Hey everybody!  Dr Hagmeyer here and perhaps you are struggling with your thyroid, maybe you have been taking thyroid hormones for several months or several years and you still feel fatigued, and run down. Your doctors are not taking you seriously and you are still experiencing brain fog, depression, weight gain, irritability and no matter what you do, you are still gaining weight, losing hair and feeling terrible!- These symptoms are the most common symptoms I see when patients first start working with my institute.

If this is you, I want to talk to you about a common reason why some of this is happening and it especially holds true if you have been under stress or there was a major stressor you encountered in your life.

Regardless of what may have been told, chronic stress has disastrous effects on your brain and your body.

Stress- More than just emotional-It can be physical, it can be emotional and it can be chemical.

Stress turns on the fight or flight response. If this this inner turmoil if your body does not adapt- it has the ability to raise your cortisol levels. High cortisol levels can raise your Reverse T3 levels and this is a major problem for many people with Thyroid disease- You see………….. Cortisol is a hormone very important to thyroid function. Too much and it can block the conversion of T4 into T3 causing low T3 and all the symptoms of Hypothyroidism. Too little cortisol and your Thyroid and estrogen receptors don’t become sensitized. They become less responsive. When Thyroid receptors can’t take up thyroid hormone into the cell because the receptors become dulled or down regulated, you end up with many hypothyroid symptoms like we mentioned earlier.

Now….You may remember from past Thyroid videos that your Thyroid makes T4 and it makes T3. If you make too much or to little cortisol, your body cannot convert that T4 into T3-

This is a common reason for many woman to complain of feeling tired, brain fog, feeling cold and experiencing weight gain but their doctor insists that because TSH and T4 are normal that there is nothing wrong.

So what gives? Well like anything related to the Thyroid- There is more to the picture! This cortisol that I just mentioned is a hormone made by your adrenal glands. And when your body is stressed- again that (physical, chemical or emotional)- your sympathethetic nerve system kicks in- When this sympathetic nerve system kicks in – those adrenal glands release cortisol. Like I said earlier, this cortisol does two things- in the right amount it sensitizes your thyroid receptors and everything is good. But when you have too much or too little this is where the problem lies. I’m sure you have heard of diabetes- with Type I diabetics they fail to produce insulin, but with Type II diabetics- they produce insulin- but the cells are not responding to the insulin. This is why its called insulin resistance.

Low Thyroid Function- May have Less To do with the Thyroid- And More To Do With Your Adrenals

In people who are under chronic stress, your problem may not be the production of thyroid hormone, it may be an issue where the thyroid hormone is NOT getting into the cell where it’s needed.

If you continue to struggle with thyroid symptoms- Brain fog, depression, anxiety, weight gain, sleeping problems, hair loss it may be time to work with a doctor who will look at the big picture as it relates to supporting your thyroid and uncovering why your Thyroid is malfunctioning.

The adrenal glands may be a one of those key pieces to your Thyroid picture.

There are couple points I want you to remember.

#1 If you continue to struggle with thyroid symptoms despite taking thyroid medication- something is missing and that something missing might be your cortisol levels.- I recommend testing with a 4x- Cortisol Adrenals hormone test

#2 Get your Cortisol and DHEA levels tested through saliva. Blood work often misses the subtle deficiencies that only saliva can pick up. I will leave a link where you can lean about testing this.

#3- Remember your Thyroid makes T3 and T4. Measuring the T3, free T3 and especially Reverse T3 levels are very important but if it is found that these thyroid levels are not in the optimal range, then you need to dig some more to uncover what is the root cause of why these levels are low- Is it inflammation?, is it blood sugar?, is it a virus or some other infection?, is a leaky gut?, etc, The investigation does not end if It turns out you have elevated RT3 or low T3- you just unraveled one layer- it’s time to keep digging and investigating until you have answered the question “why”

I hope you liked today’s video- I hope it gives you one more thing to discuss with your doctor when it comes to poor thyroid function.