# Hypo Thyroid issues



## chester50441 (Aug 9, 2012)

Hey All,
I need some help in my prepping quest and was hopping someone out there could get me on the right path when it comes to a medical issue. My wife and my mother both have had thyroid issues and now both of them have zero thyroid function and are both on synthroid. I have read about "armour thyroid" wich is a natural throid alternative and will be stockpiling about 1000-2000 pills. The problem for me is what to do if a disaster renders pharmaceutical production for many years. My wife and I are both in our late 20's and I would like to come up with a solution that allows me the chance to provide 40-60 years of life for her (maybe a pipe dream but got to aim high). I know that armour is basically just dryed and powdered pig thyroid, so I feel like that a long term solution can be found, but here is where I need the real help. Does anyone know, or can anyone put me on the right path to find out, how to go about harvesting and making armour from a pig. Obviously I would need to slaughter a pig (which is fine as that it will provide a good source of food anyway) and cut out the thyroid, but thats as far as I have been able to figure out. Can anyone tell me the best way to dry it out and powder it? Also I am looking to figure out about how to measeure out a dose and how long one pig thyroid could last a person. I know this is prob a little off the wall but I am sure there are some of you out there that may have family members who have the same medical issues. Any help would be great.
Thanks


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## KennyTN (Nov 12, 2012)

I look forward to any input on this subject too. I am completely without thyroid & parathyroid glands. I can work-around other meds I take but not this one. I try to keep a 3-6 month supply but it must be possible to manufacture natural replacement thyroid from animals. I will keep looking!


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## Genevieve (Sep 21, 2009)

have you thought of skipping doses in a shtf situation? maybe only dose every 3rd day? thats my plan.
heard of the pig thyroid but not any dosing info.


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## Grimm (Sep 5, 2012)

You can buy Synthroid online. I keep a supply in my freezer and rotate it in to my current supply as I restock. My doctor has told me I can store the Synthroid in mylar bags with oxygen absorbers for years when stored in a cool dark place. She is a prepper too. 

Has your wife's thyroid been removed? 

Is she overweight? If she is weightloss can release stored hormones in the fat deposits and reduce her current dose. 

Avoiding certain foods can help maintain hormone balance without the thyroid for production.


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## goatlady (Nov 7, 2011)

Here's a start - http://www.british-thyroid-association.org/info-for-patients/Docs/bta_Armour_T4_T3.pdf

"A. Armour Thyroid contains both thyroxine (T4) and tri-iodothyronine (T3) extracted from the
thyroid gland of pigs. One grain, about 60 mg, of desiccated pig thyroid extract contains about
38mcg of T4 and 9mcg of T3, a ratio of around 4 to 1. The normal concentration of these hormones
in the human thyroid is, however, at a ratio of 14 to 1. In other words, Armour thyroid extract
contains excessive amounts of T3 relative to T4 when used to replace thyroid hormone in man.
Moreover, as pig thyroid contains other substances apart from T4 and T3, Armour Thyroid is not a
pure preparation of thyroid hormones...."


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## nomadjanet (Mar 28, 2011)

I have had my thyroid irradiated away I can tell you that going to every other day or every third day will be OK about the 5th day you start to feel the let down.


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## Grimm (Sep 5, 2012)

nomadjanet said:


> I have had my thyroid irradiated away I can tell you that going to every other day or every third day will be OK about the 5th day you start to feel the let down.


I don't feel it for about 2 months but can see the effects about 2 weeks after stopping the Synthroid. I still try to stock up as much as I can. If I double my dose amount and stock that up- so instead of 150mcg I get 300mcg pills I can break them in half and they last longer.


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## nomadjanet (Mar 28, 2011)

Grimm said:


> I don't feel it for about 2 months but can see the effects about 2 weeks after stopping the Synthroid. I still try to stock up as much as I can. If I double my dose amount and stock that up- so instead of 150mcg I get 300mcg pills I can break them in half and they last longer.


You are blessed to be able to go so long. When you buy it on line do you need a perscription? Which online pharmacy do you use?


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## Grimm (Sep 5, 2012)

nomadjanet said:


> You are blessed to be able to go so long. When you buy it on line do you need a perscription? Which online pharmacy do you use?


No scrip needed.

http://www.internationaldrugmart.eu/pharmacy/us/levothyroxine.html


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## JuliaMcc (Nov 17, 2012)

My mother was told her thyroid was not working at all and she would need to take the meds for the rest of her life. She studied and read up on alternative and natural healing, juicing everything from our organic garden especially carrots and celery, and completely healed her non working thyroid and has never taken the drugs! Not a lot has changed now, 30 years later, and I've been diagnosed with the same problem. I'm on Armour and have read a lot of natural things you should do to heal it - there is also a natural (non script) supplement which includes the pig thyroid and I'm going to get it (thyromine). The armour isn't making any difference for me yet, now in my second month on it. All the info is out there on the net-start with thyroidtreatmentreviews.net. I also found out a lot of info about cutting gluten from your diet as there is a definite link, also the different tests you should get that your dr. may not have done to get the whole story. Lots of things to learn about, but I would not want to be dependent on getting a prescription in any case when there are alternate treatments.


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## Grimm (Sep 5, 2012)

JuliaMcc said:


> My mother was told her thyroid was not working at all and she would need to take the meds for the rest of her life. She studied and read up on alternative and natural healing, juicing everything from our organic garden especially carrots and celery, and completely healed her non working thyroid and has never taken the drugs! Not a lot has changed now, 30 years later, and I've been diagnosed with the same problem. I'm on Armour and have read a lot of natural things you should do to heal it - there is also a natural (non script) supplement which includes the pig thyroid and I'm going to get it (thyromine). The armour isn't making any difference for me yet, now in my second month on it. All the info is out there on the net-start with thyroidtreatmentreviews.net. I also found out a lot of info about cutting gluten from your diet as there is a definite link, also the different tests you should get that your dr. may not have done to get the whole story. Lots of things to learn about, but I would not want to be dependent on getting a prescription in any case when there are alternate treatments.


Make sure your doctor is on board with the alternative treatments you are trying. My mom tried a few and ended up killing the last bit of function her thyroid had. Since I still have 75% function from my thyroid I go by what my doctor says. When and if it drops to 50% I'll try some alternatives with my doctor's advice and guidance.


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## kacey22 (Nov 27, 2012)

I just recenently joined this board and stumbled upon this topic which is an issue for me too.. I've had hypothyroidism for 20 years. But chester, i had to specifically chime in on your idea of slaughtering pigs ... sounds simple enough but can be very problematic as you would have no way of knowing what kind of a dose you were getting... knowing the different meds and how they work, especially if your wife has not taken them before,is crucial.. i have taken just about every thyroid medication on the planet so i have a leg up there as far as knowing how i react to which ones and what kind of doses i need... not all thyroid medication is equal, nor does all thyroid medication have the same biological action in each person... despite containing the supposed same dose of hormone, a person can take 100mcgs of synthroid, and 100mcgs of levoxyl, both the same dose of T4 ,and get very different results... one may have a very different bioavailability than the other and you could find by switching drugs you need a much higher, or lower dose, of one than the other...

Armour is completely different than a T4 only drug, that would be your synthroid, levoxyl, unithroid and other generic brands... Armour is both T4 and T3...T3 is fast acting and four times as potent as T4... armour contains 9mcgs of T3 per grain which would be the approximate equivalent of taking 36mcgs of T4..it is also fast acting and has a short half life in comparison to T4...T4 needs to accumulate in the body... it takes approximately 42 days for T4 to reach it's full effect...T3 on the other hand does not build up.. it takes effect within an hour and works for about 4 hours and then starts leaving the body... also, with T4, as it takes 42 days to reach it's full dose, it also takes about the same going out.. so, if once she ran out of T4, and you switched her to armour, she would in the beginning still have the synthroid in her system and going right to armour, because of the t3 which acts immediately, she could go a bit hyper before the synthroid left her system...

You could actually just take T3 on its own too as in the end, T3 is the active thyroid hormone and T4 is useless unless it converts to T3... but you would take much less and take it twice a day instead of once...many thyroid patients don't convert well and take armour for this reason...but.. I can't stress the importance of knowing how to take a product like armour or straight T3, also known as cytomel, versus synthroid... If your wife takes 100 synthroid, and you had to switch her to armour, an appropriate starting dose would be about 1 grain, this is my personal opinion as i'm not a doctor, just a thyroid patient who's been around the block.... from there, you would have to dose her according to symptoms which you would have to also know how to recognize hyper versus hypo... one way you could do this would be by checking her bbt (basal body temperature) a low bbt would show hypo while high would be hyper... for normal thyroid function you shoot for a waking temp of about 97.0-97.6, or thereabouts... temperature goes up as you start to move around... so you would want to add an old fashioned shake down thermometer to your supplies as that would give you the most accurate results for checking temperatures...

I would highly recommend a book to you by dr broda barmes called hypothyroidism, the unsuspected illness... he gives you everything you need to treat someone clinically which would be important in an emergency situation where you could not monitor someone with blood tests...he also gives instructions for regulating meds by body temperature...

I would definitely first try to get an emergency supply of her current medication, as much as you could, and then stock up on something else in case she ran out, but her usual medication is always going to be best as switching thyroid medications isn't always so cut and dry and may require experimenting till you hit the right dose, which, until you get it right, could make her sick or give her symptoms...I also wouldn't recommend skipping doses... thyroid medication doesn't work like that... as i mentioned, t4 accumulates in your system... if you were to take it say every other day, your levels would drop and you would wind up with only half the dose you needed, this would definitely cause symptoms to come back if not make you very ill... it might keep you alive but depending on how bad your thyroid condition and symotoms are it coud seriously debilitate you which would also not be good in a shtf scenario...

From what i understand, thyroid medication will not necessarily go bad on you over time, armour might being animal based, but rather it will start losing it's potency...However, I have ordered generic armour overseas, without prescriptions, and in the original factory packaging it has a three year expiration...proper storage will also help... i seal my bottles in food saver bags and keep them in a cool, dry, and dark place... not the refrigerator either... that actually may break down the potency faster...if after the expiration your wife started becoming symptomatic at some point, that may be a clue the potency is dropping which of course you could combat by slowly taking a little more at a time... i would also highly recommend getting a pill cutter so if you had to start altering doses you could easily and evenly cut the pills.... the problem with the raw pig gland is regulating the dose... when you take a raw glandular you can never get an accurate potency and it would be very easy to be either severely under, or overdosed.... a severe deficiency or overdose could be deadly... all you can really do is stock as much as you can, preserve it as best you can and hope for the best...but i totally understand your concerns about having enough as i think about it often myself...


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## laverne (Nov 18, 2012)

Where do you get the thyromine? I have been unsuccessful in getting any extra Armour scripts from my dr.


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## chester50441 (Aug 9, 2012)

kacey22 said:


> I just recenently joined this board and stumbled upon this topic which is an issue for me too.. I've had hypothyroidism for 20 years. But chester, i had to specifically chime in on your idea of slaughtering pigs ... sounds simple enough but can be very problematic as you would have no way of knowing what kind of a dose you were getting... knowing the different meds and how they work, especially if your wife has not taken them before,is crucial.. i have taken just about every thyroid medication on the planet so i have a leg up there as far as knowing how i react to which ones and what kind of doses i need... not all thyroid medication is equal, nor does all thyroid medication have the same biological action in each person... despite containing the supposed same dose of hormone, a person can take 100mcgs of synthroid, and 100mcgs of levoxyl, both the same dose of T4 ,and get very different results... one may have a very different bioavailability than the other and you could find by switching drugs you need a much higher, or lower dose, of one than the other...
> 
> Armour is completely different than a T4 only drug, that would be your synthroid, levoxyl, unithroid and other generic brands... Armour is both T4 and T3...T3 is fast acting and four times as potent as T4... armour contains 9mcgs of T3 per grain which would be the approximate equivalent of taking 36mcgs of T4..it is also fast acting and has a short half life in comparison to T4...T4 needs to accumulate in the body... it takes approximately 42 days for T4 to reach it's full effect...T3 on the other hand does not build up.. it takes effect within an hour and works for about 4 hours and then starts leaving the body... also, with T4, as it takes 42 days to reach it's full dose, it also takes about the same going out.. so, if once she ran out of T4, and you switched her to armour, she would in the beginning still have the synthroid in her system and going right to armour, because of the t3 which acts immediately, she could go a bit hyper before the synthroid left her system...
> 
> ...


THANK YOU!!! You have given me more information then I have been able to get so far. 
Since my original post I have decided that harvesting pig thyroid isnt a realistic long term solution. I have decided that I need a stockpile of thyroid mediceine that I can package in mylar bags with oxgen absorbers in them. Unfortuantly stockpiling many years worth of synthroid really isnt an option. Because of this I am looking to armour. I plan on getting the higest dose I can so that I can split the dose as needed (your suggestion of a pill cutter is something I will be adding to my supplies) and also this will allow me to still use the pills if there effectivness breaks down over time. I am also considering keeping a stash of the medicine in the bags with oxygen absorbers, in a air tight tube ment for burrying and keep it in the ground at my bug out location. I figure this will help keep the tempature cool and regulated. My goal is to eventually have enough pills for about one a day for 8-10 years with the knowledge that we should be able to use only 1/3 to 1/2 a pill a day. 
I understand that a change of medicine would cause her to experience some un-wanted effects but in order for her to survive long term it seems worth it. I will also be trying to convince her to have her doctor switch to armour now so that she will be use to it (not sure she will because despite being behind me in our preps she is stuborn about her meds). 
Again thank you so much for your info, this has helped alot.

(please excuse my horrible spelling, without spell check I am hopless lol)


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## nomadjanet (Mar 28, 2011)

Grimm said:


> No scrip needed.
> 
> http://www.internationaldrugmart.eu/pharmacy/us/levothyroxine.html


Just got 400 dosses delivered today, thanks for the link.


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## HardCider (Dec 13, 2013)

*Still using them?*



Grimm said:


> No scrip needed.
> 
> http://www.internationaldrugmart.eu/pharmacy/us/levothyroxine.html


I checked out the online pharmacy reviews for Internationaldrugmart and they were mixed enough to make me a little nervous. Have you used them recently? Still like them?
Thanks!


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## Grimm (Sep 5, 2012)

HardCider said:


> I checked out the online pharmacy reviews for Internationaldrugmart and they were mixed enough to make me a little nervous. Have you used them recently? Still like them?
> Thanks!


No. I am now taking Nature-Throid as I an allergic to Synthroid/Levothyroxine. I do keep the synthetic on hand for K as he now takes it for low thyroid function.


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## Country Living (Dec 15, 2009)

I started out on Synthroid after I had my thyroid removed and knew immediately it wasn't right for me. I was moved over to Armour; but they seem to change the formula every few years. 

Then I started taking NP Thyroid, which is considered generic for the dessicated thyroid meds. Acella is raising the price on the med so I'm now looking at WP Thyroid. Both can be taken sublingually (even though they're not labeled for it) and that means I don't have to be concerned about the four hour window around taking the thyroid meds. 

The expiration date on the bottles (I get the original manufacturer's unopened containers) is over a year out and you can easily add a year to that number without compromising the medication. We try to keep two years of all life-safety medication on hand at all times.


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## Grimm (Sep 5, 2012)

Country Living said:


> I started out on Synthroid after I had my thyroid removed and knew immediately it wasn't right for me. I was moved over to Armour; but they seem to change the formula every few years.
> 
> Then I started taking NP Thyroid, which is considered generic for the dessicated thyroid meds. Acella is raising the price on the med so I'm now looking at WP Thyroid. Both can be taken sublingually (even though they're not labeled for it) and that means I don't have to be concerned about the four hour window around taking the thyroid meds.
> 
> The expiration date on the bottles (I get the original manufacturer's unopened containers) is over a year out and you can easily add a year to that number without compromising the medication. We try to keep two years of all life-safety medication on hand at all times.


Where do you get your meds?


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## Country Living (Dec 15, 2009)

Grimm said:


> Where do you get your meds?


Right now, at WalMart because they were the cheapest. My 100 tabs of 90mg used to be around $23. Acella raised the price and now the cost is around $80; however, there's a Texas insurance something the pharmacy uses to get my costs down to about half that.

Most insurances only cover Levothyroxine and, like Synthroid, it's only T4 with an impaired conversion to T3. The dessicated meds have all of the hormones a normal thyroid would produce. I check GoodRx and then call around when it's time to fill a prescription.


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## Country Living (Dec 15, 2009)

I stopped by Wally World when I was in town this morning. I misplaced my notes; but, these were the (approximate) prices the pharmacy tech gave me.

NP Thyroid 90mg (1.5 grains) 100 tabs $106 (gasp)
WP Thyroid 97mg (1.5 grains) 100 tabs $43 Guess I'm officially switching to WP Thyroid.


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## Country Living (Dec 15, 2009)

Found my notes: The price at WM was $109 for NP Thyroid. WP Thyroid was $44.99.

The following may be under the category of TMI.
I called RLC Labs, the company that makes WP Thyroid and Nature-Throid, earlier today because I had a few questions. They have a  thyroid conversion chart  to help cross-reference between different companies' thyroid meds. They don't have NP Thyroid on the conversion chart; but, we went through the ingredients and they are spot on with WP Thyroid. She's going to see about adding NP Thyroid to the chart.

I asked her about expiration dates for WP Thyroid and she said they are at least two years out from manufacture date; however the date she saw today was January 2019.

The only thing to watch out for is humidity. You need to ask your pharmacist (unless you're requesting the manufacturer's original unopened container) to put extra desiccants in the bottle. I have some left over from other meds.

WP Thyroid comes in 30 count, 60 count, 90 count, and 100 count bottles.


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## Grimm (Sep 5, 2012)

Country Living said:


> Right now, at WalMart because they were the cheapest. My 100 tabs of 90mg used to be around $23. Acella raised the price and now the cost is around $80; however, there's a Texas insurance something the pharmacy uses to get my costs down to about half that.
> 
> Most insurances only cover Levothyroxine and, like Synthroid, it's only T4 with an impaired conversion to T3. The dessicated meds have all of the hormones a normal thyroid would produce. I check GoodRx and then call around when it's time to fill a prescription.


My insurance covers my Nature-Throid. My co-pay is $11 at CVS.


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