Can Nutrition Heal Your Thyroid?

Hashimoto's thyroiditis is a somewhat common auto-immune disorder that affects the thyroid gland. It affects more women than men and is usually diagnosed in early adulthood. Typical symptoms of low thyroid function include unexplained hair loss, weight gain, dry skin, and intolerance to cold. If you’re suffering from any of those symptoms, your doctor may order a blood test to see how your thyroid is functioning.

Standard medical treatment for Hashimoto's focuses on monitoring levels of thyroid hormone and supplementing with replacement hormone as needed. Beyond that, a conventional endocrinologist isn't likely to have much, if anything, to say in regards to diet or lifestyle changes. But women with this diagnosis often stumble across a lot of alternative therapies online... including a controversial diet called the Auto-Immune Protocol.

Joining me to discuss the role of nutrition in supporting a healthy thyroid is Sunny Brigham, a clinical nutritionist who specializes in digestive health, healthy weight loss, and all things thyroid, including Hashimoto's disease. She's also an adjunct professor at the Maryland University of Integrative Health.

Below are highlights from our conversation. Click play on the audio player above to hear the entire discussion.

Monica: Can you give us a quick overview of the basic tenets of the AIP?

Sunny: The goal of the auto-immune protocol is to remove inflammatory foods from the body, foods that the immune system tends to react to. You remove grains, legumes (including peanuts), nuts, seeds, most fruit, some vegetables, nightshades, various seasonings, alcohol, coffee, tea, chocolate, popcorn. Effectively, you're down to meat, a handful of vegetables, and 1-2 servings of low sugar fruit daily.  And then you systematically reintroduce foods to identify reactions.

Monica: In your opinion, how strong is the evidence to support the AIP approach? Have there been good, peer-review studies on outcomes, or is this mostly anecdotal evidence?

Sunny: There's very little evidence to support AIP as an approach to healing Hashimoto's or other autoimmune conditions. From my research, there are no systematic reviews and only one peer-reviewed study on AIP. The study found that while study participants felt better and their hs-CRP was lowered, it had little effect on their antibody numbers or their thyroid function. The study was...

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