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Tag: medication

Thyroid tidbit: interesting comment from makers of Naturethroid

The following comment by RLC Labs, a pharmaceutical which has made desiccated thyroid like Naturethroid since the 1930’s, was sent in a letter to a pharmacy. You may find it interesting as compared to problems so many have reported with Forest Labs and the newly formulated Armour:

We have never had any mandatory or voluntary recall of any of our thyroid medications due to inconsistency in dosages. Our formulation and preparation is able to stabilize the T3 and T4 hormones through its entire expiry period (3 years from manufacturing) providing additional assurance to both physician and patient alike in quality and consistency of our strengths.

Kudos for RLC Labs and Naturethroid! Patients whose lives have changed ten-fold thanks to desiccated thyroid need a good product. (And we’re going to hope down the line that “someone” will create desiccated thyroid in a sublingual form.)

P.S. If you don’t know what has happened to Armour and patient experiences with it, scroll down.

*Want to be informed of these blog posts? Curious what’s on Janie’s mind? Just use the Notifications to the left and below the links.

*SALE! Stop the Thyroid Madness T-shirts are now 50% off just because I like sales. A great way to spread the word about our patient revolution for the superiority of desiccated thyroid over T4-only meds. You’ll also see funny bumper stickers. Also…when you order the STTM book and request it,  you get a Calvin peeing on….(you’ll see) bumper sticker for FREE, and it’s a hoot.

38 replies

Multiple sclerosis, Dysautonomia, you name it…ALL made worse from hypothyroidism or being on a T4 med

Screen Shot 2015-08-04 at 2.30.58 PM(This post has been updated to the current day and time. Enjoy!)

Before my thyroid disease of hypothyroidism was discovered, I had horrific and debilitating consequences from exercise or any activity.  You can read about it in even more detail in the Introduction of the patient-to-patient Stop the Thyroid Madness book.

When my so-called “borderline hypothyroid” was discovered by age 30, I thought whoo-hooo, I’ll finally get rid of this strange nightmare whenever I tried to do ANYTHING.  I was put on Synthroid and my anticipation for a better life was profound.

But my hope was dashed.

Not only did my body continue to overreact to activity, it got much worse over time.  Horribly worse. I got to where I couldn’t even grocery shop without paying horrible prices in fatigue and other miserable symptoms.

Nearly twenty years after I had started on a T4-only medication, and had even raised it. I was told by one doctor after another that my problem was not my thyroid. I was forced to start the process of applying for social security disability–a low, low time for me.

But they were all dead wrong.

Sure, turns out I have a form of Dysautonomia, a malfunction and overreaction of my autonomic nervous system, causing my body to far overreact to activity or stress. But remaining hypothyroid, as so many of us do on t4-only medications, had made it far, far worse. And I proved it. When I switched to natural desiccated thyroid in 2002 and raised it according to what patients have learned, a miracle occurred.  My severe autonomic reactions made an almost complete turnaround.

And my experience of change or improvement when it comes to other diseases or conditions has been shared by others.

Last week, I received an email from a man whose brother has MS–Multiple Sclerosis.  And though natural desiccated thyroid has not taken his MS away, it allowed him to move from this wheelchair to a walker! That is quite impressive.

So I am left wondering:  what other conditions or diseases, which are unique in themselves, are worsened being either undiagnosed or dosed the lousy TSH lab test range…or due to the inadequate treatment of Synthroid, Levoxyl, levothyroxine, Eltroxin, Tirosent and all other T4-only medications for all to many like myself? It’s awful to think about it.

JanieSignature SEIZE THE WISDOM

* Learn about the problems with T4-only right here. 

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* Get the STTM books here, because you have to become informed in order to get well: www.laughinggrapepublishing.com

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What planet to do you live on, Oprah??

Cuz it ain’t the one WE live on, dah’ling.

For a few years now, patients have repeatedly written the Oprah show, begging her to address the thyroid scandal of decades of T4-only medication and the lousy TSH lab, both of which have left MILLIONS of patients with lingering hypo symptoms while our doctors proclaimed we were NORMAL…and about a FAR better treatment called natural desiccated thyroid and dosing by symptoms, NOT the TSH.

And when she finally has a program which somewhat addresses the thyroid issue this week, she allows her hallowed guest, Dr. Christiane Northrup, to state “your symptoms are actually your soul’s way of bringing deeper issues to your attention.” Hogwash! And thyroid patient Mary Shoman has rightly proclaimed that “thyroid disease is NOT your fault, despite what Dr. Northrup says.”

But the issue goes even further. Oprah implies, by her own experience, that taking a month vacation and eating fresh foods is enough to make one well from thyroid disease?? Double hogwash! Thyroid patients seek to live some of the healthiest lifestyles there are. All you have to do is observe the conversations in most any internet thyroid patient talk group, and you will see daily posts on the best supplements to take, healthiest foods to eat, and best ways to de-stress our lives. We are overall a VERY educated group of patients about health, and we practice it. We HAVE to be in light of how poorly educated most of our doctors are about our thyroid disease. And in spite of all the above, our thyroid condition persists.

What has CHANGED our lives is leaving the scandal of T4-only treatment in the dust, and learning about desiccated thyroid like Armour, switching to it, and dosing according to the elimination of symptoms, NOT simply labs. We have also faced the fact that at least 50% of us have adrenal fatigue, which leaves us impatient and angry, with headaches and body aches, chronic back pain and body aches, a loss of passion, and sleep issues. And we have tread new ground in our knowledge on how to treat it, when many of our doctors pooh-pooh the reality of adrenal fatigue.

I love ya, Oprah, as do millions of women out there. But taking a month vacation and eating fresh foods does NOT cure our thyroid disease. So time will tell what went on with you! So now, all we can do is hope eternal that Oprah will get on the planet that the rest of us live on, and help us to spread the word as to why millions of thyroid patients have been suffering and about a far better treatment. If you can continue to have persistence, you can email her here. STOP the thyroid madness!

P.S. Go here to read thyroid patient Anna’s humorous experience with following the same kind of advice given on Oprah’s show.

11 replies

The FDA is improving T4’s potency….but it won’t change one particular FACT…

Is this akin to “improving” cardboard?

The FDA announced today that they are tightening the potency specifications for levothyroxine sodium (aka Synthroid, Levoxyl, etc) “to ensure the drug retains its potency over its entire shelf life” rather than what often occurs with any T4 med: the deterioration of T4 before it’s expiration date. They state that this tightening will improve the quality of the product.

Cough.

Let me give you some history. After it was isolated, T4 was first produced as a treatment substance over 80 years ago. The T4 did result in some improvement in patients they tried it on at the time. But guess why they never gave it to patients beyond the early experiments? BECAUSE THEY KNEW IT WASN’T STABLE. They knew that fact 40+ years before it came back on the market in the 60’s due to the heavy and moronic pharmaceutical promotion.

And the irony of this so-called improvement is that it’s NOT going to stop the deterioration of T4. They are only attempting to stop it before “the expiration date”.

Sorry FDA. You can improve the tensile strength of cardboard, but you can’t improve the FACT that T4-only meds are about as effective as giving a hypothyroid patient CARDBOARD…whether it’s stable or not.

http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/NEWS/2007/NEW01717.html

(Thanks Stephanie)

7 replies