jloertscher replied: "the problem with the majority of these weight loss products is that we just don't know the answers. They are considered 'food' by the FDA. That means they don't need to establish therapeutic dosing, safety standards, or determine if there any drug interactions. I have watched weight-loss products come and go for 18 years. And something I've observed about skeptics is that they are ALWAYS right. Diet+exercise = weight loss.......and it won't screw up your thyroid medication."

Topper (Linda) replied: "Levoxyl is a synthetic form of the thyroid storage hormone T4. It does not cause osteoporosis. When given RAI to destroy the thyroid gland, and just as often when dealing with thyroidectomy, there is damage done to the parathyroid glands. The parathyroid's rest above the thyroid gland. When the are damaged, or removed, the body becomes deficient in calcitonin. Calcitonin allows the body to manage calcium levels in the blood. Permitting calcium to be removed from the blood and put back into the bones during the normal course of growth and repair of bone tissue. If there is insufficient amounts of calcitonin the body can no longer perform this function and bone density is decreased. The reason that the bone and teeth issues become more pronounced as the dosage of synthetic T4 increases (doesn't matter what brand, it's all the same synthetic form of T4) is that as the body's metabolic rate increases the inadequate maintenance of the bones is even more telling and the rate of bone loss increases. It has nothing to do with the synthetic T4 itself. To deal with this you need to be sure that your body has sufficient levels of calcitonin, blood calcium and vitamin D3. You also need to address your thyroid replacement and the testing to determine if your dose is adequate for your body's needs. If your doc is only testing TSH, and not bothering to test your thyroid hormone levels, well, no way to tell if your dose is adequate. Testing TSH alone does not show if enough of the synthetic T4 is processed to the point of entering the blood stream and it does not tell if your body is converting enough of the T4 hormone to the T3 hormone that your body uses to function. My suggestion, if you want to stay on top of this? Get the proper tests to determine how well you are doing on thyroid hormone replacement. That would be Free T4 and Free T3. Get your Calcitonin levels checked as well as Vitamin D3 and Calcium. Calcitonin is available as a synthetic replacement.. or, in my opinion, the better choice, dropping the synthetic T4 (especially since you have no thyroid gland, like me) changing over to natural thyroid (most common brand name is Armour Thyroid) It not only contains all the thyroid hormones, T4, T3, T2 and T1, it also contains calcitonin.. and all are in a form that is ready to use by the body."