5 Tips to Reclaim Your Thyroid Mojo

Today I’m manhandling 5 mojo-zappers. Five things that I often find are depleting the energy of patients in my integrative medicine practice. Five things I want on your radar. Five things I want you to remove from your life. Now.

1. Dial in your free T3. Free T3 is the active form of your thyroid hormone. A shockingly high proportion of women after age 35 are low. I find this number tracks with mojo more than any other indicator of your thyroid function. I like to see my patients in the top half of the normal range.
2. Correct your low Vitamin D. Even with all the press this cute little hormone gets, 90% of my patients are low. Yet Vitamin D has over 1000 jobs in your cells. My fave? It drives thyroid hormone into your cell nucleus, where it can work its wonders. Get some. Keep your level above 52. For optimal metabolism, I like 70-90.
3. Beware: Endocrine disruptors. These buggers are killing you softly. They’re in your jeans (2/3 of jeans are manufactured in China). They’re in your mattress. They’re in your canned food. They’re in your car upholstery. Reduce your exposure starting today. Get your organic mattress (although you may need a doctor’s prescription – how ridiculous is that?). Get organic jeans against your skin (they are far foxier than they used to be). Eat fresh, organic, seasonal food rather than the canned crap. Be mindful about your plastics and cleaning products.
4. Check your cortisol. Adrenal dysregulation – that is, a cortisol that is either higher or lower than normal – can influence your thyroid functioning. Both high and low cortisol affects how much T3 you make.
5. Meditate. It elongates your telomeres, the sweet little shoelace caps on your chromosomes, longer and slows down biological aging. Even beginners get a boost in telomere length, says Nobel prizewinner Elizabeth Blackburn!