Hypothyroidism: Caused By Sedentary Lifestyle

Is the sedentary lifestyle sans physical activity making people more vulnerable to thyroid-related diseases? If the health experts are to be believed, lack of physical activity, coupled with imbalanced dietary make-up, is pushing more people, including youngsters, towards hypothyroidism - an under-active thyroid that tends to mirror the slowing down of physical processes resulting in insufficient thyroid hormone.

"A gradual but distinct change in the lifestyle and food habits is being noticed in the people who is not only slowing down the physical process but also resulting in insufficient thyroid hormone secretion (hypothyroidism). It is mainly reflected in sedentary lifestyle with little physical movement and unrestricted intake of imbalanced food, making people low on thyroxine, a hormone produced by thyroid gland that regulates critical body functions especially energy level and heart rate," said NK Singh, professor, department of medicine, Banaras Hindu University, on Thursday.

It may be mentioned here that as per estimates of the World Health Organisation (WHO), over 10 million people in the world are affected by thyroid-related disorders as these disorders are becoming very common. The countries in South Asia, including India, are becoming a hub of thyroid-related diseases.

According to health experts, the thyroid, a butterfly-shaped gland located in the neck, produces hormones that influence virtually every cell, tissue and organ in the body. The thyroid regulates the body's metabolism--the rate at which the body produces energy from nutrients and oxygen- and affects critical body functions, such as energy level and heart rate.

As per reports of the OPD of the department of endocrine and metabolism, BHU, the number of patients seeking medical consultancy for thyroid related problems constitute nearly 40% of total turn out of over 100 patients per day. While most of the cases belong to hypothyroidism, a number of cases of hyperthyroidism tending to reflect the rapid metabolism that results from an oversupply of thyroid hormone are also reported in the OPD.

Clarifying the difference between hypothyrodism and hyperthyroidism whose common symtoms include anxiety, insomnia, rapid weight loss, diarrhea, high heart rate, high blood pressure, eye sensitivity/bulging and vision disturbances. Prof SK Singh of the department said a personal or family history of thyroid or autoimmune disease increases risk of underactive thyroid, but the environmental factors including sedentary lifestyle and wrong food habits could also aggravate the conditions. "Surgical removal of all or a part of the thyroid, or radioactive iodine treatment to the thyroid, both which typically result in an underactive thyroid," he added.

Meanwhile, as far as eating habits are concerned, the health experts vouch for diet rich in iodine including green leafy vegetables and sea foods. The vegetarians may not be induced to take sea foods but it could be replaced with leafy and seasonal vegetables. "However, the non-vegetarians could find a rich source of iodine in sea foods including fish, prawns and lobsters. The iodized salt should be consumed in the diet instead of locally made cheaper salt that lacks the vital ingredient," added Prof Singh.

source: TOI

Effective Hypothyroidism Diet (for everybody)

If you've been diagnosed with hypothyroidism, and even if you haven't, try this diet advice for losing weight and feeling better.

If you're diagnosed as hypothyroid, your doctor will likely write you a prescription for synthetic thyroid pills and send you on your way, with little if any advice on diet and lifestyle. But if you believe, like I do, that the right diet and lifestyle changes are the best cure for most disease (and the wrong ones are the cause of it) then you'll be hungry for information on what you can do to heal your thyroid beyond popping pills.

So you'll definitely want to read the new book The HypoThyroid Diet: Lose Weight and Beat Fatigue in 21 Days by Kevin Dobrzynski, DN, which details the changes you can make to lose weight, feel more energetic and support whatever medication program your doctor has prescribed. But truly, this diet and lifestyle advice would help just about anybody over 40, because even with healthy thyroids most of us start to face health issues as we age—like slower metabolism, sluggish digestion, decreased energy—that this book addresses.

Dobrzynski, a doctor of Naprapathy, developed his expertise on the subject more than two years ago when his wife was diagnosed with thyroid cancer and was struggling to recover. After exhaustive research he developed a diet and lifestyle plan that helped his wife lose weigh and gain energy and has since helped scores of patients. I interviewed Dr. Dobrzynski to learn about the key principals of his hypothyroidism diet. Here are eight of them, and there's even more intriguing advice in the book (Of course, this advice should in no way replace that of your own doctor—always consult with him or her before making any major changes):

Eat organic when possible. "Eating organic is key, because many of the herbicides and fungicides used on non-organic produce are hormone disruptors that mimic estrogen. You want to avoid estrogens because they inhibit the conversion of the thyroid hormone T4 to T3, the active form of thyroid hormone that makes everything work right."

Slash sugar and caffeine intake. Of course you know you shouldn't eat much sugar but Dobrzynski says that caffeine is a bad idea too (sigh . . ): "Caffeine creates stress on the body and causes issues with your adrenal glands and leads to elevated levels of cortisol, which then inhibits the conversion of T4 to T3." For the record, Dobrzynski says that he enjoys a cup of coffee each morning, so you don't have to go cold turkey, but green tea (in moderation) is a better choice. And the American habit of slurping super-sized cups of Starbuck's all day is definitely a don't for people with thyroid disease.

Avoid exposure to halogens: People with hypothyroidism should try to avoid excess exposure to the class of chemicals called halogens—which includes chlorine, fluoride and bromine. "These halogens can block the absorption of iodine into the thyroid. Fluoride (in particular) is a big bully—it will attach to the iodine receptor sites and not let iodine in." To avoid them, filter your drinking water, avoid too much time in chlorinated swimming pools and hot tubs, and generally try to go as organic and natural as possible with what you use on your body and bring into your home.

Go gluten-free. I won't go into the arguments for giving up gluten (especially wheat, as I've written about previously), but Dobrzynski confirms that people with hypothyroidism generally get healthier when they give up gluten altogether.

Eat fat (but only the good kind). Newsflash: Most of those "healthy" oils you've been told to eat for the past couple of decades—corn, safflower, sunflower—are actually bad for you. "Polyunsaturated oils are very unstable and easily turn rancid," says Dobrzynski. But (finally) here's some good news: On the hypothyroidism diet you do need to eat plenty of fat. "Hormones are produced by cholesterol, so it's important that you get enough of it," says Dobrzynski, who recommends you use raw organic butter or coconut oil for cooking. Olive oil is good too, as long as you don't heat it more than slightly (it oxidizes at high heat). "Use olive oil in salad dressings or saute food in water and then drizzle olive oil over it as a finish."

Take immune-boosting supplements. "One of most important things you can do when you're hypothyroid, and especially if you have Hashimoto's thyroidosis, is start to heal your gut using a good probiotic," says Dobrzynski. "You should also optimize your vitamin D levels to support your immune system. Get a blood test to learn your vitamin D levels. The hypothyroid body uses vitamin D differently so you may need higher doses than other people do." (More on probiotics and vitamin D).

Eat quality salt. Unprocessed, natural sea salt contains minerals, including iodine, that the hypothyroid body especially needs. Dobrzynski recommends the salts sold by Celticseasalt.com. "Since salt is an anti-diuretic it can prevent water loss and retain minerals in your body," he says. He often adds a quarter teaspoon of Celtic sea salt to his water just before bed and first thing in the morning.

Exercise the right way. Of course exercise is important to healing, but Dobrzynskisays that there's a danger in going overboard. "People with hypothyroidism often do a lot of cardio to try to lose weight, but over-exercising can backfire by keeping cortisol levels elevated, which leads the body to resist breaking down fat," he says. Instead of spending hours on the treadmill, try the exercise plan laid out in The HypoThyroid Diet, which involves short bursts of intense strength training with rest period in between. "Research shows that short, intense bursts followed by rest is the best way to exercise," he says. "It helps the body produce human growth hormone, which reduces body fat and builds muscle."

source: lifegoesstrong

Check Your Thyroid – Seriously!

Imagine this: You type the URL of a website (say, just for example (www.healthberth.com) into the address bar of your browser. And you wait. And wait. If you’re on a PC, the little blue hourglass starts to pour. And pour. If you’re on a Mac, the little rainbow wheel of doom starts to rotate. And rotate. (You fellow Mac users know what I’m talking about!)

So what do you to make your computer go faster?

You learn to type faster!

Sound ridiculous? Well, when it comes to energy, that’s what a lot of us do. We take potions, drugs, stimulants, and anything we can find to overcome lethargy, depression, and lack of energy, which is the energy equivalent of learning to type faster on a slow-as-molasses computer. Typing faster is a great idea, but if you’re frozen in cyberspace, it ain’t gonna get you where you want to go any quicker. For that you need to go to the source of the problem – the computer itself.

In your body, you hormones are like the computer.

If they’re not functioning optimally, you can “type” as fast as you like, but it’s not going to make any difference. The email isn’t going to arrive any quicker, the website won’t load any faster, and every so often the screen will freeze. Hormones are the master control center for your body’s energy factory. If they’re not in tip-top shape, you won’t be either.

The sad part of all this is that not all doctors know how to help their patients achieve optimal hormonal functioning and many, even sadder, have no idea what optimal hormonal functioning actually looks like. Physicians can read the chart that tells you whether hormone levels are normal, but failing within a constantly shifting range of lab values for normal hardly tells you whether your levels are optimal. It’s like telling you that you make an average income or are of average intelligence. We’d never accept that “diagnosis” in the areas of money or smartness, but we blindly accept it when it comes to our health.

But don’t get me started.

HORMONES AND ENERGY:

A MARRIAGE MADE IN HEAVEN
A full discussion of the way that various hormones can and do affect your energy levels (not to mention the rest of your health) would fill not one, but many books. It’s way beyond the scope of this one.

So I’m going to briefly mention just a few hormones in this chapter that can have really profound effects on your energy, with the caveat that there’s a lot more to this than I can possibly cover here. (If I left out your personal favorite hormone, please forgive me. They all work together in a giant, interconnected system, and I couldn’t go over all of them. Apologies to the ones such as DHEA, the adrenal hormones, human growth hormone, and all the other fan faves that I omitted to keep this book shorter than War and Peace).

Hormones are the master control center for your body’s energy factory. If they’re not in tip-top shape, you won’t be either.

What I’m hoping is that this information gets you thinking enough so that you dig into hormonal health a little deeper and think twice before blindly accepting a diagnosis of “everything’s normal” from your physician, especially when you think it’s not.

The Body’s Energy Engine
The thyroid is the motor that keeps your energy system running. It’s what Richard Shames, M.D., and Karilee Shames, Ph.D., R.N., call “your energy throttle”.

“How much energy people have, how well they get up in the morning, how well they sleep, and how much stamina they have for the day is directly related to their levels of thyroid hormone”, they say. The Shames ought to know. AS the authors of Thyroid Power, they’re two of the leading experts on thyroid, and they have been sounding the bell as consumer advocates for better thyroid testing for many years.

“As of 2006, experts estimate that as many as 59 million Americans have a thyroid condition, and the vast majority are hypothyroid – and have an underfunctioning, slow, or sluggish thyroid,” writes the highly respected Mary Shomon, thyroid expert for about.com. Add the Shames, “This runway thyroid epidemic seems to be striking menopausal women harder than any other group of patient. By age 50, one in every twelve women has a significant degree of hypothyroidism. By age 60, it is one woman out of every six”.

The main hormones released by the thyroid are triiodothyronine, abbreviated as T3, and thyroxine, abbreviated as T4 (the 3 and the 4 refer to the number of iodine molecules in each thyroid hormone molecule, so don’t go wondering about where T1 and T2 are; they don’t exist). The main job of these hormones is to deliver energy to all the cells of the body. When your thyroid isn’t doing its job properly – or when the hormones aren’t getting to where they’re supposed to get – you wind up with the energy equivalent of that slow-as-molasses computer.

An underperforming thyroid is your worst energy nitghtmare. According to the Shames and other leading lights in the holistic hormone replacement business, this underperforming thyroid is massively under diagnosed.

Thyroid Glands Functions, Controls, Treatments

The thyroid gland is a two lobed, shield shaped organ found in the anterior neck. It regulates the overall rate of body metabolism and influences normal growth and development.

The main thyroid hormone secreted by the thyroid gland is thyroxine (T4). Another thyroid hormone is triiodothyronine (T3). These two hormones regulate the metabolic rate and facilitate growth. They also promote protein synthesis and enhance the effect of the growth hormone.

The regulation of the thyroid hormone secretion depends mainly upon a feedback system between the anterior lobe of the pituitary and the thyroid gland. The pituitary gland secretes a thyroid stimulating hormone which signals the thyroid gland to function.

The same feedback mechanism is present between the thyroid hormones and the hypothalamus which produces thyroid releasing hormones to control the release of TSH from the anterior pituitary.

Information on Thyroid
The thyroid gland is our body’s gas pedal, regulating how many calories we burn for energy. When it is underactive, we can be any or all of the following:

* Tired
* Achy
* Cold intolerant
* Brain fogged
* Constipated
* Have infertility
* Gain weight that we can’t lose

Unfortunately, the current blood testing misses the majority of people who need thyroid hormone treatment. Sadly, many physicians don’t know that the testing is unreliable, and continue to treat the tests instead of the person. Holistic physicians (visit The American Board of Holistic Medicine to find one) know how to treat taking both your symptoms and labs into account. Anyone with even 2 of the above symptoms should consider a trial of natural prescription thyroid (e.g., Armour Thyroid).

Low thyroid problems are increasing in frequency. In the U.S., they mostly occur because the thyroid is being attacked by our own immune system (an autoimmune process called "Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis" — diagnosed by having an elevated Anti-TPO Antibody which is a simple blood test). A resurgence of iodine and selenium deficiencies is also contributing to thyroid problems. Having the problem is no big deal — as long as you get treated properly with natural thyroid hormone.

TREATMENT

Recommended Supplements

Armour Thyroid

Adjust the dose of prescription Armour Thyroid to the amount that feels best, while keeping the Free T4 blood test in the normal range for safety. The TSH is not a reliable test. You may need a holistic practitioner to get proper treatment.

Iodine, selenium, tyrosine

Optimize iodine, selenium, tyrosine and other nutrients that support thyroid function. These can be found in a good multi-nutrient powder

source: mdinfo