Dr Oz: What’s Slowing Your Thyroid?
If you’ve gained weight that you can’t seem to lose no matter how hard you try, your thyroid could be to blame. He welcomed integrative women’s health expert Dr Aviva Romm, who said a lot of women don’t realize that stress can slow down the thyroid. Other things that can affect your thyroid include over-exercising or letting your blood sugar get too low too often or for too long.
Dr Oz: A Lack Of Iodine
Dr Oz talked about possible reasons you could be suffering from a slow thyroid and what you can do to give it a boost. Plus, why he actually wants you to use salt! ([email protected] / Flickr)
The first thyroid-slowing trigger involves salt. Kosher salt and sea salt help to make food more flavorful, but less table salt means less iodine. Iodine is a chemical that helps regulate your thyroid, so if you recently cut out table salt, you could be triggering your thyroid to slow down. Seaweed has iodine, and dulce flakes are great for sprinkling on your food without adding flavor, in order to get more iodine. Dr Oz also suggested just one pinch of table salt every day.
Dr Oz: Too Much Gluten?
Next, Dr Oz explained that excess gluten could cause a leak in your gut that attacks your thyroid. Dr Romm said the best way to see if gluten is a problem for you, is to use an elimination diet. Take gluten out of your diet for ten days and see how you feel. If symptoms disappear and then reappear when you reintroduce it, it’s probably a trigger for you.
Dr Oz: Chemicals Slowing Your Thyroid
If you’re cooking food that contains a lot of chemicals, like mercury in fish, BPA in canned goods, or endocrine disruptors on the coating of your pots and pans. One or all of the chemicals could trigger your thyroid and cause you to gain weight. Dr Romm explained that they cause inflammation your body which could cause the thyroid to attack itself. Also, some of the chemicals bind to the thyroid, causing it to malfunction.
If you take care of these triggers, it can take about 6 weeks for your thyroid to go back to normal. It doesn’t happen overnight so be sure to give these things some time to see if they’re really working. It’s well worth it to figure out what could be contributing to your weight gain.
Dr Oz: Brazil Nuts & Zinc
Dr Oz and Dr Romm then shared ways you can boost your thyroid, beginning with a “power nut.” Brazil nuts are high in selenium, which is one of the biggest things our thyroid needs to function properly. All you need is just two Brazil nuts a day to fulfill your daily selenium needs.
Next, use zinc! A leaky gut or inflammation in the gut, can be healed with zinc by eating pumpkin seeds, yogurt, and cashews, or an 8 mg supplement.
Dr Oz: Thyroid-Friendly Choices
When you buy canned goods, you want to look for ones that are BPA-free. Also, store your food in BPA-free containers, either plastic or glass. But never microwave your food in the plastic. You could also buy foods that come in glass or cardboard-containers.
Do you think you’ve been struggling with a slow thyroid? Will you try making any of these changes in your own life to see if you’ll be able to lose weight?
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