Teach me Peat: My thyroid is naturally producing less hormone than it should. WHY?

[FredSonoma]

I did low carb for a while (1.5 years). I very slightly understand why that could suppress my thyroid function - something about carbs being needed to convert T4 to T3, not enough energy production for certain things in general, so not enough carbohydrates available to burn so my body stops producing the hormone that's going to burn it? And then a high fat diet would tend to have more PUFA then a low-fat diet (however many of us former-paleos probably didn't eat that much PUFA compared to people eating "Standard American Diet," whatever that is).

So now, I'm feeding my body absurb amounts of sugar, eating lots of meat and dairy for protein / nutrients in general right? So where's my thyroid function? What is stopping my body from increasing it on its own? Am I missing a certain amount of a certain nutrient, or glycogen storage?

 

[Matt1951]

How do you know your body is not converting T4 to T3? Have you had blood work done?
What is your temperature and pulse?
How much PUFA do you eat per day? It will take years to clear.
How much is "lots of meat"? Are you getting vitamin A; are there any other dietary deficiencies?
Eat sea food once per week? for iodine and selenium.
What else are you doing to raise your metabolism?

 

[FredSonoma]

post 118660 How do you know your body is not converting T4 to T3? Have you had blood work done?
What is your temperature and pulse?
How much PUFA do you eat per day? It will take years to clear.
How much is "lots of meat"? Are you getting vitamin A; are there any other dietary deficiencies?
Eat sea food once per week? for iodine and selenium.
What else are you doing to raise your metabolism?

I don't know about the T4 - I had blood work done but it only tested TSH (3.5 as of 3 months ago). However, I am on a thyroid supplement now and definitely feeling benefit from it. As of using the thyroid supplement, my pulse is usually 80s, temps usually high 97s or low 98s. However, I don't feel right adding more thyroid - I already feel somewhat "hyperthyroid," often having trouble getting to sleep and feeling a little rung out.

I eat minimal PUFA, I don't touch junk food, but do get some from butter, eggs, milk, coconut oil, etc. But I never eat chicken fat, pork fat, any nuts/seeds or their oils.

Lots of meat is probably in the range of a .5 - 1 lb a day. I guess that isn't that much now that I think of it. I do eat some liver once a week, but because I am constantly drinking OJ, sometimes i have trouble getting it (I am afraid to eat iron too close to the vicinity of Vitamin C because it makes me feel crappy).

I am eating sea food once a week, I am however craving oysters and should go buy some.

Other than that, I drink about 4 shots of espresso a day, do some red light therapy and take about 1 drop of MB / day.

 

[ecstatichamster]

I suspect that thyroid product declines as we age due to stress. Stress hormones increase in the body's increasing challenges due to endotoxin loads, PUFA and iron/heavy metal accumulation, and the thyroid level declines as a result. The metabolism levels are lower and lower. More free fatty acids are used for energy and less sugar. And the liver is fatty and bogged down. T4 isn't turned into T3 by a fatty bogged down liver. The body's stress hormones kick in to make up for it.

 

[Matt1951]

Your pulse and temperature are good. TSH was too high.
Your diet looks good, as the liver should supply Vitamin A.
I am not sure your natural thyroid production can kick in while you are supplementing. Maybe more time with your new diet is needed. Maybe you will always need thyroid medication.

 

[Tarmander]

I have found in my Peat adventures that your body and your mind often live at quite a different pace. You mind can assimilate information and make changes rather quickly while your body drags its feet the more you try and move it along. A large part of restoring thyroid function is lowering stress, and your body can be living in a different reality that your mind isn't even aware of. Stress is your body's way of adapting to its surroundings. So while your mind might be trying to install peatdiet.exe, or thyroidfunction.exe to your operating system, the body is reacting to your environment in the best way it knows how to help it survive.

I bet there are stressors in your environment that you are not even aware of. Have you tried getting a couple hours of sunlight a day? When I manage that my stress goes way down. Bad air? Plastics? I think even if you took all the Peat stuff in the world, if you stare at a screen all day under florescent lights and constant AC, you body will reflect that environment. Not saying that you are living like that, just that at the end of the day, the environment is more powerful then following the "diet."

 

[DaveFoster]

So where's my thyroid function? What is stopping my body from increasing it on its own? Am I missing a certain amount of a certain nutrient, or glycogen storage?

As stated by ecstatichamster, stress takes it's toll, but you're also born flawed. Genes aren't perfect, and biology generally runs inefficiently, although enduringly so.

Your body will continue to function poorly until you supply it with a surplus of the basic nutrients, and also employ alternative methods to counteract past and ongoing damage. You're not starting from a "clean slate," neither biologically due to a lack of pruning of the gene pool, nor environmentally due to previous adventures in Standard American land, Paleo dogma, and any poisoning in utero.