Edible mushrooms as a potent therapeutics of subclinical thyroid dysfunction among adults, especially in obese individuals: a prospective cohort study

Background: Mushrooms are a good source of many nutrients which are potentially beneficial for chronic diseases. We speculated that due to its abundant nutrients edible mushrooms might have a beneficial effect on the prevention of subclinical thyroid dysfunction (SCTD). Therefore, we designed a large-scale cohort study to examine whether mushrooms consumption is a protective factor for SCTD in adults. Methods: This prospective cohort study investigated 6 631 participants (mean age: (45.0 +/- 10.2) years; 55.1% men). Edible mushrooms consumption was measured at baseline using a validated food frequency questionnaire. SCTD was defined as abnormal serum thyroid-stimulating hormone levels and normal free thyroxine. Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to examine the association of edible mushrooms consumption with incident SCTD. Results: During follow-up period, a total of 262 new cases of SCTD were identifi ed, the incidence rate of subclinical hypothyroidism was 8.9/1 000 person-years and subclinical hyperthyroidism was 7.2/1 000 personyears. After adjusting potential confounding factors, the multivariable hazard ratios (95% confi dence intervals) for subclinical hypothyroidism were 1.00 (reference) for almost never, 0.53 (0.29, 0.97) for 1-3 times/week and 0.30 (0.10, 0.87) for >= 4 times/week (P for trend = 0.02). It also showed edible mushrooms consumption was inversely associated with subclinical hypothyroidism in obese individuals but not non-obese individuals, the fi nal hazard ratios (95% confidence intervals) were 0.14 (0.03, 0.73) (P for trend < 0.01). Conclusions: This population-based prospective cohort study has firstly demonstrated that higher edible mushrooms consumption was significantly associated with lower incidence of subclinical hypothyroidism among general adult population, especially in obese individuals. (c) 2023 Beijing Academy of Food Sciences. Publishing services by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi Communications Co., Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).