Your Thyroid and Your Health

This post focuses closely on thyroid health. It offers tips for the care of this important gland, which regulates metabolism, weight and much more.

Meet Your Thyroid Gland

The thyroid is a butterfly-shaped gland located in the front of the neck. The word thyroid comes from the Greek word thureos, which means “shield.” How and why does it shield us? By slowing down our basal metabolism in times of stress. It does this to protect us from the destructive processes that stress perpetuates.

We all experience stress from time to time. However, chronic stress can lead to chronic thyroid problems. If you can’t lose weight on a healthy diet and exercise program, chronic stress may be the culprit. Read my tips on dealing with stress here.

What stresses the thyroid?

Thyroid health is inextricably linked to all other areas of health in the body. Slow digestion and poor nutrient absorption often go hand in hand with a sluggish thyroid. Emotional stress, overwork, lack of sleep, exposure to toxic chemicals (including mercury from any amalgam fillings, for example) and stimulants (including sugar and caffeine) are very common sources of chronic stress to the thyroid gland, which can slow down after an initial period of speeding up.

A common source of stress to the thyroid is amalgam (mercury-containing) dental fillings. For the duration of their stay in the mouth, they release mercury vapor into the body. Even after removal, mercury that has previously accumulated in the body remains. The half-life of stored mercury varies depending on the tissue type. Unfortunately, mercury lingers for a long time in the body. In fact, its half-life in the brain is about 25 years, and its half-life in other body tissues is around 6 years. If you have a current or past mercury exposure, you have a long-term project to work on. If you have a history of mercury exposure, do check out the resources I’ve put together on the topic:

Autoimmune Thyroiditis, Miscarriage and Infertility

Autoimmune hypothyroidism is one of the most common causes of infertility and miscarriage that I see in my nutritional therapy practice. And it is strikingly common in people with thyroid imbalances.

Most doctors recognize the impact of hypothyroidism on fertility and pregnancy, yet they tend to overlook if the hypothyroidism is autoimmune in nature. Why? Perhaps because it makes no difference in their course of treatment. In fact, most doctors have just one protocol for the many forms of hypothyroidism. It’s difficult to solve your unique thyroid problem if you don’t know the root cause. If you’re struggling with repeated miscarriages or infertility, you have the right to the proper medical tests. These tests will be discussed later in this post.

Unfortunately, many doctors are still just testing for TSH, thyroid-stimulating hormone. This hormone, released from the pituitary gland, sends a signal to the thyroid gland to release a certain amount of thyroid hormone. However, the conventional range of what is considered a “normal” TSH reading is very broad. As a result, the test misses many hypothyroidism cases, including those that are autoimmune in nature.

How is my Thyroid Health?

If you have unexplained hair loss, cold hands and feet, hypersensitivity to heat and/or cold, constipation, fatigue, morning headaches, dry skin, and slow metabolism, your thyroid function may be on the slow side. If you have heart palpitations, anxiety, tremors, excessive sweating, trouble sleeping, and rapid unexplained weight loss, your thyroid hormonal cascade may be under-functioning.

These lists aren’t comprehensive—they are just the most common signs to be aware of. Also, note that there are other underlying causes for the symptoms in the list above. So: test, don’t guess.

A history of infertility and/or miscarriage suggests the possibility of thyroid dysfunction. For a complete report on thyroid health in relation to fertility, pregnancy, and postpartum health, you can refer to this resource compiled by the American Thyroid Association, https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/thy.2016.0457.

Consider Asking Your Doctor for a Full Thyroid Panel

If you have signs and symptoms of thyroid dysfunction, it’s essential to speak with your doctor and request a full thyroid panel. If your doctor is busy and hasn’t kept up with the scientific research in the area of thyroid health, she or he may tell you that you only need a TSH test or perhaps a combination of TSH and T4 tests. However, this recommendation is outdated and inaccurate—and, quite frankly, not a good standard of care. A full thyroid panel can reveal the bigger picture of thyroid dysfunction that may not emerge through testing of TSH alone. TSH only tells us what the pituitary gland is telling the thyroid gland to do, not what the thyroid is actually doing!

Thyroid Health: The Three Biggest Mistakes

Mistake #1: Only Testing Thyroid Stimulating Hormone, TSH

The first and most significant thyroid mistake is not running a full thyroid panel. Multiple thyroid hormones must be tested in a situation that is suggestive of thyroid dysfunction.

Why? The research literature clearly shows that the majority of hypo and hyperthyroid imbalances are autoimmune. Some clinicians, such as Dr. Datis Kharrazian, author of Why Do I Still Have Thyroid Symptoms? estimate that 80-90% of hypothyroid disease is due to an autoimmune component. More recently, Izabella Wentz (also known as the “thyroid pharmacist”) estimates that Hashimoto’s thyroiditis accounts for 90-95% of hypothyroidism. See https://thyroidpharmacist.com/articles/the-many-faces-of-hashimotos/. Solely running a TSH test, or even the typical combination of TSH and T4 hormone, does not provide the information necessary to find and support autoimmunity.

Additionally, while it’s crucial to recognize autoimmunity, it’s equally important to understand if other thyroid-related hormone imbalances are part of the problem. Are the pituitary and hypothalamus contributing to the issue? Are the liver and small intestine’s ability to convert inactive thyroid hormone to active thyroid hormone the issue? Is the body resistant to thyroid hormone and thus unable to respond to perfect levels of thyroid hormone? These patterns are examples of many possible reasons why one may experience thyroid symptoms and dysregulation. The bottom line: testing only thyroid-stimulating hormone will NOT provide the information needed to support MOST thyroid problems.

Details for ordering a full panel can be found here.

Mistake #2: Not Taking Your Prescribed Medication

A huge mistake is not following medical advice to treat a thyroid condition once it’s diagnosed. Sometimes I talk to new clients who have resisted medication after a diagnosis because they think that taking medication is a sign of weakness. They believe everything can be fixed with the right diet and lifestyle. Medication may not be your first choice. But, if you’re not getting improved lab markers within a few months of making healthy nutrition and lifestyle changes, you’re not doing yourself any favors by not taking your prescribed medication. And you may be doing harm.

Several of my clients are now parents due to overcoming their resistance to thyroid medication. Sometimes this resistance truly gets in the way of health and family planning objectives. Sometimes healing journeys look like needing and taking thyroid medication. This doesn’t make you a failure, less worthy, less healthy, or less natural than those who don’t need thyroid medication. The aim of holistic health isn’t avoiding medication at all costs or by any means necessary.

And this brings me to an important point: you may be exposed to confusing and mixed messages on social media and popular blog posts that feed into a fairly widespread tendency of shaming those who need and use medication. This is a harmful form of bias that is widely reinforced in today’s vast online echo chambers. Being aware, informed, and well-supported by your healthcare team will help you be more empowered and resilient, allowing you to receive the care you need without feeling like a failure!

I’ll take this a little further and say that not following medical advice for thyroid medication is a risk factor for infertility and miscarriage. I’ve had many clients thank me for my support during preconception and pregnancy, not only for helping them with nutrition and lifestyle support but also for encouraging them to take their medication as prescribed by their physician.

If you have a thyroid condition, you’ll need to follow your doctor’s advice for monitoring the thyroid via follow-up testing. You’ll also want to request a full thyroid panel, as detailed above. And, if you’re on thyroid medication, make sure you’re taking it correctly. If you have side effects from medication, talk with your prescribing physician and your pharmacist, and look up the ingredients online. Supervised adjustments in dosage and finding a prescription free of fillers that may not agree with you can make a huge difference.

The fear of lifelong reliance on medication is one issue that stops many people with known thyroid issues from starting their prescriptions. Unfortunately, there’s no way to be certain that medication can be reduced or discontinued someday. But, consider the short and long-term consequences of not taking needed medication, especially one that supports the important physiological functions of the thyroid—regulation of bone health, temperature balance, heart rate and contractility, systemic oxygenation via an effect on the lungs, development of muscle mass, etc.

Indeed, as the whole picture of functional health improves, the clinical picture and lab results often allow for a decrease in medication, sometimes to the point of discontinuing it altogether. However, don’t stop, start, or change medication or dosing without speaking with your prescribing physician.

Click here to learn more about how the thyroid works.

Mistake #3: Triggering Your Thyroid

The third common mistake is triggering the thyroid in some way. This might occur when trying to support low thyroid function without addressing the underlying problem or root cause. For example, if the underlying cause of thyroid symptoms is an altered hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis, stimulating the thyroid with herbs, or even medications, will only cause further stress to the HPA axis and possibly to the entire endocrine system. The first question to ask is, why is function altered? There is a safe and efficacious approach depending on the answer.

One common practice in the functional health world is high-dose iodine supplementation. This is not a good idea unless your doctor is highly experienced and knows all the implications of such supplementation. Iodine can selectively stimulate or suppress genetic expression in unexpected ways. Just because iodine deficiency can be detrimental to the thyroid doesn’t mean that iodine excess is good! Over-supplementing with any one nutrient can cause a negative domino-effect response in the status of other nutrients.

High-dose iodine supplementation can trigger an autoimmune thyroid flare and may be a risk factor for the onset of autoimmune thyroid disease in those who are susceptible. If you want to learn more about the risks of high-dose iodine supplementation, read this case study and review of the issue I wrote at https://sararussellntp.com/supplement-overdose-series-part-2-what-are-the-effects-of-too-much-iodine-in-the-body/.

The thyroid can also be disrupted by medications, such as lithium carbonate in therapeutic doses used as a mood stabilizer. You can learn about the connections between mood disorder, thyroid, and lithium carbonate medications here and here.

How is Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis Different from Primary Hypothyroidism?

As described above, many doctors are still just testing for TSH, the hormone released by the pituitary gland as a signal to the thyroid gland. This hormone is analogous to a thermostat sensor that turns on a heater when the ambient temperature falls below the target temperature. Unfortunately, the conventional range of “normal” TSH levels is very broad, and many cases of hypothyroidism fall through the cracks.

Testing TSH alone means missing the opportunity to identify Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, an inflammatory autoimmune condition that results from the presence of antibodies working against the thyroid. As you can imagine, autoimmune activity impairs function. Make sure you work with an experienced functional medical professional if you have elevated antibodies. When autoimmune activity is present, your support plan must help balance your immune system. With a Hashimoto’s (or Graves’ disease) diagnosis, the thyroid gland is impaired due to an underlying immune issue, NOT a direct thyroid issue.

Also, if you test positive for Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, you should be properly tested to rule out celiac disease—there is a significantly higher incidence of celiac disease in people with Hashimoto’s compared to the general population. Note that not all celiac disease manifests with the stereotypical gastrointestinal symptoms. Some people with celiac disease have fatigue, skin abnormalities, or osteoporosis as their primary symptoms.

Most people with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis experience symptoms that are predominantly consistent with hypothyroidism, although it’s not unusual for the initial onset of the condition to look like accelerated or hyperthyroid function. Some people oscillate back and forth between symptom patterns associated with thyroid hypofunction and hyperfunction.

Graves’ Disease

Graves’ disease is an autoimmune hyperthyroidism condition. While less common than Hashimoto’s, it’s equally important and consequential as it can lead to life-threatening symptoms. It affects about 1 in 200 people. To reiterate, if you have an autoimmune thyroid condition, you must take care of both layers—the immune layer and the support of the gland itself.

Digestion and Nutrition Tips for Autoimmune Thyroid Conditions

As with any autoimmune disease, it is crucial to support digestive health and avoid triggers that can set off antibody activity. The most notable nutritional trigger is gluten. Many, but not all of my clients with autoimmune conditions benefit from a gluten-free diet in the context of an individualized dietary plan. 

In my nutritional therapy practice, I take over where your doctor leaves off, providing a nutritional, lifestyle and supplement plan that helps support your health.

What Can I Do?

Is your thyroid struggling? If so, you have a highly valid reason to take care of yourself. Enlist the help of those around you. Pare down your schedule. Cut out anything that’s overwhelming. And, learn to say no to anything that doesn’t totally excite you. Spend time with people you love, and rest. Controlling stress is the most important piece of the puzzle!

But taking care of your thyroid also means eating properly prepared real food that is high in nutrients — food that deeply nourishes you and brings joy to your body and spirit. You may need to take care of your digestion to increase the absorption of the nutrients in your food, as well as bolster your (primarily digestive system-located) immune system.

For a deeper understanding of thyroid health in relation to fertility, pregnancy, and postpartum health, you can refer to this comprehensive information compiled by the American Thyroid Association. https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/thy.2016.0457

Best Foods for Thyroid Health

Your specific nutritional needs are unique to you, but following a basic whole-food diet is a perfect way to get started. Like other forms of dysfunction in the body, thyroid dysfunction will, to some extent, respond to improved nutrition, digestion, and absorption. As you remove empty calories from processed foods, you will have more room on your plate for healthy, nourishing foods that replenish the nutrients needed to optimally create hormones—thyroid hormones! Please note that you may need to use thyroid hormone replacement in addition to nutritional therapy, and this is not a sign of weakness or failure on your part. 

What if I Need More Guidance?

I love the detective work that revolves around resetting functional health. I have extensive experience supporting people with complex, chronic health conditions, including thyroid issues. I’d be honored to support you as a client in my private practice. If you schedule a 15-minute complimentary call to discuss your thyroid health with me, mention this blog post and I’ll send you my thyroid guide with tips on nutrition, gut health, and testing.

If you’re a holistic health practitioner wanting to optimize your client-centered clinical skills, I hope you’ll join my case study group.