# Long and convoluted rumination



## Bunker (Jun 27, 2011)

This may sound a bit disjointed. I am curious mainly about my dad, but I will start with me and my mom.

About four years ago, both me and my mother discovered we were reacting to gluten and other foods. Probably had been for a long time, but we put two and two together independantly of each other and went off these "bad" foods at about the same time. Then we told each other about our discoveries, and it was a big, "No way, you too???" party.

Then about two(?) years ago, my dad decided to trial gluten himself and found that he too does better without it.

(My sister also has clear problems with it, but is in hectic denial with three kids to corral and "no time to look into it".)

So recently I have got this cyst in my thyroid, and discovering a whole bunch of you here also off gluten, lightbulbs in my head are sparking. WHAT is going on here?

My TSH is "normal" 2.38 on a range of .5-4.5. (I have a lot of symptoms, and a cyst.)
I just recently got my mom to cough up her and my dad's TSH results history which painted an interesting picture.
She didn't give me the ranges, but we are all in the care of the same brand health system, so I guess it is the same, .5-4.5.

My mom's results are generally like mine, high "normal", as high as 2.9, with dips into the 1.something range, just like me.

My dad however, is generally .7 with a couple rises to 1.something. I'd have to go look up the email to repost the list, but he was 3 out of 5 times below 1.0.

He also has type II diabetes, sleep apnea, and recently showed something suspicious in blood work for his heart.

What I'm thinking is that he has something autoimmune going on with his thyroid too, and is subclinically hyper. My symptoms fall more into the hyper spectrum than hypo, except for the ice cold extremities, but I know a range of symptoms from both sides can occur.

I am still waiting to be seen in late September when I will ask for the various antibody tests that Andros recommends all the time.

Do y'all think I'm on the right track here? My whole family probably has mild thyroid problems, and my dad being vaguely hyper is getting the worst problems, and I should probably recommend antibody tests for everyone, but particularly him.

Appointments take forevvvverrrr to arrive, especially now that I think I'm on the right track instead of just "full of complaints".


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## Bunker (Jun 27, 2011)

We were raised on my mom's cooking. Mormon food, highly processed, cheap canned food, wheat and cheese in most everything. And plenty of that good fluoridated city water and fluoridated toothpaste and treatments at the dentist.
Seriously I do blame her crappy food for my health problems today. Now I am gluten and dairy free and eat as much whole foods as I can get my hands on.

I am also not a mormon anymore, and when I go to family events the food is shockingly disgusting and overprocessed, but "traditional".


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## Andros (Aug 26, 2009)

Bunker said:


> This may sound a bit disjointed. I am curious mainly about my dad, but I will start with me and my mom.
> 
> About four years ago, both me and my mother discovered we were reacting to gluten and other foods. Probably had been for a long time, but we put two and two together independantly of each other and went off these "bad" foods at about the same time. Then we told each other about our discoveries, and it was a big, "No way, you too???" party.
> 
> ...


Oh, my goodness! Would you have trouble talking your dad into the lab tests? It sounds as though he may be hyper but more importantly, older folks do have a leaning towards cancer of the thyroid and it would seem that cancer and hyper come in the same package (sometimes) so this would be well worth checking out.

Gluten intolerance can be a "suggestive" diagnostic tool for thyroid disease just as low ferritin as well as some other symptoms might be.


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## lainey (Aug 26, 2010)

Okay.

Women generally tend to have a slightly higher TSH than men--with your Dad's falling around the 50th percentile. This makes them pretty well normal.

TSH also tends to rise somewhat as we age. This is actually been shown to be beneficial--some studies of the very elderly show them to be in the upper end of the range, so some have postulated that there may be a protective affect to having the metabolism "ramp down" a bit. This is only one study on it: http://hormones.gr/preview.php?c_id=492

Granted, if your parents are in their early 60's, it may be a little early, but it sounds as if their results are normal.

Testing for antibodies--why? If there aren't symptoms of thyroid disease, and signs of thyroid dysfunction via blood work, what is the need to test for antibodies? We don't treat the antibodies, so.....


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## Bunker (Jun 27, 2011)

I am waiting until I see my own tests because I have been down a few dead ends before, trying to find out why we ALL have a problem with gluten. My doc had broached the possibility of fibromyalgia with me, and we had only had my ANA titers done as elimination when I found this thing in my thyroid. (My FNA was inconclusive, but DID have some lymphocytes and "hurtheloid" cells, so I'm having this cyst out in a little while.)

We all have similar complaints, many of which are obviously related to gluten. Now that's eliminated, except for my sister, we all have pain and back/neck problems, still somewhat cranky digestion alternating with C/D. I forgot to mention my dad's chronic urticaria. We all have cranky skin, dry and flaky, my sister and I still have acne in our 30s. Cold extremities, except for my dad, the furnace. I used to be the fittest one, running for my job, but now all of us have no endurance, poor recuperation, and periodic weakness. Oh, and anxiety is a big problem for all of us too. I'm sure there's more that isn't on the top of my mind right now.

My mom and dad have been ready to be old since they were my age, now they are only in their mid fifties, and if I complain about something, they'll say, oh yeah, welcome to getting OLD!
But my sister and I are in our prime! Personally I've gone downhill rather quickly, recently, and I think my sister is getting to that point too.

The more I read, the more I think there is autoimmune thyroid process at work, and I won the lottery with both parents having it. Half the extended family on BOTH sides are gluten intolerant. So I think there are bad genes combined with horrible diet early in life, giving my sister and I the worst luck.

Thanks for the replies. I feel one of you is a bit suspicious along the same lines as me, and the other is not, and I know the symptoms I described above are well in that "vague complaint" category.

I can't wait to see what my excised cyst shows. Maybe I will try and see if my parents will let me touch their thyroids first. If either of them has a cyst like mine, I would be sure to feel it, even as undoctorly as I am.

Curiosity kills this cat.


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## lainey (Aug 26, 2010)

Gluten sensitivity/intolerance/celiac has an extremely strong genetic component. People who test positive for celiac overwhelmingly have the same genetic defect.

Obviously, it is the case with your family that there may a strong link there. It would only take a few of you to get the proper testing to determine it. Diet in childhood really isn't a factor if this is the case.

Yes, gluten intolerance has an autoimmune component. However, that doesn't necessarily transfer to having thyroid disease, and one doesn't 'cause' the other.


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## Bunker (Jun 27, 2011)

Ok, well, as long as I'm wrong...


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