Advice needed

[Yulia2010]

Hi Guys,

I have recently been diagnosed with arthritis in both hips. A doctor told me to try Piascledine containing soya-bean oil. I was told this is a very good thing for arthritic pain and will even particially restore parts of damaged cartilage if taken over a few months. I would not hesitate if it were not for soya-bean oil. Would it interfere with thyroxine absorption? Is there any way to take Piascledine at all (i.e, if I take Thyroxine in the mornings and Piascledine in the evening)? Your thoughts are much appreciated.

[diogenes Remembering]

A paper I posted a little while ago on this topic:

The effect of soy constituents on thyroid function

Front. Endocrinol., 22 November 2018 | doi.org/10.3389/fendo.2018....

The Effect of High Dose Isoflavone Supplementation on Serum Reverse T3 in Euthyroid Men With Type 2 Diabetes and Post-menopausal Women

Thozhukat Sathyapalan, Josef Köhrle, Eddy Rijntjes, Alan S. Rigby, Soha R. Dargham, Eric Kilpatrick and Stephen L. Atkin

1Academic Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism, Hull York Medical School, University of Hull, Hull, United Kingdom

2Institut für Experimentelle Endokrinologie, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin Institute of Health, CVK, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany

3Weill Cornell Medical College Qatar, Doha, Qatar

4Department of Clinical Chemistry, Sidra Medical and Research Center, Doha, Qatar

Background: The health benefits of soy are widely reported but there are queries on the effect of soy isoflavones on thyroid function and the underlying mechanism of action.

Materials and Methods: We examined the effect of soy isoflavones on reverse tri-iodothyronine (or 3,3′,5′-tri-iodothyronine; rT3) in two studies comprising 400 patients: 200 men (study 1; 3 months) and 200 post-menopausal women (study 2; 6 months) who were randomized to consume 15 g soy protein with 66 mg of isoflavones (SPI) daily, or 15 g soy protein alone without isoflavones (SP) daily.

Results: SPI supplementation increased rT3 serum concentration in both men 0.41 (0.12) vs. 0.45 (0.14) nmol/L and women 0.33 (0.12) vs. 0.37 (0.09) nmol/L at 3 months compared to SP that was not seen at 6 months. Thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) serum concentrations increased while free thyroxine (fT4) concentrations decreased with 3 months of SPI compared to SP supplementation for both men and women. rT3 correlated with TSH in both studies (p = 0.03) but not with either fT3 or fT4. fT3 levels did not differ between the SPI and SP preparations.

Conclusion: Soy isoflavones transiently increased rT3 levels within 3 months though reverted to baseline at 6 months. The mechanism for this would be either rT3 degrading deiodinase 1 and/or deiodinase 2 activities are transiently inhibited at 3 months, or inhibition of deiodinase 3, which generates rT3 from T4 is induced at 6 months. These changes were mirrored in the TSH concentrations, suggesting that short-term high dose isoflavone transiently impairs thyroid function in the first 3 months and may impact on general health during this period.

[Yulia2010 in reply to diogenes]

Many thanks for your reply. A bit worrying....((

[greygoose in reply to diogenes]

But, are there any isoflavones in the oil? Soy oil is not the same as soy protein. Besides, the main concern with soy and thyroid hormone is not that it affects thyroid function, nor that it raises TSH or rT3, but that it affects the uptake of thyroid hormone at a cellular level. I can't help feeling that that research was somehow avoiding the main issue.

[diogenes Remembering in reply to greygoose]

No there aren't. Should have done my research better to begin with.

[greygoose]

Soy bean oil is not a good thing to ingest, but it won't affect your levo absorption. Although you would, of course, need to take it at least two hours away from thyroid hormone.

[Yulia2010 in reply to greygoose]

Many thanks, Greygoose. Will have to think about this. I will only have to take it for 6 months, so maybe worth a go...but I've only recently started feeling OK on thyroxine, like a glimpse of my old self and don't want to jeopardise this.

[greygoose in reply to Yulia2010]

I would think it's worth a go, yes. If you eat any kind of processed food, you're probably already ingesting much more soy oil than you may think. It's in everything! They call it 'vegetable oil'! I don't know quite how bad it is - possibly no worse than any other processed oils - but the thing about oil is that it's not the whole plant. There are substances in whole soy that impede the uptake of thyroid hormone by the cells. But, are those substances in soy oil? I don't know. Possibly not. But, I think you'd know if it was having this effect, and then you could stop the treatment. But, if there is a possibility that it might ease your arthritic pain, I think it has to be worth a try.

[Yulia2010 in reply to greygoose]

Many thanks for taking time to reply! I feel reassured now) Will give it a go.

[greygoose in reply to Yulia2010]

You're welcome.