Readers Respond: Why Do You Think Thyroid Cancer is On the Rise?

Responses: 46

By Mary Shomon, About.com Guide

Updated July 20, 2009

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My first thought would be because of radiation treatment used to "treat" cancer. But above and beyond that I wonder about cell phone use contributing because of the radiation cell phones emit. It may also have as much to do with environmental changes because of technology as it could with bad diet choices.
—Guest dimafe

I just saw the dentist, who indicated that he's personally seen a 300% rise in thyroid disease, including many patients with thyroid cancer. I think it's something we're eating. I know that I never ate well as a child. I'm only 36 and my adenoma tripled in size in 8 months!!! Left untreated - my surgeon surmised this could very well have changed states to full-blown follicular cancer.
—Guest Rebecca

In the 60's and 70's, when air pollution was so out of control (especially here in southern California), the toxins we breathed might have any number of long-range effects. I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer less than a year ago. I am not overweight, my diet is good and there has been no radiation exposure.
—Guest Garzasm

Speaking for myself, I lived/ate very well, (except that I did drink tap water), but suffered for years from what is now known as "subclinical hypothyroidism." As mentioned in the piece, if the TSH level is chronically elevated/not treated, it makes sense that the thyroid could begin abnormal activity at a cellular level. Doctors need to pay more attention to "vague" complaints. Subclinical hypothyroidism should be monitored just as seriously as "borderline hypertension." I suffered for years knowing how well I COULD have felt, but was left untreated because my lab values were "normal." After a dozen years of deteriorating health (interspersed with periods of rejuvenation), my gyn (not my endocrinologist) found a cancerous lump in my thyroid. After that was removed, I again felt a period of rejuvenation, but then my energy and health spiraled downward--again, lab values within a "normal" range, until a doctor began listening to ME. A small tweak in medication--I am myself again.
—Guest MoogieB

Here in Brazil, ANVISA (our version of the FDA), made a terrible mistake some years ago and irresponsibly increased the level of iodine added to salt. This increase lasted for two years, before the government decided to lower the level of iodine again. According to many studies, this increase in iodine consumption led many people to develop Hashimoto's, which might be a cause of thyroid cancer.
—Vikirme

When I was a child, I lived in rural New Jersey during the summer. NJ is known far and wide for its mosquitoes. The Lion's Club used to drive a truck that sprayed DDT every week to kill the mosquitoes. All the kids used to follow the truck and play in the spray. I have not had contact with any of my neighbors in 50 years, so I don't know if anyone else developed thyroid cancer, but the driver of the truck died young from cancer, so I have to wonder.
—looselinks

I believe dentistry could be causing an increase in thyroid cancer with the numerous x-rays they just LOVE to take of our teeth. If it's such a small dose of radiation, why do they run out of the room only to leave us exposed? Those x-rays are taken right at the thyroid level, too. Let's see...huge doses of radiation, twice a year, dead on aimed at that thyroid gland...connect the dots!
—Guest Gracie

I think it might have some thing to do with environmental pollution. It seems to me that areas such as southeast Michigan, with its iron and and car manufacturing, have higher incidences of cancers.
—Guest Patti

Are we being exposed to too much x-ray radiation? In my late early/late teens I had a positive Mantoux test (TB antibodies from an exposure to TB) and then had to have frequent chest X-rays, 12 mthly. At 17 (1958-63 when x-rays were stronger and less regulated) I became a trainee nurse (4 years on the job training prior to RN) pediatrics 3.5 yrs, where I had to have 6/12 monthly chest X-rays (positive Mantoux) and we had to hold babies and children for X-rays, without lead aprons or thyroid collars. I have had numerous X-rays for bowel obstruction, uterine cancer, orthopedic problems. Subsequently when my elderly mother became bewildered and fell frequently, I would help her through her X-rays (without aprons etc). Then thyroid cancer.
—Guest jrapr

Given that healthy diets which include cooked vegetables and fish are linked with an increase, I wonder if the high levels of mercury in sea fish and the aluminum and percholate in the water (in the U.S. mainland and EU at any rate) in which the vegetables are cooked in having an impact.
—Guest Cira

I did research after seeing the movie Erin Brokovich. The large amount of perchlorate that exists in the drinking water, water which also irrigates produce, may be a factor to consider regarding cancer and endocrine disruption. Both myself and our dog developed thyroid disease. I do believe environmental factors can be contributory to thyroid malfunctions.
—Guest Gail

I wonder about dental x-rays. If you aren't firm, they try to do x-rays every 6 months. I know my body, and I cringe at the thought of all the dental x-rays I have had before I was even an adult. I had braces and they would line us up and x-ray us every MONTH to see our progress. I suspect it can't be good for you.
—Guest Ria

I was hit by a car in 1989 and had multiple (I mean LOTS!) of x-rays of my neck over a period of 4 to 6 months. Almost immediately I began to gain weight. I was a healthy, normal-weight person before this, and I consumed lots of fresh fruits and veggies and ate fish 2 times a week. The suddenness of the weight gain right after the accident makes me believe that my thyroid cancer may have been due to the x-rays of my neck.
—julieanniam

I'm concerned that phytates found in soy may be blocking important minerals from being absorbed in our body. We use soy flours, and soy oils, and soy lecithin, and we even eat steamed soybeans straight out of the pods. From what I understand, we should only be eating the fermented soy, because the fermenting process helps lower the phytates. But even with fermented soy we should be careful how much we eat. Another byproduct of manufactured soy is xenoestrogens. Couldn't there be a link there for cancer?
—Guest catgross49

For 50 years now the USA has been ever-increasing exposure to fluoride. Because it is in the drinking water, no one considers it as possibly contributing to cancer. Fluoride is an iodine antagonist AND endocrine disruptor, and it is very realistic that this could contribute to the increase in many cancers. Not many people know that the fluoride in drinking water is NOT a pharmaceutical product, it is a toxic waste recovered from phosphate fertilizer production.
—MarilynB

I think that our crummy diet has something to do with it. Americans eat so much junk food, and it's bound to have an effect on health and cancer rates.
—Guest BarbaraJK