Anterior Pituitary is a form of a glandular. The term glandulars as used in the nutritional supplement marketplace refers to dried and ground-up raw animal glandular and nonglandular tissues or extracts of these tissues. The tissues include those from the following glands and organs (pictured above): adrenal, thyroid, thymus, testis, ovary, pituitary, liver, pancreas, spleen, kidney, lung, heart, brain, uterus, and prostate. Glandulars are believed by some to improve the function of the gland or organ from which the extract was produced. Most of these substances are derived from bovine sources and some from porcine sources. The theory behind glandulars is that like cells help to nourish and heal like cells. For instance a person with a thyroid deficiency might take a thyroid glandular; someone with an understimulated pituitary might take pituitary, an idea the scientific community rejects, becuase there is no credible evidence showing that supplemental glandulars rejuvenate glands.

Dr. Michael Cogan, a consultant to the US National Institute of Aging and the New Zealand Government, a member of the American College of Sports Medicine, the New York Academy of Sciences, and the British Nutritional Medicine, had this to say about glandulars: “Claims that glandulars contain effective amounts of hormones are plain fraud.” (pg 336) “Oral glandulars, like all proteins, are broken down during digestion. All genetic information is destroyed. Even if any did manage to squeak though, your immune system would immediately recognize it, and attack and destroy it. Just as well, unless you want to spout horns and tail. (PG 337) “SCIENTIFICALLY, IT’S NONSENCE.”(pg 338) Optimum Sports Nutrition by Dr. Michael Colgan.

Here is what Bill Phillips had to say about glandulars, “every nutrition ‘expert’ I know think glandulars are a bunch of hogwash. I mean the idea  of eating the freeze dried extract from a bull’s balls in order to increase your own testosterone levels would be wishful thinking at best.”

In the wake of the discovery of the first case of a U.S. cow with Mad Cow Disease the fatal brain-wasting disease, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration imposed new rules effective immediately - banning a wide range of bovine-derived material from FDA- regulated human food, dietary supplements, and cosmetics. The list covers anything derived from cow brain, skull, eyes, and spinal cord of cattle 30 months or older, and a portion of the small intestine and tonsils from all cattle. It also applies to products being imported from other countries. Consumer advocates point out that glandulars are often made from the very parts most likely to be infected with the agent that causes the disease, the brain and spinal materials discarded at the slaughterhouse because they are not fit for human consumption. "No one needs to eat brain as a supplement or as anything else," said Paul Brown, senior investigator for the National Institutes of Health, who supports a ban on glandulars. "Basically, you're looking at a product that does no good and has the potential to do harm." "If brain and pituitary tissues used to make dietary supplements come from a BSE-infected country, then there is a real risk," says Brown. In 1992, the FDA commissioned a study on the dietary supplement industry. Its section on glandulars found that there is "no legitimate scientific evidence that any of these claims are valid." The report goes on to say that glandulars may be dangerous because they may contain antibiotics, hormones, pesticides, herbicides or fertilizers to which the animal was exposed. It does not mention mad cow. Dean Cliver, a professor of food safety at the University of California at Davis, and a critic of glandular supplements, said that because glandulars have no proven benefits but do pose health risks, there is no reason anyone should take them. Glandular supplement maker Atrium Inc. of Hebron, Ill., sells products containing cattle pituitary glands and brains, including one called Brain 360. Asked what benefits glandulars have for humans, Atrium owner and founder Jim Sommers said that he didn't know and that his role is only that of a distributor. "That is a really a concern," says Dr. Michael Greger, a physician and mad cow expert with the Organic Consumers Association. "You can walk into a mainstream health food store and find, bottled on the shelf, the potentially riskiest parts of the cow. And you are swallowing it." There is no scientific proof that you will derive any health advantage from consuming these particular animal glands, and they could well kill you if the cow they came from had a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy(BSE), or Mad Cow Disease. Just think it only takes one half a gram of cow brain fed to a sheep once in its lifetime is enough for it to contract BSE.



Sources:

Optimum Sports Nutrition
Sports Supplement Review 3rd issue
Cattle parts in pills could spread risk June 5, 2003 Omaha World Herald by Mark Kawar
Mad cow rules may prohibit many 'glandulars' February 2, 2004 Daily Camera by Lisa Marshall
PDRhealth