Could your thyroid be at the root of the symptoms you’re experiencing? Over 10 million Americans have been diagnosed with thyroid disease, and it’s estimated that another 13 million are undiagnosed! Yikes!!

Two weeks ago I wrote a case study about Jennifer and how we healed her thyroid to help her clear brain fog, lose belly fat and feel like herself again. You can read that here.

The following symptoms can be associated with hypothyroidism:

• Brain fog - trouble concentrating and even depression
• Low libido
• Long menstrual cycles, prolonged periods or very intense menopause symptoms
• Low blood pressure (this can also be normal) 
• Dry, brittle hair (and/or loss of outer 3rd of eyebrow)
• Dry, scaly skin with tendency to eczema / psoriasis
• Fatigue, muscle weakness 
• Constipation
• Real problems falling or staying asleep
• Frequent headaches
• Difficulty losing weight, regardless of diet & exercise 
• Feeling cold all of the time

What you MUST know about your thyroid:

Depending on the doc, when you go in complaining of excess weight or really low energy, he or she will hopefully test your TSH and might test your T4. 

Now, here’s the thing. On MOST lab results, the acceptable range for your TSH is 0.5-4 or 0.5-5. This range is too wide for optimal health and you may still experience hypothyroidism symptoms at a TSH higher than 2.0. Optimal is really 0.5-2. What this means is that if you fall into this wider range, no flags will be raised and you'll be told you're fine!

Perhaps you're lucky though and you test your TSH (and maybe your T4), only to uncover there is hypothyroidism at play. (I mean lucky to figure out what it is). That does give you an answer as to why you're feeling the way you do, but you still don’t know the root cause.

So, let’s say you do uncover you are hypothyroid, and you get put on Synthroid. This is a band aid solution that doesn't get to the root cause. It can definitely help, but what happens when over time you need to keep increasing the dosage just to maintain the same TSH levels? Why not address the root cause of your thyroid.

There are a number of reasons your thyroid can be out of balance. To name a few:

• Cortisol (stress hormone) imbalances
• Nutrient deficiencies
• Food sensitivities (gluten is the most commonly connected to thyroid)
• Poor liver function
• BPA / chemical exposure
• Compromised gut health

How I can help you heal your thyroid:

If you are feeling the common issues associated with thyroid, like low energy, brain fog, trouble losing weight or dry brittle hair/nails, the first thing we do is test your hormones.

This is a test that you can do at home as it requires saliva & blood spot testing. This test looks at the following:

• Cortisol (4 times throughout the day) 
• DHEA
• Estrogen
• Progesterone
• Testosterone
• TSH
• Free T3
• Free T4
• Thyroid antibodies (to understand if your thyroid condition is autoimmune)

I then get you to have your iron tested through your family doctor to ensure this is not an issue.

Next, I ask you to complete a really detailed health questionnaire, outlining all of your symptoms, your health history, your family health history, and food journal. Let’s not forget I am a nutritionist, so if there are certain foods you’re eating or nutrients you're lacking that could be making the thyroid symptoms worse, then I will give you recipes and meal plans to address that.

By looking at all areas of your health, including hormones and the latest blood-work from your doc, I can understand the root cause and create a custom plan for you to imrpove your thyroid symptoms. It doesn’t happen overnight; it typically take a few months, but if you think about how long you’ve been dealing with these issues, a few months is nothing!

If you are experiencing thyroid problems, and want to get your energy back, lose weight or clear up your brain fog, click here to book a complimentary nutrition session.