🏒 Fett🏋️🥋

Thyroid is essentially the signal to tell the rest of the body that energy is available. The reason this is so important is because: a) that signal of energy availability is what pushes your body to metabolic max. The healing, growing and full capacity side of things b) there is no system in your body that isn’t really affected by the thyroid Poor thyroid function means the body is stressed for whatever reason(s) that may be. Energy availability of course links to how much and what you eat. But it also links to stress and environment. So anything that improves your health overall, will likely improve your thyroid. Carbs help with t4->t3 conversion, mito energy production, glycogen replenishment, insulin signalling, reduced stress response to name a few. Protein will help with tissue repair, muscle growth, cellular functions, maintenance of lean tissue etc. Using protein is also energetically expensive. Just because you provide the raw materials doesnt mean you are using them optimally. Hence adequate carbs and overall cvalories matter too. Light environment is very important and very underrated for thyroid. Light entering your eyes basically goes directly to your brains circadian clock. There are biological rhythms that control when your body should sleep, recover, digest, feed and be active. You've heard this a million times but morning light is especially important. Including for thyroid because of the fact that it sets the biological clock for all of these systems and their processes. The flipside is just as important. Darkness at night has the same important effects as light in the mornings. This influences: melatonin, cortisol, sleepiness, wakefulness, body temp, metabolic activity, glucose regulation, and the circadian clocks in your tissues. Literally every cell in your body expresses CLOCK genes. Onto stress which reduces thyroid even when everything else may be adequate. Too much and/or long term cortisol brings down TRH which reduces TSH which reduces T4 and T3. Cortisol also reduces T4->T3 conversion, increases rT3 and converts T3->T2. Most people these days are stressed 24/7. Including over stupid things like what coffee shall i get from starbucks today. One of the reasons why people feel tired, cold and anxious all the time is because thyroid and adrenaline are linked. When thyroid activity is poor and the body's systems are suffering, it can increase adrenaline to try and compensate to increase energy output. This can lead to the previously mentioned symptoms. Not only that but poor sleep can also activate the same compensation. (micro)Nutrients are essential for optimal thyroid. The numbers on T4 and T3 literally refer to how many iodines they have. You need to ensure adequate (but also not too much) iodine. Not enough selenium means your deiodenase enzymes are not working at their best. Selenium is also important for other enzymes that help with anti-oxidation effects and cell signalling. (The stuff selenium helps with is vast and complicated, just make sure you get enough but also not too much lol). Iron deficiency causes problems too. Low iron means less thyroid peroxidase (TPO) which means no iodine onto tyrosine so no thyroid hormones. Low iron makes TPO unstable which actiaves the immunse system. That can lead to anti-TPO antibodies and maybe hashimotos. Low iron also downregulates deiodinase enzymes so you can't convert T4 to active T3. Long term lack of iron causes cell stress, which reduces metabolic output which reduces t3 and increase rt3. SEVERE iron deficiency can also mess with your brains ability to even detect thyroid levels in the blood. The funny thing is poor thyroid function then results in a bad environment to use and absorb iron. So they make each other worse. Zinc can be thought of as the key to even allowing t3 to work so without enough zinc you can have great t3 levels and be hypothyroid in the tissues. Zinc is also necessary for the deiodinase enzymes and is required for TRH production. Low TRH means no signal from the brain to ask for more thyroid hormones. Hypothyrodism also makes zinc absorption worse just like iron. Once t3 binds to thyroid receptors in the nucleus, the TRs need to pair up with another receptor. THat is a retinoid receptor (RXR). Low Vit A means less RXR means TRs can't fully activate which means again, good t3 levels but hypothyroid in the tissues. Vit A also helps your body actually pull iodine from the blood into the cells which means no T4 or T3. Vit A also helps reduce TSH gene expression. No Vit A means excessive TSH and high TSH itself is no bueno. Hypothyroidism also affects vit A. Poor thyroid means beta carotene builds up instead of usable vit A (and you turn orange). Tyrosine is the backbone for thyroid hormones. It's what the iodines attach to. Thyroglobulin in the thyroid has a hoard of tyrosine for TPO to attach iodines to, to make T4 and T3. Tyrosine is also the backbone for adrenaline, dopamine etc so for a lot of people all the tyrosine is being shunted to make stress hormones which means thyroid suffers. Finally, thyroid function and metabolic health are inseparable. Excess fat, low muscle mass, insulin resistance all link back to the thyroid.