Don’t Keep Your Thyroid in The Back Row of The Hormonal Symphony of Metabolism

If you have a six-cylinder engine, you certainly want it to be operating on all cylinders, don’t you?

With all hormones, it’s important to look at them as a symphony- they all play a role while influencing one another as well. If progesterone is low, that could impair thyroid activity, if cortisol is high, expect impaired conversion of storage thyroid (T4) to active thyroid (T3.)

Your metabolism relies on many factors, and the cause and effect of hormonal balance plays a significant role.

When one speaks of “hormones” the mind often goes to menopause, andropause, hot flashes and sex drive. We must consider that there are many more hormones floating around in our body, such as insulin, cortisol, leptin, ghrelin, and even vitamin D is known as a “pro-hormone,” a precursor to others.

…and they all factor in to a healthy metabolism.

We have recently spoken about insulin stimulation and the role it plays, as well as the factor of cortisol levels.

Vitamin D has made its way into many of our conversations, and by now I would hope that you would be getting your vitamin D levels measured at least annually, optimizing levels at the 60 range (double that of what is considered the low end of normal- 30)

Thyroid could be one of those hormones that can easily fall into place, but is often misunderstood, underassessed and undertreated.

Symptoms of low thyroid include achy joints, depression, brittle hair and nails, rough skin, resistant weight loss, cold hands and feet, low energy, constipation and many more…do any of these sound familiar? 

Many people are walking around with a thyroid gland that is either not producing enough thyroid hormone, or the thyroid hormones they do have, for whatever reason, are not getting to the thyroid gland efficiently.

With thyroid, to test is best, and it often needs to go beyond the standard testing of T4 and TSH, especially if low thyroid symptoms are preset. A complete thyroid panel additionally testing Free T3 and thyroid antibodies would be more appropriate to assess optimal activity.

Nutrition certainly plays a role, as with many states of disease, there are elements of suboptimal nutrition.

Nutrient’s such as iodine, tyrosine, vitamins A, C, D, E, selenium, zinc, ashwagandha, curcumin and others provide the ingredients for thyroid hormone production, metabolism, protection, and the conversion of T4 to T3 (inactive to active thyroid).