Update, finally! (more Armour adjustments)
Posted on: August 1, 2006 | Posted in: My Story
So, I met with my PhA last week, and got a new prescription (yet AGAIN … AUGH!!!). Taking two 120mg of Armour per day pushed my TSH down to .035, while leaving my Free T’s not-very-different from the previous 90mg/day dose (which left my TSH at 2.4, as I recall?). But I’d been losing weight and feeling pretty good, so I practically begged to be left at the 120mg/day dose. No dice.
Now I am taking 1/2 of a 90mg pill at bed time, and a 60mg pill during the day. For the time being, I am splitting the 60mg into two 30mg doses, because I noticed serious drowsiness hitting at around 7-8pm (even before the new ’scrip). So, schedule is as follows: 45mg at bedtime, Thyromine/vitamins first thing in the morning, 30mg Armour around 2-3pm, 30mg Armour around 7-8pm.
I woke up at around 8am today, feeling more alert than I had in any recent mornings … so the lower dose may be an improvement? Lord, I hope so.
Now, what has me concerned (and I’ve mentioned it in comments elsewhere on the site, but I didn’t want to put up a whole new post until the server issues were fixed), is WHY my doc said she wouldn’t keep me at the old 120mg/day dose. See, my blood pressure and heart rate were good. Lower, in fact, than they were when I was taking 90mg/day. And I’d lost 8 pounds in the last 8 weeks, so I was pretty thrilled with that. But she said, “if you stay this over-replaced, in 20 years you’ll break a hip.” She said that over-replacement screwed up calcium metabolism even worse than plain-ol hypothyroidism is thought to.
Hmm.
My theory (which I have been TOTALLY unable to confirm, thanks to NOBODY funding any serious research about Armour that I can find online anywhere) is this:
The thyroid produces calcitonin. Calcitonin helps your body determine what to do with incoming calcium (use it to build bone mass, or get rid of it as excess, etc.). If your Thyroid is underperforming, it’s probably not only producing too little of the T hormones, but too little calcitonin also. So, hypothyroid patients develop a reputation for poor bone density. Calcium in the body is also an integral part of muscle function. One of the symptoms of calcium deficiency is muscle cramping. So, low calcitonin can also be bad for your heart (another scary side effect she mentioned).
If you over-replace with synthetic hormones, meaning you flood the body with enough T4 and/or T3 to shut off TSH production (thereby essentially “turning off” your thyroid gland completely), you will have even LESS calcitonin. Which is a Bad Thing. However, Armour (as I understand it) contains calcitonin along with T0-T4, and everything else thyroid-produced.
So … if you achieve what is called “thyroid supression” via synthetic hormones, you are dangerously shutting down production of calcitonin without doing anything to replace its function in the body. However, if you achieve thyroid supression with Armour, and Armour contains calcitonin, it should not be such a problem, by my thinking …
[Obligatory disclaimer: I am NOT a doctor. I have not studied this. I have found no clinical study data to back this up. This is amateur deductive reasoning at its finest and least-qualified!]