Doc,
Is the data suggesting a gluten free diet can help with Hashimoto’s, in a non-celiac person, solid? My wife’s endo keeps telling her to keep a GF diet to get her white blood cell count down. She’s been on a strict gluten free diet for 2+ years, and her white blood cell count is still (very) high. She’s taking Naturethroid, and here T3/T4 levels are controlled.
Appreciate your perspective on this.
Thanks,
Erik
Could you cite this data? This question seems to assume that there exists abundant data on this matter, which I am not aware of.
I found one article that seems to be related to this subject here: Extra-intestinal manifestations of non-celiac gluten sensitivity: An expanding paradigm - PMC
Overall I would not say we have very compelling evidence at this point (though I may certainly change my mind if presented with it).
This (specifically re: WBC) seems unusual to me.
I’m not sure there is an abundance of data either. Which is why it seems odd that if one Googles “hashimoto’s and gluten free”, basically everyone suggests a GF diet helps regulate the disease in some way.
One study I found is here: The Effect of Gluten-Free Diet on Thyroid Autoimmunity in Drug-Naïve Women with Hashimoto's Thyroiditis: A Pilot Study - PubMed
Another here (though I can’t read beyond the abstract): 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 - PubMed
Side note: I used the term WBCs interchangeably with thyroid antibodies…
Yeah … replace Hashimoto’s with any disease of your choice and I’m quite confident you’ll find something on the internet.
There is a known correlation between autoimmune diseases, in that many people with one AI disease (or family history of AI disease) are at increased risk for others. For this reason, patients with autoimmune thyroiditis are also at increased risk for celiac disease. The extent to which “non-celiac gluten sensitivity” has any relevance here is unknown.
That first link is certainly interesting, and deserves replication in a larger, randomized trial of hypothyroid patients.
The second link appears to be a review paper, not an actual study.
These are completely different things, so I would not do that.
Understood, pardon my ignorance. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to make the doctor’s recommendation of a gluten free diet any more reasonable…
Thanks for your time!
Just another n=1: I’ve also read some things about “non-celiac gluten sensitivity” and how it appears to cause autoimmune diseases some years ago (don’t ask me for details at this point). I suffered from Hashimoto’s since my early teenage years, so a few years ago I’ve reduced my gluten intake to the occasional beer every couple of days or so and the rare tasting of small pieces of breads, cakes and pizza when e.g. eating out, even though I was never suffering from celiac disease symptoms. My thyroid antibody measurement went down from I believe “>4000” or “>5000” (basically beyond the range the test could measure) to a little over 100. Still higher than normal but progress nonetheless. To be fair it could’ve been how the disease would have progressed either way, but if it didn’t hurt why not…
It also doesn’t have to be causal (and hell it could even be placebo) but the few times I do gorge on gluten (like who visits Italy and doesn’t want to eat pizza and the pasta there?) I do seem to have other AI skin issue flare ups for some days to weeks afterwards. But the same is also caused by lack of sleep and maybe even more so, so who knows. I’d say if it works, great! If not, it was worth a shot.