# High prevalence in work?



## snowhite (Nov 12, 2012)

Hello i'm new here. I have recently been diagnosed with Hashimoto's, blood and scan confirmed this, awaiting an Endo referral at the moment, which may take quite some time.

I am currently doing lots of reading and trying to decide which supplements to take and at which doses etc. I have cut gluten out of my diet and started on acidophilus cod liver oil with vit D and am also taking echinacea and eating brazil nuts for selenium. Some days I feel a little better but then others I feel awful.

My main reason for joining here is to ask if anyone has ever heard of a high prevalence of hashimoto's within a workplace or similar. I have been speaking with colleagues about me feeling so unwell and it turns out that there are 4 others with confirmed Hashi's and another 4 or 5 experiencing thyroid symptoms such as a goiter or deranged TFT's, low ferritin, low energy. As of yet they haven't had their antibodies checked. 
We work in a hospital, so far they are all nurses but haven't spoken to any doctors yet so there may be some of them as well. If this is a high number of people developing hashi's then the obvious cause would be radiation from x-rays but 2 of the confirmed people don't really get involved in x-raying etc.
There are approx 150 nurses in the department in total. Some part time so lower exposure presumably.

Do you think this is a high rate of Hashi's?
Can anyone think of any possible causes?

I have spoken with a manager who has consulted with Radiology manager who in turn is involving health and safety. Occupational health has been informed as well.


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## alliebeth88 (Oct 25, 2012)

That is an interesting theory. I would be interested to hear how it turns out.

Another thing to remember is that women are way more likely to develop Hashimoto's than men, and the nursing profession is overwhelmingly female, although I realize that there are more men now.


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## joplin1975 (Jul 21, 2011)

Do you all regularly wear thyroid guards while x-raying?

It's possible, but recall, as noted above, thyroid disorders are increasing at a high rate, regardless of the occupation. I would be willing to bet its a combination of factors.


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## surge (Aug 15, 2012)

I do think there can be environmental triggers, and of course, we're also better at finding thyroid disease. I would say 1 in about every 4-5 women I know in my area have some kind of thyroid issue-- mostly low performance, though not nec. diagnosed as Hashis..

I would wonder if there were increased incidents within your community, not just your work place, too.

an odd tidbit:
a vet friend told me once that cats never had thyroid cancer until the 1970s and it seemed to correlate to the introduction of processed cat food.


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## nvsmom (Sep 30, 2012)

It could have something to do with the vaccinations that health care workers must get. I have some friends who are nurses who have other autoimmune disorders that become VERY aggravated with vaccinations.


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## snowhite (Nov 12, 2012)

Thanks for replies.
alliebeth88 - Yes there are more women than men at work so maybe that would explain it partly.

joplin1975 - no thyroid guards are not provided we go behind a dividing lead wall though, if the patient was very unstable then we would be required to stay. this has only happened once in 5 years to me and I only had a lead apron on as no thyroid guards. 
Maybe its just because generally it is getting easier to diagnose.

surge - That's a thought maybe its more about the community rather than the workplace.

I thought perhaps something in the water a parasite or similar could be causing deficiency . I thought I had H Pylori in the summer had all the symptoms couldn't get GP to do the right tests (useless) so went ahead and took mastic gum and manuka honey which helped within a few days.

Maybe the dodgy looking water cooler is to blame, I stopped drinking from it when I first suspected this in the summer but the damage may have been done already. The more I Think about that the more I'm convinced it's something to do with the cooler, we were stopped from drinking tap water about 18 months ago at work due to risk of Legionnaires' disease instead we fill jugs for patients from the cooler and also ourselves (except me).

Thanks for any input on this.


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## snowhite (Nov 12, 2012)

nvsmom - I decline the flu jab so the only vaccinations I have had are Hep B which was in 2001 and MMR 4 years ago. I suppose I could be the unlucky one who wold have developed it anyway I'll ask the others if they've had the annual jab.


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## Andros (Aug 26, 2009)

snowhite said:


> Hello i'm new here. I have recently been diagnosed with Hashimoto's, blood and scan confirmed this, awaiting an Endo referral at the moment, which may take quite some time.
> 
> I am currently doing lots of reading and trying to decide which supplements to take and at which doses etc. I have cut gluten out of my diet and started on acidophilus cod liver oil with vit D and am also taking echinacea and eating brazil nuts for selenium. Some days I feel a little better but then others I feel awful.
> 
> ...












First item of great importance is the Echinacea; please be aware that Echinacea triggers antibodies. By doing so, it triggers not only the good guys, but the bad guys as well. This could be a very bad thing for there are blocking, binding and stimulating antibodies.

And Wowsers!! That is a lot of people at the work place to have thyroid problems.

You have to let us know what the outcome of all of that is.

Sadly, I can't comment on your reason for joining but hopefully others will have had the experience and can contribute.


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## CA-Lynn (Apr 29, 2010)

NO, never heard of high incidence of Hashimoto's in a workplace.........except that thyroid disease is so darned common that it would not at all be unusual to have a large portion of the staff diagnosed with it. I believe 1 out of every 20 people have it.


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## piggley (Sep 15, 2012)

Hello Snowwhite, wow, thats really odd.- I guess the WHS people will be looking at your water sources as well, in case there has been lots of added chemicals somewhere. Has anything happened in the Cafeteria as regarding the food ect? 
Clusters like this are weird,often despite all efforts no one can identify the problem.
We had an incident a few Years ago where i live, several Women working in a local TV station who were diagnosed with Breast Cancer within weeks of each other, all working in the same office, one after the other,
Despite people going through the place with all sorts of sensing equipment but nothing was ever identified as related to the building being the cause,
Eventually they had to move the staff out and hire other office space because people began refusing to work there-
The place sat empty for a couple of Years, recently it was demolished.
The only thing suggested after a Years investigating was that the Women concerned were all doing shift work, which might possibly affect Hormonal patterns.
Pretty freaky though, I think I would be bringing my own food and water to work, just in case.
Best regards,


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## joplin1975 (Jul 21, 2011)

I'm one of three women at my workplace who have had thyroid cancer (office setting, higher education). Four others have had a thyroidectomy...two totals, two partials.


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## CA-Lynn (Apr 29, 2010)

Joplin:

How many people work there in the course of a given month? Include part time and volunteers.


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## joplin1975 (Jul 21, 2011)

We have ~600 full time. Toss in part timers and volunteers and I'd put a good faith estimate at around 750ish across campus.

In my office/department specifically, we have 65 people. I'm the only one with thyroid cancer (that I know of), but one total and one partial (for troublesome nodules) are people who work down the hall for me.

Incidentally, my intern who I had two years ago had thyroid cancer while she was with us.

We are in the Great Lakes region, which I understand has, generally, a slightly higher rate of thyroid dysfunction.


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## jenny v (May 6, 2012)

I'm one of three women in my department of 15 who has thyroid problems. One had a TT due to cancer, one had ablation due to Graves, and then there's me with Hashi's. I don't think there's any correlation but now we've got all the women in our department aware of/paranoid about thyroid issues since we chat about it a lot! LOL!


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## snowhite (Nov 12, 2012)

Maybe its not so uncommon.

I have been thinking it could be to do with vitamin D deficiency we work in the basement with no windows and obviously no natural daylight.

I have just received high potency Vit d in the post so will see if that helps, getting blood tests done is a nightmare, I've tried finding somewhere to go for them privately but there isn't anywhere. NHS seems to think its acceptable to wait 10 months for endo review who will then ask for the relevant blood tests.


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## surge (Aug 15, 2012)

Wow. Fascinating things coming up in this thread. Did anyone read _The New Yorker_ article in October on H.Pylori? The article is all about how the absence of h.pylori in children is directly correlated to asthma. While h.pylori is damaging to adults, the microbiome helps prevent lung issues in early childhood, and recent studies indicate that our shrinking personal microbiomes (as a result of antibiotic use, particularly in the firs 18 years; antibacterial wipes, etc.) might be at the root of the spike in autoimmune disorders AND obesity (without h.pylori, we have more of the hormone gherlin, which makes it more likely for people to overeat. In studies, they fed mice antibiotics comparable to those given to kids fighting ear infections and the mice "gained considerable weight"-- this is also the reason antibiotics are fed to farmed poultry, pigs and cows, as growth supplement).

This article is awesome, but just really mentions autoimmune as a blip. Still this is what I think about when I think of all the women I know with some kind of thyroid issue. I'm NOT recommending massive probiotic supplements (the article also points out that there isn't much known about the best ways to re-introduce *good* bacterias).

The water question is a good one. Have you ever thought of sending samples away to have them analyzed?


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## CA-Lynn (Apr 29, 2010)

Has it occurred to anyone that those of you with "higher" incidences of thyroid disease have great medical insurance and that when people have such insurance, they tend to go to doctors to resolve their issues?

If memory serves, I think the people who live in colder climates tend to visit doctors more frequently than those in warmer clients. Wish I could remember where I saw that.


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## joplin1975 (Jul 21, 2011)

CA-Lynn said:


> If memory serves, I think the people who live in colder climates tend to visit doctors more frequently than those in warmer clients. Wish I could remember where I saw that.


I've read that too.

By the way, just to be clear, I don't think my workplace is any different than any others. My point was that thyroid issues are pretty common and I would think most work places (except really small shops) would have a people with thyroid issues. And, yup, throw in good insurance and it all makes sense to me. I certainly wouldn't think to call OHSA!


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## piggley (Sep 15, 2012)

snowhite said:


> Maybe its not so uncommon.
> 
> I have been thinking it could be to do with vitamin D deficiency we work in the basement with no windows and obviously no natural daylight.
> 
> I have just received high potency Vit d in the post so will see if that helps, getting blood tests done is a nightmare, I've tried finding somewhere to go for them privately but there isn't anywhere. NHS seems to think its acceptable to wait 10 months for endo review who will then ask for the relevant blood tests.


I think thats a very good point. Low D levels have been implicated in so many autoimmune diseases.. soak up sunshine at every opportunity while you wait for the Blood test. Its a good thing to check for in any case,
Not sure if it works in the UK but here a Naturopath can organise for the appropiate Blood tests to be done, then they send the results back and you can take them to your MD. Saves a bit of time and frustration,

Coincidentally, just read last night that people who are having to struggle to raise their D levels absorb more of their supplement if thay take it with a decent sized meal,
( dont know of thats the only reason for low D levels in some people though.)


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## snowhite (Nov 12, 2012)

My Gp has tested me for Vit D and Vit B12 deficiency. Also ferritin level and Coeliac disease so hopefully I will have the results this week sometime.

On friday I started on Vit D, Vit B12, Spatone, Zinc and copper, Vitamin E, Selenium instead of brazil nuts, on top of the probiotic and cod liver oil I was taking before. I already feel just a tiny bit better (? psychosomatic) who cares.

Now obviously I realize without starting one at a time it will be difficult to know which one if any helps, but I felt so tired and unable to cope with work and family dramas last week I felt I had to do something. Besides I have taken spatone, vitamin E and probiotics on/off for years with no problems.

I have received a letter form the hospital saying I am on a waiting list to see a general medical physician, I do hope they realise that I specifically need Endo, as I was speaking to a medical Registrar last night in work about high prevalance and my own case etc and he was clueless but thought he knew a lot (apparently my T4 is ok so no treatment + no concern) grrr.

I have started writing up symptoms of vitamin deficiencies and comparing them to mine I have loads of problems so clearly have an absorption problem. the biggest issue at the moment is restless legs its driving me mad.

Another person has been diagnosed Hashi's in work that's 6 in total confirmed and another 5 suspect. Spoke to occupational health last week there is a six week wait to even be given an appointment.

I can understand the higher incidence among people with good medical insurance but believe me in the UK the NHS is no where near as good at finding things like this. Some things NHS are great with but not things like this so many are made to feel like hypochondriacs before a diagnosis.


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## angel1976 (Nov 15, 2011)

I second the idea about checking the drinking water.
If it containing low concentration of I-131 isotope (as low as 15 picocuries per liter) it may trigger thyroiditis that looks similar to Hashimoto's.
X-rays can cause hypo by causing thyroid atrophy rather than inflaamtion


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## snowhite (Nov 12, 2012)

angel1976 said:


> I second the idea about checking the drinking water.
> If it containing low concentration of I-131 isotope (as low as 15 picocuries per liter) it may trigger thyroiditis that looks similar to Hashimoto's.
> X-rays can cause hypo by causing thyroid atrophy rather than inflaamtion


Do you think this could get into a drinking water supply? I'll put it to the others. Any ideas on how I might get this independently tested?


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