Weight and Hypothyroidism: Thyroid Nutrition for Weight loss and Better Energy• You will want to know more about common foods and pollutants that interfere with your hormones -- especially your thyroid hormones. Why? • Because thyroid hormones help regulate weight and energy level. • Thyroid dysfunction is epidemic, and endocrinologists suggest that as many as 25% of adult American women have a thyroid dysfunction. And just throwing a thyroid pill at this problem is not always the answer. How Do Thyroid Hormones Affect Your Weight and Energy?Hormones play a major role in determining and maintaining metabolism and the body’s set point. When levels of these hormones (produced by the thyroid, sympathetic nervous system and reproductive organs) deviate from the norm, problems with weight, energy and mood often ensue.• New factors in both our diet and in the environment are being shown to “interrupt thyroid function,” and this is contributing to the epidemic of obesity, fatigue and ill health. • If you have hypothyroidism, hyperthyroidism or other thyroid disorders such as Graves disease, you will want to know what is in your diet that can either interfere with or heal your thyroid gland. • You will also want to know more about anti-thyroid environmental contaminants. How Your Diet Can Cause Thyroid Problems1) Mineral Deficiencies• IODINE DEFICIENCY: the essential trace element iodine is the central constituent of thyroid hormones.Some experts say that our current dietary iodine intake is too low so that we are not protected against today’s levels of radiation and environmental pollution that harms the thyroid. • Why you might not get enough iodine? Fluorine, chlorine, and bromine take it out of the body. Fluorine, chlorine, (in our water) and bromine are all more chemically reactive than iodine; when in the body, they all tend to disrupt stable iodine molecules, displacing the iodine and causing its excretion. We get bromine from pesticides, dough conditioners, and from disinfectants for water in hot tubs and commercial spas. • SELENIUM DEFICIENCY: An essential trace element, selenium, is also required for appropriate thyroid hormone synthesis, activation and metabolism. (Biochimie. 1999 May;81(5):527-33.) Many areas of the world’s soils are selenium deficient, so that what you eat will not give enough selenium. How To Improve Thyroid Health“Many times I have seen chronically exhausted patients exhibit complete symptom resolution after several weeks of adding 5-10 grams of seaweeds to their daily diets, ” Ryan Drum, PhD, AHG.Sea vegetables or seaweeds provide ample supplies of most of the essential trace elements required for adequate enzyme functioning throughout the body but especially in the liver and endocrine glands. They provide thyroid gland aid from both sustained regular reliable dietary sources of bio molecular iodine and from thyroxin-like molecules present in marine algae. • Uncomplicated seaweed therapy works for most cases of hypothyroidism. Why? The re-mineralizing that occurs with sea vegetable treatment provides abundant trace minerals including iodine and selenium for restoring thyroid function. Ryan Drum’s Simple Sea Vegetable Thyroid Recommendations Wild Sea Vegetable Recipes from Wild and Natural BC Kelp Sea Veggie Pasta, Soup, Crackers and Salad Recipes World Famous FIVE STAR Restaurant adds fresh SEAWEEDS to its Menu 2) Foods That Suppress the Thyroid: Soy and Cruciferous Veggies• DIETARY FLAVONOIDS: The isoflavones in soya foods may depress thyroid function through TPO inhibition. Genistein and equol, are inhibitors of thyroid peroxidase, the thyroid follicle enzyme which makes T4 and T3.This inhibition may generate goiters, hypothyroidism, and autoimmune thyroiditis. Since isoflavones are being touted as cancer preventatives, especially for breast and prostate cancers, their addition to non-soya foods may be a potential thyroid disaster. Isoflavones can stop the thyroid from making hormones. (In scientific terms: these flavenoids inhibit the thyro-peroxidase that catalyzes iodination and thyroid hormone biosynthesis.” PMID: 17651757 PubMed) • CABBAGE, CAULIFLOWER, KALE, RUTABAGA, AND KOHLRABI, contain a compound called thiocyanate found in such Brassicae plants which INHIBITS the thyroid. This thyroid inhibiting substance is also found in tropical plants such as cassava, lima beans, linseed, bamboo shoots, and sweet potatoes. • CORN AND SOYA OILS: Pig farmers know that pigs will grow fatter by feeding them corn and soy oil. Why? These oils suppress the thyroid, causing the pigs to grow fatter. • Tobacco smoke is also a source of thiocyanate. 3) All Corticosteroids Tend To Depress Thyroid FunctionThyroid disruptive medications are:Aspirin, HRT, warfarin and other anti clotting drugs, many antidepressants and steroids, particularly cortisone and prednisone. Both internal and topical steroid use, including Prednisone and topical creams, as well as salicylates and anticoagulants can aggravate existing mild hypothyroidism. How Pollutants Stop Weight Loss, Causing Diets to FailIndustrial and household pollutants are making us fat. How? Scientists at Laval University found that as people lost weight, the chemicals that had been stored in their fat were released into their blood.And as the levels of pollutants rose in dieters, THEIR LEVELS OF ESSENTIAL THYROID HORMONES – NECESSARY FOR MAINTAINING AN EFFICIENT METABOLISM – FELL DRAMATICALLY. According to Dr. Angelo Tremblay, who has studied their effect on weight loss, says that: • “Organochlorines essentially shut down the metabolic furnace that helps the body burn fat.” Pollutants cause weight gain, according to Dr. Baillie-Hamilton, of the Occupational and Environmental Health Research Group, Stirling University, because of the way industrial pollutants interact with the sympathetic nervous system. • The sympathetic nervous system releases hormones like adrenaline and noradrenaline that affect the appetite, particularly for fat. These hormones also affect the ability and desire to exercise, as well as regulating body temperature, so that while you are exercising you are also burning calories more efficiently. • “Chemicals like organochlorines act directly on the sympathetic nervous system attacking each and every part of the way it works,” she explains. “It’s like a chemical cosh. Chemicals reduce levels of important hormones necessary for weight balance and also block and even destroy the hormone receptors in fat cells. This means the hormones can’t communicate with the fat cell and the cell becomes less sensitive to those metabolism-regulating hormones that are in circulation.” • The list of neurotoxins and hormone disruptors is long, and includes common pesticides, flame retardants, and every-day household and industrial products. Dentists are still using mercury even though mercury is a well known anti thyroid substance -- causing inhibition of deiodinases and thyroid peroxidase. Stress Inhibits Your ThyroidOngoing emotional stress can be a primary factor that disturbs thyroid function.• There is a body of science showing how stress disrupts thyroid function, blocking or reducing the activation of basic thyroid hormone (T4) to its active form (T3). The “relaxation reserves” for any person are all the things in one’s life that feel good. This includes adequate sleep, refreshing exercise, enjoyable activities – compared to all the demands of a person’s life. When this issue goes out of balance then constant feelings of stress become a major factor that disturbs thyroid hormone function. Help Your Weight, and Energy by Helping Your ThyroidGiven that pollution can be avoided by no one, we would all do well to add foods to our diet that protect the thyroid, even if not diagnosed with hypothyroidism.A simple effective step is to use seaweeds, or sea vegetables as your preventive medicine. • Sea Vegetables Are the Best Dietary Sources of Essential Minerals: All essential minerals are provided by dietary seaweeds. No land plant even remotely approaches seaweeds as sources of metabolically-required minerals. • The seaweeds with the most available iodine are the giant kelps of the northern hemisphere, with the highest concentrations of iodine occurring in the most northern kelps. • Good Sources for Pacific Sea Vegetables and the Best Iodine-rich Kelp: Island Herbs - Medicinal Herbs & Sea Vegetables from Ryan Drum, Phd, Ahg 100% Wild & Northern Canadian Kelp: Hand Harvested Dried Sea Vegetables Kelp from the Clean, Cold Waters of Vancouver Island’s West Coast Pacific Ocean How Much Do I Add To My Diet?Herbalist Ryan Drum, has successfully prescribed daily dietary dosages of 3-5 grams of a good powdered kelp which provide enough iodine and most of the essential trace elements:• 4 grams of powdered seaweed per day is 1 ounce per week, is 3 and 1/4 pounds of seaweed per year. • Any seaweed contains more available dietary iodine than any land plant. Restoring Your Health, Energy and WeightIf you are already taking medications for hypothyroidism you can certainly benefit from adding sea vegetables to your diet, and possibly work with your doctor to reduce your medications. Why?• Your body can best regulate the exact amount of hormones that YOU need. Regulating YOU with medication takes a lot of skill and dedication and is a balancing act beyond the scope of the average GP. • Thyroid medications are not without drawbacks. Some serious drawbacks are: Treating hypothyroidism with thyroid hormone can induce hyperthyroidism and reduce bone mass in postmenopausal women, and increase the risk of atrial fibrillation.
A clinical trial found a significant worsening in anxiety scores with L-thyroxine versus a placebo. Recommendations For Best Sea Vegetable Supplements:LinksNew Miracle Food Supplements from Land and Sea Weight and Hormone Disrupting Plastics and Chemical Pollutants Auto Immune Diseases: Graves Disease, Rheumatoid Arthritis Hypothyroidism Related to Heart Disease In Middle Aged Women Thyroid Hormones, Weight and Weight Loss Diets: Hypothyroidism and Your Diet
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