Many people have thyroid problems or diseases, and they don’t know it. Many times you may go to a doctor not knowing what is wrong with you. The doctor, also, may have a hard time trying to figure out why you don’t feel good.
If you have a thyroid issue, the doctor may not determine this right away, because many thyroid symptoms are also symptoms of other diseases. Thyroid symptoms can be subtle and related to other diseases. These symptoms can take months or even years to develop and show up. When this is the case, it ‘s hard to attribute these symptoms to a thyroid condition.
This article is mostly concerned with hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism. Other types of thyroid diseases are mention on occasion. The function of the thyroid is also covered and should be of benefit to all. By knowing how something works, you have a better chance of fixing it.
Many thyroid diseases occur such as an overactive or underactive thyroid, lump in the thyroid, or pregnancy thyroid. In this article, we detail what you need to do to overcome an unhealthy thyroid by outlining natural ways that you can improve the health of your thyroid.
If you have a cyst in your thyroid, the information here will help you to decrease its size by detoxifying your body. Other thyroid diseases that are more serious can also be helped with this information. But in cases where there has been irreparable tissue damage, surgery or other medical attention may be needed.
Causes of thyroid issues
How you sleep, how easy it is to wake up, and how much energy and stamina you have during the day is directly linked to the thyroid hormones.
Hypothyroidism is a health condition in the U.S. and means that the thyroid gland is not active enough. It may cause symptoms such as weight gain, tiredness, pale and cold skin, constipation, high cholesterol levels, weakness, and joint pain. The opposite condition is called Hyperthyroidism in which the thyroid gland is too active. This may result in symptoms such as weight loss, tremors, heart palpitations or rapid heartbeat, difficulty sleeping, and so forth. But naturally, the thyroid is a sneaky organ and your symptoms typically won’t be “textbook” as described or all occur at the same time. It could be something as subtle as noticing you just can’t make it through a day without coffee anymore.
The blood work performed by doctors is typically a “basic” or “expanded” thyroid panel, and can include variety of measurements. Normal values are constantly changing. As a physician, I am only interested in the optimal, ideal specific range of these values, whereas many outdated laboratory values have a great range and a different motivation and view point for what’s normal.
Here’s briefly how the thyroid gland works and don’t worry, I won’t bore you with science! The thyroid is like middle management in the corporate world. His office is located in the throat, wrapped around our windpipe as two lobes. His big time boss is the brain, who works up at corporate headquarters. That’s how body works – the brain is the master control of every organ, tissue, muscle, and cell in the body. The thyroid’s upper management is the pituitary gland, whom he also takes orders from. Thyroid manages many functions of the corporation especially the customer service teams, but instead of sending out memos all day from his desk, he sends out hormones. Hormones are the messages that act out what the brain commands. So he send out hormones (messages) to his customer service team to go out into the body and check in with every single cell (customers). They stop at every cell to see if its doing okay – does it need more nutrients? More oxygen? Anything? More important than that, the hormones get to call on some large important customers. For example hormones help the heart utilize cholesterol. His best customer service representatives are T3 and T4 and are his right hand team. For that reason, T3 is the most active thyroid number measured. This is certainly not the complete picture, just an overview of what the thyroid does.
Here are nine causes of thyroid levels that are off on your blood work, and what further steps might you want to explore:
1) Environmental Determinants. High-stress levels will cause excess cortisol in the body, which is a hormone linked to increased risks of heart disease (and other conditions) and keeps your body in the “flight or fight” response mode. These are the two first things that I recommend all of my patients to address. Here are some tips for sleeping well and lowering stress:
- Deep breathing exercises
- Use of essential oils like lavender
- Eliminate TVs, cell phones, etc. in the bedroom
- Yoga, meditation, or stretching to promote a calm, clear mind
2) Gastrointestinal Function. It contains almost 80% of our immune system! Food Intolerances are a common cause of digestive problems, and there is a strong link in the research to Gluten Intolerance and Celiac Disease with thyroid imbalances. Many people with suspected gluten intolerance also have many other hidden undetected food intolerances that mimic similar symptoms.
3) Toxicity. If a need for detoxing exists, it can involve dietary changes, adding more vegetables to the diet in the form of Juicing to make the internal body conditions inhospitable for toxins, infrared saunas, and acupuncture to balance energy meridians corresponding to these organs. One of my tips is to drink a mug of warm water with half a fresh squeezed lemon every morning 15 minutes before breakfast. It gets the liver active and ready to work!
4) Hormonal Imbalances such as pregnancy, contraceptive use, estrogen / hormone replacement therapy, or bowel dysfunctions. Too much estrogen will increase the activity in the thyroid gland. Estrogen is also used as a medication for which the effects are over played and risks minimized. Research and results on Hormone Replacement Therapy now show that it does not protect anyone from incontinence, Alzheimer’s, heart disease, and so forth but it actually increases your risk for cancer. Other natural ways to resolve a hormonal imbalance, especially around menopausal age are acupuncture or a physician grade nutritional supplement prescription.
5) Using soy commodities and non-organic dairy. I would recommend anyone (regardless of your health condition) to eliminate both of these items from your diet. Remember, both of these are very sneaky and hidden in many processed foods.
6) Constipation. Multiple toxins being recycled in our bowels from lack of elimination will put extra estrogen into the system. My favorite, most effect and natural solutions for constipation are acupuncture, dietary changes like eliminating sugar and grains, probiotics supplementation, food intolerance testing, other lab measurements that could enlighten the reason for constipation. If you need more support you can try a natural laxative like cascara sagrada for a short while. You should never use any form of laxative for extended periods of time as your body becomes dependant on them.
7) Nutritional Deficiencies such as B12 or Iron deficiency. Some of the signs of nutrient deficiencies are similar to symptoms of hypothyroidism. Reasons that one could have nutrient deficiencies could include lack of nutritional dietary habits or heavy metal toxicity (which is actually much more common than it sounds). Hair analysis is the best long term blueprint of the body to assess for heavy metal toxicity or nutrient deficiencies.
8) Immune System Dysfunctions such as adrenal problems which increase cortisol in the body, increase your risk for heart disease (among other conditions) and keep your body in constant “flight or fight” panic mode. Adrenal problems are typically measured with easy, at home saliva testing.
9) Chronic Candidiasis which may cause symptoms such as white patches in the mouth, memory problems, issues with sugar handling, gas and bloating, mucous in the stool, and cold hands or feet. Ask your doctor about an easy blood test to see if you have an acute or long term candida problem. Solutions for candidiasis may involve dietary changes, detoxification, and using natural herbs or supplements to resolve candida imbalance.
Importance of natural kelp iodine
Iodine is a basic element needed by our bodies. Our thyroid gland needs trace amounts of Iodine to create hormones needed to balance our body’s metabolism. Hyperthyroidism is a condition that can result from not receiving the necessary amount of iodine in our diets. The symptoms are weight gain, sluggish metabolism, depression, and a lower body temperature. Only 70 micrograms a day are needed to keep the thyroid gland functioning optimally. It’s good to mention that 70% of the iodine in the body is stored in other tissues of the body.
The Goiter Belt.
Iodine is only needed in trace amounts, but even so at one time, there was an epidemic from lack of dietary intake of iodine. Not just iodine, but also selenium which contributes to much of the Hypothyroidism in the US. Selenium is another trace mineral which helps convert the different thyroid hormones. The Goiter Belt is in the northern section of the US. It was called such because of the high incidence of Goiter, which is Enlargement of the Thyroid Gland. This happens due to the lack of minerals in the soil, namely Iodine and Selenium.
Iodine Supplements.
Because of the rise of goiter in the US iodine supplements became the solution. But it must be a quality form of Iodine that the body can readily access and use.
Too much Iodine
Too much of anything is bad, so naturally too much iodine has consequences also. Too much iodine leads to hyperthyroidism. This is an overactive thyroid gland, resulting in nervousness, insomnia, fatigue, hair and weight loss.
Sources of Iodine
Besides iodine supplements in salt, iodine exists largely in the soil in which much of the produce we grow so we consume it in trace amounts with produce. However this is not enough, in other countries such as Japan, and China goiter is almost unheard of. The reason is the diet of eastern Asia. In Eastern Asia seaweed is a staple.
Seaweed contains a high amount of naturally occurring iodine. Kelp is a commonly used seaweed that you can find in most stores. Kelp has a high concentration of iodine. Kelp supplements are commonly used by people who have an under active thyroid because of its high iodine content. The daily recommended amount is around 150 micrograms. Typically we can tolerate up to 8 times that amount with no ill effect, but I think this depends on the source of the iodine itself.
Other Uses.
Iodine is commonly used in a liquid form topically for scrapes, and cuts. It’s usually a deep reddish color, or clear. It is a commonly used home remedy. Another use I find extremely inexpensive is if you have child that presents with ringworm. Instead of spending 20-30 dollars on prescription cream, Iodine is much cheaer works better. One downside of using Iodine on cuts, scrapes, and ringworm is it stings.
Iodine is found in many plants in the wild also, especially moist tropical environments. Plants with red vines or veins usually contain iodine and can be used in emergency situations if you were stranded and needed to disinfect a cut in the wild, but it’s important to know which plants these are.
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