74
posted ago by ditzee58 ago by ditzee58 +74 / -0

If any of you have a chronic condition and are taking meds, pay attention. I have been on Armour Thyroid for years. It's made from pig's thyroid glands and was the med of choice for hypothyroidism for about a century until Synthroid. It's the most natural choice and was very cheap - like $10 /month. Big Pharma hates all "natural" meds.

Armour was manufactured by Forest Pharmaceuticals out of Ireland. Carl Ichan became their biggest stock holder forced Forest to sell out to Acticvis which was in turn bought by Allergan. In 2019, Allergan was bought by AbbeVie. Guess what one of Abbevie's big products is? Synthroid.

Okay, now with the backstory out of the way, I noticed a couple of months ago that my newest Armour script did not have the fonky distinctive scent that it had had for all the years I've taken it. My weight increased even though I was only eating 1 meal/day, my energy was in the toilet, and I was catching every damn bug around - except, I'm happy to say, Covid.

My family came over for my Dad's 83rd birthday and my sister-in-law also on Armour asked me what the hell was going on with the med. I told her about the lack of scent and she said, "You're right". So I began investigating and found posts all over the internet asking, "What has happened to Armour?" and them having the same problems I'm having.

So, if everything else was the same but the scent is gone, it tells me the medication has been reformulated. With my conspiracy based nature and hey, that's a good thing, I now wonder if AbbeVie has reformulated the medication hoping patients will switch to the much more expensive but less effective Synthroid. Only about 30% of those on Synthroid say it works for them. That's because Synthroid is T4 only and you need T3 as well. So that usually means another medication like Cytomel has to be taken whereas with the more natural products, both T3 and T4 are present.

Seeing the doc next week and will ask for Acella NP which is the only other natural thyroid med left. If that goes down the tubes, my meds will have to be compounded. And compounding is a whole other story. Until not too long ago, a patient could ask their doctors to have their meds compounded. it was an easy process. Now, a doctor has to have an acceptable reason to present to a pharmacist stating why a patient cannot take an already manufactured medication. I mean, come on, it's our fucking money. Shouldn't we have the right to request a compounded formulation if it works w/out going through all the hassle?

This whole post is so you guys have a heads up to notice if your meds are not working the same or if they seem different, especially if they're natural.