Thyroid issues

[photocopier]

Hi in this months' edition of What Doctors Don't Tell You which you can purchase in Tesco on the front page it is entitled 'The Ultimate diet to reset your thyroid'. Just thought that might be useful information to someone

[greygoose]

Quite apart from the fact that I don't believe any diet can 'reset' your thyroid, Tesco's is not where I would expect to find it. Proceed with caution.

[shaws Administrator]

It may be quite good for information if it is helpful.

However, I think most on this forum are now cynical about doctors, treatment, and thyroid hormone replacements.

In fact I had to diagnose myself. Oh! I did have other diagnoses but none were correct. I didn't even get my money refunded after undergoing anaesthetic to remove a 'web in my throat' and afterwards told I didn't have a web. Later on in my journey I guessed the 'web' was actually a swollen thyroid gland.

[jimh111]

I think this wddty.com/magazine/2018/jan... is the article. I've only skimmed it. The front page headline is unfair to the article since the article is about the presumed effects of diet on autoimmunity. It doesn't seem to suggest you can 'reset' (i.e. cure) your thyroid. It seems to say diet can reduce autoimmunity and help you lose weight. If this is true we should bear in mind that many people have elevated TPO antibodies but only some go on to develop thyroditis or hypothyroidism. So, it would seem that references to Hashimoto's should really just be references to autoimmunity. I think this dovepress.com/effects-of-lo... is the research the article refers to. I have not read this paper yet.

I've deliberately been vague in my language above because I have not studied this article. I just want to give links to the content.

[Jazzw]

Ah, a diet where taking just about everything off the menu results in weight loss? Can’t imagine why!

First I gave up gluten, dairy and soy, and then I tried the autoimmune Paleo protocol. This is a diet that eliminates all foods that are potentially inflammatory, such as those I just mentioned as well as grains, nuts and seeds, nightshades (tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and white potatoes), alcohol and coffee.

This led to a dramatic improvement in my weight.

Always make me smile, these types of article.

[jimh111]

I've had a look at this. Although the author (Mark Ryan) seems a bit wishy-washy the paper he cites is interesting. This study found that patients put on a low carb / no goitrogen diet had a reduction in antibodies. I'd like to see another study finding the same effect just to be sure it wasn't a fluke or a biased study. Some patients feel going gluten free lowers antibody levels but I've never seen any good research showing this. I wonder if going gluten free has the knock on effect of reducing carb intake and it is this that makes them feel better. As I say, I'd like to see another study confirming the results along with follow-up studies to isolate exactly which foods cause the problem. This could lead to fewer cases of autoimmune hypothyroidism in the future. I'm not sure I would want to slow down the loss of my thyroid once it had started (assuming it would not be possible to halt it). I tend to think it would be better to get it over with as antibodies tend to fall after the thyroid has gone. As I don't have thyroid autoimmunity this is hypothetical in my case.

[clubby29 in reply to jimh111]

Hi Sarah Ballantine wrote a book on this with the science behind it included. She was/is a medical researcher also an autoimmune sufferer. Might be worth a look if you have an interest.

[thyr01d]

Hi jimh, I really like your comments, thank-you. I do have Hashimoto's and had wondered if there were any point in trying to slow down the thyroid loss (TSH alread >95 which is coma level) and thought I was just being silly. Now you've told us the antibodies tended to fall once it has gone, perhaps it's not so silly. I absolutely love the goitrogens, especially the 'hearts' raw, and would love to eat them again!

Apologies to all as this comment adds nothing to the discussion.

[jimh111]

A TSH > 95 is not coma level! Unless your fT4 is very low. If your TPO antibodies are very high (> 500?) it might be worthwhile trying to bring them down but otherwise I wouldn't bother. Please note I do not have elevated antibodies (I checked for the first time last year, the test with antibodies was cheaper than the one without). This is just an opinion on antibodies there is very little quality evidence either way so it's difficult to be definitive.