There is a new exciting paper on the connection between eradicating the intestinal parasite Blasctocystis hominis and improving Hashimoto’s disease. I previously reported this infection connection in a case study which revealed an individual with Hashimoto’s disease getting better after eradicating Blastocystis hominis. Case studies aren’t the strongest scientific proof of a particular therapy but now we have an excellent paper with three research groups including a much-needed control group.

This paper is entitled, “Improving Hashimoto’s thyroiditis by eradicating Blastocystis hominis: Relation to IL-17” published in the journal Therapeutic Advances in Endocrinology and Metabolism by El-Zawawy et al.

The author’s begin by pointing out a very important fact that Hashimoto’s thyroiditis was once thought to be a TH1-mediated disease but once TH17 cells were discovered it became clear that it is a TH17-mediated disease. TH17 cells drive autoimmunity through production of the cytokine IL-17.

Blastocystis hominis is the most common intestinal parasite in humans and most individuals never get any symptoms. This parasite is opportunistic however so if your gut or immune system becomes compromised, it can multiply and cause gut symptoms such as constipation and diarrhea, joint pain, drive autoimmunity and a host of other health problems.

Blastocystis hominis has a prevalence of 1.6% to 16% in developed countries and up to 60% in developing countries. You can get this parasite from contaminated food or water.

How was this study done on Hashimoto's Thyroiditis and Blastocystis hominis?

60 patients aged 19-57 with 19 females and 1 male in each group.

Group 1: 20 patients recently diagnosed with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis without Blastocystis hominis infection.

Group 2: 20 patients recently diagnosed with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis with confirmed Blastocystis hominis infection.

Group 3: 20 healthy subjects without Hashimoto’s thyroiditis and not infected with Blastocystis hominis infection.

All subjects in group 1 and 2 had a history of fatigue. 9 patients in group 1 and 7 patients in group 2 had a history of constipation. 6 patients in group 2 had a history of diarrhea.

Interestingly, all subjects in group 2 who were infected with Blastocystis hominis had significantly higher blood pressure than the other 2 non-infected groups.

The following tests were done on all subjects:

* Free T4

* Free T3

* TSH

* Anti TPO antibodies

* IL-17

* Stool analysis

* CBC (complete blood count)

* ALT and AST (liver enzymes)

* Albumin

* Bilirubin

* Cholesterol

* Triglycerides

* BUN (blood urea nitrogen)

* Creatinine

Group 2 which was infected with Blastocystis hominis was treated with the medication Nanazoxid for 3 days to eradicate the parasite and then retested 6 weeks later.

What were the study results?

TSH levels were higher in groups 1 and 2 compared to the healthy group 3 as expected.

Free T4 was lower in group 1 compared to group 3 however group 2 did not have lower levels than group 3.

Free T3 was significantly lower in group 2 compared to group 3. Free T3 levels in group 1 were not significantly different than the control group.