Skip to content

Tag: omega 3

Stupidity Award of the Year: the UK’s NHS states that T3 has “little or no clinical value”

The following Guest Blog post has been written by UK Thyroid Patient Carolyn and contributions added by Janie A. Bowthorpe

*********************

Just when you think things couldn’t get more ridiculous….

Just a few days ago, the BBC reported that the National Health Service (NHS) of the United Kingdom has proposed that the medication T3-only, aka Liothyronine, has little or no value. Let me repeat: LITTLE OR NO VALUE.

The article also states: “The proposals could see an outright ban or tighter restrictions on some products being prescribed by GPs.”

Here’s the list, as reported by the BBC, of those they consider as low value medicines (and their annual cost to the NHS):]

  • £30.93m on Liothyronine to treat underactive thyroid
  • £21.88m on gluten-free foods
  • £17.58m on Lidocaine plasters for treating nerve-related pain
  • £10.51m on Tadalafil, an alternative to Viagra
  • £10.13m on Fentanyl, a drug to treat pain in terminally ill patients
  • £8.32m on the painkiller Co-proxamol
  • £9.47m on travel vaccines
  • £7.12m on Doxazosin MR, a drug for high blood pressure
  • £6.43m on rubs and ointments
  • £5.65m on omega 3 and fish oils

Also mentioned in the article after the above “low value” medications comes “suncream, cough and cold remedies and indigestion and heartburn medicines”. i.e. T3-only, which patients report has brought back MUCH better health, is on the same level as suncream.

The article states that the “NHS England confirmed the review would begin in April, but did not put any timescale on how quickly a decision would be made.”

Living in the UK as a hypothyroid patient

Those like me living in the UK and using the NHS (which by the way is not ‘free’, as we all pay into it through our taxes), appreciate that it isn’t a bottomless pit of money which can fulfill every single person’s desires. Some of the items on this list (see above) are easily and cheaply available over the counter in pharmacies and supermarkets.  I believe people also have a responsibility to purchase some things themselves rather than incurring the excessive cost of processing an unnecessary doctor’s prescription.

But T3 isn’t available over the counter, although it is in some other European countries.

The sole reason T3 is on this list at all is the cost. Just look at that amount of money: £30.93million annually— that’s a lot of money, and who wouldn’t want to save that.

But despite this drug called Liothyronine (aka T3) costing pennies to make, and costing a couple of Euros on the mainland, it costs over £9 A TABLET to the NHS. No wonder they don’t want to prescribe it.

A loophole in legislation around generic medicines has been massively exploited and the cost has been steadily increased by the sole licensed supplier. So rather than investigate that situation of being totally ripped off and putting a proper system of value-for-money purchasing in place, the answer that is being proposed is to withdraw T3. What a failure of proper management of resources; I expect better of my government officials.

I have friends with the genetic mutation which means they literally cannot convert T4 to T3, even before we get into the debate about T4-only thyroid hormone replacement detailed below. They are being condemned to a long slow death.

A health care system which is held up as a model for the rest of the world is going backwards.

We aren’t all able to change doctors and a private prescription would be prohibitively expensive for most people, even if the doctors working in the private sector would be prepared to step outside the cruel guidelines still in place for treatment of hypothyroidism in the UK.

I can only hope that someone listens to the cries of outrage following this proposal and takes some sensible action to correct this massive pricing discrepancy. Getting proper treatment with T3 or NDT shouldn’t be this difficult and is a false economy.

Before I was refused any treatment due to the guidelines, I was off work ill for months. I was working full time within weeks of starting Natural Desiccated Thyroid; back paying my tax and supporting the NHS.

Let’s talk a minute about T3

For those who might be new to this, a healthy thyroid produces five known hormones: T4, T3, T2, T1 and calcitonin. Those five hormones are a wonderful symphony of what makes a healthy thyroid function. (Chapter 2 in the revised STTM book gives excellent detail about all this)

And hypothyroid patients were treated with all five hormones from the 1800s onward via pig or sheep thyroids…until the early 1960’s when Knoll Pharmaceuticals decided to promote its “new and modern” treatment for hypothyroidism–T4-only. i.e. no direct T3. T4 is a storage hormone meant to convert to the powerful and health-giving T3. And everyone fell for this promoted fallacy that somehow, giving patients only one of five thyroid hormones was a hunky-dory way to treat hypothyroidism. (See Chapter 1 in the Revised STTM book! Learn the truth!!)

But they were dead wrong. T4-only, aka Synthroid, Levoxyl, Levothyroxine, Unithroid, Eltroxin, Levaxin, Norton, Eutrosig, Oroxine, or Tirosint, seems to have failed millions of patients in their own degree and kind, over the years, forcing all who are prescribed it to live for “conversion” alone. Yes, some do better than others! But the large amount of people who have NOT done well is profound….just as it’s profound how many T4-users report feeling far better when they added direct T3 in their treatment, or Natural Desiccated Thyroid.

My final message to the NHS

You are seriously wrong to state that the medication Liothyronine (aka T3) has little or no value as a way to cut costs.

Your conclusion means that you will end up subjecting your fellow UK residents to a lifetime of continued hypothyroidism thanks to being forced to live for conversion alone on levothyroxine as a sole treatment for hypothyroidism (See seven studies/articles at the bottom of this blog post). Your conclusion also seriously harms those who have the DIO1 or DIO2 mutation, which prevents these individuals from converting T4 to T3 adequately.

Get with it, NHS. Wise up. Stop this massive ongoing cruelty to thyroid patients.

UK THYROID PATIENTS: Share this blog post anywhere, everywhere. Let’s send a firm message to the NHS. Copy and paste: 

https://stopthethyroidmadness.com/2017/04/02/stupidity-award-nhs/

*****************************

RESEARCH SHOWING THAT T3 COMBINED WITH T4 GIVES BETTER RESULTS (from https://stopthethyroidmadness.com/medical-research):

  1. Here’s a study from 1996 which underscored that both T4 and T3 are needed to remove hypothyroidism: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8641203 (And it followed research from the previous year showing that T4-only did NOT do the job—see http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC185993/)
  2. As far back as 1999, the New Journal of Medicine reported superior results of a synthetic T4 and T3 combination treatment, especially on the brain and other tissues.  http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/340/6/424
  3. And another one titled Thyroid Insuffiency: Is Thyroxine the Only Valuable Drug,   http://www.encognitive.com/  Journal of Nutritional & Environmental Medicine (2001), 11, 159—166
  4. And here’s another one from 2009: http://www.eje-online.org/cgi/content/abstract/EJE-09-0542v1 (has a fee) but here’s where you can at least see the abstract: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19666698 They evaluated depression and anxiety rating scales as well as patients own preference.
  5. Also this one:  http://www.endocrine-abstracts.org/ea/0013/ea0013P316.htm
  6. At first blush, this Amsterdam study appears to give the same propaganda of T4 only. But as you read on, it mentions this: Third, recent animal experiments indicate that only the combination of T4 and T3 replacement, and not T4 alone, ensures euthyroidism in all tissues of thyroidectomized rats. From 2001, Developmental Endocrinology to Clinical Research: http://content.karger.com/ProdukteDB/produkte.asp?Aktion=ShowAbstract&ArtikelNr=48140&Ausgabe=227546&ProduktNr=224036
  7. John C. Lowe’s Four 2003 Studies of Thyroid Hormone Replacement Therapies: Logical Analysis and Ethical Implications  Excellent article (16 pages) about the efficacy of using T4 and T3 in treatment, and not using the TSH, and so much more.

 

50 replies

Thyroid Tidbits: Men with low iron, Reverse T4 (yes, I said it correctly), Inflammation in thyroid patients, plus more

(No, the tatoo isn’t mine. It belongs to a gal who says STTM helped changed her life. Amazing and brave! 🙂 )

MEN CAN HAVE LOW IRON, TOO:

I’ve seen a few hypothyroid men who have found themselves with low iron. In fact, either iron anemia is growing in men, or we’re just hearing from them more thanks to the internet.

And remarkably, it has become personal for me. Turns out my own husband is very low, which explains the fatigue he had been experiencing lately. Sadly, taking iron pills gives him a headache, so he will eat high-iron foods daily, and will be exploring Floradix, a liquid herb-based iron. Men, get all the needed iron labs!

REVERSE T4 (yes, I said it correctly)

I’ve been having an email chat with a scientifically-minded guy named Brian who also has a sister with a major in bio-chemistry. And something dawned on both of them concerning “levothyroxine” which is the synthetic term for T4.  The prefix LEVO means the “left-hand” version of a molecule, and thyroxine is the biological term for the real T4.  Says Brian: “Levo-thyroxine means it has exactly the same atoms in exactly the same order, but not the same shape (handedness), so if enzymes or proteins have to chemically “fit” it to work, they may not be able to. He concludes this can be one reason being on synthetic T4-only does not work, and knew it was alluded to by Dr. Mark Starr.

But Brian continues: In just the same way that levothyroxine is the mirror-image or “left-handed” version of regular thyroxin, RT3, or Reverse T3, is the mirror-image or “left-handed” version of T3.  If we were consistent with our terminology, in other words, levothyroxine would be known as “Reverse T4”. Says Brian, just as Reverse T3 is biologically inactive , so is Levothyroxine, thus “Reverse T4”. I love it!

CHECK OUT WHAT THIS MEDICAL TRANSCRIPTIONIST SAID:

In a facebook discussion,  a female medical transcriptionist has had a realization. Namely, in almost every report she is transcribing into text or digital format,  a patient with the diagnosis of hypothyroidism also has a medical history of depression and/or anxiety. You can read about depression & anxiety here. Of course, no patient who is informed is surprised! They are HYPOTHYROID symptoms.  And she then notes the prescription ordered by the doc: Synthroid.  WAKE UP DOCTORS. You are only dooming your patients to a lifetime of depression, anxiety and far more.

WHY MANY OF YOU HAVE INFLAMMATION (and don’t even know it), WHAT IT DOES, AND HOW TO TREAT IT

One thing I see a lot when doing phone consultations, as well as on thyroid patient groups, is evidence that someone has low-grade inflammation. In fact,  research has already shown that a large body of folks with hypothyroidism have higher levels of CRP (C-Reactive Protein) which is a lab test marker of inflammation.  That inflammation, in turn, puts you at a higher risk of heart disease.

Another clue that you have an inflammation problem is having higher ferritin levels (i.e. ferritin looks great, or is too high) along with poor iron serum/% saturation lab results.  In other words, in the presence of chronic inflammation, your iron will be diverted to your ferritin iron storage, and less will be in your serum and saturation.  You can also find yourself with very low TIBC (Total iron-binding capacity). The TIBC is measuring the protein “transferrin”, made in your liver, and which transports your iron through your body. If this is the case, you can’t take high levels of iron supplementation, as explained on the above ferrritin page and more in the book.

What do you do? 1) Treat your hypothyroidism properly–a huge step in lowering that inflammation–with desiccated thyroid, NOT Synthroid. (Read the Things We Have Learned page on STTM, or even more details in Chapter 3 in the new Revised STTM book). 2) Treat proven low cortisol with HC or hydrocortisone. Don’t guess! Do a saliva test!) If saliva testing reveals you have adrenal dysfunction, cortisol supplementation will help counter inflammation.   (Read the Adrenal Info and How to Treat page on STTM, or more details in Chapter 6 in the new Revised STTM book.) 3) Use Krill Oil as a supplement. Krill Oil is an even better marine fish oil with rich amounts of Omega 3 fatty oils,  and research with even a low dose of 300 mg proves that it does a bang-up job in reducing inflammation as well as pain in joints associated with rheumatoid and osteoarthritis.  My own husband is on 1000 mg a day.

HAVE THE REVISED SECOND EDITION OF THE STTM BOOK YET? IT’S WORTH IT.

I am frankly extremely proud of the Revised Second Edition of the STTM book.  In spite of being a lot of hard work, it is good to see all the additions, details and corrections throughout the entire book.  There is much more on labs and how to read them, ferritin and iron, adrenal dysfunction and how to treat it, reverse T3 and how to treat it, plus a completely new chapter on good supplements and foods.  I added a little more hidden humor, which was fun.  There are now 36 more pages, too, and at the same price.  You can see more about the book here.  The book is ideal since you can bring that right into the doctor’s office with the information highlighted and bookmarked. As far as Kindle or other readers, yes, I’m already aware that some of you have requested it. But right now, it’s the book only.  But I’ll make announcements in the future as to what might be coming up.

P.S. Seeing this blog post via the email notification? If you have a comment to make, click on the title, which will take you directly to this blog post on the net, and comment there.

13 replies