Graves and iodine

[Kari55]

Hi everyone, my husband’s endo told him to avoid foods high in iodine. I was wondering what multivitamin would be safe for someone with Graves’ disease? Does it need to be without iodine?

[Greybeard]

In general multivits can be seen as a waste of time and money. Supplimenting things that you are known to be low in is far more effective. As for iodine, there is a lot written on these pages about it, a lot of which is negative. Iodine is a key component of thyroid hormones, with graves disease you have an excess of hormone charging about so adding iodine could be seen as adding fuel to the fire.

[Kari55 in reply to Greybeard]

Thanks for your reply. What is the best way of checking the mineral deficiencies? I have read that blood tests are inaccurate and hair tests difficult to interpret.

[greygoose]

Iodine is actually anti-thyroid, and used to be a treatment for hyperthyroidism. Is your husband planning on having RAI? That's usually when doctor recommend low iodine diets, so that the thyroid takes up as much of the radio-active iodine as possible. I think, perhaps, your husband's endo has just got confused. Iodine is not recommended for hypos.

No point in taking a multi-vit. Very unlikely he'd get much benefit from it, so a waste of money.

[Kari55 in reply to greygoose]

Thank you greygoose. I think his endo does get confused. She wrote some letters to my husband’s GP containing a lot of incorrect facts. She was pushing for RAI but my husband has got mild TED so his ophthalmologist advised against it, plus we are trying to conceive. So now she is pushing him into surgery.

[greygoose in reply to Kari55]

Because she thinks it will be easier for her to deal with, I imagine.

[Kari55 in reply to greygoose]

Yes, exactly but most probably not the best solution for my husband’s quality of life.

[SlowDragon Administrator]

Get his vitamin levels tested. Vitamin D, folate, ferritin and B12. Privately if necessary

thyroiduk.org.uk/tuk/testin...

Medichecks Thyroid plus ultra vitamin or Blue Horizon Thyroid plus eleven are the most popular choice. DIY finger prick test or option to pay extra for private blood draw. Both companies often have money off offers.

Does he have Graves' disease? If so has he considered trying strictly gluten free diet

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

chriskresser.com/the-gluten...

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

Recent article by Professor Toft recent article saying, T3 may be necessary for many especially after RAI or Thyroidectomy.

It's currently extremely difficult in many CCG areas to be prescribed T3 at all

rcpe.ac.uk/sites/default/fi...

[Kari55 in reply to SlowDragon]

Thanks SlowDragon. Yes, he does have Graves confirmed. His white cell levels dropped on Carbimazole as he had a cold so he is now on PTU. We are hoping he can go into remission rather than having his thyroid out. His vit D was check and was on the high end. He will ask for folate, ferritin an B12 to be tested. He is seeing a private endo so she should refer him. He has been gluten free and following Amy Myers AIP protocol for over a month now.

I will check out other links - thank you for that.

[SlowDragon Administrator in reply to Kari55]

Has he noticed any improvement since changing diet?

I have Hashimoto's, so similar in that is autoimmune. Gluten free diet was noticeable improvement

[Kari55 in reply to SlowDragon]

Yes, definitely a big improvement as he used to suffer from reflux and IBS. The big challenge for him is to put weight back on as he is 6ft5 and got to 10.5 stone. When eating healthy, it is very hard to put on weight but we are hoping that once his thyroid goes back to normal, he will gain weight too.