Intentional glutening for Hashimoto diagnosis?

[chocoholic]

Dear fellow sufferers 💛

In a previous posting, I described my current situation of being a diagnosed celiac (August 2019, gluten free since) who has recently received an iffy Hashimoto diagnosis.

Question: Have you ever intentionally glutened yourself (even ongoing) before bloodwork for Hashimoto in order to see if your TPO antibodies would rise to secure a more reliable diagnosis?

So far my TPO antibodies are the only thing that indicate hashimoto, and I can't speak to the doctor (endocrinologist) who issued the diagnosis. My GP has confirmed it to me but upon my request has also written a referral to nuclear medicine, which I will go to on Tuesday for probably an ultrasound and more blood work. The endocrinologist wanted me to have my level checked again 3 months later, so here I am.

Some celiacs claim that a gluten free diet decreased their TPO. Can anyone confirm this?

[Scott Adams]

There is a ton of research that links thyroid issues, including some cases of Hashimoto's to celiac disease, which can be found here:

https://www.celiac.com/celiac-disease/celiac-disease-amp-related-diseases-and-disorders/thyroid-pancreatic-disorders-and-celiac-disease/

I would not recommend going through a gluten challenge for long enough to try to create this issue. I'm not sure how long it would take, whether it would work, or the possible negative health effects you'd suffer by doing this.

[chocoholic]

12 hours ago, Scott Adams said:

There is a ton of research that links thyroid issues, including some cases of Hashimoto's to celiac disease, which can be found here:

https://www.celiac.com/celiac-disease/celiac-disease-amp-related-diseases-and-disorders/thyroid-pancreatic-disorders-and-celiac-disease/

I would not recommend going through a gluten challenge for long enough to try to create this issue. I'm not sure how long it would take, whether it would work, or the possible negative health effects you'd suffer by doing this.

 

Hi Scott, thank you for your reply and the link. I was aware of the correlation among various autoimmune diseases. I just haven't found research that shows APO decreasing with a gluten free diet in celiacs.

Contrary: one of your links states ("People with Celiac Disease Face Higher Risk of Thyroid Autoimmune Disorders" by Jefferson Adams):

"After treatment with a gluten-free diet, thyroid volume continued to decrease significantly in the patients with celiac disease compared with the control subjects, indicating the progression of thyroid gland atrophy regardless of the gluten-free diet. (...) Moreover, a gluten-free diet did not seem to stop or reverse the progression of autoimmune disease after one year."

[Scott Adams]

Clearly you need to be gluten-free no matter what, and I doubt being gluten-free as a celiac would increase any thyroid issues, but as this one study indicates, it may not decrease your thyroid issues. It is only one study, and many other conditions do improve for celiacs who are gluten-free.