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Traditional Chinese Medicine for Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis: Focus on Selenium and Antioxidant Phytochemicals

Summary

Hashimoto’s thyroiditis is a common autoimmune thyroid disease that often leads to symptoms like fatigue and reduced quality of life. While standard treatment uses thyroid hormone replacement, it doesn’t address the underlying inflammation and oxidative stress. This review explores how traditional Chinese medicine approaches, often combined with selenium, may help reduce thyroid antibodies and improve symptoms through their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.

Background

Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (HT) is the most frequent autoimmune thyroid disease with significant impact on health-related quality of life. Oxidative stress plays an important role in its pathogenesis. Current treatment with levothyroxine does not address underlying autoimmune processes, inflammation, or oxidative stress.

Objective

To provide an overview of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) approaches for treating HT, including combinations with selenium supplementation. The review aims to encompass evidence from clinical trials and elucidate probable underlying molecular mechanisms of TCM treatments.

Results

The review identified 14 main Chinese medicine prescriptions and multiple medicinal herbs showing promise in HT treatment. Meta-analyses showed Chinese herbal medicine was more efficacious than placebo in alleviating clinical symptoms and reducing thyroid antibody titers. Combined TCM and selenium therapy showed greater benefits than either treatment alone.

Conclusion

TCM approaches for HT employ active components with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities. Further exploration of TCM practices combined with evidence- and mechanism-based approaches may identify new strategies to alter disease progression and improve patient quality of life in HT.
  • Published in:Antioxidants (Basel),
  • Study Type:Review,
  • Source: PMID: 39061936, DOI: 10.3390/antiox13070868
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