Functional medicine approach to treat thyroid

[Dr. Anshul Gupta]

Thyroid disorders are increasing at an alarming rate. More and more females are suffering daily from thyroid diseases and now we are seeing even children and men getting thyroid problems too.  Nobody is paying attention to this rapid rise in thyroid disorder. The reason being most people have no idea why there is such an increase in thyroid disorders. The worst part is that even after being on the treatment most of these females continue to suffer from symptoms. This is where functional medicine has been useful, as it is root cause medicine. And through this root cause approach, we are able to identify the cause of thyroid disorder and help people to reverse it. So if you have unresolved symptoms of thyroid like fatigue, weight issues, brain fog, hair problems, chronic pain issues then you should look at working with a functional medicine provider. - functional medicine thyroid doctors

 

What are different kinds of thyroid disorders?

 

Thyroid disorders are very common and it is estimated that 10% of the world population suffer from some kind of thyroid disorder.

1. Hypothyroidism or low thyroid: This is the most common disorder of the thyroid gland in which the thyroid gland is not able to produce enough thyroid hormone.

 

1. Hashimoto’s disease. Hashimoto’s disease is an autoimmune condition of the thyroid gland where your body starts producing antibodies against thyroid tissue. These antibodies start the destruction of your thyroid gland. Over the course of time, this destruction of the thyroid gland continues and ultimately leads to hypothyroidism or low thyroid. In this condition now your thyroid gland is not able to produce enough thyroid hormone and that’s leads to the development of various symptoms. Hashimoto’s disease is the most common autoimmune disease. It most commonly affects middle aged women mainly in the age range of  30 and 50-year age. And Hashimoto’s disease is the number one reason for females getting hypothyroid.
2. Hyperthyroidism or Graves disease: This is a condition where the thyroid gland produces an excessive amount of thyroid hormone. This is also an autoimmune condition, but here antibodies cause excessive production of thyroid hormone.

 

What are the symptoms of thyroid?

So based on what kind of thyroid disorder you have the symptoms might differ. But there are several symptoms that are common to all thyroid disorders. So the most common symptoms of thyroid are :

 

• Fatigue
• Constipation
• Weight gain or difficulty in losing weight
• Feeling cold
• Dry and thinning hair
• Mood changes like depression, anxiety.
• Menstrual problems like irregular periods or heavy periods
• Fertility issues
• Chronic pain specially in muscles and joints
• Dry and rough skin
• Swelling specially around eyes and face

 

How is the functional medicine approach different than conventional medicine to treat thyroid.

The conventional way of treating the thyroid is by giving thyroid medicine, levothyroxine. But most of the patients who have been on levothyroxine, still continue to suffer from symptoms. The reason being we are not treating the underlying cause of thyroid problems. We need to go to the root cause of the thyroid problem and fix it from there. This is where functional medicine is useful, as it is the root cause of medicine and helps reverse thyroid problems. The functional medicine approach is more comprehensive and takes care of all the aspects of thyroid health. Functional medicine is a more natural way of treating thyroid problems, and it has better results.

 

Here is the functional medicine approach to treating the thyroid.

1. Taking an in-depth history: In functional medicine, we are interested in knowing about your life in detail. We want to know the story of your thyroid, not just about your symptoms. Because symptoms are just the tip of the iceberg, but we want to know what is happening deep within your body that is causing the thyroid disorder. A functional medicine provider spends an hour or more digging deeper into your history to find the real cause of your thyroid. Most of the time a good history will help us know whether your thyroid problem was triggered by certain foods or certain toxins in your environment or some kind of infection or maybe a stressful event. So collecting information about your health is the very first step in functional medicine.
2. Complete thyroid Testing: In functional medicine we check the thyroid hormones in detail, to give us the complete picture of thyroid functioning. The most basic screening blood work to check for thyroid disease is doing TSH. If the levels of TSH are high, that signifies hypothyroidism, but if it is normal then people are told they don’t have any thyroid problem. But it is also important to look at levels of individual thyroid hormone levels like Free T3 and Free T4 to get an accurate measurement of thyroid gland functioning.

Along with checking your thyroid hormones we also need to check for thyroid antibodies. These antibodies tell whether you have Hashimoto’s disease or not. Most females who have hypothyroidism also have Hashimoto’s disease. But they have never been checked for it.The two antibodies to get checked for Hashimoto’s disease are TPO (thyroid peroxidase antibody) and thyroglobulin antibodies. Most of the people with Hashimoto disease will have elevated levels of these antibodies.

So by in-depth testing of your thyroid gland, a functional medicine provider can help you control your thyroid better.

 

3. Lifestyle changes. Once we have collected all the information through history and in-depth testing we start making a plan to get your thyroid better. Thyroid disease is an interplay between your genetics and environmental factors, and if we address these environmental factors it can help controlling thyroid diseases better. In Functional medicine, we make a plan to improve lifestyle factors that can help improve your thyroid disease. These lifestyle factors include proper diet, exercising, stress management, optimizing sleep. Research shows that All of these lifestyle factors are known to influence your thyroid health.
4. Supplements: The thyroid is an endocrine gland and needs several vitamins and minerals to function properly. Because of various reasons, our body gets low on these vitamins and minerals and this causes thyroid disorder. It has been shown that low levels of selenium are associated with thyroid disorders, Similarly, we have good research that supports the use of several other vitamins like vitamin D, Zinc, etc to help improve thyroid function. Functional medicine helps you to pick the right supplements that help you in healing your thyroid naturally.
5. Advanced Testing: In functional medicine we offer advanced lab testing to check for inflammation in your body, toxins in your body, nutrient deficiencies, and also your genetic make up. This advanced testing further helps us to fine tune your treatment protocol, so that you get better results.

 

So you can see a functional medicine approach is a 360-degree approach to your thyroid problem. It is not a quick fix, but a more sustainable cure for your thyroid. Functional medicine protocols are more in depth and help you get rid of symptoms that you have been suffering for a long time.

Conventional medicine offers you only one option to treat your thyroid problems with thyroid medicine, while functional medicine makes a comprehensive protocol. These protocols give you better results and can help you to reverse your thyroid disease.

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