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Finally! The 2011 REVISED SECOND EDITION of the Stop the Thyroid Madness book!

YEEHAW!!

Three years ago this month, the book Stop the Thyroid Madness: A Patient Revolution Against Decades of Inferior Treatment came out with quiet fanfare–a complete patient-to-patient book chock full of information based on the successful experience of thyroid patients worldwide.  As the messenger of that information, I had a strong purpose: to create INFORMED patients who can then demand change in their doctors offices. Pro-active patients!  Educated patients!

But the reaction to it wasn’t quiet!

Thyroid patients have reported it was changing their lives.  To date, the STTM book has been sent, and in multiple copies, to Antiqua/ Barbuda, Austria, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Malaysia, New Zealand, Netherlands,  Norway, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, and the UK. That doesn’t include the high volume amount of copies sent to US patients, doctors, and individuals in all 50 states and Puerto Rico.

Amazingly, yet not surprisingly, patients were discovering new information even a few months after the First Edition was published three years ago.  As a result, Laughing Grape Publishing LLC had to add, and continually update, a bookmark of updated information into all its books ordered directly from the publishing company.

Today, in the REVISED SECOND EDITION, all that extra patient information has been added, plus a LOT more.

  • 36 more pages, by and for patients, plus changes & additions in every single chapter
  • Much more detail on adrenal and HPA dysfunction and how to treat it
  • Recognizing and dealing with Reverse T3
  • Identifying and treating gluten issues as related to Hashimotos disease
  • Iodine-use information in relation to hypothyroid, breast disease, Hashimotos, adrenal dysfunction, etc.
  • More details on labwork preparation, plus what to look for in your results
  • Why you need more than ferritin testing, and details on iron testing
  • Updated information on brands of desiccated thyroid throughout the world, T3-only products, hydrocortisone, and more
  • A completely NEW CHAPTER on supplements & foods which thyroid patients appreciate and use!

And, the price has been kept exactly the same.  Our loss; your gain, in the name of an important movement of needed education and change!

This was NOT an easy book to revise!  I had to go through it with a fine-toothed comb, removing some information, correcting other information, adding a lot more…besides working on making it more readable. I am not a writer by profession. Sometimes I felt like a “cuckoo’s nest mental case”  trying to balance the work on the Revised edition with my other activist responsibilities and a busy private life.  Is it perfect?  Nope.  But as I stated in the First, some information is right on target, some is at least close to the bulls-eye, and other info will fall into place as we continue to learn. That’s why you need to see it as “guide” of patient experience, and to use it to become PROACTIVE in your relationship with your doctor and the entire medical profession.

Today, you can order either copy. As of today, the First Edition has been lowered to 14.95 until supplies run out, which will be soon. The Revised Second Edition is taking pre-orders, and it looks like books will start being sent out in about 7-10 days.

You can go here to see a stand-alone website about the book, as well as here to be among the first to pre-order your copy.

THE STTM BOOK IN OTHER LANGUAGES

Yes, you will eventually be seeing the Revised Second Edition in various languages. That’s in the works right now, and no, I don’t yet know the dates. I’ll announce that here, so be sure and be signed up for this BLOG NOTIFICATION to the left under the links.

KINDLE and E-BOOKS

With no projected dates other than much later this year, you will first see an E-book. Later, we’ll be looking at Kindle. Again, announcements will be made, and you’ll have to be patient.  In the meantime, ordering the book is your best choice right now. Besides, having this book in your lap in the doctor’s office is powerful to many of them, since doctors can have silly thoughts about “internet” information.

And more is coming which will be announced as they occur. 🙂

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More on Acella desiccated thyroid….plus RT3 ratio calculator fine tuned!

 

Screen Shot 2015-11-09 at 12.21.12 PM(This post has been updated to the present day and time. Enjoy!)

In 2011, I had a friendly and informative conversation with Philip Vogt, the President of Acella Pharmaceuticals, and Ellen Gettenberg, Director of Marketing.   Acella is the company which brought out what is often termed a generic form of desiccated thyroid, but appears to be simply another great brand name of NDT. It first caught the eye of thyroid patients in November, 2010.  And I want to pass onto you what I learned:

Acella is different

Acella Pharmaceutical of Georgia, USA, is not like the gigantic pharmaceuticals we often hear about. Instead, they attempt to target the under-served markets, producing medications for particular niches of treatment, or those which are low-profile medications.  They also seek to produce lower-priced competitive versions of certain medications while keeping the quality. Thyroid patients appreciate that, especially after seeing the 2015 horrible rise in price for Armour desiccated thyroid after Forest Labs was bought out by Activias–often triple the original price–besides the fact that patients began to report a return of symptoms.

How they make their version of desiccated thyroid

When it specifically comes to its desiccated thyroid, they go by older version “recipes” – using more dextrose (sugar) and less methylcellulose, which we love  But in their case, the tablets are stated to contain NO cellulose. That is actually good.  Their tablets are also not as hard-pressed as Armour seems to be now. That means patients who like doing their NDT sublingually can make the Acella version work. 

The ingredients

Acella started out with a 65 mg tablet to represent a grain, but by 2011, became a 60 mg tablet for its “grain”.  They also make a 30 mg tablet  (1/2 grain) and a 90 mg tablet (1 1/2 grain). The desiccated thyroid is speculated to come from the same manufactured source as do other brands.

Says the website:

The tablets contain both tetraiodothyronine sodium (T4 levothyroxine) and triiodothyronine sodium (T3 liothyronine) providing 38 mcg levothyroxine (T4) and 9 mcg liothyronine (T3) per grain of thyroid (or per 60 mg of the labeled amount of thyroid). The inactive ingredients are calcium stearate, dextrose (agglomerated) and mineral oil.

Note that like all manufacturers, they use the “synthetic” names for T4 and T3, but desiccated thyroid is NOT synthetic.

Reports by patients

They love it. It’s rare to hear anything negative about it. (If you do have a bad reaction to even Acella’s NP Thyroid, here’s your reason: //www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/ndt-doesnt-work-for-me). So we say “Keep up the good work, Acella!

JanieSignature SEIZE THE WISDOM

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HAVE YOU LIKED THE STOP THE THYROID MADNESS Facebook page? It gives you daily inspiration, information, and discussion on certain topics.

ABOUT THE RT3 ONLINE CALCULATOR on STTM: My brainy techs have added three more combinations to the calculator, so it is now ready-to-go to help you figure out your ratio: //www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/rt3-ratio So far, the feedback is very positive and we have seemed to remove “most” kinks. REMEMBER: you need to put your Free T3/total T3 in first, then all the measurements will appear for the RT3.

WHEN TESTING YOUR THYROID LEVELS: remember NOT to take your desiccated thyroid, or your T3-only, before labs, we learned the hard way. The T3 rises consistently after you take it, giving you false-high reading and freaking your clueless doctor out.  **Picture doctor, eyes bugged out like a giant wasp, looking at lab result** With desiccated thyroid, the T3 will peak in approx. 2 hours, then a slow fall; with T3-only, it can take approximately 4 hours to peak. Recommend labwork found here.

NEED A GOOD PATIENT GROUP? Go here.  Of course, the groups are free and can be very helpful. Or, you can choose a paid consultation with Janie, which seems to be extremely helpful for those who want more immediate feedback and help.

TYPICAL QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS about thyroid, treatment, more issues:  www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/common-questions-answers

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How does your insurance deal with desiccated thyroid?

(Though this post was first written in 2011, it has been  updated to the present day and time. Enjoy!)

Wendy is one of those gals that tries to adhere to “natural” in regards to her medication choices. She switched over to Natural Desiccated Thyroid (NDT) from Synthroid about three months ago.

The transition was slightly trying, says Wendy. Her doctor didn’t believe her that she shouldn’t be on a low starting dose for more than a couple weeks without upping it. So she  went hypothyroid all over again. It’s a common mistake that many doctors make with NDT.

But after successfully upping the dose every few weeks, she will now shout that it’s been the BEST thing  in every way!  She tells folks that being on Synthroid was like having your hand amputated and replaced with a hook, while being on desiccated thyroid was like having it replaced with a fully functional prosthetic.  Her skin is softer, hair is not shedding, her mood has changed in a good way, memory has returned, fogginess has faded. She feels closer to her old self than she has in almost five years.

Now the bad news…

All this time, she only paid $15 for her desiccated thyroid at the local Walgreen’s. But as of April 1st, 2011, it became what is called a Tier 3 drug under her insurance plan–United Healthcare.  Exclaims Wendy in outrage and sadness:  “This means that the natural drug I love, that has restored my in so many ways that the synthetic t4-only drugs never could, will now cost 85 bucks! Who can afford that?! ”

And here’s the awful irony when it comes to her insurance plan: Synthroid, the worst medication ever thrust upon us in the treatment of hypothyroid, is Tier 2 (i.e. costs less), and generic T4-only is Tier 1 (costs even less).  i.e. if you are under this insurance, you have to pay big bucks to feel a thousand times better.  She has no clue why this is happening, but warns that it might start to happen across the board for others as well!

In the United States, most Tiers look like this (and some companies have three tiers, while others have five):

Tier 1 is for generic medications and has the lowest co-pay

Tier 2 is for “preferred” brand name medications, i.e based on “safety, efficacy and cost”, and is the second lowest co-payment. (I put the word preferred in quotes because it’s not based on what changes YOUR life as a thyroid patient.)

Tier 3 is for non-preferred brand name medications or preferred specialty drugs. It’s termed as those drugs which are not typically used as first line of treatment, and have a higher co-pay.

Tier 4 is for specialty medications, i.e those which require special dosing or administration. Highest co-payment.

In the United Kingdom, where the National Health Service (NHS) provides publicly funded health care, there are formularies which specify which medications are available…or not, and one can get Prescription prepayment certificates (PPC) .

In Australia, “Medicare — via the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) — subsidises the cost of around 1,700 ‘necessary and life-saving’ medicines. In fact, most medicines available on prescription are subsidised under the PBS, so just by having a prescription filled you receive the benefit of the subsidy. https://www.justlanded.com/english/Australia/Australia-Guide/Health/Medicines-Chemists

Does your health insurance cover your desiccated thyroid?

JanieSignature SEIZE THE WISDOM

 

 

 

 

 

 

How medical journals affect the prescription practice of your doctor: An interesting article on this found here. And here’s an article about how the author of a medical article fails to state his association with the pharmaceutical of the product he is writing about–one more conflict of interest and influence on your doctor!

Ridiculous! Basing “normal” for Hashimoto’s patients by the TSH, a pituitary hormone, NOT a thyroid hormone: Read it here and weep.

Vit. D can help you stay sharp: So many benefits from optimizing your Vit D, and here’s one with your brain.

Need to talk to others? See all your alternatives here.

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Recall of certain batches of Armour–US, Belgium, UK

If you have 1/2 grain (30 mg)  tablets, a label error caused some one grain tablets (60 mg)  to be labeled as 1/2  grain tablets (30 mgs). That would mean you could be overdosing yourself if you are taking 1/2 grains.  Both sizes need to be returned to your pharmacist with this information and exchanged.  i.e. COPY THIS when you take them back.

NOTE: they would be Lot #: 1077413 with an expiration of  9/30/2011  This is what your pharmacist would need to know.

PRODUCT

Armour Thyroid (thyroid tablets, USP), 1/2 grain (30 mg) , each tablet contains 19 mcg levothyroxine (T4) and 4.5 mcg liothyronine (T3), 100-count bottle, NDC 0456-0458-01. Recall # D-231-2011
CODE
Lot #: 1077413, Exp. 9/30/2011
RECALLING FIRM/MANUFACTURER
Recalling Firm: Forest Pharmaceuticals Inc., Earth City, MO, by telephone and letters on October 6, 2010. 
Manufacturer: Forest Pharmaceuticals Inc., Cincinnati, OH. Firm initiated recall is ongoing.
REASON
Labeling: Label error on declared strength; some bottles are mislabeled as containing 1/2-grain tablets but actually contain 1-grain tablets. The entire lot is being recalled even though some bottles are labeled correctly because bottles of 1/2-grain and 1-grain could be shrink-wrapped together.
VOLUME OF PRODUCT IN COMMERCE
31,172 bottles approx.
DISTRIBUTION
Nationwide, PR, Belgium and the United Kingdom

http://www.fda.gov/Safety/Recalls/EnforcementReports/ucm242808.htm

  • See my post to a very, very thankful individual, here.
  • Have you switched from one brand to another? Tell us how you did here.
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  • Need to talk to other patients, or want a one-on-one consultation with Janie? Go here.
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Have you switched from one desiccated thyroid to another? Let’s share.

“A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents
and making them see the light, but rather because it opponents eventually die,
and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it” ~ Max Planck

NOTE: Though this post was originally written in 2011, it has been updated to the current date and time.

Screen Shot 2015-11-26 at 10.55.40 PMHOW DIFFERENT BRANDS OF DESICCATED WORK FOR SOME, NOT FOR OTHERS

Granted, we note from patient reports that all brands work based on individual reports of any brand.

But some patients, for a variety of reasons, feel they do well on some NDT’s, but not on others. It’s very individual. This may be due to the fillers in any product.

Or, there are some like me who had to switch from one desiccated thyroid brand to another, not because of fillers, but changes in the product.  I, for example, was on the pre-reformulated Armour from 2002 to 2009, and successfully treated.

Then came 2009 when patients were reporting Armour not working as well anymore. It had been reformulated–the cellulose raised and the sucrose decreased.  I just let my old Armour run out, and I started on Erfa Thyroid from Canada. And it was an easy and successful switch for me.

But even some batches of Erfa seemed to go bad in 2014, so I then moved over to NP Thyroid, which has been great to this day.

So I am an example of the way that all three did work for me, and simply had to change due to reported problems in the way Armour, or Erfa, was made.

What if any switch doesn’t result in good results?

For many, the NDT they have switched to works just as well, as happened to me. But for some, a switch has not been smooth. One brand seemed to serve them well, while another brand caused them to tank.

What causes the switch problems?

For many, it could be the adrenals. On one product, they may have felt fine, yet due to an underlying adrenal issue they hadn’t caught, a different brand with that “something different” may have been the umpff that revealed their adrenal problem.

For others, the issues on the new brand could be from a sensitivity to one or more of the fillers. You can read about all fillers in each brand here.

And for still others, there is a mystery of why one didn’t work and another did.

What has been your experience? What did you switch from and to? Armour? Naturethroid? Erfa? Compounded? Thyroid-S? Let’s share.

If I need to switch, how do I do it?

It’s pretty much an even switch. i.e. if I was doing well on 3 grains on one brand, I go on 3 grains of the other.

But if I wasn’t doing well on a brand, it’s important to ask one self four things:

  1. Did I raise the current brand high enough? It’s common for hypothyroid symptoms to return on lower non-optimal doses. How to raise is explained here.
  2. Do I have an issue with a filler?? They can be looked at here.
  3. Do I have optimal levels of iron? Because if your iron levels aren’t “optimal”, it can cause problems when raising NDT. Optimal has nothing to do with normal. See this page.
  4. Do I have an adrenal problem being revealed due to NDT? 

JanieSignature SEIZE THE WISDOM

  • Join the STTM STTM Facebook page for daily tips and inspiration on thyroid issues. 
  • Have you ever heard of the gal who calls herself nonstickpam? I’ve known Pam for many years, and she has spent most of that time giving helpful advice on low carb eating and how to maintain your weight while dealing with thyroid and/or adrenal issues. Recently, she wrote an article for STTM about this very issue: //www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/hypothyroid-and-weight-issues/

 

228 replies