Monday, April 04, 2005

T4/T3 Combination Therapy

The thyroid patients have been told by alternative physicians that recent studies
had proven that T4/T3 combos were better that monotherapy with T4.The New England Journal of Medicine article which sparked the combo idea, has not been confirmed in multiple studies since.Siegmund at al, showed no superior effect over monotherapy.They used 5% T3 substituted for T4. Clin Endo 2004:60,750-757. Also the TSH was more suppressed with the addition of 5% T3! Mood scores,and cognitive function were not inproved with T4/T3 combos. Escobar-Morreale, et al in Annals of Internal Medicine, 2005;412-424, used 7.5 mcg T3 plus 87.5 mcg T4, and compared with straight 100 mcg T4.The results were lower FT4, decreased TSH, unchanged FT3,and no difference in outcomes in the two groups. fatigue,depression,digital span, and general health scores were the same. When your doctor, or a website such as about.thyroid.com talks about the value of combo T4/T3 over T4 alone, quote these articles. Also remember, Armour is the original combo pill with both T4and T3 in a pig's ground up thyroid extract.Avoid that as well as other combo pills, such as Thyrolar, on the market.

D.G.

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