[1] This may include weight loss, fever, headache, anxiety, trouble sleeping, arrhythmias, and heart failure.
[3] The American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists[7] and the Royal College of Physicians[8] recommend against the use of thyroid extract for the treatment of hypothyroidism.
Concerns include the potential for adverse effects from superphysiological levels of T3 and the absence of long-term safety data from randomized clinical trials.
The glands are dried (desiccated), ground to powder, combined with binder chemicals, and pressed into pills.
This was a new use for parts that were previously unwanted slaughterhouse offal, and Armour and Company, the dominant American meatpacker in the 20th century, supplied the best-known brand of thyroid extract.
The decision to treat was usually based on the presence of signs and symptoms of hypothyroidism because there were no accurate, readily available laboratory tests of thyroid function.
[citation needed] Several reasons have been identified as to why prescriptions changed from desiccated thyroid treatment.
[citation needed] It was also discovered that even mild hyperthyroidism as defined by a suppressed TSH level, whether due to disease or overtreatment, was associated with poorer bone density in women, and with higher rates of atrial fibrillation in elderly patients.