4 Natural Ways that Help Women Address Thyroid Problems
When your thyroid gland malfunctions, you may experience a complex of vaguely connected symptoms. From weight gain to anxiety and irregular periods, poor thyroid health can play havoc with your life. While you may simply blame your lifestyle choices for these difficulties, it is often the thyroid gland that is behind them.
Thyroid complications are common and tend to appear often among women. About five percent of the population struggles with thyroid disorders. If your doctor has diagnosed a thyroid issue, you can help your situation with a few simple changes.
Filter your drinking water
If you’ve always got your drinking water straight out of the tap, you might want to switch to filtered water. Anything from activated charcoal to reverse osmosis is good for your thyroid gland. There’s good reason why you should switch to filtered water. If you are on “city water”, regular water from your tap contains traces of chlorine, a chemical used by the water treatment companies to make water safer. Chlorine, however, reacts with the iodine in your water to neutralize it. When you don’t get the iodine that you should from your water, it affects how your thyroid gland works. If you can’t switch to filtered water at the moment, you should at least eat plenty of foods rich in iodine. Bananas, strawberries, potatoes, onions and other common foods provide you with enough iodine.
Pass on the beer or wine
If you like beer or wine, you’ll need to make a sacrifice there. Alcoholic beverages aren’t good for those who struggle with thyroid issues. For instance, acetaldehyde, a compound found in alcoholic beverages, interferes with the way thyroid receptors work. Faced with inadequate feedback from the body on how much hormone to produce, the gland often goes into overdrive. Alcohol also affects how the liver works. Since the liver and the thyroid gland work closely together, alcohol ends up affecting the thyroid gland in two different ways.
Be careful with soy-based products
If you use soy milk instead of regular milk for any reason, you need to find an alternative. Soy milk contains goitrogens, substances that disrupt the way the thyroid gland works. Goitrogens are found not just in soy, but also in peanuts, sprouts, cauliflower, broccoli and cabbage. If you have a thyroid issue, you need to begin to think carefully about your diet. You may still be able to eat these foods. You would only need to cook them or ferment them first. You can also fight the effects of goitrogens by eating plenty of foods rich in iodine and selenium — foods such as fish, meat, baked beans and cheese.
Don’t get stressed
The health of your thyroid gland is affected not only by the foods that you consume, but also by environmental factors such as stress. When you’re stressed, your body produces a stress hormone called cortisol. One of the effects of this hormone is to reduce thyroid activity. To lower stress is one way to help the thyroid gland work better.
Finally, if you find that your ability to control your diet is limited, consider taking supplements of iodine and selenium. You may be able to help restore normal thyroid function.
A healthy thyroid gland is important to the regular functioning of a vast range of physical processes in the body. As sensitive as the thyroid gland can be, you can help normal function with just a few simple changes to your life.
