How much Armour

[joaba]

I have been on Levothyroxine for the last 20 years, it took 8 years to convince the Doctor that I was unwell and then another year to be prescribed Levo, my thyroid was so low that I was started on 150mcg and eventually settled at 275 mcg, I had been on that dose for 15 years, since then, over the last 5 years, i have been increasing and decreasing every time I go for my blood test, over the last 30 years, even after starting Levo, I have been unwell, still to this day, my muscles ache my joints hurt, my memory *****, my skin is so dry, my hair has thinned quite a lot, I have lost just about all my eyebrows, my nails split not across but up the way towards my cuticle, I have severe allergies, and there's days, I cannot walk or even get out of bed, it has also triggered other illnesses over the years, Fibromyalgia, Sarcoidosis, carpal tunnel, and candida, I am miserable all the time, and am limited to what I can do, I have gained
84lb since my diagnosis, and struggle to even lose 1lb,, I eat healthy, and do not touch sugar as it messes with my candida, I have given up on complaining to my doctors, as they just say there is no more than they can do, as I have antibodies in me that are killing off my thyroid, I live in the UK and the doctors will not supply anything other than Levothyroxine, I see a specialist because I get so bad at times, the last time I went, all he said was  to try taking my Levo at a different time of the day. The Doctors here are not very clued up on this kind of illness, therefore, don't really take any interest. I am going to order some Armour on the internet, and try and sort myself out, I have got quite a lot of good information from research, last week the doctor (who is useless by the way) told me to lower my dose to 200mcg, and I couldn't believe this as I am still so ill, so I am definitely going to order Armour to see uf it is better for me, but does anyone know the dose I should be taking to replace 200mcg.

[dzg333]

I was on 200 mcg of Synthroid for 10 years and it was horrible.  Really bad fibromyalgia, heart palpitations, and weight gain.  Eventually I switched to Armour and Synthroid, then Armour only, then Naturethroid, then finally NP Thyroid by Acella.  It seems to work the best.  It is hard to tell you where to start exactly when it comes to switching.  All I can suggest is you start at 30mg and slowly increase.  If you find you have a bad reaction, DO NOT get discouraged.  You can't hurt yourself from taking too much Desiccated Thyroid.  It's literally never happened to anyone.  Just make sure you listen to your body and go slow.  GOOD LUCK!  Also, I'm wondering what dose everyone is taking....any replies would be appreciated.

[gimel]

I agree with everything goolarra posted.  On another of your posts I was looking to see if there were any UK doctor that we knew something about for you to consider.  I do have several names in the London area.  I expect that they are all private.  Are you in the London area by chance?

[goolarra]

275 mcg is a very high dose,  If you're taking that much and still aren't feeling well, it's a good indication that you need to add some T3 to your meds.

What is your doctor testing?  I'm betting it's nothing but TSH, perhaps FT4?  If he's just testing TSH, you will be on a rollercoaster of meds changes, as you obviously know.

Changes in T4 does usually should be no more than 25 mcg at a time.  So, telling you to reduce your dose by 75 mcg all at once is a little extreme.  

I would strongly encourage you to have FREE T3 (FT3), FREE T4 (FT4) and TSH tested before you add T3 in.  You may have to go private to get those.  However, any meds that aren't properly monitored with regularly scheduled lab work are very hard to control.  This is doubly so with T3 meds since T3 is much faster acting than T4, more powerful and can get you into trouble faster.