ArticlesWEIGHT LOSS: HYPOTHYROIDISM, THE UNDERLYING ISSUE: MINERAL DEPRIVATION It has been estimated that up to 40 percent of our population suffers from subclinical hypothyroidism. If this is true, how did the thyroid get to be such a problem? Possibly a number of factors in our culturally rich but nutritionally deprived culture slow down the organ that sits so high in the body's hierarchy of authority. Nutrient deficiencies in such important minerals as zinc and selenium are well known to produce low secretions of T3, the most biologically significant of the thyroid hormones. Selenium is a powerful antioxidant micromineral that is no longer found in the soil in many parts of the world, so food plants grown in the soil are deprived as well. As we eat less red meat, the richest source of zinc (other than oysters), we are becoming increasingly deficient in this powerful nutrient as well. Low zinc levels suppress thyroid function. High doses of ferrous sulfate (iron sulfate) significantly decrease thyroid hormone production so quickly that it becomes clinically detectable after just a few weeks. If you need an iron supplement, you may prefer a less irritating form of supplementary iron, such as iron glycinate or an amino acid chelate taken simultaneously with vitamin Ń for maximum absorption. This source of iron should not suppress thyroid function. (Iron should be taken in small doses—up to 15 milligrams a day—and only after true iron-deficiency anemia has been diagnosed by the health care provider.) *35\319\2* |
