Guest guest Posted February 24, 2005 Report Share Posted February 24, 2005 In a message dated 2/24/2005 10:50:35 AM Eastern Standard Time, tmarion@... writes: > once you're on Armour (or any other thyroid med) are you on it for life? Is > it ever possible for your body to start producing enough of what it needs to > produce, for you to feel normal? > probably. and you would want to stay on it if your thyroid isn't producing enough. however, there are stories of hashi's patients going into remission so to speak...after years of thyroid hormone. cindi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 24, 2005 Report Share Posted February 24, 2005 In a message dated 2/24/2005 10:50:35 AM Eastern Standard Time, tmarion@... writes: > once you're on Armour (or any other thyroid med) are you on it for life? Is > it ever possible for your body to start producing enough of what it needs to > produce, for you to feel normal? > probably. and you would want to stay on it if your thyroid isn't producing enough. however, there are stories of hashi's patients going into remission so to speak...after years of thyroid hormone. cindi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 24, 2005 Report Share Posted February 24, 2005 In a message dated 2/24/2005 10:50:35 AM Eastern Standard Time, tmarion@... writes: > once you're on Armour (or any other thyroid med) are you on it for life? Is > it ever possible for your body to start producing enough of what it needs to > produce, for you to feel normal? > probably. and you would want to stay on it if your thyroid isn't producing enough. however, there are stories of hashi's patients going into remission so to speak...after years of thyroid hormone. cindi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 24, 2005 Report Share Posted February 24, 2005 In a message dated 2/24/2005 10:50:35 AM Eastern Standard Time, tmarion@... writes: > Or is it the case that once you start taking a thyroid supplement, your > body > never learns to make enough of its own? if your thyroid is not diseased...and you take a therapeutic trial of Armour...and then stopped...no problem...the thyroid would adapt its production downward and then back up. but a diseased thyroid is unpredictable. it's unhealthy...diseased. so imo ya can't count on anything. ya just need to take enough to get rid of your symptoms. cindi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 24, 2005 Report Share Posted February 24, 2005 In a message dated 2/24/2005 10:50:35 AM Eastern Standard Time, tmarion@... writes: > Or is it the case that once you start taking a thyroid supplement, your > body > never learns to make enough of its own? if your thyroid is not diseased...and you take a therapeutic trial of Armour...and then stopped...no problem...the thyroid would adapt its production downward and then back up. but a diseased thyroid is unpredictable. it's unhealthy...diseased. so imo ya can't count on anything. ya just need to take enough to get rid of your symptoms. cindi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 24, 2005 Report Share Posted February 24, 2005 I am sorry to say that is sick thyroid is not likely to heal, even with Armour. They will sometimes stop working entirely which is not a bad thing if you have Hashi's. This way you will need total replacement but you will no longer have the Hashi swings which keep you constantly changing doses to stay optimized. I had the swings for about 15 years, now I am pretty steady at full replacement. I do not mind at all having to take Armour for the rest of my life, it has literally saved my life as without it I was dying. Artistic Grooming Hurricane, West Virginia Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 24, 2005 Report Share Posted February 24, 2005 I am sorry to say that is sick thyroid is not likely to heal, even with Armour. They will sometimes stop working entirely which is not a bad thing if you have Hashi's. This way you will need total replacement but you will no longer have the Hashi swings which keep you constantly changing doses to stay optimized. I had the swings for about 15 years, now I am pretty steady at full replacement. I do not mind at all having to take Armour for the rest of my life, it has literally saved my life as without it I was dying. Artistic Grooming Hurricane, West Virginia Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 24, 2005 Report Share Posted February 24, 2005 I am sorry to say that is sick thyroid is not likely to heal, even with Armour. They will sometimes stop working entirely which is not a bad thing if you have Hashi's. This way you will need total replacement but you will no longer have the Hashi swings which keep you constantly changing doses to stay optimized. I had the swings for about 15 years, now I am pretty steady at full replacement. I do not mind at all having to take Armour for the rest of my life, it has literally saved my life as without it I was dying. Artistic Grooming Hurricane, West Virginia Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 24, 2005 Report Share Posted February 24, 2005 Once you start thyroid it is considered for life. However, the facts are that it is not. It has been fund that about 11% of people with low grade auto-immune damage to the thyroid, the most common cause of hypothryoidism, can get off thyroid hormone after about 6 to 8 years of thryoid treatment. But, I believe for this to work, you have to be on a fairly high dose for those 6 to 8 years, enough to suppress your own thyroid's function almost fully or fully. You also would need to start therapy fairly early in your thyroid disease before the gland was too damaged and scarred. What happens is that if you stop or slow down your thyroid enough with medication, then there is no activity in the gland that stimulates the production of thyroid destroying antibodies. Antibodies somehow learn to attack the thyroid and once you have developed enough of them, they then teach newly produced antibodies to do the same thing. So, if you stop producing the substances in the thyroid that they are attacking, eventually the antibodies will get old and die and they will not tell the new ones to attack the thyroid because there is nothing to attack. Over time the body can loose this knowledge like the body looses the ability to fight flu a year after a flu shot. But, 11% is such a small amount of people that can be cured that most doctors don't bother to take patients off medication after 6 to 8 years to see if they have recovered. It would make the other 89% suffer a lot. Even if you were a lucky one, it would take 6 weeks or more for your own thyroid to get it's production of hormone back up to normal. Medication weakens it and it takes time for it to come back. So, in reality the cances of getting off are very slim. On the good side, if you get a good doctor or treat yourself and in that way get adequate replacement doses of thyroid, you can be healthier than the average public. Thyroid function in healthy people naturally declines with age. This increases the incidence of cancer and heart disease. So, if you can be on adequate thyroid medication for most of your life, you will be protected somewhat from many thyroid related health conditions and may have a quite healthy life, healthier than the average person. The challenge is to get enough medication to be well treated and to get proper medication. I don't think Synthroid is one of those medicines that lead to long-term good health. This is just my opinion. Doctors today tend to undermedicate thyroid patients. Thyroid doses today have dropped to 1/2 up to 1/3 of what they were in the past 75 years before the TSH test. If your medication is not adequate for you, then you will have many health problems and be at increased risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer. So, this is the key to goo health. Tish Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 24, 2005 Report Share Posted February 24, 2005 >>like the body looses the ability to fight flu a year after a flu shot.<< Not a good analogy. Sorry but I have studied vaccines and the reason a flu shot is not good the next year is new varieties that are resistant to the old strains are out. MOST vaccines are good for life if given to adults with normal immune systems. Artistic Grooming Hurricane, West Virginia Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 24, 2005 Report Share Posted February 24, 2005 >>like the body looses the ability to fight flu a year after a flu shot.<< Not a good analogy. Sorry but I have studied vaccines and the reason a flu shot is not good the next year is new varieties that are resistant to the old strains are out. MOST vaccines are good for life if given to adults with normal immune systems. Artistic Grooming Hurricane, West Virginia Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 24, 2005 Report Share Posted February 24, 2005 Well of course you are right. I was just searching for something I thought would get my point accross. Tish Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 24, 2005 Report Share Posted February 24, 2005 Well of course you are right. I was just searching for something I thought would get my point accross. Tish Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 24, 2005 Report Share Posted February 24, 2005 Just to add a note. The latest edition of Werner and Ingbar's " The Thyroid " was where I found the fascinating information on how about 11% of thyroid patients can be cured. I found it fascinating because it seemed to show the amazing ability of the body to heal and seemed to indicate that maybe someday there will be cures for some forms of hypothyroidism. But, I know in my heart that no doctor wants this. Tish Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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