Abstract
In recent years, there has been a growing interest in nutraceuticals, which may be considered as an efficient, preventive, and therapeutic tool in facing different pathological conditions, including thyroid diseases. Although iodine remains the major nutrient required for the functioning of the thyroid gland, other dietary components play important roles in clinical thyroidology—these include selenium, l-carnitine, myo-inositol, melatonin, and resveratrol—some of which have antioxidant properties. The main concern regarding the appropriate and effective use of nutraceuticals in prevention and treatment is due to the lack of clinical data supporting their efficacy. Another limitation is the discrepancy between the concentration claimed by the label and the real concentration. This paper provides a detailed critical review on the health benefits, beyond basic nutrition, of some popular nutraceutical supplements, with a special focus on their effects on thyroid pathophysiology and aims to distinguish between the truths and myths surrounding the clinical use of such nutraceuticals.
Highlights
There was relatively scant literature on the topic, and most research focused on thyroid cancer and was experimental in nature, concerning the nutraceuticals illustratively mentioned by the Food and Drug Administration, as shown in Appendix Table A1
One recent study aimed to determine the dose of melatonin in food supplements marketed in Europe and the United States by validating a liquid chromatography method with diode array detection (LC-DAD) [21]
In a subsequent study of 86 patients with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis and subclinical hypothyroidism, the same authors found that the administration of myo-inositol and selenomethionine for six months significantly decreased Thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), TPOAb, and TgAb concentrations, while at the same time enhancing thyroid hormones and personal wellbeing, thereby restoring euthyroidism in patients diagnosed with autoimmune thyroiditis [49]
Summary
The definition of nutraceuticals is still in the grey area between food, food supplements, and pharmaceuticals. The term “nutraceutical” was coined in 1989 by Stephen De Felice, founder and chairman of the Foundation for Innovation in Medicine, an American organization which encourages medical health research He defined a nutraceutical as a “food, or parts of a food, that provide medical or health benefits, including the prevention and treatment of disease” [4]. “A foodstuff (such as a fortified food or dietary supplement) that provides health benefits in addition to its basic nutritional value. Nutraceutical combines two words the term ‘nutrition/nutrients’ (a nourishing food component) and ‘pharmaceutical’ (medicine or a substance used as a medication) applied to food or food component products sometimes with active principle from plants that can provide health and medical benefits, including the prevention and treatment of disease
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