What is the vitamin/thyroid link?

[doingitfordad]

I have always been confused by the low levels and constant supplementation that seems to be necessary for me (and many of you) who have hypothyroidism despite, in my case, a very good diet containing iron, minerals and vitamins- (I understand vitamin D supplementation is often necessary despite diet). Is it chicken or egg? With an underactive thyroid do we not process food properly and therefore don't get enough out of it, or does our low vitamin count mean our thyroid doesn't work properly? I am constantly low in iron and vitamin D and years ago (under investigation for recurrent miscarriage) I had a hair root analysis which said my zinc was really low and magnesium bad also. I don't understand why?!

[posthinking01]

Hi - I was not given thyroid medication even though I had over 100 symptoms some of them very serious - I was so low on zinc that the lab who tested me phoned me to tell me to go out and buy some - so low on magnesium I developed a sparsity in my muscles that would make me go into a spasm and I was left by the roadside stuck in a spasm in agony just trying to get up a pavement step. What I do know about our wonderful human bodies because I saw it with Vitamin C - is that the body will drag what nutrients it needs to keep you alive - I was finally given thyroid meds but my adrenals were not being met with the cortisol it needed desperately. I have studied nutrition for over 50 years and was reading a book on Scurvy and how it took over 200 years to admit low Vitamin C was the problem and only then because they were running out of sailors for the Battle of Waterloo (I think it was Waterloo).

I had been on the thyroid hormone for about 3 months and was looking very very ill - not me at all - my face was drawn and I was exhausted - but one day I noticed a scar of mine was getting wider and wider and my teeth were loose (something I experienced at aged 15 and at various other times of my life I kept saying my teeth felt loose - my body was even then dragging out C for the adrenals) - my skin was collapsing as the collagen was not being produced in the correct way due to low C - I realised it could be Scurvy and took high doses of C immediately and within a few days I saw an improvement - I have since researched and read that C is so needed by the adrenal glands that it will pull it from the body to keep you alive. I am of the opinion that D etc. deficiencies with thyroid disorders work the same way - the metabolic system utilises what it needs to make up for the deficiency the thyroid disarray is causing.

I have since been diagnosed with adrenal insufficiency which does not surprise me at all and I am on steroids for life - I think the Vitamin C being 'stolen' throughout my life has gone on to show I was deficient in adrenal steroids all my life - although I also wonder could it be that I was living on my adrenals (adrenaline) because my thyroid was low since a child - which came first?

Now on steroids daily - I always know when I need to take more - as I look drawn and my skin goes loose - so my body still giving me signs which I thank goodness that I know what it is 'saying' !