Erfa NDT

[janeycp]

Hi

Can someone please give me some advise, I switched from Levo to Erfa NDT about a year ago and felt better taking x1 30mg Erfa tablet each morning, Levo was making me ache all over and feel like my whole body was suffering with inflammation. However I had bloods done 3 months ago and although my levels had improved they still needed to improve further. I have Hashimotos. So I decided to increase the Erfa to 1.5 tabs each morning ie. 45. Mg. I now feel achey all over my body especially wrists, elbows.

Should I consider splitting the dose?

Thanks

[GarryB]

I can't say exactly what you should do but my understanding is that raises in NDT should be 1/4 grain every two weeks. You have jumped up 50%. Maybe that is too quick? Better advice will be coming soon I'm sure.

[Jodypody]

Increase further in 1/4 increments. You’re taking a relatively small dose.

[Redditch]

This is a tiny dose. How much levo did you take?

I take 165 of Erfa. I'm guessing you feel rubbish because you're undermedicated . Erfa is T3 and T4 and the average dose is 1.5 to 3 grains. That's 90 - 180 mcg you're taking 45mcg . If you are properly hypo you're not taking neatly enough.

[janeycp in reply to Redditch]

I was taking 100 mcg Levo can you advise what the NDT equivalent is ? Thanks

[Redditch in reply to janeycp]

There is no direct equivalent

But

1 grain of Erfa 60mg

has 35 T4 and 8 T3

You were taking 100 T4 and you've dropped to less than a third because you're only taking 3/4 of a grain.

You don't need to match the T4 because you have additional T3 but you certainly need to at least double what you're taking

[Howard39 in reply to Redditch]

Hi

It does not work like that. One grain is 38 plus 4 x 8( or 9 in most cases) which is circa 70-75 mg of t4.

To be clear there is no average- everyone is different.

When you eat gluten and or have hashimotos you often do not absorb meds well and the adrenals are often low.

A saliva test to check for cortisol and dhea could be v helpful.

Good luck increasing your dose and you’ll feel tons better off bread sugar and gluten.

[janeycp in reply to Howard39]

Thank you never had adrenals tested but know I have been very stressed for about 1 year. I don’t really understand stress cortisol and adrenals but will look into what I can do help myself in this front

[TSH110 in reply to janeycp]

I took 125 of Levo and needed about 1.25 grains of NDT initially but after three years on that feeling fine had to up dose to c1.75 but it is acella (NPThyroid)/Naturethroid/ThyroidS that I have taken not erfa.

This guide might help it is very good on finding the optimal dose of NDT

tpauk.com/main/article/trea...

Hope it helps

[janeycp in reply to TSH110]

Thank you TSH110 this guide is very useful

[SlowDragon Administrator]

Get your vitamin D, folate, ferritin and B12 tested.

All extremely common to be too low when we have Hashimoto's

Low vitamin D causes aches

Are you strictly gluten free?

[janeycp in reply to SlowDragon]

Hi

I do take vit d & b12 supplements every day and have had folate and ferritin tested which is fine. I am not gluten free though would this help ?

[TSH110 in reply to janeycp]

janeycp I felt a lot better for going gluten free I kept it simple by avoiding wheat and all those processed gluten free Mock bread /cake type products a lot of which contain soya which I also steer clear of.

[janeycp in reply to TSH110]

Will try that I do eat too much bread so hopefully will aid in the weight loss too 🙂

[TSH110 in reply to janeycp]

janeycp you will find your diet is much more healthy and the weight fell off me with no effort. I also started taking NDT so not sure how much was down to gluten free but you can try it and if it makes no difference always revert back again

[fibrolinda]

60 mg erfa is bio-actively equiv to 100 Levo so on 45 erfa you're taking equivalent of approx. 75 levo

[janeycp]

Thank you think I will increase to 60mg think I will take 30mg am and 30 mg pm see how I feel thanks again

[mrmoo in reply to janeycp]

Janeycp

I used to take erfa and LOVED it!

It used to be slightly stronger ( at least in some opinions) than the US brands of NDT.

Before erfa I was on Armour. The makers changed the ingredients and it stopped working.

Extensive conversations with many led me to erfa where I was an extremely happy camper for 7 years.

I had always needed 60 mg 2x a day of Armour but upon switching to erfa I did much better at 30 mg in the AM and 30mg in the pm. ( around lunch time) Over time I even dropped to 15mg for the pm dose.

Then BOOM! erfa, who promised to never change their most precious beloved NDT - CHANGED !

erfa became ERFA and when the label changed so did the NDT. The tablets changed in appearance, texture, taste, and odor, yet the company swears they changed nothing meanwhile they didn't work anymore.

The symptoms you describe nearly crippled me.My hair was falling out in clumps. It was awful.

They stopped using raw powder from Europe and started using US thyroid powder when they switched their manufacturing to Spain.

I believe the US thyroid powder is the only powder available to ALL the producers of NDT now and that's the problem.

They are not processing it the same way anymore and it is not as effective.

The monopoly the US has on it has allowed them to skyrocket the price of their worthless crap all over the world and leave us without when they can't keep up with demand.

Such a shame what is allowed to go on with our health.

If we were smart we would all get together and produce our own...

[janeycp in reply to mrmoo]

Great am i fighting a losing battle then? trying to feel well on this product ?

Has anyone else experienced this ?

[mrmoo in reply to janeycp]

Check out Stopthethyroidmadness.com and learn more from others experiences. Also check in this site on the ERFA subject. I guess what I would do if I were you is since you are already started on it give it a fair chance. The recommendation above is the best way to go. Raise your dose at 15 mg every 2 to 3 weeks paying close attention to changes in how you feel as you go. It it becomes unbearable or you get up to 2 grains with no improvement chances are the ERFA is crap. That's the way I would reason. Currently I'm on Naturethroid. It's not even close to as good as the old erfa was but it's better than what they have become. Keep us posted as you go...Maybe by some miracle they have fixed the problem... fingers crossed!

[Terrileigh in reply to janeycp]

Took Erfa all of 2017 I bought enough Jan.2017 to last then in Dec. 2017 bought more different batch and it's not the same made me feel awful headache,tight in back of neck,jittery. I too am very sad they can not stop doing this to us.

[shaws Administrator]

Your dose of 30mg of Erfa was extremely small - equal to around 50mcg of levothyroxine.

When we begin NDT, we start on a dose equivalent to the dose of levo and then every two weeks thereafter, we increase by 1/4 tablet until we are symptom-free and feel well.

When we take NDT, the blood tests we have were introduced for levothyroxine (T4) only. Therefore when we take or add another thyroid hormone it will not correlate. Therefore it is all a about how we feel on a particular dose which is the guide.

web.archive.org/web/2010103...

[janeycp in reply to shaws]

ThanKs Shaws

Will try increasing fortnightly, thought my aches and pains were due to over medication so I have been reluctant to increase. I am unable to view the link you have provided

[liz1952]

Jaceycp, could you PM your source for getting this NDT please?