Breaking: Bioidentical Thyroid Now Illegal, Per FDA
BREAKING: FDA has made your natural thyroid illegal that you may have been getting from a compounding pharmacy.
Just like that.
What AI told me yesterday is that the decision was made / announced this month and also being enforced this month.
Today, this new statement on FDA website suggests you may have some time, if you want to "stock up."
Having just written a book on related subjects, I think FDA did this because the compounding pharmacies were already using the same drugs as the regulated drugs, for the most part.
(Not some natural dried pig thyroid. Though for marketing purposes, there may have been some of that, as a base material.)
So compounding pharmacies and "BHRt" or "NHRt" practitioners were vulnerable. Since they were actually selling mostly the same product as the regulated drug. Without being regulated.
The official statement, though, is that under- and over-dosing is common with animal-based unapproved product, and it could carry viruses, etc.
Fact is, the desiccated pig thyroid is what women THINK they're getting, but usually aren't, anymore.
Like many of you, 30 years ago, I found the natural hormone replacement an absolute miracle. I'm definitely not here to tell you that you're wrong.
But, I'm interested if you've noticed the change in the products, those of you who have been on it for decades.
When I was diagnosed with an underactive thyroid (likely due to toxicity and exposure to radiation, as a baby downwind of the Nevada test site detonating bombs), getting on first the drug, then the bioidentical, fixed about 20 symptoms for me.
Of course, I also got serious about detoxification right about then, being sick and desperate.
So I may also have a more functional thyroid now, that isn't clogged up.
Now, post menopause, I go off it for months at a time and notice no difference. And I don't think I'm getting any positive effects from it, and it doesn't seem "natural" in any way.
(For sure it uses solvents and is made in drug manufacturing plants--the desiccated pig thyroid product, the "natural" and "bioidentical" stuff, just has scale / availability problems.
And it has, for decades. Especially as awareness in BHRt grew.
So I think the companies just started using the synthetic stuff because supply chains were more reliable.
But the "bioidentical" label stuck. It wouldn't be the first or the worst epic scam in the history of supplements. Not by a long shot.
(Stand by, for more info, my book Take Daily will be out in a month.)
Anyway, all the language yesterday was very aggressive, about it being illegal to buy animal-based thyroid product from any source.
But today, likely due to big pushback, it sounds like you could go to your practitioner and maybe ask for double dose and freeze some.
If you really think it helps you.
I honestly don't think your practitioner knows or would tell you if s/he's actually just selling you the same synthetic stuff the endocrinologist would prescribe you.
There are several steps in between your nurse practitioner (or MD, or whoever) and the source product, and most of them are just repeating the old marketing narrative.
But FDA has decided entirely synthetic, no-animal-product-involved, is all you're going to get, from here forward.
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You can't talk about Thyroid dysfunction without addressing birth control.
Women are eight times more likely to have thyroid problems than men. Why?
Birth control.
Birth control alters the reproductive system, the endocrine system.
Also, if you haven't heard, you should avoid handling cash register receipts. There are endocrine system disruptors in the cash register receipt ink.
Guess I'll be looking at natural remedies as usual. Hopefully none of the antioxidants and other nutrition that can help people will ever become outlawed. My thyroid is close to being overactive. Though I have been tempted in the past to get some drug to slow my metabolism down. I decided to leave well enough alone, since I didn't wanna run the risk of struggling to lose weight, etc. I do know from personal experience that I'll either burn up calories or burn off weight depending on my weekly caloric intake. Hopefully I'm burning up toxins and parasites like I burn up calories.
I get it that weight loss or weight gain doesn't always work the same for everyone.. Different variables at work. I recently told two female coworkers that they should consider finding an integrative medical specialist to work with. Things like detoxifying, getting their thyroids, livers, kidneys, guts, etc. checked. Both gals take daily meds so that's probably a contributor to unwanted weight gain, a sluggish metabolism and hormones getting out of balance. So telling those folks to eat only meats, soups and salads probably won't solve their unwanted weight issues. And one I know had to eat and drink 25K+ calories a week to get their body weight where they wanted it like myself.
A few years ago, a female coworker of mine had to deal with a severe case of hyperthyroidism. Her eyes started bulging and she was losing weight like a cancer patient. Luckily she got medical treatment and her unwanted weight loss issue was resolved. Not sure what type of treatment(s) she received, or what type of doctor she saw. But it took a few months for my coworker to get back to a normal life. So whether you want to gain weight, lose weight or keep the body weight you got. Either way there's work to be done.