Waking up a sluggish thyroid

Your thyroid gland plays a crucial role in regulating your metabolism. The hormones it produces affect the activity of literally every cell in your body – including your brain. An underactive thyroid gland, or anything that interferes with the activity of thyroid hormone, can cause a wide array of symptoms including:

• Mental and physical sluggishness;
• Difficulty with losing weight;
• Sensitivity to cold;
• Memory and concentration problems;
• Depression;
• High cholesterol level; and
• Menstrual irregularities in women.

Quite frequently, while reviewing clients’ blood tests, I notice subtle signs of thyroid underfunction that have not previously been recognised. The most common of these is a TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone, which is released by the pituitary gland to tell the thyroid gland to release its hormones) level that is higher than optimal, although still within the pathology lab’s ‘normal’ range.

Often, the TSH level has been rising with each consecutive blood test over several years; but until it rises above the upper end of the reference range, it won’t be flagged as ‘abnormal’ by the lab. The standard medical approach is to wait until TSH exceeds the upper limit of the reference range, then prescribe synthetic thyroxine (thyroid hormone).

I consider it far more intelligent to address this problem when it is still in its early stages, rather than waiting until thyroid function is so impaired that treatment with thyroxine is the only viable option.

There are many factors that impact on your thyroid gland’s ability to produce enough hormones, and for those hormones to be effective. These include:

• An inadequate dietary intake of iodine, selenium or zinc which variously impairs the production of the main thyroid hormone, T4, and its conversion into the more active T3.
• High levels of cortisol, the hormone of chronic stress, which causes excessive production of reverse T3, or rT3. rT3 blocks the activity of T3 – even if your blood level of T3 appears normal.
• Low vitamin D level; vitamin D is required for thyroid hormone’s ‘message’ to get through to cells.
• Antibodies to gluten, a protein found in wheat, rye, barley, oats, spelt and kamut, which can cross-react with the hormone-producing cells in the thyroid gland, causing them to be destroyed.

Case study

When Faye came to see me, her TSH level was 3.1 IU/L. Anything over 2.5 (some endocrinologists say 2) is a sign that the thyroid gland is underfunctioning, and the pituitary gland is having to send out large doses of its stimulating hormone to try to kick the thyroid into gear.

Faye’s vitamin D level was only 40 nmol/L – well below the optimal range of 80-140 nmol/L, while her cholesterol level was a worrying 6.7, with LDL at a dangerously high 4.8.

I told her that if her TSH continued to rise, she would eventually have no choice but to go on thyroxine or else she would be at an unacceptably high risk of heart disease. She was very opposed to the idea of thyroid replacement therapy, so I advised a gluten-free, high-nutrient diet and a loading dose of vitamin D to get her level up to optimal.

3 months later, her TSH was down to a near-normal 2.1 and her cholesterol had dropped to 5.5, with artery-damaging LDL at 2.8. Further tests that I had asked her to request from her GP showed a mild iodine deficiency, for which I recommended regular intake of seaweeds such as nori, wakame and hijiki, and iodine drops which allow for precise dosing of iodine (too much iodine can trigger thyroid disease!).

Faye will now almost certainly be able to avoid the necessity to take synthetic hormone – but only by taking pre-emptive action, before she developed clinical hypothyroidism.

I have found that many people taking synthetic thyroid hormone still experience symptoms of hypothyroidism (low thyroid), even when all their thyroid hormones are within normal ranges. Attention to the factors described above can alleviate these symptoms and sometimes, reduce the required dose of thyroid hormone.

Have you been diagnosed with hypothyroidism, or do you have early warning signs of it? Would you like expert guidance in constructing and adopting the ultimate diet and lifestyle program for thyroid health?

Apply for a Roadmap to Optimal Health Consultation to discover how I can help you.