Probably a new wave of hypothyroidism is among diabetics who do low-carbing to combat diabetes. Dr. Bernstein, who promotes doing no more than 40g of carbs per day, claims that fully 80% of his patients are hypothyroid and nearly all of them have one or more autoimmune diseases (since hypothyroidism is mostly autoimmune, that would be Hashimoto's; the other autoimmune condition is psoriasis). He's made several claims of this during his telecasts: hypothyroidism among his patients is an "epidemic", his exact words.

However, he doesn't seem to make a connection between his low-carb diabetes treatment method and hypothyroidism. In other words, are patients showing up at Dr. B's door from pre-existing hypothyroidism? Or do they become hypothyroid because of his low-carb (and frequently ketogenic) method. I suspect the latter.

I had hypothyroid symptoms that did not show up in lab tests (TSH <1, Free T4=1.2, Free T3=3.0) when I started low-carbing. They gradually got worse and my body temp was frequently under <96 and my fingers were ice cold. After I added ~200g of carbs from safe starches, my temp went up to ~97.5. I'm still trying to make that go up to 98. My pulse however is still low: around 70. (But I didn't realize this was a hypothryoid symptom.)

As for blood sugar control, I recently tested 5.3 HbA1c, the lowest ever. My range before was 5.4 - 5.8 while doing 75g of carbs, which made me automatically ketogenic. Safe starches and exercising can definitely control your BG, while eating a moderate amount of carbs. Not every diabetic can do this but you have to understand that BG control is counterintuitive: eating safe starches makes you more insulin-sensitive. Those who were diagnosed relatively early can in many cases control their BG better with moderate-carb Paleo than with the ketogenic low carbing that Dr. Bernstein preaches.

Edit: I believe not only did VLCing promote symptomatic hypothyroidism in my case but also caused another autoimmune disease: Sjogren's. The timing is all very strange. 3 months after I started VLCing and lost 60 lbs. I was hit with an autoimmune marker. 3 months later when I wast still VLCing, I was hit with vicious dry eye and dry throat cases, all typical of Sjogren's. It could be a coincidence, but I have to agree with Matt Stone here. VLCing did a tremendous good and I lost my weight and gained BG control; however, 3-6 months down the road, I was hit with all kinds of hormonal, thyroid, and autoimmune complications that I'm still contending with.

wow! some of the comments at the end of the post are just wow :)

A lot of the LEF crowd care about their telomeres. These folks both use cold and calorie restrict because they believe it will boost them beyond the 114 barrier. Ron Rosedale also endorses the low body temp idea for serious longevity - they're looking for 125-130. Kruse is a LEFfie, I'm pretty sure.

I think he's either an idiot or just playing to his crowd. He admits not having read Kruse, wow, that sure shows. The quote is taken out of context.

This is a somewhat old thread, but I thought I would break my lurking habit. I actually developed severe depression, Lupus, and hypothyroidism on the SAD low fat, mod (whole grain) carb, mod protein diet. I snowballed into Paleo through Schwarzbein who was the first to restrict my carbs (I also gave up gluten at the time) and in the last 3 years have felt best vlc as long as I have enough good fats to replace them. My biggest problem is getting ENOUGH fat- even now I am still squirrelly about it and the TYPE of fat makes all the difference as well.

I tried going back up to 100-120g a la Sisson for maintenance and felt no better energetically if not worse and was less satisfied because I had to cut down on fatty meats and fats in general in order to stay within my calorie limit and have those carbs- which actually just triggered cravings and compulsive eating (yes, just plain roasted sweet potatoes do this to me). As a side note- I put my lupus into remission doing this and now with proper thyroid treatment and vlc paleo my hypothyroid symptoms are gone. That said, I do not function well with the majority of my saturated fat being from animals- I found this out doing the Leptin reset where I felt disgusting, bloated, lethargic, depressed, and gained fat. I do intake a fair amount of coconut products, however, which really seems to be the key for me.

As I- and most people on PH say- it really is up to the individual. My metabolism was shot to hell and I am still healing it and my body so perhaps in 1-3 years when my n=1 is (hopefully) nearing completion I will be able to throw some more carbs in but for now I don't crave them and don't miss them and neither does my health apparently.

http://jackkruse.com/cold-thermogenesis-two/