Turmeric for Hashimoto's at YOLLO Wellness Hyperbaric Center in Fort Myers Florida

Turmeric for Hashimoto's

Excess inflammation is always present in Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis (the suffix "itis" denotes inflammation in the thyroid gland), and intestinal permeability has been found as a common factor in every case of autoimmunity. In some cases, people with Hashimoto’s may also have heavy metal toxicity. Turmeric can be helpful in reducing whole body inflammation, healing the gut, as well as detoxifying from heavy metals.

Studies of the effect of curcumin, the active ingredient of turmeric on the thyroid gland and autoimmunity have showed encouraging results.

1.      Research shows that curcumin can help to protect the intestinal barrier from invasion by bacterial infection and can help heal a leaky gut. 

2.      According to a 2014 study in the journal Food Chemistry and Toxicology; "Curcumin reduces the hepatotoxicity induced by arsenic, cadmium, chromium, copper, lead and mercury, prevents histological injury, lipid peroxidation and glutathione (GSH) depletion, maintains the liver antioxidant enzyme status and protects against mitochondrial dysfunction."

3.      Curcumin showed tumor inhibiting activity in thyroid cancer.

4.      Curcumin was protective against the genetic damage and side effects induced by radioactive iodine that is sometimes used to treat Graves’ disease

5.      Curcumin has anti-inflammatory benefits that can be helpful in down-regulating autoimmune conditions. Specifically, curcumin produces an anti-inflammatory effect by down-regulating Th-1 cytokines (TNF-A, IL-1, 2, 6, 8, 12), which may be overactive in Hashimoto’s. Curcumin has been found to reduce joint inflammation in the Th-1 autoimmune condition rheumatoid arthritis. Additionally, it seems to have therapeutic anti-inflammatory effects in a variety of gastrointestinal conditions, showing improvement in Crohn’s disease (Th-1), Ulcerative colitis (Th-2) and irritable bowel syndrome.

Survey Results 

In my survey of 2232 people with Hashimoto's, 680 people reported that they had tried curcumin. 56% reported that it was helpful, 40% did not see a change in how they felt, while 3% said it made them feel worse.

When asked about the specific benefits seen from the use of turmeric, 64% of people reported that it helped them with reducing pain symptoms. Other positive benefits were an increase in energy (seen in 35%), improvement in mood (seen in 34%), and an improvement in thyroid antibodies (12.5%).

Pain is the most obvious manifestation of inflammation in the body, so I'm not surprised that those that had pain saw an improvement with curcumin use. While most people with Hashimoto's do have inflammation, only some will present with pain symptoms. Poor energy, mood changes and thyroid antibodies are also indicative of inflammation and it was encouraging that curcumin also impacted those parameters, but it should be noted that improvements in those symptoms may be less obvious to notice, and may also take a bit longer to manifest. 

While curcumin can also boost glutathione (an antioxidant that's often depleted in Hashimoto's), reduce inflammation, help with healing the gut,  and detoxifying from heavy metals, it's difficult to assess these improvements symptomatically.

While most people with Hashimoto's will benefit from the addition of turmeric, I would say that if you are currently experiencing pain, you will see the most benefit.