What this is, and what was taken out of it.
This piece is six years old. It ran as the third installment of a newsletter series on depression, and its subject was the thyroid — specifically, why an immune attack on a gland in your neck might belong in a conversation about mood.
The core question has held up. Several of the specifics have not. The original cited percentages, described studies without naming them, and suggested that diet could change the course of thyroid autoimmunity. Those passages are gone, not softened — if a statement here could not be matched to a government or medical source you can open and read, it was cut. What remains is the argument plus what the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases and the National Institute of Mental Health actually publish today.
Not everyone gets better on the first try.
The newsletter opened on a frustration that plenty of people recognize: doing what you were told, and still feeling the same. NIMH puts a name and a threshold on it. Treatment-resistant depression, it says, occurs when a person doesn't get better after trying at least two antidepressants, and finding the best treatment may take trial and error.
That is a description of a difficult process, not an indictment of it. NIMH describes psychotherapy, medication, and brain stimulation therapies as established treatments for depression, and adds options such as esketamine or combining an antidepressant with another medication when the first attempts fall short. If something you are taking is helping, this page is not a reason to stop it. The point the newsletter was reaching for is narrower and better: when depression isn't responding, it is reasonable to ask what else might be going on underneath it.
Why a provider might look at your thyroid.
Here the original was on solid ground, and it turns out it didn't need the statistics it reached for. NIMH states plainly that a provider can rule out other possibilities with a physical exam, an interview, and lab tests — and among the possibilities it names as able to mimic depression symptoms are medications, viruses, and thyroid disorders. The thyroid is not a fringe theory about mood. It is on the list of things a mainstream evaluation is supposed to consider.
NIDDK backs this from the other direction. Depression appears in its list of common hypothyroidism symptoms, alongside fatigue, weight gain, trouble tolerating cold, joint and muscle pain, dry or thinning hair, and a slowed heart rate. The same institute is direct that a hypothyroidism diagnosis can't be based on symptoms alone, because so many of those symptoms belong to other conditions too.
Read those two together and you get something more useful than a headline. Depression and low thyroid share territory. Sharing territory is a reason to test, and testing is the only thing that settles it.
Hashimoto's, in plain terms.
The newsletter spent a while on an analogy about soldiers turning on their own troops. The plainer version: MedlinePlus explains that your immune system normally protects you by attacking germs such as viruses and bacteria, and that in an autoimmune disease it attacks the healthy cells of your organs and tissues by mistake. When the thyroid is the target, that condition is Hashimoto's disease — an autoimmune disorder that can cause hypothyroidism, and, per NIDDK, the most common cause of it.
Who it happens to is documented. NIDDK reports Hashimoto's is 4 to 10 times more common in women than men and more often develops in women ages 30 to 50, with risk rising if family members have it or if you have another autoimmune condition such as celiac disease, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, Sjögren's syndrome, or type 1 diabetes. Why it happens is not documented. Researchers don't know why some people develop Hashimoto's disease, NIDDK says, though genetic and viral factors may play roles.
The original's all-caps insistence that thyroid hormones can read normal while Hashimoto's is present has a quieter, sourced version: NIDDK notes that if you don't have hypothyroidism, your doctor may choose to simply check your symptoms and thyroid hormone levels regularly. Antibodies and hormone levels are different measurements. NIDDK describes testing that can include T4 and T3, TSH, and thyroid peroxidase antibodies.
The part the original oversold.
The 2020 version argued that thyroid antibodies harm the brain and mood on their own, apart from hormone levels, and that diet and a stress-reduction course could bring antibodies down. Those claims are not reproduced here. They were attributed to studies the newsletter never named, and we could not match them to a source worth putting your health decisions on.
One related caution does have a source, and it cuts against the original's enthusiasm for self-directed diet fixes: NIDDK notes that eating foods with large amounts of iodine may cause hypothyroidism or make it worse. Talk to the clinician managing your thyroid before adding anything, including supplements.
A fair question to bring to your provider.
The newsletter closed by telling readers to go get their antibodies checked. We would put it as a question rather than an instruction, because what you need tested is a decision for someone who has examined you.
Gates Brain Health is a functional neurology practice in Reno, Nevada, led by Dr. Randall Gates, D.C., DACNB, and Hashimoto's thyroiditis is among its published areas of focus. That does not make this page a diagnosis, and it does not move your thyroid or your mental health care away from the providers handling them. The practice publishes a free consultation as a first step; whether it fits your situation is settled on a call and an evaluation, not by an article. Call (775) 507-2000, Monday through Friday, 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM. There is no form or scheduler on this site, so keep the medical details for the conversation.
- If I've been treated for depression without much change, is my thyroid worth testing?
- Have my thyroid antibodies ever been measured, or only my hormone levels?
- Do I have a family history of thyroid or other autoimmune conditions?
- Could any medicine I take be affecting my mood or my thyroid results?
If the depression part is the urgent part.
None of this is where you should be if you are struggling right now. The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline takes calls and texts at 988 and chats at 988lifeline.org, around the clock, free and confidential. If someone is in immediate danger, that is a 911 call, not a reading problem.