The thyroid produces two main thyroid hormones, thyroxine (T4) and triiodothyronine (T3). Production of your thyroid hormones is governed by another thyroid hormone produced in the pituitary gland located deep within the brain. This thyroid hormone is called thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH).
While TSH is considered a thyroid hormone it is not actually produced in the thyroid. Once released by the pituitary TSH travels to the thyroid via the bloodstream to stimulate production of the thyroid hormones.
When levels of T4 and T3 fall, the pituitary secretes more TSH. Conversely, as T4 and T3 levels rise the pituitary secretes less TSH. Normally this feedback system ensures your body has adequate amounts of both T4 and T3. When TSH is high it is a clear indication your body is suffering from inadequate thyroid activity.
A healthy thyroid gland manufactures far greater quantities of T4 than T3. While T4 does have some effects, it is considered the ‘storage’ form. T4 is converted to T3 by the body when a greater thyroid response is needed. This means T4 is on standby, ready to be quickly converted into the active T3 when it is required to boost the metabolic rate.
Thyroid disease results from an underactive or overactive thyroid that produces too little or too much of the thyroid hormones. Knowing how your thyroid works helps you understand your thyroid problem. It also helps you understand why it’s vital to get more than TSH tested. The widely held belief that TSH is an accurate marker of thyroid health is misleading.
Below Here are 2 videos for you to understand more about thyroid hormones.
Louise O’ Connor, the author of The Natural Thyroid Diet –The 4-Week Plan to Living Well, Living Vibrantly, who is a specialist in Thyroid Health. She is a highly regarded Australian Naturopath and founder of Wellnesswork.
The Natural Thyroid Diet goes beyond diet advice and offers practical and effective ways to achieve healthy thyroid levels within just a short period of time. For more details, Click onThe-Natural-Thyroid-Diet.com
Thyroxine is the most widely prescribed medication to treat hypothyroidism. It is a synthetic form of thyroxine (T4), one of your key thyroid hormones.
How effective is thyroxine for hypothyroidism?
Many individuals fail to experience improvements in their hypothyroid symptoms by taking thyroxine.
They continue to suffer with the frustrating symptoms of a low thyroid.
Looking at the role of the different thyroid hormones it becomes clearer why a single prescription of thyroxine may be inadequate.
The thyroid normally manufactures and releases two main hormones: thyroxine (T4) and triiodothyronine (T3).
While T4 does have some effects, it is considered the ‘storage’ thyroid hormone. T4 is converted to T3 by the cells of the body when a greater thyroid response is required.
T3 is more potent than T4 and has far greater effects on your overall health and vitality.
This means T4 needs to be converted through to T3 to be the most effective.
The same scenario applies when you are taking a prescribed T4-only medication. The effects are more noticeable when the T4 is efficiently metabolized to T3.
Low T3 leads to a range of low thyroid symptoms.
If your T3 has been low you will notice significant improvements in your hypothyroid symptoms when your body is able to convert a larger portion of T4 to T3. T3 helps stimulate your body’s ability to burn calories for energy which has far reaching effects in the body.
T3 helps spark energy production, weight loss and can help fire up brain activity to improve memory and concentration. This scenario also applies to prescribed thyroxine; the effectiveness of this drug is more noticeable when the body is able to convert the T4 to T3.
It is widely assumed the body will efficiently convert a T4 based thyroid medication without any problems. This assumption seems to go unquestioned by many medical practitioners. However this fails to occur for many individuals. You do not get the full benefit of your T4 medication when it is not being converted to the active T3 form.
Do you have a T4 to T3 conversion problem?
The process of converting T4 to active T3 is dependent on optimal amounts of zinc and selenium. When there is a deficiency of either of these two minerals you will experience far less activation of your T3.
Lowered conversion of T4 to T3 also occurs in response to dieting, stress, toxicity and chronic fatigue syndrome.
Many thyroid health experts advocate the use of a T4/T3 combination medication, or even a T3-only medication. Using a combination of T4/T3 or single T3 can compensate for the body’s reduced ability to effectively convert T4 to T3.
The most commonly prescribed T4/T3 medication is called Armour Thyroid. This alternative thyroid medication contains a precise mix of T4 and T3.
A Naturopathic viewpoint
From a Naturopathic viewpoint there is a broad range of factors that influence thyroid health. To see real improvements in thyroid health it is important to identify and address the underlying root causes.
A nutritional product that provides a comprehensive range of nutrients to assist healthy thyroid hormone activity is recommended. A good quality product features at the very least iodine, zinc and selenium.
Note: Leveothyroxine medication is typically advocated for life and requires ongoing monitoring. Do not discontinue or change your medication without the informed consent of your prescribing medical practitioner.
Louise O’ Connor, the author of The Natural Thyroid Diet –The 4-Week Plan to Living Well, Living Vibrantly, who is a specialist in Thyroid Health. She is a highly regarded Australian Naturopath and founder of Wellnesswork.
The Natural Thyroid Diet goes beyond diet advice and offers practical and effective ways to achieve healthy thyroid levels within just a short period of time. For more details, Click onThe-Natural-Thyroid-Diet.com
Western societies are now consuming an increasing amount of soy that is unfermented and highly processed.
The reason?
Food manufacturers favour soy as a cheap and versatile ingredient. It’s added to a wide range of human food products and is also routinely used in the animal feed industry.
You really need to become a vigilant label checker to discover if a food contains some type of soy ingredient. Soy is now found in bread, breakfast cereals, biscuits, crackers, margarine, chocolate, sauces and soups.
Soy is also used to make soy milk, baby formula, soy protein shakes, soy cheese, soy ice cream, vegetable stock, texturised vegetarian soy protein, soy flour, soy protein bars, soy lecithin and soybean oil.
Soy protein products and infant formulas often contain soy protein isolate. This is not something that you can make in your kitchen. This soy ingredient is made in high tech chemical processing plants.
The extraction process utilises high temperatures and the soybeans are bathed in hexane, a toxic chemical solvent despite the usage of hexane is being prohibited when processing organic soy foods.
The safety of soy based infant formula is hotly debated as these products naturally contain a class of plant compounds called isoflavones. The primary isoflavones are genistein and daidzein. These isoflavones are referred to as phytoestrogens because they are found in plants (phyto) and they have the ability to mimic estrogens in the body.
It is well recognised infants are sensitive to estrogen exposure as they progress though different developmental stages. This makes infants more likely than adults to be vulnerable to the estrogen-like effects of the phytoestrogens found in soy. There is also research to show that genistein and similar isoflavones can compete for iodine when iodine stores are low.
Further, infants fed soy containing formula in early life have a higher risk of developing autoimmune thyroid disease. For infants fed soy formula their rate of exposure to phyotestrogens is much higher which may a negative impact on both their thyroid health and hormonal balance.
Soy + Asian cultures
In Asia, small quantities of whole bean soy products are considered a traditional staple of the diet. From the simple soybean comes a variety of foods including tofu, natto, miso, tempeh, and boiled soy beans (edamame). These foods are prepared using traditional methods to make these otherwise inedible foods nutritious.
Soybeans like other beans, nuts, and seeds contain naturally occurring enzyme inhibitors. Termed phytic acid or phytates, these compounds make soy difficult to digest and also have the potential to bind to minerals in the digestive system.
In this way phytic acid acts as an ‘anti-nutrient’ to prevent the absorption of important minerals such as calcium, magnesium, iron and zinc.
Soybeans contain a much higher phytic acid content than most other grains and legumes. If you have been over doing soy products you may be low in these minerals.
Thyroid Disorder: Does soy harm the thyroid?
An incredible amount of hype has accompanied the meteoric rise of soy as a popular ‘health’ alternative. Once reserved as a staple for vegetarians’ soy is finding its way into the shopping baskets of more conventional consumers in various forms, usually disguised as a refined soy ingredient.
When it comes to thyroid health and if you have thyroid disorder, processed soy foods and foods containing soy ingredients should be strictly avoided.
Soy is goitrogenic, a term used to describe many foods and environmental compounds that have a serious potential to block normal thyroid activity and causes thyroid disorder.
Highly processed soy products are not normally manufactured using the phytic acid reducing techniques used in traditional cultures such as soaking or long slow cooking.
This makes these foods harder to breakdown in the digestive system. Overt time this can lead to digestive distress and lowered micronutrient intake.
This is not good news for thyroid health as the thyroid is particularly sensitive to nutrient deficiencies. For example; iodine, zinc and selenium are three minerals critical to aid ongoing thyroid hormone activity and prevent thyroid disorder.
Globally soybean oil has become the most widely used dietary oil. This soy derived oil is routinely used in margarine and shortening. It is also used in salad dressings, mayonnaise, frozen foods, commercially baked goods and simulated dairy and meat products. Soy oil along with palm oil and canola oil is often deceptively referred to as ‘vegetable oil’ on food labels.
Food manufacturers label dietary oils as ‘vegetable oils’ to make them sound healthy. However this is far from the truth. They are neither nutritious nor healthy.
The long term consumption of these oils has the potential to harm the thyroid and causes thyroid disorder. As more of these oils are incorporated into the thyroid cells their goitrogenic effects becomes more obvious.
The environmental impact of soy
The biggest shift in farming methods occurred over the last century, particularly with the introduction of ‘monocultures’. These are large scale farming areas dedicated to a single crop. Soy crops are monocultures favoured by multinational agribusiness to supply a growing demand.
As traditional farming methods are lost and the modern monoculture system of production emerges there is an increasing susceptibility of crops to insects and disease. This then pushes up the use of toxic agricultural chemicals.
Large soy plantations are viewed by environmentalists as a growing menace. Intense soybean cultivation threatens fragile ecosystems and is taking a significant toll on deforestation of the globe.
Soy + genetic engineering
Genetic engineering is the process of using biotechnology to transfer specific traits or genes from one organism into a different plant species. The result is a genetically modified (GM) food. The safety and potential long term health risks of these ‘frankenfoods’ is regularly questioned.
Soy, canola and corn are the most prevalent GM ingredients and are used in many food products. The first genetically engineered soybeans were planted in the USA in 1996. Now more than 90% of the USA soy crop is GM.
As the GM industry grows there has been a corresponding demand for food labels to clearly state if GM plants or microorganisms have been used in production.
In the European Union all food, and any ingredients directly produced from a GM source must be labelled even when the GM ingredients may be undetectable in the final product.
The ‘Roundup Ready’ soybean controversy
The GM soybean known as the Roundup Ready (RR) soybean was developed by the biotech giant Monsanto based in the USA. This crop variety was developed to make it resistant to the Roundup herbicides products which are toxic to conventional soybean plants. Apart from the issue with genetic engineering this GM soy is contaminated with pesticide residues which can easily find their way into the food supply.
Louise O’ Connor, the author of The Natural Thyroid Diet –The 4-Week Plan to Living Well, Living Vibrantly, who is a specialist in Thyroid Health. She is a highly regarded Australian Naturopath and founder of Wellnesswork.
The Natural Thyroid Diet goes beyond diet advice and offers practical and effective ways to achieve healthy thyroid levels within just a short period of time. For more details, Click onThe-Natural-Thyroid-Diet.com
A gluten free diet excludes all types of grains that contain gluten. Your local health food store is one of the best places to seek out gluten free alternatives to common grain based products.
Here is a gluten free shopping list which shows gluten free alternatives to some common foods:
It is important to read food labels carefully as gluten is often a hidden ingredient in packaged foods. This includes; baking powder, flavourings and hydrolysed vegetable protein. Beer may contain varying amounts of gluten as it is produced by the alcoholic fermentation of germinated cereals, usually barley.
Cross contamination of gluten free foods can occur during the manufacturing process when these foods come into contact with foods that contain gluten.
For example, if the same equipment is used to make a variety of snack foods some gluten free items may become contaminated. Food labels often include a ‘may contain gluten’ statement if this is the case.
If a food is labelled ‘gluten free’ is does not necessarily mean it is healthy
‘Gluten free’ foods are not always healthy and can in fact be harmful to the thyroid. Food manufacturers regard corn (maize) and soy ingredients as cost effective substitutes for gluten containing grains.
Corn and soy ingredients should be strictly avoided when you have an under active thyroid problem. Further, corn and soy are common food allergens and in turn can also initiate symptoms of food intolerance.
When you are checking labels also look for soy and Canola oil. These cheap oils are popular with food manufacturers and are routinely labelled as ‘vegetable oil’. This makes them sound healthy but they are actually damaging to the thyroid gland. If you are not sure be a label detective, look closely under the ingredient list to see if it states the product contains soy.
Activating your gluten free grains
All grains including gluten free varieties have naturally occurring enzyme inhibitors that make them difficult to digest and also lower absorption of important minerals.
Eating large quantities of grains and using flours that have not been soaked, sprouted or fermented can lead to mineral deficiencies and long term bone loss. This means all gluten free flours and wholegrains should be activated with these traditional methods to release their full nutritional potential.
Louise O’ Connor, the author of The Natural Thyroid Diet –The 4-Week Plan to Living Well, Living Vibrantly, who is a specialist in Thyroid Health. She is a highly regarded Australian Naturopath and founder of Wellnesswork.
The Natural Thyroid Diet goes beyond diet advice and offers practical and effective ways to achieve healthy thyroid levels within just a short period of time. For more details, Click onThe-Natural-Thyroid-Diet.com
It’s well accepted iodine supplements are effective for preventing and treating an iodine deficiency. They are generally considered safe when taken as recommended.
Nutrient deficiencies are a common issue for those with hypothyroidism. Iodine is one nutrient you don’t want to get low in as the thyroid uses iodine to make your thyroid hormones. This makes iodine important for ongoing thyroid health.
Iodine deficiency can lead to iodine induced hypothyroidism, enlargement of the thyroid, and a reduced ability of the thyroid to produce thyroid hormones.
Are Iodine Supplements For Thyroid Safe?
It turns out there is a vast amount of research in this area including how much iodine is safe to take.
There is one guiding rule that I would like everyone to know.
It’s about balanced intake. Not too much, not too little!
Iodine is normally only required in very small amounts. In fact iodine supplements normally supply trace, or microgram quantities.
When you research iodine supplements online, or thyroid health formulas with iodine, it’s important to know that 1 milligram equals 1,000 micrograms. You may see a microgram measurement abbreviated as ‘mcg’ or ‘µg’ on a label.
Iodine Supplements in Australia Are Strictly Regulated
In Australia all nutritional products are closely regulated by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), a division of the Department of Health and Ageing.
Nutritional supplements must be approved before being released for sale. Approved products state their individual AUST L or AUST R number on the front of the label.
The active ingredients contained in a product and the recommendations on the label are also closely controlled. The recommended daily intake of iodine from an iodine supplement must not exceed 300 micrograms per day. For example, when a nutritional supplement contains 130 micrograms of iodine it’s recommended that an adult does not take more than two capsules per day.
If an iodine supplement was to contain milligram amounts it would not be approved for sale here in Australia. Even if one tablet, or capsule was recommended per day the recommended intake would be set too high.
In addition to dosing guidelines the TGA provides strict guidelines on the type of iodine that can be used. Iodine is an approved ingredient for use in a nutritional supplement when it is a component of a specific herbal preparation or is in the form of potassium iodide.
For example an iodine supplement can contain Bladderwrack (Fucus vesiculosus), a type of seaweed which is known to naturally contain iodine and is traditionally used to help maintain healthy thyroid function.
Another popular form of iodine featured in thyroid health products is potassium iodide. No other single form of iodine is approved for use in an iodine supplement in Australia.
It’s Vital to Know the Safe Upper Level of Intake
You should avoid taking high doses of iodine for prolonged periods unless you are doing this in consultation with a trusted healthcare practitioner.
Taking iodine in mega doses can pose problems. Taking multiple milligram amounts can saturate your thyroid which can irritate and inflame the gland.
The documented side effects of taking too much iodine include; a metallic taste, sore gums, a burning sensation in the mouth and throat, increased saliva, digestive upset, mood changes and skin problems.
Population studies have also shown excessive iodine intake may trigger autoimmune thyroid disorders.
The Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and the US National Institutes of Health have both set the recommended safe upper level of intake at 1,100 micrograms per day.
Are USA Iodine Supplements Safe To Buy Online?
When you do a quick search of iodine supplements online you will soon discover there is certainly conflicting opinions and information about how much iodine is safe to take.
For Australian consumers it’s important to know that iodine products available on USA websites are not regulated by the TGA. This government organisation only has jurisdiction within Australia.
It is possible iodine supplements available on USA websites can contain excessive amounts of iodine.
The TGA advises consumers to refrain from ordering nutritional products over the internet unless they know exactly what is in the product, have checked that the ingredients are suitable for them, and the products they are purchasing meet the legal requirements for importation and use in Australia.
Louise O’ Connor, the author of The Natural Thyroid Diet –The 4-Week Plan to Living Well, Living Vibrantly, who is a specialist in Thyroid Health. She is a highly regarded Australian Naturopath and founder of Wellnesswork.
The Natural Thyroid Diet goes beyond diet advice and offers practical and effective ways to achieve healthy thyroid levels within just a short period of time. For more details, Click onThe-Natural-Thyroid-Diet.com
It’s no secret that the rate of virtually every disease continues to rise year after year. Often at times if you want to achieve the opposite results with your health, you must take opposite action.
A perfect example of this can be seen by looking at the fats in your diet. Coconut oil is by far one of the best fats, or cooking oils, for thyroid health because of the fact that it’s highly saturated.
Not only is coconut oil a very saturated fat containing 96% or more saturated fat, but it contains next to no polyunsaturated fats (PUFAs), which we know are quite thyroid suppressive on multiple levels.
Before you start cringing and squirming in your seat at the idea of using a saturated fat in your diet, let’s think about it for just a second and use a little common sense for once.
We know that unsaturated fats oxidize easily and promote cell damage. The reason they oxidize so easily is because of their weak and unstable chemical structure.
Saturated fats on the other hand are extremely stable and do not oxidize. So, by simply eating coconut oil instead of PUFAs, you’re protecting yourself from accelerated aging and a number of other health problems associated with the oxidative damage caused by PUFAs in your diet.
But won’t coconut oil, being a saturated fat, clog your arteries and cause heart disease?
Unfortunately, that’s what more than a half of a century of brain washing will do to you. But it’s a good thing that you’re too smart to let that continue to happen, right?
The Demographic Yearbook of the United Nations (1978) reported that Sri Lanka has the lowest death rate from ischemic heart disease. Sri Lanka is the only of the countries giving reliable data where coconut oil (containing over 50% medium chain fatty acids) is the main dietary fat.
What baffles me even more is that regardless of the research, the benefits of coconut oil are still being greatly down-played by the medical community.
In fact, here’s a quote directly from a Mayo Clinic endocrinologist regarding the potential benefits of coconut oil for thyroid health:
The misconception that coconut oil can cure underactive thyroid (hypothyroidism) arose after publication of a book several years ago touting the beneficial effects of coconut oil. However, there is no evidence that coconut oil stimulates thyroid function.
– Mayo Clinic Endocrinologist
Even the FDA has stated that coconut oil, being a saturated fat, should be avoided.
How Coconut Oil Helps Thyroid Health
Unfortunately, our lack of understanding of physiology and common sense are really what are holding us back from seeing and understanding the benefits that coconut oil provides for hypothyroidism.
Sometimes you have to look beyond the direct effect on the thyroid gland itself and look at the bigger picture.
Most of the benefits that coconut oil provides for thyroid health, have more to do with its ability to help regulate and correct your physiology to prevent other external influences from suppressing your thyroid.
Here are a few examples of how coconut oil directly or indirectly improves thyroid health and function.
Coconut oil displaces PUFAs and their direct harmful thyroid suppressive effects. As I mentioned above, these so called “heart healthy” polyunsaturated fats that are being promoted are well known to suppress your thyroid on multiple levels: at your gland, in your bloodstream, and at your cells.
By simply eating more coconut oil, you are effectively increasing the ratio of saturated fatty acids to unsaturated fatty acids and therefore displacing the PUFAs in your body which directly improves your thyroid health function on all levels.
Coconut oil helps regulate blood sugar and stress hormones which suppress thyroid function. PUFAs are also very effective at lowering blood sugar, and by replacing PUFAs in your body with the saturated fat from coconut oil, it helps to regulate blood sugar and therefore suppress stress hormones.
Stress hormones can directly inhibit the thyroid gland by suppressing TSH. They suppress thyroid hormone conversion in the liver. They also increase Reverse T3 production. In general, hypothyroidism sufferers overproduce stress hormones.
Many people experience a greater sense of satiety and improved blood sugar control after replacing PUFAs with coconut oil in their diet.
Coconut oil protects cell mitochondria against stress and injury, both of which suppress thyroid function. I talk a lot about the health of your thyroid being largely dictated by your cells ability to utilize thyroid hormone.
PUFAs cause cell damage and alter metabolism on many levels. For starters, I’ve already mentioned that they cause oxidative cell damage which directly damages the cell mitochondria and inhibits your cells ability to utilize thyroid hormone properly.
This is why everyone is so gung-ho on antioxidants today. Everyone is unknowingly pumping their bodies full of bad oils that are causing the very oxidative damage that these antioxidants are trying to protect against.
Coconut oil acts as a potent antioxidant by helping to offset the pro-oxidative effects of the PUFAs, which in turn improves mitochondria and cell health, and promotes the healthy use of thyroid hormone by your cells.
Fractions of coconut oil are now even being used by medicine in the treatment of many kinds of cancers, which in itself goes to show you that coconut oil does play a direct role in improving cellular energy production and therefore improving thyroid function.
What Kind of Coconut Oil Is Best for Thyroid Health?
As with most health foods, as they become increasing popular, more and more low quality products begin to hit the market. Coconut oil is no different.
This is why it’s important to get coconut oil from a reputable source, since the chemical processing often negates the benefits of the oil itself and introduces other potential harmful components.
This is what has driven most people to rely on unrefined virgin coconut oil, but even this isn’t ideal for most people since unrefined coconut oil still contains coconut particulate which can irritate the digestive tract and increase estrogen and stress hormone production.
This is why often times a properly refined (expeller pressed) coconut oil can be a much better option for thyroid health.
Watch this Video HERE – The Coconut & Thyroid Connection – Coconut Oil Benefits for Thyroid Health
Tom Brimeyer – The author of Hypothyroidism Revolution – is a practitioner of functional medicine, health researcher and author on nutrition, hormones and hypothyroidism.
His personal mission is to inspire and educate people to take control and achieve true health by correcting their hypothyroidism and underlying causes of their health problems instead of being stuck relying on doctors and drugs that merely cover up their symptoms while their health continues to suffer.
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