Cheryl's Hypothyroid Site

My Autoimmune Hypothyroidism (Hashimoto's) Was Finally Stabilized
By Selenium and Iodine Supplements!

It is my hope that this collection of articles may help others improve or overcome their hypothyroid affliction. A heartfelt THANK YOU to the internet community for providing the information that enabled me to treat the thyroid disease that plagued me for sixteen years.

The focus of this web site is to provide information about how autoimmune hypothyroid disease may be caused or complicated by a deficiency of selenium.

---

Selenium, Iodine, and your Thyroid

The only person that I have had recent first hand experience with regard to thyroid disease is myself. Therefore, I will give a little background. A little over sixteen years ago, I moved to the North Coast of California. Within a year, my usual good health disappeared into daily problems with congestion, headaches, inability to concentrate, and more, to the extent that it significanly interfered with my ability to work at my job or to take care of my son and my home. Finally, after fifteen years of struggle, I was diagnosed hypothyroid. I started taking Levoxyl which helped with some symptoms but brought new ones, muscle pain and extreme fatigue. I switched to Armour and the pain and fatigue improved. I never could stabilize however, slight increases in the medication would bring a few weeks of relief and then the congestion and mental confusion would return.

I had read in several hypo books and seen it mentioned in several discussion groups that selenium was required for T4 to be converted to T3.   Since switching from Levoxyl to Armour Thyroid had made a significant positive improvement, I figured that I was benefiting from the T3 in Armour and had conversion problems.

I started trying a different substance each month that was reputed to help with converting T4.   I was already taking a multivitamin with minerals.   I also have a good and varied diet and cook most of my food from scratch.   Vitamin C helped a little, DHEA helped a little the first time I tried it but not the second.   Extra B vitamins did not seem to help.   Then, on November 1, 2004, I tried selenium as my experiment of the month, expecting little or no improvement.   Surprisingly within three days I felt pretty good.   After two weeks, I was feeling hyperthyroid and stopped taking my 130mg per day of Thyroid (generic Armour). During the rest of November I tried restarting medication at a lower doses but could not tolerate it. On December 8, I restarted at 45 mg and was able to tolerate this for about seven weeks before hyper feelings started building. At this time I decided to quit the medication entirely to test the outcome. The doctor wanted me to continue taking the 45 mg per day. I haven't taken any thyroid medication since January 25, 2005.   I will continue to be tested and will, of course, resume thyroid medication if necessary.

After starting selenium supplements and getting such a dramatic result, I used the internet to find out more about selenium. The abstract, below, was a revelation.

Abstract of 2001 German Research Study - Selenium Supplementation in Patients with Autoimmune Thyroiditis Decreases Thyroid Peroxidase Antibodies Concentrations - also a news article regarding the study.

A History of Selenium-Thyroid Research. A collection of medical abstracts from thyroidhistory.net.

More information regarding the role of selenium in thyroid disease.

Miscellaneous Thyroid Information.

I have serious warnings for any person who intends to try selenium supplements: