Thyroid-gluten-autoimmunity connection video - Dr. Tom O'Bryan

Hi all,

Although this topic is more properly slotted for the General Health forum and will be posted there as well for the longer term. I wanted to make notice of it here too for those who may rarely venture over to the general health forum so they too can have a look at this excellent and interesting interview with highly regarded Functional Medicine MD and gluten sensitivity/celiac expert Dr Tom O'Bryan.

With the frequent references on our site of the connections, or at least associations, with AFIB and both thyroid issues as well as gluten sensitivity, not to mention autoimmunity in general, I feel this topic is equally at home in both forums and its it's full of very solid information first sent to me by a very skilled functional medicine doctor I have worked a lot with in the past.

For those who might be interested here is the link and there are many more excellent topics also referenced on this webpage below you might find worth exploring as well.

Thyroid-gluten connection Video- Dr Tom O'Bryan

Cheers!
Shannon

Thyroid-Gluten - autoimmunity connection video- Dr Tom O'Bryan



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/01/2014 04:55PM by Shannon.

Shannon:

I listened to the long video---The doctor is good about Gluten issues, which I don't have, but is not that revealing about Thyroid issues. He doesn't mention anything about Iodine, which is paramount to the Thyroid, There really wasn't any new information, I had Graves disease, he doesn't go there. By the way what is wrong with his skin?

Liz

Liz - the initial introduction is about gluten's affect on thyroid receptors. It's well known there is a strong connection between both autoimmune disorders ( Hashimotos and Grave's disease) and gluten intolerance.

I'm sure he'll get into more detail as the Smmmit progresses.

Jackie

"Its well known there is a strong connection between both autoimmune disorders (Hashimotos and Graves' disease) and gluten intolerance", I don't think this is a well known fact. I have never been diagnosed with gluten intolerance, I don't have any gut issues, no symptoms of gerd. Today, the favorite thing is gluten is bad, I don't eat white flour products, when I eat breads I eat those made with Rye or whole wheat, any pasta I eat is made with corn, I just think foods in their more natural forms are just better.

I have always read that thyroid disorders are due in large part to iodine deficiency. A lot of people are jumping on the Gluten is terrible bandwagon, I think the bleached version of whole wheat flour is bad, same as the bleached version of salt. My father had Graves disease as a young man, the doctors killed him, after a thyroid surgery, he couldn't breathe, chocked to death. I got Graves disease about a year after my son died, since I have a genetic makeup for Graves, my sadness brought forth my Graves disease, nothing to do with gluten.

Too many things are posted as absolutes when they are not.

Liz

Liz - Once again, I am truly so very sorry about your son. Whenever you mention that, I can’t begin to imagine your pain and grief and the obvious impact that has had on your body and well-being. Very sad.

There are numerous references in the scientific literature on the potential gluten connection and Graves. The testing is highly sophisticated and much is quite new. In my post reporting on Dr. O’Bryan’s gluten investigations offered several years ago, he went into great detail about the lack of reliable labs available for testing the haplotypes and was just then collaborating with colleagues to open a testing facility specific for gluten. Cyrex Labs has been up and running since then. EnteroLabs is another reliable lab.

One comment from a report on this topic mentions:

We have yet to fully understand the implications of genetic susceptibility in autoimmune diseases, but it is known that specific HLA haplotypes are also associated with type 1 diabetes mellitus, multiple sclerosis, and Graves' disease.23

23.
Curr Genomics. Nov 2007; 8(7): 453–465.
PMCID: PMC2647156

The HLA Region and Autoimmune Disease: Associations and Mechanisms of Action
S.C.L Gough and M.J Simmonds
[www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov]



Once again, remember that genetic mutations or tendencies don’t always ‘express’ until certain environments allow for that to happen… as you mention with your onset of Graves and the subsequent diagnosis.

Previous post: Dangerous Grains - The Gluten Sensitivity Conundrum (July, 2011)

[www.afibbers.org]

Kind regards,
Jackie

I know that if I eat wheat/gluten it will bring on an episode of a-fib. Generally it happens about six hrs. after eating the offending food. I avoid wheat and gluten always, but have been served it when eating out and have traced it back after the fact.

Lynn - At least you know and can attempt to avoid. As you are aware, eating away from home can be a challenge unless you avoid everything that has the potential to have some type of flour added.... even some soups and sauces are thickened with flour. For that reason, I always eat as 'plainly' as possible.

The fact that you do have a reaction is beneficial to you in that you are avoiding other systemic complications that others suffer when they are unaware they have these protein sensitivities...or worse, know and yet ignore. Once again, AF is the canary in the coal mine that something is amiss in the body.

Jackie

"Af is the canary in the coal mine", then what would you call diabetes, heart disease, arthritis, etc. You appear to be saying that if we can take care of AF then our bodies should be healthy I got too much thyroid meds and went into AF, I guess that was my canary.

I would say that a lot of the posters here exercise and eat better than the average person, yet they have AF where a lot of the masses eat a lot of sugar, starches, are heavy and do not have AF, so where is their canary?

Liz

Liz --- For someone with gluten sensitivity who is stimulated into afib as a result of that sensitivity, then (for them) AF is their canary indicating there is an underlying imbalance or reaction and it's a warning that all is not right systemically.

If systemic inflammation is the source of afib, then, eliminating the source of the inflammation quite often, also eliminates AFib..... especially if it's a case of gluten/gliaden sensitivity and concomitant a inflammatory response. We know several afibbers who cured their afib by going gluten free. So for them, Afib was their canary that something was amiss in their body. Recognizing the driver is the challenge and that's were good testing helps so changes can be made to diet, lifestyle, environment, etc.

I'm not saying "if we take care of AFib then all will be well"...because, we know that's not the case if it's driven by another underlying influence. The Afib may be gone but the culprit that drove it will just continue to cause a problems which manifest as something else. So fixing the afib won't reverse (for instance) the inflammation....you have to get to the core cause.

Fixing AFib in no way provides or guarantees a healthy body.... it merely and hopefully takes away the electrical conduction problem. And, of course, a reliably calm heart certainly helps our overall well-being and tranquility so that we can live peacefully and hopefully, healthfully.

Jackie