DOES YOUR GUT HEALTH EFFECT YOUR THYROID HEALTH?

Did you know that the health of your thyroids is dependent on the health of your gut? For one our beneficial bacteria convert 20% of our inactive T4 hormone to active T3. So while it is easy to focus our therapy on the obvious, which is the thyroid organ, we often forget the critical and vital role our gut and the beneficial bacteria play in this whole picture of thyroid health.

You see the thyroid makes our thyroid hormones but our liver and digestive system, specifically our healthy bacteria, are responsible for converting the hormones and making them active, with the liver be responsible for 60% and the bacteria 20%, that’s a total of 80% of our active thyroid hormone (T3) being done by other systems. When our diets our poor and digestion falters we create a scenario that isn’t too pretty, the result being dysbiosis, a condition where bad bacteria crowds out or over powers the good bacteria which then inhibits our ability to produce active thyroid hormone. Studies have also shown that bacterial infections reduce thyroid hormone levels, dull thyroid hormones receptor sites, increase the amount of inactive T3, decreases TSH and promotes autoimmune thyroid disorders

Now that you are aware of how important gut health is to your thyroid, here are some things to consider or implement:

Food allergies or intolerances: I often tell most of my clients to eliminate one or two of these foods, however for the purpose of checking your reaction eliminate gluten, dairy, eggs, soy, corn and yeast for two weeks and then reintroduce each food ever 72 hours to monitor reactions. Remember that although it ay seem tough to do for two weeks, there is a method to the madness which is to find out if you have food intolerances as well as begin to heal your digestive system and reduce inflammation

Manage your stress levels: this one should be a no brainer, however it does need mentioning for the purpose of thyroid health. Chronic stress or stressors can elevate our cortisol levels either to high or make them drop too low after over usage. Either too high or too low cortisol is going to have a negative impact as studies have shown that both extremes weaken the integrity of the gastrointestinal tract

Balance your healthy/good bacteria: Take a really good pre/pro biotic I like the Amazonia pre and probiotic, this formula should help rebalance the beneficial bacteria in the digestive system. Bone broth daily is also an essential to balancing out your gut, it’s rich in glycine, collagen, glutamine and proline and is great for reducing digestive inflammation and healing the gut lining