RESEARCH ARTICLE


Suppression of Thyroid Function by Seaweed “Kombu” (Laminaria japonica) Supplement Seen in a Patient with Alopecia Areata: A Case Report



Shigeki Inui*, 1, Naoyuki Tsujimoto2, Naoyuki Toda3, Satoshi Itami1
1 Department of Regenerative Dermatology, Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan
2 Department of Internal Medicine, Kuma Hospital, Hyogo, Japan
3 Shin-Osaka Clinic, Osaka, Japan


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Creative Commons License
© 2010 Inui et al.

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the Department of Regenerative Dermatology, Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka University, 2-2 G2, Yamada-oka, Suita-shi, Osaka 5650871, Japan; Tel: +81-6-6879-3960; Fax: +81-6-6879-3962; E-mail: inui@r-derma.med.osaka-u.ac.jp


Abstract

A 36-year old woman with severe alopecia areata was treated by intravenous corticosteroid pulse therapy, resulting in complete remission a year later. At her visit to us for follow-up, we found her thyroid swelling while she did not feel any symptom indicative of thyroid abnormality. Careful history taking revealed that she had kept taking supplement of seaweed “Kombu” (Laminaria japonica) (1g rhizoid/day) by herself for a year. Results of blood tests were: free T3, 2.7 pg/ml (normal: 2.3-4.3 pg/ml); free T4, 0.7 ng/ml (normal: 0.9-1.7 ng/ml) and TSH, 27.5 μU/ml (normal: 0.5- 5.0 μU/ml) in the serum. Thyroid echo imaging revealed weight of thyroid as 28.68 g, which is larger than normal (8-20 g). Collectively, we diagnosed her as having thyroid suppression by iodine of the seaweed supplement and therefore advised her to prohibit its intake. Two months later, her blood tests showed normalization of thyroid hormone synthesis.

Keywords: Hypothyroidism, Laminaria japonica, iodine, side effect.