Dieting with Obstacles - having trouble finding your natural thyroid med?

If you're having trouble finding your natural thyroid med, like Armour Thyroid, Naturethroid or Westhroid, please check out the info at www.savenaturalthyroid.com

or also all the good discussion at the facebook page by the same name.

or holler at me.

hugs,
Cathy

just moving this back up to the top :)

hi cathyxxx! Glad you're getting awareness out there - Dr. Mercola's website just did a big article on how the FDA is shutting down the manufacturers of the natural stuff so they can keep getting the bribes from the makers of the fake hormones. I've signed the petition, and made calls - I'm so freakin' mad at the government right now I could SPIT.

ICUwishing - please come join us on the Save Natural Thyroid facebook page for up to date info on what is going on.

Mary Shomon has set up a conference call for this Thursday with "The Steering Committee" that has been formed to address this issue.

"The Steering Committee for Save Natural Thyroid is having their first conference call this Thursday! Find out which practitioners have signed on to participate in the Coalition Steering Committee, to support the right to prescribe natural desiccated ...thyroid drugs, and our right to be prescribed these drugs!"

hi cathyxxx! Glad you're getting awareness out there - Dr. Mercola's website just did a big article on how the FDA is shutting down the manufacturers of the natural stuff.

I didn't know about this. I think the FDA is extremely corrupt.
I don't have facebook; could you please link to the petition I can sign?

if you don't have a facebook you can find everything you need at

www.savenaturalthyroid.com

Forgive me if this is being "nosy", but how do you get your doctor to give you armour? Is it really better?
I have HAshimoto's disease (caused my hypo) so I am not sure if I can take the armour but even though I feel like I still have symptoms (dry skin, fatigue) they say that my levels are "normal"
I take Levothyroxine but my doctor is my main doctor...I never got referred to an endo even if there was one in my area...

Dagny - you are not being nosy at all.
you might want to check out the info at
www.thyroid.about.com and at
www.stopthethyroidmadness.com

you usually have to find a doc that is willing to prescribe natural desicatted thyroid meds. A lot of endos are "synthetic thyroid meds" only.

I also have Hashimotos. Of course you can take Armour or any other natural desiccated thyroid med.

The other thing you can do is try to get your current doc to run your FREE T3 test and if your results are low or low in the range, you can get him to add Cytomel, which is synethic T3, and that may help you some. But many many people find that natural thyroid meds treat their hypo symptoms better.

let me know if I can help with any of the info.
take care,
Cathy

Thanks Cathy.
I have read some things on the Stop the thyroid madness website...I don't have an Endo my general doctor diagnosed me and she is the one treating me. I have been wanting to ask her if I can try the Armour or other thyroid meds but have been afraid...(weird I know)
But I have an appointment in December and I feel like either my levels are off or the meds are fixing my symptoms and I wanted to ask if we could try something different...
She put me on levothyroxine and I am not sure how good that is but I think she put me on that assuming she would transfer me to synthroid when we found a good dosage.
Is Armour more expensive? (compared to levothyroxine)
oh and she does run the Free T3 (and T4) along with TSH. At one time I told her I still had symptoms so she said the TSH but something was low and so it might have been causing underactive symtoms so she increased my dose...so maybe instead if it was Free T3 she should have added that...

oh no - natural thyroid meds are not expensive at all!!!! I take 5 grains daily, which most consider to be a high dosage, and it runs me less than $30 a month - full price (no insurance). Most people pay less than $20n a month for their dosage.

usually a GP is easier to work with so you may be able to get her to switch you to natural desiccated thyroid meds. there is shortage right now of Armour (for a lot of reasons that you can read about at thyroid.about.com and at stopthethyroidmadness) but Naturethroid will be shipping out this month. If I were you I would ask for a prescription for Naturethroid, as it will be easier to find and is the same thing as Armour.

If your doc does not know a lot about natural thyroid meds then you will need to research this stuff and become your best advocate. You can find good info at www.thyroid.about.com and at stopthethyroidmadness.

I'm glad to hear your doc runs the FREE T3. I cannot tell you how many don't, so that's a good sign. :)

Yea I do like my doc, I think I will ask her the the nature one. Levothyroxine is only $10 for me I think...
I want to get my levels checked again but my mom says they only do that every 6 weeks and it is expensive.
See I had them checked at the beginning of last month, but for some reason the doctor never saw and reported on them. But the end of last month I had dry skin (on the side of my neck). It is winter here, but I moisturize alot using bath & body works (I got it last Chrismas) I told them I had been using that since last christmas, so over a year. I am not allergic to it. And I didn't say but I also take biotin for healthy skin, nails and hair.
Well they told me I was normal! I am supposed to stop using my moisturizer and use this other kind. Well I didn't do that, just started using the cream version of the lotions and this week the dry skin did go away.
But I am still convinced that my levels aren't right...:/ I don't have carpel tunnel but when my levels are off, well I have carpel tunnel! I also take allergy meds because I have allergies if I don't. And since last week for no reason I gained 2 pounds...petty but I don't know. Would you keep contacting your doctor if you were me? Or just wait a few months, redo the blood tests and see what they say?

when did they tell you that you're normal? from the blood work that was done the beginning of October or September?

it's really hard for me to say what I would do if I were you - bec I would only take natural thyroid meds - Armour, Naturethroid or compounded Armour (that is made by a pharmacist). I would make sure that my doc was running the FREE T3 and FREE T4 tests and I would make sure that my doc was paying more attention to my hypo symptoms then just dosing by the results of the labwork.

you definitely have hypo symptoms