Transcription
Maintaining adequate thyroid function should be priority number one for thyroid patients. Unfortunately, the standard way to measure thyroid function, which is often done solely with thyroid lab tests, is not as accurate as most people believe, including doctors.
This is probably why we see such a huge number of thyroid patients who continue to express concern over their symptoms despite having quote unquote normal thyroid lab tests. These patients are told that their thyroid is normal when, in reality, their thyroid function is much lower than the average healthy person. This is probably why we also see much higher rates of high cholesterol, obesity, and cancer in thyroid patients compared to the average population. It has little to do with the direct consequences of having a thyroid problem and more to do with the fact that they are just not being treated correctly.
The good news is, you don't have to rely solely on these thyroid lab tests to measure how well your thyroid is functioning. There are many other health metrics that you can start tracking right now, which can give you a really good idea of how well your thyroid is functioning and what that means for your overall health. If you are somebody that wants to live a long, healthy life free of chronic diseases, then here are five thyroid-related health metrics that you should be tracking right now.
Number one is basal body temperature. Basal body temperature is defined as the lowest body temperature recorded after a period of rest, and it's far more useful than you might think. This is because there aren't many things that influence your basal body temperature, and women have known this for centuries, which is why they often track their basal body temperature when they're trying to get pregnant. It just so happens that basal body temperature happens to also track with thyroid function.
One of the main symptoms associated with hypothyroidism, which is low thyroid function, is a low body temperature, and the exact opposite thing is true if you have hyperthyroidism, which is a high thyroid. In that case, you end up with a higher than normal body temperature. In the healthy state, your thyroid perfectly manages your body temperature, and you don't really see swings up or down. But in the dysregulated state, this isn't true. You can easily see swings and changes in your basal body temperature, which can clue you into the fact that you have a thyroid problem.
Imagine a scenario where you have been given thyroid medication, and in this scenario, you have also been told that you have normal thyroid lab tests. But upon testing your basal body temperature because you watched this video, you see that your basal body temperature is wild, chaotic, and you don't even see it approaching what a normal level should be. This information would heavily imply that even though you are taking thyroid medication, that the medication you are taking is not sufficient for your body. In other words, you're being under-dosed.
The testing of your basal body temperature is by no means a perfect measure of thyroid function, but it can give you a lot of useful information, especially if it's combined with thyroid lab tests. Tracking your basal body temperature is also really helpful if you're using certain types of thyroid medications, especially those that contain T3 thyroid hormone. If you are taking T3 thyroid hormone and you see your basal body temperature start to rise, that might be an early indication that you're taking too much.
Monitoring your basal body temperature is super easy to do. All you need to do is purchase a sensitive basal body temperature thermometer and place it along your bed, along with a notebook or some sort of app to track your results. The next step is to simply test your basal body temperature right after you wake up, but before you get out of bed, and simply write down that result. From here, you will do this over and over again each and every day, making note of any changes that you make to your thyroid medication or any changes that you make to thyroid supplements that you might be taking. You'll know if what you are doing to your thyroid is working because you will see a rise in your basal body temperature, and it will stay consistent over a period of time.
As an added bonus, if you are also menstruating, you can use your basal body temperature to figure out if you are ovulating. This is really great because it can help explain why you might see changes in your mood or changes in your body weight.
Number two is resting heart rate. Another super easy way to approximate thyroid function is by assessing your resting heart rate. I personally love using this method because it's really cheap and really effective. Here's how it works: similar to your basal body temperature, your thyroid helps to set your resting heart rate, which is tied to your basal metabolic rate. Your basal metabolic rate is, of course, just a fancy way of describing your metabolism.
When thyroid function is low, your resting heart rate will drop. When thyroid function is high, your resting heart rate will increase. The average resting heart rate should be somewhere between 60 and 90 beats per minute, but if you want to live a long and healthy life, you should aim to have your resting heart rate less than 70. This is because a resting heart rate less than 70 lends itself to having better cardiac function and a lower risk of problems related to your heart.
Many thyroid patients, including perhaps you listening to this right now, are walking around with resting heart rates in the 50s, and this can give you a false sense of security. After all, most of the time, if your resting heart rate is in this range, it would imply that you are heavily conditioned like an athlete. But in the case of hypothyroid patients, that resting heart rate isn't low because they're conditioned; it's low because their thyroid is not adequately being treated, and having a low heart rate related to low thyroid is not a healthy situation and, in fact, is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular-related events.
Tracking your resting heart rate is really easy nowadays, especially with all the wearable devices that are available. If you are interested in tracking your resting heart rate, that's what I'd recommend that you get because it's really easy and you can set it and forget it. You'll even get the added benefit of tracking your heart rate while you exercise, which can help you increase thyroid function if you keep your heart rate in the right zone. But if you don't want to spend any extra money, you can also opt to track your resting heart rate completely free. All you need to do is watch a couple of videos to learn how to take your pulse. You will then take your pulse for 15 seconds and multiply the value that you get times four. Just make sure if you are checking your own pulse that you check it first thing in the morning because that's when it will be the most accurate, and if you're going to be checking your pulse first thing in the morning, it just makes sense to also check your basal body temperature at the same time.
Number three, and this is a big one, cholesterol levels. The next metric you really want to be aware of if you have a thyroid problem are your cholesterol levels. This is because your thyroid is responsible for regulating your cholesterol. It does this by inducing an enzyme called HMG-CoA reductase, which coincidentally is the same enzyme that is targeted by statin medications. T3 thyroid hormone has also been shown to have an indirect effect on LDL and HDL receptors as well.
The net effect is that if you are under-treated and you have a thyroid problem, you will end up with a high total cholesterol, a low HDL, and a high LDL. The degree to which these markers are influenced depends on how bad of a thyroid problem that you have. The more dysfunction in your thyroid, the worse your cholesterol levels will be. But there's a big problem, too. Actually, the first problem is that high cholesterol is so common that most of the time, the cases of high cholesterol don't really get investigated. Doctors just tend to recommend a statin and then move on. And the second is that there's a lack of awareness between the connection of your thyroid and your cholesterol. The connection between your thyroid and cholesterol was taught in the first year of medical school, so most doctors should be aware of it, but like many other things, it can be discarded or simply forgotten. This means that most doctors aren't in the habit of connecting cholesterol levels to thyroid function.
The silver lining in all of this is that cholesterol testing is so common that there's no question that you probably have some results to look back into. Keeping an eye on your cholesterol level is a really good way to assess whether or not the thyroid medication that you are taking is working. If it is, you should see a normalization in your cholesterol levels as you take thyroid medication or as you undergo natural thyroid remedies. And normalizing your cholesterol level is huge because it imparts a massive benefit upon your cardiac risk factors. But just be aware that there are plenty of other things that can cause high cholesterol aside from your thyroid. In my experience, it's often the case that patients who have hypothyroidism are not being treated adequately, but due to poor lifestyle choices, they also have high cholesterol levels from that aspect as well.
Number three would be blood sugar levels. Most people are aware that consuming high amounts of sugar is not a good idea for your health. That's why low-carb diets like keto and carnivore are so popular. The sugar that you eat by mouth makes its way into your body, where it impacts a hormone called insulin. With enough overstimulation of this hormone, you'll end up with all of the unwanted symptoms and conditions associated with it. Some of these conditions include diabetes, weight gain, heart disease, eye disease, kidney disease, premature aging, and the list goes on and on. In other words, maintaining a healthy blood sugar level is important if you want to avoid all of these conditions I just listed.
And most people who want to optimize their blood sugar focus primarily on their diet. But if you are somebody who has a thyroid problem, you need to be aware that your thyroid can also influence your blood sugar level. For instance, T3 thyroid hormone, which is the most powerful thyroid hormone, has been shown to enhance insulin activity and insulin sensitivity. So you could be avoiding sugar from your diet but still experience issues with insulin resistance because your thyroid is not being treated adequately. For these reasons, it makes a lot of sense if you are a thyroid patient that you should be tracking your blood sugar levels. You can do this by assessing your hemoglobin A1c and your spot blood sugar level. The hemoglobin A1c is a better measure of long-term blood sugar, and the spot blood glucose measure just tells you how much blood sugar you have at any given time. These tests should be automatically ordered by your doctor, but in case they aren't, you can always ask for them.
Number five is body composition. Body composition is different than your weight as measured on a scale because it attempts to separate water mass, lean muscle tissue, and fat mass. As a thyroid patient, I probably don't need to convince you that it's really easy to gain weight and really hard to lose weight. This is because your thyroid influences your metabolism. When thyroid function is low, you will gain weight more easily. It's that simple. Thyroid patients know this, which is why they often measure their weight consistently by using a scale. But this is a really bad way to measure your muscle mass and your fat mass, which is really what you should care about as a thyroid patient.
Your weight can fluctuate dramatically day to day, and this is because your thyroid impacts fluid levels as well as bowel movements. You can easily gain several pounds each day from constipation or from edema or swelling. This weight gain isn't due to an increase in fat mass, but it can appear this way if all you're looking at is the scale. Measuring your body composition solves this problem by giving you a much more accurate measure of the things that you actually care about: your fat mass and your muscle mass.
You can measure body composition in a number of different ways that range from cheap to expensive and accurate to inaccurate. I think the easiest way to measure body composition is to combine body measurements with weekly progress pictures. If you are losing weight and optimizing your thyroid at the same time, you will see your body measurements decrease, and you will visually see an improvement in how your body looks in the mirror and in pictures. The key is to keep track of these metrics over a period of months, not a period of weeks.
All the measurements we've just discussed are a great way for you to indirectly assess thyroid function, but just be aware that they don't always take the place of thyroid lab tests. But when used in conjunction with thyroid lab tests, they provide you a much broader picture of what's actually happening with your thyroid. If you're a little bit confused about what thyroid lab tests you should be ordering, I'd recommend checking out this video next.