As founder of Thyroid Patient Advocacy-UK (TPA-UK), I opened our Internet Thyroid Patients' support forum and web site in 2004. I found there are thousands of hypothyroid patients throughout the UK who are being left without a diagnosis for hypothyroidism by NHS medical practitioners, as well as without the treatment which may help them, regain their normal health.
The conventional thyroxine (T4) treatment is ineffective for a large minority of patients who are unable to convert T4 to the active T3, which every cell in the body requires. Many endocrinologists who say there is no such conversion problem are ignoring this medical fact and all that is required is for the thyroxine to be titrated. Once the correct level is reached, the patient will regain his/her normal health. Sadly, not all people convert T4 into T3 at the same rate. The Resin T3 Uptake test is used to determine those exact issues.
These NHS patients should be allowed a trial of natural desiccated porcine thyroid extract (Armour Thyroid, USP), which contains T4, T3 and other unspecified hormones and chemicals, plus calcitonin.
In July 2004, TPA-UK sent a copy of a letter
from the Medicine and Healthcare Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to all NHS
endocrinologists, British Thyroid Association (BTA) and British Thyroid
Foundation (BTF). The MHRA letter explains
that Armour can be made available to those people who need it, subject
to it being prescribed by a doctor (put in link here). We received, as
expected, positive and negative responses.
However, although we gave clear facts about Armour Thyroid to BTA and
BTF, the Executive Committee of the BTA and BTF refuse to accept this
information and, preferring to ignore it, are misrepresenting the true
facts concerning the safety and efficacy of Armour, and thus giving the
erroneous impression that Armour is an unsafe product. I have been in
correspondence with BTF on numerous occasions asking that they update
their Statement on Armour Thyroid on their website, but was astounded
to receive a final response from their Director saying "The Trustees
of the British Thyroid Foundation note the comments in your letter and
we stand by the details provided in our previous letter of 11th May. We
now consider this matter closed and shall not be entering into any further
correspondence with you on this subject". On 28th August 2007, we
asked Professor AP Weetman (President to BTA) and Dr Abrahams (Secretary
to BTA) to update their statement on their web site. Professor Weetman
told me this will be discussed during the November 2007 Meeting of the
Executive Committee. We will keep you updated regarding this.
We are most concerned that BTA and BTF is disseminating information that is not in accordance with the true facts as set out in their policy statement. If you are a medical practitioner, I hope you will do everything in your power to support our endeavours, so that BTA, BTF and TPA-UK might work together towards presenting, to the public and the medical profession, an accurate exposition of ALL the facts connected with the diagnosis and treatment of hypothyroidism.