The impact of nutrition on thyroid hormone physiology and action.
1989
Danforth E. Jr. | Burger A.G.
Dietary iodine intake is of critical importance to thyroid hormone synthesis and secretion. Other aspects of nutrition also influence the thyroid and the thyroid hormones. These influences reflect adaptations in thyroid hormone physiology at multiple levels and in many organs including the hypothalamus, pituitary, thyroid, and several peripheral tissues. Presumably, they represent redundant, well-orchestrated metabolic changes. The same could be said of the alterations in thyroid hormone metabolism in patients with nonthyroidal illnesses for which the primary effects of the diseases are sometimes difficult to distinguish from the secondary effects of the altered nutritional state usually present. Micronutrition and macronutrition can profoundly alter the synthesis, secretion, peripheral metabolism, and function of thyroid hormones. There is some evidence that vitamins, minerals, and other cofactors are important to the normal metabolism of thyroid hormones. Except for iodine, however, little is known of these requirements or of the physiologic or biochemical levels at which they operate. In this review we focus on nutrition and not on disease, concentrating on macronutrition and thyroid hormone physiology and action. We review the impact of overnutrition, undernutrition, and diet composition on thyroid function at several levels of physiologic control.
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