This article is part of a special report on Thyroid Disorders. To see the other articles in this series, click here.
In the first article in this series, I showed that hypothyroidism is an autoimmune disease in 90% of cases. In this article we’re going to discuss the connection between autoimmune thyroid disease (AITD) and gluten intolerance.
Several studies show a strong link between AITD (both Hashimoto’s and Graves’) and gluten intolerance. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] The link is so well-established that researchers suggest all people with AITD be screened for gluten intolerance, and vice versa.
What explains the connection? It’s a case of mistaken identity.
These antibodies to gliadin also cause the body to attack thyroid tissue. This means if you have AITD and you eat foods containing gluten, your immune system will attack your thyroid.
Even worse, the immune response to gluten can last up to 6 months each time you eat it. This explains why it is critical to eliminate gluten completely from your diet if you have AITD. There’s no “80/20” rule when it comes to gluten. Being “mostly” gluten-free isn’t going to cut it. If you’re gluten intolerant, you have to be 100% gluten-free to prevent immune destruction of your thyroid.
So how do you find out if you’re gluten intolerant? Unfortunately, standard lab tests aren’t very accurate. They test for antibodies to gluten in the bloodstream. But antibodies in the blood will only be found in cases where the gut has become so permeable that gluten can pass through. This is a relatively advanced stage of disease. Blood tests will miss the many milder cases of gluten intolerance that haven’t yet progressed to that stage.
Stool analysis is far more sensitive, because it detects antibodies produced in the digestive tract that aren’t yet escaping into the bloodstream. Using this method at Entero Lab, Dr. Kenneth Fine, a pioneer in the field, has found that up to 35% of Americans are gluten intolerant.
In addition to the stool analysis, Dr. Fine’s lab uses a cheek swab to test for the genes connected with gluten intolerance and celiac disease. People with HLA DQ genes are more likely than the general population to have autoimmune disease, celiac disease and gluten intolerance. Dr. Fine’s research shows that more than 80% of Americans have one of these gene types.
When I first read Dr. Fine’s research, I was astounded by the implications. It suggests that 1 in 3 Americans are gluten intolerant, and that 8 in 10 are genetically predisposed to gluten intolerance. This is nothing short of a public health catastrophe in a nation where the #1 source of calories is refined flour. But while most are at least aware of the dangers of sugar, trans-fat and other unhealthy foods, fewer than 1 in 8 people with celiac disease are aware of their condition. I would guess that an even lower proportion of people are aware they are gluten intolerant.
As much improved as Dr. Fine’s methods are, they aren’t perfect. In some patients with autoimmune disease, their immune system is so worn out they can no longer produce many antibodies.
Hashmioto’s, the most common autoimmune thyroid condition, is primarily a Th1 dominant condition. I’ll explain what this means in further detail in a future article. For now, what you need to understand is that in Th1-dominant conditions, the Th2 system is suppressed. The Th2 system is the part of the immune system responsible for producing antibodies. When the Th2 system is severely depressed, the body’s ability to produce antibodies is impaired. The levels may be so low that they won’t show up on a test. So, even if you have gluten intolerance, your test for gluten antibodies may be falsely negative if you have Th1-dominant Hashimoto’s.
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This is why I recommend that you avoid gluten if you have AITD, regardless of whether tests show an active antibody response. This is especially true if you have one of the genes (HLA DQ1,2, or 3) that predisposes you to developing gluten intolerance. In my opinion continuing to eat gluten when you have a confirmed autoimmune condition simply isn’t worth risking the immune destruction it could cause.
In fact, the more I learn about gluten and its effects on the body, the more I think we’d all probably be better off not eating it. Mark Sisson has written extensively about the dangers of gluten and gluten-containing grains, so head over there and have a look if this is new to you.
The good news is that if you have AITD and are gluten intolerant, removing gluten completely from your diet will dramatically improve your health. It’s not easy, but it’s worth it.
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Thanks very much for the replies Nanci and Robert. So test results came back and all thyroid levels are totally normal but I do have those elevated antibodies for hashimotos. Dr is not inclined to give me meds as I suspected which is fine by me anyway. I really wonder if proper allergen elimination and nutrient supplementation could help as I have read case studies indicating such. Robert, you are completely right that I need to be all in on the no gluten. I think diary and sugar may also be foods to elimaate – of which I don’t have much of but still do have some. Yore right. I can do this. And I need to do this. Thank you both for your feedback and support.
I am in the UK, I am on 125mg of levothyroxine. I have heard much about Armour as an alternative but not sure if in the UK doctors would know what this was and also if it were available on prescription. Can anyone help with this please?
Also if anyone in the UK has had outstanding success with Armour.
You can buy Armour from Canada from places like canadadrugs.com and other websites… with prescription of course. It would be best to find a doctor familiar with Armour to guide you through the transition form synthetic to natural hormone. If you can’t find someone with experience then stopthethyroidmadness.com has a lot of info on how to do it.
I couldn’t do it for years because of all the T3 in Armour. It felt like a big shock to my system. I finally paid big bucks to the Holtorf thyroid clinic here in the states and they prescribed several bottles of time release T3 in low doses. Enough of each dose for 10 days.
So, it was 10 days on 12.5mcg time release T3 in addition to my regular dose of levoxyl. Then 10 days on 25mcg… 10 days on 37.5mcg… etc. The slow ramp up made the jump to Armour and dropping Levoxyl entirely a piece of cake. My cells were already use to the jolt of T3. The last step for me was separating the dose of Armour and taking half in the morning and the other half at night. Once I did that I felt great and the closest to normal then I’ve felt in a decade of taking synthetic thyroid hormone.
Just keep in mind that you will not feel well until you reach the optimal dose of Armour. That is achieved by upping the dosage of Armour in small increments… like a half a grain for 2 or 3 weeks and then testing blood to see if you have reached the high range of normal for Free T3. Good luck!
I have just gotten back bloodwork that I think indicates Hashimotos.I fully believe in the nutrition connection.I have a made a number of calls to integrative and functional MDs and unfortunately none take insurance (and my insurance won’t cover out of network) so although I know they could help me, it’s just not an option for me.
I don’t want to go on medication – synthetic, bovine, or any. And I know that does nothing to treat the problem with my immune system anyway.And I’m sure conventional endos will either want to just to do that or tell me my levels aren’t bad enough to do anyting yet- so let’s just wait until I get worse! I have done detoxing stints of going gluten, dairy, soy, sugar free among others allergenic foods. I definitely know it’s helped and I can tell the difference for sure when I go back to eating one of those ingredients – especially the gluten. I think I may try to make this 100% permanent. I think it might have been you who said sort of going gluten free is like trying to say you’re sort of pregnant.
A few other things I’ve learned -there are a few things, of which I am keeping a running list, that cause what I call a “mild thyroid storm”. I don’t know if this is the right term but the symptoms are :
1)hair and eyslashes falls out,
2)eyes hurt,
3)feel tired.
4)Joint pain especially in fingers.
5)Sometimes I actually feel like my thyroid hurts -or light pain in my neck. No one has found it to be enlarged. And 3 years ago had the full scans and RAI tests and all looked normal.
The running list of what gets me like this is injesting even just a little of :
-iodine,
-aspirin
-Recently tried a hair/skin/nails supplement and had the same thing happen after just 2 days of taking it. PABA was in it which i read perhaps impacts thyroid. There were other ingredients in there too so I don’t know what is specifically was.
-And more recenlty, after the all the positive info on coconut, I started taking a lot more in- Coconut milk, virgin oil, tried baking with flour and shredded. All organic, all natural, no additives. After a week of adding so much more to my diet, I am having the same flare ups. I’m still in disbelief but I think coconut must be another thing that triggers me. How can this be?
I am creating a running list of things I can’t have and it seems to take very little of those things to tip me over to feeling unwell.
Because I am not able to see the kinds of doctors I believe really get it, I was hoping you could direct me to the best books on the matter. Simply – what to eat and not eat to knock out these antibodies and get myself on track.
I also did not want to believe that I had to go on thyroid meds for the rest of my life because of my Hashimoto’s. I’m fortunate to be able to afford doctors, and I’ve been to a regular one, a top expert endocrinologist, and an integrative medicine doctor. All of them say the only way to treat it is to take thyroid supplements. I’ve also done a ton of Internet research and am surrounded by alternative healer types, and all of them say I have to take the thyroid meds (with the exception of one minimally available and incredibly expensive chiropractic approach, which claims some success…the integrative medicine doc is very skeptical).
Personally, I feel that perhaps you could *prevent* Hashimoto’s, or any other autoimmune disease, by eating right, exercising, meditating, etc. But once you have Hashimoto’s, your thyroid will never operate properly again. And if you don’t replace the thyroid hormone at adequate levels, the autoimmune disease will worsen and make you more susceptible to other autoimmune disorders like celiac and so forth.
“Stop the Thyroid Madness” is a good source for learning more about Hashimoto’s, by the way.
Good luck!
Dawn…
“I have done detoxing stints of going gluten…free…”
I have posted several comments some time ago in reply to this page and will not rehash those here.
If what ails you is an authentic autoimmune reaction to a gluten-sensitive state then you must be prepared–not for a “stint” of going gluten free–but for a (in the salty words of a trucker I knew) “long-ass drag” of a comprehensively gluten-free diet. From what I understand, in order to reverse some of the debilitating effects of a gluten-inspired autoimmune disease, it takes some 6-9 months of going gluten free just to stop the damage then several years to reverse it. (The classic metaphor of turning the supertanker applies here–momentum plays a huge role in either direction in the diet.)
The gluten-free lifestyle is, in some respects, an act of faith. I am pushing three years into it and can not recommend it enough for individuals suffering from gluten sensitivity: there are countless benefits to it. But don’t expect a bunch of people to jump up and down and tell you how great the diet is (or for a bunch of doctors to jump on the bandwagon, either). Also, try to avoid signing up others to join you–it is like the fable about the fox who loses his tail and tries to convince all the other (skeptical) foxes how great life is without it. It doesn’t work.
You have to have the strength to power through this pretty much alone.
You can do it… R.
Right around the time I was convinced ihad thyriod issues a very gifted resaercher in my life gave me her resarch and experience on boosting your thryiod back to normal with Iodine. I use lugols solution and have 2 months now. right around the first diagnosis I noticed my extreme gluten intolerance and started going gluten free. Every time I slipped I felt HORRIBLE in many ways. But sice I have been getting my thyriod back to normal , my gluten intolerance has cleared up. Now I wont go back to eating as much as before but i can have pizza on movie night without making a 3 hours cauliflour crutsed pizza… YAY!
DONT DO MEDS! research the iodine solution for your thyriod.- heidi
Thanks for sharing your success with iodine Heidi. Very interesting that taking iodine helped your gluten intolerance….there is still so much we don’t understand about the links betweeen various conditions, nutrient deficiencies, intolerances etc. who knows maybe just as there is a link between gluten intolerance and autoimmune diseases and there is a link between iodine deficiencies and thyroid conditions, maybe there is a also a link netween iodine deficiencies and gluten intolerance….it would make a full circle.
I’ve been gluten-free for about three months now and it’s changed my life. Before I was gluten-free, I was working out and ‘eating clean’ and had been doing so for 18 months yet I hadn’t lost any weight, which was my aim. In addition to that, I started to get some unpleasant symptoms, like brain fog that left me totally unable to concentrate, extreme fatigue that saw me struggling to get off the sofa, etc. I didn’t have a clue what was wrong with me but I knew something was up. Fast forward a few months beyond that point and a friend sent me the Wheat Belly book. I didn’t read it straight away but a few weeks later decided to have a quick flick through. One page caught my eye: the problems that gluten can cause. I saw my symptoms on it and decided to read the book. The more I read, the more I realised that perhaps gluten was causing some of my problems and the grains in my diet could be causing others. My ‘clean eating’ diet I had while working out was very rich in rice and pastas.
Anyway, fast forward to now and I feel amazing. The brain fog is gone, the fatigue is gone, I’m full of energy and I’ve lost 10lb without working out or counting calories. Some might say that it could be a coincidence. Wrong. If I eat anything with gluten in it, I get an upset stomach (if you catch my meaning…) and a rash on my neck within 30 minutes. About an hour or two later, I’m struggling to stay away and the brain fog comes back. Again, some might say that it’s psychosomatic and only happens because I expect it to. Well, I get it even if I accidentally consume gluten! The other day a friend gave me some hot chocolate, half an hour later I had issues and when I checked the packet, it contained wheat flour!
I intend to be grain-free for the rest of my life now.
I am interested to find out if someone has hashimoto’s disease, and their thyroid has been completely destroyed, would it still be beneficial to them to have a gluten free diet? What would happen if they weren’t and continued down the road they are on?
Gloria,
It’s my understanding that you would still have the Hashimoto’s disease, and it would likely attack other parts of your body after the thyroid, thereby effectively morphing into a different autoimmune disease. As a matter of fact, even if you still have some thyroid function, those with Hashimoto’s are more likely to develop additional autoimmune disorders.
I have Hashimoto’s and cutting gluten didn’t effect my thyroid dosage at all. I’ve been taking hormone for 10 years now and was up to 150mcg of Levoxyl until I wised up and switched to 5 grains of Armour so I would assume my thyroid is pretty well shot but I feel great.
My undiagnosed gluten issue had progressed to leaky gut syndrome and then as the other undigested proteins hit my bloodstream I started to show anti-bodies to soy and Casein. I’ve been able to reverse the Soy and Casein by healing my gut but the gluten remains an issue.
I became aware of my gluten issue a couple years after my hashimoto’s came about. I’d be really surprised if someone that has been taking a substantial amount of hormone for a longer length of time can reverse the need for it by cutting gluten. My experience has been that that bell has been rung and there is no way to un-ring it.
I personally believe that with gluten intolerance your stomach get inflamed and the B12 making bacteria intrinsic factor can’t do its job because of the gut disruption. As the years wear on the methylating effect of B12 no longer is there to protect you from bad gene’s expressing themselves. Without fixing the gluten issue you are setting yourself up for a string of auto immune diseases because of the chronic b12 deficiency symptoms it brings. So my opinion is stop the gluten if you show anti-bodies to it but don’t expect it to effect your thyroid directly.
Stool samples aren’t a supported method for checking for gluten sensitivity.
“In fact, while it is true that about 40% of people with proven gluten sensitivity have elevated AGA-IgG, it is also true that about 15-25% of the healthy individuals who have absolutely nothing wrong also have elevated AGA-IgG. Hence, about 60% of gluten sensitive people do not have elevated AGA-IgG”
http://www.cureceliacdisease.org/archives/faq/why-dont-you-recognize-tests-stool-tests-or-otherwise-for-gluten-sensitivity-that-are-currently-available-through-companies-like-enterolab-or-cyrex
“…there is absolutely no biological readout that is no way can this diagnosis can be supported by any laboratory investigation. No antibodies in the blood are specific enough, or sensitive enough, for this condition. No antibodies in the stools can be utilized to diagnose or screen for this condition.”
http://www.celiaccentral.org/non-celiac-gluten-sensitivity/testing-and-diagnosis/
“supported” or not a stool test changed my life by showing gluten antibodies when other tests showed I did not have celiacs. I no longer look like I’m undergoing chemotherapy all the time. I looked like death warmed over for no reason that anyone could determine until that test. Cutting gluten made me look a decade younger and healthier than I’d been in years.
Katie,
When I first got diagnosed with my thyroid condition, my doctor also got me tested for celiac disease. I tested negative. But after reading this and other articles on the subject, I decided to give it a try. 6 months later, I was on half my thyroid med dose. The biggest surprise was that when I accidentally ate tiny bits of gluten, I had horrible stomach cramps and diarrhea, very strong gluten intolerance or celiac symptoms (symptoms I did not have before elliminating gluten). I would have never found out had I not elliminated gluten for several months. Who knows how much damage I would have done to my intestines had I continued eating gluten. When we eat gluten every day, frequently multiple times a day, our bodies develop ways of dealing with it and we don’t even know we have an intolerance or are celiac. I had stomache issues (but not the same as my gluten reactions now), before elliminating gluten, but I never connected them to gluten. Simce elliminating gluten, my old stomach issues are almost completely resolved.
Most celiacs are misdiagnosed multiple times and take about 10 yaers from first symptoms to proper diagnosis. So when you see that 6% of the people in the studies are celiac, you are seeing people who have been diagnosed, and diagnosed with the pretty innacurate standard tests done in standard labs. There are some newer, more accurate tests that can be done in a few labs, but those aren’t the ones being used in these studies, unfortunately. So those numbers are just not a true representation of what’s going on in people’s bodies.
Chris isn’t making wide sweeping generalizations, he’s making incredibly helpful suggestions, way ahead of most MDs. Anyone with a thyroid condition who wants to imrove their health owes it to themselves to elliminate gluten for a couple of months and see how they feel and also how they feel when they ingest it again.
Reading the article makes it sounds like a majority of the people with thyroid issues would also have gluten intolerance, but when I checked your sources it seems that only less than 6% of the people tested positive for celiac disease so it seems that it would be a sweeping generalization to recommend that anyone with thyroid problems go gluten free.
Celiac disease and gluten intolerance can be two separate issues. I don’t test positive for a Celiac’s diagnosis through any kind of testing including biopsy but other testing shows my body is creating anti-bodies to gluten none the less. I would also suggest anyone with thyroid problems test for gluten sensitivity and/or try going gluten free to see how you feel.
Hi Katie!
For many of us, gluten is not such a black and white thing. For example, I do not have celiac disease, however, I definitely start to get thyroid issues when I eat vast amounts of gluten. I can eat a bit here and there with minor health symptoms starting, and the longer I avoid gluten, the better I seem to tolerate the odd “cheat”, but this is different for everyone.
Also, if you have not tried going gluten free you may not even realize which niggling little health things are connected. For example, I used to have a patch of dry, flakey skin on my scalp and never healed….was told “eczema”. Fine. But when I stop eating gluten, it goes away, and when I cheat, it comes back….
Pretty minor thing, but just an example. It is more of a spectrum like a lot of chronic health issues….so yeah, maybe 6% have celiac, but maybe another 78% have other minor health complaints that are linked to their thyroid operating at 70% or 50% or whatever it might be for them. Also, for me, my thyroid issues were not severe – it was enough that dietary changes and the right supplements got me back on track pretty easily. Not everyone is so lucky. Hopefully you are one of the lucky ones 🙂
Henny
(I should add, I made up 78% – I don’t know how many of gluten free people have thyroid issues, I was just making an example with that….)
Since people with lactose intolerance can take an enzyme they are missing in pill or drop form (like Lactase) in order to continue to eat dairy products I wonder if anyone here has tried Gluten enzymes in order to eat wheat products? They exist on health food shelves.
I brought it up here a year or more ago and Chris said “No, that doesn’t work” and never responded to my follow up questions. Are people allergic or are some of us intolerant because we lack an enzyme to break down a protein?
People are quick to blame GMO wheat as the reason people are having a problem with gluten… do we need an antidote in the form of a specialized enzyme to break down this new unfamiliar protein??
I hate to think it would be as simple taking an enzyme and that that information is not being widely disseminated because there is too much money to be made in the gluten free industry by keeping us sufferers in the dark.
I think that not enough is known yet about the mechanisms of gluten intolerance and the difference between it and celiac disease (some people believe gluten intolerance is simply celiac disease in its early stages, other say it’s completely different) to know the answers to all your questions. Certainly not enough is known about how the body reacts when gluten enters the system and how each of the organs affected by it react.
My impression from everything I’ve read is that even though the enzymes you can buy do help alleviate some of the digestive symptoms, if you discover that you are gluten intolerant, you should still avoid it completely. If you already have an autoimmune condition, it’s likely that it’s not just the digestive system that is affected by gluten (and helped by the enzyme), but also the immune system and who knows what else. If you don’t have an auto-immune condition, but are gluten intolerant, I would avoid gluten in the interests of avoiding developing an auto-immune condition which may occur if you continually tax your system by feeding it something it’s already intolerant to. So taking an enzyme helps the body break up the gluten into smaller proteins, but the immune system has already “seen” the full gluten protein at that point and can react to it. Besides, As Dr. Tom, an expert in immunology and specifically the response to gluten, explains, we may also react to smaller proteins that are part of gluten. So everything points to there not being an easy fix of just swallowing an enzyme unfortunately. But I personally always have some on hand when I get accidentally “glutened” and they help a bit…but I still avoid gluten like the plague for my hashimoto’s and the horrendous stomache cramps that the enzyme only helps alleviate a bit.
I had two different occasions where I eliminated gluten. One was when I was on an elimination diet, and gluten was just one of the multitudinous foods I stopped eating for a year. After a year, of no improvement in health, no weight loss, I figured “why should I deprive myself of all of these foods and not feel any different”. So I went back to “normal” eating of quality foods.
I was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s and have hypothyroid symptoms. So again, I’ve gone off gluten; and again, I feel absolutely no different. I have not lost any weight, nor have any of my symptoms improved. I think that this is an “in” disorder now; and that many people are removing gluten unnecessarily. I think people who suspect there could be a problem should just test it themselves. Eliminate gluten for a long period of time, and see if you have any differences. (but make sure you write down all symptoms/blood results before you start).
Why guess? People who feel they might have a gluten problem need to be tested for antibodies. I feel no different when I have gluten either but my body is definitely mounting an attack against the protein in an autoimmune response. Testing confirms it…so I don’t eat it. Whether or not this gluten intolerance shows up as seemingly unrelated adrenal fatigue, thyroid disease, GERD, headaches, B12/magnesium deficiency is the question.
If you’re like I was and have under-treated hypothyroidism then gluten elimination will not make you feel better. Could have been the undiagnosed gluten issue permanently damaged my thyroid, who knows? I’m stopping the gluten anti-bodies through gluten elimination instead of waiting to find out the next issue it will cause.
I have Celiac diagnosed in 2010. I was diagnosed with Hypothyroidism in 1980. I have been gluten free for three years and now my thyroid numbers are all out of wack. Dr. keeps lowering my dosage, but can’t get the TSH, T4, or T3 within normal range. I believe my thyroid is becoming active again as the antibodies that attack my intestines and thyroid are no longer active due to lack of gluten. It is amazing that these two diseases are linked and by simply changing my diet I am getting healthier every day. Sad side to this story is that my endocrinologist believes there is no connection, and yet he freely admits he cannot explain why my need for less thyroid med. Every patient needs to be their own advocate and get educated on the diseases.
Good show.
Thanks for sharing your story. Very impressive that even after 33 years of being hypothyroid, it’s possible to get your thyroid to work better again by removing gluten from your diet. I hope you continue lowering your needs for meds and even manage to get off meds completely and most importantly feel great!
It’s crazy how the medical establishment won’t take this seriously, but eventually they will have to. Thanks to stories like yours though, people can learn about it and try it for themselves. Let us know how things go as you continue.
Personally I have halved my dose, but can’t go any lower. I have been gluten-free for about a year and half now and was only slight hypothyroid to begin with and only had slighly elevated antibodies. I had hoped by now to be better than I am, both in terms of how I feel and my dosage. Not sure why I seem to have stagnated for the last year (all the improvement happened rapidly within the first 6 or so months). If I get stressed, my symptoms get worse and sometimes I need to increase my meds a little again. I suspect it’s connected to the adrenals responding to stress and affecting the thyroid as well, but I’m not sure. Has anyone had this problem and know what to do about it?
Hi,
Are you saying that even Graves Disease could have a false positive blood test to Celiac as the antibodies could be suppressed for this AITD as well? My 13 year old son has Graves Disease and I am almost positive that he has Celiac Disease as well. I cut back but did not eliminate the gluten from his diet for about 3 or 4 months and the doctor said that it is unlikely that he has Celiac Disease. I want to get a diagnosis for him but it doesn’t sound worth it. I just got his Graves disease under control and I am very worried about him and putting him through all of this!!
Thanks for the article,
Bernadette
This is explained so clearly, I really appreciate it.
Chris,
I have recently began having issues with my thyroid, i’ve been diagnosed with hypothyroidism and have a nodule that is growing in my thyroid. It literally happened over night that my thyroid became a lump in my neck, I had never noticed it or had it bother me before. I woke up one day and every time I swallowed I noticed a huge lump on the right side of my throat. A doctor diagnosed me with hypothyroidism and now after hearing about my “gut issues” is suggesting I try a gluten free diet. He also suggest I get surgery to remove half of my thyroid that has this growing nodule. I am wondering if you have any advice regarding specifically a nodule in the thyroid along with gluten issues?
Any information would be very helpful!
I would try to shrink the nodule with Iodine first. Many people in this yahoo forum have had success shrinking nodules and some even being able to stop thyroid hormone all together. Did not work for me however… still on the hormone. The inorganic iodine they are using did not in anyway cause a flare up of my hashimoto’s syndrome symptoms like some say it will.
http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/iodine/info
Having read most of the comments here, I cannot but help wonder if the problem isn’t so much the wheat protein, as the way that it is prepared.
Years ago I read a book wrotten by a woman whose family had serious problems with most carbohydrates. She had found that her familt could eat wheaten bread just so long as it was made by the ‘long dough’ method. This gives the yeast time to digest the wheat starches and produce more vitamin B.
All commercial bread that I am aware of now is made by the ‘short dough’ method. Sugar is added to the dough and the yeast ferments the sugar rather than the starches. The dough doesn’t get the ‘punch down’ after the first rising.
I have also noticed with myself — all my life I have needed to take (deactivated) brewers yeast or I have health, energy and mood problems. In fact symptoms very closely resembling Hypothyroisism.
Vitamin B Complex supplements do not help — it is something ELSE in the yeast that I need.
After suffering for years, I gave up dairy and gluten, but I had already developed Hashimoto’s. I think this is hereditary since everyone in my immediate family suffered or suffers from thyroid conditions. Everyone on my maternal side is obese, so I think there is a connection. BTW, doctors aren’t trained to think this way, so you will have to figure things out for yourself. I was tested for Celiac disease, but it came back negative. Eating gluten doesn’t kill me, just makes me feel closer to death.
I had my thyroid removed this year due to extensive Hashi and cancerous tumor! I can call myself a gluten addict and I think this is where my problem started! I have been on reduced gluten – trying to go gluten free all together. I fe much better and I have been loosing weight steadily! Since I don’t have thyroid anymore, what are the effects of gluten on my body now?
Hi. I did have hashimoto’s but I have had thyroid cancer twice and had my thyroid was removed as well as some lymph nodes. Is a gluten free diet necessary once the thyroid has been removed? Is the Hashimoto’s gone in my case? My antibodies are less than 20 for the first time. Thanks.
In 2008 I was diagnosed with Graves disease. I was very sick by the time I was diagnosed and my levels were off the charts. It took almost 2 years to get my levels to a place where they could do radioiodine to kill my thyroid. I felt better, but gained a lot of weight in the next two years. During the last year I have felt terrible. I had diarrhea daily, no matter how much or how little I ate, and no matter what I ate. It got to where I hardly left my house because I couldn’t control it. Even anti-diarhea medications didn’t work. I felt like crying all the time, and didn’t want to talk to anyone. I had aches and pains all over my body and was tired all the time. A month ago I started doing some research online concerning my symptoms and being hypo-thyroid. Everything I read said I probably have a gluten sensitivity. I was already doing a low-carb diet, so eliminating gluten wasn’t that much harder. Within a week of no gluten the diarrhea was completly gone. I have so much energy I can barely sleep or sit still, and I have lost 13 lbs. I have an appointment with my endo dr. next week so I will talk with her about this, but I know gluten is an issue for me, and I feel so much better that I have no desire to eat anything containing it.