Take Armour Thyroid with Candex?: I was diagnosed... - Thyroid UK

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Take Armour Thyroid with Candex?

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I was diagnosed with pre-diabetes (insulin resistance) a year ago, and the doctor prescribed Metformin (first 500 mg x 2, then 500 mg x 3, which was later raised to 850 mg x 2). I took it for a while, it worked well, and lowered both blood sugar and insulin levels, but then I got scared because I read about ketoacidosis. Granted, a rare side effect, but it scared me nonetheless, as it can be lethal. Then I read about Berberine, and how it has shown to lower blood sugar levels the same way Metformin does, but with fewer side effects. I also read that Berberine should be combined with milk thistle for optimal absorption, so I ordered Glycosolve (500 mg) and milk thistle, and have been taking them three times a day about 15 minutes before meals. I have not had labs since switching to Berberine, but I will go to the lab later this week as I have a doctor's appointment next week.

What scared me about Metformin was also the fact that you are supposed to avoid alcohol while on it. If I am invited to a party on Saturday, and don't take Metformin on that day, can I take it the day before and the following day, or how long am I supposed to stop taking it just to be on the safe side? I thought Metformin sounded scary, and that was another reason I stopped taking it, and started looking for alternatives.

I have also been taking Erfa Thyroid for the past year, due to problems with Armour. In 2012, on 5 grains of Armour, my FT3 levels came back 2.9 (ref 1.8-3.8), so I asked the pharmacy if they could give me Erfa instead, and they had no problems with that. But Erfa seems to contain a lot of sugar, and I am not sure if that is a good thing if you have insulin resistance...? Sugar was what was removed from Armour back in 2009, and replaced with cellulose. It seems cellulose lowers absorption of thyroid hormones, which would explain why many saw their hypo symptoms return after Armour was reformulated...however, I have read about Candex (cellulase), said to destroy cellulose (and be the most potent cellulase product on the market). I thought that could maybe be a way of avoiding excess sugar, while remaining on NDT, as thyroxine did not work for me at all (even with FT4 levels slightly out-of-range, FT3 levels remained below the lower normal limit).

So I wanted to know if anyone has successfully taken Armour Thyroid with Candex?

Thanks.

Anna

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Clutter profile image
Clutter

Hi Anna. thanks for posting. I'm sorry you've had no replies.

Aligoth profile image
Aligoth

Incredibly late but I can tell you this: the issue with ketoacidosis is not actually a risk of Metformin per se, and usually happens on type1 diabetics. Ketoacidosis (different from ketosis, having ketones in blood or urine) is high presence of ketones along with glucose cause your body can't use the glucose due to lack of insulin. Because Metformin actually works similarly to insulin in "pushing" glucose into cells for use you wouldn't find yourself with high glucose so ketoacidosis won't be a risk for you.

On a side note, you mentioned taking 5 grains of armour / efra, may I ask why you changed and what would be your ideal numbers of FT3? I am on 4 grains with very low FT3 still and would be interested to understand if that was similar to your case or if you changed for other reasons and how 5 grains worked for you?

Thanks so much, hope all is well with you

helvella profile image
helvellaAdministratorThyroid UK in reply to Aligoth

When you see a user name of Hidden, it means that the person is no longer a member of this forum. So the former member is, unfortunately, unlikely to see your response and would not be able to reply.

The original post is also over eight years old.

I shall now be closing this post to replies.

The ability to reply to this post has been turned off.

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