The Gut-Thyroid Axis & Why It’s Important

So did you know that your thyroid and your gut actually have a lot to do with each other? 

These past few weeks, I’ve been talking about thyroid health and gut health together. It’s two subjects that have really started to fascinate me. We are one whole body and you cannot take individual systems and compartmentalize them. You can’t think that one system somehow doesn’t work with and talk to the other systems in our body.

What’s interesting is that the gut will actually produce hormones that directly communicate with the thyroid. Now, if the gut is unhealthy and isn’t properly communicating with the thyroid, this can actually weaken your thyroid function. And as a quick refresh, the thyroid is the little butterfly shaped gland that’s located in the front of our neck. It’s the queen of the endocrine system and the driver of our metabolism. We want it working optimally. So, if the gut is trying to speak with the thyroid, and your gut isn’t healthy, then, your thyroid is going to be lacking and can’t really work optimally. 

I think you can see how these different systems are interconnected. Everything needs to be working well as a whole for us to really reach our best health. When our gut cells are healthy, they’re going to produce a mucus that protects the stomach from stomach acid. Additionally, that mucosal lining is also going to protect the stomach from leaky gut syndrome. (And if you missed it, check out last week’s vlog on leaky gut). The gut bacteria also plays a role in helping convert some of the T4 cells into the active T3 cells. About 20% of our T4 cells can get converted into active T3 cells. And that happens because of the the digestive tract. So, if it’s not working well, we’re not working well. 

Stress can also play a role with the gut-thyroid axis. Stress increases cortisol and when cortisol levels are high, the active T3 levels start to decrease. This means our overall thyroid function is decreasing. 

It’s not just about how the gut effects the thyroid. It’s also the effect that the thyroid has on the gut. The thyroid plays a big role in keeping that intestinal lining nice and tight so only nutrients can permeate from the digestive tract into the bloodstream. Otherwise,  we’re getting cracks and holes in our intestinal lining and leaky gut syndrome happens. Little bits of toxins and food particles can literally escape into the blood stream. So, healing the gut-thyroid axis is important. It’s a little bit of the chicken and the egg because you need to have a healthy thyroid to have a healthy gut. And you need to have a healthy gut to have a healthy thyroid. It can be very frustrating because you don’t even know where to begin. 

One of the best ways to begin is by taking a functional medicine approach. It’s called the four R’s. Remove. Replace. Re-inoculate. Repair. 

• Remove any of those dietary triggers. For me, dietary triggers are going to be sugar, processed carbs, and dairy. Those are the biggies for a good majority of us. 
• Replace with digestive enzymes and probiotics. 
• Re-inoculate with probiotics in the form of fermented foods. 
• Repair with a more nutrient dense, more plant base diet.

It’s always a good idea to speak with your doctor about testing your thyroid levels and what your digestive health is looking like.

Peace & Love!