Desiccated Thyroid vs Levothyroxine: Which Is ACTUALLY Better?

Introduction to Integrative Thyroid Treatment 0:00

Would you like to know the secret that integrative doctors use with hypothyroid patients to help them feel better, better than you get with standard thyroid medications? Well, watch this video and as I walk you through it, I'm going to talk to you about the prescription thyroid medication that integrated doctors like myself use, with many, many patients, to get better results than your standard therapy. I'm Dr. Mark Stangler, and I've been practicing integrative medicine for 30 years. Desiccated thyroid extract is a medicine that integrates doctors like myself use all the time to help patients with hypothyroidism to not only feel better, but to have much better results on their lab tests as well.

Now, desiccation thyroid is not a standard thyroid therapy. You won't find many doctors using it outside of us integrate doctors. However, it is prescription drug that's available from standard pharmacies as while as compounding pharmcies.

What Desiccated Thyroid Extract Is 0:48

Now, desiccated thyroid extract is also referred to as natural desicated thyroid, and it's produced from the powder of porcine thyroid and then made into tablets. The word desoccate means to be dried out, or in this case, dried animal powder. It is available, like I said, in United States pharmacies and in European pharmaces as well. it contains a ratio of T4 to T3 of 4.2 to 1. Now in the human body, the main thyroid hormones are T 4 and T 3. Now, some people don't like that it has T3, because they're worried about overstimulating effects of T-3.

However, T 3 really is the key. It is dominant thyroid hormone that gets into your cells and drives energy and metabolism. So, a desiccated thyroid extract, you're guaranteed to get that active T three. We know some, people genetically don' t convert the T4 into the more active, very effectively. And desiccated thyroid extracts from the early 1890s to the mid 1970s was the preferred form of therapy for hypothyroidism. Then these synthetic drugs came on the market and became the norm of prescription by doctors for hyperthyroid.

Why T3 Matters in Thyroid Therapy 1:51

However, desicated thyroid extraction never went away, still available in pharmacies today and still actually very popular amongst patients and integrative doctors because of the results that we see with patients compared to standard synthetic thyroid medications. Now, according to the FDA, 1.5 million patients receive prescriptions of desiccated thyroid extract from the years of 2024 to 2025 from outpatient retail pharmacies. In recent times, the FD has voiced concern about the safety and effectiveness of dessicated thyroid, extracts and they want the manufacturers to have improvements in the way they're producing the thyroid hormones.

So it looks like they are going to be getting that worked out here in next few months, which is a good thing. Now desiccated thyroid extract is unique in that it also contains the thyroid hormones known as T2 and T1.

Historical Use and Current Availability 2:45

We know in the human body these hormones are produced, but they're not available in any medications other than desicated thyroid. Apple has been shown in studies to increase the metabolic rate. It activates fat breakdown, it lowers lipids. Studies have also shown that it reduces body weight, reduces fatty liver, and reduces triglycerides. So there are some unique effects to this T2. One small human study where they gave people 300 micrograms only of T-2 daily for two weeks. Again, they found that people increased metabolic rates and it decreased their body weights significantly without making other changes or without side effects.

T1 there's less known about it but again the human body does produce it and it's found in desiccated thyroid extract and It has a balancing effect on the stimulating effects of T3. T 3 again it improves heart output, heart rate, systolic blood pressure and coronary flow and T 1 has A balancing affect on preventing that over stimulation

T2 and T1 Benefits in Desiccated Thyroid 3:36

effect of t3 so very unique we can see why in the Human body we have all four thyroid hormones and and only desiccated thyroid extract has these four hormones as well, in terms of prescriptions. Now, there's been several studies that have been done regarding treating hypothyroidism with desicated thyroid abstract, and they compare to other forms of thyroid replacement. For example, a study done in 2024, where they reviewed a number of different studies, found that desoccating thyroid extracted improved quality of life scores better than the other traditional thyroid-replacement therapies.

And this is very helpful because patients feel better on the desiccated thyroid extract or at least a lot of them do compared to your standard levothyroxine therapy. Another study done actually in 2024 was an online survey where they assessed quality of life scores and people on different thyroid. And they found that those taking the desiccated thyroid extract, well, they reported a quality of life superior to that of just the standard levothyroxine

Research Comparing Desiccated Thyroid to Standard Therapy 4:33

therapy only. As well as you would expect when you check blood levels, the T3 levels were higher in the participants taking desicated thyroid. Another interesting study published back in 2013 found that desiccated thyroid extract caused modest weight loss and nearly half of the participants preferred desicated thyroid extra over your standard levothyroxine. So again, having that active T3 and probably that T2, you can get that metabolic effect. If you're on traditional thyroid replacement therapy and you are still experiencing hypothyroid symptoms, even though your lab tests look pretty decent, If you have symptoms like fatigue, difficulty losing weight, feel cold all the time, poor cognitive function, brain fog, dry skin, constipation, or other symptoms, consider working with an integrative doctor that can prescribe you desiccated thyroid extract.

Who May Benefit and Closing Advice 5:24

It is one of the secrets that integrate doctors use to help patients with hypothyroidism feel much better. If like this video, make sure you click the like button and look for other videos I have on hypotherapy, natural treatments for hypathyroid, and a variety of other topics in regards to integrator medicine.