Meh, I don’t think you are wrong, I just think you will have to incorporate genome sequencing in recommendations for future research (even if you won’t conduct it yourself). Maybe some of the genes they found should go into the confounder bin?.. And of course, they mention ‘additional comorbid conditions’ (cretinism?), so it will be a very convoluted question. Not to mention that you should also look up any studies on 1) whether pig-thyroid-eating people had better or worse outcomes when compared to what is expected from an equivalent dose of pure hormones, and 2) what substances are found in the preparation (preferably something with mass-spectrometry as the method ofidentification) & how it was made (I don’t know a thing about pigs, but they do have parathyroid glands—could those be included, too?), 3) how well do the respective forms of hormone store (under such freeze-drying conditions) - I bet that they decompose at different rates, which means… I can’t even say what it wouldean right now, except that standardization of doses should be difficult.
1) Can’t find any data on this. 1970s experiments concluded pig-thyroid much worse than pure T4, but they were using very large doses of T4, and when they swapped some of it for T3, it might have over-ridden the conversion mechanism and produced hyper symptoms. Also I suspect that only a small number (ballpark 16% notice, 2% notice strongly) of people would be happier on T4/T3 mix. Also there’s too much T3 in pig-thyroid, it is thought. T3 monotherapy generally believed to be a disaster. And I would suspect that to be right if I didn’t have John Lowe’s posthumous word that it works well for some people including him.
2) I’d love to see that if you know where it might be found.
3) Christ alone knows. One of the original concerns with pig-thyroid was inconsistency. I think they do it better now. Synthetic T4 also has a slightly patchy consistency record, according to some sources.
Thanks, I’ll have a look! Other minds finding reasons why I’m wrong is exactly why I stuck this on Less Wrong. (Also it’s just quite a fun puzzle)
Meh, I don’t think you are wrong, I just think you will have to incorporate genome sequencing in recommendations for future research (even if you won’t conduct it yourself). Maybe some of the genes they found should go into the confounder bin?.. And of course, they mention ‘additional comorbid conditions’ (cretinism?), so it will be a very convoluted question. Not to mention that you should also look up any studies on 1) whether pig-thyroid-eating people had better or worse outcomes when compared to what is expected from an equivalent dose of pure hormones, and 2) what substances are found in the preparation (preferably something with mass-spectrometry as the method ofidentification) & how it was made (I don’t know a thing about pigs, but they do have parathyroid glands—could those be included, too?), 3) how well do the respective forms of hormone store (under such freeze-drying conditions) - I bet that they decompose at different rates, which means… I can’t even say what it wouldean right now, except that standardization of doses should be difficult.
Er, hope that helps.
1) Can’t find any data on this. 1970s experiments concluded pig-thyroid much worse than pure T4, but they were using very large doses of T4, and when they swapped some of it for T3, it might have over-ridden the conversion mechanism and produced hyper symptoms. Also I suspect that only a small number (ballpark 16% notice, 2% notice strongly) of people would be happier on T4/T3 mix. Also there’s too much T3 in pig-thyroid, it is thought. T3 monotherapy generally believed to be a disaster. And I would suspect that to be right if I didn’t have John Lowe’s posthumous word that it works well for some people including him.
2) I’d love to see that if you know where it might be found.
3) Christ alone knows. One of the original concerns with pig-thyroid was inconsistency. I think they do it better now. Synthetic T4 also has a slightly patchy consistency record, according to some sources.