Complaints About Soy

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Complaints About Soy

The Dangers of Soy

I've been medicated for hypothyroidism for 27 years now and I've just gone into menopause. Over the years, because of being under medicated for thyroid disease, I gained a great deal of weight--nearly 100 pounds; despite eating what I thought was a healthy diet. My doctor put me on the American Heart Association diet in efforts to lower cholesterol (which, incidentally, is a sign of insufficient thyroid hormones) and to lose weight. This diet allowed virtually no cholesterol from foods and had a high carbohydrate content compared with the low protein and low fat. I didn't eat an egg for 5 years! Despite my efforts of counting calories, cutting out as much fat as possible and exercising, I gained weight! I couldn't believe it because I had been so careful on the prescribed diet.

This diet allowed no eggs, only the leanest of meats and fish, fat-free products like salad dressing, skim milk and yogurt and lots of "complex carbohydrates." It's amazing that I learned to cook without fats and thought that this diet would finally allow me to lose weight. Not so, in fact, gaining weight made me more frustrated.

A friend mentioned the Protein Power diet and the Zone diet. These diets, in comparison with the AHA diet, had high levels of protein and fat with very low levels of carbohydrates. In a year's time I did lose 40 pounds with these diets and exercise and felt I was on the road to good health. Not so, for I began to substitute soy protein in the form of tofu, soy milk, soy powder, soy "nutrition" bars, tempeh, soy burgers, soy sausage and so on. Unbeknownst to me, soy interferes with thyroid hormone absorption and utilization. For three years I foolishly ate more and more soy products, thinking I was doing something good for myself, convinced by not only the media hype about soy but with my doctor's blessing. I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia along with my autoimmune thyroid disease. In the spring of 1999 I was so very sick with hypothyroid symptoms but my doctor said my TSH level was still in range--but at the top of the range. I couldn't understand

what was happening to my body, since I was eating a healthy diet and exercising the best that I could under the circumstances. Hypothyroidism causes a slowing of the metabolism and the symptoms include weight gain, exhaustion with exercise, painful muscles, digestive problems (constipation), hair loss, excess sleep needs, loss of libido, and much more. I was miserable! An article by Shomon at the Thyroid Disease website pointed out that soy was evil for thyroid patients! As soon as I tossed out all the soy in my house, I gradually became better and more energetic. In fact, it was a miracle how well I felt! I've searched on every type of weight loss diet and the only thing that has helped is to eat a diet with normal amounts of animal fats, good oils, complex carbohydrates and good protein sources. In the last year on this diet, I have lost 20 more pounds, I'm exercising more than before, my body feels healthy and there's no goitrogenic

interferences to block the absorption and utilization of my thyroid medication. My cholesterol has dropped into the normal range and I believe I'm healthier than I have been in decades.I eat butter, cheese, whole milk dairy products, meats, and use olive oil in my cooking and salads. I eat lots of vegetables and whole grains. My skin looks younger, my hair is stronger and not shedding. While I lose weight slowly, I continue to feel more alive and energetic, which allows me to exercise more. A very important fact I've learned about cholesterol-containing foods is that cholesterol is necessary for the structure of the grey matter in the brain and for producing hormones necessary for life, like cortisol and reproductive hormones. Saturated fats are also high in Vitamins A and D.

It is amazing to me that the American Heart Association diet not only tells patients to cut out as much fat as possible but to eat soy to reduce cholesterol. This is counterproductive because soy products can cause hypothyroidism, which makes cholesterol levels rise! They also stress lots of carbohydrates like pasta and high glycemic foods, which in reality cause insulin resistance and excess carbs are stored as fat. No wonder I gained weight on that diet! In fact, when I was on that diet I had symptoms of diabetes.

Our bodies were designed to eat foods from the plant world and the animal world. While having high cholesterol is not healthy, the approach of many diets is the wrong approach. If the body is deprived of cholesterol, it will hold onto whatever cholesterol it has, making the levels rise beyond the normal range. It's a Catch-22 situation--reducing fat makes the body hold onto fat, so there is a constant struggle with weight loss.. In the last year I have gone off my diuretics and blood pressure medicine and my blood pressure is normal for the first time in years.

The way I'm eating now is the same way that my mother and grandmother cooked their meals. They were careful with fats but did not eliminate them. They ate vegetables and whole grain breads. They would have never even touched soy!

Best in health, BlumenbergMaine, USAPosted 03/02/03

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I was diagnosed and treated for hypothyroidism in my 20s. In my mid-40s, I decided to add soy to my diet to replace some of the meat and dairy in my diet. I read all the media hype and was sucked in, especially since I was on a high protein/low carb diet. Even my doctor encouraged it as she used soy every day. I had no idea that I had been poisoning my body for 3 years with something everyone, doctor included, suggested was healthy for me. It's in every health magazine, every talk show, every infomercial, website, etc. Dr. Weil likes it, likes it.

The upshot of it is that I have never been so ill with hypothyroid symptoms in my life, except at my initial diagnosis 20 years before. This was before I started browsing the Internet for information about soy. In April 1999 I came across Shomon's article at the About.com Thyroid website about the dangers of soy for those with hypothyroidism and bells and whistles went off in my head! I had been literally poisoning myself for over 3 years with increased amounts of soy. I didn't even like the stuff yet I was consuming it to keep my protein intake high. By the way, I couldn't lose any more weight on the high protein/low carb diet at all after adding the soy and I was following the diet strictly. Before adding the soy, I had lost 40 pounds on this diet and was hoping to lose the next 40 by the soy replacing meats and dairy. As soon as I stopped eating soy, my TSH, which had been creeping up to the top of the normal range (hypo), suddenly dropped

into the hyper range. Just by eliminating the phytoestrogens and other components in soy, I have restored my health. The revelation about what soy can do to thyroid hormones shocked both my doctor and me!

The symptoms I experienced were typically hypothyroid: exhaustion, severe muscle pain and cramping, sleep problems, physical sensitivities like skin that was sore to the touch, glare sensitivity and aversion to loud noises. Exercise became almost impossible because of the sharp pains in my legs. My menstrual cycles became constant PMS and periods with severe cramping and pain.

Most disturbing, my mental acuity was lost, I had mental confusion and decreased word retrieval. My hair was falling out, my skin dry and cracked, my fingernails and hair barely grew at all. I was often found lost somewhere in space while the world continued on without me. My digestive system was a mess and my body temperature was often below 97°F. I was so cold at times I had to jump in a hot shower just to raise my body temperature to normal. Living like this can only be described as a fate worse than death at times.

All this was due to soy consumption.

My mother was coming for a visit and I picked her up from the airport. The nearest airport is an hour and a half drive from my house, a route I had taken many times. Of course, once in the car headed home, we were chatting away. On the major highway I kept driving, looking for the all-important exit sign that would take the coastal route home rather than the interior route. I drove and drove, thinking to myself, that sign must be really soon. I even asked my mother if she had seen the sign, but she had been busy chatting.

Pretty soon it dawned on me that not only had I missed the exit and driven a good 20 or more miles, but we were heading inland, not the familiar coastal route. As panic entered my soul, I started looking for familiar signs. I got off an exit, pulled out the map and figured if I just follow this road....I can find my way home.

What should have been an hour and a half trip became a 4 hour trip, guessing my way home in an unfamiliar landscape. It was winter, so soon the sun was setting early and the dark descended upon us. With the sun behind us at least I knew I was headed east. All I kept thinking was that we were hopelessly lost in the wilds of Maine. Who would ever find us? The roads on the map blurred together and nothing made sense. I kept looking for anything familiar until finally!!!... a road I knew suddenly appeared.

During my mother's visit, I also got lost a number of times going to surrounding towns for shopping and lunch. I felt exhausted and my brain just wouldn't cooperate. Of course we could laugh at it all but privately, I wondered if I was losing my grip on reality. Much later, once learning about how soy affects thyroid functioning, I realised that these episodes of getting lost and being confused were a direct result of consuming soy products. Once I stopped consuming all soy products, my mind and directionality returned. Interestingly, throughout this time, my TSH levels never went out of range but just stayed near the top (meaning hypo symptoms) where of course, my unknowing doctor said, "well it's in the normal range so it must be something else." The "something else" was then diagnosed as fibromyalgia.

The treatments for fibromyalgia didn't help at all. So, I began my Internet research first on fibromyalgia and then thyroid disease. When I read Shomon's article, I stopped the soy immediately. Within 3 weeks, I was energetic,the muscle cramps started to melt away, I even lost a few pounds and I was on my road to recovery. Since then I have been very careful to avoid all soy products, along with other goitrogenic foods which interfere with thyroid hormone utilization. With a few changes in my thyroid medications, I now feel better than ever and I'm approaching menopause with none of the typical symptoms. Of course my doctor got a copy of that article and she was flabbergasted!

The proof was in the numbers as my TSH dropped back to the lower range of normal. Since that time I have been spreading my soy/hypo experience story so that others, especially those with thyroid conditions, will be alerted to the extreme dangers that soy can inflict on unsuspecting thyroid patients, especially those with undiagnosed thyroid disease. This problem is not limited to thyroid patients either. Many with normally functioning thyroid glands can be affected as well, particularly if the soy consumption is high. My poor husband was subject to my soy extravaganza and felt awful while eating it--and he has no thyroid problems. I'd like to praise all the geniuses who got us to where we are now in computer technology. My doctors would have never dreamed of the interrelationship among the thyroid and soy. I did my research, I asked questions, I came to conclusions. Then I took the information to my doctors. This is how I convinced them that

something was just not right with my thyroid meds. Because soy blocks the absorption and utilization of thyroid hormones, it is especially important for thyroid patients to not consume these products.

BlumenbergMaine, USAPosted 03/02/03