Thyroid Medication Nature-Throid VS. Armour Thyroid
by patient-advocate
Filed under Thyroid
Armour Thyroid Medication Reformulation Part III
If you’ve been following along with this series on how Armour Thyroid Medication was reformulated, you’ll know that it came as a surprise to patients, including myself, that a medication could simply be reformulated without informing patients, physicians or pharmacists. So, to pick up after the last update, I had a resurgence of all the hypo-thyroid symptoms that I had previously been managing so well while on the naturally desiccated thyroid hormone, Armour Thyroid, and found out that Forest Laboratories, the drug company producing Armour Thyroid had changed the fillers. Since I was obviously not doing well on the new reformulation, the new task at hand became on what to do about replacing Armour Thyroid.
First of all, it’s not that easy to change medications. Especially, if you’re taking a naturally desiccated or non-synthetic thyroid hormone. Most doctors, especially if they don’t have a good understanding of thyroid issues, or simply believe everything that their drug rep tells them, will prescribe a synthetic medication which contains only T4 hormone. Other synthetic hormone preparations may have only T3, but the bottom line is that your body produces both T3 and T4, so many thyroid patients will do better taking a medication that more closely resembles the hormones that your body would produce naturally if it could do so. The other argument that some medical practitioners use is that they will tell patients that it is perfectly acceptable to take a synthetic T4 hormone supplement only because the thyroid gland will convert some of the synthetic T4 to T3. This is a problem for many of us with thyroid disorders because if you are relying on an already malfunctioning thyroid gland to do conversions of hormones for you, it can be problematic to expect that you will get the proper conversions with a thyroid gland that is not working optimally. Not to mention the fact if you talk to a group of thyroid patients, most likely the ones most satisfied with their treatment are those who are taking non-synthetic type/s of hormone replacement. Not all, because the thyroid is a complex organ, and of course, everyone’s body is different, thus the need to adjust dosages and pay attention to patient’s symptoms. But most patients I have interviewed and the thousands of news group postings online seem to reflect a common denominator in that most will feel much better by taking a naturally desiccated thyroid hormone.
Alright, we’ll talk more about the different types of naturally desiccated thyroid hormones in another segment, but for this time, we’re going to focus on Nature-Throid™. After finding out that the thyroid medication that I relied on every day to keep me functioning no longer worked, I got busy and found that there were many thyroid patients who were switching over to Nature-Throid. So I called my pharmacists and explained the situation and found out that because Nature-Throid and Armour are essentially the same active ingredients, that they could most likely just refill my prescription with Nature Throid without my having to schedule another doctor’s visit. My pharmacy actually ended up making a call to my doctors office for me and my doctor just went ahead and wrote out a new prescription and faxed it to the pharmacy and I was able to pick up my new Nature-Throid medication the very next day. It took some adjustment in order to get my dosage correct. Even though theoretically, the Nature Throid is the same “active” ingredients because it has different fillers my body does process it differently and I am now taking 1/4 of a grain less than what I was taking using the Armour Thyroid. But so far, it’s been a few weeks and things are finally getting back to normal in terms of my energy, memory and other symptoms. And no more headaches which is great.
As always if you’re on any type of medication, make sure to listen to the signals your body is telling you and don’t ignore any new side effects even if you think that it “couldn’t be an issue with your medication” because you’ve taken it for years.
And no, there’s not a mis-spelling with the words “Nature-Throid” . The “y” has been left off the word Thyroid, so please make note of this if you’re trying to have your pharmacy order it in for you if it is not in stock and you want to try it as an alternative to Armour Thyroid.
Armour Thyroid Medication Change Part I
Armour Thyroid Medication Reformulation Part II
Did you miss any of these?
This has been a “nightmare”…….I am so tired of this I do not even want to discuss all of the problems that I have had this entire summer with my thyroid and my thyroid medicines……..all I can say is…..a doctor needs to educate themselves about hypothyroidism and start manufacturing a natural formula of T-4 & T-3 and get the thing right……….we patients should not have to go through this……..researching it ourselves etc.
This to me just shows the incompetency of our Medical Healthcare system in the USA…
Only us woman , approximately 59 millions us have hypothyroidism in this country……and I feel all of thses shortages of thyroid is just another big “pharmaceutical bubble” big Pharma is creating and then watch…..they will jack the price up when it comes back on the market……….
I checked with the FDA yesterday and they said it is all lies they never stopped production of Amour , Natur-throid or any other natural thyroid manufacturing company from producing their medicines…..
I just saw however that Synthroid company had a lawsuit in 1998……so that makes me not want to go on levothyroxine temporarily……I would rather take the natural with both t-4 and t-3 in it…..
I have ten days to find some…….and why should I and millions of us woman have to spend our days looking and calling and investigating this problem……Someone , some doctor or some company should be get their butts in gear and get it done……this is worse than any Canadian ever thought of for the care of a medical problem….don’t tell me after what I have been through in the USA with my hypothyroidism condition that we do not have to wait for medical care in the USA……..all of us woman have gotten messed up with Amour thyroid reformulation idea and now will have to wait 3 months before they can get the medicines back on the market………Do you call this Quality CARE……..I don’t think so!
I’ve had a thyroid disease for 9 years. I first had Graves disease and eventually had RIU which killed most of the cells in my thyroid leaving me hypo. I started on Nature Throid 2 years ago and finally got to the perfect level of dosage. Things were so good for 6 months then bam all of a sudden I can’t get Nature Throid because so many people switched from Armour to Nature Throid. In my city all pharmacies are out and on back order so I had to switch to Armour. Now I’m getting bad symproms again, the most being inflammation in my knees and causing severe pain. Also I’m starting to itch and my heart is acting strange. I’ve had to reduce my dose because I’m starting to hyper out. I’m so frustrated with this situation, especially finding out that a drug company changed it’s formula, thus causing so many patients to have bad symptoms and creating this high demand for a drug I’ve been using for 2 years.
I too have had a wonderful experience with Armour thyroid after years of struggling with synthroid and have been symptom free of my Hashimoto’s for the last three years – until now. Lethargy, muscle aches, hair loss, temperature disregulation, digestion problems, and just feeling like a 60 watt bulb only able to muster up 15 watts of energy. After reading what everyone has said I called Forest Labs and spoke with a pharmacist, a nurse and customer care. They were very interested in what I had to say and would like anyone who is having problems since the reformulation to contact them. The reason for the change is a supposed bioavailability increase with the change between sucrose (why the original tasted sweet) to cellulose. Doesn’t make sense to me as cellulose in indigestible and if the active ingredient is binding to it, it may be less available than with the sucrose formulation. Any thoughts? I also asked about the rumored FDA requirements – NO the FDA is not requiring them to go through trials as they are grandfathered in under the “generally recognized as safe” ruling. They have also just released a large amount of the one grain size (60mg) to pharmacies so it should be available. He said that if the pharmacy didn’t have it yet to call Forest Labs again. He also wanted me to speak to a nurse to document the symptoms I was experiencing. The transfer was quick – no getting put on long holds, and she was very thorough and pleasant. The pharmacist, Pat, and the nurse that I spoke to want to hear from the people who are having difficulties with the change in formulation – so Call, Call and Call again. The only way to get the formula back to where it was is if we let them know it now doesn’t work. Call 800 678 1605 ext 66297 for medical input and 66298 for customer service and quality control. One voice is a whisper, many voices is a shout to be acknowledged.
I am literally at the end of my rope. I had been suffering with weight gain, depression, dry skin, constipation, no menstrual cycle at all and my doctor finally sent me for thyroid tests. Before getting the test results back he went ahead and put me on Synthroid 100 mcg a day. I have been taking it for months now and I still feel terrible, maybe even worse. I’ve asked my doctor to send me for hormone tests and get my pituitary gland checked as well, but he thinks I’m some crazy internet nut. I don’t understand this, it is not like he is paying for the tests, I am. All he had to do was send me to get them, I basically begged him to. I asked him about Armour because I’ve heard really great things about it and he just blew it off and said Sythroid was better. I told him that it wasn’t helping my symptoms, that I still wasn’t having a menstrual cycle, I was still constipated, and depressed. He sent me back to see how my thyroid was functioning and then told me that my levels were perfect. Well, I don’t feel perfect and I have every symptom of having thyroid problems, pituitary problems ect. I’ve read that when you have a pituitary problem that it can affect your thyroid and adrenal glands, but my doctor will not listen to me. He refuses to even try Armour or get me tested. I am at the end of my rope and I need a new doctor but I’m in Alabama and I don’t know of a good doctor for this type of thing around here that will prescribe Armour. It seems like so many doctors do not want to prescribe it, but then I read on the internet and in magazines where it is helping so many people. I don’t know what to do.
I was taking Armour. When it became unavailable I switched to Naturethroid. Two months later that is no longer available. My doc said that thyroid meds can be compounded at a compounding pharmacy. It’s made from the same active ingredient as Armour and Naturethroid but the capsules are “made to order” so to speak. I’m so thankful that this option is available as I did NOT want to take synthetic thyroid meds.
If you do not have a compounding pharmacy in your area I would think you could find the closest one, even if out of state, have your doc call in your rx and they will mail it to you.