Hormones found in majority of dietary thyroid supplements?

[helbell]

I read on many forums that T4 and T3 has been removed from OTC thyroid supplements. Obviously I'm wondering if the opposite is true re less expensive alternatives to Naturethroid. ???? Stumbled on this article (see abstract on the scroll down - full article has to be paid for) online.liebertpub.com/doi/a...

I found a fuller discussion on medscape...but lost it. Posted in 2014.

And a lengthy text on the orthodox recommendations for thyroid hormone treatment by the . Might be worth a read if I can stand it for that long to be armed with some background knos on the mechanics...when my doc tries to fob me off with science.

Prepared by the American Thyroid Association

Task Force on Thyroid Hormone Replacement

online.liebertpub.com/doi/p...

[Clutter]

Interesting, Helbel. I was also under the impression most thyroid supplements removed all T4 and T3. I'm not sure I'd call <25mcg T4 a clinically relevant dose, though.

[helbell in reply to Clutter]

Me neither. I dare guess that most folks over 60 might do well on that. In fact, two of my associates take 25 mcg maintenance dose...makes so much difference they often forget to take it! But I always took it for granted it was removed.

[greygoose in reply to helbell]

Ummm you mean folks over 60 without a thyroid problem might do well on that?

[helvella in reply to Clutter]

To the best of my knowledge, no-one has ever explained HOW they remove the thyroid hormone content. One company said they defatted the thyroid and that removed the hormone. Unfortunately for them, every description of producing desiccated thyroid starts off with defatting the thyroids.

The companies usually then go on about how their product contains desiccated thyroid obtained from somewhere or other (most often, New Zealand grass-fed cattle). And nothing nasty is added, nothing done to the powder. So where does the thyroid hormone go?

In the very early days of desiccated thyroid, Armour Laboratories (and others) put a lot of work into things like measuring hormone content through the year (it varies quite a lot), measuring biological effect (using laboratory animals to assay the potency), trying bovine and porcine sources, etc. But these companies who say there is no hormone content surely don't bother with all that - because there isn't any? So if there is any hormone content, doesn't it make sense that the amount won't be properly controlled? (Of course, if they controlled the hormone content, they surely couldn't then claim there isn't any!)

There is a pile of poo here. I don't like it, and never have. I don't trust the "supplement" companies any more than the straight pharmaceutical companies. (Actually, apparently, quite a bit of the supplement market is supplied with ingredients and product by the mainstream pharmaceutical companies.)

I make an exception for Thyro Gold which, although sneaking under the FDA radar, does more or less explain itself.

[helbell]

Nicely summed up - what a racket.