Dessicated thyroid

Hello Charlenelynn:

My name is shelly and I am a nurse in the USA.  I have Hashimoto's thyroid disease since 1987.

I was on Levo in 1987 and in the mid 1990's I was on Armour Thyroid, and it helped me a lot.  I found out my ability to convert T4 into useable T3 was poor and in 2009, I was switched to Liothyronine (cytomel) which is just T3.

NDT's work well on a lot of us because our friend the pig and even the cow, are close to a humans own thyroid gland.  So it is also nice to get the T1 It is a good medication and NDT's are the "original thyroid medication" and have been around since 1900 or so.

It can take about 6 to 12 weeks to build a level.  It worked on me much better than Liotrix (thyrolar) a T3 and T4 combo that is man made.  I was able to function on NDT Armour Thyroid and Levo did not work on me.

There are several ladies who are on it on here and they can tell you their stories.

So hang in there, and keep us posted.

Shelly

hi, i am revisiting this site after few months.

i hit the rock bottom in aug 15, but my tsh was only slightly elevated / thyroid ab positive. so i was glad that i had diagnosis and i will get better ( sev fatigue/ muscle ache) but the Thyroxine -t4 only helped me little bit.

thats when i was visiting this website to get more info.

increasing the t4 dose above 50 made me very unwell. but i knew something needs to be done .then on further inv my vit d was very low so started 10 000 3 time / week for 3 months/ and get to see rheumatologist ( as i had some ana antibodies) by the time i got the appointment it was october 15 - (and i was exploring all the option of other thyroid forms- t3/ dessicated t3/t4, but dint take any)

i read up so much i finaly got the answer- FIBROMYALGIA. my rhematologist also diagnosed the same (without me prompting).

started amitriptyline, 10mg then to 20mg after 2 weeks , i was so much better. it has been 4 months now and i requested to increase the dose further as i was still feeling down with fatigue, hence increased to 30/ and then to 40mg now.

feeling so much better now. i was off sick for 2 month after 3 weeks of amitriptyline i was back to work full time in my busy job.

it is fairly common amoung women - abt 1 in 25 suffer with FM.

Hope above helps . Good luck.

You will do great on Natural Dessicated Thyroid (NDT). I have commented on this before so those who are hearing it again, I apologize.

I was so ill on Levo I dropped it cold turkey, I was desperate, I felt that one more pill was one more nail in my coffin, yes it was that awful. The first day I took Armour (an NDT) all of my aches, pains, swishing sound in my head, inability ot wiggle my fingers, all disappeared withing half an hour! I didn't ramp up like you are supposed to do, I just swallowed 1 1/4 grains straight away.

Your doctor saying that it is just a placebo effect has proved that s/he doesn't know much about this subject, I recommend you change docs or just accept his prescriptions and do your own adjustments if necessary (that's what I do). You will, however, need him/her to do a few blood tests now and again.

Above all, read, read, read up on this topic. Treat it like an A-Level, study it as if your life depended upon it, becase it does.

But to end on a high note, congratulations on coming over from the dark side of synthetics, you will feel better in no time. Let us know how you get on and don't be afraid to raise your dose a little if needed, but do it by 1/4 grains slowly watching your basal body temp, your pulse and any slight palpitations (which should be followed by an immediate back off of the latest increase).

Thank you all for all your responses! It's great to hear what others have been through. afyer seeing an endocrinologist (at my request for my doc to refer me) nothing really helped. Unfortunately with our healthcare we have to be proactive and seek out information ourselves. I've done some research and even came acrossed peer reviewed studies and such about how people felt better on NDT rather than the synthetic crap.. I also Perseus a naturopath who supported my views on switching to NDT. My doctor I feel may not be educated enough on the differences but she said she supports my decision and basically just took my word for it. After consulting pharmacists to get the proper conversion I'm confident I will feel better. It's crazy how long we let ourselves feel unwell. I literally didn't know what "well" felt like. I feel like my energy and concentration are already coming back to normal. What an exciting feeling after about 10 years of feeling frustrated and sluggish and being prescribed antidepressants anti anxiety, medication for adhd. I had a gut feeling all along that my issues weren't being treated for what really is the problem. As my naturopath put it "physicians tend to put a bandaid on the problem rather than get to the root of the problem". I agree with that. It's so nice to hear from others with the same issues I feel like it's so hard for anyone to understand unless they themselves go through it. It's been a tough road and I'm hopeful with changing over I will get back to feeling like myself again 😊 I'll keep you all posted. So far so good!!!

Sorry for my spelling errors. Typing on my phone 🙃

Hi Charlene, it is interesting that your GP thinks NDT is a placebo when it was used for many years successfully treating people with thyroid disease. Would he be interested to know that Levo/Synthyroid has never been properly trialled (double blind placebo peer reviewed), but was 'shoe horned' into the drug market in the sixties/seventies? The effect of placebos only last a few weeks anyway.