Estrogen dominance and thyroid, adrenals, menopause — all connected?

This meningioma journey is educating me on all sorts of women’s health issues. The Women-to-Women clinic issued an article this week on Hypothyroidism and Menopause.  I’m including the link here so you can read the entire article.

This is important to me because TSH levels and thyroid ultrasounds are indicating a problem might be developing… and, of course, with a meningioma, I’m alert to estrogen theories and menopause connections.  We should all be.

Basically, while most MDs focus on the symptom (TSH levels) and give you a drug to deal with it (synthroid), there are theories that your thyroid is affected by other factors such as estrogen levels, stress, what’s going on with your adrenals, and so on.  Your thyroid doesn’t act in a vacuum and we shouldn’t treat it that way.

Dr. Jeffrey Bland, researcher and founder of the Institute for Functional Medicine, writes, “Each disease has a past, a present, and a future….” And a disorder in the thyroid may very well have a “past” somewhere else in the body.

At the end of the article, they offer these suggestions to regulate your thyroid naturally:

1.  Support your adrenals

– Never allow yourself to get too hungry, low blood sugar stresses your body and your adrenals

– Avoid refined sugars, glutens, sodas, coffees, caffeines

– Eat several small meals and healthy snacks throughout the day

– Don’t skip meals

– Let cravings for salt alert you to something — low adrenals! 

– Get enough sleep

2.  Take a quality multi-vitamin

3.  Supplement with extra selenium and iodine

4.  Avoid gluten

5.  Find ways to eliminate your stress and speak your truth

6.  Talk to your practioner about natural thyroid supplements