Thyroid Health

As always, I recommend that you seek the advice of a licensed healthcare practitioner to guide you as to what can best support your health regarding this topic.

The thyroid gland is located at the lower part of the neck. When functioning normally, you or your healthcare practitioner should not be able to feel it. The purpose of your thyroid gland is to help you with your metabolism and to help all of your other processes in your body function well. Healthy growth and development is dependent on a healthy thyroid gland.

There is a gland in your brain called the pituitary gland, that talks to your thyroid gland through chemicals to make sure your metabolism, growth and development are occurring in a healthy way. A blood test called TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) measures how the pituitary is talking to your thyroid, and signals your thyroid to make more or less hormone in order to keep your metabolism in balance.

If the TSH is too high, it means that your thyroid is functioning too low (hypothyroidism). If the TSH is too low, it means that your thyroid is functioning too high (hyperthyroidism). These conditions are both problematic and need to be balanced in order to experience great health.

Common symptoms where the thyroid is functioning too low include feeling chilly, weight gain, hair falling out, fatigue, joint and muscle pain, dry skin, dry hair, infertility, menstrual irregularities, constipation and depression. Hypothyroidism is where metabolism has slowed down and is very sluggish.

On the flip side of low is high. Common symptoms where the thyroid is functioning too high include feeling warm, sweating, weight loss, increased appetite, rapid or irregular heart beat, insomnia, fatigue, trembling, muscle weakness, muscle pain, frequent bowel movements and anxiety.

An enlargement in the neck can occur with either high or low functioning thyroid problems. Graves disease is a condition where the body’s own antibodies are attacking the thyroid, creating a hyper-functioning thyroid gland (hyperthyroidism). An enlargement in the neck is quite common with this condition.

An enlargement in the neck can also occur with a condition known as Hashimoto’s thyroiditis where the body’s own antibodies are attacking the thyroid, creating a hypo-functioning thyroid gland (hypothyroidism). While there can be enlargement with this condition, it’s also common for people with this condition to have a thyroid gland where there is no enlargement at all.

Both Graves disease and Hashimoto’s thyroiditis are autoimmune diseases where part of the body’s immune system has turned on itself and started to attack the gland. Graves disease creates hyperthyroidism and Hashimoto’s thyroiditis creates hypothyroidism.

Not all people with hypothyroidism (low thyroid) have Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. Many people have hypothyroidism and there are no antibodies attacking the gland. Some people have normal levels of TSH, FT4 (free thyroxine) and FT3 (free triiodothyronine) when their blood is tested, yet have abnormal antibody levels that indicate antibodies are attacking the thyroid gland. This too is called Hashimoto’s thyroiditis.

T4 (thyroxine) and T3 (triiodothyronine) are hormones that the thyroid gland secretes in response to the signalling from the pituitary gland via TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone). T4 is the “inactive” hormone, which is more plentiful than T3, the “active” hormone. T3 is made from T4 and this chemical conversion in the body depends on many things, including a healthy liver, and the adequate intake of the minerals selenium and zinc, to name a few. T4 is created from the amino acid called tyrosine plus the mineral iodine. We get tyrosine from protein in our diet and iodine from fish or seaweed. Iodized salt is not the best way to obtain iodine. Healthy nutrition is important for balanced thyroid health.

At times, there are small nodules that can be felt on the thyroid and this is a common finding in my practice in the general population. The vast majority of the time, the nodules are benign and found to be a multi-nodular goitre on a thyroid ultrasound test. Very rarely, a nodule is found to be cancerous, however investigation is prudent to rule out this uncommon finding.

The most common thyroid condition by far is hypothyroidism. Clinical hypothyroidism is determined when the TSH is elevated out of normal range. Symptoms of this disease as stated above are often present. Depending on severity, patient tolerance, individual biochemistry, patient request, and drug efficacy, this condition is treated with a synthetic hormone or with a natural hormone called desiccated thyroid.

It is important that hypothyroidism be treated to ensure that the immune system functions well. Synthroid is a synthetic hormone that contains an exact measurement of the T4 (thyroxine) hormone. Cytomel is a synthetic hormone that contains an exact measurement of the T3 (triiodothyronine) hormone. Desiccated thyroid is often made from pig thyroid gland and contains imprecise measurements of T1, T2, T3, and T4 hormones. That is why most medical doctors do not like to use desiccated thryoid as a treatment plan. Sometimes it is challenging to get all blood levels (TSH, FT4 and FT3) in a normal range with an imprecise medication like desiccated thyroid. Yet for many patients, many of their hypothyroid symptoms improve while taking desiccated thryoid, whereas on Synthyroid, these same patients did not feel any better with their symptoms and only their blood tests showed improvement. Hypothyroid treatment is very individual. For those with an added burden of having Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis, an AIP (Autoimmune Protocol) nutrition plan is extremely helpful to decrease the antibody attack against the thyroid gland.

Subclinical hypothyroidism is where all blood tests are normal, yet the patient has all of the symptoms of hypothyroidism and feels unwell with a sluggish metabolism. In my practice, I assess this through dried urine spot testing for FT3 and FT4, or through electrodermal screening, the latter being the most cost effective. The best supplement thus far for subclinical hypothyroidism that I have found is ThyroCare from Restorative Formulations. I infrequently use Thyroid Px because it has a much higher content of iodine. Yet for some people, a higher content of iodine is needed and Thyroid Px works well. For others, supplemental iodine can aggravate thyroid nodules and Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. I do not test every person with suspected subclinical hypothyroidism for anti-microsomal antibodies (Hashimoto’s) so I tend to use ThyroCare mostly, that has a very low iodine content, much like would be found in eating a diet containing seaweed.

Untreated hypothyroidism will put your immune system at risk.

Untreated hyperthyroidism can be a dangerous situation and put your heart and cardiovascular system at risk. At times, medication, radioiodine or surgery is necessary to address this problem. At other times, they may not needed. Regardless of the type of treatment, this condition must be closely monitored by a healthcare practitioner so your heart is not put at risk. ThyCalm is a supplement that can be helpful in this situation when the blood levels are within normal ranges again.

In conclusion, there are many ways to have healthy thyroid function. Healthy nutrition, adequate exercise and tools to support emotional stress management are helpful. The thyroid sits close to our voice box. To express ourselves authentically, respectfully and kindly, what we think and feel without suppression, is to further support this gland. If the thyroid becomes imbalanced there are many tools to help out. As always, I wish for all of you, a healthy thyroid gland, free and unhindered vocal expression, and great health.