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5 Tips to Take Back Your Thyroid Mojo
Today I’m manhandling 5 Mojo-zappers. Five things that I often find are depleting the energy of patients in my integrative medicine practice. Five things I want on your radar. Five things I want you to remove from your life. Now.
- Dial in your free T3. I find this tracks with mojo more than any other indicator of your thyroid function. I like to see my patients in the top half of the normal range.
- Correct your low Vitamin D. Even with all the press this cute little hormone gets, 90% of my patients are low. Yet Vitamin D has over 1000 jobs in your cells. My fave? It drives thyroid hormone into your cell nucleus, where it can work its wonders. Get some. Keep your level above 52. For optimal metabolism, I like 70-90.
- Beware: Endocrine disruptors. These buggers are killing you softly. They’re in your jeans (2/3 of jeans are manufactured in China). They’re in your mattress. They’re in your canned food. They’re in your car upholstery. Reduce your exposure starting today. Get your organic mattress (although you may need a doctor’s prescription – how ridiculous is that?). Get organic jeans against your skin (they are far foxier than they used to be). Eat fresh, organic, seasonal food rather than the canned crap. Be mindful about your plastics and cleaning products.
- Check your cortisol. Adrenal dysregulation – that is, a cortisol that is either higher or lower than normal – can influence your thyroid functioning. Both high and low cortisol affects how much T3 you make.
- Meditate. It elongates your telomeres, the sweet little shoelace caps on your chromosomes, longer and slows down biological aging. Even beginners get a boost in telomere length, says Nobel prizewinner Elizabeth Blackburn!
Written by Dr. Sarah Gottfried
Gottfried Center: Integrative Medicine for Women
Tags: 5 Tips to Take Back Your Thyroid Mojo by Dr. Sara Gottfried, adrenal dysregulation, Beware of endocrine disruptors, check your cortisol, correct vitamin d levels, ideally Vit-D should be 70-90, meditate, test free T3 excellent indicator of thyroid function, VitD should be 52
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6 Responses to “5 Tips to Take Back Your Thyroid Mojo”
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I am off to elongates my telomeres! Thanks for the tips 🙂
How exactly does one keep track of his or her Vitamin D levels? Doesn’t this require a blood test from a doctor? How frequently should it be measured? How much does it fluctuate from day-to-day or month-to-month?
Can a person really get enough from photosynthesis, especially given how so many people these days have indoor jobs and indoor recreation, and indoor everything, plus on top of that the constant messages from all around to wear SPF30 and so on? How much skin should be exposed to the sun each day, and for how long? Which time of day is best? What about cloudy days, or in the winter? What if drinking milk is a problem?
“All I do is lay around because I’m so tired, which is why I can’t make it outside to go lay around.” (OK, that last comment was a meant to be funny…)
Love the humor, guys. More humor is tip #5 for thyroid mojo. From Mike’s comments, I need to post more on Vitamin D! You can get a vitamin D level online via labs such as canaryclub.org or you can ask your doctor to test it. If it’s low, I recommend increased replacement and retest after 6-12 weeks. You can get enough from sunlight depending on where you live. Here in the Bay Area, most of my patients are way low for 8+ months of the year. You have to balance getting vitamin D with the risk of skin exposure, which depends on your melanin, skin and family history – in other words, I can’t give you more specific medical advice about duration and sun block without knowing you. Hopefully that’s enough to get a great dialogue going with your own doctor!
I love this so much, Dr. G. My Vit-D is shamefully low. No, it’s embarrassing. I’m all over it on a completely different level now. Hocking shmendo ASAP.
These are excellent tips. I just started yoga and I love it. I suck at it, but I really love it.
So lovely to see your beautiful face.
xo
fab tips, we can all do stuff that will make a difference, never give up!!!
Great tips Dr G depending on where you live..
Lolly