There is a popular health influencer who says one specific virus causes Hashimoto’s. If you have ever gone looking for that test, hoping it would finally explain what happened to you, I am going to disagree with that claim. Not because the virus part is wrong, but because it was never about one virus.
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Can a virus cause Hashimoto’s, or does it take one specific virus?
No. There is not one virus that causes Hashimoto’s.
I know that a popular health influencer says otherwise. He’s even written a book stating that the Epstein Barr Virus causes Hashimoto’s. But he’s wrong. There is not one specific virus behind this.
There are a whole bunch of viruses. When your body is fighting a virus, any virus, that is when it can become confused. That confusion is the part that matters, not the name of the bug.
So the useful question is not “which virus did this to me.” The useful question is “how healthy is my body overall when a virus shows up.”
Every autoimmune disease has three parts
Back in Episode 4, I introduced the eight common triggers in Hashimoto’s. Here is the frame underneath those triggers.
For every autoimmune disease, you have three things.
You have a genetic factor. You have a gut component (I covered gut health and foods to avoid with Hashimoto’s in Episode 11). And then you have one or more triggers.
You can have one trigger or several. Number eight on my list of common triggers is infections of any kind.
So yes, viruses fall in there. But so do bacterial infections, parasitic infections, and molds.
Why infections are the most common trigger
Most commonly, these infections are viruses. Why?
Because we are inundated with them. They are all around us.
Did you know the viruses from a sneeze can travel 200 feet? Doesn’t that just gross you out? It totally grosses me out.
In fact, that is one of the things I think about when I buy a water bottle. If somebody sneezes 200 feet away and there is not a wall in between, how is my water bottle going to be protected? So I only buy the kind with a cover over the part my mouth touches.
We are exposed to more viruses and bacteria in the winter. There are a lot of reasons for that, and there are things you can do beyond covering your sneeze (which I hope everybody is doing and teaching their kids to do).
Being exposed to a virus is not the same as getting sick
Just because you are exposed to a virus does not mean you will get sick with it. It does not mean that virus is going to find a place in your body.
So how do you resist it? That is an excellent question. The goal is to create a healthy internal environment.
You are a whole person. Body, mind, spirit, diet, environment. If you look at the tiny flower in the cover art for this podcast, you will see it has five petals, and that is on purpose.
We like to separate the parts. Western medicine likes to talk about just the body, just the physical health.
That was one of the things that drove me crazy in my years as an ER nurse. Everything is connected. Your thoughts and your stress affect your physical health.
The internal environment really does affect the outcome WHEN you get sick. Not IF. We all get sick.
People who are already dealing with other health problems do not do as well when an infection comes along. When your immune system is busy cleaning up everything else going on, that is when it can get confused, overworked, or down-regulated. That is when an autoimmune disease can develop.
And if you already have Hashimoto’s, you do not want another infection making things worse.
Reduce the threats to your immune system
There are two halves to this. Reduce the threats, then support the system. Here is the first half.
Do not smoke. Simple, and it matters.
Reduce your other pollutants. There are so many toxins and chemicals in personal skin care products, it is just crazy. If you have the opportunity to switch your antiperspirant and take out the aluminum, awesome, do it (one simple way to lower the overall burden on your body).
Lower your stress. Stress is huge, so decrease it as much as you can, banish what you can, and manage the rest. I covered simple, sustainable ways to do that in Episode 7 on stress and Hashimoto’s and Episode 8 on how to reduce stress.
Turn down the fear. When the news cycle is loud, the stress and fear it hands you can last for months. Yes, the news is the news, and you do need to be aware of some of what is going on, but it does not need to be the main focus of your day.
Every one of those lowers the threat load your immune system is carrying.
Support your immune system
Now the second half.
Vitamin D is really powerful for your immune system, especially when you take it at the onset of a viral or bacterial illness. I talked about this in Episode 9 on low vitamin D and Hashimoto’s, including why you need to know your actual level.
I once ran a little research study on my own kids. I have four. I had read that a big dose of vitamin D at the onset of viral symptoms decreases the duration of the illness and reduces the severity of the symptoms.
Two of my kids got sick. I gave them a big dose of vitamin D and life went on. By the time the next two got sick, I had forgotten about that research, so I did the other things instead (elderberry, zinc, extra fluids, extra sleep).
The two kids who got the extra vitamin D were sick for a shorter time and had less severe symptoms. I noticed when my husband commented that the second two got sicker than the first two. Suddenly I remembered that I gave extra vitamin D to only half of my kids. So, yeah, I unintentionally ran a small and very unofficial study on my kids.
A research study I referenced showed that increased vitamin D levels were associated with a significant two-fold reduction in the risk of developing acute respiratory tract infections, with a marked reduction in the percentage of days ill. Shorter illness, and lower risk of getting sick in the first place.
Nerd out with me for a second about vitamin D
Observational and interventional research suggests that vitamin D status matters for respiratory immunity. In a prospective cohort of healthy adults, maintaining serum 25‑hydroxyvitamin D at ≥38 ng/mL was associated with about a two‑fold lower risk of developing acute viral respiratory infections and markedly fewer days ill over the fall and winter. A large individual‑participant meta‑analysis of 25 randomized trials found that daily or weekly vitamin D supplementation reduced the odds of at least one acute respiratory tract infection overall, with the strongest protection in people who were vitamin D–deficient at baseline and when bolus dosing was avoided . More recent work in young men shows that, even when a trial of daily supplementation did not change infection rates overall, insufficient baseline vitamin D (<50 nmol/L) was still linked to roughly double the risk of multiple infections and more days off duty, supporting the idea that sufficiency—not just supplementation—may be key .
Back to basics
Another simple way to support your immune system is a hug. A hug decreases stress levels and increases your immune response.
So go give somebody a hug. A person, a pet, whoever is closest.
What this means for your Hashimoto’s
You cannot avoid every virus. That was never the assignment.
What you can do is change the conditions the virus walks into. A body that is less inflamed, less stressed, and better nourished handles an infection differently than a body that is already stretched thin.
That is the same work whether you are trying not to develop Hashimoto’s or trying not to add a second autoimmune problem on top of it. Optimal health is the goal.
Questions about viruses and Hashimoto’s
Where to start this week
You now know that no single virus caused your Hashimoto’s, so you can stop hunting for that one answer. What you can influence is the environment your immune system is working in.
Pick one thing. Know your vitamin D level, swap the antiperspirant, or turn the news off an hour earlier.
Small and sustainable beats a full overhaul every time.
And if you are ready to understand which of your symptoms belong to your thyroid and which belong to your immune system, that sorting is exactly what Hashimoto’s Decoded: Thyroid or Immune walks you through. Grab Hashimoto’s Decoded for $27.
