Dear folk, l was wondering why Doctors find it difficult to prescribe NDT.

[atala]

I have made a surtain amount of recovery with Levo, being Hashimoto's, but have done much better with NDT. I was wondering why Doctors wont prescribe it.

[SeasideSusie Remembering]

Atala

NDT is unlicensed in the UK so if a doctor prescribes it they have to take personal responsibility. Very few doctors are willing to do that.

[Chippysue]

The Pharmaceutical industry wants to make money and keep their shareholders happy. Imagine the millions of people worldwide who have one box of their levo per month?

#followthemoney

[Summer64]

I have often wondered this. As it's a natural product it doesn't need a licence but my GP and endo say they cannot prescribe it. My GP said if I got BSE I could sue him. Shows how much he knows as you only get that from cows and Armour is made from pigs. I'd like to know how the price compares with T3. Up until the synthetic forms wre intoruduced every one had NDT.

[MaisieGray in reply to Summer64]

As it is manufactured and marketed as a treatment, it does have to be UK-licensed to be included in the BNF. If it's marketed as a food supplement, it doesn't, hence Metavive being described as "food for the thyroid". That it is of natural origin isn't the deciding factor. It's difficult to do an exact price comparison, but it's fair to say that NDTs are cheaper than T3. At the moment, depending on UK brand, 28 x 20 mcg Liothyronine is between £238 - £252. You could have 100 x 1 grain Armour for £95 or 90 x 1 grain Naturethroid for £45.

[Summer64 in reply to MaisieGray]

I was just going by what I'd read on here or somewhere online. I still wonder though how much it would cost compared to T3

[MaisieGray in reply to Summer64]

I provided the respective costs of NDTs and T3 for you in my post.

[Summer64 in reply to MaisieGray]

So you did. don't know how I missed that. Busy day yesterday.

[jgelliss]

Very simple . They don't understand/care to how to dose patients with either T3/NDT .

[serenfach]

I had not heard the BSE one before! Made me laugh as the only mad cow round here is me! I had a T shirt with that on at the height of the crisis (I also have cows!.)

For the record, the prions would not "survive" the drying and cooking process for those of you who take bovine NDT.

As others have said, not proscribing NDT is down to money and ignorance. And we the patient suffer.

[TSH110 in reply to serenfach]

Stop The thyroid madness have mentioned it. Apparently there is no single case of anyone ever catching a disease from NDT so if is utter bunkum. I think some diabetes medicines are animal derived but no one makes a hullabaloo about that. We should raise hell about being offered a poor relative to NDT yet they rubbish a perfectly good medicine and refuse to give us the choice in the matter. It is inexcusable. I was a sick miserable saddo on T4 so Ill I was virtually incapable of working but NDT has given me my life back. Why are GPS so terrified to prescribe it they have absolutely nothing to fear it will be better for the majority of their hypothyroid patients it is safe and effective with a very long and impressive track record and it is child’s play to administer. I guess they would get struck off for actually helping their patients get well again rather than leaving them sick on T4 monotherapy.

[MaisieGray in reply to serenfach]

That's not what is being advised in the US regarding OTC glandulars: "Caroline Smith DeWalle, director of food safety of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, said, 'There is a risk that prions could remain even in supplements that have been processed because they are harder to kill than bacteria and viruses. We don't know how to clean up the products to prevent the transmission of mad cow disease. There is no safe way to assure the products of these animals aren't affected.'" Mary Shoman