Natural Remedies for Thyroid Support: What Works and What Doesn’t

When it comes to supporting your thyroid, there is a host of natural remedies that you might be considering. At the same time, you may be wondering: Which ones are going to help me, and which ones are less effective? In this article, I’ll help you figure that out.

Recommended Product: Antibody Support – Are you tired of feeling sluggish, forgetful, and struggling with weight management? These symptoms could be linked to elevated thyroid antibodies, including TPO, AntiTg, and TSHAb. These antibodies attack your thyroid gland, disrupting its ability to produce essential hormones. Click Here

Table of Contents

Thyroid Health & Natural Remedies
The Role of Food in Thyroid Support
More Natural Remedies for Your Thyroid
Natural Remedies Less Effective for Thyroid Support
Natural Remedies Through General Health
Natural Remedies: Myths and Misconceptions
Natural Remedies for Thyroid Support: Top Tips
Your Journey to Thyroid Health Starts Here

Thyroid Health & Natural Remedies

To kick things off, let’s start by talking about your thyroid. Your thyroid plays a huge role in regulating metabolism, energy, and mood in the body. Some of the main ways that things can go wrong and your thyroid can suffer include:

• Hypothyroidism: Where there is too little thyroid hormone.
• Hyperthyroidism: Where there is too much thyroid hormone.
• Autoimmune Hashimoto’s: Which typically leads to hypothyroidism.
• Autoimmune Graves’: Which is the main cause of hyperthyroidism.

There has been a huge amount of interest in natural remedies for these conditions, simply because these conditions are on the rise. They affect millions of people globally, and every year they become more common, especially Hashimoto’s thyroiditis.

Many folks are out there looking for natural remedies to support their thyroid. That’s likely because they want safe and effective options. So let’s dive into that.

The Role of Food in Thyroid Support

The first nutrient that people often need more of to support their thyroid is selenium. Selenium is critical for its role in thyroid health, and many are below their ideal intake of it.

The reason it’s important is that selenium supports thyroid hormone production and conversion. In general, the thyroid takes up iodine and converts it into T4 and T3.

It’s then releasing T4 and T3 into the body, where the body removes iodine atoms and breaks those down, making reverse T3 and T2 and about a dozen other biologically-active components.

And all of these steps depend upon selenium! If it is not there, the body cannot:

• Control inflammation
• Regulate iodine breakdown
• Protect from more autoimmune activity

But what are some great sources of selenium that we can get into our diet? The first one is Brazil nuts. Only a handful a day can already help you meet your selenium quota.

Some other options include:

• Sunflower seeds
• Brown rice
• Lentils
• Spinach

These are all good options. The important thing to remember is that it is nice to consume a variety of these foods, and it’s good to get about 50-100 micrograms of selenium through supplements, too.

More Natural Remedies for Your Thyroid

What are some additional herbs and supplements that may be able to help your thyroid? Beyond selenium, another good one to look at is ashwagandha.

Ashwagandha

Ashwagandha is a herb used for quite some time in Ayurvedic medicine. It has been shown to help regulate thyroid hormones by reducing stress and supporting the body’s adrenal function.

It is safe for humans, and it won’t cause extra thyroid hormones to be produced. But there are some products that may be contaminated with thyroid hormone, so look out for those.

Inositol

Inositol is another good nutrient that you should consider. This is a carbohydrate-like component, and it’s been shown to improve thyroid function and reduce TSH elevations when they are high in those with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis.

The other nice thing is that inositol helps make the body more sensitive to insulin, and that’s great for overall metabolism.

Nigella

Another well-studied nutrient is called nigella, otherwise known as black seed or black cumin seed. This is an anti-inflammatory and immune-modulating plant.

Strong human studies suggest that nigella may lower thyroid antibodies and improve overall thyroid function. It may also reduce enlarged thyroid nodules in the body.

Zinc

Zinc helps the body produce TSH properly. It is also a critical part of a healthy immune response and warding off autoimmunity. It’s also essential for the metabolism of thyroid hormones.

Natural Remedies Less Effective for Thyroid Support

Some examples of popular remedies that are less helpful include…

Iodine

Specifically, when we talk about an excess of iodine, so really upping your dosage and consuming too much. The problem here is that it can shut down the thyroid and worsen thyroid autoimmunity. We see this mainly from:

• Iodine supplements
• Kelp products
• Types of seaweed
• Multivitamins that contain iodine

Detox Diets & Juice Cleanses

While these are not always bad, they haven’t been shown to support your thyroid. The drawback is that if they end up putting someone on too restrictive a diet, they may miss out on the nutrients that they need and disrupt general metabolism.

Essential Oils

There’s not a lot of evidence about essential oils supporting thyroid function, especially when applied topically or used aromatically. Sometimes they can even cause allergic reactions.

Selenium

Clearly, in doses of 300 micrograms per day, selenium can have a negative effect on the thyroid.

Natural Remedies Through General Health

Generally speaking, if it’s good for your body, then it is good for your thyroid. That is why we might want to consider some things that address the general state of your health. This might include:

• Stress management – Like managing your cortisol levels and metabolism.
• Regular exercise – A great way to support good metabolism and energy output.
• Diet – A balanced diet overall is critical (fats, proteins, and carbohydrates)
• Sleep – Adequate sleep can also benefit your thyroid.

Natural Remedies: Myths and Misconceptions

I want to take a moment to quickly address some of the myths and misconceptions, primarily around diet, that may be causing people some stress when it comes to managing their thyroid health. Let’s talk about them to help take some of that stress away.

Gluten Free

The first one is that everyone with thyroid disease must go completely gluten-free. While some have benefited greatly by going gluten-free, many with thyroid disease also struggle with celiac disease. If you don’t know, you should screen for it.

If you’ve gone gluten-free and it has changed your life for the better, I’m the last person who’s going to want you to change back. Because that’s awesome for you.

That said, for many people, it doesn’t make much of a difference.

Goitrogenic Foods

Another big concern is around goitrogenic foods. This especially applies to things like cruciferous vegetables, like broccoli. Should you avoid it or cook it to death? It really does not matter either way.

If you’re only eating pounds of raw broccoli every day, and eating nothing else, then you might have a problem. Otherwise, having broccoli or other cruciferous vegetables as part of a balanced diet is totally fine.

Soy Foods

The other big one is soy foods. In the distant past, infant formulas that were soy-based lacked adequate iodine and caused thyroid problems. But once that was figured out, those formulas were adjusted, and the issue went away.

Since then, soy has been unable to shake this bad reputation. But it has been studied exhaustively, and soy intake has no effect on thyroid health.

And I say that because there is also evidence that soy can do good things, especially in terms of lowering breast cancer risk, heart disease risk, and osteoporosis.

Natural Remedies for Thyroid Support: Top Tips

I want to close out today’s article by going through some of my most-recommended tips when it comes to natural remedies for your overall thyroid health.

The biggest single thing is regulating your iodine intake. It is easy to get enough, but it’s also easy to get too much (and potentially way too much).

Besides that, it helps to focus on foods that are rich in selenium with a good range of nutrients.

You should also seek to get your thyroid tested. Before starting any radical change in your diet, it is going to help so much to have a good read of the current state of your thyroid health.

The last one is to stay connected with your healthcare team. Make sure that you’re not getting negative interactions between the supplements and medications that you’re taking.

And watch your thyroid symptoms closely. Understand how these symptoms might be related to changes in your lab levels. And that a lot of natural remedies can truly help!

Your Journey to Thyroid Health Starts Here

Like I mentioned above, there is so much you can do naturally to benefit your thyroid. If you feel like you’re struggling, I want you to know that the right mix between diet, lifestyle, and nutraceuticals can truly change your life for the better.

But it always helps to start somewhere. If you click here, you can start by taking the handy quiz I put together to get a sense of where you stand – and what to do next. Here’s to your best health!