Thyroid Disease: Is The Notorious H. Pylori The Cause?

You have thyroid disease such as Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis or Graves Disease. Your doctors tell you that there is nothing more that they can do for you besides keep you on your medications, but you still feel like crap. You are fatigued, can’t lose weight, and have digestive problems like acid reflux, constipation, diarrea, or maybe a combination of the latter two issues.

Getting on a thyroid medication can help when you first find out you have thyroid problems. However, this does not fix any real issues.

What’s Really Going on Here With Thyroid Disease?

When you have Hashimoto’s or Graves (both autoimmune diseases of the thyroid) or really any autoimmune disease, the issue is not that your thyroid is broken or something just doesn’t work anymore in your body and you are stuck that way. There is a deeper issue, or a root cause, that is triggering the autoimmune symptoms.

These Root Causes of Thyroid Disease May Be The Following:

Inflammatory foods (gluten, corn, soy, dairy, etc.)
Food sensitivities
Nutrient imbalances
Environmental toxins (heavy metals, pesticides, etc.)
Stress (physical, mental/emotional, etc.)
Infections (viruses, yeast, worms, parasites, bacteria)
Leaky gut

If these issues are not addressed, your thyroid medication will only do so much. Women tell me all of the time that they feel like their medication stopped working, or they are always adjusting the amounts. How exhausting!

Thyroid Disease Medication Won’t Work If You Have Inflammation

When there is inflammation present in the body (which can come from the hidden root causes not being addressed) then medications won’t work as well. Inflammation decreases the conversion of T4 (inactive thyroid hormone) to T3 (active hormone). [1] Inflammation can suppress your HPT (hypothalamus pituitary thyroid) axis, therefore disrupting production of thyroid hormones. [2] [3]

Genetics Don’t Play a Huge Role…

I normally don’t talk about genetics because they actually play a very small role in the disease. The foods you eat, toxins that enter your body, the way you manage stress, and the pathogens that could invade your body would be the problems that can trigger your genetic code to kick in and “turn on” the disease. Luckily, if we can resolve these problems then we can “turn off” the disease in a sense.

Hidden Infections and Thyroid Disease

Hidden infections are more common than you think when it comes to thyroid diseases and other autoimmune diseases.

There is a strong correlation between Helicobacter Pylori (H. Pylori) infections and those with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis and Graves disease. Studies show autoimmune thyroid populations have higher prevalence than those without autoimmune thyroid disorders. [4] [5]

What About Helicobacter Pylori

H. Pylori is a spiral shaped bacterium that lives in the lining of the stomach, and is one of the most common infections worldwide.

What Are The Helicobacter Pylori Symptoms?

Some symptoms of H. pylori are abdominal pain, indigestion (acid reflux), headaches, nausea, ulcers, vomiting and chronic gastrointestinal symptoms. H. Pylori actually raises the pH of your gut so that it can survive. There’s also something called virulence factors that may be present and can make you more susceptible to gastric cancer or other pathologies.

What Tests Can You Run to Detect Helicobacter Pylori?

There are standard tests your doctor can run, but they are not as accurate as the GI-MAP stool test, which is what I run on my clients. This GI-MAP test by Diagnostic Solutions uses PCR (polymerase chain reaction) technology and provides the most sensitive, specific, and clinically relevant results available.

My Recommendations

I highly recommend working with me or another functional medicine practitioner who can use this testing to look for infections, and understands natural treatments. Medical doctors often want to treat H. Pylori with a round of antibiotics, which may or may not be effective. Antibiotics can further damage the lining of your gut and kill off healthy bacteria. Having a low population of healthy bacteria and having a “leaky gut” or damaged gut wall are also both correlated with autoimmune diseases. Therefore, taking antibiotics might help one problem, but make other matters worse.

H.Pylori and Your Family

There are also other factors that come into play. If you are in a relationship or have a family, and you test positive for H. Pylori, the rest of your family most likely has it. This is because this infection is easily transmittable through saliva. This should be taken into account before treating yourself for an infection. You should also think about changing your toothbrush or soaking it in hydrogen peroxide nightly while treating.

Conclusion

H. Pylori is just ONE possible infection. There are many other infections to consider, such as viruses, worms, and parasites. The overall health of your gut microbiome is important to look at and get balanced in order to achieve optimal health!

I recommend that you test your gut, don’t just guess at what’s wrong, and stop suffering with symptoms. Do NOT settle for less than optimal health.

Get to know about functional testing here.

I’m a health detective and can help you uncover these hidden pathogens and other stressors in your life that are contributing to your autoimmune disease.

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