Maybe you can relate to Sarah…..Sarah IS EXHAUSTED.
Holding down a full-time job and managing two teenage children, she logs long hours every week cooking, cleaning, supporting her children, as well as pursuing a very busy full-time career to pay the bills.
“I feel totally overwhelmed every day by what I need to get done, but I keep pushing myself,” she says.
“I struggle to get up in the morning and, at work, I struggle to get through the day. My focus and memory are awful, and I’m putting on weight, but I just don’t have the energy to exercise”.
Sarah is also noticing increasing aches and pains at the end of the day and a deeper, more troubling depression.
Is Sarah trying to do too much or could it be hypothyroidism?
Far more than feeling blue or having a bad day, hypothyroidism is a chronic hormonal disorder that can have a massive impact on daily life.
Signs that your thyroid may be the trouble
* Depression
* Difficulty losing weight
* Dry skin
* Headaches
* Fatigue
* Memory problems
*Menstrual problems
* Sensitivity to cold
* Thinning hair
* Recurrent infections.
Symptoms can range from a mild deficiency that is difficult to detect with standard blood tests (sub-clinical) to severe deficiency.
The cause of thyroid disease
Found in the front of the neck, just below the larynx, the thyroid produces hormones that regulate the metabolism of nearly every cell in the body.
It’s estimated that around 850,000 Australians live with a thyroid issue.
Thyroid problems can be caused by:
- autoimmune diseases, in which the immune system attacks the thyroid, leading either to hyperthyroidism (caused by Graves’ disease) or hypothyroidism (caused by Hashimoto’s disease)
- inflammation caused by a virus or bacteria
- iodine deficiency
- nodules, non-cancerous lumps, and cancerous tumours
- certain medical treatments, including radiation therapy, thyroid surgery, and some medicines
Functional medicine can be used to treat many of these problems including autoimmunity.
Five ways to defeat low thyroid with Functional Medicine
- Know your baseline. Comprehensive testing is essential to determine any nutritional insufficiencies and monitor progress over time. Functional testing can include blood panels, nutrient biomarkers, comprehensive stool analyses, gene profiling, and metabolic markers.
- Eat a wholefood diet. Focus on food plans low in sugar and cholesterol but with healthy fats and high fiber. Aim for 8-9 servings of multiple-colored vegetables per day. A serving is one cup of raw or half a cup of cooked vegetables.
- Increase carbohydrates to support energy metabolism. Aim for 30-50% of total calories. A Keto diet is not likely to be therapeutic with thyroid disorders.
- Include therapeutic foods such as kelp, seaweed, onions, garlic, leafy greens, eggs, sesame seed butter, lecithin. Avoid goitrogens, unless cooked, such as broccoli, cabbage, carrots, kales, spinach. Drink fresh juices – carrot, celery, beetroot.
- Use a short cold spray to thyroids after a warm shower, and cold shower to the middle-lower back to stimulate adrenals
Hashimoto’s Disease is not a life sentence. Functional medicine has the potential to heal your immune system using a systematic whole-body approach to improve your health and wellness.
For more information related to your specific condition book a FREE 20-minute appointment with Dr Shelley Cavezza, PhD
