Vitamin C Shown to Improve Thyroid Numbers

This forum will focus on analyzing recent clinical studies of vitamin C.

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Vitamin C Shown to Improve Thyroid Numbers

Post Number:#1  Post by ofonorow » Sun Mar 29, 2009 6:17 am

http://thyroid.about.com/b/2009/03/26/t ... amin-c.htm

In patients who take their thyroid medication but aren’t able to achieve their target TSH level, researchers studied whether taking vitamin C along with levothyroxine medications (i.e., Synthroid, Levoxyl, Levothroid, etc.) could affect TSH levels. The results were quite surprising.

The research showed that taking vitamin C along with levothyroxine reduced TSH levels substantially, by as much as 27%. Taking the levothyroxine along with 1 gram of vitamin C mixed with water over a period of six weeks was able to help the majority of patients achieve their TSH target level. The researchers concluded that vitamin C can enhance oral absorption of levothyroxine, and taking vitamin C along with levothyroxine medications should be considered in patients with difficulties in the absorption of levothyroxine.

So, if you're not able to get your thyroid problem under control, talk to your doctor about the possibility of using supplemental vitamin C along with your thyroid medication.

Source: S. Licht et. al. “Difficulties In The Absorption Of Levothyroxine: Improvement Using Vitamin C” Abstracts of the American Thyroid Association October 2008 Meeting,


I was unable to find this reference, searching on title or author. I wanted to ask here why this study hasn't been published, other than conference notes? If anyone has better luck, please let me know.
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Re: Vitamin C Shown to Improve Thyroid Numbers

Post Number:#2  Post by godsilove » Sun Mar 29, 2009 8:06 am

ofonorow wrote:http://thyroid.about.com/b/2009/03/26/thyroid-medication-vitamin-c.htm

In patients who take their thyroid medication but aren’t able to achieve their target TSH level, researchers studied whether taking vitamin C along with levothyroxine medications (i.e., Synthroid, Levoxyl, Levothroid, etc.) could affect TSH levels. The results were quite surprising.

The research showed that taking vitamin C along with levothyroxine reduced TSH levels substantially, by as much as 27%. Taking the levothyroxine along with 1 gram of vitamin C mixed with water over a period of six weeks was able to help the majority of patients achieve their TSH target level. The researchers concluded that vitamin C can enhance oral absorption of levothyroxine, and taking vitamin C along with levothyroxine medications should be considered in patients with difficulties in the absorption of levothyroxine.

So, if you're not able to get your thyroid problem under control, talk to your doctor about the possibility of using supplemental vitamin C along with your thyroid medication.

Source: S. Licht et. al. “Difficulties In The Absorption Of Levothyroxine: Improvement Using Vitamin C” Abstracts of the American Thyroid Association October 2008 Meeting,


I was unable to find this reference, searching on title or author. I wanted to ask here why this study hasn't been published, other than conference notes? If anyone has better luck, please let me know.


A lot of abstracts presented at scientific meetings don't end up being published, and even if they do it could be several months later (it's been less than 6 months since the Oct 2008 ATA meeting). I'm sure if you looked up other abstracts presented at the same conference, you would not find corresponding publications for all of them.

If you want the full abstract, you can go to http://www.abstracts2view.com/endo and register.

[P2-240] Difficulties in the Absorption of Levothyroxine: Improvement Using Vitamin C.

PB Antunez, SD Licht, Univ de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Private Practice, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Preliminary observations indicated that co-administration of acidic compounds might enhance absorption of levothyroxine. In order to assess whether this effect would be associated with vitamin C administration, we studied 11 patients (8 women and 3 men, age range 28-75 years; mean 45.2 15.4) being treated with levothyroxine at doses of >1.7 g/kg (average 2.24 0.39 g/kg) but failing to achieve their target TSH level. During the control period, each patient had at least two determinations of TSH indicating inadequate dosage. Interfering factors that could alter levothyroxine absorption such as celiac disease, calcium, iron, or antacid use, and non-compliance were excluded.
During the study period, the patients continued the same dose of levothyroxine but supplemented it with 1 g of vitamin C in 200 cc of water. After six weeks of taking the levothyroxine with vitamin C, serum TSH decreased in all 11 patients (average reduction 68.6 26.8%), and the target or desired level of TSH was achieved in 9/11 patients.
The difference between TSH levels before and after treatment with vitamin C was significant: Basal TSH (IFMA) was 8.54 4.33 mIU/L vs. a mean TSH on vitamin C treatment of 1.88 1.50mIU/L (p<0.001). Conclusions: 1) Vitamin C enhances oral absorption of levothyroxine; 2) Co-administration of Vitamin C with levothyroxine should be considered in patients with difficulties in the absorption of levothyroxine.


There's also table showing the baseline and post-Vitamin C TSH levels for each patient, but I can't post it without the formatting getting messed up.


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