Does anyone else find gluten free helps the hypo symptoms? I've tried it but keep failing as I'm so hungry ??

I will do gluten free if it actually works but not if it doesn't do much.

[loueldhen]

How long off it and why are you hungry? Eat cheese nuts meat veg?

[Cooper27]

If you're feeling hungry, you'll benefit from eating some good fats - olive oil/avocado/coconut. I found cooking potatoes in more olive oil than I used to stopped me feeling so hungry (the extra oil didn't cause any weight gain). Also have some extra protein to begin with.

[Marz]

It is an individual and personal thing. But also consider we are not able to see what is going on inside our intestines ! Gluten molecules can stick to the gut wall and cause inflammation. Perhaps you are not sensitive to the endless chemicals sprayed onto wheat whilst growing and beyond. These things can and do happen whilst you are completely unaware.

It isn't about helping hypo symptoms but about healing the gut so everything works better including absorption ...

[Tina_Maria]

Hi there, there is very little scientific evidence that going gluten free is having an effect on the auto-immune disease. I know a lot of people on this forum go gluten free and say that it helps, but this is an individual experience and should not be extrapolated to the whole community. It has been shown that there is a higher incidence of people with coeliac disease in people with an underactive thyroid, as autoimmune diseases can cluster together and if you are coeliac and perhaps don't know and avoid gluten, this will of course help.

There is a lot of hype in the media and everywhere around gluten (just look at the ever expanding shelves in the local supermarkets!) and it is blamed for lots of conditions, where causality has not been fully established. Also, a restrictive diet can leave you with nutritional deficiencies and since people with Hashimoto's are suffering from nutrient deficits anyway, a restrictive diet does not seem to help improve things.

People also tend to change too much at once, they improve their medication, get their Vitamins sorted, go gluten free and eat a healthier diet all at the same time - so it is very difficult to establish what has actually helped.

If you have a definite intolerance and you feel that you are getting better, then by all means, but if not I would be more inclined to try other things first before I drastically change my diet.

[greygoose in reply to Tina_Maria]

Well said! Totally agree.

[Tina_Maria in reply to greygoose]

Thanks!

[Angel_of_the_North in reply to Tina_Maria]

Didn't find that going gluten free made me hungry - in fact i was less hungry after I stopped eating all processed grains. Didn't stop me being hypo, but it helped cure my asthma - from 10 puffs a day on the ventolin to about one every six months - perhaps less.

[MaisieGray in reply to Tina_Maria]

Well said Tina_Maria

[Hidden in reply to Tina_Maria]

Recently I found a paper that investigated a gluten free diet and it did actually reduce Hashi antibodies. I'll dig it up, but I'm off to work so it will have to be another time. This is the first "real" evidence I've seen.

[Tina_Maria in reply to Hidden]

Hi, yes I did see many articles on this, unfortunately most of them have very small samples sizes and they also did not screen patients for selenium supplementation or Vit D supplementation, both of which have shown in some studies to reduce TPO antibodies. Before the start of the trials, patients were also not screened for coeliac disease - we know there is a higher prevalence of coeliac disease in patients with thyroid disease, so if there were such patients in there, of course they would derive benefits. Antibodies do fluctuate as well over the course of the disease, they can spontaneously reduce and come back - quite difficult to exactly pinpoint to what is causing this.

It would be good to have larger, properly controlled studies to examine this in more detail to get some better evidence.

[Hidden in reply to Tina_Maria]

I've only found the one that I thought addressed it. I'll see if I can dig it up.

[Tina_Maria in reply to Hidden]

Thanks, I'd be interested to have a look at it.

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

Well I found it, and I think it does look like it is people with both. Sorry!

This is it though: thieme-connect.com/products.... I can't get into the full document.

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

This one isn't directly thyroid, but might be interesting. I can't get into it though. academic.oup.com/nutritionr...

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

sciencedirect.com/science/a...

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

tandfonline.com/doi/full/10...

So far that's all I can find.

[Tina_Maria in reply to Hidden]

Thanks for sharing! This is a really good article and provides a very balanced review. It also states:

'A latest survey on GFD in patients without celiac disease found increased incidence of the following conditions: inflammatory bowel disease, irritable bowel syndrome, thyroid diseases, lupus, and autism spectrum disorder. The patients perceived advantage even without scientific proofs [19]. It should be stressed that it is quite easy to recommend GFD, but, for the patients who carry out GFD, it is a ‘tough alley in torrid time’ [20]. Additionally, multiple nutritional limitations and deficiencies are associated with GFD. Being low in B vitamins, folate, calcium, vitamin D, iron, zinc, magnesium, carnitine, and fiber and rich in less healthy food components, the patients should be monitored by dieticians.'

And they conclude:

'Taken together, there is substantial background and logics for gluten withdrawal to slow down non-celiac ADs develop- ment. Conversely, our current knowledge is far away from unraveling the mechanism underlying GFD beneficial effects. The strength of the evidence for the use of a GFD in these non-celiac diseases varies, and the jury is not yet there. Finally, some bias, limitations, and words of caution are mandatory. Gluten side effects [3] were mainly investigated in animal models and immortalized cell-lines and not in vivo on human. There is obvious lack of prospective, well controlled, double blinded, crossover, and long-term studies of gluten-

free dietary therapy in celiac associated or isolated ADs. Caution before implementing GFD to treat or attenuate ADs over the board is necessary.'

If people draw benefits from going gluten free, that's fine - but the pros and cons of embarking on such a dietary intervention should carefully be weighed up.

[Hidden in reply to Tina_Maria]

I do keep hearing of people who say their antibodies went down after they gave up gluten etc. It may simply be that there isn't the evidence *yet*. But no, the evidence isn't in yet.

IIRC wheat isn't a great source of any of those things, unless it is fortified, so I'm surprised by that statement in the article. Looking it up, I'm not seeing anything that argues against that. A whole cup of unenriched whole wheat flour has 7% of the RDA for iron and it's nonhaem iron. Half a cup of cooked silver beet has much the same amount.

Personally, I choose foods that are not fortified, and go for whole foods where possible. If I'm going to - essentially - take a vitamin, I want to choose the one I want to take! But, GF is hard road to follow to a certain degree.

I do feel better when I'm gluten free, but as I go LCHF (ie, highly nutritious) it may not be the absence of gluten, but rather an improvement in overall nutrition. Most of the gluten-free replacement products are (a) horrible or (b) full of ingredients I'm not willing to eat on a regular basis, so I don't eat them.

I'm aiming at being mostly gluten free, and not worrying too much if I'm offered a bit of birthday cake.

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

thanks for sharing very interesting but its whetehr i have the will power to cut out glutyen or not? xx

[Louiseb17]

I tried it for 6 months and personally it didn’t change any symptoms for me.

[Hidden]

Thanks for all your advice I think I will try as an experiment for a weekend if it really makes no difference to energy levels the I don't see the point but if it does then that's fine! I will let you know

[Hidden]

It may take longer than just a few days to feel any improvement.

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

How long do you recommend? 😀

[humanbean]

When I went gluten free it took about 5 days to see definite evidence of improvement in various symptoms and problems I had, not all of which were related to my thyroid.

I'd already been tested some years before and been told I didn't suffer with coeliac disease. As a result of that negative result I carried on eating gluten for another five years before I stopped. I'm really annoyed about that because obviously more damage was occurring while I continued eating gluten.

I can understand about you feeling hungry when trying to give up gluten. I did too, when I made my first abortive attempt to give it up. (I succeeded second time around.) It can be a huge change for people, particularly if they love bread, cakes, pasta, breakfast cereals and stuff like that, and it can be difficult to find things you can substitute with until you learn more.

There is also an addictive element to gluten which means that you can feel like you have quite severe flu as you withdraw from the stuff. The withdrawal affects may last for a week or possibly a bit longer and then you wake up one day and you feel much more clear headed and energetic than usual.

The only advice I can offer, if you want to try going gluten-free, is to point out that you don't have to do it in a "Big Bang" way, you can cut down over time. Also, don't worry about losing weight (if you're on a diet) while you adapt. And also remember that you cut out a lot of calories when you give up products with gluten in and you have to replace them or else you will be seriously hungry.

If you want to find some useful recipes that are gluten free, you could try the recipes on this site :

dietdoctor.com/

Every single recipe (as far as I know) is gluten free, and some of the recipes are quite heavy in calories.

[Hidden in reply to humanbean]

Ok thanks will try for 5 days and see what happens x

[Tina_Maria]

I would still suggest to try and sort out your medication and supplements first before embarking on restricting your diet. If you change too many things at once, you will not find out what has actually made the significant difference and you may not actually need to cut out gluten from your diet. Just a thought!

[penny]

I have cut down on wheat, not because I am intolerant but just as an experiment. It made no difference to my fibromyalgia., or hypothyroidism but I did lose about 6lbs in weight over three weeks, mostly around my middle. I’m not prepared to not have gluten as I’m not celiac and I love my food too much (I bake a lot). What I have also done is that I have cut back on refined sugar and have been playing around with recipes to use substitutions. I don’t take sugar in beverages but a Victoria sponge needs a refined sugar to be light and fluffy; there’s also sugar in my homemade jams. Getting back on topic....I have noticed that with my weight loss (and due to my gluten reduction?) I have been able to cut down on my T3 medication. Whatever, I’m still in constant pain (bearable without painkillers) and creaky.