Historical Context of Thyroid Treatment in the UK

[helvella]

helvella – Historical Context of Thyroid Treatment in the UK

dropbox.com/s/tc195gspp5hdw...

This document has come about because I could never remember which UK levothyroxine product was which after they had changed branding several times over the years! Current day products are easy enough – and documentation is readily available. But which companies changed names? Was today’s product inherited when one company bought another? Or did they develop it themselves?

In order to answer that, I started searching – and found lots of copies of The Chemist and Druggist publication stretching back well into the nineteenth century – continuously published since 1859.

They are fascinating. We can see the changes over the years from early use of fresh thyroid glands, through desiccated thyroid, thyroxin-sodium extract from animal thyroids, synthesis and manufacture of levothyroxine and liothyronine, and on…

Archived copies are in the Internet archive (the “way back machine”):

archive.org/details/chemist...

The current Chemist and Druggist site is here:

chemistanddruggist.co.uk/

Please remember that this is for historical interest. Much has changed over the years. We often now see as dangerous, sometimes lethal, practices which were highly regarded at the time. Also, much of the quoted material is of advertising copy – which should be taken with a pinch of salt rather than a spoonful of sugar. Many ideas have been overtaken by scientific research. Others would be impossible to follow for all sorts of reasons. Further, you cannot assume that two things are the same just because a product or technique has the same name as something current day.

Having found this information, reading through some was fascinating. I suspected that others might also find it interesting to browse.

As for measurements! Well, the old pharmacy weights and measures might have made sense to someone trained in their use. But to those of us without that experience, they are a nightmare. There are differences between European, British and USA systems.

There is much in the archive of interest that I have missed, or omitted as repetitious.

I have, so far, covered around 1920 to 2000. Older volumes are generally much more difficult to search and find the nuggets of interest.

I have still not produced my documentation of what products were available when.

Apologies that the formatting is not suited to small screens. In order to keep the images and text together, I had to use large pages (A3).

Further, this is a BIG document. Even as a PDF it is well over thirty megabytes and over 170 pages.

[Yeswithasmile]

Oh Helvella I bet that really is!! Thank you so much for your work. I will be looking later tonight when I can get on to my laptop 👏🏻👏🏻

I have a collection of newspapers from early 20th century and some of the adverts are fascinating so I can only imagine what an interesting read your archive will be.....

One I recall is of a chemist enthusiastically promoting his supply of tapeworm for weight loss 😱🤢🤣.

Thanks again. I’m looking forward to taking a look. x

[tattybogle]

Ahhhh "Thyrophem" ... back in the good old days when the only fillers you had to worry about in your thyroid tablets were Amphetamines.

Absolutely Fascinating , Thanks so much Helvella. x

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK in reply to tattybogle]

The way that companies seemed just to put their fingers in the air and make a new product, in no time at all, is quite astonishing.

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK in reply to tattybogle]

And the launch of Cynomel:

Cynomel for metabolic insufficiency ‘Cynomel’ is a new thyroid that acts at cellular level. producing an onset of effect or a return to pre-treatment status within a few days. ‘Cynomel’ opens up a new field of treatment among that large group of patients suffering metabolic insufficiency.

How we wish that was how it turned out.

[LindaC]

Wow -well done, helvella! Thank you so much - this stuff is fascinating.

[TaraJR]

What a fantastic document! linda96 you will find this very interesting too.

[loueldhen]

Please give yourself a medal! This is so interesting. I have always been curious about my mother's death in 1984 at age 56 which stemmed from her thyroid treatment in the 70s. I read a Bianco paper on the history of treatment that showed the switch from NDT to levo in the 70s.

We'll also be using the info on fluoride in the water - history repeats itself.

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK in reply to loueldhen]

Please give yourself a medal!

Would make me feel like a Ruritanian dictator.

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK]

A new pre-1900 document is now available:

dropbox.com/s/p9fcwuhloyfu1...

And the existing document has received a number of updates.

Both still in development!