Your Thyroid - Where Vitality Starts

 Your Life — Are You Feeling It?

In celebration of the coming of Spring, many cultures observed purification rites throughout the month of February. The Roman month Februarius was named after the Latin term februum, which means "purification."

February ─ we’re two months in. You can adapt your own personal practice of purification, with attention on reducing vitality obstacles.

The Thyroid is a Primary Regulator of Vitality

Your thyroid is a primary regulator of your vitality. "More than 12 percent of the U.S. population will develop a thyroid condition during their lifetime. An estimated 20 million Americans have some form of thyroid disease. Up to 60 percent of those with thyroid disease are unaware of their condition. Women are five to eight times more likely than men to have thyroid problems," according to the American Thyroid Association (ATA)(1)

Adopting Healthy Practices for Vitality

How’s your personal vitality for life right now? Are you finding routines to flesh out feelings of wholeness? Ferreting out new practices that refresh and renew you? This is truly a time of choice, of choosing YOU.

Here we’re highlighting a curated suite of thyroid panels providing detailed yet approachable snapshots into how your body is handling stressors. These test results can then point you to answers and an actionable course towards rocking vitality.

How's Your Thyroid Wellness?

The thyroid is a hormone-producing gland that regulates the body’s metabolism—the rate at which the body produces energy from nutrients and oxygen—and affects critical body functions, such as energy level and heart rate.

• The thyroid gland is located in the middle of the lower neck.
• Although the thyroid gland is relatively small, it produces a hormone that influences every cell, tissue, and organ in the body.
• Hypothyroidism is a condition where the thyroid gland does not produce enough thyroid hormone. Symptoms include extreme fatigue, depression, forgetfulness, and some weight gain.
• Hyperthyroidism, another form of thyroid disease, is a condition causing the gland to produce too much thyroid hormone. Symptoms include irritability, nervousness, muscle weakness, unexplained weight loss, sleep disturbances, vision problems, and eye irritation.
• Graves’ disease is a type of hyperthyroidism; it is an autoimmune disorder that is genetic and estimated to affect one percent of the population.

Having Symptoms — Are They Thyroid?

The symptoms of thyroid-related problems are similar to many other health conditions.  When you have gone to your physician and been told it is simply in your head, or given answers that don't solve your condition, consider evaluating your thyroid after researching other articles on this website or elsewhere describing thyroid symptoms.

Weight gain, fatigue, brain fog, depressed mood, cold intolerance, constipation, dry skin, joint/muscle aches, hair loss, and brittle nails may be symptoms. These symptoms are commonly referred to as “thyroid symptoms,” and an internet search will reveal innumerable sources that reinforce a link between these and thyroid conditions. 

Even the most classic symptoms of "thyroid symptoms" are non-specific and are commonly found in other diseases and in the general population.  For this reason, doctors may overlook checking your thyroid. 

Thyroid disease is often hereditary. More than 75% of the time, patients with thyroid disease have someone on one side of their family that has thyroid disease. The more family members that have thyroid disease, the greater the likelihood that there is a hereditary root. 

When you are having any of the above symptoms, it is time for you to take charge of your wellness and establish good habits.

Cruising Speed for Good Habits

Feeling better is the goal. You are the best advocate for your health. It's a conscious decision each time we choose to practice better health.  The cruising speed for establishing a good habit usually requires about 90 days to get firmly seated. That said, every time we choose to

Love Ourselves UP!
Each time we pick Health and Vitality
over the rut we were in before
(whatever that may have looked like)
we are one crucial step closer to Cruising. 

As we settle into the rhythm of healthy routines, our bodies often have some “complaints”.  Keep moving forward, despite these!  You can succeed.

These discomforts may span the gamut, as do the theories on their origins; from “mental fog”, to expelling toxins, emotional or physical reactivity.  Then, new stressors like hiking rather than "scrolling" all day, to possible stomach rumblings from metabolizing clean fuels, aka an uptick in fiber consumption from eating healthy food.

It can feel a little rocky at first, this “Wellness Journey” experience. In most instances, it’s all good and perfectly normal. How long did you spend in those old patterns? While your body deserves some grace in this transition period it’s also the perfect time to be listening in; your body is always speaking to you.  The best thing we can do for ourselves is to learn to listen to what it is saying.

Thyroid Hormone Testing

 Additional thyroid test panels available.

Comprehensive Thyroid & Essentials Elements Profile

Elite Thyroid Profile

Female Blood Profile II

Male Blood Profile II

Have questions on a specific test? Hit the link to the individual test and once in the listing on the Canary Club website, scroll down to below the “add-ons” section and hit the “Ask Question” button to directly send us your question in a handy, pre-set form. 

While we encourage you to Stay the Course, we’re also 100% sure that experienced help along the way is imperative - especially if this is entirely new territory and particularly if you are working with any pre-existing/chronic ailments. If you aren’t already working with a practitioner, have a look at our Coaches page for additional information and resources. 

From all of us at the Canary Club, 

Lean In & Love it UP!

References

(1)  ATA,"General Information / Press Room", American Thyroid Association