Tips For Improving Hypothyroidism:
Here are the best action steps to get started with on your journey to prevent and/or beat Hypothyroidism. You should always consult with your physician before stopping or changing medications or taking on new health strategies.
Additionally, you should be working with a functional health practitioner to help guide you through these strategies. This is not an exhaustive list and there are other natural therapeutic strategies that I and functional health practitioners will utilize to help individuals with Hypothyroidism.
1) Change Your Diet: Most thyroid problems are related to auto-immunity and leaky gut with multiple food sensitivities. It is key to follow an Anti-Inflammatory nutrition plan here for 90 days and try to choosing fresh or frozen organic food as much as possible.
2) Improve Your Sleep: Sleeping a high quality 8-9 hours each night is key to healing and improving thyroid function and reducing any form of auto-immunity. Follow the steps in this article to improve your sleep.
3) Include Magnesium & B Vitamin Rich Foods: Magnesium helps to improve blood sugar signaling patterns and protects the blood-brain barrier. The best magnesium and B vitamin rich foods include dark green leafy veggies, grass-fed dairy, raw cacao and pumpkin seeds. If you can tolerate these foods (don’t have food sensitivities to them or problems with oxalates or high histamines) than consume as staple parts of your diet. You can also do Epsom salt baths to boost your magnesium levels.
4) Reduce Stress: Find ways to reduce stressful activities and enjoy more peace and calm. Learn to thrive under stress by reading this article here
5) Focus on Deep Breathing: Improving your posture, seeing a high quality chiropractor and optimizing your breathing patterns is highly recommended. Follow these tips here to improve your breathing patterns.
6) Use Anti-Oxidant Rich Herbs: Add turmeric, ginger, oregano, garlic, basil, thyme, kelp and rosemary to as many dishes as possible and drink organic herbal teas on a regular basis.
7) Test For Food Sensitivities: You can do a biofeedback test to determine what foods are causing stress in your system and an elimination diet to test how you are responding to eliminating certain foods for periods of time.
8) Supplement With Omega 3’s: Omega 3 fatty acids and in particular the long chain variety EPA and DHA are critical for stabilizing blood sugar, reducing inflammation and taming the immune system. Consume grass-fed meat, grass-fed butter, wild-caught fish and spirulina to get it in your diet. It is also advisable to supplement with 2-5 grams daily of EPA/DHA along with 200 mg of GLA.
9) Improve Your Mitochondria: The mitochondria are the energy powerhouses of every cell. When someone has a thyroid disorder and especially Hashimoto’s it is a clinical sign that they have dysfunctional activity going on in the mitochondria. Support your mitochondria with clinical doses of CoQ10, L-carnitine, N-acetyl cysteine and Lipoic acid. The supplement I use with my autoimmune clients is Brain Supercharge which has the clinically effective dosages of each of these key nutrients and more.
10) Optimize Your Vitamin D: Be sure to increase your vitamin D through good amounts of regular sun exposure and/or taking a high quality vitamin D3/K2 supplement.
11) Practice Oil Pulling: Oil pulling helps to reduce the microbial load in your mouth. This takes stress off of the immune system and reduces inflammation levels throughout the body. Read more about oil pulling here and practice this 2x daily.
12) Get a Home Water Filtration System: Very important to avoid the chloride, fluoride, pesticides, heavy metals, etc. that are found in tap water. Use a good whole home water filtration system as discussed in this article here
13) Low Intensity Movement: A sedentary lifestyle reduces cerebrospinal fluid flow and can lead to increased oxidative stress in the brain. Throughout the day, get a lot of low-intensity movement such as walking, light cycling, playing, etc. Regular movement will help reduce inflammation and boost the development of new neurons in the brain.
14) Improve Your Gut Motility: Improving bowel movement frequency and consistency is a key detoxification concept. Consuming an anti-inflammatory diet with good fiber sources such as chia seed and flax seed, using bone broths, fermented foods and probiotics will improve bowel motility.
15) See a Chiropractor: Have a full neurological exam and see a high quality chiropractor to help reduce stress on the nervous system and enhance overall well-being.
16) Juice Your Veggies: Juicing is one of the best ways to get high quality anti-oxidants and powerful phytonutrients into your system. Here is my article on Best Juicing strategies.
17) Liver Detoxification Support: Individuals with thyroid problems most often have a sluggish liver. Supplementing with nutrients to boost glutathione such as N-Acetyl Cysteine, Alpha Lipoic acid and milk thistle can be of great support. I use Thyro-Liver protect with my thyroid clients.
18) Use Essential Oils: The anti-oxidant content and aromatherapy benefits of essential oils help to improve oxygenation and reduce the harmful effects of oxidative stress throughout the body. Some of my favorites for thyroid function include lavendar, frankincense and peppermint among others.
Put a drop on your hands and mix together and then cover your nose and inhale the healing vapors. This will stimulate your brain and increase blood flow to your cranium. You can also rub them on the skin around your neck and thyroid region to reduce inflammation.
Helpful information:
The late Dr John Lee, who was the pioneer of bioidentical natural progesterone usage for women at menopause, wrote that he was very surprised in his own medical practice with the much greater numbers of women than men taking thyroid supplements.
He also noticed that these women were suffering from oestrogen dominance, where their oestrogen levels are not in balance with their progesterone as happens after menopause, or a hysterectomy and that rebalancing with bioidentical natural progesterone was highly effective.
https://www.bio-hormone-health.com/2016/01/28/how-bioidentical-natural-progesterone-helps-with-low-thyroid/
https://www.bio-hormone-health.com/2015/12/21/5-secret-symptoms-of-a-thyroid-disorder/
https://www.bio-hormone-health.com/2016/03/21/what-signs-of-oestrogen-dominance-do-you-have/