Hypothyroidism And Obesity: Which Causes Which?

It has become general knowledge that hypothyroidism causes obesity.

But many researchers have recently tried to investigate whether the relationship could work the other way around, with obesity actually causing hypothyroidism.

The latest contribution to this field is in the newest edition of the Egyptian Pediatric Association Gazette.

While we primarily publish research on diseases that affect adults, middle-aged, and elderly people, sometimes research on children can teach us about our own health too.

In this case, children are fairly unlikely to have hypothyroidism, but they are a lot more likely to be obese these days. This allows researchers to examine thyroid function in obese children without hypothyroidism and to conclude with relative certainty that the obesity occurred first.

The Egyptian researchers recruited 50 obese and 40 normal-weight children and measured their weight, body circumference, cholesterol, oxidation in the thyroid gland, and thyroid function.

None of the kids had hypothyroidism, but an unbelievable 36 percent of those who were obese had high levels of thyroid-stimulating hormone, a condition that is called subclinical hypothyroidism. This indicates that their thyroids are no longer appropriately sensitive to thyroid-stimulating hormones but that they are still capable of producing enough thyroid hormones.

This was especially true for the kids with a larger waist circumference, who were 10 times more likely to have subclinical hypothyroidism than those who stored their fat elsewhere on their bodies.

Because obesity causes lots of oxidative damage, the scientists expected to find this in the obese kids’ thyroid glands — but this was not the case.

It is therefore possible that obesity is a cause, not a consequence, of hypothyroidism, as it is unlikely that 36 percent of kids have a genuine thyroid defect.

If you already suffer hypothyroidism, your first step is, of course, to restore it using the simple lifestyle changes found here…

But you may also want to learn about a new way to lose weight that has nothing to do with diet or exercise and everything to do with what we call the ‘third element’ of weight loss…