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Are You Getting Enough of the Sunshine Vitamin to Protect Your Thyroid?

If you have any kind of thyroid condition, even cancer, you should get your blood level of vitamin D checked promptly, and keep tabs on it over time.

Why? Research links low vitamin-D levels with a number of autoimmune diseases, including the most common autoimmune thyroid disease, Hashimoto’s. Low levels of vitamin D have been associated with antithyroid antibody presence, abnormal thyroid function, increased thyroid volume, increased Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH) levels and adverse pregnancy outcomes in women with autoimmune thyroid disease. The lower the vitamin D level, the more severe the symptoms. People who improve their vitamin D status often reduce their symptoms and slow the progression of autoimmune diseases.

Vitamin D also helps your body prevent cancer and even destroy precancerous cells. It does that by coaxing immature cells to differentiate– to develop into their final, mature form. It also helps to trigger apoptosis–programmed cell death–in abnormal cells. This “weeding out” is an important part of your body’s ongoing cancer surveillance system. Low vitamin-D intake is linked to an increased risk for many types of cancer, including thyroid cancer. Higher intake is associated with increased survival rates.

Low blood levels of vitamin D are proving to be more common than previously thought, but doctors usually do not check blood levels unless you ask for it! So ask! Research suggests that an optimal blood level is about 35 ng/ml, but some experts like to see levels that are 50-70 ng/ml or higher. (Please note that you do not want to go above 80/ng/ml.). Most people need supplements to reach and maintain their target range, and they need more than the RDA amounts. No one dosage works for everyone, so it’s best to get tested every 3-4 months until you determine a daily dosage of vitamin D3 that keeps your blood level stable at its optimal point.

Several factors can interfere with proper vitamin D metabolism. Being overweight, fat malabsorption or other GI problems, high levels of stress, aging, and inflammation all mean you need more than the usual amounts of vitamin D. A good doctor or nutritionist will also make sure, that in addition to vitamin D, you are getting enough calcium, vitamin A and vitamin K. These nutrients all work in unison in your body and need to be balanced.

REFERENCES
Bizzaro G, Shoenfeld Y. Vitamin D and autoimmune thyroid diseases: the known and the obscure. Immunol Res. 2014 Nov 19.

Clinckspoor I, Verlinden L, Mathieu C, et al. Vitamin D in thyroid tumorigenesis and development. Prog Histochem Cytochem. 2013 Aug;48(2):65-98.

Hollis BW, Wagner CL. Clinical review: The role of the parent compound vitamin D with respect to metabolism and function: Why clinical dose intervals can affect clinical outcomes. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2013 Dec;98(12):4619-28.

Morand GB, da Silva SD, Hier MP, et al. Insights into Genetic and Epigenetic Determinants with Impact on Vitamin D Signaling and Cancer Association Studies: The Case of Thyroid Cancer. Front Oncol. 2014 Nov 4;4:309.

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