Assessing Your Own Thyroid Function

As I described in last week’s article, your thyroid gland is a butterfly-shaped gland located in the front part of your neck.  Its main job is to control the amount of oxygen utilized by each and every cell in your body.

Your thyroid is responsible for:

• Metabolic rate (oxygen uptake)
• Growth and repair
• Production of protein
• Glucose entry into cells
• Muscle growth and bone development
• Growth hormone and prolactin
• ATP (energy) production
• Adrenal medulla activity
• Enzyme synthesis
• Thermogenesis (heat )
• Insulin sensitivity and clearance
• Follicular development and ovulation
• Maintenance of pregnancy
• Spermatogenesis
• Central nervous system development
• Wakefulness and alertness
• Memory and learning capacity
• Emotional tone
• Speed of nerve reflexes

Solving the Thyroid “Mystery”

If your thyroid gland is under-functioning, you burn fuel more slowly and often have difficulty with getting rid of excess body weight.  People with overactive thyroid glands are usually thin and wiry with rapid heart rate and agitation.

Thyroid gland function is complex and while there is no need for you to become an expert in its physiology and biochemistry, it’s important for you to have a general understanding to enable you to best take care of this precious gland.

Thyroid problems leave you feeling tired and unmotivated.

Most doctors don’t have a thorough understanding of how to assess thyroid function.  They generally label it as either overactive, underactive or cancerous.

Conventional treatment is typically either synthetic T4 medication, for underactive or radiation followed by synthetic T4 medication for overactive.  Some, more progressive and better informed doctors opt for using Armour thyroid or Naturethroid, which are derived from dessicated pig thyroid and provide both T3 and T4, although not always in the right proportion.  A few doctors will prescribe Cytomel, synthetic T3, in addition to T4.  Adding T3 helps in people who have problems converting T4 to T3, especially if they test and tweak the amounts of each.

What the conventional approaches to thyroid care miss is the magnitude of the potential underlying causes of thyroid dysfunction, and in doing so, fail to achieve long term success.

There is a better way.

Here is the good news. By doing a full assessment and applying targeted nutrition and lifestyle practices your thyroid can, in many cases, be brought back into balance.

It’s up to you to understand how it works and take charge of your own health so you can feel energetic, have soft supple skin, a clear focused mind and achieve a level of vitality you never thought possible.

While most conventional doctors look at just a few ways your thyroid can malfunction, there are actually over 20 different presentations and causes.

The most commonly overlooked thyroid imbalances are:

• Autoimmune Thyroid, where your immune system has created antibodies that attack your thyroid.  This is not truly a thyroid problem. It’s a malfunction of your immune system.
• Under Conversion of T4, the hormone produced by the thyroid  to T3, the active hormone that reaches and controls the metabolism of your cells.
• Increased Thyroid Binding Globulin, a protein that binds to thyroid hormone and keeps it from actively stimulating your cells.  Common causes are birth control pills, xenoestrogens from the environment, dental materials and plastics, and hormone replacement therapy.
• Thyroid Receptor Resistance, which is a condition similar to insulin resistance, in which thyroid receptors are no longer functioning properly and can’t allow adequate quantities of hormone to enter your cells, leaving you with all the signs and symptoms of hypothyroid and relatively normal blood tests.
• Wilson’s temperature syndrome, whereby your temperature is low and your body converts much of the T4 to reverse T3, an inert form of thyroid hormone that inhibits the conversion of T4 to T3.

If you ‘re ready to regain your energy, vim and vigor, it’s time to take charge of your own thyroid function.

Learn the lab tests and other testing you can get to identify the cause of your low thyroid symptoms.  Once you learn more than your doctor knows bout thyroid function, you can take charge of your own health and create the energy that will allow you to live the life of your dreams.

Learn how your other hormones affect thyroid function, in particular adrenal hormones and insulin.

Get my Dr. Ritamarie’s Complete List of Thyroid Tests, along with a detailed audio about the thyroid and adrenal interaction, and all the details about how your blood sugar balance and a hormone called insulin influences thyroid function.

The list of tests will put you in the driver’s seat and help you finally get answers about the unexplained symptoms you’ve been chasing for a long time. It is available for the first time ever via my wildly popular 3-part FREE webinar series SHINE that will leave you with a deeper understanding about how your thyroid works and interacts with your adrenal hormones and insulin than most conventional doctors know.

Thousands of men and women who signed up for the series are blown away by the amount of real-world, practical, do-able steps I give them in each segment.

Go ahead and sign up now:

There is nothing worse than living day by day feeling wasted and worn out.

You’ll get access to  3 hormone balancing and nutrition boosting webinars in the series!

In Part 1 You’ll Learn…

• How to identify the most overlooked thyroid and adrenal imbalances that lead to disruption of your male/female hormones and zap the joy in your relationships
  
• 3 Simple strategies to thicken your hair, optimize your weight, and skyrocket your energy
• One of the most powerful secrets to fitness that heals hormone imbalance
• The tools that will help you develop a clear and focused mind and tap into powerful clarity

In Part 2 You’ll Learn…

• How to determine if you’re experiencing the most commonly overlooked cause of hormone imbalances that can keep you foggy, unfocused, irritable, and overweight
  
• The intimate relationship between two very well known hormones and how bringing that relationship into alignment can be the missing link in optimizing your health
• What the thyroid/insulin game is all about and 3 steps you can take right away to master the rules and step into your Dream-You

In Part 3 You’ll Learn…

• The 3 most common nutrient imbalances that keep you foggy, unfit, and unproductive
  
• The 3 invigorating herbs that are easy to work into your day to day diet
• Energizing foods that can be easily added to your existing regime to boost your energy, reawaken your libido, and thicken your hair

Sign up now, and I’ll not only help you assess and heal your thyroid, but I will also help you light the way back to vibrant energy, passion, and vitality!

With Love and Appreciation,

Dr. Ritamarie

Comment Below:  What’s been your experience with the care and feeding of your thyroid?