Gluten free

[haggisplant]

Hi,

Could finding point me to the scientific evidence / papers etc that going gluten free helps conversion?

Thanks!

[startagaingirl]

Hi - i don't believe it has ever been claimed that gluten free helps conversion, what it can really help, however, is absorption. That is absorption of everything from thyroid medication to nutrients from food. It appears that many of us - especially those with hashis - actually have underlying food intolerances, of which gluten is the most prevalent. Amongst other things this causes damage to the villi in the gut which is where absorption happens. A gluten free diet allows these to repair, hence enabling better absorption as well as potentially calming the immune system and possibly eventually reducing anti-bodies.

What does help conversion is selenium. Vit d, folate and ferritin are required for use of t3 (either taken or converted from t4) in the cells all over the body.

Sorry - I don't keep references for any of this. Don't suppose there are many scientific ones anyway since medical community is very slow to acknowledge the role of food and nutrients for health improvement.

Gillian

[haggisplant in reply to startagaingirl]

Great, that’s very helpful thanks.

I’ve seen a few to many claims that gluten free helps conversion. I’ve never found any papers that say this.

There is a link to coeliac disease if you have thyroid issues (I’ve been tested a billion times!)

Funnily enough I discovered I don’t absorb iron if I drink lots of milk in my redbush tea (all day!) so I get how some people would also be sensitive.

Thank you!

[haggisplant in reply to haggisplant]

But gluten free would only affect coeliac antibodies surely?

Is there hard evidence of it affecting thyroid antibodies?

[haggisplant in reply to haggisplant]

I could see a link to gut bacteria / biome though which could help absorption. If you cut gluten. I’ve noticed no difference in me thyroid wise when I go gf. Only if I go milk free and it affects my ferritin levels.

[greygoose in reply to haggisplant]

Well, you wouldn't, would you. Both tea and milk block absorption of iron. You would have to leave a tea-free, two hour gap each side of taking the iron. But, take some vit C with the iron to help absorption.

[haggisplant in reply to greygoose]

Not caffeine, it was rooibos - what was happening is that I wasn’t absorbing iron from my food due to drinks.

I went milk free and raised my iron in one month from food as much as I had managed to on three months of 600 mg daily iron.

[greygoose in reply to haggisplant]

Is there no caffeine in rooibos tea, then? What is it?

[greygoose in reply to greygoose]

livestrong.com/article/5121...

[greygoose in reply to haggisplant]

Are you confusing gluten-free with taking selenium? Both are recommended on here to lower antibodies. But, selenium also helps with conversion. If both are mentioned in the same sentence, you could get the impression that gluten-free also helps with conversion. But, it doesn't.

[haggisplant in reply to greygoose]

I’ve seen it here and elsewhere - gluten helps conversion but not mentioning selenium, which I know helps.

But, is this for hashi patients where their levels go up and down due to antibodies and struggling thyroids? I’d really appreciate the ‘science behind it’. I know two women who had post partum thyroiditis. One was advised by her chiro to go gluten free; it was pointless as neither had antibodies. Just a wonky annoying thyroid.

[haggisplant in reply to haggisplant]

Gluten free helps conversion that is.

[greygoose in reply to haggisplant]

Gluten-free doesn't help conversion. I've never ever seen that said. So, there is no science to know.

Gluten-free is said to lower antibodies, that's all. Meaning that eating gluten raises Hashi's antibodies due to the protein gliadin it contains, which resembles a certain protein contained in the thyroid, which causes the immune system to attack the thyroid, because the immune system mistakes that protein for an enemy, rather like it would the cold virus, or something. After the attack, the antibodies move in to clean up the scene of the crime, as it were, remove the debris. So, if the immune system is also attacking the protein in gluten, that means there are more antibodies in the system. And, antibodies cause symptoms, make people feel unwell. Removing the gluten means that there is less for the immune system to attack, therefore less antibodies in the system, therefore people feel better. I think I've got that all right, grosso modo.

Anybody that suggests that gluten-free helps with conversion, has misunderstood somewhere along the line. It happens all the time, with our addled brains. I can think of lots of other things that are talked about on here that people have misunderstood, and then, some time later, come out with something totally upside down and inside out, showing that they hadn't understood what they originally read.

[C70rol]

A quote from Dr Peatfields book says :-the most common food allergy is allergy to gluten, the protein fraction of wheat. The antibody generated by the body, by a process of molecular mimicry, cross reacts with the thyroperoxidase enzyme, (which makes thyroxine) and shuts it down. So allergy to bread can make you hypothyroid

[researcherUK]

Gluten inhibits the absorption of zinc, selenium, and iron and it is not just for celiac’s.

Selenium and Zinc are required ingredients for conversion and iron carries the active T3 into the cells.

As for your question about the connection between gluten and the conversion of T4 into T3, then, the short answer is yes there is a connection.

Conversion is very complex and has several facets. One of which is where it takes place and that is the intestinal environment.

We know for a fact that 20% of the active T3 conversion takes place in the gut.

There is huge evidence that gluten disrupts the gut flora by increasing the bad bacteria, causing severe inflammations, and by creating a leaky gut.

For example,

amymyersmd.com/2016/11/sibo...

Assuming that you have all the required vitamins and minerals readily available but if the milieu or the pot where this conversion takes place is faulty, inflamed, leaky and not functional, then it is evident that the conversion will be affected.

To further explain, the good bacteria in the gut, a required catalyst for the conversion, contain an enzyme that can help convert T3S (T3 sulfate) and T3AC (triiodothyroacetic acid) into the active form of T3.

If they are diminished, then an integral ingredient for the conversion is also affected.

sciencedirect.com/science/a...

Gluten has a connection, too, and with the other milieu of the conversion is the liver.

Approximately sixty percent of the T4 is converted into T3, twenty percent is converted into an inactive form of thyroid hormone known as reverse T3 (irreversible), and the remaining twenty percent is converted into T3S (T3 sulfate) and T3AC (triiodothyroacetic acid).

With a leaky gut, the Lipopolysaccharides (LPS), which are compounds found in the walls of some gram-negative bacteria (bad bacteria) make their way to the liver. LPS can affect the T4 to T3 conversion and the number of thyroid receptors in the liver and cause inflammation within its cell.

Also, an increase in the inflammatory LPS showed a decrease in DIO1 enzyme activity, while the DIO3 enzyme activity stayed the same. More DIO3 enzyme activity correlates with an increase in reverse T3.

Reverse T3 is inactive and also lowers circulating levels of active T3.

jme.endocrinology-journals....

[SlowDragon Administrator]

Changing to a strictly gluten free diet may help reduce symptoms. Certainly very many with Hashimoto's find that the case

It's generally accepted that approx 20% of T3 is converted in the gut. So if your gut's not functioning well that's a problem

drbradshook.com/understandi...

If you have leaky gut (as most with Hashimoto's do), then healing the gut will help improve Thyroid levels. Wether that is due to increased stomach acidity enabling better absorption of thyroxine in the gut, which would not naturally be where thyroid hormones come from before starting of thyroid replacement. Or because if gut is working better then low vitamin levels are likely to improve

But also leaky gut allows gluten to cross from gut to blood.

Eliminating gluten (and dairy for some) nearly always lowers antibodies

Gluten intolerance can be as debilitating as coeliac, but there's no NHS test (private testing via Cyrex)

Just because you have negative test for coeliac doesn't mean you're not gluten intolerant

thyroidpharmacist.com/artic...

thyroidpharmacist.com/artic...

amymyersmd.com/2017/02/3-im...

chriskresser.com/the-gluten...

scdlifestyle.com/2014/08/th...

drknews.com/changing-your-d...

Low stomach acid can be an issue

Lots of posts on here about how to improve with Apple cider vinegar or Betaine HCL

thyroidpharmacist.com/artic...

drmyhill.co.uk/wiki/hypochl...

Other things to help heal gut lining

Bone broth

thyroidpharmacist.com/artic...

Probiotics

carolinasthyroidinstitute.c...

[Josiesmum]

Isabella Wentz talks about this Here:

amazon.co.uk/Hashimotos-Pro...

References

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/221...

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/212...