Tina Sends the NY Times a Heads Up Regarding the Armour Crisis

by | Sep 17, 2009 | general health & nutrition, health, hormones, metabolism, thyroid

Tina has raised her pen (actually her keyboard) to bring greater visibility to the Armour Thyroid crisis. Tina addressed her comments to one of the editors at the NY Times who actually appears to have taken this seriously and passed the email on upward. Thank you Tina, from me and those who are struggling with this unwarranted interruption in their medical treatment.

Here is the email sent by Tina to the NY Times Editor

Dear Ms. Kolata: I am writing in regard to recent restrictions on the availability of alternative, though highly effective, medications for hypothyroidism. Dessicated thyroid generics (made from the thyroid glands of pigs), known as Armour or NatureThroid, help thousands of people who suffer from low-functioning thyroids. I was on Synthroid, a synthetic thyroid medication, for years, but still suffered from symptoms. It was only when I began using NatureThroid, which treats all four of the hormone levels affected by the thyroid (vs. Synthoid, which only treats one), that my symptoms cleared up. I can’t tell you what a relief it is to no longer feel agitated and inexplicably moody, nor to have my hair falling out, my skin dry, etc. But it is becoming harder and harder to find dessicated thyroid generics. Armour, which has been around for about 50 years, is virtually out of business. Apparently the shortage has to do with FDA documentation requirements (which is odd; why now?)!
. Meanwhile, the American Academy of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE) is backing Synthroid, which makes big money for its manufacturers (i.e., Abbott Laboratories). I hope this captures your interest. I don’t know what I, or thousands of others who have found relief with dessicated thyroid generics, will do if they are no longer available. If you would like more information, it may be helpful to go to https://www.metabolism.com. Thank you very much for your attention, Tina Montalvo West Palm Beach, FL

ARTICLE REFERENCED (if any):
None

Armour Thyroid Shortage a Nation Wide Problem

by | Aug 25, 2009 | general health & nutrition, metabolism, thyroid, weight gain

Samantha, Nurse Practitioner in New York reports on the effect the national shortage of dessicated thyroid products is having on health care in her area. My own experience is that the situation is getting worse here in Florida, as well. Nature Thyroid and Westhroid which we had hoped would replace Armour in this practice has also become unavailable. At this very minute our office administrator is calling every pharmacy and pharmaceutical mail order companies we have used, trying to locate a source of these products for this practice (8 endocrinologists who serve a large portion of South Florida). Switching people back to T4 because the desired dessicated thyroid medication is unavailable, seems unacceptable in the “best health care system in the world”.

I thought Samantha’s comments were vital to see:

Samantha writes:

I’m a nurse practitioner in NY, and find that our patients generally do better or Armour Thyroid than on the usual T4 products. As for Cale, it sounds as if he’s in love with BigPharma, but many conservative practitioners and dispensors abound, so take what he says with a grain of salt. I, several MDs and NPs and a DO of my acquaintance all use Armour Thy. ourselves, but have noticed a slight decrease in effectiveness since the reformulation. The real frustration is having to convert our patients back to Levothyroxine and Cytomel which many do not find nearly as helpful. Other brands such as wes-throid and nature-throid are now out of stock, (in our area) and so there is no real alternative. Some of our patients have even tried getting stocks from Canada, to no avail. When I last checked with Forest they had stocks of 120 and 360 dosages available, but most of our patients require much less. While I will still use Armour and prescribe it, when we can get it again – as will my colleagues mentioned above – we are thoroughly annoyed at Forest for the reformulation. Most people tolerated the product very well. Patients should not have to have their effective medication routines switched out from under them. No one wants to change horses mid-stream.

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