Kicking Your Hypothyroidisms' Butt, No the Other Way Around Part II

After reading a couple hours on how exercise affects your thyroid and hypothyroidism I came to the conclusion that more studies need to be done on this subject. I only found one good study that was peer-reviewed and published in a journal. The rest of what I found was just online stuff which can be questionable sometimes...most of the time.

But this is what I've come up with. First, exercise in general raises the metabolism of your body. Metabolism is something a lot of people have heard but might not really understand even though it's pretty simple. Metabolism = all the chemical reactions that happen in your body (some make energy, some use it). There you have it. So with hypothyroid, not as much is going on in your body compared to someone euthyroid (normal thyroid). This leads to a general feeling of fatigue and tiredness. When you exercise your body is going crazy with chemical reactions- your muscles are contracting, lungs are huffing and puffing, heart is beating faster, brain activity increases, and overall your METABOLISM increases. It's not the only thing that will increase your metabolism, but in my opinion its the best way. Then there is your RESTING metabolism, or everything going on in your body when your doing nothing but laying or sitting down. The overall goal is to raise your resting metabolism. This will make you feel more energetic all the time and I bet will help with some the mental disturbances sometimes associated with hypothyroid. It will also aid in losing weight. Some people will say, "Eat such and such, and eat 6 meals a day instead of 3, and..." but really the only thing shown the consistently increase resting metabolism is exercise.

Second, the study I found stated that exercise raised concentrations of thyroid hormone in the blood. Some misinterpreted this study by saying the exercise cured their hypothyroidism, but that's not true. Exercise will rarely compensate for your defective thyroid organ. (Sorry, that sounds mean). But it helps. It raises the bodies metabolism because more thyroid hormone equals higher metabolism. But after exercise this rise in thyroid hormone in the blood went back down to normal. So we know that exercise does directly affect the thyroid organ. It makes it pump out more juice.

Third, I found some foods that people with hypothyroid shouldn't eat a ton of. I still need to do some reading on this, so don't take this as 100% truth, but I though it was interesting. Also, keep in mind, you don't have to eliminate these foods from your diet, just don't eat like 10 lbs. of them a week.

• Corn
• Potatoes
• Strawberries
• Peaches
• Spinach
• Millet
• Soybeans
• Turnips
• Rutabega
• Mustard
• Cabbage
• Peanuts

These foods contain compounds called goitrogens which can interfere with thyroid function. (Maybe more on this in another post)

So that's what I've learned these past two weeks. But...it's not all. Get ready for KYHTBNTOWA (Kicking Your Hypothyroidisms' Butt, No the Other Way Around) Part III where I'll be demonstrating some awesome exercises for you!!! (I hope I can figure out how to upload a video).