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Thyroid problem news from Thyroid Talk
Thyroid Supplements Vs
Hormone Replacement
by: James M. Lowrance
www.jimlowsaudios.com
Recently, a lady e-mailed me, asking about certain over-the-counter supplements, that are advertised to help optimize a person’s thyroid function. She was struggling, as many of us did, with the idea of having to take a lifelong thyroid hormone replacement treatment and so was looking at the possibility of other options for treating her hypothyroidism. In this article, I am including my response to her on this subject, following the heading “response"
While I believe there are natural supplements that will definitely improve a person’s thyroid function, I do not believe these supplements can replace thyroid hormone replacement medications, needed by patients with advanced disease of the thyroid gland, that has already caused hypothyroidism. It is my opinion, and one I know also agrees with that of most medical professionals, that trying to replace thyroid hormone medication, containing actual thyroid hormone, with a supplement containing no thyroid hormone, or an inconsistent amount, could actually be dangerous. Lack of thyroid hormone in the body, must be replaced and we cannot depend upon a supplement instead, that is supposed to increase our own thyroid function, when the thyroid has lost ground that cannot be regained, once it is permanently damaged due to disease.
Following now, is my response to the patient, who asked about certain thyroid supplements and her request for information about the differences between synthetic and natural thyroid hormone replacement medications. Respectfully, I used the term “brand" in place of the actual names of the over-the-counter supplements she asked about.
Response: The two supplements you are looking into, are not thyroid hormones, they are supplements that help a person's own thyroid to work at optimal level. The problem is, a person with a diseased thyroid from Hashimoto's, cannot jump start their thyroid past a certain point because once it is under-functioning, due to damage from antibodies, it cannot regain full function, no matter what is done, short of divine intervention. That's not to say that the supplements would not still help to a certain degree because it is a supplement being put into your body from the outside and will have some effect (Some patients may take these in addition to thyroid medication).
The "brand #1 you asked about", is designed to stimulate your own thyroid but contains no thyroid hormones at all. It is advertised to "assist" in thyroid treatment, which means it is not a treatment itself but a supplement to treatment. The “brand #2 you asked about" is a bovine (beef) thyroid glandular, with the "thyroxin" taken out of it (extracted). This means they have to extract the thyroid hormone out of it, in order to sell it over-the-counter because it is extremely difficult to get a supplement approved for non-prescription sales if it contains actual thyroid hormone. One company that does sell a thyroid hormone over-the-counter, is one called Westthroid and is similar to Armour Thyroid.
Armour has a set dose of hormone, just like synthetic does. It contains 38mcg of T-4 (levothyroxin) 9mcg of T-3 (liothyronine) per each grain (60mg).
The only changes it makes once it enters the body, is that the T-4 in it, will partially convert into more T-3, if the body determines it needs more. The other change would be the percent of absorption of it, that can be affected by other things you are consuming at the time of taking your dose. Taking calcium or iron, within 6-hours of taking thyroid medication (either type), can limit its absorption and so can too much dietary fiber, so these need consumed 4 to 6 hours apart from taking the thyroid dose.
I mention these things because there is misinformation out there about Armour not being consistent in doses. Forest Pharmaceuticals, the manufacturer, has been cleared by the FDA for not having dosage inconsistencies. Synthroid fairly recently again had to go through the same approval, so the accusations that sometime arise are likely from Pharmaceutical wars for market shares, more than anything else. Forest makes synthetic T-4, just like Synthroid does. They also make a combo synthtic T-4 & T-3 combo (Thyrolar).
I am not recommending Armour over Synthroid because I believe some patients do better on Synthroid however, I also believe Armour is given an undeserved "bad rap", by Doctors who are simply parroting what the Pharmaceutical companies are telling them. The fact is, Synthroid has had bad press on it, just as Armour has.
Below I am posting a link that lists problems with Synthroid, as pointed out by the FDA, that are similar to those that have been pointed out against Armour.
I maintain my own belief that patients need trial regimens of the opposite type medication, if they are tried on one and are not having success. As far as the supplements go, you have to be careful to read their ingredients because Endocrinologists often warn patients that these "thyroid supplements" that contain no hormone, will not treat hypothyroidism and some contain ingredients that may work against thyroid medications.
With the fact of autoimmune thyroid disease not being able to be reversed, except in very rare cases, this would mean that even if those supplements worked to help strengthen the thyroid gland, how long would this improvement last? If the thyroid starts going down hill again once these supplements were stopped, this would mean they would have to be lifelong treatment as well. If antibodies continued to attack the thyroid while on these non-hormone supplements, the gland would still eventually become so damaged over time, that there is no way they could continue to restore its function.
As far as the hormones taking over for the thyroid, to where it atrophies (stops working), this is actually the whole point of thyroid hormone replacement therapy. If a person waits until the thyroid gland completely stops functioning before starting thyroid medication, they risk death by myxedema coma. This is the dilemma, even for Doctors, to know at what point to actually start patients on hormone replacement because it always results in eventual shut down of the patient's own thyroid.
Symptoms are one of the most important reasons medication needs to be started but also, to reduce antibody levels (sometimes takes years) and to prevent goiter and nodules from developing, so you can see there are multiple reasons for starting medication in patients with developing hypothyroidism.
I too have read repeatedly from medical resources that thyroid medications help reduce antibodies over time (opposite of what others say). If levels shoot up, despite being on medication, this does not necessarily mean the medication is the cause but could just be thyroiditis flare ups that happen commonly with the disease.
The point to all this is that it is unavoidable to take medication if you have Hashimoto's because it is very rarely ever reversed.
If you'll notice, the article you found, is published by a company who markets the supplements or at least someone associated with them. They know many Doctors will not approve these in combination with thyroid hormone replacement and so they claim you should take it instead. It's very possible that these would help for a while but to claim they will reverse autoimmune thyroid disease, is a false claim.
If there were supplements that could do this, medical research would have discovered it many years ago. I am a firm believer in natural treatments but in the case of autoimmune hypothyroidism, I believe hormone replacement medication is the treatment and natural supplements may be helpful in addition to it.
In regard to iodine deficiency hypothyroidism, is not the same as the autoimmune type and is somewhat rare in the US and most other countries. It's main characteristic is large goiters.
It does not hurt in the least to be doing the research you are doing, in fact I recommend all patients do so. I think at the bottom line, you'll find that hormone replacement is the unavoidable answer.
Please note: James approached Thyroid Talk recently to offer his knowledge and material on the subject. He has given Thyroid Talk permission to use these articles as a resource for visitors. He has also given permission to anyone who would like to contact him via email at jmjthree@sbcglobal.net
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