Thyroid hormones not right? Basic truths that no one is willing to discuss.

Posted on January 11, 2016 by Dr. G

“Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.”

– John Ruskin

Most doctors, whether they are natural doctors or traditional allopathic doctors, can get stuck in the complexity of helping patients with thyroid symptoms. For example, one patient’s treatment can include diagnostic tests, addressing food sensitivities, balancing medications, looking at micronutrients and macronutrients, evaluating the immune system, altering diet, repairing the gut, reducing inflammation, trying to decide if a prescription for synthetic T4 is needed or bioidentical T3, T4, deciding whether it’s a goiter, a nodule or a tumor.

These are all important questions to answer and if you have seen my previous posts on the subject of thyroid health on this site and others, you know that these are all important things to consider and, yes, they can be complex. But once we get past the complexity, we must consider some very simple facts about our thyroid gland and hormone health.

A great philosopher once said, “I would not give a fig for simplicity on the near side of complexity, but I would give everything for simplicity on the far side of complexity.”  We all agree that the human body is incredibly complex, yet the more we unlock the mysteries and understand that complexity, solutions to chronic health issues become very simple. When a professor of mine or a fellow physician is able to transform the most complex concepts of biology into lessons that can be accurately explained to an eighth grade student, it tells me there is true understanding.

Let’s start with this. The thyroid is a gland. If it has the capacity to work, it does what it’s told by its master. That master is another gland located just under the brain called the pituitary. The pituitary, too, has a master, and that master is the brain (specifically the hypothalamus portion of the brain). Consider the brain as the CEO of the company that is YOU.

The brain integrates information about its internal and external environment and makes decisions about what the body needs to do next.

If you’ve ever had a broken arm or leg and wore a cast for 8 weeks, you noticed that the muscle on the casted limb was significantly smaller than the other side when you removed the cast. We understand that muscle wasting is due to disuse–we call it disuse atrophy. If you don’t use it, you lose it.

The principle of “use it or lose it” is an accepted scientific principle of biology that is seen in many systems of the body. If you were an athlete in high school and college and could run a marathon, then you spent the next 15 years sitting in a cubicle and not exercising, then you would have lost the capacity to run a marathon. If you tried, you’d put your life in danger and you would certainly fail. We also know that the relatively sterile and vaccinated lives we live result in an immune system that is not sufficiently challenged, resulting in abnormal immune responses that leave us susceptible to strange allergies, sensitivities and autoimmune disorders. We can even measure atrophy in the brain for the area associated with the broken arm that is immobile for 8 weeks. These are all forms of disuse atrophy.

If you are not using your bicep muscle because your arm has been immobilized in a cast and you are concerned about atrophy, taking supplements with all of the nutrients needed for muscles to be healthy and strong will not prevent the disuse atrophy from taking place. The only treatment is to remove the cast and start using the muscles again (although, of course, nutrition is always important). Simple, right?

So how does this translate to the epidemic of thyroid disease seen today? 1 in 9 women in the United States will be diagnosed with a thyroid hormone-related disorder. So, yes, it’s an epidemic. The thyroid gland is in charge of producing thyroid hormone, which sets the metabolic activity of every cell in the body. The metabolic needs of our cells are determined by the environments we put ourselves in regularly.

The thyroid gland is used by the brain and nervous system to respond to changes in the environment we put ourselves in. Thyroid function can be impacted by:

• Temperature, both cold and hot.
• Changes is physical demands and environments (exercise, sleep, meditation, terrain, altitude)
• Changes in available (or unavailable, e.g. fasting)  calories as well as types of calories (fat, protein, carbohydrates).
• Varying levels of sun exposure
• Natural (native) and unnatural (non-native) electromagnetic fields (EMF).
• WiFi and cell phone towers

How can we expect a vibrant, responsive, strong thyroid gland if it is not asked to work? Is the world we have created for ourselves a sort of “cast,” like that used on a broken arm, being placed on our thyroid gland and its axis of function? Is the epidemic of poor thyroid health a type of atrophy? I believe so.

5 Ways Your Environment Causes “Atrophy” of Thyroid Function.

1. Our modern environment is perpetually 72 degree, due to heating and air conditioned environments.
2. Artificial lighting prevents us (specifically in the suprachiasmatic nucleus of the hypothalamus in our brain) from knowing what time it is or what season it is, which we would have through being stimulated by the cycles of the sun. We are telling our brain it is morning and summer time, all the time, through excessive exposure to blue and artificial lighting and not getting enough sun stimulation for our eyes and our skin. (Sun exposure is not merely about vitamin D production, and vitamin D is not only about bone health. See my previous posts on the subjects).
3. Office work environments do not allow for enough interaction with our environment or changes in terrain. Sitting over 40 hours per week at work is literally a type of poison.
4. An excessive amount of cheap, empty calories (processed grains and dairy) and insufficient exposure to fasting states.
5. Wifi, electrical appliances, cell towers and high tension power lines alter our connection to the native EMF of the earth and interferes with its impact on our physiology. To deny that there is a connection is to suppose that after 600 million years of evolution, the earth’s electromagnetic field plays no role. That is simply illogical. Connecting your body with the earth’s electromagnetic field is as important as sun exposure. Our modern footwear and the surfaces we walk on do not allow for the transfer of native electromagnetic energy.

What is the solution?

As I have said before, running away from modern life and hiding in a mountain rustic retreat would certainly solve many of these problems, but for me, and most of you, that is not an option, nor is it desirable. Therefore, we must do our best to use our brains and technology to reduce the negative impact our modern life has on us. How far you want to go is up to you and how far you have to go may depend on what your health concerns are.

This includes interacting with and placing yourself in varying natural environments to the best of your ability. (If you have a diagnosed health condition and you are looking to improve your health, please be sure there are no contraindications to the following suggestions by discussing them with your physician). If you are clear to do the following, you should start slow with minimal exposures and increase your resistance to exposures over time and through repetition.

The following is a brief list of places to start:  

1. Allowing your naked eye to get 5 minutes of early morning sun exposure (I do not mean to look directly into the rays of the sun with eyes open, I mean just be outside) and 5 minutes of sun exposure at dusk.
2. Bare feet on earth, daily. Earthing mats and shoes.
3. Cold thermogenesis: Regular exposure to very cold temperatures in the form of being outside, cold baths and cold showers.
4. Blue light protective glasses, blue light protective screens on phones and tablets and flux software (blue light protective) for computers.
5. Sun exposure on naked skin.
6. Turn off WiFi at night. No wifi emitting devices where you sleep. Mattresses without metal coils.
7. Regular exercise.
8. Eat seasonally. Discover immunological food sensitivities.

I have been thinking a great deal about all that has been written in the natural healthcare movement as it relates to thyroid health. Those of you who follow this blog know that thyroid health is near and dear to me for several reasons. I’ve spent years learning about this organ that impacts the health and function of every cell in the body, I have spent years working with thousands of patients who have thyroid health concerns and I, too, have a condition that nearly 50% of my patients have: an autoimmune reaction that attacks the thyroid called Hashimoto’s.

Thanks for reading!

Please use the comments section to share some things you have done or post questions so we can help you determine if a certain intervention makes sense or would have an impact.