Have you considered the Endocrine System yet in Biology? If yes, they you would know the multifarious benefits of the thyroid – especially how it is responsible for growth and development, and the breaking down of food into energy to be used by the body.
Here are additional facts about the thyroid – its workings, and how it may be supported.
1. Your thyroid is the largest gland in your endocrine system and it’s located in the front of your neck. Think of it as your energy powerhouse: By regulating your internal body temperature, it keeps you humming along healthily.
2. The thyroid is part of a team. It works in tandem with the adrenals, located atop your kidneys to take care of a bunch of bodily processes including your mood, metabolism, sleep, digestion, and sensitivity to the hormonal shifts of a female’s menstrual cycle.
3. If the thyroid is sluggish, the symptoms will show up in a female’s menstrual cycle. You may have problems like multiple periods per month, heavy bleeding, anovulatory cycle (cycle where ovulation – that is release of mature eggs from the ovaries – does not occur), and may even cause miscarriages. You may also have unexplained weight gain, exhaustion, puffy eyes, or cold hands and feet.
4. The nutrients that make the thyroid hormone are iodine and L-Tyrosine. Sixty percent of the iodine you have in your bodies is held in the thyroid gland, and tyrosine is an amino acid that is the precursor to the thyroid hormones triiodothyronine (T3) and thyroxine (T4).
5. To truly understand where your thyroid health stands, you will need your doctor to run the right tests examining TSH levels, T4, T3, and T3 uptake. It’s important to go over this with your doctor and to understand which specific issue you have before initiating any kind of treatment. Certain protocols, like increasing iodine intake, are good for some thyroid problems, but not all.
Hashimoto’s disease, which is an autoimmune condition that causes the immune system to attack the thyroid, can actually worsen with an increased uptake of iodine.
Here are some natural ways to support your thyroid:
1. Get healthy doses of Vitamin D, because a deficiency been associated with thyroid dysfunction. If you are not getting Vitamin D exposure from sunshine, then you need to supplement with vitamin D3 tablets.
If you are fair-skinned, staying out in the sun for 30 minutes a day might be enough to ensure the right amount of vitamin D, but if you have darker skin, you may need up to two hours of sunshine a day to get the right amount. Just make sure you get out of the sun before your skin has the chance to burn.
2. Avoid eating raw cruciferous vegetables like broccoli and cabbage. These veggies contain goitrogens, a chemical that suppresses the function of the thyroid gland by disrupting and blocking the enzyme that lets your thyroid use the iodine in your body to make the thyroid hormone.
If you have an under-active thyroid or hypothyroidism, then eating raw cruciferous vegetables can suppress the thyroid function. These vegetables have many other health benefits though, so you just need to limit your intake to two times a week and be sure to cook them before eating.
Of course, if you have normal thyroid function, there’s no need to avoid these. Otherwise, you can substitute with lettuce and cucumber.
3. Manage your stress. Stress throws your cortisol levels off, which is turn impacts your adrenals and therefore your thyroid. Cortisol helps your thyroid work more efficiently, so producing just the right amount is very important for healthy thyroid function.
If your cortisol levels are low because of stress-induced adrenal exhaustion, the thyroid won’t be able to regulate your energy and metabolism. Take care to get chronic stress under control and your thyroid will thank you.
See Also: Ask A Scientist: What are Hormones?
