Dealing With Underactive Thyroid

If you always feel like your body and your mind are sluggish, it may be a sign that you have an underactive thyroid, or hypothyroidism. It may seem rather frustrating for you, but the reality is treating an underactive thyroid in the initial stages is a matter of trial and error. Your doctor will most likely prescribe a thyroid hormone replacement, a synthetic T4, to treat your underactive thyroid.

T4 though, is fairly inactive and needs to be converted into T3, or activated thyroid hormone. If your thyroid problem only affects your thyroid gland, the synthetic T4 hormone will probably be sufficient. But if your body cannot turn inactive T4 into active T3, the medication may not do much good. To avoid this problem, other doctors prefer to use a mix of T4 and T3 synthetic hormones for treating underactive thyroid.

You may wonder why the body has trouble in converting inactive T4 into T3 when you have an underactive thyroid. In times when your body needs to conserve energy (as during periods of infection or an overly restricted diet), it slows down metabolism. The biological mechanism is to decrease production of active T3 from inactive T4, which is turned into inactive “reverse T3″ instead. Adding more synthetic T4 will confuse the mechanism; it would be like a repeating loop in a programming routine.

The most common method of test to know whether or not you have an underactive thyroid is through a blood test. However, subclinical hypothyroidism is not easy to detect in blood tests. For this reason, the doctor may have to go by the symptoms.

Typical symptoms of underactive thyroid include poor memory, weight gain, painful menstrual periods for women, physical or mental fatigue or lethargy, dry skin and/or hair, depression or irritability, nasal congestion or sore throat, intolerance to cold or cold hands and feet, low libido, a deeper voice, muscle pain, and constipation, indigestion, gas or bloating.

If you think you have at least five of these underactive thyroid symptoms, consult your doctor as soon as possible. It is also wise to talk to a nutritional therapist, who can advise you which foods to eat and which foods to avoid. The health of your thyroid depends on availability in the diet of nutrients like iodine (which is plentiful in seafood and seaweed), selenium, zinc, and tyrosine (an amino acid found in all protein-rich foods).

Some useful remedies if you have an underactive thyroid are daily doses of vitamin B complex and vitamin C in an ascorbate form. A right dose of vitamin E helps an endocrine system to function properly. The co-enzyme Q10 may also be beneficial in supporting the energy production in your body.