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The Facts Surrounding Adrenal Gland Stress – part 1

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Figment, Fatigue, Copycat or Multiple Culprits? The Facts Surrounding Adrenal Gland Stress Part I
 
Several months ago, I wrote a series recognizing stress as its own particular mafia-like crime family bent on creating mayhem within the body. You’ll want to pull that crime scene file as a reference tool as we address adrenal gland health, function and distress. Adrenal fatigue is not an officially recognized entity within western medicine and should not be confused with Addison’s disease, a rare disorder which causes severe and permanent adrenal insufficiency only relieved by medication. The progression of adrenal fatigue is akin to watching an automobile accident happen in slow motion beginning well before the actual collision. A series of events took place leading up to the actual accident. Separately, fiddling with the radio, the wet streets, the tread a little too worn on the tires, the kids wrestling in the back seat, the phone ringing, the car in front slamming on their brakes didn’t cause the accident. The accident occurred because of an accumulation of events. Such is the case with adrenal fatigue.
 
As this crime scene is dis-assembled and reassembled, bear in mind that there will be many overlapping clues🔎 leading to other dis-ease states: anemia, sleep apnea, autoimmune disorders, subclinical infections, POTS, hormonal impairments, major organ disorders and deficiencies (common ones being B12, folate, iron/ferritin, magnesium, and Vitamin D), and perhaps these dis-ease states may be playing a role in your personal crime scenario that is (or is not) adrenal fatigue.
 
The biggest baddest clue in town for adrenal fatigue is all manner of stress, specifically the stress that has led up to this point. Adrenal fatigue is predated by at least two years of chronic stress that nearly always comes from more than one source. Every single crime scene is different, and in order to map out your particular story, you’ll want to spend a little time putting together a timeline of clues.🔎 On your timeline, you’ll want to log the dates and each incident in all of the following categories of stress:
  • Hospital stays
  • Surgeries
  • Significant illnesses (anything that kept you home and required recuperation time)
  • Chronic, auto-immune, or degenerative disorders (include first symptom dates and actual diagnosis dates if possible)
  • Dental work (root canals, implants, tooth removals, filled cavities, infections etc)
  • Significant emotional events (a death of a loved one, loss of job, divorce, traumas, mood disorders, etc)
  • Prescription medications (including both short term therapy such as an antibiotic and long term therapy such as blood pressure medications)
Adrenal fatigue creeps in on little cat feet, and if you are aware of the predisposing factors you have every chance of heading it off before it creates enormous issues within the body. Ideally, you’ll use this book (and other reference materials) to recognize what could happen when “the scene is being set up” and will implement wisdom and discernment to head off disaster at the pass. (said in my best John Wayne voice!🤠)
 
When you’ve put your health history together (as suggested above), hang on to this document and add to it as your life story is written. Additional factors that add to or aggravate the stress load include:
  • Having a “Type A” personality
  • A chronic (mental, emotional, or physical) stress which keeps you in a low grade “fight or flight”
  • A severely stressful event
  • Working to the point of exhaustion
  • Harboring chronic or simmering anger
  • Harboring even low grade (subclinical) infections (bacterial, parasitic, viral, fungal)
  • Excessive chronic caffeine intake
  • Excessive exercise
  • Poor diet, mal-absorption or mal-digestion issues
  • Very little play or relaxation time
  • A toxic (physical or emotional) environment.
  • A chemically toxic environment
  • Chronic inflammation (remember that not all inflammation is painful. Proper labwork may identify inflammation you may not even be aware of)
  • A sedentary lifestyle
  • Poor sleep habits or sleep deprivation
  • Too many years on a high fat/ high protein diet
  • PTSD
  • Concurrent conditions that also set the body up for adrenal fatigue include MTHFR gene variance, mitochondrial disorders, a sludgy liver, EMF toxicity, a previously existing endocrine imbalance (subclinical hypothyroidism, estrogen dominance, insulin resistance, etc)
  • Maternal stress during pregnancy (Epigenetics! The fetus’ body is programmed to address stress as his/her mother did while in utero)
Living in today’s world, it’s fairly safe to say there isn’t a single one of us who has remained unscathed.
 
The stages of Adrenal fatigue go something like this:
 
Stage I: Fatigue, but hormone production hasn’t yet been affected
 
Stage II: Fatigue, anxiety, and possible irritability. It may take longer to fall asleep than it used to, and harder to stay asleep. Infection rate has increased (getting sick more often), and hormone and thyroid symptoms have begun showing up. This would include PMS and menstrual irregularities.
 
Stage III: All of the above plus multiple diagnosed endocrine system imbalances (sex hormones, thyroid, pancreas) and severe fatigue. Common diagnoses at this stage also include:
  • POTS
  • Blood sugar imbalances
  • Cardiovascular irregularities (beat, rhythm, and blood pressure)
  • Anxiety diagnoses
Stage IV: the line between Adrenal fatigue and Addison’s Disease gets blurry.
Clues🔎 surfacing within “active” adrenal fatigue stages will become more pronounced as progression occurs unless you take charge of the situation. Awareness is key, because this is your opportunity to stop the crash before it happens! Reminder: there are usually multiple causes for each clue, and you’ll want to pair these clues with the “stress load” profile you built (above). What you may begin to see is a series of unrelated events, circumstances, and health clues all crescendoing towards the same thing… adrenal glands that are growing weary from “running from the lion” day in and day out. Remember, look at the entire puzzle, not the individual pieces🧩! Some of the more common clues seen within adrenal fatigue staging include:
  • Gaining weight, especially around the abdomen (estrogen dominance will do this too)
  • Fragile skin
  • Inability to turn the brain off
  • Feeling anxious or nervous without good reason
  • Feeling overwhelmed
  • Infections that are lasting longer than they should
  • Need a stimulant such as coffee to get started in the morning
  • Reduced libido
  • Lightheaded when rising from a horizontal position
  • Intolerance to exercise
  • Fatigued but restless
  • Tending to wake up between 2-4am most nights
  • GI function that has become irritable or hyperactive often combined with mal-absorption issues that ultimately lead to deficiencies
  • Loose hanging fat around the belly, combined with thin arms and legs, and a puffy face
  • Pain in the upper back or neck that doesn’t have a reasonable explanation
  • Feeling better physically when away from the source of stress
  • Receding hairline and/or unexplained hair loss
  • Afternoon napping
  • Your day looks something like this:
  • Wake up but need coffee or stimulant to function
  • Energy boost mid morning
  • Energy crash around 2pm
  • Energy revive around 6pm
  • Crash again around 9pm but wide awake at 11pm
  • Intense cravings of sweet and salty food
  • Increased incidence of environmental and food allergies and sensitivities
  • Decreased ability to cope with stress
Mind, body, and spirit stress is everywhere, and we all need daily Jesus, Thieves Household Cleaner, good food, appropriate sleep, and all the emotionally relaxing oils we can use! My favorite emotional oils are Frankincense, Lavender, StressAway, Peace & Calming, and Valor which all have some very interesting “worth the dive” science supporting their role as tools for healthy stress management.
 
See you next week as we dive a little deeper into the muddy waters of adrenal fatigue!
 
xoxo~ liz
 
#sharingiscaring
#adrenalfatigueisreal
#theapplicationofknowledgeispower
#goodmedicine
#BYOHD
#becomingyourownhealthdetective
#ThanksYL

Thyroid – part 6: Recap & Strategies

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Perhaps by now you are thinking, “Lordy….is this information on the thyroid ever going to end?” The trail of clues (and ah-ha moments for each individual) touches pretty much every aspect of the body, and there are many wonderful books and resources that go much deeper than I am here. Please, go research! You are worthy and capable of more than you may think. My goal here is to ignite the “ah-ha”, and spur you towards digging deeper on your own, and perhaps that may even need to include finding the right health professional who will partner (key word there!) with you in your personal wellness journey.
Recall that the thyroid has a symbiotic and synergistic relationship with many organs and glands in the body. (We haven’t even covered the adrenal glands and sex hormones yet!😁🤓). There is a math phrase, “The whole equals the sum of the parts.” This applies in biology as well: Our body cannot work wholly unless each part is well maintained and works!
Before we head further southward in the endocrine system, let’s take a look at a cliff notes version of supportive measures designed to keep your thyroid healthy and happy:
🔎Food has the power to heal or kill. Choose wisely and know your sources! Nutrients are best received by the body if in natural form, and if supplementation is needed (often the case in our imperfect world! 😕), choose naturally sourced supplements! Synthetically derived supplements are unfortunately the most common ones found in the marketplace and do not do the job well. This is what makes having our naturally sourced Young Living supplements a beautiful, safe and effective one stop shopping experience!
🔎The thyroid needs very specific nutrients to produce sufficient levels of thyroid hormones:
🌿Vitamin D: found in YL’s Super Vitamin D and Master Formula, Balance Complete, MightyVites, MindWise, OmegaGize and Super Cal Plus.
🌿Vitamins B2 (riboflavin),B3 ( niacin) , and B6 (pyridoxine): found in YL’s Super B, Master Formula, MightyVites and Balance Complete
🌿Iodine: found in YL’s Multigreens, Master Formula, Thyromin,
Balance Complete, NingXia Nitro and Slique Shakes). Recall that it may be a good idea to have an iodine loading test done to see if your body needs more than it is currently getting in your diet and current supplementation.
🌿Vitamin E: found in Master Formula, MightyVites, Thyromin and IlluminEyes
🌿Iron: found in Master Formula, Balance Complete and Femigen
🌿Zinc: found in Master Formula, Immupro, PowerGize, Balance Complete, Slique Shakes, Super B, AminoWise, MegaCal, and MightyVites
🌿Selenium: Master Formula, MightyVites, Immupro, Super B, Balance Complete
🌿Tyrosine: found in Thyromin and Multigreens
Additional ways to support and love on that beautiful 🦋butterfly within your throat include:
🔎Keeping the toxin☠️ load to a minimum! Thank goodness we have the entire Thieves Household Cleaner to keep our homes, cars, ourselves, and our pets spiffy, clean, and healthy! Butterflies (and your thyroid!) are so very sensitive to their environment. Recall that toxins include toxic emotions and unresolved drama and trauma. Toxins also may include gluten in susceptible individuals.
🔎Be alert for chronic low grade infections that create systemic low grade inflammation, and mediate accordingly. Common sites for these to occur may be within joint replacements, root canals and other dental infections, sinus cavities, breast implants, and parasitic🐉🦠 infections (usually undiagnosed!…. I personally do a parasite cleanse at least twice a year using Parafree along with major liver support)
🔎Support your toxin clearing organs so that they may do their job efficiently and effectively…. Pay close attention to how well your liver and kidneys work! If you have an MTHFR gene variance, you’ll want to support your liver function on the regular. The liver has to work that much harder to remove toxins from the body! Studies have shown that carriers of a MTHFR gene variance have a higher risk of developing hypothyroidism if left unmanaged. Conversely, if you have a sluggish thyroid and a normally robust MTHFR pathway, the sluggish thyroid will eventually affect the MTHFR (methylation pathway) that is needed to clear toxins (and fighting inflammation) efficiently from the body.
🔎Strive to live as medication free as possible. While it may not always be possible, make it a goal to aim for. You’ll never succeed in something if you don’t create a plan and work towards a goal!
🔎Thyroids love exercise! Incorporate an appropriate exercise routine into your daily habits.
🔎Remove all possible sources of fluoride and chlorine saboteurs from your world. Check your local water source for fluoride content and filter your water. Remember that Thieves Toothpaste and Mouthwash is your thyroid’s friend!
🔎Address Autoimmune Diseases holistically and reduce chronic systemic inflammation in the process.
🔎Chronic stress is among the gang of enemies hellbent on destroying the thyroid. Protect your thyroid as you would a small child👩‍👧…… seriously. Use your skills we’ve talked about and work on improving your stress quotient.
🔎Protect your Gallbladder! Recall the synergy between those two unlikely organs. If you’ve lost yours, make sure you are supplementing with digestive enzymes such as EssentialZyme or EssentialZymes-4 to help break down the fats needed to assist in the conversion of inactive T4 to active T3.
🔎Sleep! 7-9 hours a night to allow the body to reset and heal.
Use supportive essential oils: YL Endoflex, Brain Power, and Clarity blends all have properties which are beneficial thyroid health as does Spearmint, Ledum, Myrtle, Peppermint, and Myrrh.
🔎Ashwaghandha: Although not a nutrient, it is an adaptogenic herb that has strong scientific credibility as a supportive measure for thyroid function. This herb is found in EndoGize and PowerGize.
Supporting and managing thyroid health isn’t just for those with altered thyroid function. It’s for everyone. We protect what we love, right? We are each a work in progress, and our work is never done because our personal life’s circumstances change daily. We tend to live in one of two ways. God has given us free will to choose throughout our lives, and we can choose to actively live or passively die. I’ve known people who (even despite dying) chose to proactively live. It’s a beautiful thing to see, and their lives have glorified God. Our body is a temple created to serve and worship Him. Treat yourself as though you are a precious gift🎁 worth fighting for.
xoxo~ liz
(link for purchase of Volume I, BYOHD: https://goodmedicine.info/my-book/ )
🔎
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Thyroid Clues Part 5-Medicine Cabinet Culprits

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Remember the fable about the Princess💃 and the pea🟢? You may recall that the true princess felt the effects of a pea beneath twenty mattresses and had a terrible night’s sleep because of it. After all we’ve discussed, you well understand that the thyroid🦋 is the discerning princess in the body……it feels everything!
 
It’s hard to pin down exactly how many people use medication chronically in the USA, but a rough estimate in 2017 was 66%. (I believe that number has risen significantly since 2020, but to date, official data has not yet been released).
 
I will forever and always say that there is a time and a place for medication, but that it should be used as a last resort whenever possible. Pharmaceuticals by very definition are a toxin to the body. While they may be performing their “FDA approved task” within the body, behind the scenes they are likely setting up trip wires, snares, and grenades elsewhere. Many commonly prescribed medications are quietly sabotaging thyroid hormone function as they outwardly “play nice” in their appointed tasks of lowering cholesterol, quelling aches and pains, placating gastric reflux symptoms, smoothing out moody days, etc.
 
Certain medications have the ability to affect thyroid hormones in at least four ways:
1. Some may alter the actual production of thyroid hormones.
2. Some may affect the release of of thyroid hormones from the thyroid gland.
3. Some may affect how well thyroid hormone attaches to (or utilized) at receptor sites.
4. Some may interfere with the conversion of inactive T4 into active T3 in the liver
Who are the thyroid accosting culprits?🕵️ As I hinted above, the gang is quite diverse. Nearly ⅓ of this gang of thieves bears a similar “tattoo”…….. They contain fluoride within their chemical structure. You’ll recall (hopefully!) that fluoride (and chlorine, another “tattoo” found in many medications) blocks iodine from its job helping the thyroid produce thyroid hormones. These small doses add up over time with chronic use medications.
 
Medications known to inhibit healthy thyroid function (in one of these four ways) with chronic use include:
💊Lipitor, Crestor, Vytorin, Zetia (cholesterol meds)
💊 Prevacid (stomach acid / GERD)
💊 Betamethasone, Clobetasol, Dexamethasone, Fluocinolone, Fluticasone (topical, oral or inhaled steroids)
💊Celebrex, Ibuprofen, Naproxen (NSAID pain)
💊 Lexapro, Prozac, Celexa, Paxil, Zoloft (mood stabilizers)
💊 Haldol, Risperdal, Lithium (mood stabilizers)
💊 Levaquin, Cipro (antibiotics)
💊 Synthetic hormone replacement therapies, birth control pills
💊 Amiodarone (treats ventricular heart arrhythmia)
💊Fluconazole (antifungal)
💊 Interferon Alfa, Sutent, Sorafenib (chemotherapy agents)
💊 Pramipexole, Ropinirole (for Parkinson’s)
💊 Metformin (Type II Diabetes)
💊 Furosemide (diuretic)
💊 Phenytoin and Carbamazepine (for seizures)
💊 Excessive Niacin (Vit B3) intake
 
(Note that this is a short representation of a very long list of medications!)
I am in no way inferring that you should stop taking medication that you may be currently on because it may be affecting your thyroid function. That is a conversation between you and your trusted health professional. According to an article by the Natural Health Research Institute, almost 75% of chronic illness can be improved or cured with improved lifestyle choices. Has your health professional talked to you about this as part of your treatment protocol?
 
Statistics like this are meant to empower you. Chronic disorders are generally where chronic medication use comes into play, and changing lifestyle habits can have a huge impact on health outcomes and on pharmaceutical needs.
 
Five significant ways your choices can impact your health include:
1. Reduce exposure to toxins (thank goodness for our YL Thieves Household Cleaner, essential oils that do “all the things” in a natural gentle way, Savvy Minerals cosmetics and the ART, Bloom, and Orange Blossom skin care lines!)
 
2. Making better food choices (and ditching the toxic processed foods)
 
3. Exercise. There is an exercise program / type out there that will work no matter what health situation you may be living with! (NingXia Nitro or Zyng 15-20 minutes prior to workouts elevates my gym workout routine!)
 
4. Sleep….Make sleep a priority. Improve your sleep hygiene habits! Some of my favorite sleep aids are YL’s Tranquil or RutaVala Roll-on…. Give ‘em a try and load your bedtime diffuser with oils like Cedarwood, Lavender, Peace & Calming, Frankincense, Orange )
 
5. Manage stress. Recall that chronic stress is as dangerous as a regular cigarette habit to the body. Even simply working on the four previous suggestions will have a profound impact on better management of stress.
 
In addition to making healthier lifestyle choices that lead to a healthier version of you (and protecting your thyroid🦋 in the process), here’s an added bonus: Annually, direct health care costs average $6032 out of pocket💰 for an individual with one chronic disease (that number goes up with each additional disorder). Indirectly, chronic disorders also have a profound impact on education, occupation opportunities, income, and social interaction. If your health professional has not offered up these five recommendations as part of protocols for any chronic disorder you may have, they are working as a dis-ease maintenance advocate instead of that as a healer. Ultimately though, it’s our personal responsibility to be our own advocates and in doing so, choosing whether to live in a space of dis-ease maintenance or healing. Care for that thyroid “princess” within your personal kingdom friends! It’s often the first organ in the body to recognize that something is amiss.
 
xoxo~ liz
 
 

How Does My Feelings Affect My Thyroid?

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Thyroid Clues Part IV: Emotions, Feelings, and the Thyroid
 
Mind🧠, body💪 and spirit🙏 are so deeply interconnected that it is impossible to be robustly healthy if this triad is out of balance in any way. The “spirit” of what makes us ….”us” is a composite of beliefs, life experiences, relationships, and memories. Outwardly, this clue set may be exhibited to some small degree by our personality. Frankly though, an individual’s personality is the tip of the iceberg. What lies beneath the surface (feelings) always play a leading role in both sickness and health. No one holds the knowledge of your “submerged iceberg self” better than you, which is yet another reason why being your own CEO and chief health detective🕵️ is so utterly important.
 
Surely you’ve heard of people who have died of a broken 💔heart. This phenomenon has been closely studied and acknowledged by science. Interestingly, we (as a society) tend to lean more into accepting the role of emotions and feelings in a death than we do the role personal belief and hope plays in an abundant life, and we certainly tend to overlook them (emotions and feelings) as responsible parties in health and wellness in day to day living.
 
How does this fit into the puzzle🧩 of thyroid health? Quite well actually! Every organ and part of the body is affected at a cellular level by emotions, feelings, and memories, and learning to let go of that which doesn’t serve us is profoundly important in wellness and healing. The thyroid is, as you may recall, highly sensitive to changes in its environment. The “frequency” in which we “bathe” ourselves daily affects the health and performance of the thyroid. Frequency is not voodoo. It’s biology and physics. Everything (including our cells) is in a constant state of vibration, and any disease process will be evident as a disturbance in the structure and function of these frequencies. Positive emotions and feelings drive frequencies upwards (healthy), while negative emotions and feelings drive frequencies downwards (unhealthy).
 
Emotions and feelings tend to get blended together, yet they are not interchangeable.
 
Emotions:
🤨They may manifest either consciously or subconsciously, and are a physical state or reaction to an event.
🤨They keep us alive! They are a primal response, and are deeply coded into our genetic being!
🤨They happen before feelings evolve about the event that occurred.
🤨They can be measured by facial expressions , body language, blood flow, racing heart, tightening of muscles, skin response, pupil dilation (etc)
🤨They generally last anywhere from a few seconds to an hour. Once the emotion has passed, the body returns to balance ( homeostasis).
 
Feelings are quite different.
 
🤨They are experienced consciously.
🤨They are a reaction (caused by emotions), and often influenced by personal experience, beliefs, and memories
🤨Feelings originate in the neocortical region of the brain (the home of conscious thought and separate from the limbic system which houses emotions ).
🤨Feelings form when your brain assigns a meaning to the emotional experience, and are mental interpretations of a situation.
🤨Feelings don’t drift off after an hour (like emotions do). They hang around because of a vast network of personal experiences, belief systems, and memories we hold individually.
🤨Ultimately, feelings are psychological responses while emotions are biological actions.
 
The thyroid is the on location storage facility for some pretty hefty feelings. Some of these include:
 
🦋Conflict between the conscious and subconscious
🦋Feeling limited or stuck
🦋Struggling with love of self or feeling unable to speak up for oneself
🦋Feeling a need to be in total control or feeling out of control
🦋Feelings of humiliation
🦋Feeling fearful of self expression
🦋Feeling a deep sense of frustration
🦋Feeling chronically fearful of anxious
 
Pairing the storage site (thyroid) with the lower vibrational frequency of harboring any of these negative feelings long term, and you may unearth a clue that has tremendous value in your thyroid health journey.
 
Now, what to do with this clue? There are a couple of valuable resources I’d like to point you towards:
Who Switched off my Brain? Controlling toxic thoughts and emotions by Dr. Caroline Leaf
And…..
The Pathway to Emotional Healing by Jen McCraw
 
These two books are extraordinarily valuable resources for healing the damage that stored negative feelings can inflict on the body. Doing “all the other things” (avoiding gluten, managing your iodine and other micronutrients, exercise, sleep hygiene etc etc etc) will never be enough if your spirit is not at peace.
 
Some of the essential oils you may consider when working towards healthy feelings (and subsequently, a healthy thyroid) as you nurture your spirit might include:
💧Endoflex: supportive of mind, body (endocrine system) and spirit
💧Transformation: supports feelings of positivity and self awareness
💧Valor: supports feelings of courage and confidence
💧Envision: supports feelings of creativity and resourcefulness
💧Surrender: supports the desire to let go of either too much control or uncontrollable behaviors
💧Highest Potential or Awaken: supports an awareness of limitless potential!
💧Peace & Calming: supports a positive peaceful atmosphere and mindset
💧Sacred Mountain: supports feelings of strength and empowerment
💧Believe: supports and encourages feelings of faith and inner strength
💧Release: helps facilitate the ability to let go of anything that no longer serves you
💧Cardamom, Pine, Myrtle, Frankincense, and Lavender are additional oils that are helpful in supporting healthy (thyroid affective) feelings and letting go of those which do not serve.
 
Oils are not🚫 🧙magic friends. They are tools🛠 just as are the two books I’ve mentioned above. Neither the oils or the books will be helpful if they are bought and put on a shelf unused. The tools🛠 are there for the healer to use. YOU have the capability to be your own healer. It’s within you to do this. It’s hard work and it’s heart work, and you are worth the effort!
 
“Each patient carries his own doctor inside of him [or her!]. They come to us not knowing the truth. We are at our best when we give the doctor who resides within each patient a chance to go to work.” ~ Dr. Albert Einstein
 
xoxo~ liz
 

Thyroid -part 3 The Gall Bladder Connection

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Thyroid Clues Part III: The surprising alliance between the thyroid and the gallbladder
In the Westernized, insurance directed medical culture, medical complaints tend to be compartmentalized. A thyroid disorder is navigated by an endocrinologist and gallbladder disease is managed by a gastroenterologist……. and rarely the two shall meet! And yet, that’s not how the body works.🥴 Every organ plays an important role elsewhere in the body, and having the knowledge of a diagnosis can easily be used as a clue to shore up defenses in hopes of avoiding a secondary diagnosis. I’ve wondered if more people knew this truth, would they put in the personal work to prevent the collateral damage and in doing so, perhaps even bring the primary disorder to heel?🤔
The thyroid and gallbladder have an “Odd Couple” relationship…at first thought, you wouldn’t imagine that one could have a powerful impact on the other (and vice versa), and yet they do.
One of the jobs of thyroid hormones is to bind to the smooth muscles of the gallbladder which then facilitates contraction and causes a release of bile into the small intestine. If someone is (even mildly) hypothyroid over a period of time, gallbladder emptying will become inefficient and sludge begins forming within the organ. Gallbladder (aka biliary) sludge is a real culprit and can cause significant problems in that semi solid form. Sludge is also fodder for gallstones🌚. Interestingly, gallbladder sludge can also accumulate as a result of HYPERthyroidism, though the mechanism of action is different.🤓
If bile is sludgy, very little of it will be in usable form, so the body becomes less able to digest fatty foods. Burping or belching may occur often, and stools💩 may start to lighten up in color (to a lighter brown or clay colored). Bloating may also occur, especially after a fatty meal. Lipid panel (lab work) results will also begin changing. It’s not uncommon for patients to develop higher LDL (cholesterol) than previously exhibited.
Bile is also important in the absorption and metabolism of fat soluble nutrients such as vitamins A, D, E, and K as well as essential fatty acids. Without bile, deficiencies may quietly slide into play.
Additionally, bile acts as an immune signaling agent in the gut microbiome.🦠 It binds to special receptor sites within the gut to help control intestinal inflammation and help facilitate the metabolism of toxins in the gut.
Meanwhile, thyroid hormones and gut bacteria also have their own intricate relationship. According to recent studies (2019 and 2020), the microbiome 🦠plays a significant role in the activity of thyroid hormones, and a gut with a healthy microbiome 🦠 supports healthy thyroid function. Of special interest is regular incorporation of probiotic strains Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus into the diet, as both have been shown in studies “to lead to fewer thyroid medication dose adjustments, allow for possible dose reduction, and having less serum hormonal fluctuations.” Young Living’s Life 9 probiotic contains 4 strains of Bifidobacterium and 4 strains of Lactobacillus (9 strains total with 17 billion colony forming units!). Supporting the gut makes the thyroid happy too!
 
An estimated 600,000+ gallbladders are removed each year, so odds are high that someone reading this would ask…. “What if I don’t have a gallbladder?”
Let’s chat about that! T4 is converted into T3 (the more active form of thyroid hormone) in the liver, and properly metabolized fats (usually accomplished with bile) are needed to make that magic happen. As a result, not enough usable T3 is made, and metabolism ultimately slows down. If the gallbladder has been removed, then fats will not be broken down properly without some help from outside sources. Essentialzymes-4, Detoxzyme, Allerzyme, and Essentialzyme all contain the digestive enzyme lipase (among other digestive enzymes) which supports proper fat digestion and metabolism…… AND thyroid health!
Do you see the sludgy slope? ….The thyroid is off which in turn throws the gallbladder off, which in turn throws the gut microbiome off! That’s some hard slogging through sludge right there.
Women👩‍ are far more likely than men🧔 to have a combination of thyroid / gallbladder issues. Excess estrogen (aka estrogen dominance ) can compete with thyroid hormones at the thyroid receptor sites. Not only can estrogen dominance potentiate hypothyroidism, it can also be a factor in gallbladder distress by blocking the thyroid receptor sites on the gallbladder. Estrogen dominance is an enormous problem in our world for both men and women because of all the synthetic estrogen like compounds found in everything from plastics to body care products (Thank goodness Young Living has a full line of all things personal care for us that are safe to use!) Estrogen dominance is also driven by use of birth control and hormone replacement therapy. Even strong hormonal changes in pregnancy can trigger a gallbladder issue, which as we’ve just seen, can then stress the thyroid. Full circle friends!
The complexities of the body is fascinating! God gets all the credit for our uniquely and wonderfully made us!
 
xoxo~ liz
 

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