When it comes to low thyroid issues, subclinical or otherwise, it's easy to get caught in the weeds with what to do about it.
But going down rabbit holes with expensive testing + supplements often doesn't yield results and can even be counterproductive.
If you zoom out, the reason for low thyroid symptoms is pretty obvious and easy to change with a focused approach.
Root Causes of Thyroid Issues
When it comes to pinning down the root cause of your thyroid issues, these are the key areas you'll want to pay attention to. I've yet to see a client with thyroid issues that doesn't line up with at least one of these (usually multiple).
The Liver
The liver (along with the thyroid and gut) are the key locations that thyroid hormone conversion occurs. This is where the conversion of inactive thyroid hormone (T4) to active thyroid hormone takes place (T3) that helps to give you energy and make your metabolism run flawlessly.
What do you think happens when the liver is overwhelmed with too much work to do because the body is accumulating toxins ('work') faster than it can get rid it? If you guessed reduce thyroid hormone conversion, you're right on target.
Improve liver health to improve thyroid hormone conversion.
Key supports: adequate protein, carbohydrates, therapeutic fiber and zinc to support healthy detoxification, along with reducing nutrition excess and toxin exposure. Read more on how to support your liver here.
The Gut
Just like the liver, the gut is key for activating thyroid hormone. When your gut is overwhelmed with poor digestion, bacterial overgrowth, pathogens and inflammation, its going to have a ripple effect on thyroid health.
Recent integrated medicine case reports support this, finding that symptoms originally attributed to thyroid dysfunction were instead caused by suboptimal gastrointestinal health. [1]
Key supports: short-term probiotics and dietary modifications, long-term focus a healthy biliary-liver axis
Under eating, over exercising or dieting (especially low calorie, low protein and low carb diets)
Low thyroid symptoms (or hypothyroidism) can be self-induced by not meeting your body's fuel needs. Just like you wouldn't expect your house to stay warm in the winter if you couldn't afford to pay your electricity bill, the body works in a similar way. This is an adaptive mechanism to help you survive when your body's not getting the amount of fuel it needs.
Meet your body's daily caloric and macronutrient needs to set the stage for thyroid hormone homeostasis.
Key supports: adequate calories for daily expenditure, balanced macronutrient diet
Mineral Imbalances
Several years ago in my nutrition studies, I learned about the mineral balance needed to support optimal thyroid health, namely calcium and potassium. These two super-important minerals must be in good balance with each other, but it's something that I rarely see when working with my clients experiencing thyroid symptoms.
So, if you're dealing with these thyroid symptoms, the first line of nutritional and in this case mineral defense, may be getting your calcium and potassium levels back in balance! If you don't know your calcium and potassium levels, you may want to. It's pretty easy to find out with Hair Analysis.
Alright, so we need proper balance between calcium and potassium (a.k.a. the thyroid ratio in hair analysis) to support optimal thyroid health from the mineral perspective, but the common American lifestyle compounds this problem twofold — forcing calcium level too high (often by supplementing too much vitamin D), and potassium levels too low.
This makes the thyroid ratio go way out of balance, and chances are, you may be familiar with the way that makes you feel.
You see, calcium slows things down in the body if you have too much of it, but high calcium levels are now commonplace due to Vitamin D supplementation. In short, it's often not from eating too much calcium-rich food, but instead a product of vitamin D supplementation. Vitamin D supplements tell your gut to absorb more calcium from your food than you would otherwise. The even worse supplement combination would be supplementing high amounts of vitamin D and calcium at the same time.
According to Trace Element Lab, "The inhibitory action of calcium on the thyroid has been suspected since the last century, but more recent studies have confirmed its effects. It is known that calcium decreases thyroid activity and that calcium absorption is increased in thyroid insufficiency. Vitamin D would also be considered to contribute to lowered thyroid function due to its close, synergistic relationship to calcium." [2]
Key supports: balancing calcium and potassium levels (more on that here)
Fluoride
Fluoride has been shown to have a serious impact on thyroid function. In fact, fluoride was prescribed as anti-thyroid drug in the 1950's to treat over active thyroid (hyperthyroidism) in Europe and South Africa. Consistent with fluoride's thyroid suppressing effects, a 2015 study showed fluorinated water can double the risk of hypothyroidism. The findings of the study report:
"We found that higher levels of fluoride in drinking water provide a useful contribution for predicting prevalence of hypothyroidism. We found that practices located in the West Midlands (a wholly fluoridated area) are nearly twice as likely to report high hypothyroidism prevalence in comparison to Greater Manchester (non-fluoridated area)."
Key supports: Consider reducing your fluoride exposure. Examples include:
- Eat less processed food. The more processed a food, the more fluoride it contains.
- Watch your intake of tea. Tea plants absorb fluoride from the soil resulting in high fluoride levels in the leaves.
- Choose fluoride-free toothpaste and seek out a holistic dentist that is aware of the dangers of fluoride.
What about thyroid meds?
While thyroid meds can be extremely helpful in the short-term (and long term for people with thyroid removal), they can be a double-edged sword.
In an over-simplification, taking thyroid medication is like buying energy for your body with a credit card.
Seems harmless at first, right?
Wrong…
Credit cards can be an incredible tool for getting things you want, but they can also be very dangerous if the right money management is not in place to back up what you are "spending".
If you take thyroid medication without addressing the root cause behind it, you are essentially purchasing that "increased energy" with a credit card! If your body doesn't have the nutritional stores to pay for that energy, that thyroid medication could be digging you deeper and deeper into a nutritional deficit that will worsen things over time.
This if often why someone needs to 'up' their thyroid med dose over time.
The message I am trying to get across is that if your energy is low by way of reduced thyroid function, then there is a nutritional aspect that needs to be addressed.
No Magic Pill
This is what is REALLY causing low thyroid symptoms, and there's not a magic pill or supplement that's going to change it. Only habit changes and addressing the root cause.
When it comes to your thyroid health, remember to zoom out.
Sometimes the cause is clearer than you think!
Need help?
Need help navigating thyroid symptoms with nutrition support? Consider the following:
- Free 15 Minute Consultation
- Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis with lab testing
- Thyroid Reset Bootcamp
- Drain Detox Method
- Bulletproof Gut Masterclass
PIN IT:
References:
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35999903/
- http://www.traceelements.com/Docs/The%20Nutritional%20Relationships%20of%20Thyroid.pdf
- http://jech.bmj.com/content/early/2015/02/09/jech-2014-204971
Constance
So tell us what happens when a Doctor recommends the removal of one side of the thyroid because it was a bit swollen. Tests found nothing that would send an alarm for cancer but to be on the safe side 1/2 of the thyroid was removed as the Doctor recommended. How does this effect the body? Never was on any thyroid replacement meds until years later but could not tolerate them because it caused too many side effects. Later down the road, gallstones came into play and this other Doctor said since he was going to go in and take out the gallstones , he also was removing the gallbladder since we really didn't need the gallbladder..... The patient promptly and decisively told this doctor to Not remove the Gallbladder because since God is the one to put it there He obviously knew we did need it. Regardless,without the patinets knowldege, the Doctor went ahead and removed the Gallbladder anyways. Never mentioned it at all after surgery to the patient but years she later found out about the malpractice by the primary doctor giving her records to her (because he was moving out of state}. Shock and anger were the two emotions she experineced when this was found out. Later on a diagnosis of Blood clots in the lung and Lymphedema during an emergency room visit.. She spent more than a week in the hospital while a whole host of doctors tried to brainwash her that she would have to take a life time of drugs (Eliquis ) and that Lymphedema was not curable. The patient decided to pray about it and beleived God instead of these Doctors.( God tells us in scripture that the Blessing of the Lord adds no sorrow to it, Big Pharma drugs add side effects which in her book means sorrow ) Then one day one of the older Doctors who remained curiosly quiet in the first indroduction came in to check on the patient and let her know that all of those doctors didin't know anything for sure, it was just their opinion ( which supported their bank account ). After a short conversation the doctor bid her God's Blessing..... After getting home and trying the Eliquis for about 5 months serious side effects began, bloody nose immediately, large bruises and then it expanded excessively into painful knees and hands to the point she could barely make it to the bathroom and could not even hold her grandchild. This was all during the beginning of the Covid scare so her usual doctor was not available so she would use Nattokinase in place of Eliquis after researching the subject. When she would go off of Eliquis the pain stopped but when she started to take it again the pain returned. So all of this time she would do research on the internet and found that Nattokinase , an enzyme did what Eliquis could do but without the side effects.... no pain, no clotting, just relief.and it also worked much faster than Eliquis. She read testimony after testimony how Eliquis had caused them much pain and disability. As she researched the symptoms of Lymphedema she found that Minerals that supported the muscles and fluid balance were extremely important. Potasium, Magnesium Vitamin D3 with K2-7, Essential B Vitamins, .. Lifestyle and food choices were key.... Moving and Vibration plate exercise, Infared Sauna were other routines that was beneficial. Good fats verses bad fats, Low Carb, medium protein, Low carb meaning choosing foods from the outside aisles instead of the center aisles for the most part.... Using new brands for old favorites like Primal Kitchen Katsup over Heinz Katsup.... It meant paying attention to carb counts on labels, eliminating sugar and artificial sweetners like Equal and replacing it with Natural plant derrived sugar replacements like monk fruit and Stevia. It also meant replacing pasta and starchy vegetables with other Keto type recipes found on Pinterest. Sweets were still available but not those with flour based recipes... Pie, cakes, rolls were all allowable but they had to have recipes that did not use conventional flours... instead using Almond or Coconut flours. Then one day she came across a world famous Naturopath that suggested she take Bile salts to support that was lost in her gallbladder removal. It helped her greatly and was so grateful that there are Doctors who have real knowledge on the internet who share freely of how to access cures instead of a revolving wheel to Big pharma drugs. Yes , this is my story and it continues the journey to a full recovery... I am almost there with God's leading and blessing. God says in scripture that if we lack wisdom than we just need to ask Him and He will never refuse us but give us wisdom generously without finding fault... Praise the Lord ! Wishing all here a healthy life and wisdom as it is the principle thing.