hypo: available medications, pros and cons?

[curlyroller]

those of you with more knowledge, could you educate me on what available medications for hypothyroid are out there and the pros and cons of them? your personal experiences would be very valuable to me.

how many different kinds are out there? what is the deal with generic versions? t4 alone or t3 too? any supplements that can help?

my mom takes synthroid, but i just saw someone here saying they would never take it. why?

thanks in advance.

[LuvMyLilDoggie]

I'm not the most knowlegable person here but I have learned that there are differences in the medications. For hypo, the synthetics are all t4. The difference in each is the fillers and binders. The fillers and binders can make a world of difference in how the t4 is metabolized. Many people do very well on Synthroid but some don't. What works well for some may not work well for others. I started out on Synthroid and was miserable but I have some friends who have been on it for years and it's been great for them. I think in my situation-because my metabolizm is so slow-by the time the fillers and binders were fully metabolized, some of the t4 had already passed through my body. That's just my guess though.
I take generic Synthroid (Levothyroxine) and until recently, it's been great. I go back to the doctor for a checkup in September and am going to request a change in meds if I'm not feeling better by then.
Besides Synthroid, there's Levoxyl, Unithroid, Eltroxin (Canada), Levothroid as well as others that escape my memory just now. I'm told that generic versions are generally not as good but for many months, it worked well for me.
As far as the t3 goes, some people need it, some don't. If the t3 is in the mid to upper range, chances are there's no need for it. As you read these threads, you'll see that much of the thyroid thing is trial and error for both patients and doctors.
I've heard that magnesium and selenium are good supplements for someone with a thyroid condition.
I hope this helps.
Barb

[dea4]

Ditto on everything Bosmom said.

Personally I wouldn't take synthroid because I have heard and known too many that have not done well on it. If your Mom is doing well on it, then it may work fine for her. I have a neighbor taking it for many years and she is doing o.k., her hair actually got thicker, most people complain of hairloss with Synthroid.


Natural meds are Armour, Westhroid and Nature Throid, they all have both T3 and T4 as well as all the other T's your thyroid would make if it worked properly. For many the natural works much better than the synthetic.

There is also synthetic T3/T4 called Thyrolar and synthetic T3 called Cytomel.

Any person with any heart problems has to be very careful with adding T3 to their meds.

I take Nature Throid with added Unithroid (syntheticT4) to keep my T4 level up because the natural meds have a lot of T3.

Hope this helps you.
Take care