Lactose fillers in Levo on Vegan diet.

[nihan1]

Having thyroid disease for over three years now I have experimented a lot with my diet and dietary triggers for my auto-immune thyroid problems. I went through gluten free, pescatarian, vegetarian and vegan diets. I could feel a major improvement on a vegan diet and for over a year I eat only gluten free plant based food. This helped me a lot with my tiredness and headaches, I have lost 20 pounds and in general this was the best decision ever. I managed to reduce the dose of Levo but I am still taking 25microg daily. Every Levo I've seen has lactose as a filler. If I could feel such an improvement in my health after going vegan, gluten and lactose free, why would I take everyday the exact substance I've made so much effort to eliminate from my diet. My GP didn't have any idea what to do with that and my NHS endo said I was ridiculous. Do you think I am ridiculous? Should I push hard for the lactose free alternative?

[Clutter]

Nihan1,

There is such a small amount of lactose in Levothyroxine that unless you are severely lactose intolerant it is unlikely to be a problem. If you are lactose intolerant your GP can prescribe lactose-free Levothyroxine which can be obtained from Germany. Details are in this link thyroiduk.org.uk/tuk/treatm...

[SeasideSusie Remembering]

nihan1 "Should I push hard for the lactose free alternative?"

Only you can answer that, it is entirely up to you. Are you doing it for ethical reasons (as in are you vegan for ethical reasons) or purely because you feel so much better being lactose free? Is the amount of lactose in one 25mcg tablet of Levo really going to make so much difference to how you feel?

Lactose free Levothyroxine is available on prescription in the UK by special order see thyroiduk.org.uk/tuk/treatm...

Do you have a good enough reason for your GP or endo to agree to prescribe it? I don't know.

If they think your reasons are good enough, are they likely to agree to the increased cost over standard Levo? Who knows.

Many medications are being dropped, or being advised to be dropped, from the prescribing list to save the NHS money, liothyronine (T3) being one of them and that is a life saving medication for those who can't tolerate Levothyroxine. So is it fair that one patient is denied their life saving T3 but another may be allowed lactose free Levothyroxine when standard Levothyroxine will do the job adequately? Debatable.

You ask if you are being ridiculous. No, I see your point, as would a lot of people and anyone who finds being lactose free beneficial to their health problem. Should you push hard for the lactose free alternative? That's more difficult to answer. But if it comes down to 'is it fair if you get what you want over another patient being denied what they need' then that is easy to answer.

[K1k1_belle]

I know exactly where you're coming from, I'm current gluten/dairy/sugar free and just switched to NDT, I read the fillers contain Lactose and thought about not switching but I did and I feel fantastic so I'm going to stick with it! I have an intolerance to the above mentioned yet for some reason I don't feel as I'll after I consume sugar and dairy then I do when I accidentally get 'glutened' so I figure if I feel great on this medication I'm going to stick with it - why change to another again that might make me feel rubbish! So my question would be this - how do you feel on your medication?

[Hidden]

I've been vegan for 8 years, and hypothyroid for 12. I've always known about the lactose in my levothyroxine, but I've had to justify it for the sake of my health. I'm about to switch to NDT, which obviously depends on the slaughter of pigs. Does this make me any less of a vegan? I don't feel so, no. The point of veganism is to reduce suffering/dependance on animals, but practically this isn't always possible. We do our best, but this shouldn't be at the expense of our own wellbeing.

Push for the lactose free levothyroxine by all means, but don't feel bad if you can't obtain it.