What we’ll talk about
Most fitness enthusiasts today think that the amount of calories or the ratio of macronutrients is behind gaining or burning adipose tissue. It is actually thyroid hormones that are the puppeteers in the background pulling the strings of the effective transformation of your physique. Contrary to popular belief, it is the basal metabolism, and not the calories burned during training. Dysfunction of the thyroid gland, in the form of reduced function (hypofunction) or increased function (hyperfunction), is currently one of the most frequently occurring civilization diseases. The traditionally stated causes of thyroid disorders do not explain the degree to which these disorders are increasingly appearing in the general population.
Thyroid disorders mainly arise as a result of an excess of toxins in the diet and the environment. Excessive consumption of foods rich in antinutrients, such as soy and legumes, can lead to increased production of thyroid hormones. Bromine, fluorine and chlorine can affect the activity of the thyroid gland. They can replace iodine in the synthesis of thyroid hormones, and as a result, they do not perform their function adequately. The health of the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) is a prerequisite for the adequate thyroid activity.
The Role of Thyroid Hormones in Body Transformation
Thyroid Hormones as Puppeteers
While most fitness enthusiasts today think that the amount of calories or the ratio of macronutrients is behind gaining or burning adipose tissue, it is actually thyroid hormones that are the puppeteers in the background pulling the strings of the effective transformation of your physique.
By understanding the functions of thyroid hormones and their body regulation, all those anomalies can be subsequently explained, when a person constantly cuts calories (restrictive diets) or macronutrients (low carb diet, paleo, starvation) and at the same time his weight stays the same. Where then is the famous law of conservation of energy?
The Influence of Basal Metabolism
Many of you have probably heard about the basal metabolism, the values of which are taken into account when creating a menu when calculating your total daily caloric expenditure. In practice, it seems that when someone makes a caloric diet, they look at the tables and, based on gender and age, add a stable value of their basal metabolic rate to the equation, as one of the sources of their caloric expenditure. In such a case, however, basal metabolism plays only second fiddle to the caloric picture caused by overall physical activity, which is the primary focus of traditional approaches. At At the same time, its influence on character transformation is minimal!
Thyroid Hormones and Fat Metabolism
Contrary to popular belief, it is the basal metabolism, and not the calories burned during training (when an hour spent at a moderate intensity on the treadmill will cost you a few pieces of asparagus), which decides whether your body will be in a fat-burning or fat-forming state throughout the day.
And it is thyroid hormones that regulate your basal metabolism. By regulating fat metabolism (increasing the release of triglycerides from adipose tissue – lipolysis), production, and increasing the rate of cellular respiration, thyroid hormones correct overall output and energy, reflected in how much you can or must eat to achieve your goals. What’s more, thyroid hormones are also related to gaining muscle mass (increasing protein synthesis and insulin sensitivity), which makes their optimization at the forefront of all muscle hormonal regulation for body transformation.
Understanding Thyroid Hormones
How it works
Thyroid hormones are a group of hormones that are each other’s precursors and are produced in different parts of our body (one could say that almost everywhere), while only one of them (thyroxine) is primarily produced in the thyroid gland. For that reason, it is imprecise to talk about thyroid hormones or reduced and increased activity of the thyroid gland.
Based on the amount of T3 and T4 in the blood, the synthesis and release of thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) are regulated by a feedback mechanism in the brain. Its elimination subsequently leads the thyroid gland to synthesize the inactive thyroid hormone thyroxine (T4). After its release in the blood, it is bound to binding proteins, circulates throughout the body and, when needed, is transformed in target tissues (mainly the liver, and kidneys, but also neurons or brown fat tissue) into the active thyroid hormone triiodothyronine (T3). It has a very strong thermogenic activity, which leads to increased fat burning, accelerates metabolism and heart rate, and increases body temperature or even protein synthesis. While T3 acts at the tissue level, its messenger or extended hand at the cellular level is the hormone diiodothyronine (T2), which decides on gene and protein synthesis and cellular respiration (energy expenditure at the cellular level).
The axis of thyroid hormones therefore looks like this: TSH -> T4 -> T3 -> T2.
Maintaining Active T3 Levels
From the point of view of hormonal optimization and effective fat burning, we aim to maintain the level of active T3 as high as possible (but still within a safe limit), i.e. to maximize the natural conversion of T4 to T3. At the same time, we do not want to increase the amount of T3 at any cost, because this is as dangerous to health as thyroid insufficiency (see below).
Insights into Thyroid Gland Disorders
New insights on thyroid gland disorder
Dysfunction of the thyroid gland, in the form of reduced function (hypofunction) or increased function (hyperfunction), is currently one of the most frequently occurring civilization diseases. Why am I writing civilizational and not hereditary or autoimmune diseases, as is generally accepted? The traditionally stated causes of thyroid disorders in the form of autoimmune disease, genetic defects or lack of iodine in food do not explain the degree to which these disorders are increasingly appearing in the general population, especially women.
Similar to other civilization diseases, thyroid disorders mainly arise as a result of the negative effects of external epigenetic factors, such as an excess of toxins in the diet and the surrounding environment, excess stress and a generally unhealthy lifestyle. These act on thyroid hormones either directly or by disrupting the hormonal balance. Thyroid hormones are not a feedback system existing in a vacuum, but are influenced by a whole range of variables, which can be broadly divided into diet, health, and other hormones.
Reduction of thyroid efficiency
In terms of diet, the production of thyroid hormones is reduced by some antinutrients, contained for example in soy and wheat, and a lack of certain minerals, especially iodine, whose molecule is directly incorporated into the chemical structure of thyroid hormones (as can be guessed from the name diiodine- and triiodine-), but also zinc (which protects the thyroid gland from enlargement), selenium and heme iron (without which the body cannot utilize iodine).
For the sake of a sufficient amount in the diet, although iodine began to be added to chemically bleached salt (which is unhealthy in itself, because our body cannot adequately incorporate sodium from it into its metabolism), however, most people do not have the other mentioned minerals due to the composition of their food in adequately represented on their menu.
What’s more, excessive consumption of foods rich in antinutrients (which include, in addition to wheat and soy, for example, legumes and nuts in their shells) and mineral deficiency go hand in hand, because some antinutrients directly block the absorption of minerals from food into the blood.
Not only substances present in the diet, but also those from the surrounding environment can influence the production of our thyroid hormones. Bromine, fluorine and chlorine, if they are present in excessive amounts in our body, due to their similar chemical structure, they can replace iodine in the synthesis of thyroid hormones, and as a result, they do not perform their function adequately.
The main source of chlorine is the much-proclaimed tap water, which also contains an excess of fluorine, similar to most dental products (95% of toothpastes, where according to scientific studies it has been proven that children get more fluoride from them by unintentionally swallowing them than the allowed standard) and industrially processed sodas.
Bromine is then primarily present in brominated oils, which are fortunately banned in the EU, and then in polybrominated diphenyls (PBDEs), which belong to a group of substances that generally disturb our hormonal balance, called endocrine disruptors. PBDEs are present almost everywhere around us from the materials used in the construction of houses, through electronics, furniture, plastics and textiles (more than elimination, therefore, the efficiency of detoxification is in place here).
Influence of health on thyroid gland activity
The health of the gastrointestinal tract (GIT = digestive system) is a prerequisite for the adequate absorption of the mentioned minerals, which are needed for the optimal production of thyroid hormones. Antinutrients, as well as biotoxins (bacteria and viruses) and toxins (e.g. heavy metals), lead to an increase in inflammatory processes, whether at the level of the small intestine or anywhere in the body, which is essentially a consequence of the increased activity of our immune system, which subsequently suppresses the production of thyroid hormones.
For many, this journey can be the development of an autoimmune disease, not only of the thyroid gland (Hashimoto’s thyroiditis), which is given as the primary cause of thyroid insufficiency but basically of any type. Autoimmune diseases are mostly the result of the long-term transition of other symptoms of reduced health.
Thyroid balance disorders
Just like any other hormones, thyroid hormones need to be looked at in the context of the overall hormonal balance. Precisely the non-acceptance of this context (as is, unfortunately, the case to this day happening at the level of generally accepted medicine) leads to the fact that the current treatment of thyroid dysregulation fails in most cases.
In terms of hormonal imbalances, insulin resistance associated with diabetes and obesity, estrogen dominance associated with cancer, cortisol dysregulation associated with psychological problems, and lack of energy during the day reduce the activity of thyroid hormones (and tend to be the most common undetected cause).
Although mineral deficiency or the presence of Hashimoto’s thyroiditis can be easily demonstrated, these causes explain only a small fraction of all thyroid diseases. The rest, based on the latest research, can be caused precisely by the disruption of the hormonal balance in terms of insulin, estrogens and cortisol or even their combination.
Therefore, when trying to improve the function of the thyroid gland, hormonal optimization will always be in the first place, in the sense of gradually restoring the balance to the individual hormonal systems – insulin, estrogen, cortisol, and finally thyroid.