Chinese Medicine + Hypothyroid: What three common symptoms mean in Chinese Medicine

Let’s breakdown three common symptoms of low thyroid function, how we frame that within a Chinese Medicine POV, and why it’s important to address them.

Feeling cold all the time?

From a Chinese Medicine POV , if you’re always feeling cold, or you have low BBT (for those temperature charting) we generally want to make sure that your Kidney and Yang Qi is sufficient to keep everything moving well and keeping warm. Your Yang Qi is one of the drivers for activity. We also want to look at your Spleen Qi, which assists in assimilating nutrients and keeping your extremities warm.

Looking at your T3 and T4 will help us better focus on your temp regulation (Not sure what those terms mean? Check my post on “Understanding Thyroid Markers”). This needs to be checked by someone who has done focused training around thyroid. As mentioned earlier; standard lab ranges aren’t going to cut it. Lab ranges are a classic example of what’s common, not necessarily normal. Optimal range also addresses symptom management.

Feeling hungry all the time?

From a Chinese Medicine POV we generally want to make sure that the transformation and transportation of nutrients is feeding the whole body through regulating your ‘middle burner’ AKA, your Spleen and Stomach Qi are working optimally.

Hunger is a result of your body being desperate for nutrients. We just mentioned that T3 needs carbs to work well, so it’s easy to see how low carb diets will often exacerbate symptoms in someone who has low thyroid support. Make sure you have regular, nutrient dense and protein rich real foods. We want amino acids coming in from the diet! Making sure your system has enough co-factors to make thyroid hormones also comes into play here.

Fasting is not considered a friendly option for thyroid support. During times of starvation or little access to food your body goes into protection mode and reverses T3 to make it inactive so you don’t use your fuel reserves too quickly. Small frequent meals is the way to go.

Feeling tired all the time?

From a Chinese Medicine POV we’re usually looking at how to effectively build, move and/or nourish Qi and blood. If you’re not assimilating nutrients well through your ‘middle burner’, your Liver Qi is congested, or if your Kidney Qi lacks support you’re going to feel constantly flat.

In that picture of cold, hungry, tired, grumpy, we talked about T3 and T4 already and their need to be optimised. Part of that is looking at the right co-factors needed to make thyroid hormone. Co-factors, as the name suggests, are simply other factors that contribute! There are plenty of them, but two that will be familiar to you:

·       Getting enough iron. Iron is a big factor to consider with fatigue. We want your iron’s storage capacity (ferritin) to have strong reserve levels.

·       Getting enough salt. Sodium usually gets a bad rap, but it’s actually suuuper important in getting thyroid hormone made. Salt molecule carries iodine into the cell. It’s crucial for thyroid hormone! You could be having plenty of iodine rich foods, but without the salt to carry it across the cell membrane, the benefits are sorely diminished and thyroid hormone won’t be thriving. Salt is also really important in general for Kidney Qi support. Sadly, that doesn’t give you free license to smother everything you consume with salt, but if your labs are on the lower end of the range, it’s important to have a conversation with your practitioner about what range is going to better serve you. Electrolytes work within a tight range.

Laelia loves to support people in feeling less depleted. Sessions available Inner West and Eastern Suburbs.