Soy, Thyroid & Dental issues

[Guest guest]

Several years I had a couple of vegetarian friends whose children were having a lot dental problems - caries and narrow palates, that sort of thing. I came away with the notion that the large amounts of soy the children & Mom were eating was responsible for the teeth problems. I don't remember now if it was thyroid related or just soy related. And now some other vegetarians I know are seeing a lot of caries in their babies/toddlers. I would like to share the information I found before but I don't remember exactly what it was!!

Does anyone here? Thanks, Terijo

[Guest guest]

Dental enamel defects in babies/toddlers are due to issues with the

mother when she was carrying the baby since that's when those teeth

are formed. The most likely culprit is undiagnosed celiac/gluten

intolerance. My experience with a vegetarian diet is that they're

typically both heavy on soy AND wheat (think tempeh). Soy can cause

similar gut damage (flattening of the villi) as the gluten, so that

may be the connection. But, anyone who has a child with dental

enamel defects should have themselves and children screened for

celiac/gluten intolerance. Both my boys had dental enamel defects

thus lots of cavities by age 3 - we didn't learn about the celiac

connnection until my youngest was 8 and oldest 11. The dentists and

most pediatricians are clueless about the connection.

The thyroid connection is really multi-faceted: the soy damages the

thyroid (proven in scientific research) and the gluten is often the

source of the auto-immune thyroid disease (proven in scientific

research). So, it can be difficult to sort out the root cause -I

didn't figure out the celiac until I started looking at all my

diagnosed diseases: hypothyroid, peripheral neuropathy and

Raynaud's. I had originally thought the hypothyroid was due to lots

of soy in my diet. And, of course, the severity could well have

been to a combination of the soy and gluten.

Here's some links to research if that helps:

Soy allergens (search for villi - that discusses both soy and gluten

causing the damage):

http://www.nexusmagazine.com/articles/Soy%20Allergens.html

Dental enamel defects and celiac:

http://www.celiac.com/articles/21466/1/Dental-Enamel-Defects-in-

Children-Strong-Indicators-of-Celiac-Disease/Page1.html

(you can also go into pubmed and find LOTS more - you can't find any

that directly correlate with soy)

You can follow a GF and vegetarian diet without soy or wheat gluten,

it's just a whole lot harder. Your difficulty is going to be in

convincing folks that have bought into the marketing that soy is a

health food.

B.

>

> Several years I had a couple of vegetarian friends whose children

were

> having a lot dental problems - caries and narrow palates, that

sort of

> thing. I came away with the notion that the large amounts of soy

the

> children & Mom were eating was responsible for the teeth

problems. I don't

> remember now if it was thyroid related or just soy related. And

now some

> other vegetarians I know are seeing a lot of caries in their

> babies/toddlers. I would like to share the information I found

before but I

> don't remember exactly what it was!!

>

> Does anyone here? Thanks, Terijo

>