Is It Your Thyroid?

So, this might sound a little bit like the same old song and dance, but you’re gaining weight and maybe you’re experiencing some significant hair loss. And you’ve got fatigue, maybe, you’ve got some mood swings, you’re not sleeping as well as you once did. And, you think to yourself, I get it, I know what this is, this is hormonal fluctuations. And it can be linked to peri-menopause, or menopause. But sometimes it’s not as easy just to pin the challenges and the symptoms we’re experiencing on menopause. Sometimes a lot of the symptoms we think are menopause related, are actually being caused by our thyroid. 

Today, I wanted to talk about the thyroid and what it is, what it does, and what happens when it’s not working optimally. The thyroid is a little butterfly shaped gland. It’s located in the front of your throat, on your lower neck. And it is part of the endocrine system. The endocrine system is a network of glands. Their job is to produce the hormones that allow our cells to talk to each other. And the thyroid is the queen of the endocrine system. And let me tell you, if the queen’s not happy, ain’t no buddy happy. So thyroid health is really, really critical. I’m thinking you may already know this, but, the thyroid is connected to our metabolism and how slowly our metabolism is working or how quickly our metabolism is working. Other functions of the thyroid are immune function, detoxification, determining our sex hormones, tissue development, energy levels and our sleep patterns. 

How does the thyroid function? 

There’s two main hormones that the thyroid produces one is T3 and the other is T4. These get released from the thyroid by another hormone called TSH which that stands for thyroid stimulating hormone. Kind of makes total sense, right? TSH is produced in the pituitary gland. If there’s an imbalance in our T3 and T4 our metabolism doesn’t run as well as it could. If it’s on the lower end of the scale, that’s when we are dealing with hypothyroidism. That’s when our metabolism has slowed down. The extreme side of this is the autoimmune disease Hashimoto’s. Now, if you go to the other side of the scale, and T3 and T4 is really ramping up, that’s where you’re going to see the hyperthyroidism and the extreme of that is Graves Disease. 

How can you support thyroid health?

First of all, if you do suspect that your thyroid might not be functioning optimally, I highly, highly recommend going to your doctor and asking for a thyroid test to test your levels. And if your levels are off, there is medication that can be prescribed to help stimulate your your thyroid. 

But, you know, I am a big fan of doing things naturally and holistically and supporting our body the best way we can. There are things available to us that can actually help support our thyroid health. One of them is good consistent exercise. But this isn’t intense exercise, like a HIIT routine. You want a more calming, workout like walking, swimming or cycling. You don’t want your body to think it’s in stress mode and release extra cortisol. Then the body is more focused on survival from fight or flight, and it starts shutting down other areas. So something like the thyroid doesn’t become as important. 

The other thing that’s really healthy for supporting your thyroid is good deep belly breathing, I think doing this for a couple of minutes in a quiet place, maybe with your eyes closed is quite meditative and healing. 

The other thing is prioritizing sleep. Sleep is related to restoring your body and to lowering our stress levels. And don’t forget about reducing toxin exposures. I know this is so much easier said than done, right? Because I feel like toxins are everywhere. Even when we do a really good job of trying to eliminate them in our home, they’re still going to be in our outer environment where we don’t have nearly as much control. 

Also, calming your vagus nerve is really beneficial for your thyroid. I’ll be talking more about the vagus nerve in a couple of weeks, but, it’s basically a superhighway between the brain and the gut and a couple of other main main organs. It communicates with those parts of your body that you don’t have voluntary control over. One of the great ways to calm your vagus nerve is to sing. Which I love because I can’t sing at all, but, oh my gosh, I just feel like it gives me an excuse to really belt out a song. Gargling is also great for calming the vagus nerve as well as laughter. 

And, of course, watch what you eat. And you can try this interesting experiment for all around health including your thyroid, eliminate gluten for three weeks and see how you feel. Then reintroduce gluten for three days and see how you feel. Lastly, vitamin D, selenium and zinc are great support supplements for the thyroid. For selenium, eat three Brazil nuts a day. For Zinc, try sunflower seeds. 

I hope this got you thinking how symptoms associated with menopause might not always be menopause related. Peace & Love.