Hypothyroidism and A Shift in Death Patterns

Also see:
Thyroid Status and Cardiovascular Disease
High Cholesterol and Metabolism
The Truth about Low Cholesterol
Inflammatory TSH
“Normal” TSH: Marker for Increased Risk of Fatal Coronary Heart Disease
The Cholesterol and Thyroid Connection
High Blood Pressure and Hypothyroidism
A Cure for Heart Disease
Hypothyroidism and A Shift in Death Patterns
Low Blood Cholesterol Compromises Immune Function

“Broda Barnes, more than 60 years ago, summed up the major effects of hypothyroidism on health very neatly when he pointed out that if hypothyroid people don’t die young from infectious diseases, such as tuberculosis, they die a little later from cancer or heart disease.” -Ray Peat, PhD

“Barnes, and Barnes point out that the tremendous rise in heart attacks in the 20th century has been due to survival of hypothyroid patiens who formerly who have died at atn early age from one of the infectious diseases.” -Barnes and Barnes in “Hope for Hypoglycemia”

A low metabolism affects ALL bodily systems. When energy production is high, immunity is high making the body resilient to stressors of all kinds including infections. The ability to overcome stress depends upon cells’ ability to create energy, synthesize protective substances, and minimize or offset inflammatory mediators under the direction of the thyroid. Logically then, those with a low metabolism are more susceptible to getting sick or dying from infection or degenerative diseases.

Prior to the introduction of antibiotics in the 1940s, individuals with a low metabolic rate would die of a variety of infections, including tuberculosis, because thyroid deficiency results in increased susceptibility to infection. The use of antibiotics began saving the lives of those with a low metabolic rate. These individuals that no longer die due to infection are now prone to getting other complications from a slowed metabolism like diabetes, heart attacks, stroke, cancer, and other chronic degenerative conditions that pervade modern life. The work of thyroid expert Broda Barnes, MD, PhD make this point very clear.

After several years of analyzing 70,000 autopsies from the town of Graz, Austria where autopsy of all who died was mandated by law, Dr. Barnes discovered that prior to 1945 when antibiotics were introduced people dying of tuberculosis had stage four atherosclerosis in their coronary arteries. After the introduction of antibiotics which prevented these deaths, deaths from heart attacks increased significantly from one in 125 deaths to one in 14 deaths. Barnes also found that those who died from heart attack had evidence that they had had tuberculosis in their lungs. Hypothyroidism, in Barnes’ opinion, was the cause of both conditions. Barnes’ medical practice points to hypothyroidism’s role in the other major killers these days – stroke, diabetes, and cancer.

There has been a marked shift in death from infectious disease to death from chronic degenerative diseases as result of the introduction of antibiotics. The same underlying issue that killed people from infection (low metabolism) prior to 1940 is now killing people later in life from degenerative diseases. Supporting the health of the thyroid and metabolism is at the forefront of maintaining optimal health.

Another important note is that Dr. Mark Starr indicates that the intervention by antibiotics in the “survival of the fittest” began the perpetuation of a population that is progressive more and more hypothyroid and susceptible to disease. The passing down of dysfunctional energy producing DNA may be playing a role in health and disease in today’s population.

Resources:
Barnes BO, Ratzenhofer M, Gisi R. The role of natural consequences in the changing death patterns. J Am Geriatr Soc. 1974 Apr;22(4):176-9.

Broda Barnes, MD and Lawrence Galton, “Hypothyroidism: The Unsuspected Illness”