So you found out your thyroid is underfunctioning, and you're likely wondering what am I supposed to do in my diet and lifestyle to help it start working a lot faster? Here's 5 ways to kick it back into gear.
1. Remove the fluoride!
High fluoride intake may be associated with under-functioning thyroids.
A handful of studies have shown areas with fluoridated water is associated with higher rates of under-active thyroids and Hashimoto's disease.
Before advancements in medicine, medical professionals would give fluoride tablets to patients with over-active thyroids, as the fluoride would slow the thyroid down!
As we have fluoride in our water, it is recommended you buy a fluoride water filter. And not all filters are able to filter out fluoride so make sure you triple check this.
Fluoride was given to patients before modern thyroid treatment to SLOW down overactive thyroids. So it's the last thing we need coming in multiple times a day. It can compete with thyroid hormone receptors and meddle with thyroid hormone production.
We recommend the Southern Cross Pottery SPC Filter, or we went with Complete Home Filtration for the whole house filter system we got recently.
2. Don’t fast!
Eating regularly is essential.
If you fast, or are prone to skipping meals… your nervous system will begin to feel it is under threat and in ‘starvation’ mode where it isn’t show when the next calorie-load (meal) is coming in.
When this happens, your nervous system will use cortisol to go and tell your thyroid to slow down to ensure it doesn’t burn too quickly through the calories that you are taking in. Remember, thyroid sets the speed of your metabolism.
So for an already slow thyroid, this is super detrimental!
3. Cut out the gluten!
If you are serious about helping your thyroid and you have high thyroid antibodies, we recommend going gluten-free. This includes all pasta, wheat, bread, flours. There are plenty of gluten free options now at Coles and Woolworths.
I personally think you won't lower your antibodies low enough without going gluten-free.
4. Get moving!
Interestingly, I was listening to a medical podcast the other week and a very renowned thyroid practitioner stated the number two cause of a slow thyroid (number 1 being genetics) is physical inactivity! woah!
But studies also show, too much high intensity exercise causes concerns with cortisol slowing your thyroid down further.
My recommendation is nothing too high-intensity or strenuous. Brisk walking (30-40 minutes) 5 days a week or pilates. This will ensure that you are getting the perfect amount of exercise to boost your thyroid's functioning and start churning that metabolism up.
PS: Ideal levels of thyroid hormones and all other vitamin, hormone levels are here in my blood test cheat sheet.
4. Introduce supplements
If you've had thyroid antibodies come up as high on a blood test, with your thyroid function coming back normal - the likely conversation with the doctor would have been... "your bloods are fine".
High thyroid antibodies is NOT fine. This is something that needs treating. On average, a woman will have high thyroid antibodies present for about 5 years before her thyroid function is affected. Meaning, it's like a ticking time bomb. It's a constant attack on your thyroid, why wouldn't we want to lower them?
It also significantly impacts miscarriage likelihood and infertility, but that's a post for another day. So how can we lower them, when doctors tell you there is nothing you can do?
Answer: Myo-inositol and selenium. The best at lowering thyroid antibodies.
In fact a quote from clinical study: "the administration of myo-inositol and selenium is significantly effective in decreasing TSH, TPOAb, and TgAb levels"
