Why it makes sense to go gluten-free more often if you suffer from Hashimoto’s thyroiditis

Being a Hashimoto patient means you suffer from an autoimmune disorder. Your immune system has gone haywire, attacking the body’s own cells, in your case thyroid ones. Very often, an autoimmune disorder is not restricted to one particular tissue, but the over-reactive immune system tends to target other tissues in the heat of the moment as well.

Hashimoto’s and gluten

For example, more and more scientific research points to an association of Hashimoto’s with coeliac disease, commonly triggered by gluten. Experts like Crete-based MD and researcher Elias Mazokopakis suspect gluten to be a factor that triggers the autoimmune reaction directed against thyroid tissue in Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, too. In addition to that it might also negatively affect progress and extent of thyroid disease.
Gluten consists of the proteins gliadin and glutenin. Most grains (particularly wheat, rye and spelt) contain gluten. It has been well established that gluten may trigger coeliac disease in susceptible individuals. This autoimmune disorder of the small intestine is often found as concomitant disease in Hashimoto patients.

In addition to true coeliac disease with detectable anti-gliadin antibodies in blood of affected people, there is also the less severe problem of gluten sensitivity (no antibodies are detectable). This, too, has been suspected to facilitate or trigger other autoimmune disorders such as multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis or diabetes mellitus type 1.

A diet low in gluten

In his review article published in 2017 on Hashimoto’s disease and diet, Dr. Elias Mazokopakis therefore recommends that Hashimoto patients should be tested for coeliac disease. Even if they get a negative result (no coeliac disease detectable), omitting gluten from the diet for some time might be a good idea:

Hashimoto patients with and without coeliac disease benefit from a diet low in gluten with respect to disease progression as well as disease-associated complications.

In addition to that, the expert emphasizes the importance of iodine (Hashimoto patients should make sure not to consume too much), selenium and vitamin D.

Very handy: The indication-adjusted micronutrient preparation Fertilovit^® F THY ticks all of these boxes with only one gluten-free capsule per day: the vegetarian capsule contains 100 % of the recommended daily allowance for vitamin D, 100 µg selenium, and a disease-specific, comprehensive vitamin supply – naturally free of iodine!

Reference:

Michael I. Liontiris, MD, Elias E. Mazokopakis MD, PhD . A concise review of Hashimoto thyroiditis (HT) and the importance of iodine, selenium, vitamin D and gluten on the autoimmunity and dietary management of HT patients. Points that need more investigation. Hell J Nucl Med 2017; 20(1): 51-56