How Hypothyroidism Causes Stroke And Heart Attack

Most of us know that the symptoms of hypothyroidism are fatigue, tiredness, weight gain, and other well-known symptoms.

But stroke and heart attack? That’s a new—but well-documented—connection found in two new studies published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism and the journal Endocrine.

In the first study, researchers obtained health information on 733,208 people from the Veterans Health Administration between 2004 and 2017. They were all receiving treatment for hypothyroidism (underactive thyroid) or hyperthyroidism (overactive thyroid).

After they excluded factors like sex, age, and a history of heart rhythm problems from the results, they found that hyperthyroidism and hypothyroidism both increased the participants’ risk of stroke and atrial fibrillation (irregular heartbeat). Let’s look at hypothyroidism, since that is our focus:

1. Stroke was 29% more likely in people with high thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) and 29% more likely among those with low free thyroxine (T4) levels (hypothyroidism).

2. Atrial fibrillation was 13% more likely in people with high TSH levels (hypothyroidism).

3. Five years after the first high TSH reading, the participants’ risk for atrial fibrillation increased 1.8 times, while their stroke risk increased 3.6 times.

4. Five years after their first low T4 reading, their stroke risk increased 3.5 times.

5. Atrial fibrillation and stroke were both over 30% more likely among those with low TSH and high T4 levels.

Therefore, the first of our two studies shows that both hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism pose a serious risk of stroke and atrial fibrillation.

In the second study on the danger of heart attack among hypothyroidism patients, the researchers obtained information on 2,569 heart attack patients from the China Patient-centered Evaluative Assessment of Cardiac Events—2,036 had normal thyroid function, 431 had hypothyroidism, and 102 had hyperthyroidism.

1. Compared to persons with normal thyroid function, hypothyroid patients were 34% more likely to suffer death, heart attack, heart failure, revascularization (bypass surgery), or stroke within the first 12 months after their first heart attack.

2. They were 64% more likely to require revascularization and 38% more likely to experience heart failure.

Like the first study, this study shows that hypothyroidism is a major risk to heart health.

Therefore, if you want to prevent stroke, atrial fibrillation, and a heart attack, treat your hypothyroidism before it becomes a potentially deadly burden.

Fortunately, it’s quite easy to treat hypothyroidism naturally. Thousands of readers have regained healthy thyroid function by following the simple steps explained here…

If you want to prevent stroke and heart attack, you should also normalize your cholesterol by cutting out this one ingredient you didn’t even know you were consuming…

Or drop your blood pressure below 120/80—starting today—using these three easy blood pressure exercises…