Here's an interesting post on boosting one's thyroid metabolism for males. I have no idea whether this information is accurate and if so, whether if applies to women.

Not an endocrinologist, so my eyes glazed over about half way through that. I did pick up the point that it can also be due to age...just great. Happy I decided to keep this simple and add back more Veggie and Flaxmeal carbs, plus supplementing with iodine, selenium and Vit D. Not going through any more complicated and expensive thyroid tests nor try thyroid supplements. I haven’t gained any weight and Am sleeping better with carbs up to 60-100g, net carbs about 40.

Hey, everybody.

Excuse me for being so blunt, but the idea that a low-carb diet can cause any symptom of hypothyroidism is nothing more than a (now) pernicious myth, and I'm sorry to see it has crept it's way into the forums here.

I wrote about it here... http://wp.me/p25oah-7l ...and the "comments" section include an exchange with Paul Jaminet. You can read it and draw your own conclusions.

I don't know about those with healthy thyroids, but dietary stresses may well play a role in the production of reverse T3, which means that Free T3 can be low and cause the symptoms of hypothyroidism. Certainly it's a noted and documented side-effect of low calorie dieting.

At any rate, I'm a RT3 monster. When I'm on T4 only my Free T3 is below normal, I can't lose weight, I get cold easily, I have all my old hypothyroid symptoms. I take thyroid meds with T3 now and it helps, but I still create a ton of RT3 out of the T4 in my meds.

I have to wonder what test subjects your studies used? Young, healthy, college-aged kids or middle-aged and/or post-menopausal women? I'm reasonably certain the low-carb, thyroid problem isn't an issue for everyone, just a select group of us and one of the symptoms is LDL cholesterol climbing.

We've had a number of people who had this happen and when they start taking some T3, their cholesterol numbers drop by 100 points or more. Dr. Davis, cardiologist, has also recognized the importance of T3 and heart disease/cholesterol. Along with all that reverse T3 there may also be leptin resistance as well, which hampers the weight loss and probably contributes to insulin resistance.

It is a very confusing subject because thyroid issues seem to afflict middle-aged women far more than anyone else. I don't see that any of your study abstracts address that population.

Anyway, I've been raising my carbs somewhat. I am eating 50-100 carbs every other day (alternate day fasting). I've noticed my blood glucose is surprisingly good, better than it was on low carb alone. Maybe it's the fasting, maybe it's that insulin resistance and RT3 are linked. Who knows which way the arrow points, however.

It's rather expensive but I might just get another RT3 test done to see if my trial on higher carb is helping with that. My last test had me just under 300.

I also agree with Paul Jaminet's comments. But I haven't read everything yet.



Yup. You seem to equivocally state that low carb diet can't be a problem for anyone because of the studies you cited. That'd be just fine if we were all exactly like the test subjects.

Sheesh... never thought I'd find myself agreeing with Paul Jaminet.

I added IF to my routine a year into eating very clean low carb, and saw amazing improvements to my BG!

Nancy,

I did write that low T3 syndrome can exacerbate a pre-existing thyroid condition, and I assume that low T3 from a low-carb diet might also have this effect, but in that case, the problem is the thyroid, not the diet.

Dr. Jaminet and others (Chris Kresser, Anthony Colpo) make the case that low-carb diets can cause symptoms of hypothyroidism in otherwise healthy individuals because they lower T3. That low-carb diets lower T3 isn't controversial, but there isn't a shred of evidence that this produces any symptom of hypothyroidism in anyone. In fact, there isn't any evidence that it has any adverse effect at all.

Paul and the rest simply make the assumption that the lower T3 is "bad". As I pointed-out in one of my responses to Paul, if the only function of T3 was regulating basal metabolism, they'd have a good case, but since one of the functions of T3 is helping metabolize glucose, there's a simple, non-pathological explanation for why low-carb diets have this effect.

One of things that surprises me about the whole debate, especially in a low-carb forum, is that people seem to accept Dr. Jaminet's argument uncritically. I don't think anyone here still believes that low-carb diets are dangerous because of saturated fat, but for some reason they're willing to accept that a low-carb diet might cause some symptom of hypothyroidism in spite of the fact that there is less evidence for this than there is evidence that saturated fat causes heart disease.

I haven't read Dr. Jaminet's diet book but, as least as far as I understand it, his case against low-carb diets is entirely circumstantial. He points out that glucose is needed for a variety of functions in the human body but doesn't offer any evidence that the need for glucose has to be met by dietary carbohydrate at the levels he recommends.

I dunno, you seem to except folks to take your position uncritically.

I really have no clue about Dr. Jaminet other than a tiny bit I've read here and there. I have, however, experienced hypo symptoms from my low T3 as have many, many other people here. I suspect they'll be piping up soon.

There's also the issue with the raised cholesterol and low T3. We've had quite a few people lower their cholesterol by 100+ points by taking T3.

..there isn't a shred of evidence that this produces any symptom of hypothyroidism in anyone.

Well you may not have read any evidence in all your extensive research about this "pernicious myth", but after a lifetime of perfect lipid tests, I now have high LDL and total cholesterol. A recent NMR LipoProfile shows a decent LDL Particle number, but LDL-C remains a factor in CVD risk analysis. So after 18 months of VLC around 20g, I had wacky cholesterol, thinning hair and eyebrows, lower energy, increased constipation, very disturbed sleep patterns and other out of range serum markers. Maybe I'm just older, maybe a lack of phytonutrients played havoc with my system, but low thyroid or not, eating 50 grams more carbs seems to have improved some "symptoms of hypothyroidism". I consider myself a very critical thinker about low carb diets, but only because every food choice every day impacts my health, the only evidence I need.

So your extensive blog post is interesting, but trying to discredit the concept that including 100 grams of nutrient dense vegetables just might be beneficial to one's overall health seems taking the defense of low carb a tad too far. A few cups of spinach is not the end of the world.

Nancy,

I didn't make a single statement of fact that wasn't referenced to a peer-reviewed study or other authoritative text.

If you can provide the same kinds of references supporting Dr. Jaminet's theory, please do so, because he can't.

It's not that I didn't read the evidence, it's that it doesn't exist.

If you haven't already, read through Peter Attia's series on cholesterol and Tara Dall's lectures on the same subject.

If you do, and still believe that you are reducing your risk of CVD by adding carbs to your diet, there's nothing anyone can say that will change your mind.

Just reading this article about thyroid hormone you can see that T3's only role isn't about glucose metabolism. It plays a critical role in lots of things.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thyroid_hormone

I still haven't heard your reasoning, Sam, as to why LDL cholesterol increases so dramatically when people's rT3 levels rise, and subsequently decrease when they supplement with T3 hormones. I'm not really interested in spending a lot of time digging through scholarly articles, but do a scholar search on "thyroid and cholesterol" and you'll see there's plenty out there.

We had a fellow posting here last year who saw his LDL go from normal levels to over 300. When he started taking T3 it dropped back down to normal levels again. I think Merpig/Debbie has the same story to tell.

Mark Sisson's new blog post on higher cholesterol numbers. Interesting how many comments from people whose tests have gone up have been posted in just a few hours. The connection to thyroid is noted in both the macronutrient deficiency and activity sections.
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/why-...er-going-primal

A shame he didn't address reverse T3.

Just to note the results of my n=1 experiment, eating more vegetables and flax (total carbs up from 20 to 70g and protein held at about 80g) for only one month. All the out of range blood test markers corrected, and TC dropped from 253 to 211 and LDL dropped from 155 to 103. Triglcerides remained at an amazingly low 30. The basic thyroid tests done by DirectLabs moved away from the end of ranges, but nothing dramatic. Most of my symptoms have improved, although some more hair would be nice

All I did in this short time was eat more nutrient rich vegetables and take Swanson Thyroid Essentials for the iodine, selenium and copper, though it also comes with high Vit Bs and that mystery forskohlii I have decided that since I am at a healthy BMI and my weight has not changed eating more higher vegetable carbs... I am officially in maintenance on a primal diet with more vegetables and fruits.

I have no idea if my symptoms were low thyroid or something else related to a nutrient deficiency, nor if any of it was a direct result of being both low calorie and very low carb. But for me, following a primal or Perfect Health diet with no limit on colorful vegetables, resulted in some immediate improvements.

Me being one of them. My total cholesterol dropped from 295 to 196 in six weeks after I finally got someone to prescribe Armour for me instead of Synthroid.