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THYROID
POWER |
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The
Amazing Program to Help Millions
To Conquer Disease, Fatigue, Overweight and
Depression |
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| Richard L. Shames, M.D. |
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Karilee H. Shames, R.N., Ph.D. |
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ARTICLES
AND
INTERVIEWS |
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What's
The Best Brand Of Thyroid For Me?
A Look at the Issue with Richard
and Karilee Shame |
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An article as it appears on
Mary Shomon's website
Thyroid-Info.
http://thyroid.about.com/cs/thyroiddrugs/a/brand.htm |
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You might arrive at your very best "dose"
of thyroid medication, but still be taking the wrong brand of
pills. A great many thyroid sufferers, who have consulted with
me as a 30-year medical expert, eventually did much better after
simply switching from one name brand to another. Amber, for
example, came to our office a couple of years ago on Valentine's
Day. Her appointment was part of a special present to herself.
She was a bright, 32-year old legal secretary, who for the last
several months had been saying to herself, "I need to see
someone else about my thyroid. I think I should be taking
something different."
Amber had been taking 112 micrograms of Levothroid for 4 years.
Neither more nor less was as good as this exact dose. It had
indeed helped relieve some of her original symptoms.
Nevertheless, she had never come close to feeling like her old
self, before she had a thyroid problem. When she discussed this
with her doctor at her yearly checkup, she received this typical
response: "It's not good to switch around with different thyroid
medicines. There is nothing wrong with the brand you're on, and
we saw that more of it didn't help. You've got to accept the
fact that this is as good as it gets." When Amber talked during
our second-opinion telephone consult, I explained that her
doctor's words, although possibly true as a general statement,
might easily be false for her individually. When she convinced
her doctor to switch the prescription to Levoxyl, she soon
experienced major improvement. Eventually, she did indeed once
again feel like her old self.
As we mention in a prior article, a simple increase in the dose
of your present brand of thyroxine (T4) may make all the
difference you need. Many people, however, do not have such good
results with their first-tried brand of thyroxine. (This can
occur regardless of whether the first brand tried is Synthroid,
or Levoxyl, or Levothroid, or the new Uniythroid.) Basically,
these people deserve a trial of different brands. Neither
doctors nor pharmacists know why one person does best with one
brand of thyroxine, and another person does best with a
different brand. It is, however, a frequently-observed
phenomenon. Amber's doctor was not incorrect – IF the person is
doing well. However, if the person is not doing all that well,
or believes she could feel better, it might be a fine idea to
switch brands. In Amber's case, she clearly deserved a clinical
trial of another brand.
Some people can begin to have difficulty with their original
brand of thyroxine after taking it successfully for many years.
Others can have a problem with it after only a few months. Still
others respond to it poorly from the very beginning, or
experience no response at all. Sadly, if the patient's blood
test looks better on the medicine than it did before treatment,
the doctor may say, "Well, this is as good as it gets." We
disagree.
In fact, we emphatically reiterate that there are numerous
people already on thyroxine who should be treated with something
other than their current first brand tried. They might simply
need a different brand of thyroxine, in order to feel much
better. Perhaps thyroxine mixed with thyronine (T3) would work
well, if simply switching brands does not. Perhaps taking
straight T-3 with no thyroxine at all would be even better
still. It is even possible that a nonsynthetic, animalderived,
desiccated thyroid medication, such as Armour thyroid, would be
a more effective choice.
For the present article, let's consider how to best determine
the exact brand of thyroxine that most completely answers your
needs. Of the four supposedly-equivalent brands of thyroxine
sold in the United States (Synthroid, Levothroid, Levoxyl,
Unithroid), each is the special favorite for many thousands of
people. It's certainly understandable why a patient might have a
favorite brand. Individual response to some of the pill's
ingredients could easily result in a person doing slightly
better with Levothroid than with Unithroid. That same patient
might also have a terrible time with Levoxyl. Synthroid, of
course, has a continually unfolding controversy, well discussed
elsewhere.
Often people come into our clinic saying, "Here's the brand that
works best for me." We've seen this happen so many times that we
tend to believe people when they say it. We feel that they
should have the brand that feels best for them, for whatever
reason. We know of a number of doctors, not to mention entire
HMOs, who have a "favorite" brand of thyroxine. However, it may
not be YOUR body's favorite brand. You may have to assert
yourself to secure the right brand for you. The PATIENT should
have a personally-favorite brand –not the doctor. So where does
this commonly-encountered doctor bias come from? It may be a
result of either drug company advertising, or the doctor's years
of experience, or directly from research studies.
Keep in mind that research studies are often funded by the
company that stands to profit most from a favorable result. For
example, what might research study results mean to you? It could
mean that a doctor might say, "Well, the researchers finally got
this straightened out, after many years of not knowing for sure.
Several big studies have recently shown that Brand X is the
best, so I want you on it. It's been working great for most of
the other patients." We submit to you that Brand X may or may
not be better for you. Here's why.
The research that yielded this result almost certainly did not
find that every person tested did better with Brand X. That is
not what happens in even the best research studies. What happens
is that some people do better on Brand X, some on Brand Y, some
on Brand Z. Some evidently do better on natural thyroid, and
others may even do better on various combinations of natural and
synthetic medication. Suppose the conclusion of the research
study was that 67% of the people did best on Brand X.
Okay, that's fairly compelling. How about the other 33 percent
who did better on something else? How does your doctor know that
you're not one of the 33 percent who would do better on
something other than Brand X? How does the doctor know that you
may not be like "most of the other patients"? You won't know
until you try it for yourself. Even if many studies confirm that
Brand X is best for 67% of the population, that doesn't mean
that it will ever be the best for you. This simple fact, which
seems so obvious to us, is evidently lost on many of our
colleagues. We are not talking about slipshod application of
anecdotal evidence here. We are talking about what can be proven
true for one particular person on the planet -- you. Tell your
doctor whether or not you feel good on the brand he or she has
selected for you. If you're not doing well with your current
brand of thyroid, ask to switch to a different brand. If you are
on a generic product, and are not doing as well as you would
like, ask for one or more of the brand name medications.
Before you draw any conclusion about its effectiveness, realize
that each 'try' should be given at least five or six weeks.
(…unless the trial of the new medication is making you feel
terrible. In that case, don't "stick it out" for six weeks.
Instead, switch to something else sooner.) You and your doctor
may be quite pleasantly surprised to find significant
improvement in simply switching brand names. Our best wishes to
you both.
PS - A significant number of people
might not do well, no matter what brand or dose of thyroxine
they take. As we mentioned briefly above, there are many good
alternatives to simple straight thyroxine (T-4). We will be
sharing more about each of these in upcoming articles.
An article as it appears on
Mary Shomon's website
Thyroid-Info.
http://thyroid.about.com/cs/thyroiddrugs/a/brand.htm |
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GIVE YOURSELF
THE GIFT OF HEALTH!
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Harper Collins, 2001
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Harper Collins, 2002
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Ó October
2002
Created
January 17, 2005 |
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