Nutraceutical Supplements in the Thyroid Setting: Health Benefits beyond Basic Nutrition.

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in nutraceuticals, which may be considered as an ecient, preventive, and therapeutic tool in facing dierent pathological conditions, including thyroid diseases. Although iodine remains the major nutrient required for the functioning of the thyroid gland, other dietary components play important roles in clinical thyroidology—these include selenium, l-carnitine, myo-inositol, melatonin, and resveratrol—some of which have antioxidant properties. The main concern regarding the appropriate and eective use of nutraceuticals in prevention and treatment is due to the lack of clinical data supporting their ecacy. Another limitation is the discrepancy between the concentration claimed by the label and the real concentration. This paper provides a detailed critical review on the health benefits, beyond basic nutrition, of some popular nutraceutical supplements, with a special focus on their eects on thyroid pathophysiology and aims to distinguish between the truths and myths surrounding the clinical use of such nutraceuticals.