Keestra S, Högqvist Tabor V, Alvergne A. Reinterpreting patterns of variation in human thyroid function: An evolutionary ecology perspective.
EVOLUTION MEDICINE AND PUBLIC HEALTH 2021;
9:93-112. [PMID:
34557302 PMCID:
PMC8454515 DOI:
10.1093/emph/eoaa043]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/29/2020] [Accepted: 11/02/2020] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
Abstract
Thyroid hormone reference intervals—used to determine normal thyroid
function —currently don’t take into account many significant
factors that can cause variation in thyroid hormone levels. These factors
include age, sex, ethnicity, season, time of day, iodine content in the diet,
socioeconomic status, stress levels, body composition, immune status, menstrual
cycle phase, and overall health status. This paper shows how early life
experiences as well as short term stressors may affect variation in thyroid
function. These are energetic challenges to which the thyroid physiology can
respond to. Our investigation shows that much variation in thyroid function is
natural. It may result from a complex interplay of evolutionary, genetic,
developmental, and physiological factors in response to energetic challenges in
the environment, beyond what is currently considered in biomedicine. A new
research agenda for thyroid health should explore the way that diversity in
thyroid function has evolved as a response to different contexts people live
in—like focusing on how people’s metabolisms adapt to the
energetic requirements of their environments.
Two hundred million people worldwide experience some form of thyroid disorder,
with women being especially at risk. However, why human thyroid function varies
between populations, individuals, and across the lifespan has attracted little
research to date. This limits our ability to evaluate the conditions under which
patterns of variation in thyroid function are best understood as
‘normal’ or ‘pathological’. In this review, we
aim to spark interest in research aimed at understanding the causes of variation
in thyroid phenotypes. We start by assessing the biomedical literature on
thyroid imbalance to discuss the validity of existing reference intervals for
diagnosis and treatment across individuals and populations. We then propose an
evolutionary ecological framework for understanding the phylogenetic, genetic,
ecological, developmental, and physiological causes of normal variation in
thyroid function. We build on this approach to suggest testable predictions for
how environmental challenges interact with individual circumstances to influence
the onset of thyroid disorders. We propose that dietary changes, ecological
disruptions of co-evolutionary processes during pregnancy and with pathogens,
emerging infections, and exacerbated stress responses can contribute to
explaining the onset of thyroid diseases. For patients to receive the best
personalized care, research into the causes of thyroid variation at multiple
levels is needed.
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