Re: research article, 1931, GOITROGENIC ACTION OF CALCIUM AND VITAMIN D

make of it what you will. I observe that many are being prescribed vitamin D supplements these days...

http://jn.nutrition.org/cgi/reprint/25/2/119.pdf


In goiter surveys and experimental studies, calcium has
been suggested as a goitrogenic agent. Surveys by Orr ('31)
and Stott ('32) have shown that goiter often occurs in lime
stone regions. It is now commonly accepted that the thyroid
influences calcium metabolism. However, there is no general
agreement on the goitrogenic role of calcium in the reported
experimental studies. Thompson ('36) found that the thyroid
size varied directly with the calcium concentration of the diet,
but Levine, Remington and von Kolnitz ( '32) with the same
low Iodine diet observed no effect from calcium. Although
Hibbard ('33) and Mahorner ('37) obtained a goitrogenic
effect from calcium chloride, Hibbard concluded from studies
with sodium chloride that chloride and not calcium was the
cause of enlarged thyroids....

Experimental goiter in nearly all reports has been of the
hyperplastic type. Hellwig ('35) introduced a new problem
by asserting that calcium with a low Iodine intake produced
a hyperplastic thyroid and that a slight increase in iodine
intake caused a colloid goiter. Both types of goiter were
prevented by further increasing the Iodine intake....

...The two most evident facts in the results are (1) that
elevated serum calcium has no tendency to increase the thyroid
weight, and (2) that calcium chloride, the salt that has been
used in many experimental studies, has a significant goitro-
genic effect when vitamin D is present.
Hibbard's ('33) results in which calcium chloride but not
other calcium salts was found to produce goiter, are there
fore confirmed. However, Hibbard's second conclusion that
chloride is goitrogenic is not supported by these results since
without vitamin D, calcium chloride did not cause an increase
in thyroid weight.


The purpose of these experiments was to determine whether
calcium could be classed as a goitrogenic substance. When
other factors are kept constant, all of the evidence indicates
that it does not influence the size of the thyroid gland. How
ever, along with vitamin D calcium chloride can act as a
goitrogenic agent. While the mechanism of this action cannot
be absolutely determined from these experiments, the results
suggest that chloride causes some loss of iodine which is
followed by an increase in thyroid weight when an excess of
calcium is absorbed.
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