I’m looking for an alternative to metavive and have found a few possibilities

[Noelnoel]

Metavive added nucleotides to their adrenal and thyroid glandulars and many of us are not doing so well since

I’ve been looking at alternatives and amongst two or three contenders that claim to be pure, freeze-dried, GMO, additive and preservative free, etc, I have found a brand called NUTRIEST whose cattle are raised in Estonia, claim all the above and can provide organic certification

Does anyone know anything about the product or about the farming methods there?

Also, can anyone name any thyroid and adrenal glandulars that they’ve found and use?

Thank you

[SeasideSusie Remembering]

NoelNoel

I've not used thyroid glandulars so have no personal experience, but looking at their website the Dessicated Beef Thyroid says

Contains 90% beef liver, 10% thyroid

They don't show the information label but I'd want to know more about the beef liver, eg that seems a high percentage of liver compared with thyroid; do the other thyroid glandulars include liver; people take liver capsules when wanting to increase their iron levels, so how much iron and Vit A might there possibly be included?

Their serving size suggests 6-9 capsules daily. How would this work out as a price comparison with others?

For an adrenal glandular I have used Nutricology/Allergy Research. They are the same company, Nutricology is available for the public to buy, Allergy Research is the practioner version, they are exactly the same. They do both whole adrenal and adrenal cortex only.

[Noelnoel in reply to SeasideSusie]

SeasideSusie

Thank you. You raise some really interesting points. This is probably the cheapest of the glandulars and it contains 35mg of beef thyroid compared to 30mg in most of the others. Most of the others suggest 1 capsule/day which isn’t a realistic amount for the majority of us. This brand suggests 6-9/day and has more capsules/bottle. 270 in fact, compared to other brands of just 90 or 180 capsules. For instance, I take 8 metavive/day, so for value, it isn’t the best. Having said that, despite the price, I would’ve continued to take it had it not been for the added nucleotides. Prior to this it worked well for me

I know this is of no interest to you but I’ve included those details for any other members who may be having difficulties with metavive

I’ve emailed the company to see if they can provide a breakdown of the composition of the beef liver but I’m supposing that since no other companies - or at least none that I can find - provide this info, that it must be difficult to do. A bit like asking your butcher how much heme iron or vitamin A is in that slice of liver

I like the sound of the Nutricology product especially as it has both a whole and a cortex only version. This is great as the whole gland seems too much for me. So thank you for that suggestion too because I haven’t been able to find a cortex-only glandular apart from adrenavive and it’s dreaded - at least for me - nucleotides. I’m sure many of us are happy with the new formulation

[Noelnoel in reply to Noelnoel]

Also a good selection of amino acids

Colour

[LindaC in reply to Noelnoel]

Dr P recommended [strongly] way back in May 2010 that I take N*tri Ad'l Extra - did so and gradually reduced but still needed some. The 'recipe' was changed to N*tri Ad'l - no Extra... which I gather was pituitary gland. I'm looking for an alternative - so thank you and Seaside Susie for the info above.

[Noelnoel in reply to LindaC]

Lindac

Please read SeasideSusie’s replies and amendments before you make up your mind; the amount of iron in the product is really small

[LindaC in reply to Noelnoel]

Thank you - will do - need to re-order soon.

[Noelnoel in reply to LindaC]

Lindac

You might want to look at this brand too but I’m not sure the iron content is any higher. The products sound fantastic and the owner is very good at answering queries

ancestralsupplements.com/

[LindaC in reply to Noelnoel]

Thank you so much!

[Noelnoel in reply to SeasideSusie]

For anyone interested, I found an empty tub of beef liver and it does show the composition/6 capsules

Colour

[SeasideSusie Remembering in reply to Noelnoel]

Serving size: 6 capsules

Amount per serving: iron 0.6mg

It's interesting to see the amount of iron and comparing it to one ferrous fumarate, say, which has 65mg elemental iron per tablet. 6 of those liver capsules gives you 0.6mg = 600mcg which is a very small amount of iron. The NHS website tells us the amount of iron needed daily is

8.7mg a day for men over 18

14.8mg a day for women aged 19 to 50

8.7mg a day for women over 50

I tried some beef liver capsules a while ago as an experiment, I wasn't impressed as it didn't do much at all for me, not surprising considering how little iron there is supposed to be, and it was expensive compared to buying fresh liver. I did email the manufacturer to ask how much actual iron there was but didn't get the courtesy of a reply, and the information on the bottle didn't go into the detail that there is on yours. Out of interest, what brand is that?

EDITED to correct mistake about amount of iron in ferrous fumarate

[Noelnoel in reply to SeasideSusie]

SeasideSusie

Gosh yes, that’s a tiny amount isn’t it. However, I did feel better and had none of the constipation issues I sometimes get with the more conventional types of iron

Readers should take note of the comparatively small amount of iron and take a balanced view by recognising that it contains many other nutrients which may act synergistically for all round nutrition but hey, I’m no expert …

What was the make of the liver capsules you took? It’s useful to know which brands to avoid although I realise that what doesn’t work for one can work for another. Don’t like that their customer service was poor though, that often speaks volumes

[SeasideSusie Remembering in reply to Noelnoel]

I used Berserker

amazon.co.uk/Berserker-Desi...

From looking at other similar supplements I think this one may be repackaged as different brands. Shame it doesn't give other useful information like the breakdown in the brand you used.

Liver is said to be a "superfood" so I'm happy to use fresh liver although I understand why people would rather pop a capsule than cook it (got it tonight actually!).

[Noelnoel in reply to SeasideSusie]

I actually really enjoy liver with creamy mashed potatoes and steamed or stir fried greens of any kind. Thanks to this website and you in particular I reintroduced it to my diet after 35 years of not touching it

It seems the Berserke brand contains cooked liver and not freeze dried. I’m told that freeze dried preserves all the nutrients

[Noelnoel]

The brand is Nxgen. The woman who sells it is lovely. Her name’s Sophie, very helpful

absolutelypure.com/

I finished the tub and never did a blood test to check but I felt better. I’m not currently using it because there’s no need; I’m trialling the same brand beef thyroid glandular which already has 470mgs of beef liver which makes it really good value

I’m never really sure how much iron I ought to take. Is 0.6mg a lot, a little, about right, not enough?

[SeasideSusie Remembering in reply to Noelnoel]

If someone was diagnosed with iron deficiency the prescription would be for 3 x ferrous fumarate which would give 3 x 65mg elemental iron (195mg). So the 0.6mg in the 6 capsule serving of those beef liver tablets is very small.

Apologies, I used mcg above, will go and edit that post, I don't like to leave mistakes. It makes a big difference to what I originally said. I have added information to that post about what the NHS recommends as the daily amount of iron needed (and that would be for a person without iron deficiency).

[Noelnoel in reply to SeasideSusie]

Yes, thank you for the edit, it makes all the difference and people should be aware that the amount is really small!