Why is it that when having a thyroid dysfunction, one might feel so drained and unwell all throughout the body? Because the thyroid controls the rate of energy production, maintains body temperature, regulates body weight, menstrual cycles, muscle strength, heart rate, breathing, and affects brain chemistry profoundly, influencing mood and emotions. No wonder that any dysfunctions in its activity will be intensely felt throughout the body!
Regard for Healthy Food
Food IS the best medicine. The way our food is grown and consumed should be based on respect, both for the food and our body.
It is estimated that today only 10% of all American adults consume enough healthy foods for their diet to qualify as "good", according to researchers at the USDA Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion. Fortunately, there is a wealth of information today that is accessible and meant to help you find out what diet is good for you and how to ditch foods that harm your body, especially your thyroid. Processed and industrial foods that are loaded with toxins, heavy metals, pesticides and other harmful chemicals, artificial preservatives and additives, but also gluten, soy, fluoride, goitrogens and other allergenic and/or reactive foods can all harm a thyroid condition and even majorly contribute to its onset.
The focus should be on organic, whole foods, while greatly reducing or eliminating caffeine and sugar, including refined carbohydrates, which the body treats like sugar. Make grain-based carbohydrates lesser of a focus, while relying more on quality protein and non-starchy vegetables. Make sure you are getting sufficient fat and cholesterol, which are essential for a good hormonal activity. Some of the healthy fats are coconut oil, organic, grass fed, full fat raw dairy and animal fats, avocados, olive oil and nuts.
Responsibility for Your (Thyroid) Health
Relying on a magic pill, or a one-cure-fits-all treatment, and blindly following a prescription without educating yourself on the matter, will not ensure healing. Curing your thyroid problem means eliminating the cause of the problem. When a disease is cured, it does not return once the treatment is halted (like it mostly happens with drugs). Curing a disease means removing the reason you developed it in the first place, not just suppressing its symptoms.
Our site, www.holtorfmed.com offers comprehensive information about the most important aspects you need to know concerning thyroid health. You can also watch Dr. Kent Holtorf's videos and interviews on YouTube.
It is critical to understand what's going on in your body, so you can ask the right questions, discuss options with your doctor, and find another doctor if yours doesn't make sense.
Right Treatment and Doctor
If we look at thyroid function within the complexity of the human body, taking into account the hormone balance, immune system, brain function, it becomes easy to see why addressing the entire body, using a holistic approach, is a logical and correct way to support the thyroid. Because this issue is so complex, it's wise to find not only a hormone specialist, but also a health practitioner who will seek out and translate both basic science results and clinical outcomes to decide on the safest, most efficacious treatment for his/her patients. The best physicians will continually assess the current available data to decide which therapies are likely to carry the greatest benefits for patients and involve the lowest risks.
Your physician should explore treatment options including customized bioidentical thyroid hormone combinations of T4/T3, time-released T3, as well as important nutritional supplements that can help regulate thyroid balance, support a healthy metabolism, and improve your weight loss, energy, and mood.
Relieve Stress
There is an intimate connection between your thyroid and adrenal glands (the "stress glands") and it's uncommon to have hypothyroidism without some level of adrenal fatigue. The thyroid is a very sensitive gland and low adrenal function can actually cause someone's thyroid problem to be much worse than it would be otherwise. The lesser stress is put on a body, the better it is capable to promote profound healing.
Get down to the cause of your emotional distress and practice relaxation, meditation, or deep-breathing techniques and the right type of exercise, to reduce your negative stress response. Also, focus on having regular bedtime hours and getting the eight hours of sleep you need. The sleep between 10 PM - 2 AM is the most beneficial for your adrenal glands.
Right Attitude
"Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time." -Thomas Edison
It is widely known that maintaining an optimistic and joyful disposition is not only pleasant to the world that surrounds you, but is also highly beneficial and contributes to a prolonged life and wards off disease. There are support groups and a wealth of inspirational resources that you can access, to help you bring more optimism, confidence and a positive outlook on life.
