Synthroid or Armour

[builder]

I had side effects from Synthroid. I never felt good taking it. I took it for years. After a while my muscles started hurting big time and my TSH was normal on 100mcg of Synthroid. I talked the doctor into giving me Armour. My muscle pains went away but Armour made put me in an agitated mood. I decided to try Cytomel and I have been on it 4 months and feel better than I have on either Armour or Synthroid

[robbielyn]

Erin: Hi I'm Robbielyn, 41, just started on 25mcg's of thyroxine a week ago. My dr who is my gp but actually specializes in Rheumatology prescribed it for me. My TSH was 16.0 and my free t4 was .59 range .57-1.53. Anyways am I on a too low of a dose or should I give it 4 weeks which I a rescheduled to see my dr, and get retested? Or should I get a more knowledgeable dr as far as hypothyroidism goes? And when do you tritate over a period of days or weeks? Thanks, robbielyn

[minerals]

Originally Posted by ErinBeth

hashibabba, I think one of the keys to my success in treatment is that I found the educated and wise doctor I could trust and then trusted him to treat me. I never insist on having anything my way. I believe there is a reason why he is boarded in internal medicine and I am not, that he just might know a lot more about labs and medicine than I could ever learn by reading everything I can find on the subject. But that's just me.

About the generics ... I don't take a generic. My T4 prescription is for a brand called Levothroid. Major brands of T4 meds in the U.S. are Synthroid, Levoxyl, Levothroid and Unithroid. There are generic brands as well and they are also approved by FDA. There is nothing wrong with taking a generic, except that pharmacies tend to change which brand of generic they use based on price. When they do that, you get a different brand which may have a slightly different amount of T4 than the one you were taking, not a good thing in a titrated med. When you find your optimal dose, you want to always get that amount. That's why a knowledgeable doc will prescribe by brand and be willing to include a no substitution order, so you always get the right amount of T4 hormone.

I believe another part of my success is the fact I read and I ponder what I read on the internet, but I don't let what I read get me stirred up. If I have concerns, I talk to my doctor, but I don't insist on switching to another med just because somebody I don't know on an internet message board claims I can't get well if I don't take this or that. In fact, if I could get my doctor to do whatever I told him I want him to do about treating me, I'd be looking for another doctor quickly! If he leans on my advice, he isn't a doctor I would trust.

[minerals]

Erinbeth, I am usually on the lyme site, but have hashis so thought I check in here. As for what you say about total confidence in your doctor, all I can say about that is I pray you don't get lymes,because if you do with that attitude, you might be sick forever. And you will find that you absolutely must rely on the internet as well as your own research to get the treatment you need. Just thought I'd put my 2 cents in about being proactive for your own protection. Researching one's own disease is the best way to get well for most people. Blessings to you, one of the few who get good results from the medical field.

[minerals]

Originally Posted by ErinBeth

mauz, click on my member name in this post. Click on Find all posts by ErinBeth.

My message is and has been that most people with underactive thyroid are treated with a T4 med only and, if they titrate up slowly and give their bodies time to heal, if their doctors keep gradually upping the dose to around a TSH of 1, they get well and do well on a T4 med only.

Ask as many doctors who actually treat hypothyroid patients as you can and they will tell you most hypothyroid patients do not need the addition of T3 meds. It is not only the thyroid which is capable of doing T4 to T3 conversion. The liver and even the cells of your body can do that. Given adjustment time and enough T4 med, they will most often do what the thyroid is unable to do anymore.

When I was diagnosed I wanted to learn as much as I could about this disorder, so I read and read and talked to many in the medical professions who deal with this disorder. When I started reading this board I had already learned of various meds and methods of treatment, why sometimes one might be better than another.

That's why I was surprised to see so many being encouraged to take a T4/T3 combination med or add T3 to their T4 so early in the titration process. I honestly don't know why anyone would want to take the T3 if their body is capable of conversion. Truthfully, when I started reading this message board I actually wondered if it was a sales site for Armour. Message boards do tend to be dynamic and it seems to me there is more of a balance of testimonies now than there were back then.

My thyroid can no longer produce the T4 hormone naturally. There is nothing I can do about that, but even early on I decided, if it will still convert T4 to T3 naturally and adequately, that's what I want, natural conversion of T4 to T3. I just don't think it is better to try to regulate a hormone manually if one's body will do it in the way it was created to do so. Overdose with the T4 hormone is far less possible than with the active T3 med.

It took 14 months to get well for me, but I was probably genuinely hypo (undiagnosed) for 20-30 years before that. Whatever you and your doctor decide to do, I hope the end result will be you feeling as good as I do. I am 63 and wish I had felt this well when I was 40.

The majority of hypothyroid patients do take synthetic thyroid hormones and feel well. They would have to come here to be told they really don't feel well and need to take T3 for them to realize it. For now, they think they are just fine.