#armour thyroid

[nokingsonlyfooles]

Hope is Dangerous...

A machine elf woke me up this morning.

(Link has description penned by the ethno-botanist who named the phenomenon.)

Now, I have already heard of them, and I know what they're supposed to sound like, so if my half-sleeping brain wanted to produce one for me, it has instructions. Also, I'm operating on 1.5 hours of sleep right now, tops. Consciousness gets gooey under these levels of stress. Scientifically, this is a useless experience.

Nevertheless, a loud, excited, unintelligible gabble - distinct in that way from Disney-esque squirrel-speak - woke me from fitful dreams. And then the spouse came in and told me it was about time to get ready for my fateful doctor appointment.

I've had thyroid issues for at least three decades, probably born with them. My number was low (standard panels only check one, of three), they threw enough Synthroid at me to get the number into "normal range" and never gave me a diagnosis. I still had symptoms, nobody cared. They tried to treat my anxiety with antidepressants - which never worked. Because my thyroid number was "normal," you see. Of course, I was gaining weight because I didn't eat properly and exercise, even though none of the diets and exercises worked either. My thyroid number was "normal." I was just a lazy liar!

My "family doctor" (I'm lucky to have one!) "prescribed" megadoses of iodine, and sea kelp, and a ketogenic diet. I begged him to send me to an endocrinologist, almost from the first appointment. I told him the same story I've told you, plus more. Finally, my spouse accompanied me to an appointment and told him to give me the referral. He did, but I couldn't get an appointment with the thyroid specialist for months. Today was that appointment.

I have had so many doctors stop listening, glaze over, and do the minimum amount needed to get me out of the office. I've also had a bunch be very enthused about listening and helping me! Only to disengage and glaze over when it turns out the minimum amount doesn't cure me and I keep coming back asking for help. Pssht! Women! Am I right, fellas?

Today, this guy had run a full blood panel with all three numbers. For months in advance, I stopped taking all the useless supplements the "family doctor" pushed on me, to make sure the guy had an accurate result. The first thing that happened when I came to the office - a tech weighed me and checked how tall I am. THAT IS NOT A GOOD SIGN. I waited, expecting to hear, You have an unhealthy BMI, here's a diet, you need to exercise.

What I got, after some very sincere (seeming!) discussion was: "You have Hashimoto's, your immune system is attacking your thyroid, and you're probably one of the 5% of people who can't convert Synthroid to every type of thyroid hormone you need."

THIS IS HOW I SELF-DIAGNOSED YEARS AGO, BUT I NEVER GOT ANYONE TO LISTEN.

I told the doctor I'd tried Armour Thyroid, and it was wonderful, but I couldn't tolerate an effective dose. (I tried so hard to tolerate it! I split my dose, I built up to it, I worked for months, but the side effects didn't go away. It killed the anxiety I've lived with all my life. Boom! Gone! And then I had to stop taking it and, like a nightmare, over about a week, all that mental anguish came back.)

He said: "It might be the binding agent." THIS ALSO JIBED WITH MY RESEARCH! "Let's try it from a compounding pharmacy. If that doesn't work, get back in touch with me, there are more things we can try." Ha-ha, and also, bonus round: "No, don't take sea kelp, don't megadose with iodine, that can make your thyroid stop working altogether." And! "I'm going to talk to your doctor."

I AM VALID! But, I've heard that before. And when the first thing doesn't work, I lose all my traction. I am hoping so hard. Armour Thyroid did help, but if I can't tolerate it, I'm setting myself up for another Flowers for Algernon where my crippling anxiety goes away and comes right back.

Machine elves seem like they like us. The seem to have the ability to create beautiful things with words, and they're so jazzed to teach us how to do it, that they try to create this information into our heads all at once instead of slowing down to explain. I'm a writer. Broadly-speaking, that is also my jam, so I'm in favour of the little guys, real or imagined.

My dude - or genderless construct, or however you identify - if you're watching me right now, thanks for giving my reality a nudge towards something better. Now, for god's sake, keep it up!

[nashvillehotchicken]

lord we're so spacey lately what the fuck

[schwazombie]

wanna preface any sort of talk about anything even tangentially related to healthcare with the disclaimer that of course doing research and talking to professionals is important, but also like. a lot. a LOT. of the "T is so dangerous!!!! it will destroy you from the inside out and you will never be the same!!!!! it will ravage you like the plague and you'll lose your hair and teeth and become a monster!!!!!!!" is like. based on nothing. it's straight up TERF propaganda. There are always changes that will occur in your body when you do hormone therapy, but far and away they're the intended changes. There are lots of things that constitute hormone therapy, too, like you said birth control is one, people who are dealing with thyroid issues go through hormone therapy, there are LOTS of different iterations, it just so happens that the ones that trans your gender are the ones everyone's so fuckin mad about.

like I said, do your research of course, but you're not bad for wanting to go on T, and the gross majority of the scary stuff that gets put out about it is TERFs trying to scare you into staying inside the box they built for everyone.

Hey. Hey. Hey? I appreciate you.

For SURE for sure. Even knowing it's TERF propaganda I still catch myself sometimes fearmongering to myself repeating that shit oh no my body will change and will never be the same Ö but that's... that's true anyway no matter what I do. And I know some things I will have to possibly deal with (e.g., hair loss is a thing on both sides of my family so it wouldn't surprise me in the least), but it's not this huge scary thing that a lot of people (incl. doctors sometimes) make it out to be. Especially because yeah. Fn. Birth control??? And I have friends who have thyroid issues? And there's so much but you are so right people get big mad about the potions of trans your gender (and like... apparently here you have to have a whole fn test done to see which chromosomes you have before you can do hormone therapy but that wasn't needed for getting on the pill like yo????). And they can't even say it's because oh it's an elective thing uwu because so was fucking birth control for me it wasn't like I was taking it to deal with other health issues. It's just. Gah.

But re: research -- I do have a friend (whom I love so much because they are awesom af) who throws me whatever he can think of about their experiences, and I'm lucky enough that my city has a... Transberatungsstelle. I have no clue how to translate that. Kind of like a resource center? All the dictionary entries for Beratungsstelle are wrong (: At any rate they do free anon councilling about trans* issues so I went and talked to them and got a huge stack of information. We've also got a local Queeres Zentrum that has a trans group that meets twice a month which I knew about; what I didn't know about (that I found out about at the TraBS) was that there's also a queer choir in my city and the fn. The fn choir director is a trans man. One of my big fears was that nonsense I keep seeing about oH NO iT'll rUin yOUr vOiCE because I love singing so just knowing that a trans man leads a whole damn choir was like... oh. Oh. Information is my armour and my sword sort of situation

Anyway you are so sweet for sending this and as I said, I appreciate you <3 you are officially added to the list of people who can stay on my sleeper sofa

[mcatmemoranda]

Armour thyroid comes from pig thyroid glands. They take a bunch of pigs and crush their thyroid glands (poor piggies :'( ) It contains both T3 and T4. Some pts like this and feel better on this than they do on levothyroxine. You cannot convert between Armour and levothyroxine. They don't have the same amounts of T4. Each batch of Armour can have a different level of T4, so it's not always consistent. I have a pt who is on Armour thyroid 120 mcg and her TSH is overcorrected to 0.2 (therapeutic range is 1 to 2). So I stopped her 120 mcg pill and wanted to decrease by 25 mcg but the next lowest dose of Armour is 90 mcg. So I started the 90 mcg tablet for her. Will re-assess her TSH with reflext FT4 in 8 weeks. You should always adjust it by 25 mcg and re-check it in 6 to 8 weeks. It takes 6 to 8 weeks before you see the results of the adjustments.

[and-then-there-were-n0ne]

Every cell nucleus contains the entire genome, but with only a minority of genes turned on. When a gene is turned on in, say, a cell of the pancreas, its sequence of code letters directly determines the sequence of amino acids in a protein; and the sequence of amino acids determines (remember the image of the magnetic necklace?) the shape into which the protein folds itself; and the shape into which the protein folds itself determines the precisely shaped sockets that marry up substances drifting around in the cell. Every cell, with very few exceptions such as red blood corpuscles, which lack a nucleus, contains the genes for making all the enzymes. But in any one cell, only a few genes will be turned on at any one time. In, say, thyroid cells, the genes that make the right enzymes for catalysing the manufacture of thyroid hormone are turned on. And correspondingly for all the different kinds of cells.

Finally, the chemical reactions that go on in a cell determine the way that cell is shaped and the way it behaves, and the way it participates in origami-style interactions with other cells. So the whole course of embryonic development is controlled, via an intricate sequence of events, by genes. It is genes which determine sequences of amino acids, which determine tertiary structures of proteins, which determine the socket-like shapes of active sites, which determine cell chemistry, which determine 'starling-like' cell behaviour in embryonic development. So, differences in genes can, at the originating end of the complex chain of events, cause differences in the way embryos develop, and hence differences in the form and behaviour of adults.

The survival and reproductive success of those adults then feeds back on the survival in the gene pool of the genes that made the difference between success and failure. And that is natural selection.

Embryology seems complicated - is complicated - but it is easy to grasp the important point, which is that we are dealing with local self-assembly processes all the way. It's a separate question, given that (almost) all the cells contain all the genes, how it is decided which genes are turned on in each different kind of cell. I must briefly deal with that now.

Whether or not a given gene is turned on in a given cell at a given time is determined, often via a cascade of other genes called switch genes or controller genes, by the chemical environment of the cell. Thyroid cells are quite different from muscle cells, and so on, even though their genes are the same. That's all very well, you may say, once the development of the embryo is under way, and the different kinds of tissues such as thyroid and muscle already exist. But every embryo starts out as a single cell. Thyroid cells and muscle cells, liver cells and bone cells, pancreas cells and skin cells, all are descended from a single fertilized egg cell, via a branching family tree. [...]

Given that genes control processes of embryonic development rather than adult shape; given that natural selection - like God doesn't build tiny wings, but embryology does; how does natural selection go to work on animals to shape their bodies and their behaviour? How does natural selection go to work on embryos, in other words, to rejig them so they become ever more proficient at building successful bodies, with wings, or fins, leaves or armour plating, stings or tentacles or whatever it takes to survive?

Natural selection is the differential survival of successful genes rather than alternative, less successful genes in gene pools. Natural selection doesn't choose genes directly. Instead it chooses their proxies, individual bodies; and those individuals are chosen -obviously and automatically and without deliberative intervention - by whether they survive to reproduce copies of the very same genes. A gene's survival is intimately bound up with the survival of the bodies that it helps to build, because it rides inside those bodies, and dies with them. Any given gene can expect to find itself, in the form of copies of itself, riding inside a large number of bodies, both simultaneously in a population of contemporaries, and successively as generation gives way to generation. Statistically, therefore, a gene that tends, on average, to have a good effect on the survival prospects of the bodies in which it finds itself will tend to increase in frequency in the gene pool. So, on average, the genes that we encounter in a gene pool will tend to be those genes that are good at building bodies. This chapter has been about the procedures by which genes build bodies.

— Richard Dawkins, The Greatest Show on Earth

[jodilin65]

My DW journal is now in sync with my LJ journal!

I have been freezing my ass off again, which makes me think I'm still having absorption issues and likely always will, on and off. I mentioned it to Jessie, and it turns out her daughter has the same problem. There's only one pill for that, and Jessie will ask her what it is.

Knowing how forgetful she tends to be, I ran it through AI. One of the things that came up was Tirosint, which they gave me when we were trying to get rid of the anxiety. However, that turned out to be what I figured it was all along: the dose and how fast I increased it. Another thing that came up was Armour, which my old endo said wouldn't be good because it's too much. I would never take that because it's pig thyroid, and it's not nearly as consistent as the synthetic form. I still disagree with the endo I saw here in Florida who told me to take Synthroid. I just hope that whatever I need to fix this problem is covered under my insurance. I know United didn't cover Tirosint.

Anyway, I'm not as energetic as I was yesterday. I woke up several times, and one of the times I swear Tom made some kind of noise. I will have to remind him yet again that this house is too small for him not to be extra quiet. I'll turn up the sound machine a bit too. Part of the problem is the grille's location. In the old place, they were in the floors which is better but here, unfortunately, they're above the bedroom doors.

I won a free appetizer in an instant-win sweepstakes that Ruby Tuesday was having. They don't have those in the West, so I don't think we've ever been to Ruby Tuesday.

This may be it until after Thursday's appointment, unless I'm so exhausted that day thanks to the round of storms moving into our area.

[nathank77]

6/9/24

6:53 p.m

People may wonder why I went through the attic to grab like 6 pairs of skinny jeans and one pair of volcom shorts. And I was looking for my size 32 volcom swim shorts they are plain black like the ones pictured below (but those are fox) but i couldn't find them. Well it's cause I'm poor. That's the reason I dug through a mess of dust and got dry mouth and am suffering a slight depression bc of seeing the state my stuff was in. I got a lot of those pants from savers. I think most of them but the DC ones someone got me for Christmas. I think my aunt. And the levis.

Either way, it's bc I'm poor and I prob spent 100$ or more on the collection of pants. Although that's not a lot when some jeans can cost 60$ and I mean I could replace them at savers. Two pairs of those Levi I bought from Macy's I think for like 30$ each at least... and the American eagle and bullhead were from savers. The bullhead dillions aren't being made anymore which is why they are one of a kind. So actually adding this together between the levis and the bullhead, volcom regular shorts and the American eagle it's about 90-100$ in pants..

That's why I didn't just buy new ones, throw in the fact that I don't know what's going on with my thyroid. Am I Hypo? Or is 180 my true size on this diet? Am I going to stay in size 32 or am I going to go back to 36-38? It's a lot to gamble spending money on stuff when you're poor and your size is Questionable. Some people spend their whole life being thin. Never fluctuating. Some people stay like 180-200 their whole life and they don't have to worry about what if I buy these in small and can only wear them for 6 months?

That's what I have to worry about. Cause I've never been consistently one weight. I've always fluctuated between like 175-200, that range is enough to make clothes shopping a disaster when you're losing weight and gaining weight due to treating your thyroid.

The volcom swim shorts are plain black and nothing special but they were special to me bc I wore than at my skinniest... and I wanted to find them so badly but I can't, I know they are somewhere up there but where? And how bad does my allergies have to get to go up there to get them? It's not worth it. At least I got my skinny jeans ranging from 34 waist to 31... I had 36s already down here and I have a pair of 38s that are and were like garbage bags... I got to get a pair of those in skinny jeans so I can at least have something I'd wear if that happens again....

Anyways I decided to shop around for swim shorts in 32 cause if I'm being real the volcom ones were plain and I could find something much nicer. So I did, these camo fox ones I LOVE. But they are fucking 60$..... this is why I keep fat clothes, skinny clothes and medium clothes in the attic and why it's so depressing that all my shit got ruined. Cause I'll always be a fluctuatiator.... I mean even if I am going Hypo and go into remission 2/3 people go hyper again.

Even if I'm the 1/3 of people I mean if I ever find a girlfriend and a family and she likes to cook. She will fatten me up. My diet at the moment if I stay normal for my thyroid I will stay at whatever my true weight is. My thyroid throws me through a loop. And it's true if I find a girl and a family, a dad bod will likely become a thing even if I stay in remission... just one meal at 1000 calories can make me get up to 200 pounds lol

So yea this is why this poor person dug through the attic. I fucking love these camo swim shorts but for fucking 60$ in a size 32 which could be a couple month thing a couple years max.... that's the sad part... it's like yea I want them if money was no issue I'd buy them but I fluctuate a lot. Also I prob won't find a girl but I could be hyper.. I doubt it but that's the problem with my thyroid.

Beyond that- I bought XL Under Armour boxer briefs that felt a little tight just a little. I spent like 130$ on them. Then I bought 2XL Under Armour boxer briefs another 130$. They were so comfy and then they turned into boxers instead of briefs bc of weight loss and the XL are still a little tight but not really. Just not as comfy in the waist. So this is why I don't want to buy clothes until I stay normal with my thyroid and find my true size and then stay there for a while.

Not to mention I got to buy that frame for my masters of science cause I want to hang it up. And cbd costs an arm and a leg... so I mean money is tight.

I'd buy these in 32, but am I going to be a 32 for long? Will I get thinner? I mean I have 4 pairs of swim shorts, 38, 36, 34, and 34s... variety of sizes for a reason. It may be 38, 36, 36, 34. But yea the black ones I won't buy but I'm trying to remind myself the volcom ones in the attic are basically the same as these and although I want them and replacing them would cost me 60$ I mean, I could find a better pair. One of kind ones.... despite not having the funds to pay for them:

[letrashweightlossjourney]

A little about me for anyone curious to actually look at this weight loss journey I'm about to finally start. I'm 5'2", 27 years old, and about a decade ago, I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism. That means that basically my thyroid, the gland that effects our metabolism, is underactive and makes it hard or nearly impossible to lose weight unless I take levothyroxine, armour or one of the other hormonal medications that make my thyroid get back to normal levels. I'm pretty active, still in school for my bachelors degree (transferred to my uni 3 years ago now), and I work a pretty labor-intensive job where I'm constantly moving for about 10 hours a night a few times a week (never when I have class the next day). Over the last decade, I've recently switched from levothyroxine to armor since levothyroxine wasn't helping with any of the symptoms that I have, and since armor seems to be helping with my symptoms, I am hoping it means I can start losing weight. My goal is to lose enough weight to be proud of myself at my wedding in the next year or 2 (just got engaged, haven't decided on a date yet).

So below will be my Day 0 stats:

♧Weight: 172.8 pounds

♤Measurements:

◇Abdomen: 37.0 inches

◇Hips: 41.0 inches

◇Underbust: 34.0 inches

◇Bust: 43.0 inches

◇Neck: 13.5 inches

◇Thighs: 25.4 inches

◇Current bra size: 34i

Goals:

♧Weight: 135-140 (meaning I need to lose about 32 to 37 pounds)

♤Bra size below F cup (my back is begging for smaller boobs)

◇Smaller stomach

♡Confidence in my body

Starting date: November 9, 2023

Methods:

♧Low-Carb diet

♤Tons of water

◇Back to the gym to lift weights and do cardio

♡Sleeping more than 4 hours a night

♧Posting weekly even if no one looks at this to hold myself accountable to myself since I'm posting this online

[fucntionaldocak]

Desiccated vs. Synthetic Thyroid Drugs: Unveiling Benefits & Controversies

The Benefits of Desiccated Thyroid Drugs: Unveiling the Controversy The treatment of thyroid disorders often involves medication to regulate hormone levels. While synthetic thyroid drugs have long been the go-to option, there is a growing debate surrounding the benefits of desiccated thyroid drugs, such as Armour Thyroid. In this article, we will delve into the controversy and explore why…

[thethyroidrelation]

Share your story! Your experience could help others more than you know…

Tell us how your life has been impacted by thyroid disease. It would be my pleasure to share your experiences with everyone so that we can become a community, answer questions and motivate each other to continue doing our best. 

Where to send: thethyroidrelation@gmail.com

Name: optional

Post: Your experience or your story there is no right or wrong answer.

[siglerprescriptiondrugcards]

Brand Names: Armour Thyroid

Generic Available*

Common Dosage Forms:

Tablets (Armour)*: 15 mg (¼ grain), 30 mg (½ grain), 60 mg (1 grain), 90 mg (1.5 grain), 120 mg (2 grain), 180 mg (3 grain), 240 mg (4 grain), 300 mg (5 grain)

Tablets (other brands): 16.25 mg, 32.5 mg, 648.75 mg, 65 mg, 81.25 mg, 97.5 mg, 113.75 mg, 130 mg, 146.25 mg, 162.5 mg, 195 mg, 260 mg, 325 mg

*Corresponding grain measurements are approximately

FDA Indications/Dosages:

Adult hypothyroidism of any etiology:  

Initial: 15-30 mg/day for two weeks, increase by 15 mg increments every 2-3 weeks. Individualize dosage as needed.

Maintenance: 60-180 mg/day.

Congenital hypothyroidism (children):  

0-6 months old: 4.8-6 mg/kg/day.  

6-12 months old: 3.6-4.8 mg/kg/day.  

1-5 years old: 3-3.6 mg/kg/day.

Treatment or prevention of various type of euthyroid or multinodular goiters, including thyroid nodules, subacute or chronic lymphocytic thyroiditis, and in the management of thyroid cancer: Larger doses than those used for replacement are required.

*In acute emergency situations (when the oral route is not feasible) use levothyroxine injection as follows:

Treatment of Myxedema Coma: 0.4 mg of levothyroxine given rapidly intravenously, followed by daily supplements of 0.1-0.2 mg given intravenously. Resume oral therapy as soon as the clinical situation is stabilized, and the patient can take the oral dose.

Thyroid suppression therapy: 1.56 mg/kg/day of levothyroxine (T4) for 7-10 days.

Monitor: TSH

Pharmacology/Pharmacokinetics: The exact mechanism for thyroid is unknown although it is thought to be due to protein synthesis control, resulting in: (1) a regulation of growth and development, (2) an increase in metabolic rate, (3) inhibition of the secretion of thyrotropin by the pituitary, and (4) various effects on lipid and carbohydrate metabolism.

Drug Interactions: May increase the hypothrombinemia effect of oral coagulants. Cholestyramine may decrease absorption. May decrease the therapeutic effect of digitalis or hypoglycemic agents. Free levothyroxine may be decreased when given with estrogens.

Contraindications/Precautions: Use is contraindicated in patients with diagnosed but as yet uncorrected adrenal cortical insufficiency, untreated thyrotoxicosis, and in patients hypersensitive to any ingredient Use with caution in nursing mothers, in patients with cardiovascular disorders (such as angina pectoris), or diabetes, and in patients currently taking oral anticoagulants. Pregnancy Category A.

Adverse Effects: Adverse effects other than those indicative of overdosage are rare. These include weight loss, palpitations, nervousness, diarrhea or abdominal cramps, sweating, tachycardia, angina pectoris, headache, insomnia, and intolerance to heat.

Patient Consultation:

Do not discontinue therapy without first consulting physician.

Notify physician if signs of hyperthyroidism (overdose) occur.

Transient loss of hair may be seen in children, but recovery usually occurs.

Store in a cool, dry place away from sunlight and children.

If a dose is missed, take it as soon as possible. If it is closer to the time of your next dose than the dose you missed, skip the missed dose and return to your dosing schedule. Do not double doses.

Contact a physician if the above side effects are severe or persistent.

[bonersniper]

I feel like it is important to have these conversations, so: Today is my first day on my new thyroid medication. After a 2 year battle with 3 doctors one finally listened to the fact that I was still having all the symptoms (plus new ones). And he only listened because he'd experienced the same situation, because synthroid has a high rate of being ineffective but causing "normal" range test results because a lot of people 1) struggle to convert synthetic thyroid hormones 2) do better on supplements that give more than just one hormone. So it won't be an overnight change and isn't a fix all to my problems, but if it helps even a few of my symptoms be managable I'll feel so much better. So measured optimism but I'll report on this over the new few weeks!

[lunalovegood2]

Esther, you made me feel just like I've known you for my whole life. When it's only been a day. You changed my life without a doubt and I know your star won't go out. There's just no way.

Esther, Armoured Bearcub

[jessiedressesup]

I got one of my thyroid tests back and i feel so fucking vindicated right now bc it’s basically what i thought it was and explains why my current medication isn’t working like it’s supposed to

But now i gotta try to convince my doctor bc the results are ‘within the normal range’ and fight her to cut my current meds in half and add a T3 only medication and it’s just

ugh

she’s not a bad doctor and i don’t wanna be like ‘well i know better than you’ but for the past like 8 months all I’ve been doing is extensive research on hypothyroidism and she’s not a thyroid specialist doctor. 

[windynebula]

So I just found out that the Japanese word for “thyroid” is 甲状腺 (koujousen). The first kanji means “armour”. The Finnish word for thyroid is “kilpirauhanen”, where “kilpi” means “shield”. 

These small coincidences between two completely unrelated languages will never stop being so utterly fascinating to me.

[ashleykuhnj]

After months of messing with the wrong endocrinologist, I’ve finally found a great one! We did blood work after talking extensively to see where we needed to begin. Here are my labs:

Vitamin B12 (232-1245) = 346

TSH (0.27-4.20) = 3.75

Free T4 (0.93-1.70) = 0.92 L

Free T3 (2.00-4.40) = 5.98 H

DHEA Sulfate (51-321) = 424 H

Free Testosterone (0.1-6.4) = 3.7

Total Testosterone (2-45) = 47 H

Sadly, I met with her accomplis and didn't like her as much. But, we’ve switched from 90mcg’s of Armour to 150mg of Levoxyl. I’m not allowed to take synthroid or levothyroxine due to them having gluten inside of them.