Armour vs. Levothyroxine

[robynkearns68]

Hello. I am on Levothyroxine and I seem to be getting worse. My feet swell, my blood pressure is high, weak, tired, foggy. I notice that after I take the pill I get achy and somewhat anxious.

My doc prescribed Quinapril for the blood pressure, but I almost feel like he's just putting a band-aid on this new problem.

(I'm 49, I eat well, not ever weight, non smoker).

I was just prescribed Armour to see if this makes a difference.

ANY advice would be helpful.

Thank you

[greygoose]

It sounds like either you were under-medicated on levo, or you don't convert T4 to T3 very well. Do you have copies of your blood test results?

For Armour to work, your nutrients need to be optimal. So, if you haven't already, get your vit D, vit B12, folate and ferritin tested.

And, don't forget, you need to take Armour the same way you took levo - i.e. on an empty stomach, with a large glass of water, one hour before eating or drinking anything except water, two hours before other supplements or medications, and four hours before calcium, iron, vit D and estrogen.

[Nanny23]

I totally agree with grey goose. She is the best very very smart. Hope you do better on the Armour thyroid medicine. I'm from New York. Where in the states are you from? I'm surprised your dr. suggested Armour. Most drs. in states only give you Synthroid.

[Snevey in reply to Nanny23]

Howdy neighbor! I'm in south-central Pennsylvania. Of the 3 Dr's I've worked with (1 endo and 2 GP's) no one would prescribe me any form of NDT. So what I'm doing is "self medicating". I've found a source of Nature-Throid online and I've ordered that and will start low. After 6 weeks, I will be going to requestatest.com and paying out of pocket to have TSH, T4, T3 Uptake, Free Thyroxin (T4) Index, Free T3 and Free T4, and also Reverse T3, as well as Thyroid Peroxidase (TPO) and Thyroglobulin Antibodies.

Sometimes you have to take your health into your own hands. All my endo EVER tested me for was TSH levels. If I wouldn't have paid for my own testing, I would have never found that my reverse T3 levels were quite high, pointing to the fact that I'm a bad T4 to T3 converter. She then lowered my dose of levo slightly from 137 mcg to 125 mcg and added Cytomel 5mcg. Cytomel at 5mcg is a VERY low dose, and she only wants me to take it once a day. When I receive my shipment of NDT I'll be taking that only. and stopping the synthetic T4 and T3.

I'm not a medical professional. Do not do as I do. I'm desperate and have read and read, and researched over and over again before planning my personal treatment options.