There are some basic errors at work, however, in the endocrinology, in my
view. Any person or pig taking thyroxin [T4] will experience a shrinking of
the thyroid gland and a loss of endogenous thyroid performance, as the
system senses the extra availability of T4 and cuts down. So the observation
reported that more T4 means more fat storage, that thyroid hormone stores
fat, is just wrong, and an undergraduate biochemistry text should make that
clear.
The thyroid in humans and pigs and others is a major contributor to whole
body and mind health, with critical contributions to cellular functions of
respiration and steroidogenesis. Thyroxin [T4] is not the active thyroid
hormone, however - the active one is triiodothyronine, T3. And elevated
hydrocortisone and other stressors may cause the body to produce (from T4)
not T3 but reverse-T3, also a thyroid inhibitor.
T3 is required for the conversion of choleSTERol to STERoid hormones. There
is a requirement for cholesterol - good, saturated fats, rather than the oil
seeds preferred in some pig raising; also required is vitamins and sunshine,
the latter to keep happy and numerous the mitochondria that do the work in
the cells. The product of this conversion of cholesterol is pregnenolone,
the precursor of progesterone and DHEA, without which nervous, reproductive
or immune systems are compromised. (The fact that pork these days is loaded
with unsaturated rather than saturated fats, because of the diets of pig
raising, also is disruptive of this pathway, but that's another subject)
Administering lots of hydrocortisone to the pig would also have a damaging
shock effect, raising estrogen levels, disrupting mitochondrial function and
causing fluid retention in cells. The old 'sell water, not fat' approach to
the meat market.
T3 is also essential to the mitochondrial respiratory process in the cell,
especially in stabilising sugar management. That is, for sugars and oxygen
to be converted to CO2 and ATP (for energy and protein construction) there
is, again, a need for sound thyroid performance.
Many different factors can contribute to very basic simple biological
derangement, giving rise in turn to a diversity of symptoms and disorders.
Whacking the thyroids and the adrenals in the hope of getting a skinny pig
seems to me particularly likely to succeed in a disturbing way.
Producing pigs with disturbed endocrine systems, making them (perhaps
randomly, certainly with great individual differences) vulnerable to a range
of physiological and psychological disorders, from chronic fatigue to eating
disorders, to psychiatric disorders, to cancer, to cardiovascular problems
seems weird indeed. And all because of an obsession with dietary fat, which
a human thyroid, properly healthy in a person with enough exercise and
balanced diet would competently manage. Whereas who knows what consequences
from eating tissues of deliberately endocrine deranged pig. If a flat worm,
eating a flatworm that has learned a maze can itself run the maze, what hope
the research scientist who is the test eater of ham whose tissues are still
too young to show that it would have become an endocrine deranged,
manic-depressive, anorexic pig with fibrocystic breasts?
But leave aside my speculations of the last paragraph, just dwell on the
muddled science of the expectations of the addition of T4 and
hydrocortisone, and the speculations associated with that.
Dennis Argall
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-sanet-mg@ces.ncsu.edu [mailto:owner-sanet-mg@ces.ncsu.edu]On
Behalf Of Lon J. Rombough
Sent: Saturday, May 22, 1999 1:38 AM
To: SANET; AGRISYNERGY
Subject: FW: Possible Changes in Pigs Body Composition
----------
From: "ARS News Service" <isnv@ars-grin.gov>
To: "ARS News List" <ars-news@ars-grin.gov>
Subject: Possible Changes in Pigs Body Composition
Date: Fri, May 21, 1999, 6:52 AM
STORY LEAD:
Researchers Explore Possible Changes in Body Composition of Future Pigs
-----------
ARS News Service
Agricultural Research Service, USDA
May 21, 1999
Jill Lee, (301) 504-1627, jlee@asrr.arsusda.gov
-----------
Two natural animal hormones are critical to developing fat cells in fetal
pigs. One increases the number of fat cells; the other makes fat cells
bigger. They work best together, say researchers--and knowing this may
someday make leaner pork possible.
The scientists, with the Agricultural Research Service, found these hormones
of the thyroid and adrenal glands work in tandem to give fetal pigs the
sustaining layers of fat they will need after birth.
The thyroid hormone increases fat cell numbers; the adrenal one increases
their size. Together they allow for a greater increase in fat than either
hormone alone, according to the lead researcher, animal physiologist Gary J.
Hausman. He's at the Animal Physiology Research Unit of ARS' Richard B.
Russell Agricultural Research Center in Athens, Ga.
Hausman and colleagues studied the role of these hormones by treating fetal
pigs with thyroxine (a thyroid hormone) or hydrocortisone (an adrenal
hormone) at various stages of gestation. Other fetal pigs received both
hormones. Results showed the hormone combination caused more fat deposition
than either hormone alone.
The study results suggest the potential for an opportunity for producing
leaner pork by reducing levels of one of the hormones in a fetal pig or
piglet. The scientists reason that since the hormones' combined activity
accelerates fat gains, restricting their "partnership"--by limiting one of
the hormones--might reduce the fat gains. This might be done by breeding or
through treatments as the piglet grows.
By understanding the biology of fat hormones, the researchers hope to learn
more about reducing fat in pork. This information could also be useful to
medical researchers seeking to understand factors contributing to obesity in
humans.
ARS is the chief scientific agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
----------
Scientific contact: Gary Hausman, ARS Richard B. Russell Agricultural
Research Center, Athens, Ga., phone (706) 546-3584, fax (706) 546-3586,
ghausman@ars.usda.gov.
----------
This item is one of the news releases and story leads that ARS Information
distributes on weekdays to fax and e-mail subscribers. You can also get the
latest ARS news on the World Wide Web at
http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/thelatest.htm.
* Feedback and questions to ARS News Service via e-mail: isnv@ars-grin.gov.
* ARS Information Staff, 5601 Sunnyside Ave., Room 1-2251, Beltsville MD
20705-5128, (301) 504-1617, fax 504-1648.
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