 Hi, this is Dr. Ruscio, and let's discuss an interesting new plant medicine that may help with hypothyroidism and with thyroid autoimmunity. A study was recently published looking at a compound known as black cumin, and I'll put this study up here on the screen. The study was entitled, I'll shorten it for you, but essentially the effects of Nigella sativa on thyroid function. Nigella sativa has many, a.k.a., so I'll read off a few for you here, black cumin, black caraway, black sesame, onion seed and romaine coriander. But essentially, in this study, they took 49 patients and they gave them either two grams per day as a powder or placebo for eight weeks, and they tracked different markers like body composition and weight and also thyroid markers and compared the placebo group to the control group. Now, what they found was interesting. They did find a reduction in body weight, but 2.8 pounds over eight weeks, that's something. I wouldn't say it's highly meaningful, but it is something. They did show what I would consider a significant reduction in TSH. They showed a nonsignificant and what I would consider a non-meaningful reduction in TPO antibodies, and this is important because if something is nonsignificant and also non-meaningful, there was a change, but the change wasn't really meaningful or significant. So let me put the table up here on the screen that will help outline this a little bit. And I've highlighted for you the reduction in TSH. From 6.4 to 4.1, that is a significant and clinically meaningful reduction in TSH. That essentially takes someone from positive to normal for a TSH value. So that's significant. Again, weight, not in this table, we discussed 2.8 pounds. It was considered significant. Would I consider that meaningful? Maybe. But then the TPO antibodies is the thing I really wanted to draw your attention to. So thyroid antibodies are when your immune cells attack thyroid tissue and it's the underlying cause of hypothyroidism in most westernized countries. So the autoimmunity, the thyroid autoimmunity, and the antibodies that correspond to the severity of the thyroid autoimmunity is something that's important to keep in mind and to look at. Now, in this case, we did see a reduction from 2.94 to 1.47 compared to the control right next to it that went from 2.78 to 2.74. Now, to the untrained eye, that change from 2.94 to 1.47 may look significant. However, statistically, it was not significant. But also clinically, I do not consider that to be a clinically meaningful change. So when we zoom way out, what does all this mean? Well, this is an interesting herb that may have a place in thyroid care for either hypothyroidism or for thyroid autoimmunity. And I'm certainly glad this study was published and I certainly hope there's more research published on this herb. However, I wouldn't rush out and put yourself on black human just yet. There are other treatments for body composition that would certainly work better. Namely, there was one study that showed a low carb, low grain diet essentially led to a much higher level of weight loss and also a greater reduction in thyroid antibodies. Also, other compounds have been shown to have a significant impact on those antibodies like selenium, vitamin D, CoQ10, and magnesium. So this is definitely something interesting, the study in black human here. However, it wouldn't be my top choice for thyroid, at least not at this point. Certainly happy to keep an eye on the evidence and see if anything else exciting is published. But for right now, I would say don't rush out because you read a catchy headline saying that people lost weight and saw improved thyroid autoimmunity from black human because technically both those statements are true. But when you look at the details here, they're really not significant or not even significant at all. So black human may have a place in the future for thyroid health for right now. I would say it's interesting, something to keep an eye on, but not necessarily something that you need to move on. So this is Dr. Ruscio and I hope this information helps you get healthy and get back to your life. Thanks.