Thyroid Issues

Thyroid Diet Issues are discussed in this Today’s Dietitian article.

Here is an fascinating exchange in a practice group:

From: NEdpg@yahoogroups.com [mailto:NEdpg@yahoogroups.com]

Sent: Saturday, December 2, 2017 11:55 AM

To: NEdpg@yahoogroups.com

Subject: [NEdpg] Re: Hashimoto’s thyroid

Hi Whitney. Look up the landmark 2009 study by Alessio Fasano, MD, where he suggested that three things must be present for an autoimmune condition to develop: a genetic predisposition, a trigger, and a leaky gut. He further suggested that gluten directly triggers the release of zonulin, the molecule that breaks down the tight junctions (or the glue) that hold our intestinal lining together, causing a leaky gut. And a leaky gut then creates the opportunity for the “trigger” to enter the bloodstream facilitating the development of autoimmune disease. Gluten not only causes inflammation, an altered microbiome, and a leaky gut but it also may be directly triggering autoimmunity in the body through molecular mimicry. For those with an autoimmune disease, when you remove gluten from the diet, it removes this trigger, reduces and can also eliminate inflammation and heal the gut (provided there are no other triggers for the patient). I’ve seen this happen many times with my autoimmune patients. Removing gluten has been very helpful in managing their autoimmune disease…antibodies come down to normal or near normal and they feel much better.

Kim McConnell, MS, RDN, LDN

PubMed offers this article on Zonulin and tight junctions.