Is Stress Affecting Your Thyroid

Most people know that stress can negatively affect one’s health. But most people with a thyroid condition don’t realize that chronic stress can actual lead to the development of a thyroid condition. So if you have a thyroid disorder, managing your stress is essential if you’re hoping to restore your health through natural thyroid treatment methods.

But how can stress lead to a thyroid condition? Well, first of all it’s important to understand that our bodies weren’t designed to handle chronic stress. The adrenal glands were designed to handle acute stress situations without much of a problem. But in today’s world most people are overwhelmed with stressful situations, as they have stressful jobs, stressful relationships, financial issues, and many issues that lead to chronic stress.

Since the adrenal glands weren’t designed to handle chronic stress situations, what happens is that for a person who deals with a lot of stress AND does a poor job of managing it, over a period of months and years their adrenal glands will weaken, which can eventually lead to adrenal fatigue. But even before these glands reach this point, this can create other problems, including dysfunction of the thyroid gland.

How Stressed Out Adrenal Glands Can Cause A Thyroid Disorder

The way that stressed out adrenals can cause thyroid malfunction is the following: when the adrenal glands are stressed out, it puts the body in a state of catabolism, which means that the body is breaking down. Because of this, the body will slow down the thyroid gland as a protective mechanism. The reason behind this is because the thyroid gland controls the metabolism of the body, and so the body slows it down in order to slow down the catabolic process. This is why many times the thyroid gland won’t respond to treatment until you address the adrenal glands.

If the adrenal glands are not addressed, this can affect other bodily systems. For example, someone with weak adrenal glands who has a thyroid disorder can develop a compromised immune system. This eventually can lead to an autoimmune thyroid disorder, such as Graves’ Disease or Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis.

Why The Adrenal Glands Must Be Addressed

Malfunctioning thyroid gland is usually not the actual cause of the thyroid disorder. So for someone who has a thyroid condition that is caused by stressed out adrenal glands, treating the thyroid gland itself won’t do anything else other than manage the symptoms. And what we frequently see is most endocrinologists and other medical doctors basically trying to manage the person’s symptoms for the rest of their lives, rather than address the actual cause of the thyroid condition.

On the other hand, a competent Functional Medicine endocrine doctor will evaluate each individual and attempt to find out the cause of the thyroid condition. In some cases the function of the thyroid gland can’t be completely restored through natural thyroid treatment methods. On the other hand, in many cases the person can have their health restored back to normal.

How To Restore The Health Of The Adrenal Glands

In order to restore the health of the adrenal glands, and ultimately restore the function of the thyroid gland back to its normal state, one obviously needs to address the cause of what’s stressing out the adrenals. With regards to stress, it of course is impossible to eliminate all of the stress from your life. On the other hand, there are two things you can do when it comes to dealing with chronic stress that will lead to better health:

1. Minimize the number of stressful situations. Once again, you won’t be able to eliminate all of the stress in your life, but in many cases it is possible to reduce some of the stressful situations you are dealing with. Write down all of the different things in your life that you consider stressful, and try to figure out how you can make some changes to make things less stressful.

2. Learn how to better cope with the stress in your life. While it might be difficult to eliminate some of the stressful situations in your life, you do need to learn how to do a good job of managing stress. Of course there are many different ways to manage stress, as one can exercise or yoga, get a relaxation massage every now and then, have a counseling session, eat a healthier diet, get more sleep each night, etc. These obviously are just a handful of basic examples, but I think you get the picture.

In summary, chronic stress can cause a lot of different problems, and if not managed it can ultimately lead to a thyroid condition. Of course this doesn’t mean that all thyroid conditions are caused by stress, but there’s no question that stress is the culprit in many thyroid disorders. And for those who have a thyroid disorder caused by stress, doing a better job of managing the stress in their life is essential if they want to use natural thyroid treatment methods to restore their health. But even for those who choose conventional medical treatments, it still will benefit your overall health to become an expert in stress management.