How To Recover From Hypothyroidism By Restoring Your Thyroid Hormone Pathway

Thyroid Hormone Pathways

Have you ever wondered why so many people who become hypothyroid never fully recover? This happens to so many people despite trying different types and brands of thyroid medication, supplements, diets, natural remedies and making lifestyle changes…

The problem with most thyroid treatments is that they don’t take into consideration how efficiently thyroid hormones are used by your body. In best case they just focus on supplying thyroid hormones in a synthetic or natural form but don’t pay any attention to how much of it actually reaches target cells.

When your thyroid gland produces thyroid hormones and/or you are getting them from a medication, they enter the bloodstream and need to get to all organs and body tissues to create a metabolic effect.

However, if at any point your thyroid hormones get blocked on the way to the cells you are going to remain hypothyroid on a cellular level even if you are taking thyroid medication and have optimal thyroid numbers.

So, today I would like to share with you what exactly can be blocking your thyroid hormones from reaching and getting into the cells and how you can recover from hypothyroidism by restoring your thyroid hormone pathway.

This concept is most likely new to you and you have never heard about it before. However, a broken thyroid hormone pathway is by far the biggest problem in people:

  • After total and partial thyroidectomy
  • Who have an only partially functioning thyroid and became hypothyroid due to Hashimoto’s disease and RAI treatment
  • Are on a T4-only thyroid drugs
  • Don’t get much improvement of hypothyroid symptoms by taking thyroid medication of any type or feel even worse after starting thyroid replacement therapy
  • Who continue to suffer from multiple hypothyroid symptoms even when their thyroid lab results are in the normal reference range.

If you belong to any of these group mentioned above you can use this eye-opening information as a starting point to experience truly life-changing thyroid treatment results.

But let me first explain

What Is Thyroid Hormone Pathway?

Thyroid Hormone Pathway

Synthesis of thyroid hormones by the thyroid gland or a replacement of missing hormones with medication is just a first step in a complicated thyroid hormone cycle. After entering the bloodstream thyroid hormones need to reach all your organs, systems and cells to perform their metabolic action.

Inside your cells, thyroid hormones primarily attach to the mitochondria and signal it to either decrease or increase ATP (adenosine triphosphate) production. This means the more thyroid hormones that reach your cells, the more ATP is present, and as a result the more energy and the higher metabolism you have and the better you function and feel.

From the moment your thyroid hormones enter your bloodstream they have to go through a series of events and transformations in order to successfully get into your cells and do their job. This entire process is called a thyroid hormone pathway.

If your thyroid hormone pathway becomes blocked or broken your cells won’t be able to function properly and produce energy. This can have more far-reaching consequences than most people realize.

Since your thyroid hormones affect the function of almost every cell in your body, it controls all life-important processes such as:

  • Cellular metabolism
  • Metabolic rate
  • Body temperature
  • Production of body heat
  • Blood pressure and heart rate
  • Development of the skeletal, nervous and reproductive systems
  • Tissue growth
  • Menstrual cycle and fertility.

When these systems don’t work as they should even when you are already receiving a treatment for hypothyroidism, it can indicate an issue with your thyroid hormone pathway.

Is Your Thyroid Hormone Pathway Broken?

Thyroid Hormones Pathway

Your thyroid hormone pathway can be blocked on 4 main levels resulting in a less than optimal thyroid function:

1. Blocked thyroid gland.

Thyroid gland dysfunction itself can indicate primary hypothyroidism and often times these issues can be identified when using extended thyroid lab tests. This is when the thyroid gland cannot work properly and doesn’t produce adequate amounts of thyroid hormones.

Here are some factors that can affect the thyroid gland and hormone production:

  • Inadequate supply of building blocks for thyroid hormone secretion such as iodine, tyrosine and others.
  • Too much chlorine, fluoride and bromine in water and food that can replace iodine in the thyroid gland.
  • Insufficient amounts of active enzymes necessary for the thyroid hormone synthesis inside your thyroid gland that happens due to unbalanced proteins in your diet.
  • Estrogen dominance that creates a lack of activate enzymes that don’t allow your thyroid gland to release thyroid hormones into the bloodstream.
  • Chronic stress that suppresses your thyroid gland and lowers hormone production.
  • Polyunsaturated fatty acids or PUFAs can inhibit many proteolytic enzymes and block the release of thyroid hormones by your thyroid gland.

2. Impaired thyroid hormone conversion.

Your body relays on a self-regulating process to convert inactive T4 to active T3 thyroid hormone. Most of T3 is produced in target tissues outside of the thyroid gland. This production of T3 from T4 occurs in a highly regulated manner… unless it’s blocked.

There are 6 well-known major causes of T4 to T3 under-conversion that can result in a lack of T3 thyroid hormones which is substantially enough to cause persistent hypothyroid symptoms.

Many scientific studies that confirm that under-conversion of T4 to T3 can be the reason why some people who have normal TSH and T4 lab test results still experience depression, fatigue, weight gain, brain fog and hair loss.

3. Problems with thyroid hormone transport.

A success of thyroid hormone transport depends on carrier proteins that pick them up and carry in the bloodstream to the cells.

Both T4 and T3 thyroid hormones are present in the blood either in a bound or unbound form.

Bonded thyroid hormones can be attached to 3 major carrier proteins:

  • About 70% of circulating T4 and 75–80% of T3 is bound to Thyroid Binding Globulin (TBG)
  • About 20% of T4 and 10% of T3 to prealbumin (PA)
  • Between 10% and 15% of each to albumin.

These carrier proteins facilitate the thyroid hormone transport, provide a readily available reserve of thyroid hormones “on demand” to be used when needed and prevent them from flooding into cells.

A small amount of thyroid hormones remains in a non-protein-bound or “free” form and is ready to enter into the cells. For T4 this free fraction is normally 0.02-0.04% of the total serum T4 concentration, for T3 about 0.3%

The problem is that when these carrier proteins become blocked, you are not getting your thyroid hormones delivered to your cells. This means that your cells are left deprived and under-performing that ultimately results in hypothyroidism on a cellular level and low energy.

4. Clogged thyroid receptors.

After being successfully transported to your cells thyroid hormones have to enter the cells. This happens after they find and then bind to a thyroid receptor site.

Unfortunately, for many hypothyroid sufferers this is an impossible task due to blocked thyroid site receptors that can happen mainly due to two factors:

  • High reverse T3 (rT3). Both T3 and reverse T3 bind to thyroid hormone receptors. However, while T3 stimulates healthy metabolism, reverse T3 blocks thyroid receptors and prevents T3 from binding and entering the cells making you more hypothyroid. Currently the T3/rT3 ratio is the best indicator of tissue thyroid levels and cellular hypothyroidism.
  • Unhealthy dietary fats. Research studies confirmed that PUFAs also prevent your active T3 thyroid hormone from binding to thyroid cell receptors.

How To Restore Your Thyroid Hormone Pathway

Thyroid Hormones

If you want to overcome hypothyroidism on a cellular level you need to restore your thyroid hormone pathway.

Here is a 4 steps approach how to unblock thyroid hormone pathway that can provide life-changing results.

1. Help Your Thyroid Gland.

If you still have your thyroid gland or it is partially functional you need to provide the support it needs and help it to produce and release thyroid hormones.

When it comes to supporting your thyroid gland, there a number of things that you can do to restore its normal function and stimulate thyroid hormone production naturally:

  • Give your thyroid nutrients it needs to secret thyroid hormones.
  • Reduce your exposure to chlorine, fluoride and bromine through food, water and in your environment.
  • Balance the proteins in your diet to activate the enzymes that help the thyroid gland produce thyroid hormones.
  • Avoid PUFAs from cooking oils and dressings
  • Overcome estrogen dominance by improving estrogen detoxification pathway in your liver and increasing progesterone levels naturally. This will help to activate the enzymes that allow the thyroid gland to release its thyroid hormone into the bloodstream.
  • Reduce stress and eliminate sources of chronic stress that suppress your thyroid hormone production.

I have to make a special note for people who are on a complete or partial thyroid hormone replacement therapy after a thyroidectomy or as a result of autoimmune Hashimoto’s disease or RAI treatment.

It is important to get both T4 and T3 hormones in adequate amounts and in a specific ratio. A portion of T3 that should be produced by the (missing) thyroid gland but is not replaced with medication, cannot be compensated by a higher dose of T4-only medication or later on at any step of the thyroid hormone pathway.

2. Support T4 to T3 conversion.

You might be surprised to learn that most of T4 to T3 conversions happen in your digestive tract and liver. These two organs determine how your body is going to use thyroid hormones produced by the thyroid gland and/or you get from thyroid medication.

When you become hypothyroid, your digestion and liver become blocked and dysfunctional. This leads not only to more hypothyroid symptoms like constipation, sluggish digestion, gas, bloating, fatigue and depression. It also causes a broken thyroid hormone pathway because most of your organs and cells never get adequate amounts of thyroid hormones they desperately need.

Here is what you can do to help your thyroid hormone conversion:

  • Improve T4 to T3 conversion to ensure you have enough active T3 your body needs.
  • Improve your detoxification pathways so you can get rid of thyroid suppressive hormones and toxins that block thyroid hormone conversion.
  • Break out of thyroid-stress cycle that drains your adrenals and down-regulates your T4 to T3 conversion.
  • Use the right type of sugar in your diet in order to compensate for glycogen deficiency in hypothyroidism and overcome fatigue, cravings for sweets and carbohydrates, muscle mass wasting and insomnia.

3. Ensure a smooth thyroid hormone transport to the cells.

Unblocking your carrier proteins can make a huge difference because it will help your thyroid hormones reach their target cells.

  • Make sure that an adequate amount of thyroid carrier proteins is available to for thyroid hormone transport to your cells.
  • Avoid and detoxify polyunsaturated fats that block the transport of thyroid hormone to your cells within. Here are 5 worst cooking oils for your thyroid.

4. Unclog your thyroid hormone cell receptors.

Unfortunately, many people have issues with finding a receptor site where thyroid hormone can effectively bind.

Here is what you may need to do to unblock your thyroid cell receptors:

  • Reduce stress and ensure that your high reverse T3 hormone is not overtaking your cell receptors blocking an access for your active T3.
  • Unclog your thyroid cell receptors by detoxifying toxic fats that prevent T3 from binding on the receptor sites.
  • Increase the number of available thyroid cell receptors for active T3 to bind at.
  • Improve your T3 thyroid hormone binding capacity.

Mapping out your thyroid hormone pathway recovery

 

HYPOTHYROIDISM TREATMENT PLAN

I bet that after reading this article today you will most likely realize that there is a lot more to recovering your thyroid health than you previously thought.

Many of your hypothyroid and Hashimoto’s disease symptoms are directly related to how well (or not well) your thyroid hormones are getting to your cells. And if they cannot reach your cells it means that you will remain hypothyroid on a cellular level no matter what brand, type and how much thyroid medication you take.

As you learned there are so many contributing factors that can affect your thyroid hormone pathway. For most thyroid patients it means that they usually have more than one factor involved that they have to identify and correct.

To do this properly you need a systematic approach and an easy to follow step-by-step protocol that addresses every part of your thyroid hormone pathway recovery.

Most hypothyroidism and Hashimoto’s disease patients spend years focusing only on the wrong things and struggling with multiple symptoms for years before they realize that it will never work or at some point even giving up. Don’t waste your time and life for thyroid treatments that don’t work or just mask your symptoms.

If you suffer from hypothyroidism, Hashimoto’s disease and low metabolism, you will definitely want to learn and use this hypothyroidism treatment protocol that focuses on restoring your thyroid hormone pathway because it will help you start seeing the results you want and deserve.

Best Hypothyrodism Treatment

 

P.S. There is a lot more to discover about hypothyroidism and Hashimoto’s disease. To get your access to our FREE online Hypothyroidism Seminar: The Right And Wrong Ways To Heal and learn more about your thyroid hormone pathway CLICK HERE

About Marina Gutner, PhD

Marina Gutner, PhD, researcher, medical writer, thyroid blogger, founder and Admin of Outsmart Disease who writes about life-changing treatments for hypothyroidism, Hashimoto's thyroiditis and autoimmune disease and how to balance hormones in women