...and end. My announcement from today is that I was up all night with the Big D and currently feel totally worn out. I have no idea what happened and because I'm still in my PJs (and it's 4:30 PM), I am just going to be content with the fact that it appears to have gotten better. Plus, I took some 'real drug' to stop it, so we'll see how that goes.
This post is going to be about foods, vitamins, and minerals that are supposed to help or hurt thyroid hormone production. This is interesting because, depending on what you're getting and not getting, you might be setting yourself up for thyroid problems or exacerbating the ones you already have.
One of my favorite sites, Women to Women, has a page about thyroid health. They have this AWESOME chart for things you should be eating (though there is some debate about Iodine, as you'll see). I love that is a food chart, instead of a recommendation for what multi-vitamin to buy (or worse, that they could sell you). It's just normal food. Imagine that.
Women to Women has this list of vitamins and minerals we should be getting:
- Iodine
- Selenium
- Zinc
- Iron
- Copper
- Antioxidants and B Vitamins
Goodies:
Selenium--In any awesome study entitled "Selenium supplementation in patients with autoimmune thyroiditis decreases thyroid peroxidase antibodies concentrations", it's illustrated that in people with Hashimoto's Disease, Selenium can help! The conclusion? "We conclude that selenium substitution may improve the inflammatory activity in patients with autoimmune thyroiditis, especially in those with high activity." Selenium helps your body to regulate the immune system; it helps keep your immune system in line and not over active.
The study states that "In areas with severe selenium deficiency there is a higher incidence of thyroiditis due to a decreased activity of selenium-dependent glutathione peroxidase activity within thyroid cells. Selenium-dependent enzymes also have several modifying effects on the immune system. Therefore, even mild selenium deficiency may contribute to the development and maintenance of autoimmune thyroid diseases."
Some of the posters I have run into online find that taking Selenium has largely helped their Hashimoto's symptoms disappear. Also, I posted before on how taking Selenium supplements helps women who have had postpartum thyroiditis in the past avoid having it (and avoid having a permanent thyroid problem) after subsequent pregnancies. That's powerful stuff!
B Vitamins--Interestingly enough, apparently people with hypothyroidism might also be deficient in B Vitamins. Particularly, B12. Here's a study on that: Vitamin B12 deficiency common in primary hypothyroidism. 40% of they hypothyroid patients looked at were deficient.
Mary Shomon, the About.com Thyroid Guide, has some more information about this. She fleshes out the study and includes symptoms of a B12 deficiency, how a B12 deficiency can contribute to anemia, you get the idea...
Vitamin D--In the article Vitamin D Deficiency and Thyroid Disease , a doc talks about how important Vitamin D is for your thyroid. It says "several articles published over 20 years ago showed that patients with hypothyroidism have low levels of vitamin D. This may lead to some of the bone problems related to hypothyroidism."
More from Mary Shomon on Vitamin D: An M.D. she interviews has this to say: "This particular vitamin is so crucial to thyroid function that its status has now been elevated by researchers to co-hormone. We now know that the variability of thyroid to work or not work in your body is dependent upon the presence of Vitamin D, making it not just of benefit, but absolutely essential."
Fish Oil--Another popular nutrient right now, the study Omega-3 Fatty Acids in Inflammation and Autoimmune Diseases is probably just one among many about how great fish oil can be fore you.
"Animal experiments and clinical intervention studies indicate that omega-3 fatty acids have anti-inflammatory properties and, therefore, might be useful in the management of inflammatory and autoimmune diseases."
They go on to say that "...arthritis, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis and lupus erythematosis are autoimmune diseases characterized by a high level of IL-1 and the proinflammatory leukotriene LTB4 produced by omega-6 fatty acids. There have been a number of clinical trials assessing the benefits of dietary supplementation with fish oils in several inflammatory and autoimmune diseases in humans, including rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, psoriasis, lupus erythematosus, multiple sclerosis and migraine headaches. Many of the placebo-controlled trials of fish oil in chronic inflammatory diseases reveal significant benefit, including decreased disease activity and a lowered use of anti-inflammatory drugs."
I think it's an important side-note that inflammatory processes are helped along (in part, of course) by Omega 6 fatty acids, those that we get a lot of through things like peanut butter, avocado, palm oil, soybean oil, corn oil, blah blah. So, be wary.
Baddies:
Potentially Kale and Cruciferous Veggies--Women to Women has info here too: "...there are hundreds, if not thousands of other compounds found in edible plants that inhibit the TPO enzyme. The isothiocyanates found in the Brassica family of vegetables — broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, and so on — can reduce thyroid hormone in the same way. An enlarged thyroid is sometimes referred to as a goiter, and these compounds are sometimes categorized as goitrogens." The author does NOT recommend cutting out all these foods, just making sure that you have enough iodine to bind to TPO enzymes and that you maybe cook some of them to inactivate the isothiocyanates.
A dissenting opinion on this can be found here (which I included for good measure).
Dr. Weil has some good info on this. How I love what that man stands for. Here he answers whether eating broccoli is bad for someone with a thyroid problem. The good doctors says "It is true that cruciferous vegetables such as cabbage, kale, Brussels sprouts, broccoli and cauliflower contain natural chemicals called goitrogens (goiter producers) that can interfere with thyroid hormone synthesis. Other foods...include corn, sweet potatoes, lima beans, turnips, peanuts, cassava (YUCA), canola oil and soybeans. Fortunately, the goitrogens in these foods are inactivated by cooking, even by light steaming, so there is no need to forego the valuable antioxidant and cancer- protective effects cruciferous vegetables afford." Emphasis mine!
It seems like if you eat a lot of this stuff raw then you'll be getting a lot of anti-thyroid isothiocyanates. (I can't pronounce that, I just copy and paste. Curiously, blogger tells me the one above is spelled correctly but the one I just copied is spelled wrong. :)
Soy--From Women to Women: "Some studies have shown that the isoflavones in soybeans inhibit the enzyme responsible for adding iodine to thyroid hormone, thyroid peroxidase (TPO). These and other studies also demonstrate, however, that soy’s effect on the thyroid involves the critical relationship between your iodine status and thyroid function. This means that if you have low iodine in your body, the soy isoflavone could bond to what iodine you do have, leaving you with an inadequate reserve for thyroid hormone production. Evidence suggests that if you have sufficient iodine in your body, eating soy will most likely not be a problem."
Everything I have read says not to eat lots of soy when you take thyroid medication. Apparently this is because soy can bind to that TPO enzyme (which is the enzyme that assists the chemical reaction that adds iodine to a protein called thyroglobulin, a step in generating thyroid hormone).
Gluten-- See previous post, Thyroids & Gluten Don't Mix, on this one! But Women to Women has a final word on gluten: "A distinct connection between celiac disease, gluten intolerance, and autoimmune thyroid issues has been observed, and many of my patients find that when they remove gluten-containing foods, they feel much better and notice fewer problems with their thyroid."
Good & Bad:
Iodine--My understanding of iodine is that it's good for normal hypothyroidism (i.e. not autoimmune), but can sometimes be bad for people with Hashimoto's Thyroiditis. Iodine is necessary for your body to make thyroid hormone. Too much iodine (paired with a Selenium deficiency) can indeed trigger autoimmune thyroiditis. But after you get your Selenium levels back up, it seems like it might be a good idea to make sure you're getting enough iodine.
Looking at both sides of this issue, here I present to you my FAVORITE article on this topic. On Perfect Health a guest author has written up a series of articles on how iodine works with selenium. The reason I was so impressed? These folks chased down a bunch of studies in mice and compared the results and then went on to extrapolate how that might work in humans (again, citing a bunch of studies).
Their conclusion: "Excess iodine intake can cause an autoimmune thyroiditis that bears all the characteristics of Hashimoto’s. However, in animal studies this occurs only if selenium is deficient or in excess. Similarly, in animal studies very high iodine intake can exacerbate a pre-existing autoimmune thyroiditis, but only if selenium is deficient or in excess. With optimal selenium status, thyroid follicles are healthy, goiter is eliminated, and autoimmune markers like Th1/Th2 ratio and CD4+/CD8+ ratio are normalized over a wide range of iodine intake. It seems that optimizing selenium intake provides powerful protection against autoimmune thyroid disease, and provides tolerance of a wide range of iodine intakes."
This natural doc, Jeffrey Dach, also agrees that iodine isn't to be shunned. He says that although iodine alone has been shown to worsen Hashimoto's Thyroiditis, "selenium deficiency is the underlying prerequisite for iodine induced thyroid damage in Hashimoto's Thyroiditis. Selenium supplementation is protective and prevents thyroid damage from iodine. Iodine opponents such as Dr K and Chris Kresser as well as the studies they quote tend to ignore the role of selenium."
Here's an opinion from someone who is clearly anti-iodine for people with autoimmune thyroiditis. I have liked Dr. Chris Kessler for other opinions, but the more research I did the more I have to admit that maybe he's not presenting the whole picture.
This blog has a list of good sources of iodine, in case you were curious whether or not you are getting enough. I haven't had iodized table salt in the house in awhile and we haven't eaten fast food in awhile. So, from what I can tell I'm not getting much iodine now. Who knows what my intake was before this whole mess..
The point--Eat well, live well. There are a lot of tiny nutrients that can make a big impact on your health.
I've been taking desiccated porcine supplements .75 mg for 3 months and I already feel better than before. I haven't noticed any side effects at all.
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