27 replies to this topic

[Guardian4981]

Hi,

Background -28 year old male

I have suffered from dysthymia most of my life. I have tried all kinds of supplements to combat the issue, SAM-E, St Johns, Uridine, P-5-P, rhodiola, you name it.


A year and a half ago I had alot of bloodwork tests done because I was having issues with energy and light headedness when standing. The various tests all came back normal except one marker, UREA which was elevated to 29. The doctors told me to try an eat more carbs and drink more water. A half year later UREA came in at 28, so not a huge improvement but not worsening, so again they told me to try more water and they did not suspect anything serious since all other markers were healthy.

So I got sick of doctors with no answers and used a whole host of different supplements aimed at everything from anxiety to dopamine. Again nothing really worked, I eventually quit all supplements, but still had the symptoms.

I then decided to "keep it simple" only taking a multi and extra selenium. Then a few weeks ago I thought I would try kidney glandular.

To my surprise ever since I have noticed some beneficial things

1. My libido is higher then its been in a long time, probably in my early teens because even in my later teens my libido started going down.

2. My dysthymia is easing, I am noticing driving I am enjoying the tunes instead of feeling down about whatever I am driving to. I feel more social.

3. Body body seems to be more "warm" not to the point of feeling uneasy but rather I think before I was always a bit on the cold side.

4. My urine seems to flow better, before it seems like it took more effort, I never noticed it before as I never knew anything else, but now I can tell a difference.

5. My circulation is better, especialy in my joints like my knees, I was starting to get slight aches but now my joints feel like there is a warm cushion to them, I feel like they could take on more strenuous tasks if needed.

6. My hunger is higher, I feel like my body is burning more calories. For a while I literally was never hungry, I simply ate because it was time to eat and I knew I should.

The only "side effect" I have had is it seems it takes a bit longer to fall asleep, but I attribute this to my body not being uised to this new energy I feel.

I am not sure what the numbers will say when I get urea tested but seems I feel alot better overall then I have in many years, actually starting to enjoy life more.

My theory is that everyones focus with kidneys is if they are excreting enough waste products. But another function of kidneys when they are optimal is to retain the right nutrients. There are many people with kidney disease who need to be on thyroid meds, not necessarily because their thyroid don't work but because the kidneys flush to much thyroid out the urine. So perhaps my body is retaining more hormones, more hormones often means better quality of life.

The Chinese believe the kidneys are the fountain of youth and where our life essence. I think too many supplements are simply a diuretic and don't really strengthen kidney function.

I know my post was long but thought maybe someone out there who struggles may find it interesting and worth a try as its pretty inexpensive. I am wondering if this will continue to last or wear off, but I think it may last. It doesn't feel like I am getting a "high" like I did with SAMe, rather it feels like my body is starting to just work better overall.

Edited by Guardian4981, 27 November 2013 - 08:31 PM.

[blood]

Interesting. What product are you using, Guardian?

[Guardian4981]

I using swansons Kidney glandular

http://www.swansonvi...-500-mg-60-caps


Not too many company's make a pure kidney glandular product, so I hope the few that do don't discontinue them. Swanson is the only one I have used thus far. I plan to try the others to compare them.

Yesterday when I worked out for the first time in a while I really felt like I could push myself hard, for a while I was always kind of dragging and going through the motions. Every day I am feeling alittle better then the day before.

[Braziliandude]

That sounds interesting...I ve been having horrible side effects from finasteride, maybe this could help!

[Guardian4981]

My opinion is that almost anyone regardless of what issues they may or may not have could benefit from this.

Everyone talks about "toxins" and such in the atmosphere and all the "detox" chatter. My opinion is that the liver processes alot of this, we know the liver is a very resilient organ capable of regenerating itself. You don't hear too many people needing liver transplants. On the other hand, kidney disease, dialysis, transplants are much more common. As the liver processes more the kidneys will experience more load as a downstream impact.

Another benefit I would like to add. I am not a heavy drinker, but occasionally I do such as thanksgiving or on a Saturday. I am noticing my hangovers are not nearly as bad as they used to be.

[Braziliandude]

when did you start to notice improvements?? I really want to try this..as a matter of fact i want to try all glandular therapy liver, brain, lungs everything

[Guardian4981]

I noticed benefits the first day but subtle, the positive effects gradually increase over time. More and better sense of well being was apparent within a day or two. The body feeling more vibrant happens more over the next week or two.

[renfr]

What does science says about glandular products?

[Braziliandude]

how many capsules a day??

[blood]

What does science says about glandular products?

Not sure.

I suppose science would acknowledge that various glands (kidney, liver, brain) are very rich sources of nutrients, if nothing else.


Glandular extracts are (I believe) simply raw, freeze dried bits of organ.
Seems possible they might contain various beneficial substances at relevant concentrations (e.g., brains as a rich source of phosphatidyl serine).

Guardian, are you still on the selenium and/ or multivitamin? Maybe they are partly responsible for the improvements you are noticing?

[Guardian4981]

I take 2 capsules every other day and 1 capsule the opposite days. I find 2 every day can be too stimulating but 1 is not quite enough.

I am on the selenium and multi, but I was using them for weeks before starting the glandular without feeling the same effects I started to get after the glandular. Selenium seems to help anxiety but didn't do much for dysthymia and energy levels.

[riloal]

Guardian4981, thanks for you apportation, I ordered the same kidney glandular as you. I think it could work well in my regimen. Keep us updated, I will update you as soon as I begin my trial.

[Guardian4981]

I am noticing my thirst level is up, sometimes I wake up with a dull headache. But if I keep fluid intake up I feel fine this subsides.

LIbido is the highest it has been in probably ten years.

[adrenalin]

I call this bullshit, guardian is just paid to promote this worthless product
don't listen to his utter hogwash
you people are gullible to believe to his fake claims, no glandular stuff will give you effect or else people would have known it for centuries already, this is just marketing they don't know what to sell

[blood]

I call this bullshit, guardian is just paid to promote this worthless product

That's not a fair comment. Anyway, the product he is using is made by Swanson, and they don't pay people to promote their products.

[Braziliandude]

I doubt it...why would someone do that? and besides it seems like he is legit I just looked at his posts and on june he metioned about feeling light headed and wanting some pieces of advice...and then he posted about the glandular therapy. Which seemed to have helped him.

[Guardian4981]

I suspect part of my issues are from adrenal "fatigue" though I always thought this "condition" wasn't real.

I feel my best now between meals and when working out, which is when cortisol tends to be at its highest. From what I have read the adrenals are slow in recovery. So if the glandular product I am taking is enhancing my bodies hormonal retention then I have hope that over time some of the adrenal related symptoms will dissipate. As stated earlier the libido has returned strongly.

But I still do get some intermittent light headedness when standing. My body heat also seems a bit volatile, at times I feel very warm, and at other times I feel like my older less healthy self is showing its face again. The same can be said for mental health, overall mood is up but similar to the body temp it bounces around a bit. Libido is more consistently up. My hope is that recovery is not a straight line and that over time there will be more positive then negative.

I think one complication I blame myself for is having a few drinks on the weekend, especially thanksgiving weekend. Between thanksgiving weekend and the weekend before I have found I feel my "best" the night before I start having any drinks. Basically the drinking seems to set my recovery back a few days which is not surprising.

Based on this I hope and anticipate that as this week goes on I will feel better and hope to stay sober this coming weekend.

Lastly, I am a workout adict, I managed to tone it all down. One potential mistake I make is every time I start feeling better I start doing a lot of cardio and working out harder. I am starting to think even as I feel better I should keep the workouts mild.

[riloal]

Guardian, do you think it,s safe to take for long term? I read that for example adrenal grandular extract are not good long term cuase it can cause a little atrophy of the adrenals. What do you think?

[Guardian4981]

Well, I think an issue with any glandular is if it contains any actual hormones.

The concern with adrenal glandular for example is it contains dhea, cortisol, etc.

I'm not sure the kidneys produce any actual hormones, however a glandular could potentially contain hormones. So I don't think kidney glandular would cause kidney atrophy but it could influence other glands potentially.

Unfortunately alot of these products like adrenal and kidney glandular have not had any in depth analysis for their constitutes.

[protoject]

I'm sure that there are probably a lot of shills, promoters and other types of gentlemen peddling their wares around here and making sales, pretending to be a regular ol' lad. Shamelessly promoting. Sure.

And perhaps, there is a mob of gullible floating around on here, believing in anything because they want to, believing in miracles, cure-alls and the like.

But, I think there is something going on here with glandulars. I don't know what and I won't begin to pretend I know... nor will I come up with theories from my gaseous rear-end.

The reason I think something is going on with the glandulars as well is because back in 2009, I used to frequent this one health shop in Peterborough, Ontario quite a bit. I was their little health shop junkie. And in this health shop I would try to find things to cure my ailments, having some idea of what some things might or might not do, while others, well.. I was just being an impulsive buyer and a wishful thinker. Now, this glandular I bought, I think it was marketted as a bovine cow adrenal glandular, if I remember correctly. Or perhaps it was a few different glands combined into one, I cant remember to be honest. It was an extract, and it was a liquid spray. I remember legitiimitely getting a psychoactive effect from this stuff. My pupils seemed a little bit bigger and I felt a lot more like I used to feel before I did a lot of damage to myself, kinda like back to how I was years ago , healthier, better maybe. Like i was "a kid again". not a 5 year old kid, just an 18 year old kid before I lost my nut. (mind)...

Thing is, this stuff was hella expensive, and I only got that effect if I used like half the bottle. There also appeared to be some sort of tolerance to it, though I can't verify that. It was like 60 bucks. So that'd be nice if we could get some new scientific studies on this kind of thing, and, say, knock down the price to an ultra low level. And put aside the speculation and whimsical theories. Yes that'd be nice...

in the mean time let's share anecdotes

Edited by protoject, 05 December 2013 - 07:54 AM.

[Guardian4981]

I have recently had to scale back my use of the kidney glandular, I am finding the product seems to cause side effects related to lower blood sugar.

Its possible the product is causing an increase in free T3 levels, which can cause increase clearence of glutocortoids. In a healthy individual this would be offset by increase cortisol release.

I plan on taking a week off and then resuming, perhaps seeing how a cyclical approach would work over time.

[riloal]

Guardian, how long have you been on kidney glandular?, so you have symptons of low cortisol, you think the glandular depletes the adrenals? Perhaps if you take only one everyday doesn,t affect you

[Guardian4981]

I been using it for 3 weeks. I find it "works" or should I say feel better when I use it on days I am off like the weekends.

I think my problem is that I am likely either subclinical hypothyroid or kidneys were flushing out too much thyroid. Over time this likely caused my adrenal system to be worn out. Also I have read that what can happen is both the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems becomes overly heightened and leads to a greater "baseline" which puts the body in a constant state of stress. Techniques like meditation and and such can gradually lower this.

So basically not using any products like kidney glandular I do not feel healthy but at the same time I am so used to it that its a more consistent wore out feeling. When you use some products that may boost hormones like aspartic acid or kidney glandular I feel better for a bit but then I become overly stimulated and anxious with hypoglycemia issues. This is likely from low cortisol and unstable blood sugar levels.

My last blood work was "healthy" however blood pressure was slightly low at 110/70, blood sugar was aso somewhat low at 65.

An ongoing issue with health conditions in people is often when they start feeling better is also when they are most at risk. Depressed people are most at risk of suicide when they start feeling better. I think if you are chronically wore out if you start getting more energy your at risk for anxiety and blood sugar issues.

My guess is it takes a period of either toughing it out or cyclically easing into it for the body to adjust.

[Luminosity]

You're right according to Chinese Medicine. All that stuff makes sense. This is my thread of how to live more in accordance with Chinese Medicine:

http://www.longecity...inese-medicine/

Edited by Luminosity, 06 December 2013 - 05:19 AM.

[riloal]

Guardian, I,m starting my trial of kidney glandular next week. Do you think one pill everyday and don,t dose on weekends could be a good regimen? I,m on glandular cortex extract on the morning should I stopped it, or could I take the kidney glandular at nights cause I have high cortisol at night, perhaps lowers mine? What do you think?

[Guardian4981]

I would take the kidney glandular first thing in the am, it has a stimulating effect. Even taking it at 6am I had a slight increase in difficulty falling asleep but nothign too bad. But if I took it later in the day it likely would have more of an impact on ability to fall asleep.

As for dosage, I would say it depends on your situation. I have had issues with borderline low blood sugar for many years, there are alot of supplements I can't use daily for this reason.

I also personally found kidney glandular had some kind of strong influence on the dopamine system, if you have any history of mania or bipolar it could pose an issue.

Activity level also plays a role, kidney glandular helped give me alot of energy for workouts, but days where I didn't work out the extra energy made me a bit restless and anxious.

I would start with 1 in am and see how you feel, I would say unless you weigh alot with alot of activity nobody should exceed 2 a day.

[Joe Cohen]

I took about 35 capsules of it, lol.

 

http://selfhacked.co...idney_Glandular

Edited by Joe Cohen, 19 February 2015 - 11:41 PM.

[Guardian4981]

Hey all I know its been a while.

 

About a year ago I decided with my doc to go on some synthetic thyroid about 75 mcg a day.  This seemed to help my panicky anxiety (although I still felt general anxiety/ocd).  Nonetheless, I still felt "off" overall. namely poor circulation, lethargy, etc.

 

I started the kidney glandular again last week, and again I feel a noticeable boost in my well being and energy.  The low blood sugar side effect I noted above seems to be less noticeable and prevalent.  Though what I am doing now is taking it in the evening before dinner rather then earlier in the day like I used to.  I also am "only" using one dose a day for now.

 

Over the last few years, several blood tests have revealed that my blood urea levels were elevated a few points above the normal range.  All other kidney function appeared "healthy" so my doctor claimed my bodybuilding type diet may have too much protein causing the urea.

 

I have read that a higher protein diet can cause the body to excrete more T3 and testosterone.  I am wondering if the kidney glandular is helping to flush out the urea and perhaps cause better retention of T3 and testosterone.  Obviously I would need to get another blood test and see how urea looks while taking the kidney glandular to confirm this idea.