Importance of Nutrients for Normal Thyroid Gland
Every individual with an underactive thyroid is advised to do a blood test for thyroid hormones. The doctor checks for thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) levels specifically. TSH is a hormone that comes from your brain and it travels to your thyroid gland to produce T4 (Thyroxine/ Tetraiodothyronine). T4 is an inactive thyroid hormone. Then T4 travels through the blood stream and when it gets to the peripheral blood tissues it is converted into T3 (tri-iodothyronine), what we would call as the active form of thyroid hormone. T3 then has to get inside of your cell nucleus to bind with the nuclear receptor which is present on the surface of the nucleus and that is what increases your metabolism. So, do these functions and conversions just happen by themselves? No, there are certain nutrients which are essential for normal thyroid hormone production and regulation. Often, many doctors tend to miss out the diagnosis for the same and the thyroid issues become worse with every passing day.
Nutrients which help in normal Thyroid Hormone Production, Regulation and Functioning:
TSH does not just appear, in order to make adequate TSH we require adequate proteins in our diet. To assist the normal production of TSH there are a few micronutrients which aid the regulation like Magnesium, Vitamin B12 and Zinc.
Iodine is required to make T4. The 4 of T4 refers to 4 molecules of iodine. Goitre is thyroid gland enlargement because of Iodine deficiency. Hence use of iodized table salt would help. Iodine can also be procured from eating fresh vegetables, sea-foods, kelp and sea-weed. Now to help draw normal amount of Iodine into the thyroid gland it requires help of Vitamin B2 and Vitamin C.
Then conversion of T4 to T3 requires and enzyme which is driven by the nutrient or mineral selenium. But to activate the nuclear receptor which helps T3 activation to increase metabolic rate and energy it requires Vitamin D and vitamin A.
Hence when your nutrition is corrected and if you are taking conventional medicine for an underactive thyroid you may experience excessive sweating, anxiety, night sweats, inability to sleep, hot flashes which are an indicator that you could be getting hyperthyroid. So, keeping a check on the thyroid hormones through blood test is very essential to correct the dose of thyroid medicines when the nutrients are corrected. Every nutrient should be consumed under the guidance of a doctor.
This is where Homoeopathy helps better than conventional medicine as it does not lead to sudden increase in metabolism and making a hypothyroid patient go into hyperthyroid state.
Benefits of Homoeopathy
Homoeopathy helps to produce thyroid hormone naturally by stimulating the immune system and helps in better functioning of the thyroid gland.
Homoeopathic remedies work by stimulating the body’s own healing capacity by encouraging the body to reactivate hormone secretions.
Homeopathy is free from any side-effects.
Homoeopathic medicines help to reduce stress if any and rebuild self-confidence because it deals with the patient as a person and not only the disease.
Conventional medicines could lead to more exhaustion or tiredness which is a minor side-effect seen with these medicines but with homoeopathy there is no such side-effect.
Homoeopathy improves the body’s immunity which in turn helps to keep the thyroid gland functions normal.
Homoeopathic medicines are not addictive and do not damage any other organs of the body unlike conventional medicines.
