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How Lifestyle Changes Can Improve Thyroid Disease | Wellness Clinic

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Any doctor can tell you that to handle thyroid disease, you need a suitable dose of thyroid hormone to replace what your body isn’t currently making on its own, or that you may need other forms of medications to control the excess. However, it may also be worthwhile to consider that making lifestyle changes can be just as significant as these.

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How can lifestyle changes help with thyroid disease?

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β€˜If you’re not feeling well, there is much to be gained from focusing on a wholesome diet, regular exercise, stress control, and more to help you feel your best with thyroid disease”, states David Borenstein, MD, an integrative medicine physician in New York City. β€œIt is extremely important to have a lifestyle which controls stress and provides appropriate nutrition and fitness,” he added.

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You might start by analyzing your daily diet to see whether any changes or swaps could be made.Β More exercise is just another lifestyle change that could make a large difference in the way you feel. As with a change in your diet, ask your doctor and start exercise routines.Β Yoga classes, along with tai committed or chi meditation, can decrease tension or anxiety, which can be important when you live with hypothyroidism.

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If you’re not feeling well despite following your thyroid disease treatment regimen as recommended by a healthcare professional, try these lifestyle hints from experts and people living with thyroid disease.

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Be Vigilant About Eating Vegetables

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Vegetables are a necessary part of a healthy diet, but people with hypothyroidism, or any other thyroid disease at that, might want to avoid cruciferous vegetables, like turnips and cabbage, as they can block thyroid hormone generation.

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However, Benjamin Snider, ND, a naturopathic doctor at Authentic Wellness Integrative Health Centre at Kitchener, Ontario, says that cruciferous vegetables offer you many health benefits, and you should just limit them in case you’ve got a serious iodine deficiency, as that is when they are most likely to influence thyroid function. Dr. Snider recommends steaming cruciferous vegetables, which may limit their harmful tendencies.

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Eat a Clean, Balanced Diet Daily

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Lorraine Williams, a volunteer for the British Thyroid Foundation and a blogger in Thyroid Hope, demands people to avoid eating any highly processed foods. β€œLearn to listen to your body and eat for good health,” she says. Janelle Flores, a hypothyroidism blogger in Adventures of a Thyroidless Girl, is also an advocate for β€œclean” eating (she’s also gluten-free). β€œI’ve discovered that eating healthy provides me the most energy and the best outcome,” she states.

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Exercise Often but With Certain Limits

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Flores emphasizes the value of daily exercise while also listening to your own body. β€œIf I’m having a bad day, I give myself a rest,” she states. β€œHowever, I feel that I don’t have as many bad times when I focus on eating correctly.” With the appropriate dose of medication and routine exercise, my energy level is a lot higher, ” she says.

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β€œModerate exercise is quite good for you. Just don’t overdo it,” Borenstein illustrated. Overexertion can affect the body’s ability to convert inactive thyroid hormone (T4) to the active form (T3) by eliminating an iodine molecule,” he explains, and β€œwhen that procedure does not happen properly, it can cause thyroid disease symptoms.”

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Be Careful With Supplements

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β€œUse caution when considering nutritional supplements that claim to boost thyroid function. These nutritional supplements aren’t proven effective”, says Anne R. Cappola, MD, an associate professor at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia. Some contain unregulated amounts of thyroid hormones, leading to unregulated levels of the thyroid hormones.

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In addition, a few alternative medicine practitioners may recommend iodine nutritional supplements for thyroid disease, but the majority of people in the United States actually have adequate iodine levels (although pregnant women can be an exception). β€œSubstantial amounts of iodine in nutritional supplements can cause a faster drop in thyroid function in people predisposed to thyroid insufficiency,” Dr. Cappola states. β€œThese supplements should be avoided.”

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Maintain a Healthy Body Weight

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Carrying too many pounds may lead to insulin resistance, which affects hormone levels, according to Borenstein. Plus, people that are overweight need more thyroid gland hormones. Individuals with borderline thyroid function might observe improvements in thyroid function when they maintain a healthy weight or lose weight.

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Another weight reduction benefit includes the reduced risk of thyroid cancer. According to the University of Maryland Medical Center, the most common form of hypothyroidism, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, raises the danger of a sort of thyroid cancer called thyroid lymphoma. And a study published online at Medical Science Monitor in January 2015 found that the risk for thyroid cancer also increases among overweight and obese individuals.

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Manage Stress With Yoga or Meditation

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β€œIntroducing stress management and mindfulness techniques ought to be a component of any hypothyroid application,” Snider says. β€œThat’s because stress weakens the immune system and also can raise the resistance of thyroid gland cells”, he says. Flores exercises to be physically fit, but also to lower stress. β€œI especially find jogging or running curative,” she states. However, when she is not feeling good, she allows herself to relax and indulge in a day. Borenstein recommends yoga, tai chi, and meditation to help alleviate stress.

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Practice Restorative Sleep Habits Every Night

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β€œGood sleep is a no-brainer,” Borenstein says. To repair tissues you will need sleep to help your body heal. β€œSleep is critical in optimizing thyroid function because it helps to modulate the stress hormone cortisol,” Snider says. Stress management and exercise can enhance sleep quality, as can a normal sleep schedule and avoiding late-day caffeine, according to the National Sleep Foundation. Additionally, it is important to achieve a wholesome sleep environment.

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Learn to Listen to Signals From Your Body

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Thyroid disease is different for everybody, and everyone responds differently to treatment. β€œI have discovered my own body well enough to understand when I am feeling like when I need a drug dose shift,” Flores says. β€œOverall, medication is helpful because I need it to work effectively, but for me personally, I don’t think medication alone is the answer.”

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Lee Parks, MD, an endocrinologist and also the clinical director of the Vanderbilt Thyroid Center at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, says suitably treated hypothyroidism and other thyroid diseases shouldn’t result in weight gain, fatigue, or other common thyroid dysfunction symptoms. But lifestyle changes are just for fundamental good health, not a replacement for treatment, Dr. Parks concludes.

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The scope of our information is limited to chiropractic and spinal injuries and conditions. To discuss options on the subject matter, please feel free to ask Dr. Jimenez or contact us at 915-850-0900 .Β 

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By Dr. Alex Jimenez

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Additional Topics: Wellness

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Overall health and wellness are essential towards maintaining the proper mental and physical balance in the body. From eating a balanced nutrition as well as exercising and participating in physical activities, to sleeping a healthy amount of time on a regular basis, following the best health and wellness tips can ultimately help maintain overall well-being. Eating plenty of fruits and vegetables can go a long way towards helping people become healthy.

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TRENDING TOPIC: EXTRA EXTRA: About Chiropractic

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Professional Scope of Practice *

The information herein on "How Lifestyle Changes Can Improve Thyroid Disease | Wellness Clinic" is not intended to replace a one-on-one relationship with a qualified health care professional or licensed physician and is not medical advice. We encourage you to make healthcare decisions based on your research and partnership with a qualified healthcare professional.

Blog Information & Scope Discussions

Our information scope is limited to Chiropractic, musculoskeletal, acupuncture, physical medicines, wellness, contributing etiological viscerosomatic disturbances within clinical presentations, associated somatovisceral reflex clinical dynamics, subluxation complexes, sensitive health issues, and/or functional medicine articles, topics, and discussions.

We provide and present clinical collaboration with specialists from various disciplines. Each specialist is governed by their professional scope of practice and their jurisdiction of licensure. We use functional health & wellness protocols to treat and support care for the injuries or disorders of the musculoskeletal system.

Our videos, posts, topics, subjects, and insights cover clinical matters, issues, and topics that relate to and directly or indirectly support our clinical scope of practice.*

Our office has reasonably attempted to provide supportive citations and has identified the relevant research studies supporting our posts. We provide copies of supporting research studies available to regulatory boards and the public upon request.

We understand that we cover matters that require an additional explanation of how it may assist in a particular care plan or treatment protocol; therefore, to further discuss the subject matter above, please feel free to ask Dr. Alex Jimenez, DC, or contact us at 915-850-0900.

We are here to help you and your family.

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Dr. Alex Jimenez DC, MSACP, RN*, CCST, IFMCP*, CIFM*, ATN*

email: coach@elpasofunctionalmedicine.com

Licensed as a Doctor of Chiropractic (DC) in Texas & New Mexico*
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