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Date: | Sun, 14 Aug 2005 19:32:04 -0700 |
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<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>
To answer DippyChick's question:
Absolutely! If CD is "caught" early enough, I believe an ailing thyroid can
recover. Gluten consumption for gluten sensitive individuals can trigger
your body to produce auto antibodies to many different tissues & organs, the
thyroid gland being a very common target.
I have personal experience with this phenenomenon. For years before I got
diagnosed with CD, I always had a TSH that was on the high side of "normal."
(High TSH means poor thyroid function.) I suffered with all the symptoms
of hypothyroidism, but no one would treat me for hypothyroidism because I
was still considered "normal." (WHATEVER THAT MEANS!)
After I went GF and began to feel like a normal person for the first time in
years, my TSH began to decrease showing that my thryoid function was
improving. After nearly a year on the GF diet, I started feeling terrible
again with all the old symptoms of fatigue, depression, muscle pain, etc. I
went from doctor to doctor trying to figure out what was wrong with me. To
make a long story short, I finally figured out that I had been ingesting
minute amounts of hidden gluten several times a week for the past 5 months
(in Lawry's Seasoned Salt). I removed the source & voila! I began to feel
normal again. After this experience I compared my thyroid function tests
from before & during this bout of gluten exposure. During the time I was
being "glutenated" my TSH kept getting higher & higher showing worse & worse
thyroid function. Soon after I removed the hidden source of gluten, my TSH
began dropping back to more optimal levels. (Lower TSH means more thyroid
on board.)
I later noticed two large palpable nodules on my thyroid that were
suspicious for cancer. The doctors decided to remove them to see what they
were. They weren't cancerous, but 75% of my thyroid gland was non
functioning, hardened white scar tissue. Only a tiny bit was even
functioning. I ended up losing the whole gland. I believe years of gluten
consumption had triggered my body to attack my thyroid gland. In other
words, gluten FRIED my thyroid gland! I believe I could have saved my
thyroid if I had been diagnosed with CD decades earlier.
Valerie in Tacoma
* Visit the Celiac Web Page at www.enabling.org/ia/celiac/index.html *
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