Often patients come to see me looking for help with weight loss. They’ve tried various diets and exercise regimes without much success. They are frustrated. They are obsessing. They think they must be doing something wrong. Can I help them? What’s the latest and greatest in diets? They are surprised when instead of talking about diets (overly restrictive and unnecessary, I might add), I dive deep into an analysis of their hormones. Because here’s the thing, if your hormones are not where they should be, weight loss, or weight management for that matter, is going to be more of a struggle than it needs to be. And as I said in my earlier post (and you’ll likely hear me say time and again) I want anything weight, food or exercise related to feel easy, and enjoyable; never a struggle.
Hormones that are always top of mind when it comes to weight loss/management are the thyroid hormones. Thyroid hormones are important for maintaining our metabolism. An under-active thyroid can make losing weight challenging. Other symptoms of an under-active thyroid include: low energy, low mood, intolerance to cold, and loss of the lateral 1/3 of the eyebrows.
Thyroid hormone production and metabolism is complex and is influenced by many factors, including nutritional deficiencies, stress, autoimmunity, and fluctuations or imbalances in other hormones (because remember, we are an integrated whole!). You might be interested to know that in conventional medicine, the normal reference range for thyroid hormones is quite wide, meaning that you can experience symptoms of low thyroid function yet not meet the criteria for treatment because you fall within range. BUT – we know that optimal thyroid function falls within a MUCH tighter range. From a naturopathic medical perspective, if you fall out of that tighter range in which optimal thyroid function occurs and you’re experiencing symptoms of low thyroid function, well then, we’ve got some work to do to support your thyroid and ensure that it’s getting the building blocks that it needs.
If you want more info or feel this might be an issue for you, send me a message or follow the link in my bio to book in. ❤️