Armour versus over-the-counter dessicated thyroid
Ann Cummings
that was prescribing Armour." Haven't found another endo who will
accept my insurance.
OK. So I went to the health food store and bought some dessicated
thyroid. The bottle says 1 pill is 50 mg raw thyroid.
The information sent by Forest Pharmaceuticals about Armour says that
Armour Thyroid is available in l/4 grain, 1/2 grain, 1 grain, and up to
5 grains. 1 grain contain 38 mcg levothyroxine (T4) and 9 mcg
liothyronine (T3) which is suppose to approximate the human biological
potency of T3 and T4.
So I'm thinking about taking l/4 tablet daily of the Health food store
dessicated thyroid.
Any comments, please?
AH
ask or someone else suggested you talk to your pharmacist - he will tell you
who in your area is prescribing it. the stuff from a health food store is
not a drug, not an FDA inspected and approved medication and that's what you
need. Armour can be prescribed.
Ann Cummings wrote in message <35BDA10B...@home.com>...
AH
which is natural, and must be prescribed by a doctor) , my posting was about
unregulated, uncontrolled stuff from health food stores. don't confuse
Armour with health food store stuff. Armour works well for some people and
there's lots of proof of this. my posting wasn't about armour vs.
synthetics but about the danger of self-medication with a product not likely
to contain the hormones a hypo needs and certainly not containing a
controlled dosage.
dtyler wrote in message ...
>I'm hearing more bad experiences from people taking the synthetic thyroid
>than the raw. Perhaps we should take a closer look at the raw. Can anyone
>give us some scientific "proof" that this raw thyroid doesn't work, is
gonna
>kill us, etc.
>
>thank you
>Patty
>
>AH wrote in message <6pl3ab$5cb$1...@Nntp1.mcs.net>...
>>don't waste your time. find a doc who prescribes it
>
Ted Huston
> OK. So I went to the health food store and bought some dessicated
> thyroid. The bottle says 1 pill is 50 mg raw thyroid.
> So I'm thinking about taking l/4 tablet daily of the Health food store
> dessicated thyroid.
>
> Any comments, please?
Presumably you are talking about a US health food store (may not
necessarily apply to some foreign stores, I don't know)....
This form of desiccated thyroid CANNOT have measurable amounts
of the T4 and T3 in them; these are regulated drugs, subject to
FDA restrictions. In other words, all your calculations can
be thrown out the window. There may be SOME tiny (AND LIKELY
VARIABLE - - DANGER! WILL ROBINSON) amounts of T4/T3 residuals
left in them, but consider the processing that had to occur
to remove the T4/T3....yuck. If you are seeing an endo that
has (or wants to do so) put you on some variant of the synthetic
T4, then you are already decidedly hypothyroid and would do
far better with the real, regulated/standardized drugs (YES,
this includes Armour!!); if not an endo, there are plenty of
real doctors out there that will prescribe Armour.
On the other hand, if this endo wasn't even convinced that
you are hypo, you MAY be borderline. The only value of these
"raw thyroid" concoctions is for people that are hypo solely
due to an iodine deficiency.....NOT very likely in an industrial
country (in fact, we are often getting too much iodine in our
diets, which CAN have the same net effect of shutting down the
thyroid gland). And then, because of the processing to remove
the T4/T3, (again: YUCK), kelp would be a better alternative
source. My humble opinions only.
--
Ted Huston dr...@umich.edu
"Rectal exam revealed a normal size thyroid" -- from medical
interview records written by ER receptionists.
nOFuTuRe
felt energized and able to function better. That motivated me to go
find me a doctor who would prescribe it for me, which I did manage to
do, via a recommended doctor from the Broda Barnes Foundation.
Find a doctor, then you will be safely monitored as you treat your
symptoms.
Kent
On Tue, 28 Jul 1998 16:50:52 GMT, Ann Cummings <what...@home.com>
wrote:
>My doctor said that there was "no endocrinologist in the United States
>that was prescribing Armour." Haven't found another endo who will
>accept my insurance.
>
>OK. So I went to the health food store and bought some dessicated
>thyroid. The bottle says 1 pill is 50 mg raw thyroid.
>
>The information sent by Forest Pharmaceuticals about Armour says that
>Armour Thyroid is available in l/4 grain, 1/2 grain, 1 grain, and up to
>5 grains. 1 grain contain 38 mcg levothyroxine (T4) and 9 mcg
>liothyronine (T3) which is suppose to approximate the human biological
>potency of T3 and T4.
>
SPiper1026
levels very closely until you find the amount you need.
I think it is bull about the Armour. The doctors just do not like using it.
It is not as easy. So of the natural md will give you Armour.
stephyl...@my-dejanews.com
In article <35BE64...@umich.edu>,
Ted Huston <dr...@umich.edu> wrote:
> Ann Cummings wrote:
> > OK. So I went to the health food store and bought some dessicated
> > thyroid. The bottle says 1 pill is 50 mg raw thyroid.
> <snip...imagined equivalent Armour values...>
> > So I'm thinking about taking l/4 tablet daily of the Health food store
> > dessicated thyroid.
> >
> > Any comments, please?
>
> Presumably you are talking about a US health food store (may not
> necessarily apply to some foreign stores, I don't know)....
> This form of desiccated thyroid CANNOT have measurable amounts
> of the T4 and T3 in them; these are regulated drugs, subject to
> FDA restrictions. In other words, all your calculations can
> be thrown out the window. There may be SOME tiny (AND LIKELY
> VARIABLE - - DANGER! WILL ROBINSON) amounts of T4/T3 residuals
> left in them, but consider the processing that had to occur
> to remove the T4/T3....yuck
Not so, Ted; the health food industry isn't as regulated as you think (see
the abstracts below). A few weeks ago, I was desperate enough that I took
advantage of this astonishing lack of regulation. (I had a TSH of 14.0, a job
interview and presentation ten days into the future, and a doctor who refused
to prescribe some T3 in order to help me break through my mental fog and
torpor in time for the interview.) I added one capsule of 40 mg bovine
freeze-dried thyroid to my daily 88 microgram T4, tapering off after just
five days when I realized I would overshoot (and overshoot I did -- my
resting pulse rate went from 48 to 80 by day eight; by interview time I was
comfortably down to 65/min).
My general practitioner knows that I am continuing to self-treat with health
food store thyroid, and that seems to be fine with her as long as she can
chalk it down to patient noncompliance rather than anything for which she
must accept some responsibility. And having tried whole thyroid (now at very
low supplemental dose) I'm quite convinced I had been missing out on feeling
optimal for some time (even during times when my TSH was low normal). Some
day I'll find a doctor who will prescribe Armour for me; that won't happen
while I'm chained by the miserable level of healthcare afforded by my
university HMO, however.
If similar desperations motivate others to self-treat, please be very careful
and dose conservatively; I would begin adding freeze-dried bovine hormone to
an existing regimen at no more than 15 mg daily.
Stephanie
---
J Fam Pract 1994 Mar;38(3):287-288
Desiccated thyroid in a nutritional supplement.
Eliason BC, Doenier JA, Nuhlicek DN
Department of Family and Community, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
53226.
Nutritional or vitamin supplements, which are largely unregulated by the Food
and Drug Administration (FDA) and are sold in health food stores and through
mail-order catalogs, may contain various combinations and doses of vitamins,
minerals, herbs, chemicals, and animal tissues. Some of the products marketed
as nutritional supplements contain desiccated porcine or bovine thyroid. A
patient came to our family practice center with resting tachycardia,
amenorrhea, and weight loss. She had been taking a nutritional supplement
containing desiccated thyroid for 3 months. Laboratory studies confirmed the
presence of hyperthyroidism. The daily recommended and consumed dose of the
product she had been taking exceeded the normal replacement dose by two to
three times. There is potential for harm in the unregulated availability and
distribution of desiccated thyroid to the public.
---
Arch Intern Med 1989 Sep;149(9):2117-2118
'Natural' desiccated thyroid. A 'health-food' thyroid preparation.
Sawin CT, London MH
Medical Service, Veterans Administration Medical Center, Boston, MA.
"Natural" thyroid preparations, a type of bovine desiccated thyroid, are sold
without prescription in "health-food" stores or by mail; they may or may not
contain thyroid hormone. One such preparation was the cause of erratic thyroid
test results in a patient who took it instead of thyroxine. Further study
showed that the preparation contained biologically active thyroid hormone and
was capable of causing hyperthyroidism. Natural thyroid preparations are
biologically active yet unstandardized; because the hormonal content of a
natural thyroid product is unknown, its use as a substitute for thyroxine can
lead either to relapse of hypothyroidism or to hyperthyroidism.
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Dr. Paul Lynn and Dr. Joel Lopez
On Tuesday, July 28, 1998 at 12:00:00 AM UTC-7, Ann Cummings wrote:
> My doctor said that there was "no endocrinologist in the United States
> that was prescribing Armour." Haven't found another endo who will
> accept my insurance.
>
> thyroid. The bottle says 1 pill is 50 mg raw thyroid.
>
> Armour Thyroid is available in l/4 grain, 1/2 grain, 1 grain, and up to
> 5 grains. 1 grain contain 38 mcg levothyroxine (T4) and 9 mcg
> liothyronine (T3) which is suppose to approximate the human biological
> potency of T3 and T4.
>