Chiropractic Treatment for Thyroid Disorders Hypothyroidism/Hashimoto’s/Graves’ Disease

The thyroid gland is one of the areas of your body in charge of energy production and metabolism regulation. A.K.A energy production! Thyroid disorders are one of the most diagnosed issues in the U.S, and it’s on the rise! There are several thyroid disorders that can happen to people. Some of the most common being:

1. Hypothyroidism (Hashimoto’s)
   1. This is a condition where your body does not produce enough thyroid hormone which leads to a lack of energy production. There are two types of thyroid hormone; T4 and T3. T3 is the active form of thyroid hormone which the body utilizes the most. There are a multitude of reasons why the body goes into the hypothyroid state:
      1. Underproduction of both T4 and T3 – This can happen for several reasons. One is due to a deficiency of the mineral iodine. Iodine is a mineral that is common to many types of food most notably is seafood and kelp. The American diet is severely low in this mineral as the foods most people consume has little to no iodine in it. Even worse, patients are exposed to chemicals daily that actually force iodine out of the cells of the body. Most notably, fluoride, chlorine, and bromine. Both fluoride and chlorine are added to the water supply under the guise of dental health and sanitation. Unfortunately, these chemicals occupy the same receptors as iodine and is consumed in a much larger amount. Imagine this like a game of capture the flag. On one side you have fluoride and chlorine; on the other iodine. Flouride and chlorine have thousands of people on their team while poor iodine has only a few. Who do you think will always win this battle? The adage that iodized salt is enough iodine to have proper function has been debunked multiple times. Iodized salt would never be enough iodine even if we didn’t fluoridate and chlorinate our water. The fact that we do add these chemicals to the water supply means we need even more players on our team in order to compete, meaning increased iodine supplementation and consumption. Iodine is essential in the production of T4 and T3 hormones. Thus, a lack of iodine consumption combined with a blockage of its receptors by added chemicals means we cannot produce enough thyroid hormones!
      2. Liver Congestion/Fatty Liver/Cirrhosis (Conversion issue) – The liver is one of the most important organs in your body. It has it’s hand in almost every function you can think of. Plus, several of the body’s organs rely on the liver to function! One of these organs is the thyroid gland! Many people (including your doctor) do not realize that the vast majority of T4 to T3 conversion happens in the liver!! Some estimates as high as 90%! If the liver is damaged or sub optimally functioning, you will not be able to covert enough T4 to T3 to maintain a healthy body. This is a common reason why many patients who are already taking synthetic thyroid hormones continue to have symptoms even with pharmaceutical drug use. Many times, the key to correcting a thyroid issue has nothing to do with the thyroid at all, it may be in the liver!
      3. Communication issues/damage to the hypothalamus or pituitary gland – Whenever a thyroid issue comes up on a lab work test, doctors tend to overfocus on the thyroid itself! Many thyroid issues have nothing to do with the thyroid gland itself but several of the other glands/organs of the body that tell the thyroid what to do! The hypothalamus and pituitary gland are some of these structures! The hypothalamus is a portion of your brain that oversees the creation of several hormones that tell other structures what to do. The hypothalamus tells the pituitary gland what to do which tells the thyroid what to do. A break in communication at any point in this chain will create a thyroid issue. The pituitary gland also creates its own set of hormones, notably it creates TSH the hormone responsible for telling the thyroid gland that you need to make more thyroid hormones! Any issue in either of these structures will lead to a lack of thyroid hormone creation without having any issue in the thyroid itself!
      4. Selenium Deficiency (Conversion issue) – Selenium is a trace mineral that is in all types of food, most famously in nuts. There can be several reasons why a person might be deficient in selenium. The most common being a lack of consumption, poor digestion, genetic predisposition to deficiency. The American diet is easily deficient in selenium, as all the foods that contain substantial levels are natural foods. Secondly, poor digestion can occur from all sorts of reasons. Low stomach acid, stomach/intestinal inflammation, leaky gut syndrome, food sensitivities/allergies, and more! Lastly, some people are genetically predisposed to have trouble either absorbing selenium or utilize more selenium than the average person.
         1. Selenium is required to convert T4 to T3, thus having a lack of selenium will lead to hypothyroidism!
      5. Toxic Exposure – Living in the modern world comes with its benefits and its issues! Today, we live in a time where there is more chemical exposure than ever before. From our water, to food, to air, we are being exposed to more chemicals than ever in human history. These chemicals accumulate in the body and will attach themselves to organs and glands! The thyroid is one of them! Most commonly heavy metal exposure like mercury and aluminum loves the thyroid gland. These substances are foreign to the body so the immune system will recognize and attack them! BUT, if they are attached to your thyroid tissue the body will end up attacking the thyroid itself! Therefore, many people get hashimoto’s thyroiditis, or inflammation of the thyroid gland due to immune system attack. If we can detoxify the body to excrete these heavy metals, the immune system will no longer attack the thyroid tissue!
2. Hyperthyroidism (Grave’s)
   1. This is the lesser known thyroid issue because hypothyroidism is the most common diagnosis. Luckily, hyperthyroidism holds many of the same causes as hypothyroidism!
      1. Overproduction of T4 and T3
      2. Liver congestion/fatty liver/ cirrhosis
      3. Communication issues/damage to the hypothalamus and pituitary gland
      4. Toxic Exposure
   2. Albeit, we do not know the exact reasons why one person may fall into hypothyroid whilst another may fall into hyper it does not matter! Just as we would treat a case of hypothyroidism, we will investigate the exact reason why the issue is occurring and start working on the root-cause issue. NOT just treating the symptoms for the rest of your life.

If you would like to learn more about Chiropractic Care & Treatment and how we can help you, give us a call today at (623) 226-7527 or fill out this form for a free consultation. We are dedicated to help everyone in the community live their best life!