Guest guest Posted October 14, 2004 Report Share Posted October 14, 2004 This is just my own personal advice here, but, I think if you don't get any results from your current doctor after you contact him, you are going to get nothing but heartache and suffering if you continue to try and " convince " him to do something. Endos tend to be the most rigid numbers Nazis and all they care about is a kind of obsessive desire to peg people in the middle of a range and looking only at TSH. It's as if they think like engineers. They also only like Synthroid and can come up with some of the most outrageous reasons why Armour is no good, dispite the fact that natural thyroid has been used for over 84 years with a long track record of safety, better than Synthroid. My advice is to call once and if you don't get help, find another doctor. I'll be willing to bet he will be very stingy. It will save you so much anger, frustration, the feeling of being victimized, and the loss of money in the long run. Most people who have pituitary suppression from low dose thyroid therapy need much higher doses. And people who have this problem are so common that I think it is most of us. Typical doses needed to feel well under these situations are 3-5 grains of Armour or a minimum of 222 mcg of Synthroid, but more commonly 300 to 400 mcg. Thyroid doses have dropped to 1/3 since the over fixation on the TSH test came about. The human thyroid makes about 4-1/2 to 5 grains of Armour equivelent a day or about 333 to 370 mcg of Synthroid equivelent a day. You cannot overdose on less, because the pituitary drops production of TSH to tell the thyroid to make less keeping blood levels below 4- 1/2 to 5 grains or 333 to 370 mcg. If you have problems with less than about 4 grains of Armour or around 250 mcg Synthroid, then it is most often adrenal fatigue, anemia or some other health issue interfering with the body's ability to use thyroid. What this means is that doctors have a very large amount of room to go up untill the patient feels well, if they were to ignore the meaningless TSH test. They can easily put your T4 and T3 numbers near the top of the range and not get sued. So, why don't they when patients complain? Here are some articles on this issue: http://thyroid.about.com/library/derry/bl11.htm http://www.thyroid-info.com/articles/david-derry.htm http://www.eje.org/eje/149/0091/1490091.pdf http://thyroid.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm? site=http://www.thyroid%2Dinfo.com/articles/docdon.htm ________________________ My advice is to start looking around for a new doctor. Check the top doc list at Shammon's site: http://thyroid.about.com (Here, I would look for one that prescribes Armour. They are much more open minded in general. Also, you can go to the 's Thyroid site and sort out the ones that do only T3 therapy. The rest should be more open minded doctors. http://www.wilsonssyndrome.com/ You can also go to the Armour site and look at their list. These may not give you high enough doses, but you could cross reference any and if they are on more than one list, that is a pretty good sign. http://www.armourthyroid.com/ Tish Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 14, 2004 Report Share Posted October 14, 2004 , You can order IsoCort online. Cathryn > > additionally, i told the peon that i wanted a call > back from the doctor to discuss the cortisol level, > because i think that it's too low, especially given > the adrenal fatigue symptoms i'm having. i was told > she'd call me back today. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 14, 2004 Report Share Posted October 14, 2004 > yeah, courtenay, when i think about that, i'm happy to > start out at 1/2 a grain. all the more reason i want > to be patient and give it a month to try. _________________ 1/2 of a grain is the usual starting dose for Armour and typically a raise is made every two weeks. However in adrenal fatigue, you may have to make raises more slowly and in smaller doses. That is what I had to do. With adrenal support, it makes it easier to do raises a little more often. It is a catch twentytwo because in some ways the faster you get your dose up to your optimal level the better, but many people cannot tolerate fast raises. Typical Armour final doses are 3 to 5 grains. This usually overcomes the pituitary over suppression that makes people more hypo on low doses of thyroid. I did not feel well at all untill I got over 3 grains. I had bursitis in my feet and was tired all the time on 2 grains. All this cleared up after I got to 3 grains. I am now on about 3-3/4 of a grain. Most doctors do not prescibe these doses, today. They were prescribed commonly from the late 1800s up untill the mid 1970s. Keep in mind that if you become too unhappy with doctors you can treat yourself. This is what I do. Just write in to the group for help on this. Tish Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 14, 2004 Report Share Posted October 14, 2004 > yeah, courtenay, when i think about that, i'm happy to > start out at 1/2 a grain. all the more reason i want > to be patient and give it a month to try. _________________ 1/2 of a grain is the usual starting dose for Armour and typically a raise is made every two weeks. However in adrenal fatigue, you may have to make raises more slowly and in smaller doses. That is what I had to do. With adrenal support, it makes it easier to do raises a little more often. It is a catch twentytwo because in some ways the faster you get your dose up to your optimal level the better, but many people cannot tolerate fast raises. Typical Armour final doses are 3 to 5 grains. This usually overcomes the pituitary over suppression that makes people more hypo on low doses of thyroid. I did not feel well at all untill I got over 3 grains. I had bursitis in my feet and was tired all the time on 2 grains. All this cleared up after I got to 3 grains. I am now on about 3-3/4 of a grain. Most doctors do not prescibe these doses, today. They were prescribed commonly from the late 1800s up untill the mid 1970s. Keep in mind that if you become too unhappy with doctors you can treat yourself. This is what I do. Just write in to the group for help on this. Tish Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 14, 2004 Report Share Posted October 14, 2004 > yeah, courtenay, when i think about that, i'm happy to > start out at 1/2 a grain. all the more reason i want > to be patient and give it a month to try. _________________ 1/2 of a grain is the usual starting dose for Armour and typically a raise is made every two weeks. However in adrenal fatigue, you may have to make raises more slowly and in smaller doses. That is what I had to do. With adrenal support, it makes it easier to do raises a little more often. It is a catch twentytwo because in some ways the faster you get your dose up to your optimal level the better, but many people cannot tolerate fast raises. Typical Armour final doses are 3 to 5 grains. This usually overcomes the pituitary over suppression that makes people more hypo on low doses of thyroid. I did not feel well at all untill I got over 3 grains. I had bursitis in my feet and was tired all the time on 2 grains. All this cleared up after I got to 3 grains. I am now on about 3-3/4 of a grain. Most doctors do not prescibe these doses, today. They were prescribed commonly from the late 1800s up untill the mid 1970s. Keep in mind that if you become too unhappy with doctors you can treat yourself. This is what I do. Just write in to the group for help on this. Tish Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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