Adrenals and Thyroid – Are your adrenals messing with your thyroid?

Can your adrenals mess with your thyroid? And if so, how?

I’m going to start with a quick explanation for those who don’t have a lot of time.

Then I’ve got a fuller explanation for when you have more time, if that appeals.

I also have some tips on how to help yourself if you think that your adrenal glands may be contributing to your thyroid problems.

 So here goes.

The quick explanation

When our bodies are stressed, they go into fight or flight mode and survival trumps all other functions, including good functioning of the thyroid gland.

The adrenal glands work when we are stressed. We may be stressed because we have a million things on our to-do list and half an hour in which to do them, or because we are running late and stuck in traffic, or because we have been reading the news and now are worrying about various world events. None of this is life threatening. But our bodies are still cavepeople and so respond to stress as if a big scary animal is standing in front of us about to eat us for lunch. In this situation we need to run away quickly or to fight to survive and so the fight or flight response kicks in and the adrenals do their job. So, the adrenals are all about survival and are not interested in long term health, great digestion, reproduction and so on. All these functions are ignored or altered and so our thyroid gland behaves differently when we are stressed.

 The fuller explanation

The stress response is known as the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. This is the feedback loop between the hypothalamus gland, pituitary gland and adrenal glands. It is our main way our bodies respond to stress.   

The hypothalamus and the pituitary glands are in our brains. The hypothalamus is in charge of our endocrine system, a bit like an owner or CEO of a company. It keeps us alive by maintaining homeostasis, a constant state inside our bodies - body temperature, blood pressure, heart rate and so on. It does this by using information inside our bodies through hormones and outside through the nervous system. If it is hot outside the hypothalamus sends instructions to sweat so that we cool down. If it is cold, the hypothalamus sends instructions to shiver so that we warm up. These instructions are passed to the pituitary gland which acts like a manager of a company. It passes the instructions to the other glands and organs to be carried out and ensures they happen. All this is done through hormones.

When in the stress state our bodies are only thinking about survival. Blood gets directed to the heart and lungs and big muscles so that we can fight or run. Digestion, repair, reproduction and other peripheral functions get shut down. Glucose is released into the blood for energy. Once the stress response is switched off, the body can go back to repairing itself, digesting food properly, maintaining blood sugar, preparing for reproduction and so on. The thyroid is involved in maintaining metabolism, growth and development of the body. All these things are ignored when the HPA axis is being used. When the adrenal glands are responding to stress they change the way the thyroid works.

There is another way in which stress and the HPA axis affects thyroid sufferers. Our bodies cannot cope with long term stress. This feedback loop is supposed to be a short-term response only. After the threat has passed, the body goes back into relax and repair state. 

Today people live stressful lives and so this response is being used for long periods of time and so the body adapts. The feedback loop becomes desensitised. Repair of cells needs to happen and so inflammation is no longer suppressed. Digestion is messed up. Someone suffering chronic stress may start to suffer from adrenal fatigue. Many of the symptoms of adrenal fatigue are the same as those of hypothyroid. They include fatigue, aches and pains, brain fog, poor mood. This is why some people with hypothyroidism start taking medication and see improvements, but these improvements disappear after a while. Their adrenal glands were the problem behind their thyroid issue. So once the thyroid was sorted out, the adrenal problem surfaced.

It is also why many of my clients have found the homeopathic remedy Adrenal gland has improved their thyroid symptoms. The remedy supports the adrenals, helping them to function properly. The symptoms of adrenal fatigue are similar to those of hypothyroidism and so supporting the adrenals relieves these symptoms.

Self-help and self-care

Feel stressed often? Want to feel more relaxed? Yes and yes, but how? Well, bet you can guess what I’m going to suggest. So here goes:

Breathing – yes, I know you are doing it, but are you breathing nice and deeply and slowly? Have a go at five deep slow breaths, maybe even 10 and see how you feel afterwards. Practice it regularly, and especially when you’re feeling overwound.

Meditation – yep, the current cure-all is getting a lot of attention. But if you think back to the stress response and how it affects our whole body, then you can see why mediation as relaxation is catching such attention. Slowing down our minds, slows down and switches off the HPA axis and allows our bodies to relax and repair. Mediation is not for everyone, what is? It can be really helpful and so may be worth a try.

Walking – a walk, now? Have I seen your to-do list? Just go for a gentle walk around the block and see if it clears and calms your mind.  

Sleep – such an underrated activity and yet so necessary. See if you can get a bit more sleep over the week and if it helps your mood. Guessing it will.

Good nutrition – what you eat is causing you stress? Sounds crazy and yet it could be the case. Our bodies need certain nutrients to function. If you are low in some of these then your body is not able to do all the things it needs to and that causes stress. And I do mean nutrition and not diet. I’m talking about all those lovely vitamins and minerals our bodies need to stay healthy.

There are plenty of other things we could add to this list – yoga, wild swimming, gardening, doodling and so on. Go ahead, make your own list of things which relax you. Try to do some of them – put relaxation in your diary.

Let me know how you get on x