Synthroid to Armour?

[Lilly425]

Hello all! I’m making the switch from Synthroid to Armour and I’m very nervous about it! Has anyone done better on this medication?

I’m so tired of the thyroid dissociation/severe brain fog, dizziness, hair loss, and fatigue.

[Crwbin1]

I did the switch last October, has taken a few tweaks to get right but brain fog gone and feel a lot better. Good luck!

[Lilly425 in reply to Crwbin1]

Sorry, you mean up and down in dosage correct? How much would you go up or down by? My doc is starting me at 90 of Armour (I was on 137 of synthroid)

[Crwbin1 in reply to Lilly425]

I was on 125 of Levo thyroxine, my Endo started me on 1.25 grains and said do a straight swop. Stop Levo take Armour at 1.25.

Did that and I had awful migraine and felt anxious. So I cut back to 1 grain , headaches and anxiety went and then left it a couple of weeks then slowly going up in doseage. By .25 grain every few weeks. Am now on 1.5 grains and doing ok. Still feel a bit undermedicated, told my Endo this but he doesn’t want to up my doseage as he says my lab results show I am “in range”. Still ongoing process at the moment, but biggest thing is brain fog has gone which was one of the biggest problems I had.

[Lilly425 in reply to Crwbin1]

That’s fantastic. Thanks so much. This really helps.

[Piper729]

You're going to wonder why you were ever on Synthroid. I was on S for 4 years and continued to decline in those 4 years (at 40 I felt like I was 90 yrs old). I would wake up exhausted and be falling asleep by Noon. So tired I was practically falling asleep driving in the late mornings. Forget 3:00pm - I was commotose. Going on Armour I felft like a different person that could actually function throughout the day and not have to lay down until 7pm.

[Kell-E]

Yes, a wonderful switch indeed. Just be careful of the dosing charts, they are very conservative. They say 1 grain = 100mcg, but at most it equals 75.

[Lilly425 in reply to Kell-E]

Thank you! That’s good to know.

[Lilly425]

Wow. Thanks everyone!

[jamesal0]

Yes yes yes . But make sure you start low (30-60mg or half grain - one grain) and increase until you feel right (120mg-210mg or 2 grains - 3.5 grains). This is the most important part. You can feel terrible on Armour too if the dose is wrong. Split dose 30mg in morning 30mg in the afternoon. Get B12 booster shot every 3 months so you sitting between 750 and 1000 and the brain fog will go. Read everything you can on stop thyroid madness site and you'll be fine.

[Lilly425 in reply to jamesal0]

Thank you so much!!!!!!!!

[thyroidrose]

Lilly I have not had any experience with Armour but if you could please keep us updated here on your journey it would be greatly appreciated.

The dizziness for me is still the worst, now trying T3/T4 combo therapy. But will go screaming for the hills of Armour if this doesn't work out!

[Lilly425 in reply to thyroidrose]

Of course. I also was on T3/T4 and I feel like I got worse adding the liothyronine. We’ll go running together because this is no way to live!

[thyroidrose in reply to Lilly425]

Thank you! I too just tried to add T3 and while it may have helped initially I did push me into hyperthyroidism and that is just as hideous as hypo I have discovered. How long did you try the T3?

[Lilly425 in reply to thyroidrose]

Just about a month and a half. I know I probably should’ve tried longer but I just felt so much worseeeee it was hard to function. My doc even has me out of work for several days due to this.

[thyroidrose in reply to Lilly425]

Well a month and a half sounds like a fair amount of time to try something. Did you actually go hyper (like your bloodwork changed drastically) or did you just feel awful?

[Lilly425 in reply to thyroidrose]

Hi dear. My TSH went very low! From 0.84 to 0.03 but apparently this is expected when taking a T3? Weird because I dropped from 150 of Synthroid to 137 when my blood work came back as 0.84.

[thyroidrose in reply to Lilly425]

Interesting and weird yes. I also was advised to reduce the levothyroxine when my labs showed a TSH of 0.045 and even after reducing I still felt awful. I guess synthetic T3 wasn't for me. I am back to trying Tirosint only at this point, 88 mcgs.

How has the Armour been treating you?

[Lilly425 in reply to thyroidrose]

So I’ve been told recently that TSH should be expected to decrease with supplemental T3 hormone. Makes sense to me!

Armour so far - the first two days I definitely wasn’t as depressed but otherwise I still feel the same for the most part. I notice a slight difference in the afternoon - I seem to feel better around then than before. It hasn’t yet been a week though and it’ll take at least a week or two to get into my system? I’ll definitely keep you posted. Meanwhile, I’ve been going to the gym and eating gluten free to help the brain fog also.

[Lilly425 in reply to thyroidrose]

Hi, just wanted to keep you posted. I’m on the Armour now for a month and I’m feeling much better. I was taking 90 and my emotions weren’t all over the place like they were on Synthroid but I was still very foggy. As soon as I bumped up to 120 of Armour it was like night and day. Feeling MUCH better. Still not 100% there yet but much better.

[thyroidrose in reply to Lilly425]

So awesome! Thanks for the update! Sounds like you’re on the right track.