Hypothyroidism – Under Active Thyroid

Most of the time, thyroid conditions are not from the actual thyroid gland itself, but it’s a liver disorder. There are some cases where the actual thyroid gland is messed up, but in the majority of cases, it’s due to a malfunctioning liver.

4-5 cups of fluid is probably too much. I usually drink 2-3 cups or less. There have been days where it was really cold outside where I didn’t even drink 8 ounces of fluid.

Try cutting your fluid intake in half, and I bet you see a difference in your body temp and digestion. Try to ONLY drink when really thirsty, and when you do, just take a few sips. Just enough to quench your thirst. Anymore is overkill.

I also had to reduce my sugar intake to a minimal amount to heal my metabolism. Some people say the opposite. But that was definitely the case for me.

The liver does reportedly play a very important role in “thyroid” health. That’s because the liver converts a huge amount of T4 to T3 (or rT3 if things aren’t going well) and it also creates transport proteins to shuttle free thyroid hormone to cells where it is used. So if the liver is not functioning optimally, “thyroid” health will suffer.

Generally-speaking, the liver needs adequate nutrition/energy to function well. So refeeding tends to help. The liver particularly needs adequate quality protein, and from my research tends to do particularly well with gelatin. Adequate carbohydrates is also important, generally.

As with all things, sleep, rest, and relaxation are important for liver health. Going easy on alcohol is generally advisable. Lowering estrogen is also probably a good idea since that burden falls on the liver to metabolize excess estrogen.

I’m not a fan of using strong herbs indiscriminately. However, there are some pretty safe, gentle herbs that can help the liver. Milk thistle seed is one. It does contain PUFA, but the amounts that are needed are pretty small. It also may contain estrogen. But studies show that the net effect of milk thistle seed actually lowers estrogen in the body due to its positive effects on liver health. Dandelion root is another safe and gentle liver herb. Sometimes, in rare cases, stronger herbs are helpful/necessary. But I wouldn’t turn to those at first.

Take everything I say as just one person’s ideas. I’ve researched these things a lot, but I certainly don’t know what is right for an individual since that will vary from person to person. With that said, my response to your question follows.

Protein quality is probably only an issue for vegans. Most animal protein is good quality. Dairy is generally very good, in my humble opinion. Eggs are also quite good if you eat eggs. Fish is good. I think there’s good evidence that suggests that polyunsaturated fat is a thyroid suppressant, so I’d probably give preference to non-fatty fish instead of fatty fish since fish fat is high in polyunsaturated fat. But this is probably only an issue if you’re eating fish daily. (In which case, frankly, I’d be more concerned about the contamination with heavy metals (and halides like bromide) than polyunsaturated fat.)

There are various views on actual protein requirements. I’ve seen Matt suggest that protein requirements may not be that high. Personally, I have seen benefits from increasing protein intake – not ridiculous amounts, but more than I used to. So it is possible that the quality of protein may not be as much of a factor as the quantity. US government recommendations are usually for just under 50 grams per day. I’d expect that for a chronic dieter with hypothyroid symptoms then refeeding protein requirements are probably higher. I suspect that most people in such a state will probably need 70+ grams of protein a day. Many people will need 80, 90, 100 or more grams per day. It’s highly variable.

Of course, there are plenty of factors that can contribute to hypothyroidism. Insufficient calories, carbohydrates, or protein can do it. So can excessive polyunsaturated fat. So can insufficient sleep. So can excess, particularly chronic stress. So can excessive goitrogens including thiocyanates and other food-based goitrogens or environmental exposure to competing halides such as chlorine, fluoride, or bromine. So can excessive estrogen.

Hey Dania,
Some quick questions for you. What supplement are you taking to help clear out estrogen? What liver support herbs do you take? I always heard most herbs were estrogenic, so it worries me to take them and add to the estrogenic load.

Thanks

I take a supplement called Estrolief for excess estrogen (and before that I took EstroSmart). The liver support supplement I take is Hepasylin – it contains milk thistle, artichoke, dandelion, etc. I actually hadn’t heard that before about some herbs being estrogenic. These are just what my naturopath recommended.

Thanks for the responses J-Lo and Dania!

I think that milk thistle isn’t terribly water soluble. So probably the most effective ways are to take the whole herb or a full-spectrum extract in both water and alcohol (a tincture). There are plenty of encapsulated products. They are all going to be way over-priced. Same with tinctures – overpriced. But they are convenient. A more economical, though less convenient approach is to grind the whole seed. A coffee grinder will work well for this. You’d need to grind it fresh – otherwise it will oxidize.

So bottom line is either whole (ground) seed or tincture is going to be more effective than water extract (tea). Grind it yourself for economics. Or, for convenience, buy encapsulated or tinctured herbs. Personally, I prefer whole spectrum extracts or whole herbs versus standardized extracts since they may well be guessing incorrectly at the “active ingredients”.

Just my two cents.