Stress and Hashimoto’s: How To Manage
Low thyroid function is a complex process, and is very commonly caused by a separate pre-existing condition, and adrenal gland stress is often the culprit. So you may ask, “What are my adrenal glands, and how do they have anything to do with my thyroid?”
Your adrenal glands are walnut sized glands on the top of your kidneys that produce a group of hormones called catecholamines. Of these hormones produced by the adrenal glands, the major player in our story of the thyroid is cortisol. Cortisol is produced by the adrenal glands in times of stress, or when your body needs more blood sugar. Cortisol needs to be in balance, it can’t be to high, or to low, or it can cause major problems with your thyroid function and other systems in your body.
Effects of Chronic Adrenal Stress and Cortisol
- Inhibited communication between the brain and hormone-producing glands. The hypothalamus and pituitary gland are primary hormone producers, and adrenal stress can affect communication of these with the thyroid. This is a very important endocrine (hormonal) signaling system that must work properly for your thyroid health.
- Affect thyroid-binding levels, effectively reducing absorption rates of thyroid hormones throughout the body.
- Inhibit the conversion of T4 to active T3 forms that are used by the body.
- Reduce effectiveness of detoxification pathways that flush the body of spent thyroid hormones. If these are not cleared from receptors on the cells, they induce a cellular resistance response to the thyroid hormones that reduces cellular sensitivity to them.
- Weaken the immune system. In particular, the integrity of the gut, lungs and brain barriers become compromised.
The result of these are immune flare-up responses that strongly exacerbate Hashimoto’s.
How Do We Reduce This Stress?
Everything physiological is complex – and adrenal stress is often itself caused by other factors.
Blood sugar levels, iron deficiencies, gut issues, food intolerances (gluten, dairy, soy), and essential fatty acid deficiencies all play an important role. Environmental toxins and both emotional and physiological stress also affect this.
And where have we heard this before?
Hashimoto’s hypothyroidism is worsened by these exact factors.
Many doctors choose to ignore these issues in favour of band-aid style drugs – however we have to tackle them head-on.
Hashimoto’s already puts your body under intense physiological stress, and additional emotional baggage on top of that can be disastrous. Emotional stress changes your hormones, and can cause exacerbation or worsening of your hashimoto’s.
Our accounts are empty: we need to make comprehensive changes to repair this, and stick to it every day.
The best place to start is by depositing some fun and relaxation into our “stress savings” accounts.
Like any account, there are deposits and withdrawals. It’s unacceptable to give up on replenishing, while only taking all the time.
If this were your bank account, you would go broke, start getting chased by angry creditors and find yourself living on the streets!
That will definitely compound your stress.
This is what is effectively happening inside of your body. If we visualize your internal situation as a life, it is akin to being homeless.
5 Of the Most Common Stress Inducing Mistakes (Start With These Changes)
The sad thing is that there are plenty of opportunities to make positive choices regarding daily stress: most people accidentally go the opposite route.
Simply being aware of these issues is the first step to making positive changes.
Ask yourself…
- Are You Working Through Lunch (Or Other Meals)?
Take the time to relax and enjoy your meal. Not only is this a bit of time for yourself, but this has a significant impact on digestion and absorption of important nutrients from the food.
- Do You Spend Your Break Time Complaining?
We need to be careful of what we are focused on. Our thoughts become our reality, especially with negativity. Go for a walk and try to focus on the good things around you.
- Do You Do Too Many Things At Once?
This can affect your concentration and lead to huge amounts of stress. Slow down, focus on one thing at a time, and you might find a more productive and less stressed state of mind.
- Try To Do It All Alone?
Simply asking someone for help in what you’re doing is a good option for reducing any workload. Remember: many hands make light work and don’t let your pride get in the way of this.
- Do You Deny There Is A Problem?
It’s OK to not have everything all under control all the time!
Bottling things up and avoiding the issue is a sure-fire way of triggering autoimmunity and ruining all your progress.
Stress is a part of life, and won’t simply go away. And that is OK – we just need effective strategies to mitigate it.
Every day.
6. BONUS TIP – Eliminate Gluten, Dairy, Eggs and Soy.
The four most problematic foods are gluten, dairy, eggs and soy. These foods are the most common foods sensitivities that will cause inflammation. Elimate these foods for 2 weeks and see if you don’t feel better. If you don’t feel better, then you need specific testing determine what you paticualr problems are. If you don’t do the tests, you will never know what is wrong!
If you have any home-grown stress relieving practices, please share with us.
If you need help with low thyroid function, or hashimoto’s we may be able to help. If you haven’t seen it, you can watch any of Dr. Shook’s video presentations that cover numerous topics on the natural, Functional Medicine approach to helping thyroid dysfunction.
Here are links to Dr. Shook’s Low Thyroid and Autoimmune Hashimoto’s Thyroid Conditions Page, which has the following presentations and vidoes on it:
Natural Support Options For Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis and Low Thyroid or Hypothyroidism
The problem with the typical medical approach to thyroid disorders
Autoimmune food triggers, including hashimoto’s thyroid conditions
Physiological triggers to autoimmunity, including Hashimoto’s thyroid
Molecular Mimicry, how an immune response to a food or antigen that could predispose you to an autoimmune thyroid disorder
Why tuna could be making your autoimmune thyroid (hashimoto’s) or autoimmune condition worse
Do you need to be on thyroid replacement therapy if you have Hashimoto’s?
Which Thyroid Hormone is best?
Did you know that low thyroid hormone promotes brain degeneration?
An important step we take when working with patients that have Hashimoto’s.
Why your labs for autoimmune thyroid with Hashimoto’s may be false negative
Why your TPO antibodies may go up with Hashimoto’s thyroid as you get healthier
Why the Paleo Diet doesn’t work for a lot of autoimmune conditions
A major trigger to thyroid Hashimoto’s autoimmunity. Loss of chemical tolerance
How do you detox chemicals that trigger autoimmune conditions like hashimoto’s thyroiditis?
Common traits of people that have good outcomes with functional medicine for autoimmune thyroid conditions
We are dedicated to helping you get, and take your health back! Enjoy!
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