Is it any surprise that doctors, pharmacists and drug distributors are misinformed about natural desiccated thyroid drugs, when a medical association like the American Thyroid Association is putting out -- perhaps deliberately -- error-filled misinformation? Here's what the American Thyroid Association (ATA) has to say about natural thyroid medications in its online brochure on Thyroid Hormone Treatment.
Desiccated (dried and powdered) animal thyroid (ArmourŪ), now mainly obtained from pigs, was the most common form of thyroid therapy before the individual active thyroid hormones were discovered. People can still buy it over the Internet--legally if it's sold as a food supplement, but illegally if it's sold as a medicine...Let's take a look at all the inaccuracies and falsehoods the ATA managed to fit into just two sentences.
First, Armour Thyroid is a brand name for prescription desiccated porcine thyroid. It is not synonymous with "desiccated animal thyroid."
There are many forms of desiccated animal thyroid -- including porcine (pig), bovine (cow), and even desiccated thyroid from sheep.
Some animal thyroid is sold over-the-counter, without a prescription in the U.S. and abroad. These are called "glandular supplements." Porcine thyroid sold as a non-prescription glandular in the United States can not, by law, contain the natural form of the hormone T4 / thyroxine. Understandably, most physicians in the U.S. do not recommend the use of non-prescription glandulars for thyroid hormone replacement.
Porcine desiccated thyroid that includes T4 is a prescription-only product. Armour Thyroid is one brand of prescription natural desiccated thyroid prescribed in the United States. The two other brands currently being manufactured in the U.S. include Nature-Throid and Westhroid. These drugs are not "animal" thyroid, they are porcine thyroid, and they are not "mainly obtained from pigs." They are obtained from pigs, and no other animals.
The American Thyroid Association is wrong when they claim that "people can still buy it over the Internet-legally if it's sold as a food supplement..." Armour Thyroid and other prescription brands of natural desiccated porcine thyroid like Nature-Throid and Westhroid are not sold as food supplements. They are FDA-regulated prescription drugs, and like any prescription drug, they require a physician's prescription to legally dispense, and can only be purchased from a pharmacy.
The American Thyroid Association is again wrong when they say that "people can still buy it over the Internet-...illegally if it's sold as a medicine..." If a patient has a prescription for a natural desiccated thyroid drug like Armour, Nature-Throid or Westhroid, then it is entirely legal to use an Internet pharmacy to fill that legal prescription.
(Note: What is illegal is Read more...
Humorist Jody LaFerriere had just been diagnosed with hypothyroidism when she first wrote this wonderful piece for us, about the Thanksgiving ruminations of a new thyroid patient. And even though it's been a number of years since her initial diagnosis, her thoughts -- and her wonderful sense of humor -- are still as funny as always. You'll laugh as Jody shares the things she's thankful for, which include her thyroid pills, TV, and...storage bins? (You'll have to read the article to get THAT one explained!) It's a thyroid holiday classic! Take time to read
I spoke with Dai Jinn, Chief Pharmacist at RLC Laboraboraties, today to get an update on the status of their natural desiccated thyroid drugs, Nature-Throid and Westhroid. Like their competitor Armour Thyroid, both drugs have been on long-term backorder in recent months.
As usual, inquiries to the folks at Forest Laboratories -- a company that is notoriously unwilling to share information with media, patients and practitioners about the status of their thyroid drugs-- are fruitless. My request for an update about the status of their Armour Thyroid brand of natural desiccated thyroid medication resulted in the usual: a brush-off to "see the statement on the website." 