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From the NY Times 2001. I don't know how relevant it is or not. I'm committed to NDT so it doesn't affect me one way or the other. I've heard from many that mass fluoridation was NEVER FDA approved. The FDA good grief, they approve or don't approve so much toxins. I wouldn't want them near my supplements.
I can't speak for all 21.5 million people, but I kept filling my prescription for Synthroid, for 10 years, because I didn't know there were other options. I've been on a combination of NDT + a low dose Synthroid (tweaked a few times) for the past several months, prescribed by my MD. I FINALLY feel better! Why are you so opposed to people having options, and working with their doctor to find what works best for THEM?
I must say, as someone whose career was in medical laboratory science, I have appreciated and agreed with many of your posts about health topics on other threads, but you are off the mark on this one. I don't understand your closed-mindedness on this topic.
Please answer me this: Do you really think I should go back to my MD, tell her "I read SuzyQ's posts online, she thinks every hypothyroid patient should be on Synthroid, and not ground up pig thyroid. So would you please put me back on Synthroid alone, even though I didn't feel good on it for 10 years." ??? If you think that is what I should do, please convince me why. if not, then please stop attacking those of us who are trying to educate others about NDT.
Agreed - patients need options - if they are on the market and deemed equivalent, why such fighting as to which one someone SHOULD take?
And I do take offense at SuzyQ's insistently calling NDT "ground up pig thyroid". Oh yes, like a child she'll gleefully argue "but that's what it IS". Well, I was taught to say cemetery not graveyard, overweight not fat, and pate de foie gras not ground up duck liver! There is nothing unhealthful about taking NDT and you can call it pig thyroid all you want but that fact won't change. OPTIONS - that's what people want and deserve to get quality of life.
After all, why do we need MULTIPLE versions of synthetic T4?! Synthroid, Levoxyl, and Unithroid (et al.)? If we can choose among those then this is all a very silly argument. And they don't even have to work equally well - many conditions have multiple treatments that work ACCEPTABLY well for different people - and they're all okay.
Take what works for you and leave others alone. I don't try to prescribe medications for other people, why should you?
The OP states "In Spite of Standard of Care, People Still Suffer (thyroids)" and "So Many could be on the Wrong Thyroid Support."
She really has no evidence that is true.
If millions of people on the standard of care were suffering and desiccated thyroid worked so much better for them, then desiccated thyroid would be the standard of care.
The theory behind desiccated thyroid appears to be to push the dose higher and higher until all symptoms go away. The problem with that is that you may be chasing symptoms (like fatigue and weight gain) that have causes other than hypothyroidism.
There are hazards to taking too much, and enough to totally suppress TSH may indeed be too much.
The sites I have visited the last few days have a theme: TSH is worthless. That ignores the fact that the feedback loops between the hypothalamus, pituitary, and thyroid are well understood. To insist you are hypothyroid when those loops are in balance defies the physiology. In essence, you are saying that everyone who has normal thyroid function studies (within the ranges established by measuring them in people with no symptoms of thyroid dysfunction at all) is hypothyroid.
Therefore I continue to disagree with the thesis of the OP that there are "many" who "still suffer" on standard therapy for hypothyroidism.
I also continue to disagree that ground up pig thyroid is a "natural" replacement for human thyroid hormones. It's not, no matter how much the manufacturer touts it as "natural".
Agreed - patients need options - if they are on the market and deemed equivalent, why such fighting as to which one someone SHOULD take?
And I do take offense at SuzyQ's insistently calling NDT "ground up pig thyroid". Oh yes, like a child she'll gleefully argue "but that's what it IS". Well, I was taught to say cemetery not graveyard, overweight not fat, and pate de foie gras not ground up duck liver! There is nothing unhealthful about taking NDT and you can call it pig thyroid all you want but that fact won't change. OPTIONS - that's what people want and deserve to get quality of life.
After all, why do we need MULTIPLE versions of synthetic T4?! Synthroid, Levoxyl, and Unithroid (et al.)? If we can choose among those then this is all a very silly argument. And they don't even have to work equally well - many conditions have multiple treatments that work ACCEPTABLY well for different people - and they're all okay.
Ground up pig thyroid is ground up pig thyroid no matter what you call it. It is what it is.
The OP states "In Spite of Standard of Care, People Still Suffer (thyroids)" and "So Many could be on the Wrong Thyroid Support."
She really has no evidence that is true.
If millions of people on the standard of care were suffering and desiccated thyroid worked so much better for them, then desiccated thyroid would be the standard of care.
The theory behind desiccated thyroid appears to be to push the dose higher and higher until all symptoms go away. The problem with that is that you may be chasing symptoms (like fatigue and weight gain) that have causes other than hypothyroidism.
There are hazards to taking too much, and enough to totally suppress TSH may indeed be too much.
The sites I have visited the last few days have a theme: TSH is worthless. That ignores the fact that the feedback loops between the hypothalamus, pituitary, and thyroid are well understood. To insist you are hypothyroid when those loops are in balance defies the physiology. In essence, you are saying that everyone who has normal thyroid function studies (within the ranges established by measuring them in people with no symptoms of thyroid dysfunction at all) is hypothyroid.
Therefore I continue to disagree with the thesis of the OP that there are "many" who "still suffer" on standard therapy for hypothyroidism.
I also continue to disagree that ground up pig thyroid is a "natural" replacement for human thyroid hormones. It's not, no matter how much the manufacturer touts it as "natural".
Eh...we can all find extreme examples...why throw out the baby with the bathwater? "Standard" only means it works for the majority or for the typical case. Isn't there another thread going on now that is talking about adverse side effects and off label use? Goes to show there's a wide range of both reactions to meds and treatments of disease.
Here's another example - smoking cessation. You can use gum, pills, patches, and even vaping to quit...of course there's always "cold turkey". If it is found that gum works best for 51% or even 75% of people, should we get rid of all the other treatments that work best for the rest? We CAN...that would be ooohhh so much easier and efficient! But it wouldn't be best for those looking for what works well for THEM. Let's not take the patient out of the equation.
The OP states "In Spite of Standard of Care, People Still Suffer (thyroids)" and "So Many could be on the Wrong Thyroid Support."
She really has no evidence that is true.
If millions of people on the standard of care were suffering and desiccated thyroid worked so much better for them, then desiccated thyroid would be the standard of care.
Nowhere did Jaminhealth say that "millions" were suffering. "Many" does not necessarily equate to "millions".
Desiccated thyroid WAS the standard of care for MANY years until the development of synthetic thyroid hormone. That is why it does not require FDA approval. It was proven "safe and effective" by many years of patients being successfully treated with it. Synthroid's main advantage is that it is able to be produced very cheaply, in huge quantities and is formulated in many more strengths than desiccated thyroid. That doesn't equate to being "better". It is not truly equivalent to desiccated thyroid in that it contains only T4, not the full spectrum of thyroid hormones present in desiccated thyroid. T3 is the active form of thyroid hormone in the body and must be converted by the body from T4. The actions of the other thyroid hormones contained in desiccated thyroid are presently unknown, but it seems unusual that a gland in the body would produce a hormone without a purpose in the body. So until that is more fully understood, I go under the assumption that there must be a purpose for them.
Why are you so invested in disparaging a perfectly good medication taken successfully by hypothyroid patients for many, many years? If there were any problem with dessicated thyroid it certainly would have been discovered and pulled from the market years ago. It's just another form of treatment and it works better for some folks, including me.
Nowhere did Jaminhealth say that "millions" were suffering. "Many" does not necessarily equate to "millions".
Desiccated thyroid WAS the standard of care for MANY years until the development of synthetic thyroid hormone. That is why it does not require FDA approval. It was proven "safe and effective" by many years of patients being successfully treated with it. Synthroid's main advantage is that it is able to be produced very cheaply, in huge quantities and is formulated in many more strengths than desiccated thyroid. That doesn't equate to being "better". It is not truly equivalent to desiccated thyroid in that it contains only T4, not the full spectrum of thyroid hormones present in desiccated thyroid. T3 is the active form of thyroid hormone in the body and must be converted by the body from T4. The actions of the other thyroid hormones contained in desiccated thyroid are presently unknown, but it seems unusual that a gland in the body would produce a hormone without a purpose in the body. So until that is more fully understood, I go under the assumption that there must be a purpose for them.
Why are you so invested in disparaging a perfectly good medication taken successfully by hypothyroid patients for many, many years? If there were any problem with dessicated thyroid it certainly would have been discovered and pulled from the market years ago. It's just another form of treatment and it works better for some folks, including me.
Yes - synthetic T4 may be the same as the T4 found in dessicated thyroid but the latter contains many other hormones as well. We don't always know everything but I also find it difficult to believe that there is something our bodies produce for no reason at all.
Even doctors say it is better to get vitamins from actual food if you can - because we don't yet know all the other complexities that may need to be in place or combined with the "pure" vitamin to have the same effect as when eaten.
Nowhere did Jaminhealth say that "millions" were suffering. "Many" does not necessarily equate to "millions".
Desiccated thyroid WAS the standard of care for MANY years until the development of synthetic thyroid hormone. That is why it does not require FDA approval. It was proven "safe and effective" by many years of patients being successfully treated with it. Synthroid's main advantage is that it is able to be produced very cheaply, in huge quantities and is formulated in many more strengths than desiccated thyroid. That doesn't equate to being "better". It is not truly equivalent to desiccated thyroid in that it contains only T4, not the full spectrum of thyroid hormones present in desiccated thyroid. T3 is the active form of thyroid hormone in the body and must be converted by the body from T4. The actions of the other thyroid hormones contained in desiccated thyroid are presently unknown, but it seems unusual that a gland in the body would produce a hormone without a purpose in the body. So until that is more fully understood, I go under the assumption that there must be a purpose for them.
Why are you so invested in disparaging a perfectly good medication taken successfully by hypothyroid patients for many, many years? If there were any problem with dessicated thyroid it certainly would have been discovered and pulled from the market years ago. It's just another form of treatment and it works better for some folks, including me.
Jaminhealth has made it very clear that she does not "believe" that "synthetic" levothyroxine is exactly the same as the levothyroxine produced by the human thyroid. The reason she uses desiccated thyroid is because she perceives that it is "natural" and any manufactured product is "synthetic". Sorry, but she thinks everyone should be taking desiccated thyroid. because, you know, natural is good, synthetic is bad.
Jaminhealth disparages prescription drugs in multiple posts in multiple threads here on CD.
The human body does produce substances with no activity, including an inactive form of T3. It's a result of biochemistry and the fact that the three dimensional shape of hormones is crucial in the way they work. Therefore, the assumption that apparently inactive hormones must have a purpose is not true.
Unless you have a defect in the process by which T4 is converted to T3 you do not need to take T3. Any question about whether you are making T3 can be answered by measuring T3. Also, the gene for the product that converts T4 is known. Anyone who is curious as to whether he has a mutation in that gene that reduces the ability to convert T4 to T3 can test his DNA with 23AndMe and find out. You can check out a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) called rs225014 in your personal raw DNA data. (I do not have it. )
The basic philosophy of the sites I have looked at recently that proclaim that "natural" desiccated thyroid is better boils down to the proponents of "natural" desiccated thyroid knowing more than the doctors who treat thyroid disease. I don't think so.
Jaminhealth has made it very clear that she does not "believe" that "synthetic" levothyroxine is exactly the same as the levothyroxine produced by the human thyroid. The reason she uses desiccated thyroid is because she perceives that it is "natural" and any manufactured product is "synthetic". Sorry, but she thinks everyone should be taking desiccated thyroid. because, you know, natural is good, synthetic is bad.
Jaminhealth disparages prescription drugs in multiple posts in multiple threads here on CD.
The human body does produce substances with no activity, including an inactive form of T3. It's a result of biochemistry and the fact that the three dimensional shape of hormones is crucial in the way they work. Therefore, the assumption that apparently inactive hormones must have a purpose is not true.
Unless you have a defect in the process by which T4 is converted to T3 you do not need to take T3. Any question about whether you are making T3 can be answered by measuring T3. Also, the gene for the product that converts T4 is known. Anyone who is curious as to whether he has a mutation in that gene that reduces the ability to convert T4 to T3 can test his DNA with 23AndMe and find out. You can check out a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) called rs225014 in your personal raw DNA data. (I do not have it. )
The basic philosophy of the sites I have looked at recently that proclaim that "natural" desiccated thyroid is better boils down to the proponents of "natural" desiccated thyroid knowing more than the doctors who treat thyroid disease. I don't think so.
Here's an alternative that is gaining acceptance in the medical field:
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