Coolalinga Doctors and Health Centre –
GP – Dr Marcellina Martins About Your Weight
Could your Thyroid Hormones be keeping you Overweight?
Is it possible that your thyroid hormones are causing you to gain excess weight? According to Dr Michael Elstein, a general practitioner, who writes an anti-aging column in the magazine Well Being, Australia is having a low thyroid epidemic. A low thyroid condition can have the appearance of depression, but by adding up all the symptoms, it can be easy to spot.
What kind of symptoms could you expect to have with low thyroid function?
You can be constipated and notice that your thought processes are slowing down; your circulation also slows down as does your metabolism – which become sluggish. This leads to cold hands and feet – you may find yourself needing to wear socks in bed. You can feel depressed with little or no energy. You will feel so tired you won’t want to do anything especially exercise – which results in weight gain. Unfortunately, if the correct thyroid tests aren’t taken this behaviour can be misdiagnosed and treated with an anti-depressants.
The Common Thyroid Test that doesn’t provide the necessary answers:
What doctors do is measure a brain hormone called thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), which is made in the pituitary, a gland situated just behind the middle of the forehead. As its name suggests, TSH steps in when thyroid hormones falter. TSH levels go up when the thyroid fails us, so, in theory, when doctors want to find out if your thyroid hormones are serving you, they usually just measure TSH – believing that a normal TSH indicates that thyroid hormones are fully operational.
This approach can be flawed:
Unfortunately, this approach is severely flawed because thyroid hormones have a complex relationship with all the cells in our bodies. Brain chemical like TSH try to gauge whether they are doing their job but a lot of time what TSH senses won’t be an accurate assessment of thyroid hormone activity. Using TSH levels as a sole indicator of thyroid function is a very inadequate means of determining if any thyroid hormone treatment is necessary. It is not uncommon to have a royal flush of symptoms suggesting under-active thyroid hormones married with a TSH that is entirely normal.
What you really need is to have all your thyroid hormones measured, including thyroxine (T4)), triiodothyronine (T3) and reverse T3. T3 is the major player in thyroid hormone function while T4 is the source from which T3 is manufactured. T3 is the accelerator that energizes us and stimulates fat burning. Reverse T3 is the brake pedal that significantly slows your metabolism, aborting T3’s drive. When you are stressed or reduce your food intake, reverse T3 is activated.
The Nutrients You Need For Optimum Thyroid Function
To make T4 you need iodine, a nutrient found in oysters, seaweed, salmon and bread made with iodised salt. Iodine then has to go through a series of chemical processes facilitated by B vitamins, calcium, zinc, magnesium and iron, to name some of the key nutrients that help to give birth to T4. Soy, gluten and bisphenol A, found in plastic containers, and tinned foods, together with excessive consumption of kale and broccoli, can compromise this operation.
If you think you think that your thyroid hormones are keeping you tired and overweight you need to find a general practitioner , such as Dr Martins, at our family medical centre in Coolalinga, who will be able to determine if this is the case. Dr Martins provides a doctors weight loss service at the Coolalinga Doctors and Health Centre in Coolalinga.