Low Thyroid And Iron Go Together?

[marsaday]

Why do so many thyroid patients also have low iron levels. It is especially true for women.

Is it true peat thinks iron is a toxic substance and so we don't want to try and raise it ?

My wife is trying to get her iron up. Is she doing the right thing ?

 

[Stilgar]

I would be cautious. Has she had her thyroid levels tested?
If iron saturation is low, there is a small possibility it could be solved by having extra iron. But, it is better to try other things first.

Getting the thyroid up enables better usage of vitamin A, and better use and retention of b vitamins. For me, using iron felt like it helped for a while, and actually made me stop using thyroid. However, I think it was because my body was actually desperate for vitamin A, and it was using vitamin A that finally sorted out the breathlessness, racing heart etc. My periods were still chronically heavy on thyroid - an indication that something else was wrong. Many things have been shown to reduce this iron loss (if it really amounts to very much, anyway) and resolve metabolic problems in general - lowering estrogen, and increasing vitamin A, for example.

Also I think it might be good to check for other things too.

Low vitamin D, for instance, which complicated my situation, and made using vitamin A difficult, and low intake of b vitamins and trace minerals.

 

[PakPik]

Why do so many thyroid patients also have low iron levels. It is especially true for women.

Hi! I think this has to do with the propensity of hypothyroid people to develop chronic inflammation, infections, etc, and women may even have it worse due to usually higher estrogenic load. I suggest you read the wikipedia article called Anemia of chronic disease - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia . Let me quote something relevant:

"Anemia of chronic disease, or anemia of chronic inflammation, is a form of anemia seen in chronic infection, chronic immune activation, and malignancy. These conditions all produce massive elevation of Interleukin-6, which stimulates hepcidin production and release from the liver, which in turn reduces the iron carrier protein ferroportin so that access of iron to the circulation is reduced. Other mechanisms may also play a role, such as reduced erythropoiesis."​

Is it true peat thinks iron is a toxic substance and so we don't want to try and raise it ?

There are genuine cases of low iron stores, but from my reading, from Peat and from my own experience I strongly believe that in most cases it is not a problem with lack of iron. So, trying to raise iron through supplements, etc, when having anemia of chronic inflammation/infection will only help to worsen the inflammation or help an infection spread -it is adaptive-:

"The adaptation to iron deficiency, which confers resistance to infection and improves the inflammatory condition, underlies what is probably the most obvious link: the anemia of inflammation or chronic disease."
(Iron Homeostasis and the Inflammatory Response)

"Given the absolute requirement for iron by virtually all human pathogens, an important facet of the innate immune system is to limit iron availability to invading microbes in a process termed nutritional immunity."
(http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1931312813001522.)

I've also heard of people getting cancers after supplementing iron for their "anemia". Iron is absolutely protumor if it is not well controlled.

From personal experience, I had been eating plentiful red meat, organ meats, etc, and had bad anemia and low iron. In reality this was due to both chronic inflammatory condition, hypothyroidism and very bad infection in my body. When I started working on addressing these things, then in a matter of months there was no anemia whatsoever despite following a very low iron diet and taking high dose aspirin, which chelates iron.

Of course full iron status panels and basic inflammatory markers would help shed some light.

I hope this helps :)

 

[whit]

I would warn anyone from supplementing iron alone. Balance is everything.
If you show signs of anemia liver is a perfect food for balanced nutrition. Once a week is sufficient for some.

There's also desiccated liver pills if the taste is off putting.
It's also a good source of vit.A and many other important cofactors.
Iron disregulation is serious. That's why Peat mentions it so often. In order for iron to work correctly the source is crucial.
Often it's not that iron is lacking but out of regulation.

 

[marsaday]

I will do some more reading about Vit A.

My wife does have high inflammation and also cytokines. Her body attacks any egg if it gets fertilised. We tried 4 IVF cycles to get pregnant. Eventually it worked and we have a little girl, but in 10 years we have never been pregnant naturally. The IVF clinic have no idea what is going on and why this happens. All they did was use an infusion of palm oil to blind the killer cells from attacking the egg/baby. She had 3 infusions during the 9 months of pregnancy.

I wonder if anyone has any ideas on what is happening with her system. She takes 50mcg T4 and it really helps her, but she is not hypothyroid according to the docs. If she stopped taking the meds she would struggle.

All this is linked, but she is actually quite well and healthy. So something is going on inside which is unexplained.

 

[HDD]

What does her temperature and pulse look like? Does she have any hypothyroid symptoms? Estrogen symptoms? How is her diet?

 

[marsaday]

What does her temperature and pulse look like? Does she have any hypothyroid symptoms? Estrogen symptoms? How is her diet?

Pulse is normal at 70 approx. Temp is normal at 36.6-37C.

She does have tiredness and water retention issues. Her periods are normal and regular and not heavy.

Diet is great. She home cooks most food most days. Lots of veg, meat, potatoes, eggs etc. She is not a drinker or smoker.

We both look very healthy, but i have a thyroid problem and find life can be tiring a fair bit and she doesn't officially have a thyroid problem, but she uses T4 and it helps her.

She has always had a mild acne problem. The T4 has helped with this, but it is still there in the background. It just means she gets a few facial spots per month on the face and has had spots on her back.

 

[whit]

Peat mentions the early tests done for thyroid were done on young men and they used T4.
Young Men dont usually have issues turning T4 intoT3. Women however can. It generally has to do with
The livers efficiency. If it's busy with estrogen there can be inefficiency.

 

[tara]

Is it true peat thinks iron is a toxic substance and so we don't want to try and raise it ?

I've ever seen him deny that iron is an essential mineral that we do need to have enough of in our systems.
As I read it, Peat thinks excess iron contributes to a number of degenerative conditions. He may read the ranges a bit differently to standard medical view, but I'm not up with the details.
I think Haidut ad maybe Mittir? have some posts on reading the different iron lab tests.

If your wife really is deficient in iron, then she may need some. Some forms are probably safer than others. Is she eating liver regularly? This may be a more usable form than some.

 

[tara]

If you show signs of anemia liver is a perfect food for balanced nutrition. Once a week is sufficient for some.

I think one of Peat's points is that there are other causes of anemia than iron deficiency. Iron deficiency should not be assumed just based on anemia.
I agree about sources.

Diet is great. She home cooks most food most days. Lots of veg, meat, potatoes, eggs etc. She is not a drinker or smoker.

Any calcium?

 

[marsaday]

Well she doesn't drink a huge amount of milk and could eat more cheese. I suppose these are the standard deliveries of calcium. She has tried a paleo diet before and this certainly seemed to help her, but with having a 2 y/o it is hard to cook for her and then her own special diet. so we all eat the same stuff generally. All home made usually. Yes we will have a pizza every couple of weeks and maybe some supermarket cooked meal once or twice a week, but generally we home cook.