We would be completely off base to suggest that most endocrine disorders can be treated with vitamins. However, what we have found is that many issues commonly misconstrued as endocrine problems are in fact vitamin deficiencies masquerading as these other diagnoses. We would like to help dispel some of the most common misunderstandings we see in our practices and illustrate the value of a personalized vitamin assessment in determining your individualized needs.
Clearly, there are many nuances to understanding this body system, but for the purposes of this article we would like to focus on a few misconceptions we see repeatedly among our patients and some of the ways we think their symptoms can be better addressed. Namely, we will delve into concerns about the thyroid and adrenal glands.
Perhaps one of the most common disorders that our patients self-diagnose is a low thyroid. It seems that just about everyone who walks into our offices is convinced his or her thyroid is not functioning properly. People Google search a litany of terms from “fatigue” to “trouble losing weight” to “thinning hair” and thyroid always comes up at the top of the list of potential causes. No doubt it is an incredibly important gland, and its function is essential to your body’s overall health. Dr. Romy Block is in fact a thyroidologist (a subspeciality within endocrinology and metabolism), and she has made a career of studying and treating this gland found in each of our necks overlying our Adam’s apple (the piece of cartilage in your neck that protects your windpipe—it is more prominent in men, but every woman has one, too). Our discussion of endocrine issues and hormones certainly must shed some light on this essential and much-publicized gland.
There are in fact some vitamins and supplements that are important for thyroid health and others that we believe should not be used, though are commonly recommended. In many ways, our thyroid serves as the epicenter of metabolism in our bodies. The thyroid uses iodine (found in our diets or via supplements, more on this later) to produce a hormone, in the form of thyroxine (T4). T4 circulates and is converted throughout the body into its more active form, triiodothyronine (T3), which is the hormone responsible for essentially “keeping things going” in our bodies. If we lack thyroid hormone (i.e., are hypothyroid), our heart rate can slow, we can gain weight, feel depressed or fatigued or cold all the time, even lose cognitive function and memory, become constipated, have erratic menstrual periods, and lose hair. Sounds great, right?
However, the opposite end of the spectrum isn’t so terrific either. Those who have excess thyroid hormone (i.e., are hyperthyroid) feel jumpy, get palpitations, lose bone density, feel hot all the time, and have tremors, trouble sleeping, diarrhea, and erratic periods, as well as hair loss. Clearly, living in the middle, in perfect balance, is where we all want to be.
Finding the perfect blend of vitamins can help with daily energy. A personalized vitamin assessment, which can be taken online, is an effective means to discern which vitamins can be beneficial for your profile.
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