CHAPTER TWO
Your Thyroid and Your Metabolism: What Your Doctor Won’t Tell You
Your thyroid is basically your body’s metabolic CEO. Like many bosses, it can be very temperamental, demanding your complete compliance. And like an unhappy boss, an unhappy thyroid can make your life a misery.
However, once you set up a good working relationship based on a good understanding of what your thyroid needs, you are golden. Give your thyroid the food, exercise, and sleep that it requires, and sooner than you ever thought possible, you and your metabolism will be set for life. The rewards are amazing—your thyroid’s equivalent of a big promotion and a huge year-end bonus:
• Your weight comes off easily and stays off.
• You’ve got all the energy you could ever want, and then some!
• Your sex life is humming along in peak condition, and everything works the way it’s supposed to. (Yes, that goes for both men and women!)
• Your digestion functions smoothly: no nausea, bloating, constipation, or diarrhea.
• Your mind is sharp and clear, your memory is excellent, and your focus is superb.
• Your mood is calm and balanced: no mood swings, depression, or anxiety.
Are you having trouble believing that your thyroid gland—a part of your body you probably haven’t given much thought to—can do all that? Well, yes. It can! So let me introduce you to your thyroid gland, because in just 30 days, your grouchy metabolic boss is going to become your new best friend.
Thyroid Biology 101: Meet Your New Best Friend
The thyroid is a tiny gland located at the base of your throat. It’s made of two lobes and is shaped like a butterfly. It weighs only about an ounce. Yet this minuscule gland has the power to make or break your metabolism.
Why is the thyroid so powerful? Partly because every cell in your body has receptors for thyroid hormones. That means that without just the right amount of those hormones, none of your cells can function properly.
Your thyroid is also responsible for the speed of your metabolism; it’s the internal regulator that keeps everything on track for your best health and weight. So anything we can do to keep your thyroid in a happy place means that you will feel and look your best.
How Your Thyroid Works
Don’t worry—we’re not getting into a heavy science lesson here! But I do want you to visualize how everything works so you can give your thyroid the resources it needs to support you.
Your thyroid gland is part of a complex system that’s supposed to keep your thyroid hormone at just the right level. It all starts with the hypothalamus, which you can think of as “command central” as it keeps watch over your hormone levels. The moment you are about to run low on thyroid hormone, your hypothalamus sets thyroid production in motion via a biochemical known as thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH).
TRH in turn triggers your pituitary, a small gland at the base of your brain. Your pituitary produces its own special chemical—thyroid-stimulating hormone, or TSH—which, appropriately enough, stimulates your thyroid. These three glands together make up the hypothalamus-pituitary-thyroid axis.
I want you to remember TSH, because if your doctor ever tests you for thyroid issues, TSH is probably the first thing they will measure. When the TSH reaches your thyroid, it prods that gland into action, causing it to produce several types of thyroid hormone—most importantly, T4 and T3. Here’s how it works.
T4 is the inactive form of thyroid hormone and it converts into the metabolic powerhouse T3. Whenever your body needs more power, T4 converts into more T3. Having T4 in your bloodstream is another way your body keeps thyroid hormone at the right level. Having optimal T3 levels means you’re at peak functioning. When your hypothalamus-pituitary-thyroid axis is working perfectly, the thyroid hormone in your blood always remains at the right level. Picture a continuous feedback loop (here):
That’s what’s supposed to happen. However, a number of different factors can disrupt this process and dysregulate your thyroid, keeping it from producing the right level of hormones. And, my friends, that can spell trouble.
When any of these factors affect your thyroid, your thyroid hormone is likely to be at the wrong level. You can become hypothyroid (your thyroid hormone levels are too low) or hyperthyroid (your thyroid hormone levels are too high). You might also start to suffer from other thyroid-related disorders.
For example, a number of studies have shown that over-exercise can suppress thyroid function. In 2003, the European Journal of Applied Physiology published an article showing that intense, prolonged exercise training could suppress TSH and free T3 in female college athletes who engaged in such daily exercise as rowing, running, and weight lifting. In 2005, a study published in Neuroendocrinology Letters found that intense aerobic exercise could cause a drop in both overall and free T3 levels.
In other words, the right levels of exercise can be terrific for your thyroid, but overdoing it disrupts your thyroid function and slows your metabolism. Luckily, all the factors that suppress thyroid function are things you can have control over. You can eat “friendly” foods and avoid “unfriendly” ones (see Chapter 4). You can exercise the way and amount that works best for you (see Chapter 5). You can bring your other hormones into balance, and you can get night after night of restful sleep, allowing your body optimal repair.
And now that you know about these factors, you are one step closer to mastering your metabolism!
Hypothyroidism: When Your Thyroid Under-Performs
Hypothyroidism results when your thyroid gland fails to produce enough hormone. New research shows that this condition can be induced by a number of factors such as stress, over-exercise, hormonal imbalance, or nutritional deficiencies. Most notably, a 2005 study published in Thyroid Journal Program outlines how stress negatively affects immune response, leading to thyroid dysfunction and autoimmune thyroid disorders, and research published in Current Sports Medicine Reports in 2009 shows that over-exercise lowers T3 and T4 levels in athletes.
The most common form of hypothyroidism is an autoimmune disorder known as Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. Like other autoimmune disorders, Hashimoto’s occurs when your immune system produces antibodies that attack your own tissue.
Now, since 70 percent of your immune system is located in your gut, immune problems are closely related to gut function, as a whole body of research affirms. So as you can see, folks, it’s all related:
poor gut function 
dysfunctional immune system disordered thyroid sluggish metabolism
The solution? Heal your gut and repair gut function, and both your immune system and your thyroid will be a whole lot happier. You can take a big step in that direction by avoiding the reactive foods that disrupt gut function in the first place.
Sometimes your gut needs a little extra boost. I have found that many people benefit from a six-week dose of a supplement called MSM, which helps your gut lining to heal. Also beneficial is a probiotic—a capsule, liquid, or powder that contains billions of healthy bacteria, to repopulate the friendly bacteria that your gut needs for optimal function. Together, MSM and probiotics can help restore good digestion, ease inflammation, and promote weight loss.
Hyperthyroidism: When Your Thyroid Over-Performs
Sometimes your thyroid produces too much thyroid hormone, a condition known as hyperthyroidism. This can occur for a number of reasons:
• Graves’ disease is a type of autoimmune disorder in which antibodies produced by your immune system overstimulate your thyroid. Research such as the extensive studies listed in the 2011 journal Cellular & Molecular Immunology explains that autoimmune diseases are related to gut function, so when we bring down inflammation and heal gut function, we can go a long way toward healing autoimmune disease. That’s why I recommend MSM and probiotics for Graves’ as well as for Hashimoto’s. While there are no permanent cures for auto-immune disorders, maintaining good gut function and low inflammation can keep them in remission.
• Hyperfunctioning thyroid nodules such as an adenoma (a benign tumor in your thyroid) can cause overproduction of thyroid hormone.
• Excess iodine can overstimulate your thyroid.
• Thyroiditis, or inflammation of the thyroid gland, can lead to either under- or over-performance of your thyroid gland.
• Tumors of the ovaries or testes can trigger hyperthyroidism.
• Too high a dose of thyroid medication can cause your thyroid to overproduce.
Thyroid and Your Mood
There is an unholy alliance between anxiety, depression, and your thyroid. I want you to feel better, so listen carefully: Many mood disorders can be resolved when your thyroid is functional. My mother suffered from chronic depression, so I know very well how debilitating that can be—how it can wreck your life and the lives of those who love you. I don’t want you to go through what she did, and I certainly don’t want to see you suffering. Something as simple as eating foods that suit your chemistry can frequently resolve decades of depression or anxiety. When using The Metabolism Plan and working with their medical team, many of my clients have been able to wean themselves off their antidepressants, and this might well be possible for you, too. You owe it to yourself to support your thyroid so you, too, can feel better! (Always be sure to work with your doctor if you want to change your dosage or stop any medication.)
Besides depression, hypothyroidism usually means you are struggling with low energy, weight gain, constipation, and difficulty concentrating. Hyperthyroidism can produce the same cognitive issues but tends to provoke more insomnia, irritability, and anxiety. In both cases, a dysfunctional thyroid can cause moodiness or mood swings.
The good news is, you can fix this. When you find what works for your body, your body will do what it always wants to do: heal. And when you see how badly your body wants to heal, and how quickly it can do so, you are back in the best relationship of your life—with yourself.
It’s a Woman’s Thing—Or Is It?
Women are vastly more likely to suffer from thyroid dysfunction at an earlier age than men—which, if you’ve been wondering, is a big part of the reason why women tend to gain weight more quickly than men, and why we have a harder time keeping it off.
Part—okay, most—of the issue is our blessed female hormones. If you’re a woman, the fluctuations that you undergo each month from puberty to menopause set you up to have thyroid issues sooner than men.
But, men, you are not off the hook. You start to catch up with us as you age. Some of that is because your testosterone levels drop, and so do your levels of a chemical known as HGH (human growth hormone), which keeps your body growing and replenishing its cells, and whose levels tend to drop as you get older.
Another age-related issue for both men and women is that our glands tend to shrink as we age, including the thyroid gland. As a result, we have access to lower levels of thyroid hormone.
Don’t worry—aging doesn’t doom you to a future of excess weight, thinning hair, constipation, and brain fog. You can fight back with the right diet, supplements, exercise, and sleep. The first step is awareness—which is why you’re reading this chapter, right?
Higher-risk men can develop thyroid issues as early as their 30s. Others begin having problems in their late 40s, and it just keeps going from there. By their late 50s, 70 percent of all men have some form of thyroid irregularity.
Here’s the rotten part: Because thyroid issues are thought of as a woman’s disease, men are often not tested appropriately, nor are their results scrutinized as deeply. This sets you up for failure, guys—or at least, it did so until now. Make sure to ask your doctor for a full thyroid panel if you note any of the symptoms in the lists on here and here.
Hormones and Your Thyroid
The three primary sex hormones are estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone. Both men and women have some of each, although obviously, the proportions are different. When you have too much estrogen relative to the other two, that’s known as estrogen dominance, and it can cause all sorts of problems.
Now, guys, don’t stop reading once you hit the word “estrogen.” Estrogen dominance primarily affects women, yes, but it can also affect you; in fact, the numbers of men with this problem are growing at an exponential rate. The ultimate effects are similar in both sexes, because unbalanced hormones spell trouble for your metabolism and your mood. And when estrogen dominance disrupts your thyroid, that is double trouble: You are likely putting on weight, dragging your feet every day, and losing your sex drive. In other rotten news, your hair is falling out, you’re finding it harder to gain lean muscle mass, you crave carbs, and you might be suffering from depression.
Why are so many of us—male and female—struggling with estrogen dominance? One of the key reasons is xenoestrogens, toxins in our environment that behave like estrogens—a veritable wrecking ball to our glands and cells. For both men and women, estrogen is awesome in amounts the body can handle. But exposure to xenoestrogens throws the balance way off, not to mention causing DNA mutations that set us up for cancer. This link is discussed in a number of studies, including a 2006 article in the Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research. Research published in Toxicologic Pathology in 2009 also suggests a connection between xenoestrogens and breast cancer.
The problem is, xenoestrogens are everywhere. They are in everyday “conveniences” like our nonstick frying pans; in most plastics; in the pesticides found in non-organic produce; in water that’s been exposed to industrial runoff; and in parabens, a common industrial chemical found in a wide variety of personal care products, including soaps, lotions, and shampoos. In fact, we are exposed to hundreds of xenoestrogens every single day: We eat them, we breathe them, and we put them on our skin—a serious problem when you consider that up to 65 percent of anything applied topically is absorbed by our bodies and can affect our weight and health. In 2016, researchers at the University of California–Berkeley asked 100 teenage girls to suspend using any of their normal cosmetics, lotions, and shampoos, relying only upon products free of common endocrine disruptors such as parabens and phthalates. In just three days, those girls’ levels of hormone-disrupting chemicals dropped by 27 to 45 percent.
Xenoestrogens don’t just disrupt our sex hormones, though. They also disrupt thyroid function.
First, estrogen dominance interferes with the conversion of T4 to T3. Remember, T4 is the storage form of thyroid hormone, while T3 is the active form. When your body can’t activate that stored hormone, your whole metabolism slows down.
Estrogen also stimulates the production of thyroxine-binding globulin, which binds the thyroid hormone circulating in your bloodstream. Bound T4 can’t convert into T3, and bound T3 can’t enter your cells. So when you have too much estrogen in your system—and again, this applies to men, too—you don’t have enough free T4 and free T3 to power your metabolism.
So what’s our game plan? Use my tips in the next few chapters on choosing the right foods and exercise, and on reducing the effects of stress. I also want you to eat as “clean” as possible and to avoid parabens in your personal care products (check the labels!). Your thyroid will thank you for it, your metabolism will improve—and your scale will show the difference.
How to Avoid Endocrine Disruptors
A wonderful nonprofit organization called the Environmental Working Group (www.ewg.org) has a list of some of the products with the most endocrine disruptors—the hormone-altering chemicals that can undermine your thyroid and sabotage your metabolism. Here’s a shortened version of their list and what you can do to avoid them. (To find out more about each saboteur or to learn about other endocrine disruptors, go to http://www.ewg.org/research/dirty-dozen-list-endocrine-disruptors.)
1. BPA: Used to line cans, coat receipts, and make some plastics.
Your plan: Most canned foods contain BPA, so try to eat fresh food whenever possible (more nutrients!) or look for BPA-free cans. You might also want to avoid plastics whenever possible, especially BPA plastics.
2. Phthalates: Used in many types of plastics and personal-care products, often signaled by the term “fragrance.”
Your plan: Avoid plastic food containers and plastic wrap with the recycling label “3”; also read the labels carefully on personal-care products and avoid those with either “phthalates” or “fragrance” listed.
3. Lead: Found in old paint and drinking water.
Your plan: Get rid of crumbling old paint—but carefully!—and install a water filter.
4. Arsenic: Found in drinking water and in brown rice.
Your plan: Get a water filter, and limit your use of rice—especially brown rice and products that contain brown rice flour, such as protein powders and brown rice pasta.
5. Mercury: Found in large fish as the result of industrial pollution.
Your plan: Avoid tuna and swordfish—stick to healthier fish.
6. Perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs): Used to make nonstick cookware as well as stain-resistant and water-resistant coatings.
Your plan: Avoid those products.
How to Nourish Your Thyroid
Besides being a demanding boss, your thyroid is kind of like a three-year-old picky eater. If it doesn’t get the nutrients that keep it functioning in peak condition, it will do the equivalent of banging on the table and throwing the plate against the wall. So please, keep your thyroid happy by giving it the nutrients it needs.
The good news is that many of your “friendly foods”—the foods that work for you on The Metabolism Plan—contain precisely the nutrients that your thyroid needs. That’s why this approach to eating is so effective at restoring thyroid balance.
Now, do you also need to take supplements? Well, I’m not a big fan of supplements taken regularly and long-term, although I think they are terrific as a short-term catalyst to optimal health. Ideally, though, I want you to get your nutrients from food, not shakes, bars, or pills. And you can! Time and time again, people come to me with a shopping bag of supplements and a laundry list of nutritional deficiencies, sure that they have to take the one to address the other. I ask them to stop taking everything and simply get their blood work done after just one month on The Metabolism Plan. Guess who no longer needs those supplements? How brilliant is that?
When you figure out which foods your body wants—your friendly foods—you will automatically be giving your thyroid (and the whole rest of your body) exactly what it needs. Suppose you’re deficient in iodine—a common nutrient needed for optimal thyroid health. A food like cod or scallops is rich in iodine, so if it tests “friendly” for you, you can incorporate it into your diet. All of a sudden, you lose weight like a rock star and feel vibrant and glowing. Problem solved!
Or perhaps you are deficient in zinc, selenium, iron, and vitamin B12, all of which your thyroid also requires to function properly. Well, then, your body will love lamb, which is rich in those vitamins and minerals. And once again, problem solved!
So let’s take a tour of your thyroid’s key nutrients. Within 30 days you’ll be eating all the foods you need to supply them.
Iodine
Your body needs iodine to make thyroid hormones. Sounds simple, right?
But life is often not so simple, and iodine is a case in point. Yes, studies have shown that diets that are too low in iodine can aggravate hypothyroidism. But so can diets that are too high in iodine. High intake of iodine might also increase the risk of Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, an autoimmune condition in which your body is basically attacking its own thyroid gland.
I see this problem with a lot of my clients who keep taking iodine when they shouldn’t. Has your doctor told you that you are deficient in iodine? If so, then yes, a little extra iodine—perhaps in the form of a supplement or some seaweed in your diet—will help to maintain proper thyroid function. Just be careful, because I have seen people who take iodine for too long go from being hypothyroid to becoming hyperthyroid.
How can you tell if you’re in the hyperthyroid zone? Having your doctor order blood work is one great gauge. You can also do it yourself by taking your basal body temperature (BBT), a technique I teach you on here and that you’ll use throughout your 30 days and beyond to find out how various types of exercise affect your thyroid. Finally, you can check out the list of symptoms on here to see whether you have the classic signs of hyperthyroidism: increased irritability, anxiety, sleeplessness, heart racing, muscle weakness, and trembling hands.
Meanwhile, if you are not iodine deficient, please! Save yourself some money, protect your little thyroid, and stop taking iodine supplements. Why spend money to make yourself sick? Your body will let you know if you need more iodine, and if it doesn’t, then using sea salt and enjoying iodine-rich foods should supply you with all the iodine you need.
LOW-REACTIVE FOODS RICH IN IODINE:
Seaweed, cod, scallops, eggs, salmon sashimi, cranberries, and potatoes. (And that is why French fries can be good for both your thyroid and your weight loss! Mmmm.)
Selenium
After iodine, selenium is probably the most important mineral affecting thyroid function. T3 is your thyroid powerhouse, and your body needs selenium to convert T4 into T3. So many of your Metabolism Plan basics and least reactive foods make the selenium list!
LOW-REACTIVE FOODS RICH IN SELENIUM:
Chia seeds, sunflower seeds, flaxseeds, pumpkin seeds, shiitake mushrooms, chicken, beef, lamb, mussels, octopus, halibut, and bread. Although other experts often recommend Brazil nuts as a good source of selenium, I have found them to be highly reactive, probably because they absorb massive levels of radium, a naturally occurring source of radiation.
Zinc
Holy smoke, do I love zinc! The zinc-rich foods on The Metabolism Plan have really boosted my clients’ ability to convert T4 into T3, with terrific results for metabolism, energy, and weight.
Men, here’s a special benefit: Zinc is also great for prostate health. And for both sexes, zinc boosts immune function.
Now, don’t rush right out and buy several bottles of zinc. The right amount of zinc is terrific, but too much can actually suppress thyroid function. Once again, let your body be your guide. Eating the friendly low-reactive foods you are naturally drawn to will eventually ensure that you’re getting just the right amount of zinc for you.
LOW-REACTIVE FOODS RICH IN ZINC:
Pumpkin seeds, beef, lamb, chickpeas, shiitakes, chicken, oysters, and cocoa powder.
Iron
Iron deficiency is common among women—thanks again, monthly cycle! But you men aren’t off the hook, because low iron levels are a risk for everyone as we age. Iron deficiency in turn affects our thyroid levels, because insufficient iron stores reduce our thyroid gland’s ability to make hormone. And once again, you can eat your way to health.
LOW-REACTIVE FOODS RICH IN IRON:
Chicken, beef, lamb, haddock, lentils, pumpkin seeds, broccoli, liver, clams, mussels, salmon sashimi (but not cooked salmon—that’s highly reactive!), apricots, almonds, basmati rice, raisins, green leafy vegetables, and potatoes.
Vitamin D
Vitamin D deficiency might increase your risk of autoimmune thyroid disease and is very common among people with thyroid cancer or thyroid nodules. Even if you are consuming enough vitamin D, you might not be absorbing it: If your small intestine isn’t functioning up to par, it can’t absorb all the vitamins you take in. And guess what? Impaired digestion is a hallmark of hypothyroidism. Talk about a vicious cycle! Luckily, The Metabolism Plan, a round of MSM, and a good-quality probiotic with no FOS (fructooligosaccharides) will help your thyroid and your digestion.
Stress can also sap your vitamin D levels by causing an increase of cortisol, a powerful stress hormone. Stress hormones are made from cholesterol, which your body needs to synthesize vitamin D from the sun. So when you are stressed, your body prioritizes the available cholesterol for stress hormones, with not enough left over to help with vitamin D production. A fabulous de-stressing supplement called SAM-e helps greatly on those days it seems like your world is exploding!
Happily, once you are on The Metabolism Plan, your vitamin D levels may bounce back very quickly, often within the month. Many of my clients have had this experience, and I’m betting you will get the same results!
LOW-REACTIVE, PLAN-FRIENDLY FOODS RICH IN VITAMIN D:
Wild whitefish, shiitake mushrooms, cheese, eggs, and organ meats such as liver, heart, and kidney. So break out the chopped liver or pâté and boost your vitamin D.
Vitamin B12
Almost half of hypothyroid patients are deficient in this crucial vitamin. And if you are vegan or vegetarian, your risk of deficiency is even greater.
As with vitamin D, your B12 deficiency might be caused by absorption issues. People with Hashimoto’s, celiac, and other autoimmune diseases frequently have inflamed, damaged intestinal tracts, which prevents absorption of B12 and other nutrients. Intestinal issues and inflammation are common among overweight people as well. When you heal your gut on The Metabolism Plan, your absorption capacity will return.
LOW-REACTIVE, PLAN-FRIENDLY FOODS RICH IN B12:
Salmon sashimi, cod, lamb, scallops, beef, crab, cheese, and eggs.
Stress and Your Thyroid
When you’re stressed, your body responds by producing more stress hormones, including the cortisol we’ve been talking so much about. In the right amounts, cortisol is amazing, fueling your energy, sharpening your mental focus, and motivating you to overcome any obstacle. In the wrong amounts, though, cortisol can make your life miserable—and it can disrupt thyroid function. As we just saw, cortisol production can monopolize resources that your body needs to make vitamin D. Since your thyroid needs vitamin D, this can be a problem.
Too much cortisol also disrupts the conversion of T4—the storage form of thyroid—into T3, the active form. It’s as though, when you’re stressed, your body starts to hunker down and conserve resources, slowing your metabolism and hanging on to every ounce of fat.
Stress relief is such an important topic that the whole next chapter is devoted to it. For now, let me just point out that stress disrupts thyroid function—and that the stress relief suggestions in Chapter 3 will be a huge help.
Getting the Right Exercise for Your Thyroid
Exercise is terrific! But is any type of exercise good? And if some is good, is more better?
The truth is a little more complex. There is a type and amount of exercise that’s right for your body. When you get too much, too little, or the wrong type, your stress levels go up, your cortisol rises, and your thyroid suffers. You’ll find out more about this fascinating process in Chapter 5. For now, just remember that the wrong type of exercise can disrupt thyroid function just as the right type of exercise can support it.
Sleep Your Way to Thyroid Health
I hope you got a chance to sleep in today! Not only is good sleep one of life’s great pleasures; it is also one of the best possible ways to support your weight. Over years of working with a wide variety of clients, I have found that for every two hours of sleep you miss, you slow down your weight loss—guaranteed. That’s a high price to pay for waking up early!
In a moment, I’m going to show you how to monitor your thyroid function by keeping track of your basal body temperature (BBT), a reading you can take with an ordinary thermometer. But here’s a preview: When you’ve skimped on sleep, you can actually see your BBT drop—a clear measurement of thyroid disruption. And when your thyroid isn’t working right, your whole metabolism slows down.
To make matters worse, lack of sleep starts to disrupt your entire hormonal system by kicking up a hunger hormone known as ghrelin and a brain chemical called endocannabinoid 2-AG (that resembles the same chemicals in cannabis), which combine to turn you into a snacking machine. It’s hard to have a good weight-loss day when you feel ravenous! In the next chapter, you’ll see that sleep issues also affect your adrenal glands and your cortisol levels, neither of which does any favors for your metabolism.
My Doctor Says My Thyroid Is Fine—But Is It?
Just about every conventional medical practitioner relies solely on the TSH test to see whether your thyroid is functioning optimally. But as you wise folks now know, TSH doesn’t mean much if your body can’t properly convert T4 to T3.
Moreover, the numbers for “normal” TSH are already skewed. The reference ranges for “normal” TSH levels were based on people who are not functioning optimally—people who came in because they didn’t feel well. Even though those reference ranges have been challenged by the American Association for Clinical Endocrinologists as too wide, most doctors still use those problematic reference ranges. As a result, you could have a significant thyroid problem—but your test results will read “normal.”
But on top of it—and this drives me crazy—the reference range is just that. A range. For example, suppose you are 5'6" and female. The range for your “normal weight” is 120 to 160. Let’s say you have been 123 all your life and all of a sudden you step on the scale and you’re 158. According to your doctor, that’s still in the normal range. But it’s not normal for you!
Your thyroid ranges work exactly the same way: Even if your numbers fall into the “normal” range, your thyroid function might not be normal for you. If you have been sailing along at a steady weight and then suddenly you start gaining, your TSH, free T4, or free T3 levels might have changed significantly while still remaining in the “normal” range. Your doctor says you are fine—but you’re gaining weight and wondering why.
Another factor that can alter your thyroid status is whether you take birth control or are having hormone replacement therapy. Any type of extra estrogen stimulates the increase of the thyroid-binding proteins in your blood. So even if your thyroid is producing a “normal” amount of T4, too much of the T4 might be “bound”—tied up with the thyroid-binding proteins. And even if your T4 is converting properly to T3, too much of your T3 may also be bound. Since the bound thyroid hormone can’t get into your cells, you effectively have low thyroid function, even though your lab results look okay.
Fortunately, the food and lifestyle tips in this book will help you support your thyroid, your powerhouse for best health and ideal weight. They’ll help you overcome the effects of excess estrogen, and they’ll also support the optimal conversion of T4 into T3. As a result, you might be able to avoid thyroid medication altogether, simply by giving your body what it needs. You’ll feel better than ever before—and you’ll be healthier, too.
How to Monitor Your Thyroid: Taking Your BBT
I’m all about empowering you with information and putting as many tools as possible into your tool belt. One of my favorite tools is a simple thermometer, which will give you an incredible amount of information every day—information that you can use immediately to boost your metabolism.
Your thermometer measures your basal body temperature (BBT), a direct indicator of how your thyroid is functioning. This test was developed by Dr. Broda Barnes, a great researcher into thyroid function who wrote books in the 1970s about how to use the BBT to accurately assess thyroid function. Dr. Barnes had noticed that many of his patients with major symptoms of thyroid dysfunction had blood work that was in a “normal” range. He wanted to find a better test of thyroid hormone levels, and with the BBT, he found one. His work is widely used by naturopathic physicians. (By the way, fertility specialists also use Dr. Barnes’s work: They know that regardless of overall thyroid function, your BBT will generally rise during ovulation, and prior to your cycle starting.)
Using the BBT protocol at my health center was instrumental when I first started focusing on thyroid issues. The traditional theory had the functional range at 97.2 to 97.8 degrees, but my team and I found something quite different. Remember, we work with people daily, monitoring their response to every kind of stimulus. Over thousands of patients, I’ve seen that the people I work with feel best at 97 to 97.3 degrees, a zone with great weight loss and digestion, vibrant energy and mood, and optimal health. When patients’ BBT creeps up past 97.3, I start to see irritability, anxiety, sleeplessness, heart palpitations, hair loss, and sleep issues. That, my friends, is not optimal thyroid function; that’s hyperthyroid issues!
Of course, you can have a high BBT and still feel hypothyroid. I usually see this with people suffering from high stress levels or adrenal burnout. The good news is that your 30 days on The Metabolism Plan are going to balance your hormones and endocrine system.
You’ll learn exactly how to monitor your BBT in Part II as you develop your own personalized plan. Meanwhile, I promise you: This simple little tool is going to be one of your best friends when it comes to figuring out your exercise sweet spot. I want you feeling 110 percent not just once in a while but all the time. Taking your BBT will help get you there!
The Thyroid Promise
Every single day, you will be eating foods that help you reach all of your goals. You will also find the exercise that works for your body. Every day you will get leaner, stronger, and more energetic. Stop being a slave to the gym! I want you to get out there and enjoy this marvelous life you have created. And here’s an additional bonus: Your thyroid medication might need to be cut by as much as 20 percent in as soon as three to five days!
How do you know when you are overmedicated? You’ll be irritable and sleepless, with a racing heart or trembling hands because your thyroid has now started producing more hormone or your body is finally doing a good job of converting your T4 to T3. This is a terrific testament to how your body wants to heal, as soon as you give it what it needs. (As always, be sure to work with your doctor before altering or reducing your medication in any way.)