FYH Article - Cold Wrecks Your Thyroid

[DaveFoster]

After hearing Ray mention how the cold can significantly increase one's need for thyroid hormone, I researched the topic a little and found an interesting study on pigs, which I analyzed and posted on my blog.

Here's the summary of my findings of the study and a link to both the article and the study:

• Researchers examined the effects of temperature and food intake on thyroid function in 4-week-old pigs over a period 6 weeks.
• They measured their thyroid hormones 16-21 hours after their last meal when the pigs reached 10 weeks old.
  
• They then measured the fractional disappearance rate of thyroid hormones, which shows represents how fast the body destroys its thyroid hormone, for example in extreme stress.
  
• They found that a high food intake increased the pigs’ production of thyroid hormones.
  
• Pigs destroyed their own thyroid hormones faster in cold temperatures.
  
• Cold temperatures and high caloric intakes significantly increased their needs for thyroid hormone.

Here's Dr. Peat's video that inspired my investigation:




Cold Weather Wrecks Your Thyroid

Thyroid hormone metabolism after acclimatization to warm or cold temperature under conditions of high or low energy intake. - PubMed - NCBI