Causes of Hypothyroidism

Hypothy­roi­dism or the unde­rac­ti­vity of the thy­roid gland, is a con­di­tion which occurs when the thy­roid gland fails to pro­duce enough thy­roid hor­mo­nes, and/or there is a fai­lure of the tis­sues to receive thy­roid hor­mo­nes. Some cau­ses of a thy­roid disor­der are com­mon; some are more rare. Below is an out­line of those poten­tial cau­ses. Recog­nize your own??

Here­dity

Like the crea­tor of this web­site and author of the STTM book, thy­roid pro­blems can simply run in families.

Iodine Insuf­fi­ciency

It’s strongly pro­po­sed that millions of indi­vi­duals deve­lop hypothy­roi­dism due to the lack of ade­quate iodine intake, which in turn is due to soil deple­tion and lack of iodine in our diet. Since iodine is neces­sary in the synthe­sis, sto­rage and sec­re­tion of thy­roid hor­mo­nes, a defi­ciency of iodine can result in hypothyroidism.

Hashimoto’s Disease

Also called “Hashi’s” or “thy­roi­di­tis”, this is an autoim­mune disor­der in which one’s immune sys­tem attacks it’s own thy­roid cells, cau­sing inflam­ma­tion and even­tually resul­ting in hypothy­roid. In many cases a goi­ter deve­lops because of the inflam­ma­tion, but some­ti­mes the thy­roid gland can actually shrink. Patients with Hashi’s can vas­ci­llate bet­ween hypo and hyper. There is a gene­tic pre­dis­po­si­tion to autoim­mune disease, so if you have one, you are more at risk to have others, inc­lu­ding Hashi’s thy­roi­di­tis. It is pro­po­sed that a lack of iodine also plays a role in autoim­mune attacks on the thyroid.

Over­treat­ment for Gra­ves Hyperthy­roid or Hashi’s with Radioac­tive Iodine

If a per­son with Gra­ves’ disease or Hashi­mo­tos is trea­ted with radioac­tive iodine (RAI), the thy­roid gland is usually ren­de­red par­tially or fully inac­tive. Over time, from a few months to a few years, hypothy­roi­dism usually occurs.

Thy­roid Remo­val Surgery

If much of the thy­roid gland is sur­gi­cally remo­ved, the result can be hypothyroidism.

Radia­tion of the face/neck/chest

Whether for treat­ment of acne, or for Hodg­kins Disease, this treat­ment from the 1960’s through the 80’s and beyond can be a pre­cur­sor to deve­lo­ping thy­roid disease, espe­cially if the thy­roid area wasn’t protected.

Tumor on the Pitui­tary Gland

Also called Secon­dary Hypothy­roi­dism, a tumor on the Pitui­tary gland inter­fe­res with the pro­duc­tion of the Thy­roid Sti­mu­la­tion Hor­mone, cau­sing hypothy­roi­dism as well as adre­nal insuf­fi­ciency. Disor­ders of the hypotha­la­mus por­tions of the brain may also cause thy­roid hor­mone deficiency.

Trauma from Acci­dents or Surgery

Trauma, such as from auto­mo­bile acci­dents, sur­gery, or severe ute­rine hemorrhage during child­birth can result in Sheeans Syn­drome, which is hypo­pi­tui­ta­rism, and results in hypothy­roi­dism. Cho­lecys­tec­tomy and Hys­te­rec­tomy, as well as Ton­si­llec­tomy, can inc­rease the risk of hypothy­roid. Whi­plash or neck trauma can cause hypothyroidism.

Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal Drug Induced

Lithium, used in the treat­ment of bipo­lar manic-depressive disor­der, inhi­bits thy­roid hor­mone release and can also result in a goi­ter. The heart drug, Amio­da­rone, also inc­rea­ses your risk of hypothyroidism.

Sup­ple­ments

On the oppo­site side of the coin of insuf­fi­cient iodine is taking too much from iodine-containing herbs such as kelp, blad­derw­rack, or bugle­weed can inc­rease your risk for hypothy­roi­dism. Many mul­ti­vi­ta­mins, glan­du­lar sup­port for­mu­las and com­bi­na­tion pro­ducts con­tain these supplements.

Over con­sump­tion of Goi­tro­ge­nic Foods

When eaten in large quan­ti­ties, this class of foods can pro­mote goi­ters and resul­ting hypothy­roi­dism. They are mostly only a con­cern when ser­ved raw as coo­king may mini­mize or eli­mi­nate goi­tro­ge­nic poten­tial. Goi­tro­ge­nic foods inc­lude brus­sel sprouts, ruta­baga, tur­nips, kohl­rabi, radishes, cau­li­flo­wer, Afri­can cas­sava, millet, babassu, cab­bage, kale and soy products.

Over con­sump­tion of Soy Products

Soy pro­ducts have a defi­nite antithy­roid and goi­tro­ge­nic effect. Long term con­sump­tion of soy pro­ducts can pro­mote for­ma­tion of goi­ters and deve­lop­ment of autoim­mune thy­roid disease.

Nutri­tio­nal Deficiencies

Defi­cien­cies of iodine or mine­rals (sele­nium, iron, mag­ne­sium, zinc) or vita­mins (vita­min A, vita­min B Ribo­fla­vin, Nia­cin, Pyri­do­xine, Vita­min C and Vita­min E) can affect thy­roid hor­mone production.

Ciga­rette Smoking

Unfor­tu­na­tely, tobacco smoke con­tains cya­nide, which is con­ver­ted to thioc­ya­nate, and which adver­sely acts as an anti-thyroid agent, inhi­bi­ting iodide uptake and hor­mone synthe­sis. The enlar­ge­ment of the thy­roid can occur due to smo­king, which is a clue that the thy­roid is nega­ti­vely affected.

Pregnancy/Childbirth

Some doc­tors esti­mate that as many as 5 to 10% of women deve­lop a thy­roid pro­blem after deli­very. Child­birth can be a hor­mo­nal trig­ger for Hashimoto’s Disease. The owner of this site has this as the cause of her hypothyroidism.

Meno­pause

Thy­roid pro­blems are known to sur­face at periods of hor­mo­nal uphea­val and are more com­mon just prior to or during meno­pause. (The owner of this site noti­ced her thy­roid got a bit worse as she star­ted to enter meno.)

Aging

Hypothy­roi­dism beco­mes inc­rea­singly com­mon as we age, par­ti­cu­larly in women. Ten per­cent of all women over the age of 50 show signs of a fai­ling thy­roid. The per­cen­tage rises to 20% in women over 65. The owner of this site saw her 90+ year old father-in-law ease into severe hypothy­roi­dism which the doc­tors refu­sed to treat.

Envi­ron­men­tal Exposures

Some patients have expe­rien­ced the fact that fluo­ride and chlo­rine can inter­fere with pro­per thy­roid con­ver­sion and result in hypothy­roi­dism. Another con­cern is mer­cury, a com­po­nent in den­tal fillings, which can disa­ble the thyroid’s abi­lity to con­vert T4 to T3, resul­ting in hypothyroidism.

Perch­lo­rate and Other Toxic Che­mi­cals Exposure

Perch­lo­rate (ammo­nium perch­lo­rate or perch­lo­ric acid) blocks iodine from ente­ring the thy­roid, and pre­vents further synthe­sis of thy­roid hor­mone. It is found in various water sup­plies around the nation, par­ti­cu­larly in areas near roc­ket fuel or fire­works plants. There is strong evi­dence that expo­sure to cer­tain toxic che­mi­cals inc­rease the risk of deve­lo­ping thy­roid disease. Those that are of con­cern are dio­xins, MTBE, and others that act as “endoc­rine disrupters”.

Addi­tio­nal Causes

Asthma and the use of inhaler/expectorants

Pol­yun­sa­tu­ra­ted oils inter­fere with the release and trans­port of thyroid.

Estro­gen Dominance

Excess Cys­teine

Accu­mu­la­tion of Iron in the thy­roid gland (10% of those with hemochromatosis)

Adre­nal Insufficiency

Thy­roid Hor­mone Resistance

Dys­func­tion of T4 to T3 conversion

Con­ge­ni­tal Hypothy­roi­dism – being born without a thyroid

Nuc­lear Plant Exposure

Plus more cau­ses in the STTM book…

Want to order your own lab­work?? STTM has crea­ted the right ones just for you to dis­cuss with your doc­tor. Go here to see #1 and #2: http://www.stopthethyroidmaness.com/recommended-labwork

Need help inter­pre­ting your lab work? Go here: www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/lab-values/