The Effects of a Gluten-Free Diet on Patients with Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis

Introduction: Hashimoto’s thyroiditis is a chronic autoimmune inflammatory condition of the thyroid gland. Hashimoto’s occurs in five percent of the American population and is the most common cause of hypothyroidism in the US. There are various comorbidities associated with Hashimoto’s, which treatment can help mitigate some of those risks. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate if a gluten-free diet, as an adjunct treatment, can lower autoimmune related antibodies while improving thyroid labs levels. Methods: PubMed was searched for clinical reviews using key terms “Hashimoto’s disease”, “hypothyroidism”, “gluten”, and “anti-TPO antibodies”. Operators and additional filters narrowed down search results to four appropriate articles for review. Results: Two articles agree that a decrease in thyroid antibodies, anti-TPO and anti-TG, can occur with a gluten-free diet when a patient has both Hashimoto’s and gluten-related conditions or celiac. The other two articles did not find any significant changes in anti-TPO with a gluten-free diet. Only one reported a lowered TSH and fT4 in the setting of gluten-related conditions. Discussion: The articles reviewed have varied results. A gluten-free diet is recommended for patients who have both Hashimoto’s and celiac. Further research needs to be conducted in larger patient populations who only have Hashimoto’s before making a definitive recommendation. There is some current research that suggests a gluten-free diet in a non-celiac patient with Hashimoto’s may cause more long-term harm by causing additional metabolic problems.