Thyroid Patients Panicked As Medication Disappears
A mysterious shortage of a popular thyroid medication has left patients feeling miserable, frightened and angry.
Nobody seems to know why the company that produces Armour Thyroid suddenly stopped making it last fall, and nobody knows when it will be available again.
In the meantime, patients who relied on the natural hormone therapy to help regulate their bodies’ most basic functions are scrambling to find an alternative.
“This is a big mess,” said Dr. Roberta Bourgon, a naturopath who practices at Billings Clinic. “The unfortunate thing is, no one is informing the consumers, and patients are being left out in the cold.”
Bourgon and other physicians prescribed Armour Thyroid to treat hypothyroidism, a condition that occurs when the thyroid gland does not produce the right amount of hormones.
“The thyroid is the most important gland in the body because it regulates metabolism,” said Dr. Margaret Beeson, a naturopath at Yellowstone Naturopathic Clinic in Billings.
Achy joints, hair loss, weight gain, heart palpitations, sluggishness and depression are all associated with hypothyroidism.
Armour Thyroid was the first drug to combat hypothyroidism, Beeson said. It was developed in the early 1900s.
It contains two natural thyroid hormones taken from pigs and works better for many patients than do synthetic alternatives that contain only one of the hormones.
Pharmacies began running out of Armour Thyroid months ago, and two natural alternatives, Nature-throid and Westhroid, also quickly became difficult to find.
Patients panicked.
“Imagine the cruelty of feeling good and knowing that’s not going to be possible anymore,” Bourgon said.
Neither Forest Pharmaceuticals, the company that manufactures Armour, nor the Food and Drug Administration will say what is causing the delay, but it is not an ingredient shortage.
Compounding pharmacies have been able to order the powdered pig hormone and use it to make an Armour substitute.
“I’m getting calls from all over the state,” said Mark Jurovich, a pharmacist at Juro’s Home Medical-Pharmacy, which compounds medications.
The Juro’s Armour substitute costs about three times as much as Armour did.
“It’s not a generic for the missing product, but we can make it the same strength and with the same active ingredient,” Jurovich said. “We’ve had a lot of people say they feel good on it.”
Even patients who do well on a synthetic or compounded form of the drug can face weeks of misery as their bodies adjust to the change.
“It’s a long time out of your life to have to go backwards,” said Kathy Bick, a Billings woman who has taken Armour Thyroid for 10 years.
Bick, 46, was losing her hair, having heart palpitations and suffering from achy joints when she began taking the drug. A distance runner with two young children, Bick cannot imagine feeling that way again.
“I called every pharmacy in town, and I found enough (Armour) to get me through the year,” she said. “I’m hoping that within a year we’ll know something.”
http://billingsgazette.com/news/local/article_c92f02c0-1530-11df-8a...
Tags: Armour, Hypothyroidism, medication, shortage
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by The Diabetic Welfare Queen on -
Scary! I guess it's time to stock up on the Armour.
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Permalink Reply by Mila on -
Here in my country (The Netherlands) the inspector of the Ministry of Health is trying to prohibite the selling and use of Thyreoidum/Armour. We don't exactly know what his motives are, but there's a big lobby against
natural medicines and holistic doctors overhere.
The patients who are on natural thyroid hormone (like me) are protesting fiercely now, and there soon will be a lawsuit. But it's known that one hardly ever wins a case like this. -
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Permalink Reply by The Diabetic Welfare Queen on
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Oh good lord... this is hardly a 'naturalist' remedy! It's simply a hormone replacement, not crazy herbs and voodoo... They probably don't understand that this is a legitimate medicine, and not something a naturalist is even allowed to prescribe to anyone.
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Permalink Reply by Mila on
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Yes I know, it is an absurd situation.
My thyreoidum pills are manufactured by my pharmacist and not by some big pharmaceutic industry.
It's not a registered medicine here in Holland.
The Inspector now says that the pharmacists don't work hygienically enough, which is total nonsense.
Well I know that my thyreoidum pills do a much better job than the synthetic hormones that I used to take. -
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Permalink Reply by The Diabetic Welfare Queen on
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Well, that's what pharmacists in part, when to school for, huh? lol Why don't they just inspect facilities, like they do for big pharma? I tell ya, politicians..!
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Permalink Reply by Kezia on -
Dr. Steven Hotze has the answer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TO8aTUaZBiA
http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/profile.php?v=wall&ref=nf&id=1025604024
Facebook helped me a lot in my fight to get natural thyroid. I joined three groups that have pointed me in the right direction and helped me educate myself on what I need to live a healthy life.
http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/pages/Save-Natural-Thyroid/121680434089
http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/group.php?gid=16503019901
http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/group.php?gid=35794027415
Also I was just put back on Armour Thyroid a week ago and have found a pharmacy here in Florida that can get it. They can also compound dessicated thyroid for me if Armour is unavailable. I will not be put back on synthetics as they do not work for me anymore.. not even halfway. One week on Armour and my body is responding, no more muscle spasms, my tongue is less swollen, and I'm not near as tired. I'm not sure how it has affected my BG, I'll get back to testing it soon, but I think my thyroid levels were more of a problem than my glucose levels and the former is what caused my problems with the latter.
Most of those links don't work and I can't figure out how to make them work here.. copy / paste is my only option left.. sorry. -
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