy­roid symp­toms,
2. a new debi­li­ta­ting con­di­tion like adre­nal fati­gue,
3. a lab test (TSH) which has dela­yed diag­no­sis for years or kept patients under­trea­ted, and
4. too many doc­tors who aren’t up to speed about most any of this, and have left patients frus­tra­ted, angry and still sick.

And all the above is a far worse sce­na­rio which only pushes some patients to self-treat as a side-effect. But if  you aren’t totally wiped out finan­cially and emo­tio­nally in trying to find an infor­med doc, two sug­ges­tions: http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/how-to-find-a-good-doc as well as pos­ting your city/state in the sub­ject line of patient groups here: http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/talk-to-others

P.S. Please note that you will never see this blog, or this web­site, kno­wingly allow non-professional,  nega­tive, nasty, false, abu­sive and/or pro­found slan­der about a collea­gue, as has been done elsewhere.

It’s been about a year since Armour desic­ca­ted thy­roid, a very popu­lar presc­rip­tion natu­ral thy­roid pro­duct on the mar­ket for deca­des, was refor­mu­la­ted. Forest Labs sta­ted there were two chan­ges: the rai­sing of cellu­lose, and the lowe­ring of sucrose.

Why did they do this? It could be strongly rela­ted to the fact that in late 2007 through 2008, patients who used the 3 grain tablets repor­ted they were sud­denly and enti­rely inef­fec­tive. So, many of us sur­mise that Forest was attemp­ting to “improve” (cough) their product.

Says one of those patients:  I had switched to the 3 grain tablet months before to save money and I used my pill cut­ter to cut it in half.  Then around Novem­ber, my work pants were get­ting tight and I would come home tired, achy and weak. It didn’t take me long to figure out that Armour in the 3 grain was now like a sugar pill!

In the mean­time, Forest brought out the newly for­mu­la­ted Armour, & patients who finished their old batch star­ted the new batch. And since then, it appears a large body of patients have run as fast as they could to Natu­reth­roid, or com­poun­ded, or T4/T3 or Erfa. The rea­son: a return of for­mer hypo symp­toms on the “new” Armour.

I have com­ple­ted an infor­mal sur­vey with 24 indi­vi­duals res­pon­ding, and asked the follo­wing ques­tions. After each ques­tion, I give a sum­mary of the answers.

1. How long of doing well occu­rred on the newly refor­mu­la­ted Armour before you star­ted to notice that you weren’t doing well?

Most ans­wers are in the area of 2 – 3 months, with three saying a month, one 4 months, and three sta­ting a few weeks. And com­pa­ring this to com­ments we’ve been seeing for the past year on patient groups, it’s com­mon to feel good at first, but to crash within that 2 – 3 months.

2. What clued you in that you weren’t doing well on the new Armour?

The ans­wers are all over the map: fati­gue and exhaus­tion, hair loss, brain fog, weight gain, slee­ping pro­blems, cons­ti­pa­tion, achi­ness, depres­sion, hor­mo­nal pro­blems, moo­di­ness, dry skin/elbows/thumbs and crac­king skin, fla­king fin­ger­nails, heart irre­gu­la­rity, for­get­ful­ness. Five report skin brea­kouts simi­lar to poi­son ivy.  Fati­gue and hair loss were the most com­mon answers.

3. Did you try rai­sing it? What were the results?

The majo­rity tried rai­sing it, and results were: no results; barely made any dif­fe­rence: more energy but skin was a mess. The majo­rity said nothing hap­pe­ned. Two dou­bled it with no sig­ni­fi­cant results.  Two deve­lo­ped fast heart rate with no impro­ve­ments elsewhere. One had to lower it because of a very low TSH. One sta­ted she rai­sed it to get her labs back up to where they were before…with little impro­ve­ments.  And one said it made her too hot to con­ti­nue rai­sing it.

4. Did you try adding T3 to it? What were the results?

All said no. One said she tes­ted here RT3 ratio and it was 11, which is bad.  One sta­ted she asked her doc­tor for T3; he said no. I’d sure like to find someone who did add T3 who could tell us the results.

5. Did you do anything else to try and make the refor­mu­la­ted Armour work, and did it help?

All repor­ted nothing hel­ped enough.  Many sta­ted their doc­tors tes­ted for other pro­blems, ran­ging from heavy metals, low iodine, B12 – the lat­ter hel­ped one gal’s tin­gling. One sta­ted her doc put her on Apro­to­col for the diges­tive tract which hel­ped the cons­ti­pa­tion but nothing else chan­ged. One added com­poun­ded desic­ca­ted thy­roid to her Armour — it didn’t help. One gal tried Thyro-care, which hel­ped. But she and two others report get­ting a poison-ivy like skin rash on the new Armour.

Currently, we see newly diag­no­sed patients put on the new Armour, and vete­rans can’t help but won­der what will hap­pen to them.

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On my April 17^th blog post, read 10 rea­sons thy­roid patients are still frus­tra­ted, angry and sick. That is follo­wed by the April 19^th blog post Should thy­roid patients avoid self-treatment at all costs, with an inte­res­ting and strong Guest Post by Sheila Tur­ner of TPA-UK and a good follo­wup to the for­mer 10 rea­sons post.

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