RE: Hypothyroid fatigue symptoms getting worse after getting my pills?

March 9, 2006

My wife has Thyroid and a guy just posted this to me I think he is a Dr. A cut

& paste.

Phil

Phil, I know your wife is hypo so hopefully this will be of use

http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com...meds-dont-work

T4-Only Meds Do Not Work

It’s true. In the vast majority of thyroid patients, if not all, Synthroid,

Levoxyl. Levothyroxine and Unithroid and other “T4-only” medications are NOT

doing the job as a sole treatment, according to the experience of

patients…unless you think that an elevator that goes up to the 5th-floor-only on

a 50 story building is “doing the job”. Yes, you might feel better than before

you got on, and your symptoms may be “improved”. But most ALL patients on T4

medications are left with symptoms due to an inferior treatment!

Here’s the story: From the late 1800’s onwards, patients were successfully

treated for thyroid problems with dessicated thyroid

hormones—usually from sheep or pig glands. These gave patients exactly what

their own thyroids give them. But by the early 1960’s, T4-only meds had been

fully developed and were touted as a “new” and modern treatment for hypothyroid

patients, with other pharmaceuticals developing their own brands. For over 45

years, hypothyroid patients have been put on these drugs.

T4 is a thyroid “storage” hormone. Its main function is to convert to the active

thyroid hormone—T3, which gives you good overall health and ENERGY. T3 affects

every single cell in your body!! But in nearly ALL patients on T4-only

medications, the T4 does NOT convert into an adequate amount of T3, leaving you

with symptoms related to inadequate treatment—poor stamina compared to others,

chronic low grade depression, thinning hair or outer eyebrows, feeling cold when

others are warm, cholesterol problems, aches and pains, hard or small stools,

easy weight gain, memory problems, foggy thinking, a diagnosis of Chronic

Fatigue Syndrome or Fibromyalgia… the list is long and pathetic. And anyone

reading this, who is on a T4-only medication, will have symptoms of some kind

due to inadequate treatment.

Additionally—if you use common sense—our own thyroids give us more than T4. They

also give us DIRECT T3, T2, T1 and calcitonin! In other words, healthy thyroids

are not meant to rely SOLELY on T4-to-T3 conversion!

But there’s more to the problem. Around 1973, the TSH lab test was developed.

Based on a sampling of several volunteers, a so-called “normal” range was

established—.5 to 5.0 (recently lowered to 3.0). But it appears that volunteers

with a history of family hypothyroid were NOT excluded, leaving us with a range

that leans towards being hypothyroid!

So what’s the solution? Patients have discovered that natural thyroid hormones,

made from pig thyroid and more commonly known by the brand name Armour, and

dosing by the elimination of symptoms, first and foremost, has produced FAR

superior results. As far as labwork, patients have found the free T3 and free T4

to be far more useful. In fact, those who have been allowed to raise their

Armour according to the elimination of symptoms have discovered their free T3

near the top of the range, and a very suppressed TSH—and with NO symptoms of

hyper!

T4-only medications are synthetic, but Armour is made from pig thyroid. It not

only gives you T4, but it also gives you direct T3, T2, T1 and calcitonin. Those

are the EXACT SAME SUBSTANCES your OWN thyroid would be giving you. T3 is the

active hormone. T2 is shown to help with metabolism. Calcitonin helps keep the

calcium in your blood, and updated doctors like Dommisse in Arizona have found

that itimrpoves if not eliminates Osteoporosis in those who take Armour!

Natural thyroid like Armour, Naturethroid, and Westhroid is by prescription in

the US. (You can often get Armour, Naturethroid or Thyroid-S on the internet in

a few particular places without a prescription.) It is FDA-approved, meets the

stringent guidelines of the US Pharmacopoeia, reliable and consistent from batch

to batch. If your doctor tells you otherwise, they are misinformed. Armour is

also half the cost of Synthroid.

Before Synthroid and the TSH tests, most patients who were on Armour were taking

a minimum of 3-5 grains, according to available documentation. Doctors

prescribed based on SYMPTOMS, not on a fallible TSH test and an inadequate

T4-test. I am currently on 3 1/2 grains. When I had gotten to 2 1/4 grains, I

had regained most of my energy and stamina, and had a free T3 towards the upper

1/4th of the range. But I still had hair falling out, a slow metabolism, etc. I

rose once more to 3 grains (1/4 grain at a time) and those issues dissappeared!

My TSH is also suppressed around .009, and there are no symptoms of being hyper.

Occasionally, patients will have problems when raising their Armour, and it’s

usually due to one of two correctable conditions. First, many patients who have

thyroid problems also have “sluggish adrenals”, which means you are not getting

enough cortisol…and cortisol is needed distribute thyroid hormones to your

cells. How do you know you have sluggish adrenals? Usually, as a patient raises

their Armour, they might overreact to it—anxiety, fast heartrate, insomnia, or

other strange symptoms…all which can point to an adrenal problem. A good OTC

adrenal support is Isocort, according to many patients who need the support. And

patients use approximately 5 - 20 mg. of cortisol to correct it, with a hope

that it will give their adrenals a rest, and they will eventually be able to

decrease the support. I personally have not had adrenal problems, but have noted

that many other patients do!

Additionally, it is common for hypothyroid patients to have a very low Ferritin

(storage iron) which will need to be optimized. Otherwise you may have problems

when you try to raise the Armour, similar to adrenal issues. Low Ferritin can be

silent, and you can have normal iron levels yet low Ferritin. But if it drops as

low as mine did, you will have achiness, palps, and fatigue—very similar to

hypothyroid. Whether silent or now, I had to optimize it before I could move

beyond 2 grains. An excellent article on iron can be found here:

http://www.thewayup.com/newsletters/081504.htm

When taking Armour, it’s wise to multi-dose it, which better replicates what

your own thyroid would be doing anyway. For example, I take 2 grains in the

morning, one grain by noon, another 1/2 grain by mid-afternoon. Since the T3 is

short-lived, this better distributes it throughout the day. T3 peaks within 2

hours after you take it, so you do NOT want to take it before you do labwork!

Another optimal way to take Armour is sublingually—placing the tablets between

your inner cheek and lower gums, or under the tongue. It slowly dissolves and

goes to your bloodstream directly via the million of capillaries that line your

mouth. Nearly 100% is utilized that way. Sublingual bypasses the acids of the

stomach and the processing of the liver. Additionally, it is wise to take

Selenium, which helps the conversion of T4 to T3.

Patients have found it wise to find a doctor who will test the Free T3 and Free

T4, not simply the TSH.. Lab wise, the free T3 goal is towards the top of the

range, no matter how low it will get your TSH. My TSH is less than one when I am

on an optimal amount and symptom free. And I am not hyper. Once you are on

treatment, the feedback loop of the TSH means very little, even if your doctor

is not yet informed!!

The bottom line: though T4-only medications have been successfully promoted by

the pharmaceuticals, and though T4-only medications are usually the

med-of-choice of most doctors—especially Endocrinologists—patients have finally

figured out that T4-only treatment is NOT doing the job, and a change is needed.

Thousands of lives have turned around due to switching to a far superior

treatment of natural dessicated thyroid…. and finding the optimal dose based on

symptom-elimination, first and foremost. Armour works! Armour works!

jake harris <strawser81@...> wrote:

My tiredness and fatigue have been getting worse(4 days into it) since

I started taking my thyroid t3/t4 compound from American Hormones, Inc.

I was told this should fix my energy problem but as soon as I started

taking it it seems like my energy is getting worse.

Does anyone have any experience with hypothyroidism and correcting it

or what this could possibly mean? Is it suppose to get worse before

it gets better?

March 10, 2006

Hey Jake -

You may eventually migrate to a hypothyroidism newsgroup from

hypogonadism. I am on alt.support.thyroid (uunewsgroup) and the

message boards at thyroid.about.com. You will find a *wealth* of

patient experience and help over there. One of the things I will

relay is that thyroid takes patience getting started. More than most

of us want to have. Change happens over months with this, and the

doctors have to go slow with titrating the dose for risks of

overtreating. Typical dose for a healthy adult is 1.6 mcg of T4 per

kilogram of weight, which would be like 125 to 150 mcg for an adult

male. There are different estimates for equivalent dosages with T3/T4

preparations. I think the Armour website has a formula for their

preparation.

The other thing is, even on a healthy dose that just starting out

people can get tired because the body is expending a lot of energy

repairing the damage. This feels like a good tired.

Dano

>

> My tiredness and fatigue have been getting worse(4 days into it) since

> I started taking my thyroid t3/t4 compound from American Hormones, Inc.

>

> I was told this should fix my energy problem but as soon as I started

> taking it it seems like my energy is getting worse.

>

> Does anyone have any experience with hypothyroidism and correcting it

> or what this could possibly mean? Is it suppose to get worse before

> it gets better?

>

March 10, 2006

Hey thanks for the thyroid website. I'm also on another thyroid

group but still haven't got my answers. I like how you put it

and it crossed my mind about repairing damage. I really really hope

that is the case. Another thing I thought about was because I'm also

still using Testim with the pill. Maybe with the testim it's causing

my estradiol to go over the edge (before it was 39, just barely still

in high normal) I don't know, I'll try the thyroid.about.com website

and see what I find.

Thanks a million!

> >

> > My tiredness and fatigue have been getting worse(4 days into it)

since

> > I started taking my thyroid t3/t4 compound from American

Hormones, Inc.

> >

> > I was told this should fix my energy problem but as soon as I

started

> > taking it it seems like my energy is getting worse.

> >

> > Does anyone have any experience with hypothyroidism and

correcting it

> > or what this could possibly mean? Is it suppose to get worse

before

> > it gets better?

> >

>

March 15, 2006

Great article you forwarded on, but as a thyroidLESS person (removed

surgically) who already takes Armor 2x per day, I have to say that his

suggestion to take it three or more times per day just isn't practical. I

have trouble remembering to take my second dose in the late afternoon as is.

To the original poster- I'ver read anecdotal posts from people saying that

you will feel more tired as your body uses the thyroid hormones to repair

damage....same kind of thing you read hear about testostereone replacement.

You have to be really patient with thyroid treatment...it takes weeks for

changes to take effect, and doctors will only up your dose in 1/4 grain

increments (usually). I was literally dieing, I could feel it, when I was

underdosed on a T4 medication after my thyroid was removed. I bought

Armour from Mexico and treated myself with miraculous changes.

> Re: Hypothyroid fatigue symptoms

>getting worse after getting my pills?

>

>My wife has Thyroid and a guy just posted this to me I think

>he is a Dr. A cut & paste.

> Phil

>

> Phil, I know your wife is hypo so hopefully this will be of use

>

>http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com...meds-dont-work

>

>T4-Only Meds Do Not Work

>It's true. In the vast majority of thyroid patients, if not

>all, Synthroid, Levoxyl. Levothyroxine and Unithroid and other

> " T4-only " medications are NOT doing the job as a sole

>treatment, according to the experience of patients.unless you

>think that an elevator that goes up to the 5th-floor-only on a

>50 story building is " doing the job " . Yes, you might feel

>better than before you got on, and your symptoms may be

> " improved " . But most ALL patients on T4 medications are left

>with symptoms due to an inferior treatment!

>

>Here's the story: From the late 1800's onwards, patients were

>successfully treated for thyroid problems with dessicated

>thyroid hormones-usually from sheep or pig glands. These gave

>patients exactly what their own thyroids give them. But by the

>early 1960's, T4-only meds had been fully developed and were

>touted as a " new " and modern treatment for hypothyroid

>patients, with other pharmaceuticals developing their own

>brands. For over 45 years, hypothyroid patients have been put

>on these drugs.

>

>T4 is a thyroid " storage " hormone. Its main function is to

>convert to the active thyroid hormone-T3, which gives you good

>overall health and ENERGY. T3 affects every single cell in

>your body!! But in nearly ALL patients on T4-only medications,

>the T4 does NOT convert into an adequate amount of T3, leaving

>you with symptoms related to inadequate treatment-poor stamina

>compared to others, chronic low grade depression, thinning

>hair or outer eyebrows, feeling cold when others are warm,

>cholesterol problems, aches and pains, hard or small stools,

>easy weight gain, memory problems, foggy thinking, a diagnosis

>of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome or Fibromyalgia. the list is long

>and pathetic. And anyone reading this, who is on a T4-only

>medication, will have symptoms of some kind due to inadequate

>treatment.

>

>Additionally-if you use common sense-our own thyroids give us

>more than T4. They also give us DIRECT T3, T2, T1 and

>calcitonin! In other words, healthy thyroids are not meant to

>rely SOLELY on T4-to-T3 conversion!

>

>But there's more to the problem. Around 1973, the TSH lab test

>was developed. Based on a sampling of several volunteers, a

>so-called " normal " range was established-.5 to 5.0 (recently

>lowered to 3.0). But it appears that volunteers with a history

>of family hypothyroid were NOT excluded, leaving us with a

>range that leans towards being hypothyroid!

>

>So what's the solution? Patients have discovered that natural

>thyroid hormones, made from pig thyroid and more commonly

>known by the brand name Armour, and dosing by the elimination

>of symptoms, first and foremost, has produced FAR superior

>results. As far as labwork, patients have found the free T3

>and free T4 to be far more useful. In fact, those who have

>been allowed to raise their Armour according to the

>elimination of symptoms have discovered their free T3 near the

>top of the range, and a very suppressed TSH-and with NO

>symptoms of hyper!

>

>T4-only medications are synthetic, but Armour is made from pig

>thyroid. It not only gives you T4, but it also gives you

>direct T3, T2, T1 and calcitonin. Those are the EXACT SAME

>SUBSTANCES your OWN thyroid would be giving you. T3 is the

>active hormone. T2 is shown to help with metabolism.

>Calcitonin helps keep the calcium in your blood, and updated

>doctors like Dommisse in Arizona have found that itimrpoves if

>not eliminates Osteoporosis in those who take Armour!

>

>Natural thyroid like Armour, Naturethroid, and Westhroid is by

>prescription in the US. (You can often get Armour,

>Naturethroid or Thyroid-S on the internet in a few particular

>places without a prescription.) It is FDA-approved, meets the

>stringent guidelines of the US Pharmacopoeia, reliable and

>consistent from batch to batch. If your doctor tells you

>otherwise, they are misinformed. Armour is also half the cost

>of Synthroid.

>

>Before Synthroid and the TSH tests, most patients who were on

>Armour were taking a minimum of 3-5 grains, according to

>available documentation. Doctors prescribed based on SYMPTOMS,

>not on a fallible TSH test and an inadequate T4-test. I am

>currently on 3 1/2 grains. When I had gotten to 2 1/4 grains,

>I had regained most of my energy and stamina, and had a free

>T3 towards the upper 1/4th of the range. But I still had hair

>falling out, a slow metabolism, etc. I rose once more to 3

>grains (1/4 grain at a time) and those issues dissappeared! My

>TSH is also suppressed around .009, and there are no symptoms

>of being hyper.

>Occasionally, patients will have problems when raising their

>Armour, and it's usually due to one of two correctable

>conditions. First, many patients who have thyroid problems

>also have " sluggish adrenals " , which means you are not getting

>enough cortisol.and cortisol is needed distribute thyroid

>hormones to your cells. How do you know you have sluggish

>adrenals? Usually, as a patient raises their Armour, they

>might overreact to it-anxiety, fast heartrate, insomnia, or

>other strange symptoms.all which can point to an adrenal

>problem. A good OTC adrenal support is Isocort, according to

>many patients who need the support. And patients use

>approximately 5 - 20 mg. of cortisol to correct it, with a

>hope that it will give their adrenals a rest, and they will

>eventually be able to decrease the support. I personally have

>not had adrenal problems, but have noted that many other patients do!

>

>Additionally, it is common for hypothyroid patients to have a

>very low Ferritin (storage iron) which will need to be

>optimized. Otherwise you may have problems when you try to

>raise the Armour, similar to adrenal issues. Low Ferritin can

>be silent, and you can have normal iron levels yet low

>Ferritin. But if it drops as low as mine did, you will have

>achiness, palps, and fatigue-very similar to hypothyroid.

>Whether silent or now, I had to optimize it before I could

>move beyond 2 grains. An excellent article on iron can be found here:

>http://www.thewayup.com/newsletters/081504.htm

>

>When taking Armour, it's wise to multi-dose it, which better

>replicates what your own thyroid would be doing anyway. For

>example, I take 2 grains in the morning, one grain by noon,

>another 1/2 grain by mid-afternoon. Since the T3 is

>short-lived, this better distributes it throughout the day. T3

>peaks within 2 hours after you take it, so you do NOT want to

>take it before you do labwork!

>

>Another optimal way to take Armour is sublingually-placing the

>tablets between your inner cheek and lower gums, or under the

>tongue. It slowly dissolves and goes to your bloodstream

>directly via the million of capillaries that line your mouth.

>Nearly 100% is utilized that way. Sublingual bypasses the

>acids of the stomach and the processing of the liver.

>Additionally, it is wise to take Selenium, which helps the

>conversion of T4 to T3.

>

>Patients have found it wise to find a doctor who will test the

>Free T3 and Free T4, not simply the TSH.. Lab wise, the free

>T3 goal is towards the top of the range, no matter how low it

>will get your TSH. My TSH is less than one when I am on an

>optimal amount and symptom free. And I am not hyper. Once you

>are on treatment, the feedback loop of the TSH means very

>little, even if your doctor is not yet informed!!

>

>The bottom line: though T4-only medications have been

>successfully promoted by the pharmaceuticals, and though

>T4-only medications are usually the med-of-choice of most

>doctors-especially Endocrinologists-patients have finally

>figured out that T4-only treatment is NOT doing the job, and a

>change is needed. Thousands of lives have turned around due to

>switching to a far superior treatment of natural dessicated

>thyroid.. and finding the optimal dose based on

>symptom-elimination, first and foremost. Armour works! Armour works!

>

>jake harris <strawser81@...> wrote:

> My tiredness and fatigue have been getting worse(4 days into

>it) since I started taking my thyroid t3/t4 compound from

>American Hormones, Inc.

>

>I was told this should fix my energy problem but as soon as I

>started taking it it seems like my energy is getting worse.

>

>Does anyone have any experience with hypothyroidism and

>correcting it or what this could possibly mean? Is it suppose

>to get worse before it gets better?

>

March 15, 2006

Thanks Dave yet no matter how much info I find my wife will not say anything to

her Dr. as to try testing this or that. She is on 1 and 3/4 grains and takes in

all in the morning last night she was a sleep at 7pm on the couch got up at 11

was to tired for sex and went back to sleep. She still works and I feel like I

live by my self now that her mother passed last Jan. She needs to do something

I doing know how much more of this I can take. Feel like I live by my self and

no sex life.

Phil

Dave <daultman@...> wrote: