On Thursday, September 24, 2009, the Steering/Strategy Committee for the Save Natural Thyroid Coalition had its first kickoff teleconference, to discuss the future of natural desiccated thyroid (NDT) drugs.The group discussed the following key issues and concerns:
The Coalition discussed plans to meet with FDA senior officials to discuss practitioner and patient support for natural desiccated thyroid drugs, the need for an expedited drug application process for NDT, and for NDT to remain on the market during any drug application process that might take place.
The Save Natural Thyroid Coalition Steering/Strategy Committee is spearheading a number of activities, including the following:
- Development of an NDT Fact Sheet for Patients
- Development of an NDT Fact Sheet for Doctors/Practitioners
- An NDT Research Summary Paper
- An Case Study Program, with guidelines for practitioner on how to write a case study, and a sample case study
- New Practitioner Research on NDT
The Save Natural Thyroid Coalition has also created the Save Natural Thyroid YouTube channel, where patients and practitioners are creating and posting videos supporting natural thyroid.
The Save Natural Thyroid Coalition Steering Committee members will also be writing articles, letters, editorials for journals and professional websites, and making presentations at medical meetings.
Participants
In addition to a number of patient advocates, the following individuals participated in the Save Natural Thyroid Coalition's kickoff conference call.
- Gretchen DuBeau, Washington DC -- director of the American Association for Health Freedom (AAHF), a membership-based organization that promotes access to integrative medicine
- Robban Sica, MD, Orange, CT - A physician practicing almost 25 years in Orange, CT. She is a Secretary of the American Association for Health Freedom, President of the International College of Integrative Medicine, and represents ICIM to the Integrative Medicine Consortium.
- Jim Turner, Washington, DC -- an attorney in Washington, DC, chairman of Citizens for Health, a consumer activist group since 1993, and the group that active in helping get the Dietary Supplements Health Education Act (DSHEA) passed.
- David Brownstein, MD, Michigan - a family practitioner in Michigan, and author of a number of books on thyroid disease, iodine, and bioidentical hormones.
- Dr. John Lowe - a clinical researcher and educator, focusing on basic and clinical thyroidology. He has 25 years of working in multidisciplinary research, studying synthetic T3, natural desiccated thyroid, etc. For the last four years, he has been editor in chief of the open access journal Thyroid Science.
- Kent Holtorf, MD, Torrance CA - a physician in practice for more than 10 years, who is particularly interested in thyroid issues, and an advocate of using T4/T3 combination treatments.
- Theodore Friedman, MD, Los Angeles, CA - chairman of medicine and chief of endocrinology at Charles Drew Medical School, an affiliate of UCLA, and author of "The Everything Health Guide for Thyroid Disease."
- Pat Barber - patient educator at the American Autoimmune Related Diseases Association (AARDA), a group that represents patients with autoimmune diseases, including Hashimoto's disease and Graves' disease.
- Jacob Teitelbaum, MD, Hawaii - medical director of the Fibromyalgia and Fatigue Centers nationwide, and an internal medicine physician who specializes in fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue. He is author of From Fatigued to Fantastic.
- Dai Jinn (Chief Science Officer), Rick Cox (Owner), Cave Creek, AZ -- RLC Labs, manufacturer of NDT drugs Nature-Throid and Westhroid.
- Jim Rock, Washington, DC - with Parry, Romani, DeConcini & Symms, a lobbying firm, who works with AAHF, and a number of compounding pharmacies.
- Donna Hurlock, MD, Alexandria, VA -- a gynecologist who says: "I learned to do thyroid correctly back in 1998 when my hair was falling out and Alan Gaby enlightened me!" Says Dr. Hurlock: "I also use the synthetics. I use whatever makes my patient well!"
- Richard Shames, MD, San Francisco Bay Area, CA - a physician in practice for 35 years, with several thousand thyroid patients. Author of Thyroid Power and Fat, Fuzzy and Frazzled.
- Joseph Mercola, DO, Hoffman Estates, IL - trained as a family physician, runs a popular natural health site Mercola.com, and author of a number of popular books on health, wellness, and diet.
- Erika Schwartz, MD, New York City - a physician and patient health advocate, one of the leading experts on bioidentical hormones
- Ken Woliner, MD, Boca Raton, FL - a family physician who has been successully using natural thyroid with patients for a number of years.
- The Armour Thyroid and Nature-Throid Shortage Information Center
- Save Natural Thyroid Coalition Website
- Save Natural Thyroid Coalition Yahoo Listserv
Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU all for doing this!
thank you so very much for all the info out there please let me know if i can help hanne
I am so relieved that the ball has started rolling! Thank you, Mary, for keeping us informed. Thank you, committee, for your proactive stance.
thank you so very much.please make these people understand that everbody produces t3 and t4. t3 hekps us try to control our weight and not lose as much hair!!!!!we dont do well on just t4! make these people understand this please doctors,please
Thank you for your efforts on behalf of those of us who don’t respond to synthetic thyroid! My doc actually took me off synthetic for 90 days, tested me before and after, and once I was put on Armour. The numbers before and after were remarkably different; I clearly respond better to the natural thyroid. Thank you!
Thank you for keeping us updated with this information. Let me know what I can do help?
THANK GOD someone is taking a stand for us! This has been a terrible ordeal for us hypothyroid victims to endure. Please save the Natural Thyroid as I have been on it for 35 years. THANK YOU!!!!
Pig tablets need to stay available; I have no quality of life with synthetic thyroxine; with synthetic I am exhausted and have to go to rest two or three times a day and feel tired and miserable, I cannot work.
With pig tablets I have energy,happiness, work, real LIFE… and pay taxes.
Please please please save the pig tablets.
I sent an e-mail to 60 minutes about the natural thyroid shortage–believe this is yet another example of the FDA strong-arming.
more comments from me! From what I understand, the manufacturer of Armour thyroid was grandfathered in because this drug existed before the FDA came into power. When it (the manufacturer), decided to reformulate the product, it fell under the new drug category and therefore was subject to FDA scrutiny–why would it do this? One has to wonder why–on so many levels.
I have just started natural thyroid and it has changed my life since August. I have already lost 16 pounds and I feel like I’m 40, I have a pro active doctor. I’m currently waiting for a shipment from Texas so I can get my prescription refilled. I take both Thyroid and Armour Thyroid. If I hadn’t been persistent I may well have been insulin resistent shortly. These meds DO work!
Dear Mary,
Thanks for all your efforts. The participants are most impressive and represent a plethora of disciplines.
I await response from my congressman sent 09-22-09 and they indicate 30 days.
WHY are we as a group not organizing a call-and-write-your-Congress-Critter campaign? It’s obvious to me that the FDA will respond only to pressure from their paymasters. The FDA is at our throats and we MUST do more than plod along in the FDA’s sandbox, rolling over and doing it their way. This whole matter sets an awful precedent where the FDA can stomp out ALL grandfathered “safe and effective” products and wring ever more bribe money out of any company which wants to stay in business. It’s an unconscionable situation and those of us who are Americans should be chewing our Congress-Critters’ ears off about this matter. It matters!
After FIGHTING for three months to get an equivalent med to the ORIGINAL Armour Thyroid, trying to FIND Westhroid, trying to recuperate from the debilitating effects of the reformulated Armour Thyroid, and researching this topic, I have found the following link MOST informative:
http://www.metabolism.com/2009/09/02/armour-thyroid-disappeared/
I had some trouble locating a natural thyroid replacement for for Armor Thyroid. I have been ordering Erfa’s Thyroid from a Canadian mail order pharmacy (www.canadameds.com) with great results. hope this helps someone.
-Marv
This article is impenetrable to someone who stumbles over it as I did. You never explain what natural thyroid is or why you want it or why the FDA or government doesn’t, etc., etc. You’re preaching to the converted, I guess, but what you’ve written is too inward-focused to educate new people and enlist their support. (This criticism is intended to be helpful, not nasty. Being hypothyroid, I’d really like to know what the heck this is all about.)
I am grateful for starting the website and pushing against this problem.
I am deeply disappointed in the OBAMA administration that they are doing the unapproved drug campaign. What a sellout to big Pharma again.
Is there any evidence for problems with Armour? I have taken it for years with no problems. Thanks too for giving me the chance to express my disgust with FDA and administration. I expected more. Why waste time and money on this?