How your Physician May Be Destroying your Thyroid Gland with Replacement Therapy

An egregious example of medical professionals creating lifetime patient dependency and damaging their patient’s health is the virtual imprisonment of millions of patients, mostly women, who have been placed on thyroid replacement therapy.

In practice I have repeatedly witnessed the damage done to patients placed on thyroid replacement therapy by medical and “alternative / functional / integrative” practitioners. Prior to coming to our office many patients have been told by their physicians they have hypothyroidism based on blood work measuring thyroid hormones, a routine test commonly ordered by clinics including ours. Generally, if the physician detects a low level of thyroxin and/or a high TSH level (thyroid stimulating hormone), he or she will prescribe thyroid replacement, most commonly Synthroid (brand name for generic Levothyroxine). Upon administration of the drug, the patient’s thyroid hormone level rises. Some patients experience improved energy, weight reduction and other improved parameters since thyroid hormone has a significant impact on cellular metabolism throughout the body. The physician touts the problem is solved but adds the caveat that the patient must return to have their thyroxine levels checked at prescribed intervals on an ongoing basis.

What the patient is frequently not told is that:

• The reason(s) for their low functioning thyroid gland have not been identified or addressed. They are therefore being treated symptomatically while underlying causes are ignored.
• They will gradually become dependent on the drug and need to take it for the rest of their lives. The thyroid gland will gradually atrophy to the point where it no longer functions since its work has been supplanted by exogenous hormones. This incredible gland that determines a myriad of functions for our well-being and inter-relates in critical ways with the other endocrine glands is forced into early retirement leaving the other glands in a void. The endocrine system functions like one big jazz band and with a key member of the band gone the other glands are likely to soon be playing out of tune!

In time the patient finds themselves needing more and more hormone replacement as the thyroid gland degenerates. They will often experience ups and downs as they attempt to control their level of thyroid medication. The endocrine system has an elaborate set up to monitor, control and balance thyroxin levels on a minute-by-minute basis secreting the right amount of hormone for the right situation at the right time. Exogenous hormone replacement disrupts this delicate balancing act, but the original reason why the patient’s thyroxin level was inadequate has not been addressed and thus mischief is created in other areas of the body. At best, with thyroid replacement, a patch up job results leaving the initial causes in place and putting the patient in a situation where their endocrine system is left in a drug dependent, disharmonious situation.

But… My Doctor Gave Me Something “Natural” To Take

In addition to Levothyroxine/Synthroid, some “Functional” Physicians will sugarcoat their thyroid hormone prescription to make it appear that the patient is receiving something “Natural” … that their office is a step ahead of the more conventional offices. This typically takes the form of Armour Thyroid or in the past Natur-Throid. Both of these prescription products are comprised of desiccated porcine (pig) thyroid that has been put into pill form. Because they are comprised of porcine thyroid tissue, they contain thyroxin and are intended to accomplish the same task i.e. hormone replacement.

Is this “natural”? If one must take hormone replacement, is it advantageous to take one of these rather than the Synthroid? They are naturally derived, but then again so is snake venom, mercury, heroin and dog poop, none of which any rational person wants to partake of simply because they are ‘natural.”

Are they of any advantage for the patient? If forced to make a choice, Synthroid has the advantage of being more precise in regard to the quantity of thyroxin it contains. Natur-Throid and Armour Thyroid present with the same problems as Synthroid and in addition, the amount of active thyroxin in each pill cannot be accurately assessed. Taking these “natural” forms of Thyroid hormone therefore comes with the additional risk of getting too much or too little thyroxin each time a dose is taken.

Of special note is that in September 2020, RLC Labs, the manufacturer of Natur-Throid, voluntarily recalled all lots of the medication due to sub-potency. The recall was the result of FDA inspections that found the finished medication was not within acceptable strength ranges.

We also cannot be assured as to what the health was of any particular pig the thyroid material was taken from prior to being slaughtered as pigs are commercially raised in conditions that are generally abysmal.

Not A Rare Situation!

Thyroid Hormone Replacement Therapy is not uncommon. Since 1977, I have seen the number of women taking thyroid replacement therapy increase dramatically as it is a favored quick fix among physicians. Recently, however, even the medical profession is slowly becoming aware of the gross over-prescription of thyroid hormone replacement.

As reported by Yale School of Medicine in March 2023, “as many as 90 percent of those who take Synthroid may have “been unnecessarily prescribed the hypothyroidism medication”. That is a huge number since approximately twenty-three million Americans take Levothyroxine/Synthroid making it one of the most prescribed drugs in the United States.

Yale Medical School Associate Professor, Joe El-Khoury, published a letter in the journal, Clinical Chemistry, on March 1, 2023, stating that “the emerging evidence is very concerning because we’re actively giving patients a drug that they don’t need that can have potentially severe side effects…”

According to Professor El-Khoury, one reason for inappropriate diagnoses is seasonal variation. “Typically, TSH produced by the pituitary and used to trigger thyroxine release from the thyroid is higher in the winter. This is also when more people may experience symptoms of seasonal affective disorder (SAD) which can have symptoms like hypothyroidism. Since current screening measures do not consider the natural variation, many patients presenting with hypothyroidism-like symptoms are getting tested at a time when their TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) levels are naturally higher and being prescribed levothyroxine. But if many of those same people had gotten the same test a few months later, it would have come back as normal,” says Professor El-Khoury.

At the Goldberg Tener Clinic, we have enabled numerous patients to end their use of Thyroid Medication and seen their Thyroid Gland gradually restore itself when the right actions were implemented for the individual. This is accomplished by identifying and addressing the reasons for their dysfunctional Thyroid Gland and allowing the endocrine system to restore its vitality. In the video interview below, one of our patients (Kayla) shares her success in restoring her health and eliminating Thyroid Replacement Therapy (Levothyroxine). Click here to see more success stories.