For a small gland, the thyroid can create some big problems and cause countless confounding symptoms. Too hot or too cold? Check your thyroid. Gaining or losing weight? Check your thyroid. Depressed? Anxious? Experiencing infertility? You guessed it–check your thyroid!
While it is easy to run a few tests to pinpoint the thyroid as the culprit–and send you home with a prescription–as a functional medicine practitioner, I’m also concerned with why your thyroid is wreaking so much damage and what we can do about it.
The thyroid gland is a butterfly shaped organ that sits in the middle of the neck. The brain tells our thyroid to make thyroid hormone–the hormone that controls metabolism. We have thyroid receptors on every cell in our body, so when our thyroid is off, it can have many diverse and widespread effects. Over 20 million Americans have some sort of thyroid disease and over half of these people are undiagnosed. The thyroid can be overactive, causing symptoms of hyperthyroidism, such as a racing heart, weight loss, diarrhea, and anxiety; or underactive, with symptoms of hypothyroidism–weight gain, fatigue, and constipation to name a few. Hypothyroidism is the most common form of thyroid disease with autoimmune thyroid disease, known as Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, being the most prevalent.
A dysfunctioning thyroid is not always evident from the basic blood work doctors tend to order. Many people have classic symptoms of a thyroid problem, but they are told everything is normal because their thyroid test is normal. I like to do a deeper investigation by ordering less conventional tests that will often point to the thyroid. Also, many doctors use lab ranges that the lab sets, which are based on the average of people who have had that test, including very sick people and people on thyroid medicine, making this population far from a picture of perfect thyroid health. They do not use functional ranges which are based on optimal thyroid health.
Once we find a thyroid problem, it’s important to dig a little deeper to find out what is going on “under the hood”. For example, if someone has a low functioning thyroid, we want to know what’s driving it: Is there poor blood sugar control? What about nutrient deficiencies? Are we dealing with gut infections? Could there be an adrenal problem or hormonal imbalances? Does environmental toxicity play a role? What about autoimmunity? All of these can lead to the same end result of having an under functioning thyroid, but are all different root causes. Figuring out the cause is key since it helps us figure out the appropriate treatment, and not just apply a band-aid on the symptom.
Properly identifying a thyroid problem and its cause are the first steps towards feeling better and improving quality of life. Treatment may include thyroid hormone, but sometimes thyroid function can be restored with changes in diet, stress reduction, herbs, and supplements. I like to provide solutions that put control back in my patient’s hands instead of in a medicine bottle. The good news is that with the right tests and a little sleuthing, we can get that thyroid functionally optimally again.