Forefront Health?

[Ebx_design]

I keep getting targeted ads on Facebook from a copy called Forefront Health and specifically their glandular product (bovine). Am I right to be sceptical of the legitimacy of this company and product? Or has anyone tried it with success?Thanks!

[RedApple Administrator]

Ebx_design, If you're being bombarded on social media, then it's right to be sceptical in my opinion. If their product was any good, surely word would already have got round the thyroid communities and the company wouldn't need to embark on such a marketing campaign?

[helvella Administrator in reply to RedApple]

I agree.

There have been mixed reports posted in the past. Some of the bad ones have been appalling.

And some of the other products they offer stink of jumping on the bandwagon and flogging anything that will profit them. I mean, a coffee grinder and coffee? Nothing thyroid about it except a word printed on the label.

[Ebx_design in reply to RedApple]

My thoughts too. Although I was wondering perhaps if it's a new product, maybe it's just getting out there.

I'm in a few thyroid forums on FB, so the algorithm is live and well. I've never tried gladulars, but have a close friend who is exploring that route atm. Don't wnat her to get stung.

[Sunflower64 in reply to Ebx_design]

Forefront has been mentioned here before so it has been around for a while. I think with some brands of NDT being unavailable, and the cost of NDT, manufacturers of glandulars see a whole new market open up. I have received emails (not Forefront) saying ‘Why worry about getting what you need when you can find high quality glandular right here and much cheaper?’. And it may be cheaper if you only take 1 capsule a day, but not if you need much more.

[RedApple Administrator in reply to Ebx_design]

The company have been around for a very long time, and that product isn't new. 😊

[Ebx_design in reply to RedApple]

Oh really? OK thanks. I had no idea.

[helvella Administrator in reply to Ebx_design]

It has been going for many years. The web archive is slow or I would have gone back further - but it was on their website at least in 2016.

And it is listed (with almost no details) in my desiccated thyroid document.

helvella - World Desiccated Thyroid

Contains details of all known desiccated thyroid products including information about several products not considered to be Natural Desiccated Thyroid (NDT/Desiccated Thyroid Extract/DTE).

📄 dropbox.com/scl/fi/gx6dmz5i...

Screenshot from 2016/17

[Sunflower64]

There was a post this week in Roderick Lane’s FB group where a person went from an in-range TSH on levo to a TSH of 150 on Forefront (Roderick Lane is a UK naturopath). And she was only on 75 mcg of levo so not a massive dose. Now, she may have taken too little glandular (often, the manufacturers recommend 1 capsule a day which is often insufficient), but glandulars have no declared T3 and T4 content. Dr. Lane’s recommendation was to switch to a porcine glandular which has more T3, which I found strange since the OP previously had an in-range TSH on levo.

[Ebx_design in reply to Sunflower64]

Hiya, Thanks for commenting. Do you mean she just stopped levo and just used Forefront? Wow, that sounds quite dangerous. That's the concern too, reading the FB comments on these ads, people with genuine thyroid issues don't seem to have the info they need to make informed choices.

150 though, that's a horrific high TSH. 😵

[Sunflower64]

Yes, she did. Officially, glandulars support the thyroid, they do not replace missing thyroid hormone production.

[Ebx_design in reply to Sunflower64]

Yikes.

[helvella Administrator in reply to Sunflower64]

Forefront say (in their dosing guide):

Our Raw Desiccated

Thyroid supplement should be

used in addition to any thyroid

medication you are currently

using, and not as a

replacement.

This appears to be very much a way of avoiding being accused of telling people to change their prescribed medicines - that is, giving medical advice. Because they say to increase your dose of their product using temperature and pulse as a guide - all the way up to four 130 milligram capsules a day.

[Sunflower64 in reply to helvella]

Maybe this should be stated on all glandular products!

[helvella Administrator in reply to Sunflower64]

If they said "Contains no thyroid hormone", and that was verifiable, it would help!

We are left not sure whether any individual product, even any individual batch of any individual product, has any thyroid hormone in it - or maybe a significant amount. With poor quality control, it could even vary from one capsule or tablet to the next.

[Sunflower64 in reply to helvella]

And the only way it could affect body temperature would be it it contained hormones…or am I missing something?

A glandular manufacturer recently told me the hormone content of their product, and it varied quite a lot. I asked how they know that since they don’t measure it. Their reply: ’Normal physiology of the animal concerned enables us to determine that’. Not sure what to make of it…

[helvella Administrator in reply to Sunflower64]

A guess! Albeit reasonably likely. But entirely useless. Even if it started off near enough stable, we cannot be sure how much deterioration there is from processing. You simply have to test the final product.

One of the reasons we ended up with all prescription product being porcine is that bovines vary far more through the year - especially in their annual season.

[Sunflower64 in reply to helvella]

And the same is true for sheep, I think…which were originally used when they started injecting thyroid extract in the late 1800s.

[helvella Administrator in reply to Sunflower64]

Indeed. I think some other animals were also considered/tried.

I do accept that modern refrigeration and freeze-dryers can overcome seasonality. But if you are not testing you cannot know what is happening.

[Sunflower64]

Yes, I left the forum after this because it felt the reply was way too irresponsible…this poor person is trying to conceive on top of it…several members urged her to go back on levo immediately, but not the doctor…