Lactose free medication

[AppleOrchard]

Please can someone tell me if there is a lactose free T3 and T4 pill that doesn’t contain mannitol? I’m struggling to find one.

I’m in the UK.

Thank you very much!

[SlowDragon Administrator]

Assuming you are in U.K.?

Please add country to your profile

Are you looking for NHS or private options?

on NHS

Levothyroxine - Mannitol and lactose free

Aristo (currently 100mcg only) is lactose free and mannitol free.

As of March 2023 - Aristo now called Vencamil

T3 - Teva

[AppleOrchard in reply to SlowDragon]

Thank you very much! Yes I’m the UK and it’s NHS.

I’ll look and see if I can get those for the next time.

Thank you again.

[AppleOrchard in reply to SlowDragon]

Does the Teva only come in 20mcg? I take 10mcg and have not been successful at cutting them. I have two pill cutters. One is better than the other but it’s never equal and because they’re small, they sometimes crumble.

[SlowDragon Administrator in reply to AppleOrchard]

Try a sharp craft scalpel

amazon.co.uk/Swann-Morton-D...

Easy to cut into half or 1/4’s

Mop up any crumbs with damp finger

Store spare 1/4’s in pill dispenser

Presumably you are taking as 5mcg twice day?

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK]

Are you looking for a combined pill?

If so, the answer is no. There are no UK combinations.

Levothyroxine - Aristo levothyroxine/Vencamil

Liothyronine - Roma and Teva

helvella's medicines documents (UK and Rest of the World) can be found here:

helvella - Thyroid Hormone Medicines

helvella has created, and tries to maintain, documents containing details of all thyroid hormone medicines in the UK and, in less detail, many others around the world.

This link takes you to a page which has direct links to the documents from Dropbox and Google Drive, and QR codes to make it easy to access from phones.

The UK document contains up-to-date versions of the Summary Matrix for tablets, oral solutions and liothyronine available in the UK.

helvella.blogspot.com/p/hel...

[AppleOrchard in reply to helvella]

Thank you very much! No, not a combined pill. It’s a pity it doesn’t exist but perhaps it’s best they are separate.

I looked at your post but couldn’t see anything. I obviously wasn’t looking properly!

Does the Roma come in 10mcg?

Thank you very much again.

[SlowDragon Administrator in reply to AppleOrchard]

Roma are capsules

Prescription has to say Liothyronine capsules

Capsules can’t easily be split

If taking 10mcg per day as 2 x 5mcg you would need 5mcg capsules prescribed

Just like all brands of levothyroxine and T3……changing brands can be problematic

Roma brand doesn’t agree with some people

Likely to take 4-6 weeks to settle with any brand change

Price of tablets and capsules here

healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...

[AppleOrchard in reply to SlowDragon]

I take 10mcg at the same time as I take the T4. I take it an hour before breakfast.

I know that it could be that it doesn’t agree with me. But every morning, I feel sick and have stomach cramps. I have eliminated regular milk and now have lactose free milk. It’s mainly milk, cream and ice cream that is the problem. Cheese (cheddar) and eggs aren’t quite so bad. I’m thinking that it’s because of the pills. I’m not sure what else it could be. I have cereal now that doesn’t have lactose in it.

I’ll look and see the prices.

Thank you very much.

[SlowDragon Administrator in reply to AppleOrchard]

Approx 50% of Hashimoto’s patients are or develop dairy intolerance……but it’s not always lactose intolerance but intolerance to protein in dairy

If you are lactose intolerant or dairy intolerant you would need to trial 3-6 months minimum on strictly dairy free diet ….no milk, butter, cheese etc

It’s much easier these days …..loads of dairy free options available

But it could be the size of dose of T3

How long have you been taking 10mcg T3

The advice here is to always start SLOWLY

Did you start on just 5mcg …or even as 2 x 2.5mcg

10mcg could simply be too high a dose for you to take in one go

Many members split their dose as 2 x 5mcg ….roughly 10-12 hours apart …..

Some take only 2.5mcg at one time …..so might be on 3 x 2.5mcg …..roughly 8 hours apart

Levothyroxine

Was levothyroxine dose reduced when you started T3

Often endocrinologists reduce levothyroxine too much when T3 is added

What were your TSH, Ft4 and Ft3 BEFORE starting T3

What are results now

It can take a long time working out what the issues are

[AppleOrchard in reply to SlowDragon]

I had forgotten about Hashimoto patients having issues with dairy - although according to Dr Toft I don’t have Hashimotos. He tested a few times over the years.

I will do that once I can source lactose free medication for the other medicines I take. I need to do some research for that.

I started taking T3 last feb, so in 2022. I started on 5mg and over a number of weeks worked up to 25mcg. But that was too much do I worked my way back down over some weeks.

My T4 was reduced first but it needed to be increased again some months later. It was all done slow and low.

My TSH, T4 and T3 were tested before starting T3.

The endo, despite prescribing T3, and checking my bloods twice, he didn’t request a T3 blood test. Really incredible. I will have to have the T3 tested along with the others.

[SlowDragon Administrator in reply to AppleOrchard]

The endo, despite prescribing T3, and checking my bloods twice, he didn’t request a T3 blood test.

Unbelievable…..and madness …….but far too common

In future just test privately

[AppleOrchard in reply to SlowDragon]

I can’t test privately because I never get blood. I have tried several times and done all that’s suggested and some things suggested here but I can’t get the blood without squeezing and that results in a non test.

My GP will get it done for me.

It really is madness!

[SlowDragon Administrator in reply to AppleOrchard]

Blue horizon and Medichecks both offer private blood draw at local to you clinic or a private nurse to your home (for an extra fee)

Perhaps you have sticky blood called APS ?

nhs.uk/conditions/antiphosp...

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK in reply to AppleOrchard]

Did you follow the link in my reply above?

Did you see my blog?

Did you scroll down to the links (or QR codes)?

Did you click on the links?

Did anything happen? Depending on your device, your settings, it might have downloaded the PDF and opened it, or just downloaded it, or opened it without downloading it, or failed in some way.

I'm just trying to understand what happened so that I can help you to find the information.

[AppleOrchard in reply to helvella]

I did it through the internet. I scrolled down to see them. I didn’t click on each individual link though.

I’ll try again using the link above and see if I can find it.

Thank you very much.