Significance of Low Thyroid
Thyroid hormone is absolutely essential to life! It stimulates making ENERGY. It is what turns on the lights and makes the conveyor belts run in your intracellular factories!
EVERY single cell in your body has thyroid hormone receptors on it. That is rare for hormones… Most are only active on certain cells, but thyroid hormone is needed by EVERY cell.
If you can’t make energy, you can’t do much.
So what causes low thyroid?
Hypothyroidism
This is where your thyroid gland doesn’t make enough hormone. In the USA, the #1 reason is an autoimmune condition called Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis. That’s where your immune system attacks your thyroid gland. Eventually damaging it so much that the thyroid can’t make hormones, and you suffer.
It’s also a BIG RED FLAG of immune system dysfunction! God made your immune system to fight viruses, bacteria, and cancer, and if you have Hashimoto’s, it’s attacking YOU! I wrote a blog post on Hashimoto’s–link here.
Thyroid Hormone Metabolism Problems
Your thyroid gland makes T4 (thyroxine), but your cells need T3 (tri-iodothyronine). Your body has to convert the T4 to T3 to get the benefits of thyroid hormone.
Here’s where it gets a little tricky! In times of stress, toxins, liver or kidney dysfunction and inflammation, your body will make a DIFFERENT hormone out of T4. Instead of T3 it makes Reverse-T3. Look at your TWO HANDS. They are similar (they both have 4 fingers and a thumb) but they are not interchangeable… Well, T3 is your right hand and RT3 is your left hand. It just so happens that the thyroid hormone receptor is a right-handed glove. Get the picture?
So making enough T4 is only half the picture. You also need to convert it to the active hormone. If you’re making RT3 instead of T3, you’ll FEEL hypothyroid, because you don’t have enough active hormone.
For More Information
Here’s a link to a masterclass I held on thyroid function.
Here’s a link to a blog post I wrote: Thyroid Tests you NEED to Get!
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