Hypothyroidism Revolution

Natural Treatment for Hypothyroidism

August 19, 2012/0 Comments/in Treatment /by Tom Brimeyer

The term “natural treatment” is quite subjective to say the least. For most, it simply means treating their hypothyroidism symptoms with natural supplements and without the use of medical drugs. But should that really be considered natural? When it comes to a natural treatment for hypothyroidism, I believe that there’s a far more “natural” means that are entirely neglected.

When you think in terms of a natural treatment for hypothyroidism, it’s important to grasp the importance of supporting your body’s natural ability to heal rather than relying entirely on supplements.

Supplements definitely have their place but you have to keep in mind that you didn’t become hypothyroid because you are deficient in supplements.

The Importance of Your Diet

Most people fail to understand that your diet is by far the most important factor in any natural treatment for hypothyroidism.

The foods that you eat have far reaching effects when it comes to your thyroid. Your diet dictates your hormones, the health and functionality of your digestive tract, and many other processes that all greatly impact hypothyroidism.

So I want to strongly iterate the point that if your diet is not properly supporting your thyroid then you will never truly heal. And some people can partially compensate by relying entirely on supplementary hormones but this does not offset the damage that is done by a poor diet. And sooner or later, it will catch up with you one way or another.

Below I’m going to outline 3 key components of a truly natural treatment for hypothyroidism.

Balancing Your Hormones

Your hormonal system is far more intertwined than you probably realize. Every hormone tends to affect the others either directly or indirectly. And this is why balancing your hormones is a necessary part of any natural treatment for hypothyroidism.

Estrogen and Progesterone

Hypothyroidism tends to be more prevalent among females and it’s because they naturally produce a lot more estrogen than men do which makes them much more susceptible to the hypothyroid effects of excessive estrogen. But this is also becoming a more common issue with men these days.

Once your estrogen levels get out of balance they tend to cause an exponential problem. And that is because there is a feedback mechanism that causes hypothyroidism to promote the buildup of estrogen while estrogen further suppresses your thyroid. So it’s easy to see how this can cause your thyroid to spiral out of control.

Progesterone on the other hand works to offset the negative effects of estrogen and promote the healthy function of your thyroid.

Insulin and Cortisol

Another pair of complimentary hormones that require balancing as part of the natural treatment for hypothyroidism are insulin and cortisol. And these hormones work together in order to help maintain proper blood sugar levels.

Insulin is important because it plays an active role in delivering key nutrients to your cells as well as helping your liver to store the glycogen it needs to convert your inactive thyroid hormone to its active state.

And cortisol has an opposite effect and should be kept to a minimum as part of your natural treatment for hypothyroidism. Under times of stress and when blood sugar drops too low, cortisol is released to bring your blood sugar back up. But it also has many anti-thyroid effects such as blocking the liver from converting your much needed hormones.

Pregnenolone

I also wanted to touch on the importance of the hormone pregnenolone in this equation.

Pregnenolone is the precursor hormone for all of the highly protective steroid hormones that your body naturally produces. These hormones include progesterone and DHEA. But when you’re hypothyroid, your body can’t produce the pregnenolone that it needs because it requires thyroid hormone in order to do so.

Supporting Your Liver

Few people understand the important role that your liver plays in the whole thyroid process. And so it’s easily a forgotten part of the natural treatment for hypothyroidism.

If your liver is not healthy then it cannot properly store glycogen. And your liver requires a good amount of glycogen or sugar to properly convert your thyroid hormone to its active form to be used by your body.

Also, when your liver is unhealthy, then it cannot properly detoxify all of those estrogens that I talked about above which is such an important part of your natural treatment for hypothyroidism. If your liver can’t detoxify estrogen, then it will continue to build up, making you even more hypothyroid along the way.

When problems like this are not corrected then as the problem worsens, you can easily become more and more dependent on supplements and find that they are losing their effectiveness.

Choosing the Right Supplements

Before discussing the role of supplements in your natural treatment for hypothyroidism, I think it’s important to again reiterate the fact that your diet must come first and foremost. As I mentioned earlier, without focusing on your diet, any sort of hypothyroidism treatment is going to be far less effective.

But it’s also important to talk about the natural effects of aging and other factors that do affect your thyroid, which you might not have complete control over.

As you age, your hormone production changes and you begin to naturally produce less thyroid hormone and many of the protective steroid hormones. And this allows many of the other anti-thyroid hormones to have a greater effect on your health.

And this is when the right supplements and/or medication become a necessary part of even a natural treatment for hypothyroidism.

Fine Tuning

It’s important to find the right supplements and at the right amounts to meet the specific individual needs of your body.

For example, some people need only the thyroid hormone T3. Other’s need some combination of thyroid hormones T4 and T3. And this is a process that can take some time to figure out. But when you do find the right combination the results can be amazing.

It’s also important to keep in mind that as you progress through this natural treatment for hypothyroidism and your other hormones begin to balance, they too will impact the effectiveness of any supplementary thyroid hormone you take. For example, as your stress hormones decrease, your need for thyroid hormone will increase.

Hopefully by now you realize that a natural treatment for hypothyroidism involves much more than just using natural supplements. It involves utilizing your body’s natural healing ability to correct the underlying imbalances and dysfunction that led you to become hypothyroid in the first place.

Armour Thyroid Side Effects

August 16, 2012/1 Comment/in Treatment /by Tom Brimeyer

When it comes to discussing the possible Armour Thyroid side effects, I think it’s important to first understand why they occur and what causes them. If you can do this then you’ll also understand that all Armour Thyroid side effects can be easily avoided.

Unlike synthetic thyroid hormones which are manufactured in laboratories, Armour Thyroid is a natural desiccated thyroid extract that is extracted from pigs.

The successful use of pig thyroid has been around since the late 19^th century. And Armour Thyroid was the medication of choice by doctors who successfully treated hypothyroidism all of the way through the first half of the 20^th century.

During the late 1940’s the pharmaceutical industry developed a synthetic version of the T4 thyroid hormone. And Armour Thyroid quickly and wrongfully came under scrutiny and was eventually replaced by the new synthetic T4 as the medication of choice. And this has resulted in far less effective hypothyroidism treatment for most who diagnosed through conventional medical doctors.

Armour Thyroid vs. Synthetic T4

One of the biggest problems with this switch was that synthetic T4 and Armour Thyroid were very different.

Armour Thyroid contained a combination of the non-active thyroid hormone T4 and the active thyroid hormone T3 in a ratio that was close to what your thyroid naturally produces.

Synthetic T4 on the other hand contained no active T3 and instead operated under the understanding that by supplying your body with enough T4, it would eventually produce as much T3 you need.

But unfortunately, this idea had some major flaws and it didn’t quite work out that way.

Can Hypothyroidism Be One of the Armour Thyroid Side Effects?

One of the biggest arguments against the use of synthetic T4 thyroid medications is that if the liver, for any reason, cannot convert the T4 into T3 then it could potentially have a negative effect on your thyroid.

The T4 would continue to build up which would signal your thyroid gland to stop producing more T4 and subsequently, T3 as well. And the end result was that you became even more hypothyroid while your hypothyroidism symptoms continued to worsen.

It stands to reason that under this same principle that hypothyroidism could also be one of the Armour Thyroid side effects. Not necessarily to the same degree as the T4 only medication but given the higher ratios of T4 to T3, it can still create the same effect.

Armour Thyroid Side Effects When Dosage Is Too High

On the other side of the fence, there are some side effects that can occur by taking too much Armour Thyroid. But few people understand why.

If too much Armour Thyroid is taken, it can shift your body from a hypothyroid state to a hyperthyroid state. And this means that your cells begin to get too much thyroid hormone.

Important Note: These Armour Thyroid side effects are not unique to Armour Thyroid itself. Any thyroid supplement or medication, if the dosage is too high, can push the body towards hyperthyroidism and the same side effects would apply.

But the mechanism that causes these Armour Thyroid side effects is not an adverse reaction to the medication itself. Rather, when you become hyperthyroid, your body becomes more sensitive to the effects of adrenaline.

So when your blood sugar gets too low or your body comes under stress and your adrenaline levels naturally rise, then the effects of the adrenaline can become amplified.

Mental Armour Thyroid Side Effects

Anxiety
Nervousness
Restlessness
Irritability
Depression
Anti-social behavior
Inability to concentrate
Emotional changes

Physical Armour Thyroid Side Effects

Headaches
Rapid Heart Rate (tachycardia)
Heart Palpitations
Fatigue
Tremors
Insomnia
Hair Loss
High Blood Pressure
Increased Body Temperature
Decreased Libido
Chest Pain
Light and Sound Sensitivity
Flushing

What to Do About These Armour Thyroid Side Effects

I think it’s first important to understand that this hyperthyroidism state is not permanent. It will only last as long as the medication remains active in your body.

Oftentimes, your dosage just needs to be lowered or adjusted to avoid the potential of becoming hyperthyroid.

But if this does happen, then one of the easiest ways to decrease your adrenaline levels quickly is with the use of salt. Drinking a glass of water or juice with a high concentration of salt can help your adrenaline levels to return to normal. And in this process, these Armour Thyroid side effects will lessen and eventually subside.

In the event that you experience any Armour Thyroid side effects related to the worsening of your hypothyroidism symptoms then it’s recommended to work with your healthcare provider to discuss the use of a T3 only medication to avoid the potential buildup of T4. And by sticking to the right hypothyroidism diet you can also ensure that your liver remains healthy and minimize many of these Armour Thyroid side effects.

In any event, these Armour Thyroid side effects should be taken seriously and it’s best to discuss them with your healthcare provider. But oftentimes your medication can be adjusted accordingly to avoid them in the future.

Thyroid Medication Side Effects

August 6, 2012/1 Comment/in Treatment /by Tom Brimeyer

Anytime you use any sort of thyroid medication, it’s important to understand the possible side effects that they might cause. Oftentimes people are given the wrong kind of medication or prescribed the wrong dosage which can cause some pretty nerve wrecking thyroid medication side effects.

So be sure to note any adverse reactions you might have and below I’ll discuss a few of the common types of thyroid medications and what kind of side effects you might experience and what they mean.

And also keep mind that medication or supplements should only be used together with the right hypothyroidism diet or else your hypothyroidism treatment will not be effective in the long run.

T4 Only Thyroid Medication Side Effects

Believe it or not, T4 only medications are responsible for more thyroid medication side effects than the other forms of medication. And it is pretty apparent with how poor patients have been responding to these medications for years.

These T4 thyroid medications oftentimes cause a buildup effect of T4 within the body. And as a result, this tells your body to stop producing so much thyroid hormone. So, your thyroid slows down even more. And you can quickly become more hypothyroid than when you started.

The typical signs of this are when your symptoms begin to get worse or more frequent.

So with that being said, the typical T4 only thyroid medication side effects can be any of the various hypothyroidism symptoms.

T3 Only Thyroid Medication Side Effects

T3 is the active form of thyroid hormone that can be used directly by your cells without requiring your liver to be involved. And because of this, it is possible to have some thyroid medication side effects from T3 only medications.

If you introduce too much T3 to your body, your cells will absorb it and it can shift you from a hypothyroid state to a hyperthyroid state.

This can increase your metabolism and raise your core temperature above its normal 98.6 Fahrenheit (37.0 Celsius).

But it also makes you more susceptible to the effects of adrenaline. And this can lead to some uncomfortable thyroid medication side effects.

Mental Side Effects

Anxiety
Inability to concentrate
Nervousness
Irritability
Restlessness
Depression
Emotional changes
Anti-social behavior

Physical Side Effects

Increased Body Temperature
Headaches
Insomnia
Rapid Heart Rate (tachycardia)
Heart Palpitations
High Blood Pressure
Chest Pain
Fatigue
Flushing
Tremors
Hair Loss
Decreased Libido
Light and Sound Sensitivity

These thyroid medication side effects should be taken seriously but are not permanent and will subside once your thyroid hormones normalize.

And it’s all the more reason to manage your stress levels and keep your blood sugar balanced. Both of these issues will drive adrenaline high.

Combined T4 and T3 Thyroid Medication Side Effects

Combined T4 and T3 medication such as Armour Thyroid can also cause any of the thyroid medication side effects mentioned above.

Because these medications contain predominantly T4, if your liver can’t convert the T4, then is can cause you to become even more hypothyroid and as a result, your hypothyroidism symptoms can actually get worse.

But if your liver is converting the T4 then you can effectively take too much and produce too much T3 thyroid hormone. And this will result in the same symptoms mentioned above due to the increased sensitivity to adrenaline.

Be sure to take look at the various Armour Thyroid side effects for more information.

Iodine Supplementation Side Effects

There’s a lot of talk of iodine deficiency and the use of iodine supplementation with hypothyroidism. And while iodine deficiency was a real issue at one point in time, it rarely is now in industrialized countries.

Today the vast majority of goiters are the result of excessive estrogen which has a similar effect of not allowing the thyroid gland to release its thyroid hormones.

But today, there are a lot of people recommending dangerously high levels of iodine without considering the negative side effects.

For starters, it can actually have the opposite desired effect and further suppress your thyroid and cause thyroiditis. It can also contribute to the development of many degenerative diseases.

But since it can suppress TSH levels then many people falsely believe that it is in fact working for them.

Anytime you take medication, for your thyroid or not, it’s important to monitor your body’s response to that medication. If you notice any of the thyroid medication side effects listed above, it should not deter you from using it. But you should work with your healthcare provider to fine tune the dosage or to find a thyroid medication that is more appropriate to your body’s needs.

Hypothyroidism Treatment

July 31, 2012/1 Comment/in Treatment /by Tom Brimeyer

There’s a big problem within the medical community today with their approach to treating a number of health problems and diseases. And 9 out of 10 times, this problem exists because their treatments are driven entirely by financial interests and NOT the best interests of the patients who are suffering. And their current sub par approach to hypothyroidism treatment is one that understandably fits the bill.

In just a minute, I’m going to give you some important tips that your doctor isn’t telling you about, which are necessary for any successful hypothyroidism treatment. But before I do, I want to talk a little bit about why none of this is even discussed within the medical community.

Hypothyroidism Treatment – Then and Now

Here’s something that most people don’t realize.

Long ago, before the pharmaceutical industry was pulling in over $500 billion dollars (yes, I said billion) each year from drug sales, the doctors at the time were far more successful at treating hypothyroidism than they are today.

Long ago, doctors clearly understood the far reaching effects of hypothyroidism. It was extremely common for doctors to find that hypothyroidism was involved in the majority of their patients’ health problems. And oftentimes, the right hypothyroidism treatment would not only eliminate all of their symptoms, but also leave them with a clean bill of health.

Today, doctors have become far less accustomed to determining the underlying cause of disease. And instead, they have become far too accustomed to treating only their patients’ symptoms. And by using drugs to merely cover up your hypothyroidism symptoms, you do absolutely nothing to improve your state of health. And so it’s very common that you develop newer and more severe symptoms in the process.

Unfortunately, when there’s more than $500 billion dollars at stake each year, there’s no real incentive to heal people. There’s far too much money to be made if people continue to stay sick and develop new and more serious health problems that require the use of even more drugs.

But if we went back to our old ways of using far more effective hypothyroid treatment options, then there would be too few people left to spend all of their hard earned money on a lifetime of prescription drugs.

The Truth About Hypothyroidism Treatment

The truth is that there is so much more that you can do to treat hypothyroidism than what your doctor may or may not recommend.

But as I mentioned above, because the medical community is largely driven by the financial interests of the pharmaceutical industry, most patients are sent home with the wrong medication that oftentimes only makes their hypothyroidism worse in the end (more about that below).

A quick search on just about any online medical reference will quickly tell you that there are certain foods and supplements that may affect your ability to absorb many of the thyroid medications that are readily prescribed.

But not a single one mentions any foods or supplements that can directly affect your ability to produce or utilize the thyroid hormone that your body natural makes. In fact, most medical professionals will tell you that your diet has little to no impact whatsoever on the health of your thyroid.

But when start to look at the research, it tells a very different story.

5 Essential Steps for Hypothyroidism Treatment Success

You can throw all of the supplements, medication, etc at your thyroid that you want. But if you don’t get the basics right, then you’re essentially wasting your time. And this is because you are missing the bigger picture.

Below I’m going to cover 5 essential steps that are an integral part of any hypothyroidism treatment if you want to truly restore your life, health, and energy.

1. Start a Hypothyroidism Treatment Diet

There has been a lot of research that demonstrates the important connection between your diet and hypothyroidism. There are certain foods that directly contribute to hypothyroidism and should be avoided as part of your treatment for hypothyroidism. And there are certain nutrients that are necessary for your thyroid to function properly.

So it should only make sense that your diet should play a big role in your hypothyroidism treatment.

One of the best examples of a problem food are the polyunsaturated fats. Research clearly shows that these fats block your thyroid from releasing its thyroid hormones, block your thyroid hormone from being transported properly within your bloodstream, and blocks your cells from properly using your thyroid hormone.

And there are key nutrients that your body needs to effectively produce the necessary thyroid hormones that it needs to keep your cells happy and healthy.

And that brings us to the second step.

2. Restore Your Liver Health

Most of the active thyroid hormone, T3, that your body uses is produced by your liver. But your liver can’t do this unless it has plenty of stored glycogen and certain nutrients, such as selenium.

So if your blood sugar is out of balance and your hypothyroidism diet lacks certain key nutrients then your liver can’t do its job. And even though your thyroid gland itself may not be the problem, your liver can be responsible for slowing it down, resulting in hypothyroidism.

So the health of your liver is another major consideration when it comes to your hypothyroidism treatment.

3. Improve Your Lifestyle Management

Most people take their lifestyle for granted. But the truth is that your lifestyle can be a determining factor in whether or not your hypothyroidism treatment is successful or whether you continue to become even more hypothyroid.

And no matter how you look at it, it always boils down to stress.

But most people don’t realize what stress actually does to the health of your thyroid. For starters, it starts an entire cascade of hormonal reactions within your body, many of which are inflammatory and cause even more stress.

Your stress hormones also play an active role in suppressing your thyroid. It does this by both inhibiting your liver from converting T4 to active T3, as mentioned above, and by increasing the conversion to the hormone, Reverse T3, which effectively blocks your thyroid function.

And the more stressful our lives become, the more important it becomes to keep stress to a minimum as part of your hypothyroidism treatment.

4. Balance Your Blood Sugar

Speaking of stress and stress hormones, one of the fastest and most common ways to increase your stress hormones is to allow your blood sugar to drop too low.

When this happens, your body increases your stress hormone, cortisol, which is responsible for breaking down your muscle tissue in order to raise your blood sugar back up.

But as I’ve already mentioned above, cortisol works against your thyroid.

So, balancing your blood sugar should be an extremely important part of any hypothyroidism treatment.

3. Use the Right Thyroid Supplement(s)

Once you get your diet right, liver healthy, stress hormones under control, and blood sugar balanced, then your thyroid will begin to function far more effectively. But for some, it still might not be quite enough to get their thyroid health completely back to normal.

And only then is when thyroid supplementation can come in handy as part of your hypothyroidism treatment.

Your entire hormonal system is very complex and oftentimes hormonal feedback pathways can really inhibit your thyroid hormones from returning to normal levels. And in these situations, supplementing with the right thyroid hormones can help restore proper hormonal levels rather quickly.

But not all thyroid supplements are created equal. And some have no business being part of any hypothyroidism treatment plan.

For example, iodine is oftentimes the wrong choice of supplementation which can actually cause more harm than good.

And the medical community continues to prescribe T4 only medication when research clearly shows that it is not effective for the majority of people. And too often, this additional T4 will actually make you even more hypothyroid which is very counterproductive when it comes to hypothyroidism treatment.

The key is to find the right combination of hormones that your body needs to restore balance.

Hypothyroidism Treatment Results

It’s also important to consider that there are also factors that affect how fast or slow that you begin to see the results of implementing the steps mentioned above in your hypothyroidism treatment plan.

For example, it can vary largely due to a woman’s cycle. This is because of the role that estrogen and progesterone play in her ability to handle certain nutrients in her diet. It’s not uncommon for her symptoms to return when estrogen peaks during her cycle. But it normally only takes a cycle or two before things begin to stabilize.

If you can get a handle on these 5 essential steps for hypothyroidism treatment success then you will be well on your way to not only seeing improvements with your hypothyroidism but also with fully restoring your health and energy.

Natural Thyroid Treatment

August 22, 2011/0 Comments/in Treatment /by Tom Brimeyer

The alternative health movement has been gaining quite a lot of momentum in recent years. And it’s quite evident from the number of people who are seeking different forms of natural thyroid treatment instead of relying on the conventional medical community which has had quite the bad track record with hypothyroidism.

But not every natural treatment for hypothyroidism is right everyone. In fact, there are some that are flat out wrong but are still promoted, mostly because of financial interests.

Below, I cover two of the most commonly used supplements as treatment for hypothyroidism and why they aren’t right for everyone. I also discuss a little bit of why the right diet for hypothyroidism should be incorporated as a major component of any natural thyroid treatment.

Natural Thyroid Treatment with Iodine Supplementation

If you do just a little bit of research about hypothyroidism, you’ll be inundated with all different kinds of iodine supplements that are being highly touted as the best natural thyroid treatment available.

Iodine is an element that is required by your thyroid gland to secrete thyroid hormones. Before industrial times, the incidence of goiters was much higher and oftentimes attributed to iodine deficiency. If you didn’t get enough iodine in your diet then those thyroid hormones would build up within the thyroid gland causing it swell.

But that was before industrial times.

Today, goiters are caused primarily by excessive estrogen and iodine deficiency is very rare. But that isn’t stopping people from endorsing or using iodine as a natural thyroid treatment, but at what cost?

It makes sense as to why it’s so highly promoted today. It’s very inexpensive to manufacture. It’s one of the only hypothyroidism treatment options that doesn’t require a medical prescription. So overall, it’s great for profits.

But you have to keep in mind that the daily requirement of iodine is very small (150 mcg is usually safe). And most of these supplements are pumping you full of relatively large quantities of iodine which can actually have a negative effect on both your thyroid and your health.

Excessive iodine can suppress TSH levels and give you the appearance that your thyroid function has improved. But in reality, it oftentimes leads to thyroiditis and further suppresses your thyroid.

And keep in mind that there are other hypothyroidism causes that don’t directly involve your thyroid gland. For example, if your liver is the cause of your hypothyroidism then using iodine to try to stimulate your thyroid to produce more thyroid hormones becomes a very counter-productive natural thyroid treatment.

In this case, T4 would continue to accumulate in your liver which would even further suppress your thyroid, making matters worse.

So keep this in mind because iodine most likely not going to get you the natural thyroid treatment results that you are looking for. And in excess, it can even exacerbate your existing hypothyroidism symptoms.

Natural Thyroid Treatment with Desiccated Thyroid

Desiccated thyroid medication such as Armour Thyroid is one of the most heralded natural thyroid treatment options available. It’s typically extracted from the thyroid of either pigs or cows and has the benefit of the hormones being formulated in proportions that more closely resemble that of your thyroid gland.

Desiccated thyroid medication is not widely recommended within the conventional medical community even though desiccated thyroid has been shown to provide far better results as a natural thyroid treatment. Instead, primarily due to the financial interests of the pharmaceutical industry, they continue to push the T4 only medications with very poor results.

Unfortunately, your money is more important than your health to many people.

But there are still many cases of Armour Thyroid side effects where desiccated thyroid is not the best natural thyroid treatment option. And more often than not it involves the influence of other hormones as well as liver issues that can make any additional T4 a problem. In these cases, it can be far more beneficial to supplement with T3 only.

Natural Thyroid Treatment with Diet

Most people have no idea that diets today are drastically different than they used to be even a century ago. Before the time of fast food and restaurants on every street corner, most families cooked and even raised the majority of the food that they ate. Some refer to this as more of a traditional diet but at that time, there weren’t too many options.

And during those times, there wasn’t as big of a prevalence of hypothyroidism as there is today and that’s because people were getting their own natural thyroid treatment without even knowing it, through their diet.

Today, when you think of natural thyroid treatment, you automatically think of supplements and pills like the ones mentioned above. You would never stop to think that the foods that you eat would have a drastic effect on your thyroid.

We used to consume the entire animal in some way or another. For example, we use to make stock from the organs and bones. Today, we eat the meat off the bone and wrongly believe that the meat is where all of the nutrients are. But nothing could be further from the truth.

We use to get a significant amount of hormones and nutrients from these parts of animals that we so easily discard today as garbage. And because of this, we are feeling the effects by suffering from hormonal imbalances and nutrient deficiencies.

Keep in mind that this is just one example of many, where the standard diet today is contributing to hypothyroidism and where the right hypothyroidism diet could make all of the difference with how you feel.

So, without a doubt, one the best natural thyroid treatment options that you have at your disposal is to eat a diet that does support your thyroid instead of one that suppresses it. And then you can incorporate some sort of thyroid medication to help give you that last little boost that you need in order to keep your thyroid operating at its best.

Thyroid Treatment

August 22, 2011/0 Comments/in Treatment /by Tom Brimeyer

When it comes to hypothyroidism, there are a lot of thyroid treatment options to consider. But most of the available options do hypothyroidism sufferers an injustice by relying entirely on taking a pill to solve their thyroid problems. But the way that your thyroid works is far more complex than that. So this pill popping approach is really an inadequate attempt to solve a much bigger and deeper problem.

We’ve become far too accustomed to popping pills to solve all of our health problems when there is always an underlying cause that really needs to be addressed. And hopefully it makes perfect sense that you didn’t become hypothyroid or suffer from any other health issue because you somehow became deficient in pills. It just doesn’t work that way.

There are many thyroid treatment options available today but they all have their flaws. And one major flaw that I see is that all of them are one-size-fits-all approaches to a very complex problem. If you really want to correct the underlying problem(s) then you have to take an in depth look at what is truly going on with your body.

Individualized Thyroid Treatment vs. One Size Fits All Approach

For decades now, the conventional medical community has been promoting T4 only thyroid medications as the best thyroid treatment option, but with sickening results. Not only has T4 alone been ineffective but it has actually been responsible for making many people even more hypothyroid and worsening their hypothyroidism symptoms.

And it has taken more than 60 years but conventional medicine is now starting to realize that most people who suffer from hypothyroidism do in fact benefit more from a combination of T4 and T3 hormones. But most doctors are still practicing the same old ineffective methods because old habits die hard.

Many people have found that they do far better on thyroid extracts such as Armour Thyroid which have been used for more than 100 years. Armour is a combination of both T4 and T3 in ratios that more closely resemble how thyroid hormone is produced and secreted by your thyroid gland.

One word of caution regarding Armour Thyroid is that although it had been the natural thyroid medication of choice for decades, it has more recently been sold and reformulated which has raised many questions to its effectiveness as a thyroid treatment today.

But the biggest problem is that both of these are one-size-fits-all approaches to dealing with hypothyroidism. It’s essentially saying that your body has a problem producing and/or delivering thyroid hormone to your cells so we’re just going to give you more hormones in a pill instead of trying to figure out why your body can’t get the job done itself.

A far more effective thyroid treatment approach is to look at each patient individually and determine why is it that they can’t manage their own thyroid function to begin with.

This would involve looking at everything that influences your thyroid including…

Diet
Gut Function
Liver Function
Hormones
Stress

You would be amazed at the effects that a good hypothyroidism diet can have on improving thyroid function. And more often than not, it’s a poor diet that is a major contributor to your hypothyroidism to begin with.

By looking at and identifying the problems in all of these areas, you can actually tailor an individualized hypothyroidism treatment program specifically to a person that will have a far more drastic effect on not only their thyroid but also their health.

Below are some of the more common but largely unknown hormonal factors that play a major role in suppressing your thyroid and affecting most thyroid treatment options.

Underlying Hormonal Factors that Affect Thyroid Treatment

Estrogen Dominance

Far more women than men suffer from hypothyroidism and it’s primarily because women naturally have higher levels of estrogen hormones in their body. But the truth is that almost anyone who is hypothyroid is going to have an imbalance of estrogen. And this is because estrogen and hypothyroidism go hand in hand.

Estrogen in general is well known to suppress your thyroid gland from secreting thyroid hormones. And when your liver doesn’t get the thyroid hormone that it needs, it can’t properly detoxify estrogen. So this causes estrogen to build up in your body which further suppresses your thyroid gland.

This continuous process puts you in a hypothyroidism hole which can be very difficult to get out of which is why addressing excessive estrogen needs to be a very important step in any comprehensive thyroid treatment plan.

Blood Sugar Imbalances

Your liver needs sugar for a number of very important processes. And when it comes to your thyroid, your liver requires sugar in order to convert inactive thyroid hormone T4 into the active T3 hormone.

And when you become hypoglycemic which is common with hypothyroidism then your liver can’t store the sugar it needs to do this. But I only know of a few select practitioners who even touch on the importance of certain sugars with thyroid treatment.

In the end, your body increases its own stress hormones in order to break down your muscle tissue to convert it into sugar for your body to use.

Stress Hormones

Blood sugar problems are only one mechanism for elevating stress hormones and really need to be accounted for with any truly effective thyroid treatment. But any form of stress whether it be, dietary, mental, emotional, physical, etc will elevate your stress hormones.

And when your body is under stress, it tries to conserve energy by suppressing your thyroid and lowering your metabolism.

Your stress hormones play the role of blocking your liver from converting T4 into T3 as well as blocking your cells use of T3. When the stress is chronic, this can cause T4 to build up in your body which also further suppresses your thyroid gland and worsens your symptoms of hypothyroidism.

Very few, if any, doctors or practitioners really focus on these different sources of stress in their patients’ lives and how these sources of stress are often some of the main hypothyroidism causes.

But also keep in mind that these are just a few of the common hormonal influences that affect your thyroid. There are many others that all have a cumulative effect of suppressing your thyroid and making many thyroid treatment options far less effective. And oftentimes this can hold you back from making real progress and getting real results with your hypothyroid symptoms.

Treatment for Hypothyroidism

August 13, 2011/0 Comments/in Treatment /by Tom Brimeyer

If you’re looking for the best treatment for hypothyroidism then I think it’s important to first understand what options are available to you. Believe it or not, but most people go straight to their doctor without even researching the subject to see if there might be a better option that might be more in line with their own health beliefs.

Do me a favor and do your due diligence and do some research. Only once you’ve become educated can you make an educated decision as to what is best for you and your lifestyle.

I personally believe that everyone needs to be treated as an individual instead of being funneled through a medical system that has a very poor track record for results. The odds are just not in your favor.

But also keep in mind that not every treatment for hypothyroidism is created equal. Some will take you only so far and you might notice small improvements. Others might not work at all because they fail to address the underlying cause of your hypothyroidism. Yet some can change your life in ways that you never thought possible.

So, keep this in mind while you read about the different approaches below and which one I recommend. Educate yourself, read other articles on this site, and then consider each of these options and then choose the best treatment for hypothyroidism that makes sense to you.

In the end, I know you’ll make the right decision.

The Conventional Treatment for Hypothyroidism

Yes, I’m completely biased on this one and I have no problem admitting it. So if you aren’t interested in learning about the various problems with the conventional treatment for hypothyroidism then you should probably stop reading this now.

I have a problem with this form of treatment on many different levels. For starters, my biggest problem is really with the fact that it doesn’t work for the majority of patients. And I’m a firm believer that if it doesn’t work for the majority then it’s safe to say that you could be doing a much better job.

This specific treatment for hypothyroidism is based on a single TSH lab measurement which in itself is not a very accurate indicator of hypothyroidism. But for the lucky ones that actually do get the hypothyroidism diagnosis right, they get pumped full of T4 thyroid hormone.

Without going into too much detail because this is a topic that I talk about a lot, using T4 only is really a half-assed way to treat someone. It fails to take into account the many possible underlying hypothyroidism causes that would be better treated with different methods.

And it’s not the matter of this treatment being harmlessly ineffective. ThisT4 only treatment for hypothyroidism actually makes a lot of people even more hypothyroid because it oftentimes builds up in their body. And as a result, their symptoms get even worse.

This is really a shotgun approach and instead of getting real results, doctors quickly dismiss hypothyroidism as the real problem. And these patients are then subjected to a number of different medications to treat their various symptoms of hypothyroidism as if they were each independent problems.

But in the end, the underlying cause is missed, all because the patient is never treated as an individual with an individual problem.

And the only one who benefits is the pharmaceutical industry because now you’re taking 10 different prescriptions that could have easily been avoided with a good diet for hypothyroidism and the minimal, right medication or supplements that you really needed to begin with.

The Natural Treatment for Hypothyroidism

I’ll be fair and give you some fair warning here because I’m still going to be a little biased here. And that’s because I think there are still some major flaws with those who use a more natural treatment for hypothyroidism.

For me this is like taking a small step forward but mostly sideways.

The biggest difference that I see between the conventional approach to hypothyroid treatment and the more natural approach is the choice of medication.

The conventional backed pharmaceutical industry likes to believe that they can outsmart the human body by using drugs to manipulate various reactions within your body. But the truth is that the human body is so complex that we are still just scratching the surface of how it really works. So they can never account for how using a drug to change one reaction will affect all other reactions within the rest of the body. And so you “may” fix one problem but then you create 10 new ones.

A more natural treatment for hypothyroidism is going to focus on trading out these medical drugs and their numerous side effects with more natural hypothyroidism supplements such as desiccated thyroid extracts from animals or some sort of iodine supplement.

Oftentimes these natural supplements are a far better option than the T4 only medication that conventional medical doctors are taught to prescribe, but is it really addressing the underlying cause of the problem?

The short answer is, NO.

If your body has a problem producing or utilizing thyroid hormone then you still need to address that underlying problem. And that is something that is still greatly lacking with this more natural treatment for hypothyroidism.

The Holistic Treatment for Hypothyroidism

Hopefully I don’t need to imply the bias here but holistic health is the way that I’ve practiced for years and the way that I believe provides the most comprehensive treatment for hypothyroidism.

And you do have to be careful because there are a lot of practitioners out there that claim to be holistic but really do nothing more than recommend natural supplements based on whatever hypothyroidism symptoms you might present with.

But true holism doesn’t focus entirely on symptoms. Instead I use symptoms more like a roadmap in order to determine exactly what the underlying cause of your health problems really is.

For example, are you hypothyroid because your liver is so congested that it can’t convert T4 to T3? Or maybe there is excessive estrogen in your body that is stopping your thyroid from secreting thyroid hormone? Or could it be that you are eating foods that are blocking your body from properly utilizing your thyroid hormone?

And this is where it becomes important to tailor the hypothyroidism treatment to the individual person and not just the symptoms that they present. Your symptoms are just your body’s way of telling you that something is wrong.

But the biggest differences that I see between a holistic treatment for hypothyroidism and all of the others are the focus on your diet and lifestyle.

Your diet is really the foundation of your health. All of the nutrients that your body needs, to not only produce thyroid hormone but also to utilize it properly, you get from your diet. And your body also uses important nutrients from your diet along with thyroid hormone to produce many of the highly protective hormones within your body.

And your lifestyle is just as important as your diet when it comes to treatment for hypothyroidism. The hormonal response from chronic stress in your life is enough to suppress your thyroid significantly. But few doctors or practitioners stop to address your lifestyle and how it might be the limiting factor that is holding your back from overcoming hypothyroidism.

Yoga for Hypothyroidism

August 6, 2011/0 Comments/in Treatment /by Tom Brimeyer

Yoga is the one eastern form of exercise that has really gained a lot of popularity in the western world. And I think that there’s a lot of benefit with using yoga for hypothyroidism. But like with everything in life, with the good, comes the bad.

In the western world there seems to be this universal belief that the best results always come to those who work the hardest. So we work out harder, expecting to get even better results.

But yoga for hypothyroidism is one area where clearly, less is more. And also keep in mind that the right hypothyroidism diet can greatly increase the effectiveness of your yoga and help to drastically improve hypothyroidism symptoms.

Good Yoga for Hypothyroidism vs. Bad Yoga for Hypothyroidism

There are many different forms of yoga being practiced all over the world. Some focus more on the mental aspects of life. Others focus more on the physical aspects. Each and every form of yoga has its place. But it’s important to make sure that the form of yoga you choose is right for you and your lifestyle.

I shouldn’t even have to say this, but I will.

If you are hypothyroid, then your body is under chronic stress. No ifs, ands, or buts. That’s just the reality of it.

So, while there are many forms of yoga that are designed to be quite physically demanding and are great for those who have no other stress in their lives, this is just not the case for you. But it’s too easy to fall into the trap of thinking that these physically demanding forms of yoga is really where you get the best results.

Trust me; you have enough stress in your life that yoga for hypothyroidism should focus entirely on reducing your stress instead of adding to it.

So it should go without saying that the less intense the yoga, the better. Most “beginner” yoga classes are frowned upon because they aren’t considered challenging. But this is probably the best form of yoga for hypothyroidism that you can do.

The Importance of Proper Breathing

All forms of yoga place a lot of emphasis on breathing which is definitely a good thing. But the easy classes tend to spend more time devoted entirely to developing the right breathing patterns which is something that is a problem for most hypothyroid people.

When your body is under stress, you tend to develop an inverted breathing pattern that involves breathing predominantly from your chest. And when you’re under chronic stress then this type of breathing becomes habit and causes your body to release even more stress hormones.

So, one great way to reduce your stress levels is to re-learn that healthy diaphragmatic breathing pattern which will naturally reduce your stress levels.

And this is where the basic yoga for hypothyroidism can make a big impact.

It stimulates your parasympathetic nervous system which shifts you away from the “fight or flight” response of your sympathetic nervous system to a state of relaxation and recovery. And this creates a cascade of effects within your body that most notably improves your body’s ability to heal and decreases your stress hormones.

By decreasing your stress hormones, you automatically improve your blood sugar balance and improve your thyroid function. So something as simple as breathing properly can have a direct impact on your thyroid health.

Soft Tissue Considerations with Yoga for Hypothyroidism

Another very important topic to cover regarding yoga for hypothyroidism is the demand for flexibility and mobility which is lacking in those with hypothyroidism.

When you are hypothyroid, both estrogen and parathyroid hormones increase. And both of these hormones cause your cells to take up more calcium which leads to the calcification of your soft tissue.

In other words, your tendons, ligaments, and muscle tissue that use to be quite flexible become hardened and lose a lot of that flexibility.

So, this is a big reason why yoga for hypothyroidism should not be intense. If you force your body into poses that are too physically demanding for your lack of flexibility and mobility then you can seriously injure yourself.

You should only work within your comfortable range of motion and not force anything. Leave the difficult poses to the yogi’s.

Yoga for Hypothyroidism Poses

I am in no way a yoga expert.

I have only studied a form of yoga that was far more focused on the meditative aspect of yoga. However yoga postures were taught to supplement the meditative practices. But the truth is, at the time I lacked enough flexibility to do many of the poses from being hypothyroid myself and years of abusing my body in the gym.

But there are a couple of poses that are great for yoga for hypothyroidism which focus on the neck and cervical spine which can help to stimulate your thyroid.

Fish Pose

As I mentioned, I’m no yoga expert so I’m not going to attempt to explain how to do this pose properly. That’s best left to a trained yoga teacher.

But the Fish Pose is an exercise that places your cervical spine in extension and helps to stretch the soft tissue surrounding your thyroid cartilage and thyroid gland.

Shoulder Stand Pose

The shoulder Stand pose does the opposite of the Fish Pose by putting the cervical spine in flexion. This also helps stretch some of the soft tissues that affect your thyroid gland. But it also helps correct a postural issue called forward head posture. And forward head posture can also negatively affect your thyroid and contribute to hypothyroidism.

Hopefully it’s obvious by now that yoga is quite beneficial for hypothyroidism and can be an important part of your hypothyroidism treatment program. Just keep in mind that not all forms of yoga best suited for you. The best yoga for hypothyroidism is one that is comfortable, reduces your stress, and leaves you feeling energized.

How to Treat Hypothyroidism

August 4, 2011/0 Comments/in Treatment /by Tom Brimeyer

If you’re looking for information on how to treat hypothyroidism then you’ve come to the right place. Oftentimes, you go to your doctor where they run expensive lab tests and put on you different medications only to get marginal, if any, results.

But that’s all about to change because there’s so much more you can do on your own that your doctor isn’t telling you about.

And you don’t have to wait for months and run expensive lab tests to tell you whether or not you’re moving in the right direction. There’s a far simpler way to track your progress and it won’t cost you a cent. And when you’re first learning how to treat hypothyroidism, tracking your progress is extremely important because it’s one of the only ways to know whether or not what you are doing is working.

Below I’m going to cover 4 important topics that you need to keep in mind when learning how to treat hypothyroidism. These are some of the biggest difference makers when it comes to success or failure.

How to Treat Hypothyroidism with Diet

The medical community is in denial regarding the major effect that your diet has on your thyroid function. And they have every right to be because it’s not in their, or the pharmaceutical industry’s, best financial interests to work on that level.

But this is why educating yourself on the finer points of how to treat hypothyroidism is one of the most important aspects of healing that can make a big difference.

The first important thing to note is to avoid foods that have anti-thyroid properties, such as soy, polyunsaturated fats, legumes, nuts, seeds, grains, etc. These foods all contain components that can lead to, or worsen hypothyroidism.

Instead you want to focus on foods that naturally support your thyroid such as shellfish, dairy, fruits, etc.

And many of the effects of hypothyroidism are driven by stress. So, it’s important to reduce or eliminate as much stress as possible. One such source of stress is inflammation caused by your diet.

So, it should go without question that any effective hypothyroidism treatment program should discuss how to treat hypothyroidism with an anti-inflammatory diet.

How to Treat Hypothyroidism with Exercise

Many people understand that exercise can be an important factor in overcoming hypothyroidism. But what most people don’t understand is the difference between good exercise and bad exercise.

Bad Exercise

It’s far more common to see hypothyroid people doing bad forms of exercise that are only pushing them further into hypothyroidism. There tends to be this mentality, especially when it comes to weight loss, that if you’re not getting the results that you want then you’re not pushing yourself hard enough.

But when it comes to hypothyroidism, nothing could be further from the truth.

Intense exercise is not the answer. In fact, it will cause your body to shut down its thyroid hormone production almost immediately.

Good Exercise

When learning how to treat hypothyroidism with exercise, it’s important to understand that sometimes less is more.

Actually, less is almost always more.

The best forms of exercise are the ones that concentrate on reducing stress and revitalizing the body such as Tai Chi and Yoga.

How to Treat Hypothyroidism with Your Lifestyle

Believe it or not, but your lifestyle also has a big impact on your hypothyroidism symptoms.

Stress Reducing Activities

The important thing to keep in mind is that your lifestyle should be focused on reducing stress as much as possible. This can be done by taking time to yourself to escape from the daily stresses of life.

You can learn how to meditate, do breathing exercises, read a comforting book, take a hot bath, etc.

Sleep

Most people don’t realize this, but nighttime is actually a very stressful time for your body. Your stress hormones naturally rise throughout the night and sleep is your body’s way of dealing with this stress the best that it can.

So, if you’re having difficulty sleeping or getting good quality sleep then you are making yourself very susceptible to harmfully high levels of stress.

Sunlight

If you really want to learn how to treat hypothyroidism then spending some time in sunlight is more important that you may realize.

Sunlight stimulates the production of certain necessary hormones within your body such as Vitamin D. Focus on getting 30 minutes of sunlight daily.

How to Treat Hypothyroidism with Hormones

It’s unfortunate, but at this time, the medical community fails to take into consideration many of the other hormones that have a direct impact on the function and health of your thyroid.

Because of this, it’s becoming increasingly more important to understand your hormones at some level in order to understand how to treat hypothyroidism effectively and which hormones help and which ones cause problems.

Once you determine your hormonal imbalances, it becomes much easier to not only manage but also fine tune your hormonal needs based directly upon your own measurable results.

Measuring Your Results

Now that you know how to treat hypothyroidism, it’s important to track your results. And this is so that you know whether or not your hypothyroidism treatment is making an impact or not, and to what degree.

Temperature

Your body temperature is a great indicator of your thyroid function because the two are directly related. By keeping a record of your morning body temperature or before and after meals, then you can begin to track your progress. When your temperatures increase, that’s a good indication that you’re doing something right.

Pulse

Your pulse is also another good indicator. Most, but not all, hypothyroid people have low pulse rates. And when your thyroid begins to regulate properly, your pulse will begin to increase and normalize to around 85 beats per minute.

As you can see, there’s a lot more that you can do to overcome hypothyroidism than you probably realized. And this is why it’s becoming more and more important to learn how to treat hypothyroidism effectively so that you can take an active role in your own treatment process.

Hypothyroidism Causes

August 2, 2011/1 Comment/in Treatment /by Tom Brimeyer

There’s a lot of confusion and misunderstanding floating around regarding the cause of hypothyroidism. Most people are led to believe that the underlying cause of hypothyroidism is some sort of defect to the thyroid gland itself. But the truth is that there are multiple hypothyroidism causes that all need to be addressed as part of any successful hypothyroidism treatment protocol.

Is Your Thyroid Gland Really the Problem?

It’s true that most doctors are trained to believe that 95% of hypothyroidism is a matter of a sluggish thyroid gland that is incapable of producing enough thyroid hormone to support your body’s needs. And you can’t necessarily blame them because on a very superficial level, it makes sense.

But if that were the case, then 95% of hypothyroidism patients who were put on supplemental Thyroxine (T4 thyroid hormone) would respond favorably and their hypothyroidism symptoms would simply disappear. And doctors prescribe T4 because that’s the primary hormone that your thyroid gland secretes.

But the results of prescribing T4 have been far less than impressive. In fact, they have been outright horrid.

The majority of patients who are put on T4 medication get no relief. Many even get worse. And most doctors fail to come to terms with the fact that this form of treatment is more of a problem than a solution. So, they continue to ignore the various other hypothyroidism causes and reassure their patients that the medication is working but that there are some other “unrelated” problems that they now need to investigate.

The Truth About Hypothyroidism Causes

The truth is that there’s an entire long process that occurs between the time that your thyroid gland produces its hormones and the time that those hormones get delivered to your cells for use. And if any part of this process is broken then the end result is… hypothyroidism.

So, it becomes much easier to see that there are a number of hypothyroidism causes that you have to account for if you really want to correct the problem.

But it gets even deeper than that.

Unfortunately, when any one single part of this process is broken, all the other parts suffer as well, much like a domino effect. So it’s not as easy as fixing the one little broken link in the chain. Once this process is thrown off, you have to work to restore functionality to the entire process to get it working properly again.

And that’s why it becomes so important to address all of the hypothyroidism causes at the same time.

And while TSH levels are high in the majority of hypothyroidism cases (but not all) this is not necessarily an indication of a problem with your thyroid gland. If any part of the process becomes broken then your thyroid gland is going to naturally down regulate and stop producing so many hormones. And it’s important to use the right thyroid function test before basing a diagnosis off of TSH alone.

But it’s easy to point the finger at your thyroid as the problem and that’s a big mistake that most people and doctors make.

Below I’ve listed the 3 main parts of this process to give you a much better idea of what can go wrong and the various hypothyroidism causes involved with each individual part.

Hypothyroidism Causes Related to Thyroid Hormone Secretion

When it comes to your thyroid gland, there are a few factors that affect its ability to secrete the thyroid hormones that it produces (aside from other broken parts of this process).

Iodine Deficiency

One such issue is an iodine deficiency. But in industrialized countries now days, this is actually one of the very rare hypothyroidism causes. And supplementing with iodine should be approached with extreme caution because you can easily experience iodine toxicity based on many of the popular recommended dosages out there. And this can actually have a number of negative health effects and make you even more hypothyroid in the end.

So it’s important to always get appropriate testing to determine your true iodine levels instead of using a shotgun approach of iodine supplementation.

Excessive Estrogen

One of the very common hypothyroidism causes today that affects your thyroid’s ability to secrete your thyroid hormones is excessive estrogen levels. And this goes for both men and women although it’s more of a problem with women since they naturally have higher estrogen levels.

When estrogen is in excess within the body, it deactivates the proteolytic enzymes that are responsible for signaling your thyroid to release its hormones. So the thyroid hormones tend to build up within the gland and many times leads to goiters and Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis.

Progesterone Deficiency

The hormone that is responsible for opposing and balancing estrogen is progesterone. And one of the many beneficial roles of progesterone is to activate the same proteolytic enzymes that estrogen deactivates.

And a deficiency in progesterone oftentimes goes hand in hand with excessive estrogen.

Hypothyroidism Causes Related to Thyroid Hormone Conversion

Your thyroid gland produces primarily the inactive T4 hormone that must be first converted by your liver into the active T3 hormone in order to be used by your cells. And because this process is responsible for producing about 2/3 of your active thyroid hormone then it can be a major player among the various hypothyroidism causes.

Protein Deficiency

Hopefully you are well aware of the fact that protein plays an important role in your diet. And when you don’t get enough protein in your diet then your body begins to break down your own muscle tissue in order to get the protein that it needs. But this comes with a price.

The process involved in breaking down your muscle tissue requires the use of your body’s stress hormones. And when these stress hormones rise, they also block the conversion of T4 into T3 making this one of the hypothyroidism causes.

Low Carb Diets

There’s a lot of controversy out there regarding the healthiest diet. Some claim that low-fat is the only healthy diet. And others argue that carbs are the problem. But in reality, both are wrong.

But low carb diets can really cause some problems with your thyroid. And this is because your liver requires carbs in your diet in order to convert T4 to T3. So it’s safe to say that carbs are not necessarily the problem. It has more to do with eating the wrong carbs vs. the right carbs.

And this is where a good science based hypothyroidism diet comes into play. But you have to be careful because not every hypothyroidism diet is created equal. And some are flat out bad.

Lack of Salt

Let’s move back to the topic of stress for a minute.

One problem that goes hand in hand with hypothyroidism is the inability to retain sodium within your cells. When you become hypothyroid, your cells easily take up water and sodium is readily eliminated.

But sodium plays a number of very important roles in your body, one of which is to help keep stress hormones levels low. So, your stress hormones are naturally going to be high with hypothyroidism and if you’re not getting enough salt in your diet to then you won’t be able to keep those stress hormones under control.

And as I already mentioned above, stress hormones are another one of the hypothyroidism causes.

Over-Exercising

Keeping along the same topic of stress, many people over-exercise which only places more stress on your body. In fact, it has been shown that over-exercising with hypothyroidism can actually stop your body’s production of the active thyroid hormone, T3, immediately.

So if you think more exercise or working out harder is going to do the trick then think again.

Hypothyroidism Causes Related to Thyroid Hormone Utilization

There are a few hypothyroidism causes that affect your body’s ability to properly utilize thyroid hormone. But few have the far reaching effects of these.

Polyunsaturated Fats

Poly Unsaturated Fats are a major contributing factor with hypothyroidism. They can easily be put into the category that affects thyroid hormone secretion because they do play an active role in suppressing the thyroid gland from secreting its hormones. But these fats also have more far reaching effects.

Polyunsaturated fats also work by blocking the transportation of your thyroid hormone in your bloodstream. So, this means that even less of the needed hormone is actually making it to your cells.

And to make matters worse, once your cells do get the little bit of thyroid hormone, these fats make your thyroid hormone less effective within your cells. So it requires even more thyroid hormone to keep your metabolism and cells healthy.

And with the prevalence of polyunsaturated fats in everyone’s diet today, it’s very easy to see that this is another one of the major hypothyroidism causes of today.

Miscellaneous Hypothyroidism Causes

Of course, there are so many other hypothyroidism causes that it’s impossible to list them all. But there are a couple of others that I think are worth mentioning because they do shed some light as to why hypothyroidism is so common.

Natural Aging

As you age, there’s a natural shift that occurs in your hormone levels, thyroid hormone included. And as your body naturally decreases its hormone secretion, then it becomes more and more important to get these necessary hormones from other sources, such as this.

Diet

Our diets have changed drastically over the past century and unfortunately, it’s been entirely for the worse. And this has become another one of the bigger hypothyroidism causes of today.

We use to utilize the entire animal that we ate including the various organs, bone, etc. And many of these parts that we now discard without thinking use to be very rich in thyroid hormones. So we use to get a good amount of thyroid hormone directly from our diet. And that meant that our thyroid gland didn’t have to produce quite so much on it’s own.

Hopefully this gives you some insight into how complex this issue really is and that it’s not as simple as saying that your thyroid itself is the problem. Instead, you have to consider the entire process and all of the hypothyroidism causes that can be involved along the way if you ever want to truly be successful at healing hypothyroidism.