Understanding Thyroid Fatigue and Tiredness: Solutions and Relief Strategies

What Does Your Thyroid Do?

Your thyroid is a multifunctional gland and is a part of the endocrine system that regulates metabolism and affects several other functions of the body, including growth and development, body temperature, heart rate, blood pressure, and bone health. It is a small gland found in the throat near the larynx and esophagus. As a part of a larger organ system, it can be affected by other parts of the endocrine system in dysfunction. Thyroid issues are common and often treatable with or without medications. Let’s look a little closer at proper thyroid function.

What does proper functioning look like?

When all of the parts of your endocrine system are functioning properly and your thyroid is working as it should, things feel “normal.” You have enough energy to complete daily tasks and meet obligations, your weight is in a healthy range – not too skinny or problematically heavy – and your circulatory health is good. You’ve grown and developed at a normal rate, and your general health is good. If reading this has set off alarms in your head, maybe yours isn’t working as well as it could.

What Happens When It Isn’t Working Properly?

What if it’s a little out of whack and you have some thyroid impairment issues? Luckily, thyroid problems are relatively easy to spot, though signs and symptoms of thyroid impairment may resemble other disorders, so getting tested to identify levels of thyroid-produced hormones is a great way to test for thyroid dysfunction. If your thyroid is overactive, you may experience irritability, restlessness, high metabolism, low body weight, cardiac and circulatory problems, and general agitation.

On the other hand, an underactive thyroid gland means that your thyroid function is slowed or impaired. In this case, fatigue, weakness, tiredness, and low metabolism and related weight gain can become problematic. Recognizing the signs of thyroid fatigue is an important step for many with thyroid complications. Identifying a problem is the only way to solve a problem, and being certain your fatigue is thyroid-related by having a comprehensive blood test done to examine the levels of certain hormones and nutrients is the best way to confirm such issues.

What causes thyroid fatigue?

The body develops thyroid-related fatigue when the thyroid is impaired and cannot function properly. Whether secondary to another illness or directly caused by thyroiditis or thyroid disease, impaired thyroid function can be problematic, even debilitating, and can affect day-to-day life in significant ways. This can range from mild inconveniences in mild to moderate cases to major impairment to functionality in severely affected patients. But how does thyroid fatigue present in most hypothyroidic patients?

Symptoms of thyroid fatigue

Symptoms of thyroid fatigue vary but generally follow a similar pattern. A patient experiencing impaired thyroid function does not produce the proper amount of certain hormones, affecting energy level, mood, circulatory health, and metabolism negatively. This leads to a type of fatigue that is global in nature and affects nearly all aspects of daily activity. It can manifest with depressive symptoms, but these usually dissipate with proper treatment of the thyroid disorder.

What Influences Thyroid Function?

One of the main things that can affect your thyroid is the availability of iodine in your system. Your thyroid uses the iodine that it collects to produce hormones for the body. Without the proper amount of iodine in your system, your thyroid function will be reduced, leading to fatigue, depressive symptoms, and cardiac and circulatory complications. Testing for these issues is important if you exhibit any of the symptoms above, as identifying a simple iodine deficiency is treatable without medication in most cases.

Other factors influencing thyroid function vary from systemic illnesses to genetic factors. Some people may be wired in such a way as to have a very overactive thyroid that may need certain treatments or, in extreme cases, removal of the thyroid may be necessary. Most often, though, medication-based treatments and behavioral changes are enough to manage symptoms. Let’s look at some of the ways thyroid issues can be addressed.

Solutions and Relief Strategies for Thyroid Impairment

There are a number of ways to address thyroid issues or suspected thyroid impairment in many patients. These can range from medications or medical therapies to dietary solutions like the Thyroid Reset Diet. Such approaches can be helpful to people with nutrient deficiencies or those with too much of a nutrient in their bodies. Let’s take a look at both families of treatment.

Medical interventions

Medical interventions for hypothyroidism often include medication with drugs like levothyroxine, a replacement for the hormones that aren’t being produced in adequate amounts. By adding hormones to the system, doctors can balance out and correct for the lack of hormones organically present in the system. By doing this, metabolism, circulation, energy levels, and mood tend to improve in patients experiencing symptoms of hypothyroidism. You’ll probably have to take hypothyroidism medication for the rest of your life.

Alternative behavioral treatments

On the other hand, there are nonmedical and holistic approaches that range from supplemental therapies to thyroid-friendly dietary practices. Reading more on these specifically is essential to understanding these approaches, but generally speaking, they seek to make proper levels of dietary iodine available to the body to be used by the thyroid in hormone production. By increasing the available iodine in the system, more hormones can be produced, thereby resolving at least some thyroid-related issues and disorders.

Final Thoughts

To sum up, thyroid health is highly important for daily function and maintaining proper energy levels, weight, metabolism, and mood. If you notice any of the symptoms listed above are present, you should seek advice from a medical practitioner. Eating properly and being able to recognize symptoms of issues are essential for maintaining proper thyroid function. If a person does have issues, certain behavioral therapies like changing your diet or taking natural supplements can be highly effective. If these prove unsuccessful, though, medical intervention may be needed.