The Ultimate Guide to Coffee, Caffeine, and Your Thyroid
By Tom Brimeyer|June 28th, 2023

https://www.forefronthealth.com/coffee-caffeine-thyroid/

: Do you drink coffee?

: Ever wonder if it’s actually good or bad for you and your
: thyroid health?

: Some love coffee and say that they can’t live without it (more
: on this a second).

: Others claim that coffee is nothing more than an addictive
: stimulant that is ruining the lives of millions of people

: who consume it daily.

: Well, one thing is certain… coffee is one of the most widely
: consumed beverages in the world.

: It’s also one of the largest sources of antioxidants in the
: human diet.

: Yet, there are a lot of anti-coffee claims out there… such as:
: Coffee increases stress hormones and should be avoided due
: to adrenal-fatigue because our lives today are inundated
: with stress…
: Coffee worsens thyroid function and should never be used in
: cases of hormonal issues.
: Caffeine over-stimulates the body and depletes the body of
: nutrients.
: The good news is that all of these common anti-coffee claims
: have one thing in common… …they’re all FALSE. And we’re
: here to set the record straight. Unfortunately, coffee is
: one of the most misunderstood foods with respect to its
: health benefits. In this article you’re going to learn: How
: coffee and caffeine both boost and protect your thyroid
: health on numerous levels.
: How coffee and caffeine reduce your risk of almost every
: disease from heart disease, to cancer, to diabetes, and
: even neurodegenerative brain diseases.
: How coffee and caffeine help you to be healthier and live a
: higher quality of life.
: Now, that’s not to say that some people don’t have trouble
: tolerating coffee.

: Some experience blood sugar instability, insomnia, anxiety,
: etc.

: However, these types of issues typically stem from other
: underlying dysfunctions, such as poor liver function, poor
: diet, and nutritional deficiencies, and not from the coffee
: itself.

: We’ve worked with many clients to overcome these issues so
: they could use coffee to the benefit of their thyroid
: health.

: Believe it or not, scientifically speaking, coffee has many
: similarities to thyroid hormone in how it affects your
: body.

: For example, like thyroid hormone, coffee helps to stimulate
: healthy oxidative metabolism, which is necessary for
: high-energy production.

: Dysfunctional metabolism is one reason why fatigue is such a
: common symptom of hypothyroidism.

: Keep in mind that for coffee to have beneficial effects on
: your thyroid health, it does NOT have to work by augmenting
: thyroid hormone levels.

: This is a common mistake made by many so-called experts who
: claim that coffee has no positive effects on thyroid
: health.

: While some see reaching for a morning cup a coffee to help get
: your day started as a sign of addiction or weakness…

: …the fact that some feel like they can’t live without coffee
: is simply a sign that coffee is helping them to produce
: energy more efficiently (and in a healthier way too).

: Now, let’s get a couple of things straight.

: I’m in no way saying that simply drinking coffee will cure
: anyone of their thyroid dysfunction (or any disease), or
: that coffee can be used as a replacement for your thyroid
: medication.
: While the health benefits of coffee are quite clear, using
: coffee cannot completely protect you from
: thyroid-suppressive dietary (i.e. low-carb), lifestyle and
: supplement choices. For example, if coffee decreases your
: risk of heart disease by 15 percent, yet your diet
: increases your risk by 30 percent, you will still be at a
: greater risk of heart disease, even though the coffee is
: still helping.
: However, when used properly, coffee can certainly play a BIG
: role in helping to improve your thyroid health by improving
: the efficiency of your thyroid function.

: Aside from its thyroid-boosting effects, coffee has far too
: many additional health benefits to ignore.

: Simply put, it is one of the easiest and most effective ways
: to boost your thyroid and protect yourself from numerous
: deadly diseases, which you’re about to see.

: If you currently drink coffee, then this will help reinforce
: why you should continue to make coffee a part of your daily
: life.

: If not, then you may find yourself wondering why.

: 5 Ways Coffee Boosts Your Thyroid Hormone Pathway (and Your
: Thyroid Health)
: To truly understand the full thyroid-boosting benefits that
: coffee has to offer, you have to first understand that your
: thyroid health depends on much more than just your thyroid
: gland. Instead, your thyroid health depends on an intricate
: Thyroid Hormone Pathway, which your thyroid hormones must
: travel before they ever gets to your cells, and before your
: body can ever use it.

: (NOTE: Learn more about fixing your Thyroid Hormone Pathway in
: this article on “How We Overcome Hypothyroidism When All
: Else Fails”.)

: With hypothyroidism (and Hashimoto’s thyroiditis), your
: pathway becomes blocked on multiple levels preventing your
: body, organs, tissue, and cells from using thyroid hormone
: properly.

: That’s why we always say… “If you can’t get the right thyroid
: hormone to your cells or your cells can’t use that thyroid
: hormone efficiently, then you will always be hypothyroid.”

: Now, let’s take a closer look at how coffee (and caffeine)
: helps to protect and boost your thyroid by making your
: Thyroid Hormone Pathway function better…

: 1. Coffee Helps Protect Your Thyroid Gland from Thyroid Cancer
: Unfortunately, there’s not much research with respect to
: coffee’s direct effects on the thyroid gland.

: The research that is available does suggest that coffee
: reduces your risk of thyroid cancer and also helps lower
: TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone), which provides
: additional protective effects.

: Does coffee consumption protect against thyroid disease?
: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2816215 “Statistical
: analysis revealed a strikingly negative (p less than 0.05)
: association between benign and malignant thyroid disease
: and consumption of coffee. After adjustment for possible
: confounding variables, the association remained
: statistically significant.”

: The protective effects of coffee against thyroid cancer are
: further supported by additional evidence.

: First, caffeine is known to increase cyclic AMP, which
: inhibits cancer cell growth.

: Second, as we’ll cover in detail in just a bit, coffee is also
: well-known to reduce the risk of numerous other types of
: cancer.

: Unfortunately, some also attempt to argue the thyroid
: protective effects of coffee based on unreliable studies.

: For example, one meta-analysis study found no correlation
: between coffee and thyroid cancer, however, the author was
: unable to draw this conclusion due to the unreliability of
: the study data stating…

: “Coffee contains a variety of biologically active compounds
: that might affect the risk of cancer. For instance,
: caffeine increases intracellular cyclic adenosine
: monophosphate, which has an inhibitory effect on cell
: (i.e., tumor) growth [13,27]. However, the effects of
: caffeinated versus decaffeinated coffee on thyroid cancer
: were not studied in this meta-analysis due to limited
: information. Only one study [22] reported separate
: association estimates for caffeinated and decaffeinated
: coffee with thyroid cancer, showing that drinking
: caffeinated coffee has a preventive effect on thyroid
: cancer, whereas decaffeinated coffee was associated with an
: increased risk [22]… These findings should be interpreted
: with caution because of potential biases and confounding
: variables.”

: While there is still room for plenty of additional research,
: the research that is available has demonstrated a
: significantly lower risk of thyroid cancer among coffee
: drinkers.

: 2. Coffee Boosts Your Thyroid By Protecting Your Liver
: We say it all the time…

: Probably the most important, yet overlooked, piece of the
: thyroid puzzle is your liver.

: Your thyroid gland may produce thyroid hormone, but it’s your
: liver that must convert that thyroid hormone into its
: usable form and regulate the amount of thyroid hormone your
: body needs all day every day.

: And that’s just scratching the surface. Your liver is also
: responsible for detoxifying numerous thyroid-suppressive
: hormones and toxins as well as regulating your blood sugar.

: All of these are essential for proper thyroid function.

: Studies show that both coffee and caffeine protect your liver
: in numerous ways, including: Lowering liver enzymes (a sign
: of stress/damage to the liver).
: Protecting against fatty liver disease.
: Protecting against fibrosis of the liver.
: Effects of coffee consumption against the development of liver
: dysfunction: a 4-year follow-up study of middle-aged
: Japanese male office workers.
: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10680318 “These
: results suggest that coffee may be protective against the
: liver dysfunction…”

: Protective role of coffee in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease
: (NAFLD). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20165979
: “CONCLUSIONS: A possible opposite, if not antagonistic,
: role of coffee with regard to overweightness and insulin
: resistance, similar to that reported in hepatocarcinoma and
: cirrhosis, is envisaged in the natural history of NAFLD.”

: Association of coffee and caffeine consumption with fatty
: liver disease, nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, and degree of
: hepatic fibrosis.
: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21987293 “CONCLUSION:
: Coffee CC is associated with a significant reduction in
: risk of fibrosis among NASH patients.”

: Liver dysfunction is a major cause of hypothyroidism today.

: Anything that improves liver function, including coffee and
: caffeine, in turn helps to improve thyroid function.