Pretty much all UK medicines are officially gluten-free.
The calorific value of an entire levothyroxine tablet is a small fraction of a calorie. Like a quarter of a calorie at most.
Look at Appendix E Excipients in my UK medicines document.
There are only two 75 microgram levothyroxine products - Teva and Crescent. (Assuming your prescription is written for one tablet.) Crescent is brand new in the last few days to the UK market so likely not easy to find.
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. There is now a specific world desiccated thyroid document.
I highly recommend viewing on a computer screen, or a decent sized tablet, rather than a phone. Even I find it less than satisfactory trying to view them on my phone.
helvella - Thyroid Hormone Medicines - UK
The UK document contains up-to-date versions of the Summary Matrixes for levothyroxine tablets, oral solutions and also liothyronine available in the UK. Includes descriptions of tablet markings which allow identification. Latest updates include all declared ingredients for all UK products and links to Patient Information Leaflets, etc. PLUS how to write prescriptions in Appendix F.
Contains details of all known desiccated thyroid products including information about several products not considered to be Natural Desiccated Thyroid (NDT/Desiccated Thyroid Extract/DTE).
Contains details of all levothyroxine, liothyronine and combination products - excluding desiccated thyroid products. Details available vary by country and manufacturer.
The link below takes you to a blog page which has direct links to the documents from Dropbox and QR codes to make it easy to access from phones. You will have to scroll down or up to find the link to the document you want.
Some find it is the best levothyroxine they have ever taken. Others find it intolerable. Suspicions fall on mannitol but that is not proved. And there is no way of predicting - that we know of.
Regarding the brand Crescent. Don't know if this of interest to you Helvella or not. It is Crescent who have always supplied Naproxen for Lloyds pharmacy. I recently have started getting Naproxen from Boots pharmacy which has always been Accord, made in the factory in Barnstable where Accord Levo is made. Lately, it has been Almus . I looked at the PIL today in the Almus, as mention of Crescent was ringing a bell. Boots are now supplying their own brand Almus Naproxen which is CRESCENT, not Accord. I know Boots historically re-brand Accord Levothyroxine as Almus. It makes me wonder if those receiving Almus levothyroxine will now routinely be receiving Crescent Levothyroxine going forward ???
Whilst on the subject of medicines, can I ask you if you are familar with distributors PURGING a brand of levothyroxine in Scotland, whilst freely supplying it in England? Brillpharma liquid levothyroxine has been PURGED by my local huge Alliance warehouse in Scotland. Phoenix in Scotland will not, or cannot, supply it either. For those in the Newcastle area, it can be ordered freely from both Alliance and Phoenix in Newcastle. From another source I have been told Brillpharma have long term manufacturing problems. This purging has occurred just after a very low FT4 and FT3 in my blood tests, which could be my thyroid. Sub potency would make sense of my readings in light of Brillpharma being purged. Any thoughts re. PURGING?Do you know if this would likely be to do with cost, potency or safety????
Hope you don't mind me using this post to highlight the issue. I know Mercury Pharma levo has been impossible to get in some areas, whilst in others ,members who don't want it have had it forced on them in the past months. Could this be PURGING?
It is entirely possible that Almus (and the other current own label supplier branding - AAH Hillcross and even Viatris) could change the actual product.
It is something everyone who gets these lines should check - every time. It will say on the pack outer and the PL number would change.
I have no idea about purging. All new to me!
We expect Scotch pies and Arbroath Smokies in Scotland, and Pease Pudding and Pan Haggerty in NE England - but we really don't expect medicines to vary.
Might be worth contacting the medicines part of NHS Scotland?
G.p.pharmacist knew nothing about purging and rarely gets info.re.medicines. Prefer to keep a low profile re. thyroid, but if was able to find about where the medicines part of NHS Scotland was I doubt they would find out either. I would feel obliged to complain about difficulty of supply of any liquid brand, as well as specific brands, pharmacists who won't supply when they can and on and on and on. Will keep my head below the parapet for now.
Absolutely everything needs to be taken away from Levo. Its an extremely fussy hormone and likes to be taken by itself with water only. Many people find taking it at bedtime works well for them for this reason then they can wake up and have a cuppa straight away.
Its hard to know which brand might be best for you as we are all different. It might be an idea to try a few brands and see what works best for yourself. You can then get GP to write the brand name in the first line of your prescription.
The main lactose free brands available currently are Teva - available in several dose sizes. It contains mannitol which upsets some people but others find it the best thing ever. Very marmite brand but it might work for you.
The other is Vencamil but only available on 100mcg dose size currently. More sizes should be available later in the year.
Either way it looks like you have a compromise to make. Levo just doesnt absorb well if taken with anything other than water.
For magnesium you could use one of the topical sprays which many people find beneficial. As this avoids the oral route you can use that right up until bed time.
thank you all, looks like taking it in the morning might be the best time for me, otherwise bang goes the magnesium hot chocolate as a bedtime drink; reluctant to stop this as it has really helped my sleep and anxiety.
And I can eat an hour after taking Levo in the morning?
I have a dairy intolerance and I have been taking 25mcg Wochardt tablets and have not found that they have made my gastro symptoms any worse.
I take them when I first wake up (about 5am at the moment) but it does allow me to get out of bed and have a cuppa immediately. My Endo was v against nighttime dosing because she said it can be difficult to stick with the regime of water only for the required period of time before bed.
The tablets are so tiny that having to take a few at a time is fine. You just need to make sure the doctor specifies the brand on your prescription.
My Endo suggested avoiding Teva because of the manitol as others have suggested here.
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