What could cause thyroid hormone malabsorption - Thyroid UK

Thyroid UK

141,243 members•166,489 posts

What could cause thyroid hormone malabsorption

•

What could cause thyroid hormone malabsorption or why you take hormone with the exclusion of dosage. What causes hormone medication to be absorbed appropriately by the body.

Read more about...

Thyroid abnormalities

The ability to reply to this post has been turned off.

10 Replies

•

SlowDragonAdministrator4 years ago

Here’s a good research article on malabsorption

academic.oup.com/edrv/artic...

As shown on this forum, malabsorption is a very very common problem

Prime causes

Low stomach acid

Lactose intolerance

Gluten intolerance

Gut infections, like SIBO or H Pylori

Plus we need GOOD vitamin levels

Hypothyroidism, especially Hashimoto’s, can be as much about poor gut function, with vitamin deficiencies and food intolerances as result, as it is low thyroid hormones

• in reply toSlowDragon4 years ago

You don't think rheumatoid arthritis has anything to do with it.

SlowDragonAdministrator• in reply to4 years ago

Other autoimmune disease is more common, once you have one it’s more likely to have another

greygoose4 years ago

Taking thyroid hormone with food or other supplements/medication or tea/coffee can also cause malabsorption.

selftreatendo4 years ago

The thyroid receptors age and it gets more difficult to receive thyroid hormone as people get older too.

Hillwoman4 years ago

Apart from the problems mentioned by SlowDragon and greygoose, there is a set of uncommon problems usually described as "resistance to thyroid hormone" (RTH).

This is a very complex area concerning peripheral thyroid function (i.e. not involving disease in the gland itself), encompassing problems with thyroid hormone transport, and problems with cellular uptake. Some of these difficulties stem from very rare genetic defects; others, less rare, appear to be acquired.

• in reply toHillwoman4 years ago

Hillwoman

It sounds like RTH, and I feel like my symptoms are the things you listed.

Hillwoman• in reply to4 years ago

Well, I haven't listed any symptoms! The aspects of RTH I was referring to are biochemical and genetic findings.

I believe the very rare inherited forms of RTH can be determined by testing in just a few centres worldwide (e.g. Cambridge in the UK, and Chicago in the US), but the syndromes tested for cause devastating disability from infancy.

Acquired resistance to thyroid hormone - which is rather more common - was a subject much researched by the late Dr John Lowe. I'll tag helvella here, because he has a list of links to Dr Lowe's archived website that you might find useful (afraid I can't find my own copy of the list).

There is a small number of people on the forum (I am one) who have concluded we are suffering from peripheral resistance to TH. We have arrived at this conclusion via a long process of elimination, with or without medical help, after trying all available options for thyroid treatment over a long period of time. We find only an exceptionally large dose of T3 has any impact on our symptoms and signs of hypothyroidism. I do NOT recommend anyone tries this without going through a similar process and doing a good deal of reading and research first.

helvellaAdministrator• in reply toHillwoman4 years ago

Much of Dr Lowe's website has been incorporated into a single (large) PDF - over 50 megabytes. Probably not a good idea on a poor connection or a phone (especially if paying by traffic).

dropbox.com/s/w7cjut689r1w1...

Hillwoman• in reply tohelvella4 years ago

Thanks very much.