Hi there,

Here's my story. Ever since I was a teenager I had really high thyroid antibodies, but my levels were normal. I've been checked yearly as we knew that my levels would change at some point.. thyroid problems run in my family.

About a year ago I started getting chronic yeast infections. After a few failed attempts at Difflucan (the infections kept coming back), I decided to start the candida diet and rotate anti-fungals. The infections went away almost instantly, but I still had a bit of itchiness in the vaginal area that didn't seem to fully stop. After about 6 months of doing the candida diet on my own, I finally went to see a naturopath. She made my diet even stricter, told me which supplements to take and I started doing a lot better. Almost no itchiness! I've started incorporating a few foods back into my diet with her help.. like green apples, berries and oats.. I seem to be fine, unless I have too much and then I get itchy.

So here's the problem.. It's been 3 months since I started seeing the naturopath (9 months since I've been on some form of the diet) and suddenly for the first time in my life my thyroid levels are off! I saw my endocrinologist a month ago and my thyroid was perfectly normal (TSH was 1.44), but she wanted to see me again due to the candida stuff (she doesn't believe in natural medicine, surprise surprise). So anyway, I got a blood test again last week and my TSH was 4.2! Borderline hypothyroidism.

I have been eating a lot of ground flax seeds to help with the bowel movements.. about 3 tablespoons per day. Now I'm reading that flax may be a goitrogen. I spoke to my naturopath and she agreed that I could stick with psyllium and cut down on the flax. She thinks the thyroid stuff is related to the hot whether, but I'm not all that convinced... I think it's diet-related..

My question is, do you think the flax could have caused my thyroid functioning to drop so suddenly? (4 weeks!!) My period was 10 days late last month and is now more than 2 weeks late! So clearly that's related to the slowing thyroid...

Could this all be caused by the flax (as well as brocolli, turnip, etc.) or could the diet itself be slowing down my thyroid? Or is it unrelated? I can't imagine it would be unrelated... killing candida is supposed to help thyroid function no? and it has been till now it seems.

Help please!