Vastly Overlooked KEY to Healing Thyroid Concerns

Welcome back everyone! Here’s our first blog of the new year.

Today, we're talking about the thyroid. Thyroid issues are very common, but I'm going to present some things in a way that you probably have not heard of in the past. So, if you have had issues with thyroid, mood, sleep, fatigue, weight, hormones, and more, the list goes on. If you haven't found resolution or if your labs have shown normal results, but you still suspect something is going on with the thyroid, then this blog is for you today.

So the story that inspired this blog episode could be any number of the women who come to see us, but this one, in particular, triggered the idea for this blog. When she came in, she expressed all the typical concerns I often hear: “My thyroid labs are normal, but I feel like I have all the symptoms, can't lose weight, and I've got hormone issues going on”. She had a lot of stress in her life, emotional challenges, traumas, and various other factors adding to her burden. This is a pretty relatable story because it's a common one. Generally, there isn't a lot of help available, as the typical interventions for thyroid issues don't happen until you start that cascade, which comes with the diagnosis.

So what happens to all of those people that have symptoms, normal labs and no diagnosis.

So what I often write about is not always the end game, and it is not always the cause or the starter of it all. Let's explore one perspective today. I want you to think about the thyroid as the caboose, and the precursor would be the cars ahead of it. The engine, namely, would be the adrenal glands. The thyroid is one of the glandular systems that run through the core of your body, from head to pelvis. There are several glands that operate like gears, turning to each other, working with each other, and signaling to each other. The adrenal glands are pretty important; they sit on top of the kidneys and help determine what to do in cases of stress. If there are stress experiences happening, they will push out cortisol and signal to the rest of the glands that we are in a stress situation, potentially a threat or danger. Everything then becomes alert.

Cortisol, adrenaline, epinephrine, and other neurotransmitters and hormones help the body restore balance and can become overburdened over time. If living in constant stress and consistently activating cortisol is a common occurrence, you'll likely need help from other glands. The adrenals serve as the engine, initiating the process and signaling to everything else. Stress, whether external or internal, such as chronic illness, unbalanced blood sugar, or irregular eating patterns, can demand cortisol for fuel to sustain daily activities. The adrenal glands become burdened, and sooner or later, they have to request help. So, they knock on the thyroid's door, saying, 'Knock, knock, knock, I've got a lot going on here, I need your help.

And now, the thyroid has to kick in and utilize some of its energy to cope with potential dangers and threats to the body. This is generally where we can see thyroid symptoms start creeping up, yet they're all subclinical, meaning there isn't a diagnosis because it's not truly a thyroid dysfunction. Labs are normal because it's not a clinical diagnostic function. Over time, it can indeed become a problem because you've been depleting the reserves of the thyroid for other purposes. Therefore, it is very often overlooked how stress, adrenals, and blood sugar balance can influence the health and safety of the thyroid.

Now remember, you have a number of systems in the body that are meant to keep you safe. They're designed to keep you safe. And so there are multiple mechanisms to prevent failure; if one fails, there's a backup. If you are experiencing thyroid symptoms, especially related to reproductive hormones, I often have women come in, and when I ask them what they think is going on or what their gut is telling them, they often mention hormones. However, hormones are not always the cause; they're not the start of it. We have to look down the line again. Many reproductive hormones are produced, balanced, and regulated based on cortisol levels.

So whenever I look at somebody's hormones, I'm not going to do a hormone panel right off the bat unless we're also doing cortisol with it. I want to see what their cortisol levels are. If cortisol levels are constantly in demand, your progesterone is going to be off, your pregnenolone is going to be off, which means you don't have the balancers for the androgens, testosterone, DHEA, and all the estrogens. So, first, we have to look at the root cause of what is affecting those hormones. In my opinion, it doesn't always start with the thyroid getting off track. We have to trace it back to the deeper roots of what's going on with internal stress, external stress, and what the body believes could be a fear state in the brain.

There is a mechanism called the reticular activating system, the RAS, and there are so many parts of the brain whose job is to retain memories and then recall those memories. If you come up against triggers that indicate further danger, they can say, “Oh, we've been here before; we've done this before. This is how we needed to respond”. The trouble with that is it's limited only to the experiences you've had, and it can only give messages from the experiences it's had. So we're operating with a very limited encyclopedia of options, and they've all come from fear and threat. They're storing memories of fear and threat.

One of the things that the reticular activating system is responsible for is reducing what is called the afferent sensory neurons during sleep. This means it reduces the ability to perceive sensory input, so that you're not alert all night long, allowing you to shut off noise, lights, sounds, and threats of danger. However, if there is any damage, overburden in the reticular activating system, or the thalamus, or if you've had a head injury that impacted those areas, the RAS may not function appropriately. This is where some people will have issues with sleep, especially if they're light sleepers, hearing everything, being easily awakened, and unable to stop their minds. It's a strong indicator that memory-related parts, like the RAS in the brain, are keeping you awake because their functions are not balanced. They're not working according to how they were designed.

So instead of just looking up thyroid, what can we do for thyroid?

Natural cures for thyroid?

What can we do instead of medications?

I would suggest exploring this pathway.

First, look at the levels of stress you've had in your life. Examine potential internal stressors—what is your body constantly trying to balance? If you've had long-term immune issues, if you've got an autoimmune condition going on, or if you have digestive issues or food allergies, take a closer look at these internal and external stressors.

It's not about stress management; it's about learning resiliency.

This is one of the things we teach in the programs at ANMC.

If you're working from home and think you have fibroid, hormone, or sleep issues, the first thing to examine is the impact of internal and external stressors in your life.

What could the brain be recording that is now not operating appropriately, and how are my functions meant to keep me safe being impeded?