Endocrine Abstracts

Aim: To investigate the herbal medicines (HM) used for thyroid disease, their effects and use rates in Turkey.

Materials and methods: A total of 547 patients (494 females and 53 males) had a thyroid disease were included in the study. The patients were questioned whether they used any alternative therapies or HM for their thyroid disease. The patients who used HM were asked about the kind of the HM, and duration of use. The data regarding the dose of the medicine used, levels of thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), free triiodothyronine (sT3), free thyroxine (sT4), anti-thyroid peroxidase (anti-TPO), antithyroglobuline (anti-TG), and thyroid receptor antibody (TRAb), and the number and the volume of the nodules before and after use of HM were noted from the files of the patients.

Results: A total of 55 (10.1%) patients used at least one HM. Anethum graveolens (AG) was used by 9.1% (n:50) of the patients. There was a decrease in median sT3 level (4 pg/ml vs 3 pg/ml; P=0.004), and an increase in nodule volume (0.3 ml vs 0.8 ml; P=0.005) in patients that used dill alone. The analysis on the amount of dill consumed revealed that the median nodule volume increased in all groups in relation with the amount of dill used (P<0.05). There was a significant increase in median TSH levels, and significant decrease in median sT4 and sT3 levels in the patients that used one bunch of dill (100 g).

Conclusions: We determined that use of AG affected thyroid hormone levels and thyroid nodules. Use of 100 g AG was found to decrease thyroid hormone levels. Therefore, we suggest that AG should not be recommended to patients diagnosed with hypothyroidism.