Written By: Kevin Cann
Low thyroid is a much more common problem then we may believe. Dr. Ridha Arem, the author of the Thyroid Solution, believes that one in ten Americans suffers from Thyroid Dysfunction. Some of the typical symptoms for low thyroid are low energy levels, depression, cold hands and feet, poor mental focus, weight gain, tendency to have low body temperature, headaches, and autoimmune conditions. There are many more symptoms of low thyroid as well.
The thyroid gland is located in the front of our throat below our larynx. The thyroid is a major player in controlling our metabolism. This is why low energy and weight issues usually accompany dysfunction of the thyroid. The thyroid produces hormones, the primary ones being triiodothyronine (T3) and tetraiodothyronine (T4).
The hypothalamus releases thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH) which stimulates the anterior pituitary to secrete thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH). The TSH is what acts upon the thyroid to release hormones. T3 and T4 get their abbreviations from their chemical makeup. The T stands for tyrosine and the 3 and 4 represent the amount of iodine molecules attached. T4 is the primary storage form and T3 is the more active form of the hormone.
T3 is necessary to activate our catecholamines. The catecholamines are produced by the adrenal glands and they are; dopamine, norepinephrine, and adrenaline. These are all important for our energy and mood, as well as other important factors. Dopamine is important in the control of our motor skills, and a deficiency may lead to neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s, and even other psychotic behaviors (Laverty, 1978). Without adequate T3 we can lack energy to get through our day, and possibly develop a mood disorder. So what can cause low thyroid symptoms?
Chronic dieting can be a major issue. In America we are obsessed with counting calories and putting ourselves in a negative caloric balance. Getting too far into a negative caloric balance can be a major problem. For one, if we are not eating all of the nutrients we require, we will become deficient and bad things will begin to happen. Also, being too low calorie causes a significant decrease in serum T3. In one study performed on 18 obese patients, the ones on a very low calorie diet for 8 weeks had a 66% decrease in serum T3 levels compared to the control (Wadden, 1990). This is due to our body protecting itself. It does this by slowing down our metabolism and thyroid function to decrease energy levels and preserve energy. Without adequate T3 our brain cannot produce enough dopamine, norepinephrine, or adrenaline. Serotonin, in these circumstances, will suffer too.
Dopamine deficiencies have been linked to depression. Brown explains that there are similarities between Parkinson’s disease, depression, and seasonal affective disorder, and this lies in the inability of the brain to produce dopamine from its metabolites. He also states that there is significant pharmacological evidence that shows anti-depressants increase dopamine in depressed subjects (Brown, 1993). For example, bupropion, a dopamine and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor, has been shown to improve symptoms of pleasure, energy, and interest in patients (Nutt, 2007).
Iodine deficiency is another contributor. Remember the hormones are bonded compounds of tyrosine and iodine. Iron, selenium, zinc, folic, acid, the b vitamins, and of course tyrosine are all important factors in creating thyroid hormones. There is also an autoimmune component to thyroid dysfunction. Eating gut irritating foods that contain problematic proteins such as gluten and casein can lead to our immune system attacking the cells of the thyroid.
Our adrenals are important to thyroid function. Cortisol is required for the conversion of T4 to T3. If cortisol levels fall to low this can limit the amount of T4 being converted to T3. Also, the thyroid will respond to chronically high levels of cortisol by downregualting cortisol’s affect on the conversion. Cortisol steals nutrients to help us battle stress, so if our thyroid did not respond we would lose those nutrients and eventually die.
When we are looking at thyroid function we need to see everything that is going on with this powerful gland. The first step is to take a body temperature measurement first thing in the morning for 3 days. If your temperature is below 97.8 degrees you may have a thyroid problem. Try to wake up 30 minutes early, turn on all the lights, and just lay there before you take the temperature. Next, have your doctor order a TSH test, free T4, free T3, TRH, and antithyroglobulin and antithyroperoxidase, as well as an adrenal test.
Supplementation that I recommend is derived from Julia Ross (www.moodcure.com). 500mg-1500mg of tyrosine first thing upon waking, midmorning, and mid-afternoon (always start with the smallest dosage). If someone shows signs and symptoms of low endorphins I recommend they also take 200mg-500mg D-phenylalanine and L-phenylalanine (DLPA). L-phenyalanine can be converted into tyrosine under certain circumstances. If you feel jittery from the L form I recommend to just taking the D form. This is in conjunction to a paleo diet and fish oil supplementation.
References
Nutt, David (2007). The other face of depression reduced positive affect: the role of catecholamines in causation and cure. Journal of Psychopharmacology.
Brown, AS (1993). Dopamine and Depression. Journal of Neural Transmission.
Wadden, TA (1990). Effects of a very low calorie diet on weight, thyroid hormones, and mood. www.pubmed.gov.
Laverty, R (1978). Catecholamines: role in health and disease. www.pubmed.gov.
So is it possible to eat Paleo and reverse thyroid dysfunction to where you wouldn’t have to use Synthroid (T4) or Cytomel (T3)? Can you take these supplements while on these meds? I’d like to get my body back to where I wouldn’t have to take any meds and am wondering.
Sometimes. Sometimes medication is still needed. It all depends on how much damage has been done. Either way you will feel better!!!
I’m a bit late replying to this, but I’ve gone off my Synthroid entirely even with Hashimoto’s since going Paleo. My thyroid symptoms are gone, my adult acne has cleared up, and the migraines I was experiencing, which I suspect were caused by a too-high dose of Synthroid to get my TSH numbers where the endicrinologist wanted them, haven’t been back for over a year now. Weight has stabilized to boot! I wrote about it here: http://crunchyprogressiveparenting.blogspot.com/2012/07/whats-not-to-like-aka-my-mostly-paleo.html
So not saying it would be possible for you personally, but it has been for me. 🙂
good article, Kevin! as a lifelong hypothyroid who has managed to improve function through diet, i so often hear questionable recommendations, it’s a pleasure to see just the opposite, here!
one thing i’d like to emphasize is, many people with thyroid problems are those who also have problems with nutrient absorption. remember the adage — consumption does not equal absorption! taking certain supplements together can either block or encourage your ability to use them. take your tyrosine (as an example) well before eating a meal with other (competing) amino acids, and be aware that some minerals inhibit each other.
Good point. To clarify a bit, mid-morning is inbetween breakfast and lunch and midafternoon is between lunch and dinner.
Great article. I have Hashimoto’s and experienced a great breakthrough in my treatment when my Naturopath checked my neurotransmitters and found that I was super low in serotonin, gaba, and epinephrine. I have been taking a supplement with 5-HTP and tyrosine as well as DLPA, and that in addition to eating on the autoimmune protocol and taking naturethroid I am finally feeling well again!
Mickey
Hi Mickey, I realize this is an old post so hopefully my reply is ok and that you actually see it! I’m wondering how you’re making out with your 5-HTP, Tyrosine and NDT? Are you still using the 2 supplements in addition to NDT? Do you spake them out from your naturethroid? Thanks in advance!
If you wish to learn a ton about thyroid/adrenals and symptoms and treatment, from folks who have been and are (and were) struggling with it, there is a website called Stop the Thyroid Madness (started as a forum; don’t know if the forum is still there). Superb info, and helped me (a. find an actually (semi-)educated doctor, not one who swallowed the “CW” whole and spit up stupidity! and b.) heal my adrenals and thyroid. (Whew!)
Interestingly: I had researched on my own, and decided what *I* wanted to do: physiological doses of hydrocortisone (adrenals) and, back then, (slowly increasing) doses of Armour (thyroid) (before the makers changed it and made it WAY less effective). I went to this doc and said: “here are the scrips I’d like you to write; these are the starting doses I’d like to try and the raises over time — and do you see anything here to disagree with?” He was bemused, read them over, and agreed to my plan. We tweaked (well, *I* tweaked and he changed the scrips) over a couple of years… and WHAT a relief!
Sadly, dismayingly, when I referred another thyroid “sufferer” to him and she just went in for help — he prescribed the standard (usually useless!) CW of: “Here, just take Synthcrap!” She and I decided he may have been willing to “go along” with ACTUAL treatment because I didn’t ask HIM for help, just told him what *I* wanted to do! (Synthcrap — or Sythroid as they sell it — is T4-only, which works fine IF (and only if!) your body converts the storage form T4 *adequately* to T3 the active form. If your body doesn’t? You’re SOL — and not being treated!)
As with ANY health stuff nowadays, you have to become your OWN “doctor” and educate yourself — because docs either don’t know, or don’t want to ‘come to the attention of’ their local controlling boards! (I don’t (entirely) blame this doc for ‘doing the usual’ with this other woman, but I don’t think highly of it either. He was ‘straying outside the lines’ with me — but he also had to protect his own livelihood – which, as we know (or should know) is not directly related to the actual health of patients.)
Dr Mike Eades puts it perfectly, when he wrote this:
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Let me sum up the take-home message with an unrelated story that oddly illustrates the point. When I was taking flying lessons years ago, the tower once told me to cross one runway we were stopped short of and proceed to the next one. I goosed the engine and started across. My instructor pushed on the brakes and stopped us and asked me what I was doing. I said, “The tower told me to proceed to runway 15L.” My instructor said, “Yes, but you didn’t look for traffic coming in on runway 15R (the runway we had to cross) before proceeding. Here’s what you’ve got to learn. If the pilot makes a mistake, the pilot dies; if the control tower makes a mistake, the pilot dies. Always check for yourself.”
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Don’t be the pilot who dies!!
Elenor,
I’m very interested in the meds & dosages you were taking. I have been paleo 2 years, on Armour about the same (previously on Syncrap 10+ years). Still have adrenal/thyroid symptoms. I have read the STTM book and blog multiple times. I am terrified of hydrocortisone but am tired of being tired. Would you mind sharing the details?
Great sharing, especially the pilot story. You’re lucky to have a doc who was willing to cooperate with you. Not many of them are willing to risk their license for the sake of their patients. I’m also keen to find out what you took and the dosage if you don’t mind sharing. Are you still taking them now? Take care.
Kevin, I think you mistakenly referred to Wadden’s 1990 paper’s patients as being on a “low carb diet” when you meant to say “low calorie diet”.
Good article.
Question: I guess the only way to see how well a the thyroid is functioning is to take the tests without taking the hormones for a few days?
I have T3 and T4 and TSH test results, but I guess they don’t mean anything, since really those numbers are just a registering of the pills (dessicated thyroid hormone) that I’m taking twice a day. Sadly there are thyroid antibodies in there too. Is that a confirmation of Hashimoto’s? Not sure what my next step should be.
Thanks for the great article.
This is the best article I’ve seen that describes the two-way connection between thyroid hormons and adrenals. I’m impressed of how much information you’ve managed to pack into just av few words.
Interesting article.
However, in the fifth paragraph – “ones on a very low carb diet for 8 weeks had a 66% decrease in serum T3 levels compared to the control”.
Should that be “low calorie”??
Yes, low calorie!!! Force of habit I suppose, haha
Just wondering if you have heard of of Dr.Kalish and his use of amino acids (L-Tyrosine and 5-Htp). A detailed video can be seen here http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=cVtd85zZyjg
standard thyroid tests in the UK health service are not very comprehensive. I’ve recently had mine measured and had a TSH of 2.5 miu/l (range 0.1 to 6) and a free t4 of 16pmol/L (range 10 to 25).
Not sure if any of this could be involved in my ongoing fatigue, low mood, and low testosterone, last measured at 335, despite being in shape, paleo, and 25 years old.
currently waiting on some ASI results, not sure If i should explore thyroid next
I have a question about,y specific situation:
Some facts-
I have been hypothyroid for about eight years.
I also have been on estrogen replacement for 22 years (early total hysterectomy)
I began Levoxyl (synthroid) eight years ago, with minimal improvement to thyroid issues
I added Cytomel ( for T3) about five years ago,with some added improvement.
Both have resulted in reduced hair loss and improvement in energy level
I have continued to gain, or have resistance to weight loss.
Like serious resistance.
I am BMI 31
I am 43 pounds over table weight
Only results in weight loss was one VLC diet(under 800 per day), which of course is not sustainable.
I began weight training and cardio in Sept. No weight loss, but improved wake sleep cycle,muscle to fat ratio as measured with calipers.
Now I started Paleo diet about three weeks ago.
My situation:
Since starting paleo, my energy and sustainability during workouts has been greatly reduced. Like frighteningly reduced.
My oxygen capacity seems diminished, I get winded easier and earlier on in my workout.
I am able to lift a portion of what I was lifting before and I fatigue earlier on in my reps.
My trainer is declaring that I NEED carbs before my workout. He is encouraging wheat products (NO, I feel so much better without them!).
I’ve tried a sweet potato, dried fruits before workout.
I’m concerned. I enjoy my work out but dislike immensely this new diminished ability. Last week I went into panic mode- nausea, claustrophobic feeling, heart pounding, winded after burpees. Not like me at all.
Is this expected? Will this be something I can push through? Is it related to Paleo or an adjustment needed?
Any insight will be welcome.
Thanks!
Finally a good article on Prohormones! Thanks Marc!
It seems like there’s a lot to consider with thyroid nutrition. I’m trying to find some healthy supplements for my father that he could take everyday to support his health. What have you guys used? I’m thinking about getting some of this thyroid nutrition supplements. http://www.botanicchoice.com/Thyroid-Health/#.UVCbYVdF1fs
Thanks for explaining some important basics! I think you would be interested in the work of veterinarian, Dr. Al Plechner, who wrote “Pets at Risk”. He defined an Endocrine/ Immune link which is manipulated via balancing adrenal and thyroid function. He haas worked for nearly fifty years and on almost a hundred thousand animals, to define and demonstrate this link between the endocrine system and the immune system. Years ago I called him when my cats got leukemia and he neatly got their own immune systems to overcome the retrovirus which stimulates the leukemia in cat! I have been using his protocol ever since, as it is useful for all sorts of things, including auto-immune disease. Personally, I suspect that it works so brillintly because of its ability to create oxygen homeostasis in the body–raise oxygen metabolism and lower free radical stress. That would be the only thing which can explain the capacity of the Plechner Protocol to work so profoundly in the biochemistry to resolve the range of problems it resolves. It is working to balance the molecular base of the bio-chemistry.
Plechner’s insight, was that cortisol, which according to medical school professor,Dr. William Jeffries, who wrote “The Safe Uses of Cortisol”, is the only hormone “essential for life”, is often lacking, and can be bound or defective, and thus inert, even when present in normal quantities on lab tests. Dr. Plechner also demonstrated to me by curing my first leukemia cat by giving it cortisone and thyroid hormone in physiologic doses (as well as giving it a homemade hypo-allergenic diet, digestive enzymes and minerals) that my cat’s HIGH cortisol reading, actually meant that the pituitary was continuing to stimulate the production of inactive cortisol, because there was not enough FUNCTIONAL cortisol in the system! A lot of what is being blamed on high cortisol is actually due to a LACK of functional cortisol! As my vet screamed that Dr. Plechner would create a Cushing’s Syndrome by giving a cat which tested high in cortisol, cortisone, instead Dr. Plechner put my emaciated cat with swollen lymph nodes and a fungal infection eating its nose, into REMISSION, turning it back into a sleek and healthy creature!
Check out the videos on Dr. Plechner’s web-site which owners have posted of their dogs turnarounds from sudden acquired retinal degeneration, which is believed to be auto-immune, and also believed to be incurable in conventional medicine. These same problems which are occurring in animals are occurring in people. There are some species variations in the treatment, with people, like dogs, usually needing thyroid supplementation in order to metabolize physiologic dose cortisone therapy.
You have solved a problem I have been trying to crack for years, of how people can resolve low thyroid function without taking thyroid hormone! Now I have a second question, how can people raise their level of FUNCTIONING cortisol without taking cortisone?
P.S. Sondra should read, “Oxygen and Aging” or “The Canary and Chronic Fatigue” by Dr. Majid Ali. He will explain what is happening to her. Ali ia very difficult to read–his books are unedited messes, as he lifts chunks of text from previous writing in order to keep from having to re-write pieces of biochemistry. Despite it all, Dr. Ali has the most complete view of “the elephant” of all the “blind men” I have ever read. (I am referring of course to the Sufi tale of “The Blind ones and the Elephant”. The tale goes something like this: an elephant comes to a village and the blind ones rush out to “see” it. One grabs ahold of the trunk and declares that it is like a tube. Another touches the side and says that it is “broad like a carpet.” A third one takes ahold of the tail ,and says the elephant is like a “cord.” And so on, each blind man is right about his piece of the elephant, but if you do not interview as many of the blind ones as possible, you will never truly see the elephant.
Also, Dr. Plechner’s work demonstrates a couple of other interesting things. One is that low IgA means poor gut absorption, requiring not only the use of an anti-inflammatory diet, but also of several cycles of injectable cortisone in physiologic doses to quell the gut inflammation, as the cortisone molecule is large and, at physiologic doses, does not absorb well if the gut is inflamed because it lacks IgA protection.
I had trouble convincing Dr. Ali to try the cortisone therapy that Dr. Plechner had taught me, but I saw recently on one of his websites that he has put many thousands of patients on the therapy over the years, and he has written about how he has done this without serious side effects and he has also written an article in The Townsend Letter, about what a great therapy the physiologic dose cortisone therapy is. Often patient’s adrenals are so damaged that they need actual cortisone therapy to replace the missing, or inactive cortisol, which is vital.