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Hypothyroidism Exercise

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Exercising with hypothyroidism has been quite a misunderstood topic. Many people claim that exercise has huge benefits for people suffering from hypothyroidism. And some others tend to disagree. The truth is that exercise CAN have some amazing benefits BUT not all exercise is created equal. In fact, most forms of exercise will further damage your thyroid. But there are some very beneficial forms of hypothyroid exercise that have proven that they can be a very effective component of your hypothyroidism treatment plan.

And don’t forget to make your exercise even more effective by following the right hypothyroidism diet for even better and faster results.

The Wrong Kind of Hypothyroidism Exercise

I want to make sure that I make myself clear… Most forms of exercise are not beneficial and will only make you more hypothyroid.

This is because most forms of exercise cause excessive stress to your body.

Think about how exercise is supposed to work for a minute…

Almost all exercise is catabolic by nature, meaning that the stress of it causes your body to break down its own tissue. And it’s not until after this exercise that your body’s natural repair processes start up and your body recovers from the stress with the goal of rebuilding itself stronger than before.

But you have to realize that when you are hypothyroid, your body cannot properly recover from stressful exercise. So while you are hitting the gym thinking that you’re doing some great hypothyroidism exercise, you are continuously breaking down your body even more while your body fails to rebuild itself.

Eventually, your body breaks down to the point that if you’re lucky, you just run out of gas and you just can’t muster enough energy to make it to the gym. But more often than not, you end up with some sort of injury that sidelines your gym efforts.

And this is actually quite common due to the calcification of soft tissues that is one of the common hypothyroidism symptoms. But that’s a topic of another article.

Studies have also shown that these poor choices of hypothyroidism exercise cause your body to stop producing T3 almost immediately. And if that’s not an indication of a problem, then I don’t know what is.

I think that most people fail to realize that hypothyroidism is a respiratory problem. And without going into detail here, when you perform these types of poor hypothyroidism exercise, it forces your body to shift even further away from your healthy and thyroid supportive, oxidative energy system. And this makes you even more hypothyroid, which continues to carry over even after your workout.

So here I’ve listed some of the worse kinds of hypothyroidism exercise that you should be avoiding at all costs.

Cardiovascular Exercise

hypothyroidism exercisePersonally, I think it’s absolutely ridiculous that so many people recommend cardio as a good form of hypothyroid exercise. And because people tend to push themselves to their limit when it comes to doing cardio, it makes it even worse.

Cardio exercise causes a chronic stress response from your body which is extremely catabolic. You might lose some weight but it’s most likely going to be from the breakdown of muscle tissue. And this process is not only stressful and inflammatory to your body, but it also contributes to hypothyroidism.

Any Form of Intense Exercise

I’ve seen a major shift in the exercise world which has been brought around mostly because cardio exercise doesn’t get results. And I think a large part of the problem really stems from the fact that most people are hypothyroid to begin with.

So, there’s been a major shift away from traditional cardio and to shorter and much more intense workouts. But this also has some major pitfalls, making it another poor hypothyroidism exercise choice.

When you’re hypothyroid, you already have a problem storing sugar in your liver. And these intense workouts require your body to use large amounts of sugar very quickly. And when this sugar isn’t available, then your body takes a beating. And again, this causes significant amounts of stress that leave you unable to recover and even more hypothyroid in the end.

The Right Kind of Hypothyroidism Exercise

The right kind of hypothyroidism exercise is very contradictory to the current exercise philosophy of working harder to get better results. In most cases, doing less is actually the key.

I’m going to give you three forms of exercise that are highly recommended for hypothyroidism. And this is because they are not catabolic in nature and do not work to break down your body.

Instead they promote and stimulate your body’s repair processes and create an anabolic, or tissue rebuilding, effect.

There are a few similarities between these three forms of good hypothyroidism exercise that I think are worth pointing out.

One of the biggest similarities is that they all place their primary focus on proper breathing. And this is far more important that you probably realize.

They do this because it’s the breathing techniques that they use which work to stimulate your healthy oxidative energy system. And without going into too much detail, this triggers your parasympathetic nervous system which is what promotes your body’s natural repair process.

And you’ll also notice that none of these forms of exercise are intense. Instead they are designed to focus on so much more than your muscles. They are balancing your energy system, your hormones, and so many other processes that work behind the scenes which are the true dictators of your health.

Instead of creating stress on your body, they are actually lower your stress level and hormones.

Below I’ve listed 3 great forms of hypothyroidism exercise. Find which one resonates with you the most and use it to your advantage.

Tai Chi

I’m a huge fan of Tai Chi and I think its benefits speak for itself.

hypothyroidism exerciseI’ve mentioned many times that thyroid function decreases with age and that many of the health problems common among the elderly community are in fact a result of hypothyroidism.

And I think that the testament to the effectiveness of Tai Chi can be seen in the amazing success that it has been providing the elderly community. It’s slowly gaining ground with this age population but the results speak for themselves.

Also, consider the fact that as you age, your body’s healing processes slow down. So, if it’s this effective with the elderly, then imagine how effective it can be for the younger population.

Qigong

Qigong is another great type of hypothyroidism exercise. I understand that there are many differences between Tai Chi and Qigong, but for all intensive purposes I would say that they are similar in nature and the results that they provide.

Tai Chi tends to be more structured whereas Qigong is freer flowing.

I definitely recommend trying them both and finding which one you find you enjoy more.

Yoga

Yoga for hypothyroidism is one form of hypothyroidism exercise that you have to be a little more careful about. And that’s because there are many different forms and practices of yoga and not all are created equal.

You really want to stick with a less intensive form that focuses heavier on breathing and flexibility as opposed to many forms that are much more intense.

Again, I cannot stress enough the importance of using the right kind of hypothyroidism exercise as part of your treatment for hypothyroidism. It can really help accelerate your results and health to new levels.

 

How to Treat Hypothyroidism

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If you’re looking for information on how to treat hypothyroidism then you’ve come to the right place. Oftentimes, you go to your doctor where they run expensive lab tests and put on you different medications only to get marginal, if any, results.

But that’s all about to change because there’s so much more you can do on your own that your doctor isn’t telling you about.

And you don’t have to wait for months and run expensive lab tests to tell you whether or not you’re moving in the right direction. There’s a far simpler way to track your progress and it won’t cost you a cent. And when you’re first learning how to treat hypothyroidism, tracking your progress is extremely important because it’s one of the only ways to know whether or not what you are doing is working.

Below I’m going to cover 4 important topics that you need to keep in mind when learning how to treat hypothyroidism. These are some of the biggest difference makers when it comes to success or failure.

How to Treat Hypothyroidism with Diet

The medical community is in denial regarding the major effect that your diet has on your thyroid function. And they have every right to be because it’s not in their, or the pharmaceutical industry’s, best financial interests to work on that level.

But this is why educating yourself on the finer points of how to treat hypothyroidism is one of the most important aspects of healing that can make a big difference.

The first important thing to note is to avoid foods that have anti-thyroid properties, such as soy, polyunsaturated fats, legumes, nuts, seeds, grains, etc. These foods all contain components that can lead to, or worsen hypothyroidism.

Instead you want to focus on foods that naturally support your thyroid such as shellfish, dairy, fruits, etc.

And many of the effects of hypothyroidism are driven by stress. So, it’s important to reduce or eliminate as much stress as possible. One such source of stress is inflammation caused by your diet.

So, it should go without question that any effective hypothyroidism treatment program should discuss how to treat hypothyroidism with an anti-inflammatory diet.

How to Treat Hypothyroidism with Exercise

Many people understand that exercise can be an important factor in overcoming hypothyroidism. But what most people don’t understand is the difference between good exercise and bad exercise.

Bad Exercise

It’s far more common to see hypothyroid people doing bad forms of exercise that are only pushing them further into hypothyroidism. There tends to be this mentality, especially when it comes to weight loss, that if you’re not getting the results that you want then you’re not pushing yourself hard enough.

But when it comes to hypothyroidism, nothing could be further from the truth.

Intense exercise is not the answer. In fact, it will cause your body to shut down its thyroid hormone production almost immediately.

Good Exercise

When learning how to treat hypothyroidism with exercise, it’s important to understand that sometimes less is more.

Actually, less is almost always more.

The best forms of exercise are the ones that concentrate on reducing stress and revitalizing the body such as Tai Chi and Yoga.

How to Treat Hypothyroidism with Your Lifestyle

Believe it or not, but your lifestyle also has a big impact on your hypothyroidism symptoms.

Stress Reducing Activities

The important thing to keep in mind is that your lifestyle should be focused on reducing stress as much as possible. This can be done by taking time to yourself to escape from the daily stresses of life.

You can learn how to meditate, do breathing exercises, read a comforting book, take a hot bath, etc.

Sleep

Most people don’t realize this, but nighttime is actually a very stressful time for your body. Your stress hormones naturally rise throughout the night and sleep is your body’s way of dealing with this stress the best that it can.

So, if you’re having difficulty sleeping or getting good quality sleep then you are making yourself very susceptible to harmfully high levels of stress.

Sunlight

If you really want to learn how to treat hypothyroidism then spending some time in sunlight is more important that you may realize.

Sunlight stimulates the production of certain necessary hormones within your body such as Vitamin D. Focus on getting 30 minutes of sunlight daily.

How to Treat Hypothyroidism with Hormones

It’s unfortunate, but at this time, the medical community fails to take into consideration many of the other hormones that have a direct impact on the function and health of your thyroid.

Because of this, it’s becoming increasingly more important to understand your hormones at some level in order to understand how to treat hypothyroidism effectively and which hormones help and which ones cause problems.

Once you determine your hormonal imbalances, it becomes much easier to not only manage but also fine tune your hormonal needs based directly upon your own measurable results.

Measuring Your Results

Now that you know how to treat hypothyroidism, it’s important to track your results. And this is so that you know whether or not your hypothyroidism treatment is making an impact or not, and to what degree.

Temperature

Your body temperature is a great indicator of your thyroid function because the two are directly related. By keeping a record of your morning body temperature or before and after meals, then you can begin to track your progress. When your temperatures increase, that’s a good indication that you’re doing something right.

Pulse

Your pulse is also another good indicator. Most, but not all, hypothyroid people have low pulse rates. And when your thyroid begins to regulate properly, your pulse will begin to increase and normalize to around 85 beats per minute.

As you can see, there’s a lot more that you can do to overcome hypothyroidism than you probably realized. And this is why it’s becoming more and more important to learn how to treat hypothyroidism effectively so that you can take an active role in your own treatment process.

Hypothyroidism Causes

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There’s a lot of confusion and misunderstanding floating around regarding the cause of hypothyroidism. Most people are led to believe that the underlying cause of hypothyroidism is some sort of defect to the thyroid gland itself. But the truth is that there are multiple hypothyroidism causes that all need to be addressed as part of any successful hypothyroidism treatment protocol.

Is Your Thyroid Gland Really the Problem?

It’s true that most doctors are trained to believe that 95% of hypothyroidism is a matter of a sluggish thyroid gland that is incapable of producing enough thyroid hormone to support your body’s needs. And you can’t necessarily blame them because on a very superficial level, it makes sense.

But if that were the case, then 95% of hypothyroidism patients who were put on supplemental Thyroxine (T4 thyroid hormone) would respond favorably and their hypothyroidism symptoms would simply disappear. And doctors prescribe T4 because that’s the primary hormone that your thyroid gland secretes.

But the results of prescribing T4 have been far less than impressive. In fact, they have been outright horrid.

The majority of patients who are put on T4 medication get no relief. Many even get worse. And most doctors fail to come to terms with the fact that this form of treatment is more of a problem than a solution. So, they continue to ignore the various other hypothyroidism causes and reassure their patients that the medication is working but that there are some other “unrelated” problems that they now need to investigate.

The Truth About Hypothyroidism Causes

The truth is that there’s an entire long process that occurs between the time that your thyroid gland produces its hormones and the time that those hormones get delivered to your cells for use. And if any part of this process is broken then the end result is… hypothyroidism.

So, it becomes much easier to see that there are a number of hypothyroidism causes that you have to account for if you really want to correct the problem.

But it gets even deeper than that.

Unfortunately, when any one single part of this process is broken, all the other parts suffer as well, much like a domino effect. So it’s not as easy as fixing the one little broken link in the chain. Once this process is thrown off, you have to work to restore functionality to the entire process to get it working properly again.

And that’s why it becomes so important to address all of the hypothyroidism causes at the same time.

And while TSH levels are high in the majority of hypothyroidism cases (but not all) this is not necessarily an indication of a problem with your thyroid gland. If any part of the process becomes broken then your thyroid gland is going to naturally down regulate and stop producing so many hormones. And it’s important to use the right thyroid function test before basing a diagnosis off of TSH alone.

But it’s easy to point the finger at your thyroid as the problem and that’s a big mistake that most people and doctors make.

Below I’ve listed the 3 main parts of this process to give you a much better idea of what can go wrong and the various hypothyroidism causes involved with each individual part.

Hypothyroidism Causes Related to Thyroid Hormone Secretion

When it comes to your thyroid gland, there are a few factors that affect its ability to secrete the thyroid hormones that it produces (aside from other broken parts of this process).

Iodine Deficiency

One such issue is an iodine deficiency. But in industrialized countries now days, this is actually one of the very rare hypothyroidism causes. And supplementing with iodine should be approached with extreme caution because you can easily experience iodine toxicity based on many of the popular recommended dosages out there. And this can actually have a number of negative health effects and make you even more hypothyroid in the end.

So it’s important to always get appropriate testing to determine your true iodine levels instead of using a shotgun approach of iodine supplementation.

Excessive Estrogen

One of the very common hypothyroidism causes today that affects your thyroid’s ability to secrete your thyroid hormones is excessive estrogen levels. And this goes for both men and women although it’s more of a problem with women since they naturally have higher estrogen levels.

When estrogen is in excess within the body, it deactivates the proteolytic enzymes that are responsible for signaling your thyroid to release its hormones. So the thyroid hormones tend to build up within the gland and many times leads to goiters and Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis.

Progesterone Deficiency

The hormone that is responsible for opposing and balancing estrogen is progesterone. And one of the many beneficial roles of progesterone is to activate the same proteolytic enzymes that estrogen deactivates.

And a deficiency in progesterone oftentimes goes hand in hand with excessive estrogen.

Hypothyroidism Causes Related to Thyroid Hormone Conversion

Your thyroid gland produces primarily the inactive T4 hormone that must be first converted by your liver into the active T3 hormone in order to be used by your cells. And because this process is responsible for producing about 2/3 of your active thyroid hormone then it can be a major player among the various hypothyroidism causes.

Protein Deficiency

Hopefully you are well aware of the fact that protein plays an important role in your diet. And when you don’t get enough protein in your diet then your body begins to break down your own muscle tissue in order to get the protein that it needs. But this comes with a price.

The process involved in breaking down your muscle tissue requires the use of your body’s stress hormones. And when these stress hormones rise, they also block the conversion of T4 into T3 making this one of the hypothyroidism causes.

Low Carb Diets

There’s a lot of controversy out there regarding the healthiest diet. Some claim that low-fat is the only healthy diet. And others argue that carbs are the problem. But in reality, both are wrong.

But low carb diets can really cause some problems with your thyroid. And this is because your liver requires carbs in your diet in order to convert T4 to T3. So it’s safe to say that carbs are not necessarily the problem. It has more to do with eating the wrong carbs vs. the right carbs.

And this is where a good science based hypothyroidism diet comes into play. But you have to be careful because not every hypothyroidism diet is created equal. And some are flat out bad.

Lack of Salt

Let’s move back to the topic of stress for a minute.

One problem that goes hand in hand with hypothyroidism is the inability to retain sodium within your cells. When you become hypothyroid, your cells easily take up water and sodium is readily eliminated.

But sodium plays a number of very important roles in your body, one of which is to help keep stress hormones levels low. So, your stress hormones are naturally going to be high with hypothyroidism and if you’re not getting enough salt in your diet to then you won’t be able to keep those stress hormones under control.

And as I already mentioned above, stress hormones are another one of the hypothyroidism causes.

Over-Exercising

Keeping along the same topic of stress, many people over-exercise which only places more stress on your body. In fact, it has been shown that over-exercising with hypothyroidism can actually stop your body’s production of the active thyroid hormone, T3, immediately.

So if you think more exercise or working out harder is going to do the trick then think again.

Hypothyroidism Causes Related to Thyroid Hormone Utilization

There are a few hypothyroidism causes that affect your body’s ability to properly utilize thyroid hormone. But few have the far reaching effects of these.

Polyunsaturated Fats

Poly Unsaturated Fats are a major contributing factor with hypothyroidism. They can easily be put into the category that affects thyroid hormone secretion because they do play an active role in suppressing the thyroid gland from secreting its hormones. But these fats also have more far reaching effects.

Polyunsaturated fats also work by blocking the transportation of your thyroid hormone in your bloodstream. So, this means that even less of the needed hormone is actually making it to your cells.

And to make matters worse, once your cells do get the little bit of thyroid hormone, these fats make your thyroid hormone less effective within your cells. So it requires even more thyroid hormone to keep your metabolism and cells healthy.

And with the prevalence of polyunsaturated fats in everyone’s diet today, it’s very easy to see that this is another one of the major hypothyroidism causes of today.

Miscellaneous Hypothyroidism Causes

Of course, there are so many other hypothyroidism causes that it’s impossible to list them all. But there are a couple of others that I think are worth mentioning because they do shed some light as to why hypothyroidism is so common.

Natural Aging

As you age, there’s a natural shift that occurs in your hormone levels, thyroid hormone included. And as your body naturally decreases its hormone secretion, then it becomes more and more important to get these necessary hormones from other sources, such as this.

Diet

Our diets have changed drastically over the past century and unfortunately, it’s been entirely for the worse. And this has become another one of the bigger hypothyroidism causes of today.

We use to utilize the entire animal that we ate including the various organs, bone, etc. And many of these parts that we now discard without thinking use to be very rich in thyroid hormones. So we use to get a good amount of thyroid hormone directly from our diet. And that meant that our thyroid gland didn’t have to produce quite so much on it’s own.

Hopefully this gives you some insight into how complex this issue really is and that it’s not as simple as saying that your thyroid itself is the problem. Instead, you have to consider the entire process and all of the hypothyroidism causes that can be involved along the way if you ever want to truly be successful at healing hypothyroidism.