Desiccated thyroid for hypothyroidism

2014-04-07 08:41:30

Individuals with hypothyroidism require life-long thyroid hormone replacement therapy. Typically, patients are put on a synthetic version of T4 called Synthroid or levothyroxine. Some patients however do not tolerate this medication well, or do not achieve adequate symptom relief using this strategy. Desiccated thyroid is a preparation of thyroid gland taken from an animal source, and contains both T4 and T4 thyroid hormone. Anecdotally, naturopathic doctors sometimes observe that a selection of patients exhibit a better response to desiccated thyroid compared to levothyroxine. A recent study compared the tolerability and effectiveness of levothyroxine compared to desiccated thyroid.^[1]

In a randomized, double-blind, cross-over study, a total of 70 patients were treated with one of the two forms of thyroid replacement. They received one treatment for 16 weeks, then crossed over to the other treatment for another 16 weeks. Results showed that both treatments, desiccated thyroid and levothyroxine were equally effective in managing hypothyroid symptoms as well as neurocognitive measurements. However, patients on desiccated thyroid lost an average of 3lb over the course of treatment, while patients on levothyroxine did not, and this was statistically significant.

When asking patients (blinded to treatment) what treatment, A or B, they preferred, 48% preferred desiccated thyroid, 18% preferred levothyroxine, and 32% had no preference. Those patients who preferred desiccated thyroid lost an average of 4lb over the course of treatment, and also had a significant subjective improvement in hypothyroid symptoms. It appears that in a subgroup of patients, desiccated thyroid may be a preferential, more effective therapy.