5 ways your thyroid is affecting your health

The thyroid gland is the master gland that influences every other gland and hormone in the body. So it’s no surprise that your thyroid issues can affect any area of health.

Let’s take a closer look at 5 common ways that your thyroid can impact your health.

5 ways your thyroid affects your health

Your energy levels

 This is often the #1 sign that clients come to me with. But why is energy often the first indication of an underlying thyroid issue?

Thyroid hormones are required by almost every cell in the body. When there aren’t enough thyroid hormones produced, the cells can’t work as efficiently, so the whole body slows down. This leaves you feeling exhausted and sluggish, even when you haven’t done anything significant.

An overactive thyroid can also cause low energy levels. This is because the accelerated metabolism is like running a marathon all day. Your body burns through nutrients and your energy reserves, leaving you exhausted. Once you add in other symptoms that deplete energy such as anxiety and insomnia, it’s not a big surprise that you feel exhausted all the time!

The problem is that with a thyroid condition, you can’t bridge the exhaustion gap with another cup of coffee. Your body is depleted of what it needs to function, and caffeine will only hide that temporarily! You need to work on the underlying cause of your low energy to see sustained results.

Your hormones

Are your hormones all over the place? Dealing with issues such as PMS, perimenopause, mood swings and more? Your thyroid could be at the root, or at least exacerbating your symptoms.

There is a close relationship between thyroid hormones and reproductive hormones – particularly progesterone and oestrogen. This is why heavy painful periods are a symptom of low thyroid function and irregular and light periods are a symptom of hyperthyroidism.

Studies have found a high percentage of women with PMS have subclinical hypothyroidism. When they treated the underactive thyroid, the women experienced complete relief of their PMS!

So if you’re struggling to get on top of your hormone balance, treating your thyroid first might be key.

PS – if you’ve struggled with fertility, this is also a critical area to look at. Subclinical or frank thyroid imbalances can play a major role in infertility and miscarriage.

Your stress tolerance

Has your ability to tolerate stress plummeted? It might be the events of the past two years – or it might be your thyroid playing up.

When it comes to hyperthyroid and Graves’, the immense pressure on the nervous system can make even small amounts of stress unbearable. On the other hand, hypothyroidism impairs the function of the entire body, including your nervous system. This can express itself as anxiety, depression and a low tolerance for stress.

However, this is a two-way street. We know that one of the primary causes of cellular hypothyroidism is stress. Cortisol can also affect your thyroid function and trigger low or high thyroid hormones depending on your body’s tendencies. Research has found that there is a direct relationship between thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) and cortisol.

One study found that women with Hashimoto’s who undertook an 8 week stress management program had lower anti-TG antibodies as well as improvements in stress, anxiety and depression. So managing both stress and thyroid health is important when addressing this concern.

Your mental health

 One of the most overlooked links when it comes to thyroid health is the effect on your mental health. Both hypothyroid and hyperthyroid conditions can influence mental health.

Generally speaking, an underactive thyroid contributes more to depression, and an overactive thyroid contributes more to anxiety. But there are also cases of anxiety from low thyroid levels and depression resulting from high thyroid levels. In fact, as high as 40% of people with affective disorders such as anxiety and depression have an underlying thyroid condition.

If you’ve been managing a mental health condition and it has failed to respond to traditional approaches, it’s worth investigating your thyroid function as a cause.

Your digestion

 We know that gut health is a huge part of addressing your thyroid issues. But did you know it’s a two-way relationship - and the thyroid influences your gut health?

There are some obvious ways that this happens - for example, constipation is common in hypothyroid cases as it slows digestion, and diarrhoea is common in hyperthyroid cases. You can also experience reduced production of stomach acid and enzymes. In both hyper and hypo, poor absorption of nutrients is common.

Thyroid issues can lead to the development of digestive conditions such as small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO). Studies have also found that Graves’ disease can lead to dysbiosis, or an imbalance between healthy and unhealthy bacteria in the gut.

So if you’ve noticed your digestive symptoms flare more when your thyroid is playing up, it’s worth investigating.

Are you looking to learn more about how your thyroid condition affects your health and what to do about it?

Make sure you grab a copy of one of my ebooks for plenty of actionable content and helpful advice! If you have hyperthyroidism or Graves’, check out this ebook here. If you have hypothyroidism or Hashimoto’s, this is the ebook for you.