Quote:
Originally Posted by mrsD
Here is the best article I could find on fenugreek:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/m...g=content;col1
Often when you read about extracts or studies, you really don't know what they used. An extract is concentrated, and in general more potent that the food version.
In this study the seed was powdered, hull and inside, UNsprouted.
There are two studies out of 4 on PubMed that mention thyroid converstion in rats. I will add here that there is one study on RATs as well with alpha lipoic acid!
The thyroid makes both T4 and T3. T3 is the active form and made in lesser amounts and typically during stress/trauma.
T4 is stored in the tissues, and is inactive and awaits need and is converted by enzymes to active T3. It is this action suggested that is supressed by fenugreek extract. Some rat studies do not cross over to humans, but once published are always quoted, because there is nothing else really to rely upon.
If you remove the seed coat, you are not eating the same thing as the extract.
So it is hard to answer your question. I would say that if you don't show signs of hypothyroidism (sluggish/cold/losing hair/weight gain/edema and carpal tunnel) that you are okay.
But without a test at the doctor's you won't know for sure.
It might also depend on how much of this you eat, and other factors. The minerals zinc and selenium are used in the enzymes that convert T4 to T3 also. So a deficiency in these can lower T3 levels as well. |
Ah, my dear Mrs. D.
I KNEW you would help me out. I don't feel sluggish, I feel fine (except for my arthritis), but I'm handling that better than expected especially in this kind of cold weather here in NYC. I just get very very stiff if I sit for two long a period. For example, we went to visit relatives in New Jersey on Saturday and I sat in a car for one hour going there and one hour returning. You should have seen me trying to get out of the car. It was a compact and I had to literally decompress my body to wean myself out of this car. I told the driver. "You should drive a Lincoln Continental" and we all laughed.
So as far as sprouting goes, I am going to concentrate on continuing to sprout my various sprouts, keeping a variety on my plate. And because of what you had mentioned previously in one of your replies to me, I now take Optizinc twice a week. So far, so good.
I'm trying to some day get off of Lantus. My doctors, both the ones in Cornell, and my primary, actually think I have a shot at doing this. No one else does. They all say "you're 62 years old, just take insulin and eat what you want, I mean, you are 62 years OLD!!!
My response?
"I'm NOT 62 years OLD. I'm 62 years YOUNG. I have a lot of stuff to do yet and I want to be around when they start beaming people back and forth across the universe.
If you would have told me this when I was 30, I would have looked at you like you were crazy. Ah, but we don't have the brains at 30, that we now have at the age of 62.
So I shall sprout, and feed Alan good food. Now if I can only get him to stop snacking on those 60 calorie pudding things. He keeps them in the freezer and eats them all night long. I tell him: "Look at how many ingredients are in these things, are you out of your mind?" He says "but they only have 60 calories". I then say: "yeah, but you don't only eat one".
Men!!!!! Oh well.
I do hope you were treated nice for Valentine's Day.
You are probably the one person who has gotten me on the right track about my health. I learn a great deal from you and others on these forums.
Take care and thanks much
Melody