bottle of armour in my bag- worn away to dust- can I estimate the dosage by weight?

[london81]

hi strange question: I kept one of my bottles of armour in my bag ( mainly because I was so paranoid about losing my life saving meds I split it into different locations). What I didn’t predict was the pills would be slowly turned to dust. There are still some intact but all are somewhat worn away. They are 3 grain so very expensive!

Does anyone have an idea of I could estimate the dosage by weight?

thanks ☺️

[DippyDame]

Doubt you can!

Potency is probably now much reduced

Generally, 1 grain is 60mcg and contains 38mcg of T4 and 9mcg of T3....

But how do you propose to ensure 38mcg of crushed Armour contains the correct hormone content...even if you have an appropriate weighing device

I think you need to put this down to " Lesson learned" and store your medication in a more appropriate way in future.

Hopefully you haven't ruined your entire stock!

[london81 in reply to DippyDame]

thank you lesson definitely learned

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK in reply to DippyDame]

One grain is (usually) 60 milligrams!

But the tablet itself will weigh more due to the excipients used to formulate the tablet - which vary by product.

[DippyDame in reply to helvella]

Drat it, that was stupid...forgot excipient content!

Thank you helvella

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK]

Many tablets products which are not in some form of blister packaging have a wad of cotton wool for distribution purposes. This is intended to stop the tablets bouncing around and wearing against each other.

What none of us know is whether the Thyroid USP is evenly distributed in each tablet.

Nor do we know the impact of oxygen, light, heat and humidity on the tablet powder. (As whole tablets, the substance is protected from at least oxygen and humidity. Armour is coated which helps.)

If it is even and has not deteriorated, we could consider weighing a brand new tablet in good condition. Then weighing out worn tablets and dust to weigh the same. But I wouldn't trust this at all.

[london81 in reply to helvella]

thank you. It seems I’ve learnt an expensive lesson most of the tablets stil look like tablets they are just smaller due to wearing away if you see what I mean

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK in reply to london81]

Yes - your description is good!

You obviously have to make your own decisions.

It would be wrong of us not to point out the pitfalls. But only you can balance the risk versus the cost. And only you know whether you are one of the people who seems to know almost immediately if they are under- or over-dosed. Or one who takes weeks to notice!

[london81 in reply to helvella]

I’m definitely a bit of a princess and the pea having noticed most of the time if there is something that doesn’t agree with me! I’ll keep the group updated if I do try some but not likely

[tattybogle]

the best you could hope for even if you assume the was no deterioration of the actual T4/T3 'bits' ( technical term eludes me ) ...would be that if there was eg. 'a months supply' in the bottle. and you divided the finely ground up powder by weight to get the equivalent of a days dose.... you would over the whole month, have taken the right total dose of T4 and T3... but what dose you actually got on each day would be totally random .

eg .

mon ~ '0' T4/ '0' T3 / + all filler .

tues ~ 45 mcg T4 / 2 mcg T3 + filler

wed ~ 14 mcg T4 / 32mcg T3 + filler

thurs ~ 'god knows' what

So you'd save some money........ but undoubtedly feel crap for a month anyway .

[london81 in reply to tattybogle]

thank you that’s a shame 😢

[meme]

do you have a new intact one you could weigh? Then just measure the dust. It will be a mix of fillers and active ingredients, so maybe a bit hit and miss !

[london81 in reply to meme]

that’s a good idea I think I would probably need sensitive scales as they are so small. I’ll report back if I do investigate further!