
Originally Posted by
lovbyts
I was just reading earlier tonight about zinc and cooper being an important part of test and E2 conversion.
If estrogen is an accelerator of mineral uptake into the body, it can have opposite effects. Zinc accelerates thyroidal function and copper slows it down. When copper gets deficient, the thyroid produces excessive hormone and hyperthyroidism results. The balance of zinc and copper is important in maintaining normal thyroid function and the proper ratio seems to be about 5:1 for females and 10:1 or higher for males.
If the diet has a zinc/copper ratio which is too high, which is pretty much characteristic of some diets, estrogen can have an accelerative effect of causing this zn/cu imbalance in the body to get too high and causing hyperthyroidism. If the zinc/copper ratio is too low, then estrogen can have the opposite effect, of causing the body to incorporate too much copper and not enough zinc and thereby slowing the thyroid too much. This may be the most prevalent situation since there are more people with hypothyroidism than hyperthyroidism.