The thyroid gland plays a key role in your metabolism. Along with insulin and cortisol, your thyroid hormone is one of three hormones that control metabolism and body weight.
Treatment thyroid glands
Proper testing determines whether slowed thyroid function contributes to metabolic arrest and encourages other body problems. Once the right information is obtained, it can be helped through various ways in eliminating thyroid problems.
One young patient had more than 30% fat in his body, and no matter how hard he tried, he could not change this condition. Although he introduced a perfect diet, although he exercised every day, he did not show any signs of progress. This person was also very pronounced with symptoms of depression.
The person was treated with low doses of thyroid Armor ® natural thyroid hormone substitutes.
This man lost about 10 kilograms and improved his organism and mood. He also got rid of other symptoms.
How did he have such a low level of thyroid function? I asked him questions related to the symptoms. We examined the organism’s condition, and we identified potential problems caused by the poor functioning of the thyroid gland. Then I did a real test.
Functional medicine and thyroid hormone tests
Most doctors check something we call thyroid-stimulating hormone or TSH, which doesn’t really give a true picture of the thyroid gland. More precisely, the interpretation of this test is incorrect in most cases.
According to the latest guidelines, a person who has a score over 3 is considered a patient who needs some treatment. Most doctors believe that results over 5 or 10 should be treated, which leaves many people suffering from this health problem without proper treatment.
Near TSH, functional medicine also performs other t3 and t4 tests and a thyroid antibody test. We also test for gluten intolerance, food allergies, heavy metals, and also a deficiency in such cases: vitamin D., selenium, vitamin A and omega 3 acids.
In the following text, I would like to deal a little deeper with the thyroid gland’s problem and the strategies of treatment.
An integrative approach is needed to correct these problems. There are more methods involved in solving this problem than just taking a few pills during the day. As you will see, this includes nutritional support, exercise, stress reduction, inflammation reduction, and sometimes the elimination of certain foods and detoxification of heavy metals such as mercury and lead, and petrochemical toxins.
To integrate all of these elements into a successful set of techniques for treating your thyroid, I recommend the following 6 strategies:
Strategy 1: Eliminate the causes of thyroid problems
Carefully consider what things can interfere with thyroid function and eliminate them. As you will see, many things can interfere with the thyroid gland’s optimal function.
Diet is a good start. Some foods have developed a terrible reputation for affecting thyroid function. These facts are, in many cases, not supported by relevant scientific research.
For example, food rich in soy, food from the family broccoli cause thyroid problems, so medicine claims. In one study, rats fed exclusively on soy had problems with their thyroid gland.
The following message should be drawn from this: if you are a rat, stay away from tofu. Clinical trials have proven that soy creates an optimal effect on people when consumed in normal amounts.
Thyroid gland and allergies
On the other hand, there are groups of substances that support autoimmune diseases thyroid glands and slow down metabolism.
One of them is gluten. If you think you have a thyroid problem, what you need to do is a blood test in which any hidden reaction to gluten found in wheat, barley, rye, oats should be discovered. Gluten sensitivity or allergies can cause various symptoms, from migraines and fatigue to weight gain.
In addition to a blood test, you can easily eliminate gluten from your diet for three weeks. If your symptoms go away, you have solved one of the sources of your thyroid problems. If you want to go a step further, re-incorporate gluten into your diet to see if symptoms recur. If this happens, it is a significant detail.
There are other food allergies besides gluten that disrupt the thyroid gland’s functionality. By cooperating with your doctor, you should eliminate food allergies.
In addition to certain foods and food allergies, toxins can also slow down the thyroid gland’s function. By testing for heavy metals, you can determine if a source in your environment may be critical to your current condition. Fluoride, associated with thyroid problems, and chlorinated water should be avoided.
Checking for pesticides is much more difficult, but it is possible to detoxify the body to these compounds by eating organic food, filtering your water, and increasing your detox food intake. This way, you will help your thyroid gland get rid of another factor affecting its functionality.
How to cure allergies and influence them to combat their aggressive action. You can read 9 ways to prevent an attack on yourself in the text.
Thyroid gland and stress
Stress has a very negative effect on the functioning of the thyroid gland. Military cadets subjected to intense stress during training had higher cortisol levels, higher levels of inflammation, lower testosterone levels, higher TSH, and very low T3.
The usual form of chronic stress causes exhaustion of the adrenal gland, one of the possible causes of hypothyroidism. Adrenal exhaustion occurs when the adrenal gland is no longer able to meet the physiological needs created by stress.
To get rid of stress, it is necessary to relax the organism, for which there are various methods.
You can read more about the impact of stress on our body in the article on how stress causes hormonal chaos.
Strategy 2: Regular exercise and saunas
Exercise stimulates the secretion of the thyroid gland and increases tissues’ sensitivity to thyroid hormones. Ideally, you will sweat a lot during intense exercise.
In addition to being a great way to relax your muscles and mind, you can expel large amounts of toxins from your body in saunas and steam baths. Saunas are an essential aid to the body in losing weight, reducing body fat, and expelling accumulated toxins such as PCBs and organic origin pesticides. Excretion of toxins lowers the level of T3.
For proper functioning, the thyroid gland requires detoxification if detoxification is not done, your ability to lose weight decreases due to the influence of accumulated toxins on the thyroid gland’s function.
Strategy 3: Eat foods that promote a healthy thyroid gland, eliminate foods that are harmful
Every step on the path to healing and weight loss depends on nutrition and food use to properly establish balance in the body. Thyroid treatment is no exception.
Choose foods that support your thyroid’s metabolism. The production of thyroid hormones requires iodine and omega 3 fatty acids. Selenium is needed to convert inactive T4 to active T3, vitamins A and D are needed to bind T3 to receptors on the nucleus, and zinc. To get the full therapeutic value of these nutrients, use the supplements from Strategy 4.
Foods to improve thyroid function are seaweed and iodine-containing seafood. Fish (especially sardines and salmon) contain omega 3, iodine, vitamin D. Dandelion, mustard, and other greens containing vitamin A, herring, shellfish, and Brazil nuts contain selenium. If you want to avoid foods that interfere with thyroid function, you should eliminate foods rich in gluten, you should use pure soy and soy proteins in moderate amounts, and you should avoid processed soy products.
Strategy 4: Use supplements that support the work of your thyroid gland
The main supplements for healthy thyroid function are multivitamin and multimineral complexes containing selenium (sodium selenite), iodine, zinc, vitamins A and D, and omega 3 fatty acids.
Iodine can be obtained naturally or by using supplements:
Iodine drops
Sodium selenite
You can also read good information on how you can treat your thyroid gland with kelp in the article Effects of kelp on the thyroid gland
If your adrenal gland is exposed to stress for a long time, it is impossible to treat the thyroid gland without supporting the adrenal gland with adaptogenic plants such as ginseng, Rhodiola, or Siberian ginseng.
We recommend working with an experienced nutritionist who will guide the diet and intake of certain nutrients that your thyroid gland and, if necessary, your adrenal gland need.
Strategy 5: thyroid testing
There is no perfect way, neither symptoms nor test results, by which we will correctly diagnose low thyroid function or hypothyroidism.
The correct way is to look at the complete picture of symptoms and blood tests and then decide.
Doctors usually diagnose thyroid changes by testing TSH levels and T4 levels. Some doctors have questioned the normal levels of these two parameters.
The diagnosis of “subclinical” hypothyroidism depends on TSH levels, which should be greater than 5 m IU / ml and less than 10 m IU / ml in the event of a disorder. As I mentioned in the previous text, the new measurements show that anything over 3 m IU / ml is abnormal. As long as the parameters are within these limits, many doctors will miss this diagnosis segment, and many ill people will not be treated properly.
To get a complete picture, I recommend observing the following range of functions:
TSH should be ideally between 1 and 2 m IU / ml
Free T4 and free T3 (inactive and active hormone)
Thyroid antibodies search for autoimmune reactions, which generally remain undiagnosed if other tests are normal and if the doctor does not perform a routine examination of this parameter.
TRH stimulating test
A 24-hour urine test for free T3 that may be helpful in cases that are difficult to diagnose.
Based on these tests, an experienced doctor can get more information about how your thyroid gland works.
If you think you have not been diagnosed with a thyroid problem, ask your doctor to do these tests or find a doctor who will do them. They are essential when putting together a puzzle of your diagnosis that standard tests do not provide.
Strategy 6: Choose the right thyroid hormone replacement
To balance the thyroid gland that has been thrown out of balance, you will need thyroid hormone therapy.
By changing your diet and lifestyle, you will certainly improve your thyroid gland’s condition. Still, if the thyroid gland is not functioning, you will have to take some additional measures to supplement the production of thyroid chromones.
In my medical studies, I learned about Synthroid ® synthetic form of T4.
Why do doctors give this medicine? For that reason, he is the only one they know how to copy. But is this the only good treatment for everyone? In some people, it is effective, but the symptoms remain present to the same extent in some people. What exactly is the right treatment, then?
The answer is, it depends on the person.
Part of functional medicine’s truth is that no treatment can be functional for everyone. By combining experience, testing, testing, and even the mistakes we see, we achieve the right treatment.
Medications for thyroid problems
At the same time, I have found that most of my patients have a very positive reaction to the combination of T3 and T4 hormones. Synthroid® represents only T4, an inactive hormone. Many doctors believe that the organism itself will pick it up in T3 and that everything will be fine.
Unfortunately, pesticides, stress, mercury, infections, allergies, and selenium deficiencies block this process. While 100 percent of patients have pesticides stored in the body, mostly everyone will have a problem with this process and Synthroid ®.
The best treatment I use is Armor thyroid medicine, obtained from a dried pig’s thyroid gland. This preparation contains a full spectrum of thyroid hormones, including T4, T3, and T2. The last T2 is a little-known thyroid metabolism product, which can be very significant. Its dosage varies between 15 and 180 milligrams, depending on the person.
Many doctors have an outdated belief that such preparations are unstable and that dosing is complicated to monitor. Such is the case with the old Armor preparation, not with the new preparations.
One of the potentially good supplements that I can recommend to people who suffer from thyroid dysfunction and with which they can increase the metabolism of transforming T4 into T3 automatically and increase T3 is the T100 preparation, which can also stabilize the weight gain process. T 100 has shown remarkable results in thyroid problems.
After several decades of working in functional medicine, I can freely say that you can cure your thyroid gland even in the most severe cases. In some patients, this can be achieved through proper diet and dietary supplements, and lifestyle changes. In others, the use of some drugs is required under the expert supervision of a medical professional.
