I thought I may try it to see how it goes since NDT doesn't work well for me well unfortunately. What can I lose if I try it for a few weeks right?
Is that a thing? I was thinking I would just buy some from local farm that have organic grass feed beef or lamb. I would freeze it and then cut tiny piece each day and cook it. This is just idea for now and I would just try it and see how I feel for a few weeks while monitoring hormone levels. Does it sound terrible idea or could it work? Any idea how many grams gland I would need comparable to 1 NDT grain?
IMPORTANT Edit: This is for just idea for now, I am not encouraging anybody to try it. From what I read, 1g of raw thyroid is about 15 grains so you need to be careful to not overdose.
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I haven't thought so ahead so far, first I want to try just to cook and eat. I need to ask around farms, for now it is just idea and I am collecting information about it. If no other option I will use glands from lambs because my friend is raising lambs.
Please let us know the results of either choice. It's taking self-sufficiency to a new level. And on a serious note, interesting and important information and data.
(I've become obsessed with self-sufficiency lately. What I wouldn't give for a small-holding or a couple acres. )
As far as I know they're not allowed to sell thyroid. They're destroyed with the carcasses.
Newbie no that would be a big mistake. There have been cases of thyrotoxicosis when beef has not been cut properly and bits of thyroid entered the food chain.Natural dessicated thyroid is a preparation that is consistent in its hormone content. It has been manufactured to be like this.
With a gland if you could get it you would have no idea what you were getting hormone wise by just cutting bits off
By thyrotoxicosis you mean that people got too much thyroid hormones? If this is the only problem I would still try it, I would be just careful to start slowly with small amount and carefully monitor my hormone levels.
The body needs a stable supply of thyroid hormones. You can get away with slightly different t4 doses daily but you should take the same t3 dose daily .
You would have no control of what you were getting by way of hormones from a bit of gland.
Lack of consistency in hormone doses does make folks have symptoms. This has been discussed often on this forum in relation to batches of dodgy NDT which have been imported to the UK.
Friendly reminder that thyrotoxicosis can be fatal, in which case it is called a thyroid storm. I would highly recommend not doing this. You do not have the tools to accurately measure how much thyroid hormone you are consuming.
There is no guarantee that the hormone content of a thyroid is consistant throughout the the whole gland. Some bits might be higher in T4 and some in T3, and some bits might have no hormone at all. It's awfully hit and miss and won't do you much good.
If you were able to dry it, mix it all to gether and test for hormone content, it might be faisable, but just hacking any bit off and cooking it is fraught with danger. I would urge you not to try it.
Why there would be more risk when eating thyroid gland comparing to liver, heart or other parts of lamb? I am not going to eat it raw, I will dry it using high temperature dryer or cook it.
If cooking were satisfactory, the companies making products from thyroid glands could have gone down that route over a century ago. And avoided one of the issues on which they have been criticised.
You can look around many such products and the word "raw" is often emphasised.
Thyroid hormone is sensitive to light, oxygen, humidity - and heat.
I certainly would not recommend such an action - the thyroid gland is known to be easily contaminated hence why it is destroyed - NDT comes from porcine sources as it it the nearest to human thyroid gland - I think you are playing with fire trying to do that.
Not sure you are quite right about that - pigs have even been used for human transplants !
Why do we use pigs for transplants?
Among the reasons: They have short gestation periods and produce large litters, their organs are close in size to those of humans, they are less likely than non human primates to transfer zoonotic diseases to humans (because of genetic differences), and their tissues (such as heart valves and skin grafts) have been used.
I'm not sure how serious the police take this area of Food and Animal Law in Slovenia , you really need to check it on this issue.In many countries , the sale of thyroid gland for eating is banned and farmers would be unwilling to sell the thyroid to you as they can be stopped from keeping or selling animals at all if they break this rule.
Your friend , if they sell meat to others , or raise their own animals for food , could be banned from keeping and raising livestock for food if they sell it to you if someone finds out you are doing it , I'm sure you wouldn't want to get anyone into trouble.
If you ended up in hospital with food poisoning or other problems related to your health you would have to tell them you had been eating the thyroid gland for them to get your treatment right , then the hospital would have to report it , and you and the farmer whom supplied it , even if you got it from a friend and they charged you nothing for it. You might only get a fine but the farmer or friend could lose their livelihood or be prosecuted.
In other words , you would not just be possibly putting your own health at risk by trying this experiment you would be putting someone else's livelihood at risk as well.
If you really felt that it is necessary to try this you should raise the animal yourself , but I wouldn't think it worth it.
As , others have said , and from checking in a vets anatomy journal , there is no guarantee how much T3 or T4 is in each segment that you would cut off , if any at all. You would never know exactly how much of T3 or T4 you were getting each day in each bit , or even if you got a drying machine and made it into a powder . That would mean you would also need to send the powder off for testing before using it , and then that powder would not be easy to use to adapt the dose . You would have no way of testing the quality of the thyroid gland before lab tests so you could do all that work then find it wasn't fit to use. The expense could become huge for you , much more than buying NDT or other thyroid prescriptions.
Your treatment needs balance and needs more precise changes in doses so it is more likely that an experiment of this kind would cause you to feel unwell and produce more thyroid symptoms instead of less because you could not accurately have a specific dose each day.
One of the reasons that porcine thyroid became standard (in preference to other species) is that pigs have far less variation in thyroid hormone through the year. They breed at any time and their thyroid hormones remain broadly level.
Animals which have one breeding season tend to have much greater variation. Sheep and cattle usually have one breeding season.
I’ve had the thought myself about trying to source a thyroid gland …. Given that is how we initially were treated historically … or do I believe…. I also thought dry or dedicate grind to a powder would distribute the contents through the powder…. Would be difficult to accurately know what the components but not impossible with testing ….. I think it’s food for thought but I see some of the problems shared above by other members ….. it may be dangerous but it may be a new path ?
so if you had to take to the woods because of disaster which animal would you take with you? Could we take a pet pig and, rather than getting it’s thyroid gland, possibly obtain enough thyroid hormone from what circulates in the blood on a regular schedule? Or figure out how to extract from urine like they do with estrogen from mare’s urine to make premarin?
If you’re really intent on going with a herd of sheep you might first check some libraries for old medical texts which discuss using sheep glands. I totally agree it is definitely not a wise thing to do but could be useful to know in case of disaster. (I’m forever grateful to those early docs who figured this out but do prefer my NDT to be standardized.)
It is illegal in GB to give/sell/ use any part of the neck glands. The only part of the head legal to use is the cheeks and ears. Pigs store TB in the glands around the neck. Pigs come back from slaughter with the neck glands stripped out.
I had a herd of pigs for years and years, and had a butchery on site, spending my time chopping them up and making sausages, bacon,etc. I was not allowed even to use the blood. None of the guts can be used.
It is also illegal to give or sell any meat from a home kill - it is for immediate family only. I understand your thinking, but please do not risk it. There are many diseases pigs suffer from that are not nice!
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