Thyroid Magic: Its History and 61 Examples

"Every patient who comes to their hospital is virtually studied as a thyroid case, and it is remarkable to note how large a variety of conditions have a distinct thyroid aspect."

The use of thyroid therapy to treat a wide range of physical ailments and disorders spans more than a century, with the first recorded cases using sheep thyroid gland extracts in treating myxoedema, congenital cretinism, and psoriasis. Two of the most notable physicians who pioneered early thyroid therapy were Sir Byrom Bramwell of England and Dr. Eugene Hertoghe of Belgium. Bramwell published his work in The Atlas of Clinical Medicine, and Hertoghe in the Royal College of Physicians of London. “Sign of Hertoghe” is a symptom most commonly present in hypothyroidism, where the outer eyebrow disappears.

Naturally desiccated thyroid tablets were then quickly manufactured using “grains” as a dosage measure. Broda Barnes has written extensively about its effectiveness in treating hypothyroidism and low body temperature. As the individual hormones were isolated and synthetically synthesized, the idea to use all of the hormones present in the gland (T4 and T3) was discarded, and “thyroxine only” therapy became more or less the dominant form of thyroid replacement treatment. Thyroxine stimulates the metabolism at a much weaker degree than thyronine, it is called a “storage hormone” and its effectiveness relies on its conversion to the active thyroid hormone in the liver. This conversion is very easily impaired in T4-only treatments, leading to a vast number of people being disappointed with thyroid therapy in general. In the following 47 examples below, patients suffering from facial myxedema were treated with supplemental NDT (naturally desiccated thyroid). Myxedema is characterized by the retention of water in soft tissues, as a result of high estrogen and low thyroid function. By increasing the production of the youth-associated hormones (progesterone, pregnenolone, DHEA) and carbon dioxide (as its production increases, a carbon dioxide molecule attaches a water molecule to itself as it exits the cell, lowering the intracellular concentration of water), the puffiness of the face, fingers, and the bags under the eyes disappear, the gaze shifts towards the “calm alert” state, and there is considerable hair growth in few of the cases.

In congenital cretinism, children are born without a thyroid gland, or with a severe deficiency of it. Supplementing thyroid hormones early enough can greatly reverse the symptoms associated with it and aid in proper development. Children whose growth was stunted “caught up” to a degree in height within just a few months.

The next set of 6 examples are from patients treated with “thyroxine-only” therapy. You will notice how mild its effects are (compared to combined therapy) since T4 is less biologically active than T3.

The skin is one of the largest sites for steroidogenesis, and since the thyroid hormones promote the production of the various steroids from cholesterol, a deficiency of the former can increase inflammation, giving rise to various skin disorders like acne, rosacea, and psoriasis.

“When people supplement thyroid and eat liver once or twice a week, their acne and dandruff (and many other problems) usually clear up very quickly“ - Ray Peat

In the following 7 examples below, patients suffering from psoriasis were treated with supplemental NDT (naturally desiccated thyroid). As a disclaimer, the “before treatment” images are quite severe, but in every single case thyroid treatment resolved the psoriasis completely.

I hope you found this article insightful and interesting. I will periodically update it as more examples become available. Cheers.