The health problem Clinton actually has
By Paige Winfield Cunningham (@pw_cunningham) • 8/24/16 12:01 AM
The Internet is awash with rumors about Hillary Clinton's health, but there is one medical condition she is actually known to have.
That is hypothyroidism, a condition affecting about 10 million Americans in which the thyroid is underactive, resulting in a variety of symptoms including fatigue, weakness and weight gain.
For most patients, the symptoms can be significantly reduced or eliminated with the use of hormone therapy. Clinton is being treated with a medication called Armour Thyroid, according to her doctor, who has issued a letter saying she's in "excellent" physical condition and is fit to serve as president.
Yet Armour Thyroid is a less common medication used in patients with hypothyroidism, possibly indicating Clinton wasn't responding well to the conventional treatment.
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http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/the-health-problem-clinton-actually-has/article/2600012
OK, I can speak to this one, as I also have been diagnosed with hypothyroid, and my wife has had her thyroid surgically removed due to a tumor on it. As a result we're both on thyroid hormone therapy. My wife started out on Levothyroxin, a generic synthetic hormone replacement, but her T3 level tended to swing to extremes on it, so her doctor switched her to Synthroid, a non-generic synthetic hormone replacement, which gives very precise T3 levels. I also started out on Levothyroxin, but after about a year of feeling awful despite having good T3 levels, I asked my doctor to switch me to Armour Thyroid, which is a natural thyroid hormone replacement (it's made from pig thyroid glands). The thing is, because it's natural, it has small amounts of other thyroid hormones that doctors don't think are important (they only look at T3 levels, and sometimes T4). For me, that made a big difference, as I felt like I could actually function at more than a minimal level again. Back in December the pharmacy was having trouble filling my prescription due to a shortage of Armour Thyroid, so they substituted another generic natural called NP Thyroid, and I found I felt even better taking it. So I asked my doctor to change my prescription again to specify NP Thyroid.
The thing is, with thyroid hormone replacement, we're talking very small amounts of actual hormone (micrograms, not milligrams) so that the production controls used by the pharmaceutical manufacturer can make a big difference in what is actually in each pill. Generics like Levothyroxin and Armour Thyroid are primarily made in China now, which is notorious for poor production control. Synthroid has a more strict manufacture regiment, and so it provides a more reliable supply of hormone to the patient. NP Thyroid also is known to have better production control, as well as a formulation that provides more of the "trace", supposedly unimportant, hormones that have apparently made such a big difference in how I feel.
By the way, many endocrinologists put no stock in the advantages of natural thyroid hormone replacement, and swear that synthetic is the only way to go. I was lucky in that my endocrinologist is open-minded enough to let me try it, and I have to say the difference for me has been like night and day.
So yeah, many doctors may scratch their heads over why she's taking Armour Thyroid instead of a synthetic hormone replacement, but many patients (like me) who have tried it will tell you that it gives them better results.
