Armour thyroid information
Common Questions and Answers about Armour thyroid information
armour-thyroid
I have been taking Armour thyroid with satisfactory results. Unfortunately, I can't find a pharmacy that has it in stock. My M.D. has suggested that I begin taking Synthroid and I am scared that my symptoms may return. I am taking 90mg of Armour and my prescription is for 150mcg of Synthroid. If I have no choice and must change, how do you suggest I make the change.
Click on health pages and click on armour information page. It is filled with info and at the bottom will give you the link to get the actual prescribing information sheet. It explains dosaging and testing times which is diff than synthetics. Increases are every 2-3 weeks and testing is every 4 weeks. 90mgs will probably just be a starting dosage for you. Usually they start on 60mgs and work up from there. If you get jittery or hyper then ask to cut back to 60 and start from there.
“Calcium stearate is an inactive ingredient used as a lubricant in Armour Thyroid tablets. According to Pharmaceutical Formulation Databases and Resources, lubricants in medication tablets help keep the medication powder from sticking to the equipment used to make the tablet.
Dextrose and microcrystalline cellulose are inactive ingredients used in Armour Thyroid tablets.
Therefore I´m getting all the more convinced that I would rather use Armour Thyroid instead. But I have a question about Armour due to the fact that I have Hashimotos. I have caught information from many sources (books and internetsources) that the natural porcine hormone extracts in Armour "feeds" the TPO-antibodies and thus encreae the antibody titer. Is this true or is it only a myth? If Armour encreases the antibody titer I wouldn´t dare to ask my doctor to prescribe Armour.
i suggested to my doctor that i wanted to change from levothyroxine to armour thyroid and she tried to very convincingly persuade me to stick with the levo but increase the mcg to suit my body's needs...i pushed for the armour thyroid and she declined to switch it. i now am stuck with taking levothyroxine 100mcg, and i have to go see an endocrine specialist to even get approved to take the armour thyroid. ive read nothing but 100% good things about the armour thyroid...
First - thyroid supplementation is for an underactive thyroid, bot an overactive thyroid. Both Armour Thyroid and levothyroxine are thyroid supplements - levothyroxine is T4, which is the form of hormone produced by the thyroid gland, and which is converted to the active T3 form. Armour Thyroid contains both T4 and T3. Some patients don't seem to convert T4 to T3 quite the way they should and this may explain why some feel better on Armour Thyroid.
T3 at about 20:1. So, Armour contains about five times more T3 than our own thyroids would produce (if they could!). Cytomel is a T3-only drug. To add more T3 to Armour seems quite odd.
I think you need a bit more T4 meds. Your FT4 is very low in the range (and was below range previously). T3 is very fast-acting and is neutralized by your system if not used promptly.
Boy - you are in the heart of Armour country there. I live in Wisconsin - but I can say that many top thyroid/Armour doctors are in that area. I can't give you first hand information - but you should find a suitable physician where you're at.
I am however concerned that saliva testing for thyroid and adrenals may be difficult for you there. You should check that out in case you need those tests.
At work we have a saying that we use when something drives us crazy..."no sense, makes sense" Your mom is 80, took Armour 40 yrs, wasn't having problems so when she moved the dr changed her meds (because there was no armour or he doesn't like armour?)...."ns,ms" Armour wasn't available??? What? Did she move to another planet??? (Sorry for the sarcasm but drs make me very out of patience when they act stupid) "ns,ms"
My guess is...
The doctor cutting your dosage in half makes no sense to me. Both NatureThroid and Armour Thyroid are made from desiccated porcine thyroid. Both contain the same amount of T4 and T3 per grain: 38 mcg of T4 and 9 mcg of T3. You can look at the following links and see their inactive ingredients.
http://www.pdr.net/full-prescribing-information/Nature-Throid-thyroid-496
https://www.drugs.com/pro/armour-thyroid.
before retesting according to the dr. The dr. says taking Amour Thyroid caused the abnormal labs. She thinks Armour Thyroid is not meant for humans because it is pig thyroid. I pointed out that lots of medication comes from animal urine, tropical plants, etc.. She will not do any other testing as far as the thyroid is concerned. She does not see a purpose for all the other test.
I had some blood tests done in December for my thyroid. My test results are:
TSH, 3rd Generation 0.82
T4, Free 1.0 Range: (0.8-1.8)
T3, Free 4.0 Range: (2.3-4.2)
I have been taking Armour Thyroid and at times I felt better and sometimes I didn't. I still am tired a lot and need naps and have night sweats and just a general overall feeling of exhaustion all the time.
You can find more information on our health pages here under Armour information. At the bottom of the page is also a prescribing information link you can go to, to read or print as well.
After pratically begging my Doctor to switch from Levothyroxin to Armour, he finally wrote a script for it. I'm saying up front that I was taking 125mcg of Levothyroxin an i'm miserable. My dad takes Armour and he said he would never go back to synthethic. My dad has absoutely no Thyroid and is currently on 2 grains of Armour.
Have you ever heard of the Armour Thyroid causing your pituitary glad to fair? My PA refuses to prescribe Armour and seems to think it is what's causing my TSH level to be extremely low(.03). But I think it's because I was taking 300 mcg of sythroid before my old PA put me back on 180mcg. I've been back on Armour for 2 months now and I feel 200% better than I ever did on the synthetic.
The reason is that these meds are more consistent than either a generic form of levothyroxine or a desiccated thyroid med like Armour Thyroid. From what I’ve come across, including here on this forum, Armour Thyroid does seem like a harder med to regulate. And it’s the ‘natural’ aspect that seems to be the biggest issue. I understand this is mostly due to the natural inclusion of T3 hormone - present regardless of whether or not needed and/or occurring in uncontrollable amounts.
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