Doing well on synthetics - glandular or not? - Question and Answer Forum - Elaine Moore Graves' Disease and Autoimmune Disease Education

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Sunday, April 22, 2012

..:: Q & A ::..

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Welcome to The Q&A with Elaine Moore. Registered members are invited to ask any question of Elaine Moore on autoimmune diseases, Graves' disease, other thyroid diseases and subconditions, laboratory work, traditional and complementary medicine, triggers and environmental influences, thyroid and immune disorders in pets and animals, and other relevant areas of inquiry.

Each thread represents one question with one answer and will only appear at the time it is answered. Once answered, further replies cannot be made to the same thread since each thread represents only one question. A new thread will need to be started for additional questions.

Questions are answered solely by Elaine Moore, a medical writer and clinical laboratory scientist, MT, CLS, with more than 30 years of experience in immunology. Moore has also authored and edited over a dozen books in the area of health sciences and is an editor for McFarland Publisher's Health Topics Series.

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Doing well on synthetics - glandular or not?

3/25/2012 8:43 AM

Carol

Joined: 1/28/2009

Posts: 83

Doing well on synthetics - glandular or not?

Hi Elaine

Hope you're enjoying your spring!

You may recall that I joined the 20% of Graves' patients that go hypo after remission

I've been doing very well on full replacement doses of generic T4 & T3 but, keep reading your comments about the T2 in glandular extracts so, it has me thinking.

Are the benefits of T2 substantial enough that I should consider switching?

Do you have any links I could share with my doctor?

And, I do have a seemingly unrelated question. In your book, you mentioned that most Graves' patients eventually go hypo. Yet, more recently, you've stated it can be temporary.

Is there any way to determine the disease course?

Thanks for always being the light of wisdom with this crazy thing called thyroid disease.

Warm regards, Carol

3/26/2012 12:01 AM

Elaine

Joined: 8/1/2008

Posts: 3424

Re: Doing well on synthetics - glandular or not?

Hi Carol,

Lots of new info has come out since the last decade. It's been known for some time though that T2 has active properties and I mention that somewhere in my book. In Dr. Alan Christianson's book, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Thyroid Disease, he mentions the importance of glandular extracts. This mainly applies to people like me who are on full replacement hormone. People with milder forms of hypothyroidism should be still making enough T2. Then again, since no one quantitates T2 levels, it's possible that even people with mild hypothyroidism would benefit from this addition. Studies do show that when synthetic hormone first came out, patients who were put on it complained that they felt better on glandular extracts.

Much more is now known about autoimmune disease than was known a decade ago. It used to be thought that the gland eventually atrophied. Now it's known that only 20% of patients (who don't have surgery or RAI) become hypothyroid and it's usually mild (but still requires treatment). Since the hypothyroidism is typically caused by blocking TSH receptor antibodies or thyroglobulin antibodies, tests for them could be predictive although I haven't seen any studies on this. I think what's important is to be on the alert and have regular lab tests. Take care, Elaine

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Doing well on synthetics - glandular or not?

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