# Armour



## jessie1

Dr. is prescribing me Armour. Right now I am currently on 88mcg of Synthroid and she's starting me on 45mg of Armour. Any advice or anything I should know?

Could this possibly help with the weight gain i've been dealing with?


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## Andros

jessie1 said:


> Dr. is prescribing me Armour. Right now I am currently on 88mcg of Synthroid and she's starting me on 45mg of Armour. Any advice or anything I should know?
> 
> Could this possibly help with the weight gain i've been dealing with?


Oh, very excellent!! When will you get labs; like every 8 weeks which is the usual protocul?

If you go on a healthy and sensible diet, do a little walking, it should not be long before you lose weight. You must stay on the diet 7 days a week though. Many take a vacation on the weekends and I am here to tell you that that will not work. 7 days. Life-style change. LOL!!

You will do best at losing weight when you are euthyroid which means at your normal state.


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## jessie1

Well, my last appt was May 9th and she upped my Synthroid from 75mch to 88mcg, but a few days ago I called to see if I could switch, I am still pretty symptomatic. My next appt. is Aug. 9th, so I guess we will see from there. She did tell me I may start to feel worse until we get the dosage worked out, but I am still feeling pretty bad on Synthroid, so I guess it's worth a shot.


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## hamilton

there is a lot of contradictions on what is best for Hashis but I find that Dr John C. Lowe advice is spot on. Try a search on him and you ll find valuable info as he too has suffered thyroid issues. 
He has an animal based supplement called Thyro-Gold that I have been on for 7 months now and feeling great. You can tweek the dosage to suit your symptoms. 
I take half a capsule half an hour before breakfast. I also takeGlutathione -an antioxidant, 2 times a day with meals, to help eliminate the antibodies. The Thyro-Gold can be messy when trying to halve the powedered capsules but I just pour some onto a teaspoon and swallow with water and that saves having to do a whole recapping process.
Dr Lowe has written extensively on armour and synthroid which are synthetic drugs and less effective and i have heard the same information from my nutritionist who put me on to Thyro-Gold. Its worth a try and easily purchased directly from Dr Lowe.


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## McKenna

Have you had labs done that show hypo? And have you had labs done that show what your body is doing while on this supplement?

From what I've seen, Thyro-gold is a glandular supplement. Glandular supplements are based on the "like supports like" principle and you see many glandular supplements, thyroid, adrenal, heart, etc.

The issue that I see here is that if someone is deficient in thyroid hormone, there may not be significant hormone in glandular supplements or that it's difficult to correctly guage proper doseage. Proper thyroid replacement needs to be done based on lab work and hormone replacement.

I respect Dr. Lowe and have read a lot of his work on his site. However, I would not give up my Armour to "guess work".


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## Andros

hamilton said:


> there is a lot of contradictions on what is best for Hashis but I find that Dr John C. Lowe advice is spot on. Try a search on him and you ll find valuable info as he too has suffered thyroid issues.
> He has an animal based supplement called Thyro-Gold that I have been on for 7 months now and feeling great. You can tweek the dosage to suit your symptoms.
> I take half a capsule half an hour before breakfast. I also takeGlutathione -an antioxidant, 2 times a day with meals, to help eliminate the antibodies. The Thyro-Gold can be messy when trying to halve the powedered capsules but I just pour some onto a teaspoon and swallow with water and that saves having to do a whole recapping process.
> Dr Lowe has written extensively on armour and synthroid which are synthetic drugs and less effective and i have heard the same information from my nutritionist who put me on to Thyro-Gold. Its worth a try and easily purchased directly from Dr Lowe.


I did look into that Thyro-Gold when Armour was temporarily off the market. Trust me; I was a half-second away from ordering it.

Customer comments are important so I am glad that you have given us the good news.

I take it you are more than pleased?


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## jessie1

I am hypothyroid. I was diagnosed about Jan. 09 or 10...it seems like its been forever. My main issue is my high TPO antibodies. The last time they were checked they were about 2600. I am now trying Selenium and my dr is going to re-check my labs at my next appt to see if its helping.


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## bigfoot

There definitely seems to be something to the Selenium. Lots of folks here have mentioned it, a quick Google search turns up a zillion hits, and my recent naturopath doc has me taking some as well. (I don't have any new TPO labs yet, so can't comment on effectiveness.) He said you can overdo it with the Selenium, so be careful... I think the recommended daily 200mcg or less is a good place to start.


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## Andros

jessie1 said:


> I am hypothyroid. I was diagnosed about Jan. 09 or 10...it seems like its been forever. My main issue is my high TPO antibodies. The last time they were checked they were about 2600. I am now trying Selenium and my dr is going to re-check my labs at my next appt to see if its helping.


Selenium should help and I believe that if you are not taking Omega III, that would help also. If I were prescribing it for you, I would tell you to get Carlson's (cold water), no burping or after taste and would recommend 4 grams a day (4000 mgs.)

And do keep in mind that TPO is "suggestive" of a myriad of things. It's not always about the thyroid although I too sometimes think otherwise! LOL!

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/003556.htm


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## cat76

Very interesting to read what you say about Thyro Gold. I received my first shipment last week and was very hopeful, but the first day I became seriously hyperthyroid (sweating, heart beating too fast, increased appetite). Within a few hours of taking the first capsule! Thank you for telling us how you can take half a capsule instead of one; I'll try that for a while and see if it helps.

I am also not sure what to do with the L-Thyroxine I have been taking for 10 years. I have been on 200 mcg for several years now but, the same day I started taking Thyro Gold, I decreased it to 175 mcg (of course, it would take several weeks for that decrease to take effect as T4 is slow-acting). But I would like to know if I should continue taking any T4 meds at all, or discontinue the L-Thyroxine all together? I have no idea how much hormone Thyro Gold contains (apparently, it cannot be measured or at least not made public because then it would have to be a prescription drug instead of an OTC product), but does anyone have any idea how much hormone could be in each capsule? Someone wrote that 1 tablet of ********** desiccated thyroid (130 mg) roughly corresponds to 1/4 grain of Armour, that is, +/-2mcg of T3 and around 10 mcg of T4. Can anyone here compare that to Thyro Gold? I took ********** porcine capsules for a while about a year ago but never noticed any difference whatsoever. However, with Thyro Gold, it was like being kicked by a horse...


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## HeidiBR

Cat,

I think you should talk to your doctor if you are seriously thinking about replacing your L-Thyroxine with Thyro Gold.

if Thyro Gold is like being kicked by a horse, is that a good thing? It sounds a bit dangerous.


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## lemurgirl13

I was in your same shoes recently, and made the switch to armour. I too was at .88 mcg sythorid and went to I grain of armour. The difference is amazing! I had a lot of digestive symptoms (feeling sick to stomach) dry skin, tired ect. I noticed a difference after about 2 or 3 days. I swallowed them whole the first couple of days but after doing some reading I decided to chew them up, I noticed a big difference then. After about 4 weeks, I felt a bit hypo again so went to the dr and she drew blood then upped my dose to 1 grain and a 1/4 and I have felt great since! Good luck! I bet if you are feeling better you will loose weight too!


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## cat76

Heidi,

You're right. After only three days I have stopped taking Thyro-Gold as it did not at all agree with me. I have read so much about how fantastic it is supposed to be and that people who try it never want anything else, but it just made me jittery and uncomfortable. I read somewhere that someone estimated that each capsule of Thyro-Gold corresponds roughly to 2/3 of Armour. I have no idea what that means; can someone please translate in to grams of T3 and T4 respectively (that might help me understand why I reacted so strongly to the supplement)?


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## HeidiBR

Cat,

You might want to ask your doctor if he/she will give you Cytomel in addition to your Synthroid. Cytomel is pure T3 and maybe you would do well with a very small dose that is controllable (unlike the Thyro-Gold). Depending on your free T4, your Synthroid dose might need to be reduced a bit if you try Cytomel.


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