Armour thyroid how to take
Common Questions and Answers about Armour thyroid how to take
armour-thyroid
I have Hosimoto's and I've taken Armour Thyroid since 2000 and will never take anything else. Armour Thyroid is all natural - not synthetic. The doctor who first put me on it only prescribed Armour. He didn't like the long term affects that could be caused by taking synthetics. I had surgery in 2002 and 2/3'ds of my thyroid removed. The surgeon wanted to take me off Armour and put me on Synthroid but I wouldn't let him.
Many people on Armour take about 2/3 to 3/4 of their daily med in the morning, then take the remainder mid day.
I hope your doctor did not tell you to take it before bed. Taking Armour at night is not advised and kind of pointless really. Thyroid hormone gives you the energy you need in your daytime hours that untreated Hypothyroid people lack. Thyroid hormone T3 is more active than just T4 and it can keep you from sleeping at night.
Maybe it would be best to wait till next week and get your true picture of blood levels and go from there. I know the end of next week seems like years away, been there, but if he is having you raise your T4, there must be no sign of overmedication, that would be a concern.
I really think in all my reading, Armour would work for nearly all, IF the Doc's knew how to administer it.
Both your FT4 and FT3 are very low in their ranges, which could account for the high cortisol, since the adrenals kick in to try to take up the slack when the thyroid fails.
When you have hypothyroidism, nothing works quickly... you have to give the med time to get into your system and start increasing your thyroid levels.
Have you been tested for Hashimoto's? The tests you need are TPOab and TGab.
At the bottom of that you will find the armour prescribing sheet that you can print out and take to your dr. It explains proper way to increase and when to do testing. It is diff than synthetics. It will explain increases every 2-3 weeks. and blood tests every 4.
You can always buy a pill splitter and start out slower that way. Most drs don't understand how to dosage and increase armour. The sheet and us will help a lot. :) Please join the thread of those of us on armour. Hope this helps!
You can take Erfa however you want. Different people here take it differently.
I find if I take the whole dose in the AM, I will tire out after the short lived energy from the T4 wares out in 5 hours. So I take it 3 times per day and have experimented with 4 times per day. The advantage of Erfa (just like old Armour) is you can take it sublingually with ease and have the same effectiveness as if it were swallowed.
Today I felt really good almost no side effects, I did increase to 2 a day and felt really good. Based on how I felt today I should take the second dose around 10am. ( I took at 12, felt the gap a little) When I look back at my progress with Armour, because I was taking it sublingually I was having a normal morning then about 1hr later the surge would come in so fast, therefore the headache and tiredness etc. My conclusion is, that I was getting hyper while all the symptoms were hypo.
I am pretty new to the hypothyroid condition (I have autoimmune Hashimotos) I have read non-stop about thryoid conditions and the drugs prescribed for it over the last 3 months. From what I have read T4 only does not often alleviate the symptoms and many people spend years with their symptoms regardless of the dosage they are taking. The drugs may produce "blood test results" that doctors like to see - but the symptoms are still there or become worse. I needed T3, and I knew it.
How do you take your Armour? Do you take it all at once in the morning or split the dose with half in the morning and the other half in the early afternoon?
Your first sentence in your original post states : "I take 105mg Armour @4:30am everyday."
which strongly leads me to believe you are taking it all at once.
Reason I ask is if you take the entire dose all in the morning, you could be inducing a "roller coaster" effect.
I, probably, had to tell you my thyroid history first. A year and a half ago I was a healthy person living without any pills. It so happened that during a check up they found a noddle on my thyroid. The result of the biopsy was: "Suspicious for papillary carcinoma". The surgery which I had last February showed that the noddle was much smaller than they had told me (1/2sm instead of 1.5) and it was benign.
I have been on the Thyroid blog with Mary Shoman and I see where others are also having problems but what are we supposed to do when we DO NOT want the articificial thyroid RXs the Drs are so quick to push. Sorrry I bent your ear but I want you to know how much I appreciate your taking the time to answer my message.
I personally had not tried it - but went directly to Armour and stop taking Synthroid - (levo)
Synthroid left me feeling very bad and I could not function on a T4 med alone no matter how high the script went.
I went to a 1 grain tablet of Armour (60mg) from a .175mcg Synthroid and within 2 days I felt much better
Since the switch I am upped to 120mg Armour alone ( not T4 meds) and I have no hypo symptoms.
Hi Marigaux!
Yes, try the Armour, but also be aware that you may be one of the people, like me, who needs more T3, and therefor must add Cytomel to the Armour dosage. Armour stopped working for me this week, and I figured out on my own by research, that I could possibly need T3, and started taking Cytomel 25 mg Am and 25 mg PM with my 3 grains of Armour, and IMMEDIATELY felt better. This could be your situation, as well.
I have been taking a low dose of Xanex to keep my HR/BP down and this helps a lot. Any idea how long it is going to take to feel OK? The other problem now is that I cant get into an endochronologist for another 9 days so effectively my hypo is going untreated...Any advice? Anyone else heard of problems with the Canadian brand?
I was like that for well over 25 years until learning on this Forum about the importance of Free T3 and after testing and confirming mine as low in the range, my doctor switched my meds to Armour Thyroid. Now after a few bumps in the road and some tweaking of the dosage, my FT3 is 3.9 and FT4 is .84, and I feel best ever.
Also, about a year or so ago, I messed up on my meds and got back into being hypo again while waiting for Armour to be available again.
Very uncomfortable and miserable, So long story short I can not no matter how hard I try, up the Armour to get a normal TSH level. My FT4 is always at the edge of low normal, My FT3 is always at the edge of high normal.
Would it be crazy to add in Synthroid t4 only. Would it maybe less of an instant stimulant as the t4/t3 combo of Armour? Over all if I had a choice I would stay under treated which means unable to loose the extra weight being constipated, cold etc...
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