Thyroid-S (pig thyroid hormone)

[weary]

A friend who is hypothyroid is here visiting. She has a prescription for synthroid from back home, but she has heard good things about this medicine called Thyroid-S from Sriprasit Pharma, a Thai company. From Googling I understand their head office is in Bangkok.

Right now my friend is in Khao Lak, but the pharmacies there do not appear to carry it.

Is this Thyroid-S common and available in Thailand?

Sheryl, if you see this, what is your opinion of the safety? She told me that her house doctor was not keen on prescribing this over synthroid as he claimed that it was more difficult to determine the exact dose, but she is apparently still keen to try it out.

I am located in Chiang Mai in case somebody knows a pharmacy here that carries it.

Thanks in advance!

[thepool]

Please persuade your friend not to indulge in unregulated self medication.

She received good advise from her Doctor. If she wishes to ignore that professional advise let her do her own research.

Do not assist or help beyond offering help to secure an appointment with an Endocrinologist if your friend wants a second opinion regarding her treatment.

Edited March 17, 2014 by thepool

[Sheryl]

Synthroid contains the thyroid hormone T4. There are 2 thyroid hormones in the body, T3 and T4. The body converts some T4 to T3 and most T3 in the body was formerly T4. For this reason, standard treatment of hypothyroidism is to supplement with T4 only (which is what synthroid has). The overwhelming majority of patients will respond well to that. A very small minority of people in whom there is abnormal pituitary function will fail to convert T$ to T3 in sufficient amounts and these require supplementation with both T4 and T3. Unless the synthroid is really not working for your friend, it is unlikely she is in that (rare) category. If however she is, her best recourse is to consult her endocrinologist back home about adding some T3 supplementation.

Thyroid-S and other thyroid extract formulations contain both T3 and T4 but -- very important! -- the amount of T3 is not physiologic for humans. These meds come from thyroid extracted from pigs and the amount of T3 they contain is excessive for people, hence they are not a good choice even for those who do genuinely need T3 replacement.

There is no T3 available in Thailand so even if she is one of the minority who need it, it isn't going to do her much good to consult an endocrinologist here. It is however available in most Western countries. She should stay on what she is one until she goes home and then, if she is really still not responding well, discuss with her endocrinologist.

[weary]

Thank you both for taking the time to reply.

Unless the synthroid is really not working for your friend

This is indeed the case. She says she is not responding well to the synthroid. I will share the information you provided with her. Thanks again!

[wynzlo]

Have you seen thyroid-s.com? Admittedly it looks sketchy on first glance, but seems to be run by a man in Bangkok who exports the medication. I recall reading somewhere on the site that he will deliver within Thailand via courier.

[thepool]

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Have you seen thyroid-s.com? Admittedly it looks sketchy on first glance, but seems to be run by a man in Bangkok who exports the medication. I recall reading somewhere on the site that he will deliver within Thailand via courier.

Before any consideration is given to this site and its "offerings" the extensive disclaimer should be read and understood.

http://www.thyroid-s.com/disclaimer

[miki14]

Hello,

I'm looking for a pharmacy in Bangkok that sells natural desiccated thyroid hormones like Thyroid-S. Has anybody experience buying NDT and can give me the address ? Thank you for your effort.

[Sheryl]

Many pharmacies carry it. Not hard to find.

[ammagic]

I have to take T3 - liothyronine / which I have to order from overseas. I am in the rare group - my body does not successfully convert T4 to T3. But I don't want to take Thyroid S. I can control the amount I take more successfully this way

[Sheryl]

Yes, there are many problems with taking thyroid extract. Cannot control dose of active ingrediant (and will vary from pill to pill). And the T3:T4 ratio is not physiologic for human beings, too much T3.

The body naturally converts T4 to T3 so for most people with underactive thyroid all that is needed is to supplement with T4 and let the body handle the conversion to produce the amount of T3 needed. however there are a few people in whom the T4 to T3 conversion does not work. These need to be treated with both T4 and T3 under the guidance of a skilled endocrinologist. Unfortunately, there is no T3 preparation available in Thailand so it has to be obtained from abroad.

People are often overly swayed by the term "natural". Actually "natural" can have different meanings. It can simply mean occurs anywhere in nature, which is of course true of desiccated pigs thyroid...in occurs naturally in pigs. Likewise the most commonly used estrogen supplement for menopausal women, premarin, occurs naturally in horses. But neither of these occur naturally in humans and they are not the same as the hormones that humans naturally have.

If by "natural" one means identical to substances naturally found i the human body then most "natural" drugs are completely unnatural.

Hence the use of the term "bioidentical" to denote hormones that are identical to those found naturally in the human body, although they are made/extracted in laboratories.

Even when a drug in its naturally occurring form is what it is needed, some laboratory manipulation is needed to ensure uniform dosage, because plants and the like do not afford this. Which is why penicillin is prepared in laboratories rather than people being advised to eat mold, digoxin and other digitalis preparation are made in labs rather than havingfheart patients go out and eat foxglove (would kill some of them and undertreat others) etc etc.

There is certainly much to criticise in the actions of Pharamceutical companies but this does not mean that modern pharmacology is entirely bad or harmful. It is a complex science which has contributed enormously to improved health and longer life spans. There is nothing automatically good or ideal for medical purposes in the products of Mother Nature, which is not designed to specifically meet the needs of human beings. We are part of nature, nature does not exist to serve us. Indeed, consumption of many "naturally" occurring substances can quickly kill.

[miki14]

Natural in the context of thyroid medication means thyroid hormones produced by animals. Synthetic means hormones produced by humans in a lab. Natural desiccated thyroid or NDT is just the common term for what people here call 'pig thyroid'. It does not invoke some sort of pangaian magic. NDT was the standard treatment for hypothyroidism until the 60s. NDT has a higher T3 to T4 ratio than healthy human thyroid glands would produce what some call not physiologic levels but giving T4 only is not physiologic neither. There is a reason why the human thyroid produces T3. Synthroid, T4 only medication was tested on healthy young men, they can easily convert T4 into T3 but a lot of woman and hypothyroid persons have problems with T4 only. Synthetic T3 is expensive and hard to come by in most countries, NDT is just a cheaper alternative to synthetic thyroid hormones. NDT can be combined with T4 to match better the human ratio of T3:T4.

The problem is not the pharmaceutical industry but the medical establishment, a lot of doctors simply ignore and dismiss hypothyroid symptoms in patients. Unfortunately there are (almost) no skilled endocrinologists/doctors left who treat symptoms instead of lab results. Patients are send home if their TSH is in the normal range, their symptoms be damned. I guess it is more profitable to treat the resulting complications of untreated hypothyroidism like heart diseases, arthritis, depression, insomnia etc than solving the problem with a 100$ per year supplement.

Edited June 7, 2015 by miki14