Thyroid meds & cancer.

[hairyfairy]

I read yesterday that synthetic thyroxine has been linked to lung cancer. I`m on 50mg a day, & I`m wondering if it would be safer to stop taking it.

[Haider5]

what? really? where did you read that - please share the link to the study?

[hairyfairy in reply to Haider5]

Iv`e read it on several sites after seeing something about it on facebook.

[helvella Administrator in reply to hairyfairy]

It has been discussed here before, possibly more than once. Lots of questions about the real meaning of the research - not at all clear.

[puncturedbicycle]

There may be a correlation but they can't say much more than that. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...

stopthethyroidmadness.com/2...

[humanbean]

This might reassure you :

verywell.com/levothyroxine-...

[Hidden in reply to humanbean]

Humanbean, it reminded me of the following statement :

1- Ice cream sold by street vendors in New York increases in July and August

2- crime rate in New York increases in July and August.

Conclusion : people who eat ice cream in the streets are more likely to be victims of a crime or commit one!

[humanbean in reply to Hidden]

Ah, you are obviously a woman after my own heart. You might enjoy this website :

tylervigen.com/spurious-cor...

[Hidden in reply to humanbean]

That's so funny! So true though how we can so easily get fooled by statistics!

[bluebug]

The study is this one - ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...

There are major limitations in the study:

1. The smoking rate was estimated in part of the study

2. They didn't know what dose of thyroxine the women were on

Other research looks through various studies and comes to other conclusions - erc.endocrinology-journals....

Regardless if you are a smoker you shouldn't be smoking as it is proven you are more likely to die of diseases related to that e.g. heart disease, other cancers, COPD than anything else. And if you don't smoke and live in a area with lots of air pollution then that is likely to cause you lung cancer.

[NatChap]

It would be more dangerous to just stop taking your thyroid meds. Look into alternatives by all means but never just stop them.