Does Hashimotos Thyroiditis cause osteoporosis?

I need medical evidence to post to my doctor to prove that hypothyroidism can cause osteoporosis. Can anyone out there send me links to medical studies that I can post to my endo? She thinks that only HYPERthyroidism can cause osteoporosis!

[shaws Administrator]

I don't think this link will be very positive re hypo.

Some links I looked at were quite negative, UK ones that is. This is not UK.

saveourbones.com/can-a-slow...

Excerpt from above:

Without sufficient T3, then, normal bone remodeling is disrupted, and bone resorption happens at a more rapid rate than bone building. The result: decreased bone density and osteoporosis.

Both an Over- and an Under-Active Thyroid Can Hurt Your Bones

But an under-active thyroid – hypothyroidism – is much more prevalent.

web.archive.org/web/2010103...

[Hidden]

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...

may be of use

but the study from which I take this may be more useful - you have to wade through the stuff on hyper before you get to the effects in hypo...

HYPOTHYROIDISM AND BONE

The signs and symptoms of hypothyroidism in general are opposite of thyrotoxicosis but this may not be true as far as bone metabolism is concerned. For example, the fracture risk in patients with hypothyroidism is increased as reported by Vestergaard et al.[32] In this population-based study, 11,776 patients with hyperthyroidism (6301 patients with diffuse toxic goiter, mean age: 52.1 ± 18.6 years; and 5475 with nodular toxic goiter, mean age: 60.4 ± 15.9 years) and 4473 patients with hypothyroidism (mean age: 66.1 ± 17.3 years) were identified.

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...

Mary Shomon sums up some evidence, saying that hypo prob doesn't cause osteo, but that levo might in post menopausal patients.

"A May 2000 study in the European Journal of Endocrinology found that long-term treatment with levothyroxine to normal range TSH levels was associated with a slightly increased risk for osteoporotic fracture. (Eur J Endocrinol 2000 May;142(5):445-450, "The effect of long-term, non-suppressive levothyroxine treatment on quantitative ultrasonometry of bone in women.").

And the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism has said that, although controversies exist on the possible adverse effect of T4 on bone mass, most studies reported bone loss in estrogen-deprived postmenopausal women taking suppressive doses of levothyroxine. Levothyroxine- suppressive therapy was associated with bone loss in postmenopausal women, however, it could be prevented by either calcium supplementation or intranasal calcitonin. ( J Clin Endocrinol Metab 1996 Mar;81(3):1232-6, "Prevention of bone loss induced by thyroxine suppressive therapy in postmenopausal women: the effect of calcium and calcitonin.")"

Hope that helps.

[helbell]

I find this very worrisome, especially as I need to take enough thyroid hormone to mitigate a host of symptoms. I've breezed through links quickly and a bit more and it seems suppressed TSH is the main risk factor. We need to find out how this figures in natural thyroid hormone treatment, too, because that suppresses TSH more than thyroxine alone. Thanks for th post...put me on alert.

[helbell]

Some more discussions on hypo/HYPER and bone loss

stopthethyroidmadness.com/b...

ukconspiracy.myfastforum.or... ('Structural weaknesses/deformities and impaired ability to repair damaged tissues, manifesting in brittle nails, brittle or scant hair (including baldness), degenerating bones (osteoporosis), malformed bones (scoliosis)')

westonaprice.org/modern-dis...

thyroidresearchjournal.com/...

('Conclusions

Thyroid hormones are necessary to normal development and function of human skeleton. This is evidently visible in conditions of hyper- and hypothyroidism. Although it is still unclear if bone changes observed in state of thyrotoxicosis are related to lack of TSH or to excess of thyroid hormones or both of them. Overt hyperthyroidism leads to decreased BMD and increased fracture risk. Subclinical hyperthyroidism also causes a small reduction in BMD and increased risk of fracture but only in men ant postmenopausal women. Then suppressive doses of T4 can contribute to reduced BMD due to patient’s sex and gender (in postmenopausal females). Hypothyroidism has controversial influence on bone metabolism but probably leads to increased fracture risk ')

tiredthyroid.com/osteoporos...

It might be worth contacting this blog author for more links/info...ah, scroll down the article to see refs.

[helbell]

And, interestingly for me, because I have had aggressive perio disease this last three years since the beginning of unidentified hypoT, but recent dental Xrays showed regeneration of bone. I am getting close to optimum levels with reduction in other disease states (don't mean it will last of course) ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/189...