Denise Richards was thankful for her Real Housewives of Beverly Hills fans after they encouraged her to get her thyroid checked. Comments the reality newbie received on social media following the Season 9 reunion special gave Richards the ammunition to go to the doctor, which resulted in her discovery of an enlarged thyroid.
Speaking on Dean McDermott, Adam Hunter and Nicky Paris' podcast Daddy Issues, released Wednesday, Richards said she knew something was wrong with her neck but had ignored it until several fans reached out to her about the thyroid.
"I was like, 'Why does my neck look bigger?' I had other symptoms, but I just kept ignoring it and finally when a couple of people pointed it out I was like, I have to look into it," she said, noting some fans were "were concerned because they had thyroid issues."
Richards blamed the inflamed thyroid on gluten. Although she wasn't diagnosed with celiac disease, 48-year-old Richards said she was struggling with digesting food products with gluten long before people pointed out her thyroid, and after cutting gluten from her diet she saw a reduction of thyroid swelling in a matter of days. "It's not serious at all," she said, "I quickly eliminated [gluten] and I was shocked how just in a few days, my throat started going down."
Before appearing on the podcast, Richards shared an Instagram post showing off her reduced thyroid and thanking her supporters for pushing her to finally get to the bottom of the swelling.
"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," she wrote on Instagram.
While doctors don't purport gluten-free diets as a medically proven way to reduce an enlarged thyroid—otherwise known as goiters—a 2018 medical study of women suffering from autoimmune thyroiditis saw major positive changes in their thyroid after completing a six-month gluten-free diet, leading researchers to believe eliminating gluten could be clinically beneficial for women struggling with the disease.
The thyroid is a small gland found at the base of a neck. Its main function is to send thyroid hormones throughout the rest of the body via blood cells, where it then controls the body's metabolism by helping with burning calories and heart rate. Women are more likely to develop issues pertaining to the thyroid than men, and one in eight women are likely to develop thyroid disease within their lifetime, according to the Office of Women's Health.
More research is needed to determine exactly how helpful gluten-free diets are for counteracting an enlarged thyroid, but Richards appears to be pleased with how her new eating habits have affected her.
"I had no idea how much our diet really can affect our body and for me how toxic gluten really is," Richards continued on her Instagram post. "I thank all of you who sent me messages."
Richard's team did not respond to Newsweek's request for comment at time of post.
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