How stress affects our moods, weight and sleep. This what we do about it!!

When you come and see us in clinic you may wonder why we start with supporting your adrenal glands, digestive system, and making sure your sleep is the best it can be, in other words… helping your body cope with stress!

I mean you may have come to see us for one problem and suddenly we are talking about something completely different!

So let me briefly explain why dealing with stress first and foremost is so important.

Stress affects every system in our body it affects how well our body functions.  Stress affects how well we sleep, when we sleep our body goes through the different cycles so as to restore and renew us.

It impacts on our adrenal glands, liver and gastrointestinal tract which all help convert our T4 in to the active T3 (that's the one that does the work in our bodies).

It affects our hormones for example e.g. progesterone, oestrogen, and cortisol.  When stress increases our cortisol levels, it interferes with thyroid function by turning the active T3 into an inactive Reverse T3.
Stress impacts on our liver function affecting digestion and detoxification; in fact high cortisol levels from increased stress may also be linked to non-alcoholic fatty liver, remember we need our liver to convert T4 to active T3!
It affects our gut health, creating a leaky gut and a leaky gut affects our minds, and thyroid.  In fact the bacteria in our gut play an important role in the production of active thyroid hormones;

It is thought that 20 percent of thyroid function depends on a sufficient supply of healthy gut bacteria to convert T4 to active T3.

As well as producing some of our "happy hormones" e.g. serotonin and GABA, a significant amount of our immune system is found in the gastrointestinal tract, so poor gut health plays significant role in triggering and exacerbating autoimmune diseases such as Hashimoto's, influencing our mood and thyroid function.

So you can see how important it is to first to create a good foundation by helping our bodies to first deal with the stress of living and in this way build up our health, produce our happy hormones and absorb nutrients that can support us. And who knows, maybe when all these systems are functioning as well as they can, nothing more is needed!

Helena Adamson ndrt
Thyroid Consultant
Vurv Thyroid Clinic