Erfa thyroid potency question...

[Tony63]

Edysia has half grain and one grain Erfa tablets. She is on one grain per day taken in two doses, half on waking and half six hours later. She has been using the half grain tablets but today she halved a one grain tablet and felt 'different', her concentration improved slightly and her energy improved a little but she says she feels really different. So my question is, as the half and one grain tablets are the same size, is the one grain tablet more potent? This is all I could get from the Erfa site:

Quarter grain and half grain whole thyroid supplements (15 mg to 30 mg) provide less potency and are used to support an aging thyroid condition.

So i'm not sure, will half of a one grain tablet be stronger than a half grain?

My brain hurts...

[helvella]

We have heard all sorts of apparently bizarre stories of people doing better on X than Y for no obvious reason. This sounds like another one!

In general, it is inadvisable to split tablets which are not actually intended to be split. The list of possible reasons includes fragments being lost, uneven split, uneven distribution of active ingredient between the two halves, deterioration of the remaining half (e.g. from moisture ingress or light). Also, the proportion of active ingredient to excipient will, obviously, be different and may carry its own impact. On the other hand, maybe manufacturers also find it more difficult to get precisely the right amount in every tablet at smaller dosages?

Having written that, many, many people do split tablets - including the various desiccated thyroid products.

I think that what Erfa say is that they only bother making such low doses because there is demand from older folk who only need a small top-up and everyone else will probably need the larger dosage tablets.

Without having access to Erfa's internal documents, I really don't think you can do anything other than:

Read what others might have reported;

See what happens.

Rod

[Tony63 in reply to helvella]

Thanks Rod, Edysia was splitting the half grain tablets when she started as we were told they didn't make a quarter grain. I know it's not advisable to split, maybe we'll just stick to the half grain tablets or now.

[RedApple]

The potency of a half grain tablet should be half of a one grain. By that, I mean that the T4 and T3 contents, which should be stated on the bottle labels.

But, as Rod says, it's possible that splitting a one grain could mean an uneven amount of T4 & T3 in each half.

Many of us resort to splitting tablets for one reason or another. It's impossible to know exactly what's happening though, especially if you still have a thyroid. How can we ever be sure our own thyroid didn't suddenly squirt out a little hormone that helped us out?

[Framboise]

Tony I started ERFA by taking 2.5 of the 1 grain tablets and then when I knew they suited me I bought 2 grain tablets and cut them according to what I wanted to take. However I didn't think that those tablets were the same size, the 1 grains were smaller, and so I'm a bit surprised if the two Edysia has been given are the same size. Are you sure that she was given both 1/2 grains and 1 grains? No doubt you've already checked them but in case not you can tell from here how to recognise them:

stopthethyroidmadness.com/2...

The only other things I can think is that one or other had come from an open batch and so lost some potency, or, if the tablets are the same size, then the 1 grains must have more fillers than the 1/2 grains, which might possibly be helping with bio-availability. It does seem strange though and I think the most likely answer is that the 1/2 grains have lost some potency. Was Edysia given the expiry dates with both tablets?

[Heloise]

I've done the same and found no difference either way. Even if you don't split them totally evenly, as long as you take the other half (rather than cutting a new tablet) within a 24-hour period, I don't know why there would be any difference in dosage. Does she do that: take both halves of the split tablet within a day or so?