How Stress Disrupts Your Thyroid

As I have mentioned in prior blogs, your hormones dance with one another. This is why, when evaluating hormone balance, you have to take into account the various hormones interacting in your body. When one hormone becomes imbalanced this can lead to other hormonal imbalances. Stress hormones and thyroid hormones are good examples of this.

Do you know what your body does when you experience stress?

It produces cortisol. 

Cortisol is an adrenal hormone that is meant to help your body respond to stressful situations. But...too much and too often can have damaging effects on many aspects of your health, including your thyroid.

Here’s why:

➡️ Increased cortisol due to high stress can shift the thyroid into a more inactive state, elevating reverse T3 levels rather than converting Free T4 to Free T3 hormone.

➡️ Cortisol can decrease the production of TSH (thyroid-stimulating hormone), which is needed to stimulate thyroid hormone production. If your brain does not make TSH, your thyroid does not get the message to make more thyroid hormone.

➡️ Elevated cortisol over time can indirectly lead to higher levels of TBG (thyroid-binding globulin), which decreases the amount of free thyroid hormone available to cells.

There really is a quite complicated relationship between thyroid health and stress because of the hormones involved with each. But there’s a pretty simple takeaway message here: 

If you want to support optimal thyroid function, you cannot ignore the effects of stress—and that means anything your body PERCEIVES as stress. I often discuss with my patients that our STRESSORS are outside of us and often out of our control. What we can control is our RESPONSE to stress.

Here are a handful of things you can do to reduce your stress response:

🍏 Eat in a way that supports healthy blood sugar balance (be careful with very low-carb diets which in some can lower thyroid hormone levels)

👟 Exercise the right amount for your body - movement is key but not in excess! If you are having a particularly stressful day consider a less-strenuous exercise like a walk outside or yoga.

🧘‍♂️ Take breaks - recovery is important! Your body needs rest as much as it needs activity! Consider utilizing meditation (I like the Headspace app).

💤 Aim for sound sleep (this might mean cutting the glass or wine or social scrolls at night!)

As a Functional Medicine physician, I take a comprehensive approach to thyroid optimization. You can learn more about my approach to thyroid health HERE.

Ready to start your journey? Contact us to get started!