In an Instagram post shared on August 5, one of the current stars of the “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” Denise Richards thanked some of her concerned fans.
As Richards revealed, she’s recently had to change her diet after a group of people sent her concerned messages following a live moment on television.
The actress and mom wrote:
It’s amazing to me in a short time eliminating gluten from my diet how much my thyroid has changed. A few of you pointed out after the #RHOBH reunion that my thyroid was enlarged. You were right, it was something I ignored until pointed out. I had no idea how much our diet really can affect our body and for me how toxic gluten really is … I thank all of you who sent me messages.
According to Chris Kresser, M.S., L.Ac, several studies show a strong link between autoimmune thyroid disease (AITD) and gluten intolerance.
Kresser continued in an article shared on his website:
The molecular structure of gliadin, the protein portion of gluten, closely resembles that of the thyroid gland. When gliadin breaches the protective barrier of the gut, and enters the bloodstream, the immune system tags it for destruction. These antibodies to gliadin also cause the body to attack thyroid tissue. This means if you have AITD and you eat foods containing gluten, your immune system will attack your thyroid.
While it’s unclear if Richards suffers from Hashimoto’s or Graves’ Disease, the above explanation could be why eliminating gluten from her diet reportedly helped her so much.
As the Independent Journal Review previously reported, a similar story happened to the star of HGTV’s “Flip or Flop,” Tarek El Moussa. Tarek got screened and diagnosed with thyroid cancer after a fan, who was also a nurse, sent him an email.
The fan reached out after she noticed that “Tarek has a large nodule on his thyroid, and he needs to have it checked out.”
Now people are hoping Richards was also screened for cancer. As one fan noted, “that is how my Mum found out she had thyroid cancer, you could see it was swollen ( not to say that about Denise) I’m just spreading the word…”