Hi can anyone help, just received my first Armour thyroid prescription (private) I'm confused at the ingredients
Levothyroxine (T4) and Liothyronine (T3)
Am I missing something? I understood Levothyroxine to be the synthetic form of Thyroxine (I am unable to take Levothyroxine)
I understood Armour thyroid to be Natural Dessicated Thyroid.
The wording I see is this:
DESCRIPTION Armour® Thyroid (thyroid tablets, USP)* for oral use is a natural preparation derived from porcine thyroid glands and has a strong, characteristic odor. (T3 liothyronine is approximately four times as potent as T4 levothyroxine on a microgram for microgram basis.) They provide 38 mcg levothyroxine (T4) and 9 mcg liothyronine (T3) per grain of thyroid. The inactive ingredients are calcium stearate, dextrose, microcrystalline cellulose, sodium starch glycolate and opadry white
media.allergan.com/actavis/...
I think this is poor wording but not intended to confuse.
Levothyroxine is the L- form of thyroxine. This is the form produced in our bodies and I see no great issue with calling it levothyroxine. The synthetic form is the sodium salt - levothyroxine sodium.
Liothyronine was conventionally only used for T3 as a medicine. But by analogy with the word levothyroxine, I don't think there is a major issue. Just a slight jarring of expectations.
Most people happily refer to T4 and T3 whether they were produced in our own thyroids, an animal or a factory. Context (usually) makes it clear which is meant.
I think someone thought that just referring to the shortforms T4 and T3 would be insufficiently clear so used words as well.
The words "a natural preparation derived from porcine thyroid glands " make it extremely clear it is porcine origin hence is a Natural Desiccated Thyroid.
It's my understanding that Levothyroxine is meant to trigger the production of a range of hormones produced by the interactions of the hypothalmus, pituitary and adrenal glands but Thyroxine supplies only 1! Surely this explains why thyroxine doesn't work for everyone?
I think you just might be misunderstanding the words.
Levothyroxine was introduced as the International Non-proprietary Name (INN) to replace the mixed terms used around the world. For example, Thyroxine, L-Thyroxine, L-Thyroxin, etc.
Use of the "levo" prefix is simply to distinguish it from the other possible form, dextro-thyroxine and avoid any possible confusion into the future.
Levothyroxine is just another word which is effectively the same word as Thyroxine and both words are used for the self-same active ingredient.
In the UK, packets of tablets changed from having Thyroxine printed on them to Levothyroxine. The product did not change in any way whatsover.
(Desiccated thyroid, of which Armour Thyroid is one make, contains T4 and T3 and possibly other constituents.)
what, exactly am i misunderstanding? Thyroxine, Levothyroxine, it's the same thing! I did mention that I've been taking it for 13 years!
It's my understanding that Levothyroxine is meant to trigger the production of a range of hormones produced by the interactions of the hypothalmus, pituitary and adrenal glands but Thyroxine supplies only 1!
I can't make your first sentence read other than that Levothyroxine is something other than Thyroxine. I tried reading and re-reading several times before my first reply.
The only dif between the two is that I couldn't be bothered to type out the entire word but you seem to have headed off in some direction of your own. Thyroxine, Levothyroxine, are you telling me that the TRADE NAME got you all confused?
Yes, I noticed that too so I called Forrest Labs! I didn't really mind that they added a bit of Levothyroxine but I asked them if the rest of it was really from pig thyroid and they said, "Yes". I imagined that they needed to put a bit of T4 in it to get to the right human ratios - I don't know. I left it at that, since I feel great on it anyway. Hell, I briefly felt great for a while on the right dose of Levo but my (stupid) endo said I could not stay on that dose (150mcg) because it made my TSH too low. That was before I wised up. If I wasn't allowed to take the right dose of Levo then that was not the drug for me and I started reading and my studies lead me to Armour.
Thank you for your reply @LAHs, I still think the labelling is misleading but I am confident Armour does not contain the synthetic version of Levothyroxine. It certainly has been a journey to get to this stage, been on thyroid s for 2 years and felt good.
Been on Armour for a week, so early days.
Hi,
Levothyroxine has never worked for me since I started taking it 13 years ago. I've tried, unsuccessfully, to get my prescription changed to Armour, Naturethroid etc but without success. My GP claims that now it's the cost, before it was because they weren't on the 'list'. Like many here, the most obvious symptoms I have is feeling cold (if the temp. drops below 23C, I start shivering) and brittle nails, but no other symptoms that I'm aware of.
As an experiment, I stopped taking it for about 6 weeks earlier this year and aside from feeling even colder, nothing else happened, this in spite of dire warnings from my GP that I shouldn't stop taking it (though I was never told what might happen). I'm currently on 100mg.
I might add that within a few hours of starting on the thyroxine, walking gave me intense leg pains (starting was the worst thing I ever did but how was I to know that would happen?). I have noticed that cutting my dose to 75mg reduces the leg pain, a little but not by much.
What I don't understand is why, without even being asked my symptoms (I've never been asked!), I was put on this synthetic hormone based entirely on a blood test! But clearly, thyroxine doesn't work, I surmise because it's not getting to where it's needed in my body.
All in all, a most depressing experience.
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