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It would be better for a woman who has hypothyroidism and is planning to get pregnant or is pregnant to consult an endocrinologist rather than a web site. You know, someone with an MD or DO who gets his information from MDs, DOs, and PhDs rather than MEds. It's her baby's brain that is at stake.
Like the great MD's of the world have been the best support for a lot of us. I learn more from books and real live people who have gone thru the misery.
During my time of trying to get my thyroid to an optimal "spot" I saw 3 worthless endos...
The one MD kept me on anti depressants due to the lab NUMBERS. 10 miserable years of anti depressant drugs and thyroid is suffering.
Yes. I take levothyroxine for hypothyroidism. I have been on the same dose for years.
Again, all I have done here is to try to explain why experts on thyroid disease from around the world do not advise the use of desiccated thyroid to treat hypothyroidism. That is to counter the "try it, you'll like it" in the OP.
There are doctors who know some people want desiccated thyroid and are willing to provide it. If you feel good with it, that is fine.
Maybe someone will eventually find out what the miracle ingredient in desiccated thyroid is that makes it attractive to some people. It's apparently not the thyroid hormones.
Miracle ingredient? Not the thyroid hormones? That's exactly what it is. My T3 was too low until I went on NatureThroid, which as you know has T4 and T3 (among other things).
Why wouldn't it be a no-brainer that some patients do better taking the "full spectrum" of thyroid hormones contained in NDT rather than taking T4 alone? (Note I said some, not all.)
"Synthetic" levothyroxine is exactly the same as the levothyroxine naturally produced by the human thyroid gland.
Well no, not exactly. There are other ingredients in the pill other then just the synthetic levothyroxine and I believe that the reason why I felt worse on it was due to the other ingredients because I started to feel worse very shorty after I began taking it. https://www.drugs.com/pro/levothyroxine.html
Quote:
Originally Posted by suzy_q2010
Maybe someone will eventually find out what the miracle ingredient in desiccated thyroid is that makes it attractive to some people. It's apparently not the thyroid hormones.
It is the hormones.
Quote:
Originally Posted by suzy_q2010
It would be better for a woman who has hypothyroidism and is planning to get pregnant or is pregnant to consult an endocrinologist rather than a web site. You know, someone with an MD or DO who gets his information from MDs, DOs, and PhDs rather than MEds. It's her baby's brain that is at stake.
Obviously but in order to get thyroid meds (synthetic or NDT) one has to get a prescription from their doctor so there's no need to be overly concerned that someone might also read something on a website.
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.
Quote:
Originally Posted by reneeh63
Here's an alternative that is gaining acceptance in the medical field:
The fact is that the research has not shown that a combination of T4 and T3 is optimal for anyone. That is the point I have been trying to make. The experts make recommendations based on the evidence. That includes treatment of people who do not have thyroids. Conversion of T4 to T3 does not happen only in the thyroid gland itself.
In fact, what happens after the thyroid has been removed and levothyroxine replacement started has been studied.
"In our study, normal T3 levels were achieved with traditional LT4 therapy alone in patients who had undergone near-total or total thyroidectomy, which suggests that T3 administration is not necessary to maintain serum T3 values at their endogenous prethyroidectomy levels."
I have no personal "'grand unified field theory' of thyroid disease". I have presented the consensus of people who are experts on the molecular biology of thyroid metabolism.
Pardon me, but you are the one who called people with defects in the ability to convert T4 to T3 "misfits."
This is where you backpedaled and still haven't answered for it - where you first "allow" for the the fact that some people have issues such as a mutation where taking anything in addition to pure T4 may be necessary. Admit it suzy....there are multiple thyroid hormones that serve a purpose and may need to be replaced for some to feel their best.
You've never addressed why most any other disease can be treated with multiple medication options EXCEPT thyroid disease. You can only harp on "the standard of care". There are many edge cases in life - let's hope you never are one (I wonder...!) and that you are allowed to find something that works for YOU as well as your doctor. As inflexible as some doctors are, you are the worst. May you always fall in the majority!
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