Natural Desiccated Thyroid has been used successfully for over 127 years. It is made to the strict quality standards of the US Pharmacopeia.
Desiccated Thyroid gives you all FIVE thyroid hormones, just as your own thyroid would make if it were able to. T1, T2, T3, T4 and Calcitonin are the thyroid hormones.
Many thyroid patients who had been on T4 only medications, or even T4 and T3 medications, have reported that they had much better results in eliminating symptoms on NDT. They found that their Hashimoto’s antibodies also lowered on NDT, after an initial raising of them, improving their immune function as a result.
Some NDT’s over the past few years have changed and seem to not work as well for people as they did, those are Armour, Naturethroid and WP Thyroid. (Naturethroid and WP Thyroid are no longer available) We are not sure what changes were made to ingredients and if fillers may be causing this.
Some people and doctors claim that NDT causes too many problems. They do not realize that it is the NDT revealing already existing issues, which are most often Iron and/or cortisol. Both of those are needed to properly convert the T4 to the active hormone T3 and to be able to utilize the T3. It is a very good idea to know what your levels of Iron and cortisol are before raising NDT past the starting dose. If they are NOT optimal, you can raise with T3 only, to bypass conversion.
Based on patient experience, normally, we begin with one grain of NDT (60 mg or 65 mg, depending on which brand of meds you are on), split between two doses. Some who are more sensitive may need a lower starting dose. That means 30 (or 32.5) mg in the morning upon waking, and 30 mg (or 32.5) mg around 12-2pm.
Testing should be done no less than 12 hours after the last dose of meds, and no longer than about 17 hours.
It’s a good idea to run labs for FT3, FT4 and Reverse T3 to check for any issues.
Remember to take your NDT twice a day; T3 is short acting, so we need to dose it more than once in order to spread the T3 out. We are mimicking what our thyroid would do if it were working properly, it would not produce all our thyroid hormones out at once, it would produce them throughout the day.
Being on enough NDT not only removes all the symptoms we had, but there are also other things we noticed we now had:
- A 3 PM temperature of 98.6 F or 37 C
- A basal temperature at waking before getting out of bed, of 97.8-98.2 F or 36.5 C – 36.7 C
- A healthy blood pressure and heart rate for our age.
- Improved energy and hunger, because our metabolism is actually working.
- A Free T3 in the top quarter of the lab range and Free T4 in the mid-range area, with a Reverse T3 no more than 2 above the bottom of the lab.
Please note we are not suggesting you test TSH. TSH is suppressed on NDT and or T3. It is the Free T3, Free T4 and Reverse T3 tests that we need done.
If you’re feeling worse, you’re either under-medicated, or there is an underlying issue and it won’t matter what brand of NDT you’re taking, based on patient experience.
If you haven’t had the recommended testing done, please do so. Refer to our lab work page for more info but here is a high-level list.
Thyroid tests:
Free T3
Free T4, Direct S (Not Free T4 Index, Free T4 calculated, or TSH reflux)
Reverse T3 (If your doctor will do this and/or if it’s available in your country)
Hashimoto’s Disease:
- Thyroid Peroxidase Antibody (TPOab)
- Anti-Thyroglobulin (TgAb)
Graves’ Disease (If you are, or suspect you are, hyperthyroid):
- Thyroid Stimulating Immunoglobulin (TSI)
- Thyroid Receptor Antibody (TrAb)
Iron panel:
- Serum iron
- Total Iron Binding Capacity (TIBC)
- (%Saturation will be calculated from the Serum Iron and TIBC)
- Ferritin
Vitamins:
- Vitamin B12
- Vitamin D 1,25 and Vitamin D OH
Comprehensive Metabolic Panel (CMP) which includes:
- Potassium (PLEASE ask them to NOT put a tourniquet on or squeeze a ball of fist pump, this falsely elevates your levels, if you are well hydrated none of those are necessary)
- Sodium
- Glucose
- Calcium
- RBC Magnesium
Cortisol levels:
24-hour saliva cortisol tests from Canary Club and MyMedLab are done through ZRT Laboratories:
ZRT Diurnal Cortisol 4x Stress – Canary Club Hormone Testing
https://www.canaryclub.org/shop/zrt-advanced-saliva-hormone-profile
Please go to this page, and scroll to the bottom of the page for links to order this test from other countries. Meds and supplements to avoid, prior to taking the saliva cortisol test, if possible: http://www.tawki.info/Adrenal-Testing
Symptoms of High cortisol
Symptoms of Low cortisol
Equivalency charts do not work. Period. You cannot compare apples to oranges. T4 medications depend 100% on you converting the T4 to the active hormone T3, and the other hormones T1 and T2 (No Calcitonin at all in T4 meds and they do not convert to Calcitonin). NDT contains the active hormone T3, and also T1, T2 and Calcitonin, as well as T4. We all begin at one grain and raise the dose slowly to optimal based on labs. This allows our bodies to adjust to the direct T3 (vs our body converting the T4 to T3).
There are some non-prescription NDT’s out there that patients have reported great success with. Some are:
Thyrovanz
Thyrogold
Nutrimeds
T3 is needed by every cell in your body for multitudes of bodily functions.
T3 is essential to reconverting ADP (a dead battery) to ATP (a fully charged battery) in your cells. A lack of T3 leads to a poor ATP to ADP ratio. This explains why those with not enough T3 seem to have a long recovery after any physical exertion, it takes a long time to get back to a good level of ATP in order to do more activity.
Finding a Doctor who will prescribe NDT and or T3:
It is very rare that an Endocrinologist will prescribe NDT. If they do, it is rare for them to prescribe enough to be symptom free.
You may always “interview” a Doctor before committing, and sometimes, the front desk help knows the answers to these questions:
- Does the Doctor prescribe NDT and T3 as needed based on symptoms and labs?
- Does the Doctor test Free T3, Free T4 and Reverse T3?
- Does the Doctor dose to the elimination of symptoms?
- Does the Doctor understand that TSH will be suppressed on NDT and T3 when optimally dosed?
We have found that Functional Medicine Doctors, Osteopathic Doctors (DO’s), Naturopathic Doctors (if they can prescribe in your state or country) and Environmental Medicine Doctors, tend to be more open minded and willing to prescribe NDT.
Reasons it may seem NDT is not working for us:
- Not raising NDT to optimal labs (Free T3 at about top quarter of range and Free T4 at about mid-range,
- Reverse T3 no higher than 2 above the bottom of the range).
- Having your iron levels too high or too low.
- Having your cortisol levels too high or too low.
Less common reasons can be:
- Genetics, specifically activated DIO1 or DIO2 genes
- Allergies to specific fillers in the NDT (not all brands have the same fillers)
- Pork allergy
Many thyroid patients on NDT like to have a backup supply of it just in case their doctor is no longer available to prescribe it. Keeping NDT in a cool, dry place (think 65-75 degrees) will preserve the NDT indefinitely. You want to avoid heat and moisture to preserve it. Freezing it is not a good idea, as it will draw moisture when it thaws from condensation.
You can read about various NDT medicines and their ingredients on our ingredients page.
T3 needed in mitochondrial ATP production:
http://ajpendo.physiology.org/content/280/5/E761
You can read about various NDT medicines and their ingredients here: Ingredients