Dearest Reader,

This information is for educational purposes only and not intended to diagnose or highlight imperfections. You've likely landed here following your results of my quiz at YourHormoneQuiz.com. No matter what you discover in these results, you're beautiful and perfect as you are. You're good enough and trying hard enough. We're all unique and will experience hormonal shifts differently. This information is here to highlight that, despite what we've been told, we're not just little men — our bodies work differently — and if our hormones have us feeling less than our best, we absolutely can do something about it. My aim is to support and empower you on your journey, where you need and want it. Take what you need, leave what you don't. No judgement here, just good honest support.

XO, Laurie

Low Thyroid

A sluggish thyroid can look like fatigue, hair loss, memory issues, cold intolerance, depression, weakness, constipation, low libido, weight gain or weight loss resistance, and more. Symptoms might be subtle or more severe and often women struggle with symptoms long before an issue is — or can be — medically diagnosed. Taking care of your thyroid health can help put you on a path to improve symptoms and overall wellbeing.

Different ways our thyroid hormones go low:

There are numerous reasons our thyroid hormones are affected. Causes of thyroid issues are often multifactorial.

These include but are not limited to:

• Chronic stress
• Toxic exposures or overburdened body
• Inflammation, especially of the thyroid gland
• Inadequate diet for your current hormone type
• Nutritional deficiencies
• Overexercising for your body’s current hormone type
• Gut issues, including a permeable gut
• Too much or too little iodine
• Certain medications
• Goiters or nodules of the thyroid gland
• Hashimoto’s, an autoimmune condition

Low thyroid might look like:

• Fatigue
• Hair loss
• Low libido
• Cold intolerance
• Constipation
• Dry, itchy, rough or cracked skin
• Weight gain or weight loss resistance
• Depression or anxiety
• Memory or concentration issues
• Exercise intolerance or muscle weakness
• Joint or muscle pain
• Low heart rate
• Puffy face
• Hoarseness

Thyroid imbalances will present itself differently in different people. You might have a few or many of the above symptoms while someone else could have completely different ones. We’re all wonderfully unique.

Nutrient deficiencies seen with low thyroid:

These nutrients are important for thyroid health and can sometimes be deficient in those with sub-optimal thyroid function. It’s important to get sufficient amounts in food but sometimes supplementation is needed. Check with your functional health practitioner.

You can often get most of these nutrients tested by your doctor to confirm if supplementation is needed.

• B6, B12 and B9
• Vitamin A
• Selenium
• Magnesium
• Zinc
• Iodine
• CoQ10
• Asparagine
• Vitamin C
• Vitamin E
• Vitamin D

How low thyroid affects other hormones:

Your thyroid regulates the metabolism of every organ in the body. It regulates the production of other hormones as well as our body temperature, our growth, brain function, heart rate and more. When our thyroid hormones go low, we feel it and often notice changes in our body as well.

A sluggish thyroid can impact our sex hormones as well as every other hormone in our body. Not only do our thyroid hormones impact other important hormones, other hormones can affect our thyroid hormones as well. When our thyroid hormones go low, we most often want to pay attention to our stress hormones, as well as inflammation and blood sugar balance which directly impact our stress hormones.

What we can do about low thyroid:

When dealing with hormone imbalance, it’s important to address the cause. What could be at the root of low thyroid? Could it be stress, inflammation, blood sugar control? Dealing with the root cause is essential.

Restoring balance most often requires — first and foremost — reestablishing a strong foundation with a supportive diet and lifestyle. This includes optimizing nutrition and sleep and incorporating exercise and stress management techniques for your body and hormone type, reducing toxic exposures, and working on mindset and social support.

Ask your primary physician or qualified health practitioner for a full thyroid panel that includes the following (be sure to have a look using functional lab ranges vs the conventional pathological lab ranges):

• TSH
• Free T4
• Free T3 (our active thryoid hormones)
• Reverse T3
• Thyroid antibodies: TPOab and TgAb

Other helpful functional lab work helping to see the bigger picture:

• Sex and adrenal hormones and their metabolites (DUTCH Test is the premier test)
• Full iron panel, including ferritin, serum iron, % saturation, TIBC
• B-12
• Vitamin D
• Complete metabolic panel
• SHBG
• Blood sugar management: HBA1C, Fasting glucose and Fasting insulin

Not sure where to start?

Here are 3 easy and free ways you can get started right now:

1. Prioritize as well as upgrade your tools for down-regulation and stress management. A few ideas: restorative yoga, meditation, breath work, walks in nature, tai chi, sex and orgasms, journaling, EFT, and relaxing massage can all be effective. Find what works for you.
2. Upgrade your sleep quality and quantity to match your stress levels and lifestyle, as well as syncing up your sleep and light exposure (especially blue light) with the daylight hours. The more stress and activity, and the more intense your movement or events, the more sleep is needed.
3. Book a call with me. See below.

Check out this post for even more ways to get your hormones back in harmony.

This information is for educational purposes only and is not intended to diagnose, manage, or treat disease or serious conditions. Always check with your doctor before making any changes. It's important to consult a well-informed health practitioner for personal advice about your situation before relying on general information — we're all wonderfully unique.