Armour Thyroid

[Lottie]

Hi!!

I have just been back to see my low carb friendly GP after my first initial consultation with him 5 weeks ago.

I got all my test results back and everything is normal - except for a strange finding with my glucose-insulin tolerance test, which showed normal insulin levels but VERY low blood glucose levels after 1 and 2 hours!

However, I have not lost anything at all on Atkins induction - and I did it religiously for 3 weeks.

So, even though my thyroid levels were only on the very slightly low side, the doctor has prescribed Armour Thyroid and chromium picolinate and he has taken me off Atkins and put me onto a low glycemic index based diet.

Is there anyone here that can tell me anything about these drugs and their actions? I am about at my wits end with diets because NONE of them seem to work with me, but NOTHING seems to wrong with my metabolism!! :(

Lottie

[diamondgal]

hi lottie, send a private message to doreen, she is up to date on the matters of thyroid. i am a very slow loser also, so good luck. :wave:

[Atriana]

I am hypothyroid, and if I could write my own prescription, I would choose Armour. Armour has both T3 and T4, whereas I have to take both Synthroid and Cytomel to get both. There is an excellent thyroid site on www.about.com.

[Karen]

hi lottie, send a private message to doreen,

I will speak for all the forum MODS when I say that we would prefer that questions be asked and answered in the forums. In that way, we can all benefit from the discussion and knowledge of others.

Karen

[doreen T]

Yes, it is true ... chances are good that when you post a question here, there's more than a few other folks with the same or similar question ... so one answer can help a lot of readers! That includes the hundreds and hundreds of lurkers we have, who visit often but aren't registered as members .. ;)
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Lottie, how low is VERY low? Depending on how high your blood sugar went initially in response to the glucose you consumed ... having the blood sugar dip way low in response to the rush of insulin is expected in hypoglycemia. There's also a remote possibility of delayed stomach emptying (glucose is absorbed from the small intestine, not the stomach) Chromium will be helpful for stabilising blood sugar and insulin.

Armour thyroid (or dessicated natural thyroid) contains both the T3 and T4 thyroid hormones. Most practitioners pooh-pooh the use of T3, claiming the T4 is all that's needed, and indeed, synthetic T4 is the gold-standard for treating low-thyroid disease. But some of us need the extra T3 ... which is available as a synthetic also, called Cytomel. Or, the natural dessicated thyroid is used.

Low thyroid is more than just metabolism. You may not notice any outright symptoms, but it can affect your blood sugar and insulin, cholesterol, heart and blood pressure, body temperature control, menstrual/menopausal and other important hormone functions.

Atkins and Protein Power ARE low-glycemic by their very nature. So I'm guessing that the diet your dr. has switched you to is basically a low CALORIE regimen, but you will restrict the higher glycemic foods. Of course you should follow dr's orders, but I think it's not going to be helpful for you in the end. Do check out About.com's Hypothyroid Information pages (http://thyroid.about.com/cs/hypothyroidism/). In the left-hand column, you'll see a link for Diet/Weight loss with thyroid disease. Low-carb is recommended.

Doreen