I’ve helped thousands of women look and feel more beautiful at my clinic over the years.
And I know it’s important to you to keep your eye area looking nice and clean with proper eyebrow grooming.
But there’s something important you should know.
A little refinement with a pair of tweezers is one thing. But if the outer third of your eyebrow is starting to fall out on its own, that’s a different story.
If this is happening, it may mean you’re not producing enough thyroid hormone.
And that’s bad news.
Because when your thyroid is working like it should, you’ll have:
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If your thyroid isn’t working as efficiently as it could, you might experience one or more of over two hundred problems.
Besides losing your eyebrows, you might start to feel chilly all the time. You might notice extra fat around your waist. Maybe you get headaches a lot, your nails break easily, or your mood may not be as good as it once was.
If you recognize any of these symptoms, you’re not alone. You have a one in five chance of developing thyroid issues by the time you’re 65 years old.
In fact, low thyroid function is one of the most commonly misdiagnosed conditions today. According to a major study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, 13 million Americans are undiagnosed and unaware they have thyroid issues.1
But don’t rush off to your doctor quite yet.
The good news is, low levels of thyroid hormone may not require medical treatment.
Today, I’ll fill you in on just how important proper thyroid function is, how to spot symptoms of thyroid issues, and what you can do to keep it functioning properly naturally.
Many things can affect your thyroid, like eating too many carbohydrates. Or when you starve yourself to lose a pound or two. You need a good diet with protein and healthy fat for your thyroid to work properly.
If you’re on birth control pills, or if you take other medications, it can also interfere. So can toxins that get into your bloodstream, like pesticides, mercury, or the chemicals you find in plastic.
This is not something to take lightly. When your thyroid is active, it helps your arteries stay flexible and strong, and supports a healthy heart.
You can test your thyroid at home. To see if you might have an underactive thyroid:
- Buy a glass thermometer instead of digital and keep it next to your bed.
- As soon as you wake up, tuck the thermometer in your armpit and leave it there for 15 minutes. Any movement will affect the reading, so lie still and relax.
- Write down the temperature.
- Do this for three days in a row.
- After three days, add up the numbers and divide by three.
Hormone levels can affect this, so be aware of what time in your cycle you’re testing. But if your number is below 97.2, there’s a good chance you have an underactive thyroid.
If you want your thyroid to function in its normal and efficient way, there are quite a few natural and effective remedies that can help. Then you can get back to living your life without worrying about taking your temperature any more.
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Your body needs the right amount of thyroid hormones T3 and T4 for optimal health. |
The first step is to help your body make a normal amount of thyroid hormones. Iodine is your thyroid’s number one nutrient because you need it to make your thyroid hormones, T3 and T4.
Here are some foods that are rich in iodine.
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Seaweed | |
Salmon |
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Clams | |
Sardines |
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Shrimp | |
Pineapple |
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Haddock | |
Eggs |
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Oysters | |
Dairy Products |
One drawback to getting iodine through diet alone is that it’s difficult to get enough. Most crops, from which you would have normally gotten your iodine, are grown on nutrient-depleted soil that lacks iodine. And more and more people have stopped using iodized table salt in or on their food.
In that case, you’ll want to take an iodine supplement. One thing to be aware of is that the recommended dietary allowance (RDA) of 150 mcg a day is only meant to be the barest minimum you should get. It’s the lowest amount you can take and not be deficient. You should get at least 300 mcg a day for optimal thyroid health.
Another nutrient you need is the amino acid L-tyrosine. Your thyroid uses tyrosine as the second primary nutrient, along with iodine, to make thyroid hormones. You can get it from protein-rich foods, or take it as a supplement. 500 mg a day is a good amount for thyroid health.
The second step you want to take is to make sure that all the cells in your thyroid are doing their job as well as they can.
There are two herbs that are not very well-known in the United States, but that are used extensively for this purpose.
The first is known as the “Herb of Grace.”
Ayurveda – the oldest medical system on Earth – employs this herb in dozens of formulas because it has so many healing properties. In India, they use this herb to consecrate babies. It’s called bacopa.
But for you and your thyroid, you only need to know this: It can help your body by returning your energy levels to normal. It does this by increasing an important protein that the cells in your thyroid rely on for making energy.2
A good amount to take is 100 mg a day, but make sure you get a formula that has at least 20% of the active ingredient in bacopa, bacosides A and B.
Another thyroid helper is ancient herb called commiphora mukul… but you might know it better as myrrh.
How can this biblical plant help you? Myrrh has powerful compounds called guggulsterones, which in animal studies have significantly increased the amount of iodine the thyroid absorbs. 3,4
The more iodine the cells of your thyroid can take in, the healthier your thyroid function will be. Getting 150 mg a day should help your thyroid absorb the right amount of iodine.
The third step to a healthy thyroid is to help your body with the normal conversion of inactive thyroid hormone (T4) to active thyroid hormone (T3).
Your body uses a bunch of vitamins and nutrients to do this, but the most important is selenium.
Selenium, besides being one of the strongest antioxidant minerals we know of, is also critical because it helps make the enzymes that activate your thyroid hormone.5
Fortunately, you don’t need very much selenium every day. But, like iodine, it’s very difficult to get through food. Our soil is depleted so there’s not much in our produce any more. You need around 100 micrograms for healthy thyroid activity.
The other nutrients your thyroid relies on are vitamins A, B, C, and D, plus zinc and magnesium.
These nutrients and minerals also improve the transport and absorption of your now activated thyroid hormone into your cell tissues to return your metabolism back to its normal, healthy state.
The fourth step is to reduce stress. Stress of any kind stimulates higher production of cortisol from your adrenal glands. And cortisol slows the conversion of T4 to T3.
One of the best ways to offset stress is with herbs called adaptogens.
A powerful adaptogens perfectly suited for this job has a funny name – ashwagandha. Besides reducing stress, it has also been shown to normalize the amount of hormones secreted by the thyroid gland.6
Ashwagandha has some type of regulating effect on thyroid hormone secretion. In fact, the studies on this herb don’t show that extracts cause the secretion of more thyroid hormone. Yet the levels go up when it’s taken.
Scientists don’t know exactly why this happens, so there’s more to it than our “science” can identify. Take 100 mg a day for thyroid support.
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1 Shomon M, “Thyroid Disease Is Far More Widespread Than Originally Thought – 13 Million May Be At Risk and Undiagnosed”, 11/19/08, (thyroid-info/articles/thyroid-prevalence.htm)
2 Davis F B, Davis, P J, and Blas, S. "Role of calmodulin in thyroid hormone stimulation in vitro of human erythrocyte Ca2+-ATPase activity." J Clin Invest. 1983 March; 71(3): 579–586.
3 Tripathi Y, Malhotra O, Tripathi S. "Thyroid Stimulating Action of Z-Guggulsterone Obtained from Commiphora mukul." Planta Med. 1984 Feb;50(1):78-80.
4 Panda S, Kar A. "Guggulu (Commiphora mukul) potentially ameliorates hypothyroidism in female mice." Phytother Res. 2005 Jan;19(1):78-80.
5 Schomburg L. "Selenium, selenoproteins and the thyroid gland: interactions in health and disease. Nat Rev Endocrinol. 2011 Oct 18.
6 Panda S, Kar A. "Withania somnifera and Bauhinia purpurea in the regulation of circulating thyroid hormone concentrations in female mice." J Ethnopharmacol. 1999 Nov 1;67(2):233-9.