Signs and Symptoms of Low Thyroid

Have you wondered if your thyroid was functioning correctly? Perhaps you are having trouble losing weight or you are tired. But, after blood work, your doctor says that your thyroid is “normal” or “fine”.

Your doctor is looking for a diagnosable disease on lab work. Your thyroid may be in the low normal range. This is not a disease state, yet the thyroid is still not functioning correctly, or the thyroid hormones are not able to do their job. TSH is the blood test used. TSH is a pituitary hormone called Thyroid Stimulating Hormone. The assumption is that your pituitary is shouting at your thyroid to make more thyroid hormone and the louder it shouts the more your thyroid is sleeping on the job. Thyroid function governs metabolism, so weight gain and fatigue are common symptoms when the thyroid is less active.

But your thyroid may be trying to work, and even producing enough thyroid hormone. Every cell in your body has receptor sites for hormones of all kinds. The thyroid hormone that is utilized by the cells must be converted, mostly by the liver, to the active form that the cells respond to.  So liver health is also a key to your getting the full benefit of your thyroid function. This is just one more example of how much the health of one organ affects the health of the entire body. http://www.liverdoctor.com/thyroid-health-depends-on-your-liver/

You can see that the problem may be one of distribution and delivery to the cells that rely on thyroid hormone signals, and not of the production of thyroid hormone.

Here are some of the other symptoms of low thyroid function:

Weight gain and hard to lose                      Full and puffy around the eyes

Coarse hair, possibly thinning                     Thick nails

Poor flexibility                                               Cold hands and feet                                    

Depression                                                     Low energy-fatigue

Slowed thinking                                            Poor concentration

Thinned eyebrows                                        Brain fog

Insomnia, restless sleep                               Waking up exhausted

Slow heart rate                                              Low blood pressure

Thinned eyebrows                                        Pale, pasty skin

Decreased body hair                                                Vertigo

Hoarse voice                                                  Thickened tongue

Muscle pain                                                   Recurrent headaches

Fibrocystic breasts                                        Infertility, miscarriages

Elevated cholesterol                                     Edema (swelling of ankles)

Thyroid function is one of the vital elements of cancer protection, so thyroid health goes beyond issues of weight and fatigue. Supplementing with iodine, which is vital to thyroid hormone production, may help.

At Well Body Clinic, we get your thyroid functioning correctly, and make sure that your entire hormonal system is working together, with each gland working well. We call this Total Hormone Balancing If you are already on thyroid medication, we can make sure that your medication is working well.

We are all exposed to multiple chemicals and pesticides every day, in our offices, homes and through our food and air. These toxins interrupt the function of the glands by binding with the hormone receptor sites. Cleanses and detox programs can remove the toxic burden, so that you have better hormone function.

When you are on the right program for you, you can start to notice the difference quickly, If you suspect you suffer from low thyroid function, book an appointment and see how much better you can feel and that you really can lose the weight that has been so hard to budge.

The two healthy foods that can ruin a diet

Every day I have the opportunity to assess eating regimens. I hear all kinds of stories, from the guy who wanted to do a Detox/Diet, but only if he could continue to eat lunch at McDonald’s every day to a 300 pound man who swore he ate only chicken and vegetables in tiny amounts but never lost a pound.

Is that possible? I don't know. I do know that you cannot do a Detox/Diet and eat lunch under the Golden Arches.

Many people are eating a pretty healthy diet of unprocessed foods, but are not losing weight. So, I have learned to ask how much they are eating two foods that are natural and healthy-in small quantities.

Number 1 is Nuts. Many people are trying to snack in a healthy way by eating nuts. How many of us can eat 6 nuts at a time, and no more?  People who munch nuts at their desk while they are working find that, before they know it, they have consumed half their daily calorie allowance, but could still eat more. 1 oz. of almonds is 164-169 calories. So ½ cup is 660 calories. Raw nuts are healthier, and roasted nuts lose many of their benefits. But all nuts are very high in concentrated calories and will sabotage a diet.

Nuts do have some nutritional benefits. Helping you to lose weight is not one of them.

The real problem here is the constant snacking that Americans have adopted as a national life-style. Europeans don’t eat much between meals, and they are far thinner. Constant snacking is just a habit and can be broken. The body starts to feel that it needs to eat all the time, and so you feel hungry all the time. This can also be a signal that there is something going awry with your digestion, so get it checked out. And you may need more nutrients. The answer is not to take a synthetic multi-vitamin horse pill. Instead, start eating  6-10 cups of vegetables a day-in any form, from raw to roasted. And see if your appetite calms down.

Try making it a firm policy that you do not eat at your desk or when you are doing anything else, like driving to working or watching TV. Keep yourself occupied with something else while you watch TV, especially in the evening when you are tired and your will power is weak. Do a mild workout, take up knitting or do a puzzle. Anything to keep your hands busy and out of the cookie jar. Remember the old saying “Idle hands are the devil’s workshop?” It may well be diabolical how difficult it is not to graze staring at a screen with moving pictures on it.

Keep extra veggies on hand, if you have to munch. Try having a protein shake dressed up like a milkshake, but made with Chocolate or other flavored Stevia. The extra protein, instead of a sugary dessert, may help you sleep, and keep the cravings at bay.

The second healthy food that is over-used is fruit. For people with blood sugar issues, Diabetic or hypoglycemic issues, too much fruit can affect their blood sugar and sabotage a diet. Cut back to only 2 servings a day. That is a medium apple or other round fruit, or ½ cup of berries. If you have been eating several servings of fruit a day, watch what happens as you cut back. If you have hit a plateau on a diet, cutting out fruit completely may break the plateau. Check your water intake, as you may be thirsty, and substituting the juice in the fruit for water. Add more vegetables, also. Try going without fruit for a day and see how you do. Fruit can be a good snack choice, if only a small amount is eaten at a time.

No matter how much the body protests, no one needs to eat all day long. And the burden on the digestive system not only causes weight gain, but also taxes every organ of digestion. People who eat less live longer and healthier lives. <a href="https://www.fightaging.org/archives/2002/11/calorie-restriction-explained.php">https://www.fightaging.org/archives/2002/11/calorie-restriction-explained.php</a>

If you want to burn fat, you have to give your body a reason to access it. Healthy fats like butter, olive oil and coconut oil provide vital nutrients and help you feel more satisfied so you are less likely to snack between meals, so use them every day to make your food delicious.

If you need to eat more frequently because you have blood sugar imbalance already, divide up a normal size meal and eat only half, and save the other half as a snack. Watch your portion sizes and watch your waistline diminish in proportion. It will take some readjustment because most portions of food in the U.S. far exceed what is needed or healthy. We know that no one needs muffins the size of cantaloupes or a ½ gallon of soda. But even the salads are super-sized and we don’t need that much food in one sitting.

If you want to be thinner, that means you must eat less, even of “healthy” foods.

Consider a Detoxification or Blood Sugar Balance program to give yourself the jumpstart on a diet/health improvement program to help get rid of cravings. Or try Garcinia Cambogia, a natural extract that will help curb your appetite and improve fat burning.  There is still time before the summer really hits. Come in for a free 15-minute consultation to learn more.

What is Stopping You from Getting a Good Night's Sleep?

Anne Dunev, PhD CN
I have helped many, many people sleep better over years of clinical practice. The good news is that sleep problems are not just about “stress,” so there is something you can do about it. Sleeping well is the most natural thing in the world! If you cannot sleep, there is something going on physically — something that can be fixed.

The following are the main barriers I have found to a good night’s sleep.

Thyroid problems. The thyroid hormones can be out of balance and that may cause heart palpitations at night. Or the body may not be able to relax enough to sleep. Have your thyroid checked by a practitioner who really understands about the thyroid. Many doctors do not know how to test correctly for thyroid problems and you may be told that the blood lab work has come back “normal.” But if thyroid issues go undetected, it can have a serious effect on your over-all health, not just sleep.

Blood sugar problems. If you are sleepy in the middle of the afternoon, or fall asleep when sitting down, the problem may not be your lack of sleep, but your blood sugar. Try eliminating all sugar and bread or cereal products for 3 weeks and see if that helps. Eat only a small protein snack before bed, with some good quality fat. Be sure to eat a protein breakfast within an hour after rising. If you are not hungry in the morning and hate eating breakfast, your blood sugar is not on a normal cycle. Your blood sugar should fall at night so that you are ready to eat in the a.m. Eat small, frequent meals with good quality fat and protein at each. Good fats include real butter, unrefined oils, raw coconut oil, raw nut butters, organic dairy products.

Toxicity of liver/gall bladder. It is a principal of Chinese medicine that the organs detox at night. If an organ is very congested, that can cause wakefulness. If you wake up between 2 and 4 a.m. and find it difficult to go back to sleep, consider a liver/gall bladder detox. Truthfully, anyone can benefit from a “spring cleaning” for the liver and gall bladder, as the liver is the main detox organ for the blood. Allergies, obesity, cancer, aches and pains, constipation, flatulence, itching skin, skin eruptions like acne and eczema, bad breath, cravings for tobacco, alcohol, drugs and sweets, dry skin, worrying may all be signs of an over-burdened liver.

Adrenal fatigue. Fibromyalgia, asthma, allergies, muscular and nervous exhaustion, poor circulation, low blood pressure and anxiety may all be signs of adrenal exhaustion. These symptoms may interfere with restful sleep. See a practitioner who can test and treat adrenals. If you have thyroid issues, suspect adrenal problems, as well. The endocrine system works together like an orchestra. You can’t expect beautiful music unless all the instruments are being played.

Digestion issues. Eat lightly at night after 6 p.m. and take digestive enzymes and probiotics. Most of the patients I see who have a gastric reflux diagnosis actually have a hiatus hernia. Medical doctors don’t know how to fix it, but it is a simple adjustment by a Chiropractor or Naturopath. Don’t take medication that stops your digestion by lowering your stomach acid like the GURD medications do. Most of us need more stomach acid, not less, due to our high sugar and carb diets. But we need the stomach acid to break down proteins we eat. If indigestion is keeping you up at night, find someone who can actually fix your digestive ability, not mask the symptoms with drugs.

The bottom line is to consider insomnia as a symptom of a deeper problem. The answer is not sleep medication, or psychotropic medication, as the medications themselves are toxic to the organs, have side-effects, are often addictive and may be a short-term crutch that masks or worsens a long-term health problem.

If your medical doctor simply wants to give you medication without identifying the underlying problem, find a practitioner who can really help. Lack of sleep puts tremendous stress on the body. Sleep is a time of healing and repair, and if that is not taking place health can deteriorate rapidly. Life becomes burdensome when the body is exhausted. Treat insomnia as a secondary condition and know that your body is asking for help. Find the real cause of your insomnia and you will be able to correct a health issue that is demanding your attention.

Your body deserves to be rested and refreshed from a good night’s sleep. Sweet dreams.

This post first appeared in The Huffington Post.

Try Catching a Few ZZZ's to Stop Catching Colds

Anne Dunev, PhD
Turns out there was something else your mother was right about. You should get more rest to prevent yourself from getting sick.

As printed in the Daily Dose by Dr. William Douglas researchers from Carnegie Mellon University actually performed a study, which they claim is the first to show that getting less than seven to eight hours of sleep every night makes you more apt to catch the common cold.

The results of the study claim that getting less than seven hours of sleep each night can make you three times more likely to catch a cold. And if you sleep restlessly, that makes you five times more susceptible.

Americans are sleeping approximately 20% less than they did 100 years ago. “Our biology has not changed by 20 percent. It’s our lifestyles that have changed,” according to Adam Moscovitch, a sleep researcher with the Canadian Institute of Sleep Medicine in Calgary, as quoted in the Denver Post.

The risks associated with sleep deprivation may be more serious — and deadly — than a few missed days from work due to a cold. People who didn’t sleep for 20 hours drove as poorly as those with blood alcohol of 0.08 percent, the legal limit for driving in Colorado.

Think about that the next time someone veers into your lane or cuts you off in traffic. If one or both of you is sleep deprived, your judgment may be dangerously impaired.

And you might consider asking how well your doctor has been sleeping recently.

Three days after a sleepless night on call, medical residents still performed poorly on simple tests.

Going without sleep can be pure torture. Just ask the ancient Romans who used tormentum vigilae (waking torture) to extract information from their enemies. The KGB, Japanese Army and various other assorted “bad guys” have used sleep deprivation as torture. Menachim Begin, former Prime Minister of Israel, described his experience, “In the head of the interrogated prisoner, a haze begins to form. His spirit is wearied to death, his legs are unsteady, and he has one sole desire: to sleep… Anyone who has experienced this desire knows that not even hunger and thirst are comparable with it.” Of course, the “good guys” may have resorted to this type of torture at times, as well. “It is such a standard form of torture that basically everybody has used it at one time or another,” says Andrew Hogg, of the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture.

True sleeplessness produces irritability and impaired function in the short term, but will induce psychosis, including delusions, paranoia and hallucinations, if continued night after night. Is your teen-ager getting enough sleep? The pineal gland, which governs sexual development is also the producer of melatonin and responsible for day/night cycles.

How much sleep should you be getting? The average adult needs 7-9 hours of sleep each night to be fully rested. 39 percent of American adults get less than seven hours of sleep each weeknight, and more than one in three are so sleepy during the day that it interferes with their function and activities.

Why do we sleep? As a Naturopath and practitioner of energy medicine, I consider sleep a time to recharge our batteries. Our bodies are like bio-electric cars, and they need to be “plugged in” to get enough juice to run all day long. In Chinese medicine it is understood that the organs are active at night and may use the “down-time” of sleep for repair and routine detoxification. In fact, one of the first things I check, when someone consults me about sleep difficulties, is the need for a liver or gall bladder detox. Waking after 2:00 a.m. with worries that keep you tossing and turning are a symptom of this.

Hypothyroid or hypoadrenals may be another physiological reason why sleep is evasive. Feelings of depression or anxiety are commonly symptoms of endocrine problems or imbalances.

Artists and entertainers have a tendency to burn the midnight oil. So do web surfers and Shopping Network browsers. Electricity lit the way to the modern world. But our bodies have changed little since we were hunter-gatherers. We still need the same vital nutrients; air, water, food from nature. And sleep. Dreaming optional.