Natural Thyroid Extract Armour as opposed to Thyroxin?

Let me guess, your doc told you to substitute the 150mcgs of levo directly to NDT?  You NEVER do that you start at 25mcgs and work upwards as though you were just starting treatment.  PLUS NEVER look at blood test results the TSH test is useless and misleading.  DO NOT go by your blood results go by how you feel!!

I dont think we can get Armour on the NHS in the UK I suppose you are in the USA.I do have to motivate myself even though my levels are fine at recent blood tests, do you think it is an age thing? I am 66?

I had Armour privately for several months 13 years ago, I am now 73 after being on Thyroxine for several years on increasing dosage but never feeling really well, bad headaches and extreme tiredness.  I wasn't really happy still and my GP was not enamoured of it which made it more complicated.  However 9 years ago I read an article by a Dr Toft who was then at the Royal Infirmary Edinburgh who advocated giving a little Liothyronine (T3) alongside a reduced dose of Thyroxine.  I have been really so much better on this regime.  I understand from him that some people do not do a good conversion job of Thyroxine(T4 )into the T3 which is needed by all the body to function well. It still appears to be relatively unusual to prescribe this combination and would need a specialist endocrinologist for it to happen, unlikely that a GP would take it upon himself particularly as they will look at blood results and say they are normal so there must be another reason for the horrid symptoms of being inappropriately treated. Both my son and husband are successfully medicated on just thyroxine to same level as I was when I decided to try and better my state of health, and they obviously are much more typical.

I now take 100mcgms of Thyroxine daily and 10mcgms liothyronine which is equivolent to about 39mcgms of Thyroxine, it has a much shorter acting life which has an additional advantage that if I do get a serious dip in my energy levels I can take just a quarter tablet(5mcgms) of liothyronine and it kicks in within an hour but also will have cleared the system before I am due to take my next tablets.  ( I hasten to add that I will only do this a couple of times a year when I have seriously overstretched myself.This seems to me the nearest thing to having a fully funcitioning thyroid gland. I hope this may help, not many people who reply seem very optomistic and I certainly wouldn't have been 9 years ago.  Maggie 

Yes you can!!  There are not many doctors who will prescribe it because of the cost but there are some!!  Armour is a safe, well used and tested alternative to levo (which in my opinion is complete rubbish and I would rather die than go back on it!!)

Yes Annie, I am doing much better on Armour, but unlike you I don"t have a g.p. who will prescribe it. I have to buy mine from abroad and costs me a fortune, plus gets held up by customs and I have to pay duty on it also have to pay P.O. To release it which costs me a further £17. You are so lucky to have a g.p. who will prescribe it.