Are you suffering from symptoms so vague that you thought that's just a normal part of your life? Do you feel fatigued, feeling unrested once woken up, weight gain, or brain fog?
How about hair loss, constipation, hot flashes, cold hands and feet, brittle nails, dry skin, restless leg, low sex drive, depression, anxiety, depression, infertility, muscle cramps, aches and pain? Are you one of them? If so, you may be living with a thyroid condition. Most of these symptoms aren’t necessarily severe enough to send you to the emergency room, but they certainly affect your life quality. Hypothyroidism is one of the most common conditions nowadays. Nearly 1 in 3 people have thyroids disease, with the majority of which are women. Because the symptoms of thyroid disease are so common and vague, a lot of people aren’t even aware of their thyroid gland isn’t working properly. In the US, hypothyroidism is undiagnosed in half of the 45 million people who have it. So what is hypothyroidism? The thyroid is a gland that sits in front of your throat. It regulates the body’s metabolism rate, heart function, digestive function, muscle control, brain development, mood, etc. When the thyroid under-produces thyroid hormone for our body, or when fewer thyroid hormones are available to our body, a series of body functions will slow down. You can check your temperature and it should be at 37 degrees. If it's 36.2-36.8 degrees, it means your thyroid is sluggish. Your thermostat and our bodies run perfectly at 37 degrees. Firstly, our overall metabolism slows down. Every other organ and system in your body will accordingly run at a slower rate, including the gut, brain, and muscle. A typical person will feel very tired easily. Weight will start to increase regardless of a low-calorie diet and daily exercise. The digestion system will slow down. Someone might feel bloated after eating and experience constipation on daily basis. Hair will fall out at an alarming rate, sometimes eyebrows will fall as well. Thyroid hormone is like a master switch that connects a lot of the body system and keeps everything running. When your thyroid is healthy and functioning at a full speed, you will feel great. But when it is under-functioning, everything will seem off. I see thyroid problems in my practice every single day. Most of the time, patients don’t come to me for their thyroid because they don’t even know it is their thyroid cause of all the symptoms that brought them to me in the first place. I remember the story of one patient who was 29 years old. This lady came to me because she couldn’t get pregnant. When I started to investigate her infertility case, I found out she has classical symptoms of hypothyroidism: fatigue, poor memory, slight depression, weight gain, constipation. She was blaming her symptoms for her stressful financial work. Stress is one reason causing her symptoms, but that is not the whole story. We found out her thyroid was severely under function and her antibodies are through the roof. Once we started to address her hypothyroidism issue and start her diet to overcome the condition. She got pregnant naturally three months later. Here are three steps to solve hypothyroidism if you experience some of the symptoms: 1. Remove gluten from your diet 2. Add iodine-rich food to your diet. Iodine is a component of the thyroid hormone, without iodine, your body cannot make thyroid hormone. Take 3-5 drops/day of our Lugol's Solution. 3. Have two Brazilian nuts every day because it is rich in selenium, one of the most nutrients that helps convert T4 (an inactive form of thyroid hormone) to T3 (the active form of thyroid hormones that can be used by the body).