Thyroid Thursday Episode 50: Environmental Factors Linked to Thyroid Autoimmunity
Environmental Factors Linked to Thyroid Autoimmunity
Today we are going to continue on this theme that I’ve been talking about this paper, “Environmental Issues In Thyroid Disease”, that was published in Frontiers in Endocrinology in March 2017. I want to talk about environmental factors that have been linked to thyroid autoimmunity. In the paper, they discuss 10 factors that have been linked via the research to thyroid autoimmunity:
- Radiation – is definitely one of those things that has been linked. There is a definite link, especially with those that were radiated at things like Chernobyl. I had a couple of patients that were radiated via the Chernobyl catastrophe and developed autoimmunity the soon afterward.
- Iodine – has been linked to thyroid autoimmunity. Both low levels of iodine and excessive amounts can linked to thyroid autoimmunity. Just like the three little bears story, there’s too much, too little, and just right. Most people in the US don’t have a deficiency of iodine. I know there’s a whole camp that promotes high levels of iodine use and supplementation. I personally don’t think that is necessary. You should not be introducing high amounts of iodine into your diet unless you have really shown or really proven that you have over iodine deficiency.
- Selenium deficiency – has been associated with thyroid autoimmunity. Selenium plays a role in thyroid physiology. It plays a role in detoxification. It’s a critically important micronutrient. The issue is, why would you be deficient? Well if you eat an animal based diet and you eat animal products chances are then you are not selenium deficient. It’s in your food. If you are a vegetarian you might be at a slightly greater risk of developing selenium deficiency. I would say if you do test and you find out you are selenium deficient, your body is either chewing through selenium really quickly or you’re just not absorbing it very well because there is some level of dysbiosis in the GI tract and you should have that looked evaluated.
- Smoking – is associated with thyroid autoimmunity. What is interesting is that smoking increases the risk of developing Graves Disease or hyperthyroidism. Smoking is associated with a reduced risk of Hashimoto’s because it increases TPO and thyroid globulin antibodies. I’m not saying if you have Hashimoto’s to rush out and start smoking but it’s just interesting to note that it can decrease thyroid antibodies associated with Hashimoto’s.
- Viruses – can stimulate autoimmunity. If you have watched a number of these videos in the past I’ve talked about the Cell Danger Response. Dr. Robert Naviaux did a brilliant paper on the cell danger response. What we know is that when viruses enter our cells it stimulates this innate immune/defense response. One of the steps is to decrease cellular energy. One of the steps in reducing cellular energy is decrease thyroid hormone transport. We’re going to get decreased glucose transport into the cells. These two factors will reduce cellular metabolism (along with producing hypothyroid symptoms and raising blood sugar). The body does this as a natural defense to try to kill off the virus because the virus uses our genetic replication for its replication. When somebody has a virus, one of the steps in that cell danger response is to dump genetic material out of the cell. That can stimulate or cause the autoimmune attack.
- Drugs – there are many drugs that have been associated with triggering autoimmune conditions.
- Drugs that change immune function like interferon alpha drugs.
- Iodine containing drugs
- Drugs that disrupt iodine transport into the thyroid gland
- Drugs that disrupt thyroid gland & thyroid hormone function
There are so many of them that there are too many to cover in this discussion. Understand that drugs, while they may do one thing, can also have a number of side effects. You may be taking a drug for a condition, but it may also cause a hypothyroid condition or an autoimmune condition. I’ll talk about one of those specific drugs for heart palpitations or for fibrillation in the future.
- Microbiota – the microbiota are organisms that live within you. Microorganisms, especially the organisms that live in your GI tract have been found to trigger autoimmunity. You have a hundred trillion organisms that live in your GI track and they need to be in a specific balance. They need to pretty much stay in the colon. When you have an overgrowth of organisms, or an imbalance of the organisms, the organisms can get out of the colon and overgrow in the small intestine, or they get out of the GI tract into the lymph tissue and into systemic tissue where they can trigger autoimmunity. The thyroid gland is unique because of the direct connection with the gut lymph tissue. Organisms in the gut can get into the gut lymphoid tissue and get directly into the thyroid gland and trigger and immune and autoimmune response.
- Vitamin D deficiencies – Not everybody necessarily needs to run out and start popping a bunch of vitamin D. But, if you do find out you have a vitamin D deficiency, it can be a cause of thyroid autoimmunity. Vitamin D helps regulate the immune system. If you’re vitamin D deficient, you have to consider why. Do you need to get out in the sun and get sun exposure? Are you in an environment where you can get sun exposure? Is it that time of year when you just are not going to get enough sun exposure to raise vitamin D levels? If you are taking vitamin D supplements and you’re still vitamin D deficient, you must consider these are fat soluble vitamins and you need healthy bile and gut function in order to absorb vitamin D. You need to consider that maybe there is some bile or gallbladder issues going on and not allowing you to absorb vitamin D. There’s other things that should be considered, like do you have vitamin D polymorphisms, which means that the receptors which form vitamin D aren’t working or functioning correctly or working appropriately. You also want to take into consideration that vitamin D may not get converted into its active form. My good pal Dr. Ben Lynch did a great presentation on vitamin D at the latest SHEICON. He discussed how vitamin D functions, vitamin D polymorphism, unveiled a pathway planner to show how vitamin D is utilized in the body and the different pathways it can go down. If you haven’t seen that planner or don’t know of Dr. Lynch, go to seekinghealth.com. You can find lots of videos that he’s done on different aspects of folate physiology, genetic and methylation challenges and you can probably find that video on vitamin D.
- Chemicals – There are a number that can cause and be linked to autoimmune:
- PCB’s
- BPA
- Phthalates
- Bromides
- Chlorinated products
- Fluorinated products
These all can disrupt thyroid function and can trigger thyroid autoimmunity.
- Heavy Metals – can create thyroid autoimmunity. I want to touch specifically on cadmium and manganese both in excess can trigger thyroid autoimmune.
Those are some of the environmental factors that are linked to causing thyroid autoimmunity. Remember if you have hypothyroid symptoms, most of hypothyroidism in the United States is caused by autoimmune attack on the thyroid gland. If you get diagnosed with hypothyroidism and your doctor says we just need to put you on Synthroid or another medication, you still want to find out if your thyroid condition is an autoimmune condition.
If it is, you want to try and figure out what is the root cause of your autoimmune condition. It may be 2 or 3 of these things that are causing that autoimmune attack. You owe it to yourself to find out because what we see clinically and what has been shown in the research is that if you have one autoimmune disorder and you don’t’ find or get to and address the root cause of what caused your first autoimmune disorder, the likelihood of having a second, third or fourth autoimmune disorder in the next 3 -5 years is really pretty high.
You don’t want to just give thyroid hormone and disregard the fact that it is an autoimmune disorder. You may need thyroid hormone. But, you also have to figure out what is the cause or you may likely develop another autoimmune disorder. You can work with a functional medicine doctor to figure this out. Identifying the cause is not typically investigated in conventional medicine. You’ve got to find out what those underlying factors or triggers are that are inducing the damage to that thyroid gland.
