Lots of good info in the latest newsletter. Stuff on the link between hypothyroid and Reynaud's and rosacea; perchlorates; and TSH ranges. Here is an excerpt from the piece on perchlorates found in breast milk at levels known to impair infant brain development.

 

The American Thyroid Association statement:  perchlorates are no problem. Who are these clowns and how do they get 5013C status, or the authority to influence public health and environmental regulations?

Aliss

 

 

Perchlorate is both a naturally occurring and manmade chemical. Naturally occurring perchlorate is found in nitrate fertilizer deposits in Chile. Most of the perchlorate manufactured in the United States is a byproduct of rocket fuel production. Perchlorate is also used in fireworks, gun powder, explosives, and highway flares. In recent years there has been increasing interest in and controversy surrounding perchlorate, as it has contaminated soil, ground water, drinking water, irrigation water, as well as produce irrigated by contaminated water, around the country. At certain levels, perchlorate, which interferes with the thyroid and mammary glands' ability to absorb iodide, can cause a variety of health problems, including thyroid disease.

In the release, the study's senior author Dr. Nancy Carrasco discussed the implications of the study for nursing mothers and their babies:

“Our study suggests that high levels of perchlorate may pose a particular risk to infants. Nursing mothers exposed to high levels of perchlorate in drinking water may not only provide less iodide to their babies, but their milk may actually pass on perchlorate, which could further deprive the infants’ thyroid glands of iodide. The thyroid requires iodide to synthesize the hormones T3 and T4 that are essential for normal development of the central nervous system. Babies who don’t make enough of these thyroid hormones may become mentally impaired.”

According to the Einstein researchers, thyroid and breast tissue have a protein on the surface of cells, called NIS, that is designed to pull iodine from the bloodstream and into cells. Their studies have shown that when perchlorate is ingested, it concentrates in breast milk, and impairs the ability of NIS to absorb iodine. Iodine is an essential building block for production of thyroid hormone.

According to Dr. Carrasco: “We found that the same protein—NIS—that actively recruits iodide into cells does the same thing for perchlorate. In fact, NIS has a higher affinity for perchlorate than it does for iodide, which certainly heightens the risk posed by this contaminant.”

This research comes just a few months after the American Thyroid Association (ATA) issued a statement at their 2007 annual meeting, claiming that low-level perchlorate exposure is not a danger during pregnancy. That ATA statement was in direct contradiction to recent findings of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), which found perchlorate contamination pervasive, and found that even low-levels of exposure have a negative effect on the thyroid, and in particular for pregnant women.