Thyroid Glandular Supplements - A Comprehensive 2026 Guide

Thyroid glandular supplements are growing in popularity and with good reason. However, there is a lot to know before choosing one. This comprehensive guide explores how thyroid glandulars work, the difference between porcine and bovine glandulars, how to use them, their potential benefits, the important safety considerations, and quality control, including sourcing, manufacturing, and testing.

What Is Thyroid Glandular?

Thyroid glandular supplements are the thyroid organs from various animals, such as cattle, sheep, bison, and pigs, that are dried and sold as powders and capsules.

What Is Desiccated Thyroid?

Dessication is the process of removing the water from something. Desiccated thyroid is just another name for thyroid glandulars. There are different ways of dessicating thyroid glands. The better the method, the higher the quality of the final product. Most thyroid glandular is spray-dried or high-heat dried, which damages fragile tissues and compounds. The best way is low and slow, forty-eight-hour freeze-drying. Some thyroid glandular supplements are freeze-dried, but there are different types of freeze-drying; they are not all the same.

What Are The Different types Of Thyroid Glandular Supplements?

There are three main types of thyroid glandular supplements.

• Isolate

  • This is where specific compounds are extracted from the glandular and sold as a separate product.

• Thyroxine removed

  • This is where thyroxine (T4) is extracted from the thyroid glandular, and the product is then sold as thyroxine-free thyroid glandular.

• Whole glandular

  • This is where the entire thyroid gland is used, and nothing is removed.

What Is The Difference Between Bovine And Porcine Thyroid Glandulars?

The main animal thyroids used to produce thyroid glandular supplements are from cattle and pigs. Most people think that’s the only difference between most thyroid glandulars, but that is far from accurate. 

Humans have a T4 to T3 ratio of about 11:1 to 14:1, and pigs have a T4 to T3 ratio of about 4.2:1. This is why many people who use porcine thyroid products often experience a racing feeling and often have a suppressed TSH level even when their T4 levels look low. Cattle have a T4-to-T3 ratio of about 9:1, which is much closer to that of humans than pig thyroid.

Thyroid Glandular Benefits

Thyroid glandular contains potent whole food nourishment that provides a number of benefits.

• It supports healthy energy levels.*

• It supports a healthy thyroid.*

• It contains unique proteins, peptides, cofactors, and enzymes found in thyroid tissues.

• It supports a healthy immune system.*

• It supports a healthy heart.*

• And much more!*

What is Beef Thyroid?

Beef thyroid is a glandular derived from cattle. When choosing a beef thyroid glandular supplement, there are several important factors to consider.

First is the source. Most thyroid glandulars are made from conventionally raised porcine thyroid. Conventional pig farming is an absolute horror show. Pigs are kept in horrific conditions, often fed literal garbage, and the “farms” create an environmental disaster with lagoons of waste. Not the sort of situation you want to derive your glandulars from. 

Rather than buy glandulars from the nightmare that is most modern pig farming, look for beef glandulars that are grass-fed and finished on regenerative farms that show you exactly where they come from, not just the country of origin. There are good and bad farms in every country, so traceability from pasture to bottle is key.

Next is vertical integration. It’s a dirty secret in the thyroid glandular supplement industry that nearly all of the companies don’t source, produce, or bottle their own products. This means you never truly know who is making your supplements. Rather than buy glandulars from unknown sources, look for companies that get their organs directly from farmers, and each batch of thyroid glandulars should be traceable back to the farm and cattle they come from. The companies should handle drying, milling, encapsulating, and bottling in-house because it’s important to know who handles each part of the process. Transparency is your best friend.

Freeze-drying is the best method for preserving beef organs. However, not all freeze-drying is the same. It’s important that low- and slow-freeze-drying is used to protect and preserve fragile compounds and nutrients. Look for companies that do their freeze-drying in-house.

Traditional ingredient milling generates significant heat and friction, which can degrade fragile nutrients and compounds in the thyroid glandulars. Companies should use cryogenic milling to avoid these problems.

Thyroid glandular capsules should be free of fillers, binders, excipients, and other additives. They should only contain the thyroid glandular and a beef gelatin capsule.

Thyroid glandulars should be manufactured in a facility purpose-built for manufacturing beef organ supplements, because they have specialized manufacturing needs, not in a facility designed to make lots of things where glandulars were just added to the mix to make a quick buck. To ensure that quality is at the forefront of every step of the process, the facility should be TGA-certified. TGA (Therapeutic Goods Administration) is Australia’s version of the FDA GMP (good manufacturing practices) in the United States. However, TGA certification is much stricter, with far more rules, regulations, and standards. TGA certification is considered the gold standard for quality control and safety in supplements. Many supplement companies certified GMP in the US would not meet the TGA's standards. Very few GMP-certified supplement companies in the US would be able to become TGA-certified, at their current levels of quality control, despite being GMP-certified.

This is just a few of the things that you should look for. For the complete list of what to look for when choosing a thyroid glandular, check out the beef organ supplement checklist.

Lab Tested Thyroid Glandulars

The best thyroid glandulars are tested in an accredited National Association of Testing Authorities (NATA) Australian lab for pathogens and contaminants. These labs are independently vetted and have some of the strictest testing standards in the world. 

Many companies use questionable, non-accredited labs that lack proper testing standards and often issue certificates of analysis riddled with issues, such as incorrect testing methods. There are a ton of problems with third-party testing, which you can learn about in our blog. That’s why third-party testing is not the best way to verify the quality of a thyroid glandular.

What Is The Best Beef Thyroid Glandular Supplement?

NXGEN Wholefoods is setting the standard by which all beef thyroid glandulars should be measured, and they check off every box on the beef organ supplement checklist. They get the beef organs directly from a coop of regenerative family farmers in the Lake Eyre River Basin of Australia. The cows graze over vast areas, eating the native grasses. The areas are so large that helicopters are needed to monitor them. Each lot of desiccated thyroid is traceable back to the individual farms and cattle from which it comes. Once they receive the thyroid, they use a specialized freeze-drying process, followed by cryogenic milling, to prevent heat-induced damage from traditional milling. After that, they encapsulate and bottle the products. All of it is done in-house at their state-of-the-art TGA-certified (the Australian version of GMP) facility, purpose-built for the unique requirements of beef organ supplement manufacturing. NATA-accredited laboratories carry out third-party testing for pathogens and contaminants, including heavy metals.

For a more in-depth look at what makes NXGEN Wholefoods different from other beef organ supplement brands, check out this blog.

How To Use Thyroid Glandulars

Thyroid glandulars are best taken first in the morning, before food, with a full glass of water, and apart from mineral-containing supplements, such as magnesium and calcium. Even better, take them with 4 ounces of freshly squeezed orange juice, with a bit of salt added.

Thyroid glandulars can take a few months for the full effects to kick in, so it’s best to take them for at least 3 months, or longer, to get the full benefits.

It’s important to work with your healthcare provider to determine the best dosage for you and adjust it to find the optimal number of capsules.

If you experience side effects such as a racing heart or dizziness, you should stop using the thyroid glandular and speak to your doctor.

Who should not use Thyroid Glandulars?

While thyroid glandulars provide powerful nutrition, they are not right for everyone.

• If you take prescription thyroid medication, you should not take thyroid glandulars unless directed to by your healthcare practitioner.

• If you have Graves disease, you should not use them.

• Those with heart problems, such as atrial fibrillation or myocardial infarction, should not use thyroid glandulars unless directed to do so by their healthcare practitioner.

• If you are pregnant or nursing, you should not use them unless directed to by your healthcare practitioner.

The Best Thyroid Support Supplements

In addition to thyroid glandulars, some great whole-food supplements can help support a healthy thyroid.

First up is beef kidney. Kidney is a rich source of selenium. The thyroid has the highest selenium concentration of any organ. Selenium is an important cofactor for the enzymes that produce and convert thyroid hormones. Selenium also helps to support healthy thyroid antibody levels.

Beef kidney is also a rich source of B12, primarily in the methylated form, methylcobalamin. A large percentage of people with thyroid health conditions are deficient in B12, which can exacerbate many common symptoms of thyroid problems. There are many issues with B12 lab testing, and many people who test “normal” still have B12 deficiency symptoms due to problems with standard B12 blood testing. 

Iodine is an essential nutrient that most people don’t get enough of. The thyroid needs iodine to produce thyroid hormones, T3 and T4. Fish egg capsules are a rich source of iodine. The benefit of using fish eggs over seaweeds for iodine is two-fold. First, good fish egg capsules don’t have the high levels of heavy metals that most seaweeds do. Second, they are also rich in vitamin D, vitamin K, and phospholipid-bound omega-3 fatty acids, which are important nutrients for healthy thyroid function and are often not consumed in sufficient amounts.  People who need to follow a low-iodine diet should not take fish egg capsules.

Vitamin A plays an essential role in thyroid function. It supports the conversion of T4 to T3, thyroid hormone receptors, and normal TSH levels. Beef liver is one of the richest sources of whole-food preformed vitamin A. This type of vitamin A is better than consuming the precursor, beta-carotene, because many people don’t convert beta-carotene into vitamin A very well. 

Tyrosine is an amino acid that combines with iodine to produce T3 and T4 hormones. Grass-fed Beef Protein is a great source of tyrosine. 

These supplements are also a great way to support a healthy thyroid for those who cannot use thyroid glandulars.*

Thyroid Supplements

Thyroid glandulars and whole-food beef organ supplements are among the easiest ways to provide your thyroid with the nutrition it needs. If you want to get the most out of them, make sure to choose those you can trace from pasture to bottle and take them consistently!

*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.