Average adults including pregnant women need 200 IU of vitamin D daily while adults over 50 need 400 IU daily. The recommendation for vitamin D intake further increases to 600 IU for people over 70 years of age.

Vitamin D deficiency is most common in women over the age of 50. This is the age when most of us will be going through the menopause and when it’s absolutely vital to keep our bones and heart healthy due to the increased risk of osteoporosis and heart disease that menopause brings.  

 

Natural food sources of vitamin D are few.  It is found in oily fish.  A 100g of grilled salmon contains 7.1mcg (284ius) of vitamin D and a 100g of tinned pilchards contains 14 mcg (560ius) of vitamin D.

Diet alone, however, does not provide enough vitamin D and another great source of readily available vitamin D is from sunlight so aim to get at least 20 minutes of natural daylight.  Sunscreen will interfere with the production of vitamin D so go without any but in hot weather, avoid the hottest part of the day.  Australia, which has successfully campaigned against sun exposure for years, is now recording vitamin D deficiencies in 1 out of 4 people. Also check your cosmetics as many moisturisers will have in-built sun protection factors (SPF) and they will be blocking the vitamin D manufacture through your skin. 

Ten per cent of rice sold in UK supermarkets contains 10 times the levels of arsenic allowed in China. Most rice contains some arsenic, a poisonous element and arsenic is present in many foods. However rice is grown in flooded fields so the arsenic naturally present in the soil is absorbed by the plants through the water. Long term exposure increases the risk of skin, lung and bladder cancer so the Food standard Agency says if you want to eat rice more than three times a week, consider switching to Thai or Indian grown rice which have lower levels of arsenic.

This month’s case study is 52 year old ‘Sarah’ who came to the Clinic with thyroid problems

I had been to my doctor for a routine check up because I had not been feeling too well. I was constantly tired, to the point of finding it hard to get out of bed in the morning and falling asleep on the sofa at night. I had noticed that my hair was becoming thinner and drier and my skin looked dry and pale. I just put this down to the menopause, but when my blood results came back it showed that I had borderline low thyroid function (hypothyroid). My doctor recommended that I should address this by taking a drug called thyroxine. I was reluctant to take this because I had always tried to live a natural life and only used medication as a last resort. He said that if I didn’t thyroxine my weight would continue to increase and my hair loss would be more prominent. I went away to think about what I wanted to do.

 

I was coming home from work one night and reading a health magazine on the train and it featured an article on thyroid imbalance and how it can be supported naturally without having to take prescribed drugs. It talked about how important diet is and how some foods can support and nourish the thyroid gland and how some foods can actually interfere with its function and production of hormones. The article mentioned specific vitamins, minerals and herbs which can also be used. This sounded so exciting so I decided to go on to the next step and phone The Dr Marilyn Glenville Clinic to find out more. I spoke to a very helpful nutritionist who explained how the clinic works and what I could expect from having a consultation. It was just what I was looking for so I booked a consultation.

 

I was sent a nutritional questionnaire in the post which I had to complete and return before my appointment. This was very detailed and made me more aware of how I was feeling and it also made me write down what I ate on a daily basis. The nutritionist had asked me to be honest when filling this section in and write down what I actually ate and not what I thought I should be eating! I was sent details of a mineral deficiency test which would determine whether I was lacking in anything.  The test was very straightforward and non-invasive as all it involved was taking a sample of my hair and sending it off to the lab.

 

At my first consultation the nutritionist went through my questionnaire in detail and then went on to explain what was happening with my thyroid. She explained that an under active thyroid can often bring about symptoms of weight gain, hair loss and lack of energy.  The thyroid is a gland that controls our metabolic rate in the body and as such can affect the activity of every system and cell. The usual thyroid test at the doctors normally measures the levels of two hormones known as TSH and T4 or thyroxine.  If thyroxine levels are low, TSH is normally high and this will indicate an underactive thyroid. What is not measured however, is the hormone that thyroxine converts into within the cell which is much more biologically active.  This hormone is known as T3.  For a cell to convert thyroxine into the active T3, selenium needs to be present. So this meant that if thyroxine is prescribed it may not always work because it is not converted into T3 efficiently so symptoms then do not disappear.  I now  felt like I understood what was happening to my hormones and how this was affecting me physically and emotionally.

 

The nutritionist looked through my diet and the first thing she picked up on was the amount of soya milk and tofu I was eating. I had incorporated this into my diet when I entered the menopause because I had read that these foods contained naturally occurring oestrogens which would help to combat my hot flushes and sweats I was experiencing. She explained that it was true about them being beneficial for menopausal symptoms but unfortunately soya contains compounds called goitrogens which can have a negative effect on thyroid function because they block the uptake of the mineral iodine which is essential for the production of T4 and T3. She said I could still eat chickpeas, lentils, flaxseed and alfalfa which also contain naturally occurring oestrogens to give me some support.

 

 

She asked me to eat more iodine rich foods which included sea vegetables like seaweed (wakame, dulse, nori) and green leafy vegetables. I knew I had to pay more attention to my intake of dark green leafy vegetables. I loved them but it was often a time factor which prohibited me from eating them on a regular basis. She explained that I could get all of the seaweeds from large supermarkets and health food shops so I added them to my shopping list! The second important mineral was selenium so she asked me to eat Brazil nuts, oats and brown rice and seafood. Interestingly my mineral analysis highlighted that I was deficient in selenium. The nutritionist explained that this is becoming more common because our soils are so over cultivated that there is little selenium left, therefore the plants become deficient in this important mineral. The nutritionist gave me lots of menu ideas to inspire me which was exactly what I needed.

 

Not only did she make dietary changes, the nutritionist added some specific vitamins and minerals and herbs to support and nourish my thyroid gland and help with the production of the T4 and T3. She gave me a multi vitamin and mineral to give me general support as she explained that if you take ‘random’ vitamins and minerals without a multi, you are more likely to create nutritional deficiencies/imbalances within the body. To this she added vitamin C and fish oil which support the thyroid by allowing the hormones to be ‘picked up’ and utilised more efficiently. To this she added extra selenium which I was low in on the hair mineral analysis and a specific herbal formula containing dulse, Siberian ginseng, liquorice and important amino acids (L-Tyrosine, L-Glycine and L-Glutamine) to really nourish my thyroid.

 

I came back at 6 weeks for a follow up consultation and had been filling in daily diet/symptom diaries for the nutritionist. This really helped because it kept me focused and very motivated to follow the recommendations. There was a marked improvement in the first 6 weeks and the main area that had improved was my energy. I was waking in the morning and actually getting up on the first alarm and not having to snooze about 5 times! I felt more energetic in the evening and this enabled me to do more exercise which in itself gave me more energy. I felt my hair was also looking thicker and had more life in it.

 

The nutritionist said that I had made excellent progress in a relatively short space of time so this was very encouraging indeed. She explained that because the thyroid is such a delicate gland, it can take a few months to really modify its function. She recommended that I have a follow up blood test in 12 weeks to assess how effective the nutritional therapy has been.

 

It is so reassuring to think that I am helping myself and not just ‘popping a pill’ which isn’t really addressing the underlying causes. I think more people should be aware of how they can support themselves naturally and not be pushed into taking drugs unnecessarily.

 

 

Marilyn’s Comments

 

Sarah’s story is a great example of how powerful nutritional therapy can be. We see so many cases of borderline hypothyroidism at our clinic where thyroxine is prescribed when in many cases it can be addressed naturally. Of course drugs are sometimes needed, but there are so many times where natural therapies can be very effective alone. The problem with thyroxine is that once people take it, it becomes incredibly hard to come off it in the longer term as the thyroid gland becomes used to it and ultimately the thyroid can actually work even less efficiently. 

 

This case also goes to show just how important testing can be in diagnosing underlying health issues and picking up deficiencies that would not be found via routine medical testing.

 

If you are interested in having the test mentioned here please see the Resources Page.