Olive Leaf Extract boosts active thyroid hormone

 http://www.ergo-log.com/olive-leaf-extract-active-thyroid-hormone.html

Olive Leaf Extract boosts concentration of active thyroid hormone

 …In a study published in 2002 in Phytotherapy Research, the researchers looked at another effect of the phenols in Olea europaea. Because administration of Olive Leaf Extract in animal experiments had led to a reduced glucose level and less lipids in the blood, the Saudi researchers wondered whether Olive Leaf Extract, by raising the amount of thyroid hormones in the body, boosted metabolism.

The researchers gave male rats weighing 125-150 g homemade water-based Olive Leaf Extract orally for 14 days. The maximal dose was 0.5 mg per day. That works out at 4 mg per kg bodyweight. For humans, that would be about 50 mg extract per day. That's not a lot. Drug stores sell capsules containing 150 mg Olive Leaf Extract.

In the rats that were given 500 micrograms Olive Leaf Extract, the concentration of the T3 hormone rose by a factor of 2.5. This would be enough to make people wanting to lose weight faster notice a change.

The researchers suspect that the phenols in Olive Leaf Extract make the enzyme 5'-deiodinase work harder. This enzyme converts the less active thyroid hormone T4 into the more active T3.

Source: 
Phytother Res. 2002 May;16(3):286-7.