It's election day, and that means it's time to choose! But here at the Thyroid Site, I'm asking you to vote for your favorite thyroid hormone replacement drug(s)! So, are you a Synthrocrat or an Armourarian? A Levoxylite or Cytomelican? A Nature-throidocrat? Erfatarian? A Compoundist or a Thyrolacrat? Or maybe you're "Proud to be a Generican?" Vote now! (And unlike at your neighborhood polling place, here you can select all that apply!)
Image: Mary Shomon
Well it said to explain here…..I actually like levoxyl AND cytomel but there wasn’t a choice for both.
I’m w/Becky taking both and both in generic form. The difference is, that’s what I’m taking because they were out of 90mg of Armour whenever I wanted to get my RX filled and I gave up trying to get it. I have been waiting till Forrest- Pharm gets their act together! So tired of shortages/back orders
I take purified levothyroxine which is made with just levothyroxine and calcium phosphate and no other fillers at all and then I add some naturethroid as T3 doesn’t agree with me.
Generic Armour imported
Used Armour Thyroid for 25 + years. ( 120mg am & 90mg pm)After reformulated med hit the market, my symptoms became much worse. Did very poorly. Switched to Nature throid..and did a whole lot better and even came down on dosage. ( 120mg am and 60mg pm). A huge difference in how it worked. Price about the same.
I recently started using Thyrogold. Haven’t been using it long enough to know how it is working but I was using Cytomel and my heart rate went so high I had to stop using it. Now my heart rate is back down.
Went to naturopathic dr, have been using Thyraxis-Pt and other naturopathic remedies, which lower my TSH from 4.95 to 2.9.
I had been using Armour for decades. Last year I was diagnosed with atrial fibrillation. When we had a shortage of Armour early this year, I was using compounded thyroid similar to Armour. My A-fib was gone during those two months. The first day I started using Armour again, my A-fib returned.
Eleven days ago, I switched from Armour to Nature-Throid and have not had A-fib.
I use 98% levoxyl and 2% compounded T3 as prescribed by Dr. Kenneth Blanchard of Newton, MA. It works very well for me after being a guinea pig for 10 years.
Compounded T3/T4…works great! Feel better than I have in years and NO side effects.
Erfa and Thyroid-S
I used Westhroid for years for my hypothyrodism. My chiropractor advised, Thytrophin PMG from Standard process. I took it for 10 weeks and I was able to graduate to Prolamine Iodine,1 a day, also from standard process.
I was told for years by natural paths to try Iodine, but it just made my hair fall out. I think Thytrophin PMG made me well enough to be able to react to iodine. Therefore, I think iodine is helpful if your hypothyroidism is not too bad, but it did not work at all for me for years until I got better.
I use Thyroid S. Made in Thailand. Very pleased with it.
I was immediately prescribed 25 mcg Levothyroxine.
It took away, feeling cold, hair falling but softened other symptoms that still exist.
I believe, it is not the medication, it is the doctors putting us or ME, “within range”
I’m sure that someone without HYPO problems is operating at OPTIMAL range tht is the range I want and need to be at.
I have not been ASKED OR given a CHOICE to try anything else. All of my Middle Eastern- Doctors knew how badly I felt but failed to offer any other kinda help to me.
I discovered that it was okay to take my medication at bedtime. This allows for Maximum absorption so I gained energy and no longer constipated.
At diagnoses, the doctor tole me to take it in the
a. m. Then the pharmacist said the same thing so I thought this was “the law” for how to take this medication — it isn’t. The idea is NOT to have food and bowel movements interfere with the absorption. So basically a person eating 30 min later has NO medication in the system; the medication is not working at optimal capacity when food is mixed 30 minutes later.
I take Synthroid AND Cytomel, the latter, thanks to Mary! I added it just this year (after 10 yrs of Synthroid alone) and it has really made a difference. I would take a natural drug if possible, but at least adding Cytomel is one big step.
The survey is interesting, but I hope you’re not going to use it for any statistical analysis. The population reading your newsletters may be skewed towards Armour and similar meds, because you are such an advocate for them.
There are millions of thyroid patients who:
1) don’t know who Mary Shomon is, or
2) are not subscribed to your newsletter, or
3) don’t have internet access, or
4) are readers but did not vote, or
5) are not on any medication, etc.
Two years ago i was diagnosed with Hashi’s after suffering with being 270lbs for years and being mis-diagnosed by many doctors 15 plus years even with telling the doctors that everyone on my Mom’s side of the family has a Thyroid condition. My Mom and Aunt have Graves, cousin has Hashi’s, grandma was hypothyroid all on medicine and all had radiation to kill their thyroid and still I was mis-diagnosed. Well I went to a endo doc here in Florida 2 years ago and he started me on Armour 30mg and I am now on 240mg because I was so bad I felt as if I was going to die. I had Low Good Choles, High Bad Choles, Hypoglycemic, enlarged red blood cells, yada yada yada. I have none of these now and my thyroid is in check and I feel fabulous. I haven’t felt this good in years. Oh and I lost 70lbs the first year. Unbelievable to me as I have struggled with constant dieting to no avail. I went on Levothroxine when the shortage of Armour was at it’s worst and I gained 20lbs and felt horrible. I switched to Westhroid and I got better again. I am not having any problems getting Armour now through Target Pharmacy.
ARMOUR THYROID is by far the best I tried, even thought the doctors like to get a kick back on a more expensive drug, this is best for the leg cramps that occur with thyroid meds.
I had been on Synthroid and was not normal mentally or physically. Finally a male doctor put me on Armour and I was a new person. During the shortages I had to seek other sources because my female doctor insisted on putting me on Synthroid. I have followed Dr. John Lowe for a long time at drlowe.com and decided to order his new formulation called ThyroGold.
I tried his recommendation of 2 per day but pulse went crazy and I was too hyper. Cut dosage to one pill which I take several hours after supper. Have been very pleased with ThryoGold and lab work was good but doctor said TSH was off a bit and decrease my dose. I listened to her for a few days and realized I needed the entire pill to feel good. She is a stickler for the TSH but I am not!
Plan to order more ThyroGold from drlowe.com soon!
I have used Thyraxis PT and Thyro CNV (as well as Opticrine) for three months and can honestly say that I went from dragging myself through the day to being full of energy and loving life. It took about 30 days for everything to kick in but boy when it did, I was ecstatic. I was taking 6 pills of each and had to come down to 5 of the Thyraxis and 3 of the other two now, because suddenly I would just start sweating profusely when doing minimal effort things like going up a flight of stairs! I am ok with 5 and don’t want to go lower because I am desperately trying to lose the 15+ lbs I gained. I have had thyroid problems for about 3 years, but even though I got tested twice and insisted on a complete thyroid test, the Dr’s did whatever they wanted and I went undiagnosed for a long time. I got so bad that my eyelashes were falling off in clumps and I’d say I have half the amount of hair I did two years ago. Thankfully now, my hair has stopped falling out and I’ve lost a few lbs. I have SO much energy! I do Insanity and P90X and I eat low carb…but even then, without the supplements I mentioned above, I was a shadow of myself…I literally would fall asleep anywhere, I could barely drive without starting to dose off…I did not want to get out of bed in the morning! And the more weight I gained, the more I forced myself to work out…ended up severely dehydrated, anemic, the list goes on and on.
I go to a naturopathic Dr…I asked for Armour but he said to try this first…and I’m glad I did! Hope this helps anyone out there considering taking it. Blessings to all and Happy 2011!