Thyroid Diet: Manage Your Metabolism for Lasting Weight Loss by Mary J. Shomon, Durand (Editor)

From the Publisher

From patient advocate Mary Shomon, author of Living Well With Hypothyroidism, here is the first book to tackle the weight factors specific to thyroid patients and detail a conventional and alternative plan for lasting weight loss.

An estimated 10 million Americans have been diagnosed with thyroid disease—most of them women—and for the majority of them, losing weight is mentioned time and time again as a primary concern and chief frustration—a challenge made more difficult due to the metabolic slowdown of a malfunctioning thyroid gland. For these thyroid patients, treatment alone doesn't seem to resolve weight problems. Further, they may struggle with raising basic metabolism, resolving underlying nutritional deficiencies, treating depression and correcting brain chemistry imbalances, reducing stress, and combating insulin resistance.

The Thyroid Diet will identify these factors that inhibit a thyroid patient's ability to lose weight, and offer solutions—both conventional and alternative—to help. It will discuss optimal dietary changes, including how a thyroid sufferer should focus on a low-glycemic, high-fibre, low-calorie diet, eaten as smaller, more frequent meals to balance blood sugar. The Thyroid Diet addresses the use of various herbs, nutritional supplements, and prescription weight loss drugs, outlining the necessity of exercise, and drawing together all information into an integrated diet and exercise plan. It contains several different eating plans, food lists, and a set of delicious and healthy gourmet recipes. With handy worksheets to use in weight loss tracking, and a special resource section featuringwebsites, books, and support groups, here is vital help for the millions of thyroid patients dealing with weight problems.

Mary Shomon has been praised by doctors around the country for her medical knowledge and sensitivity to patients' needs. She will be receiving similar blurbs for this new book. There are no other books on controlling your weight problems if you have a thyroid condition, yet over 40% of overweight people have evidence of a thyroid condition, and the weight loss problems facing them are unique and need a specific approach.

Product Details

• Table of Contents
• Read a Sample Chapter

Table of Contents

Read a Sample Chapter

Chapter One

Could You Have an
Undiagnosed Thyroid
Condition?

Knowledge is of two kinds: we know a subject ourselves,
or we know where we can find information about it.
-- Samuel Johnson

The thyroid is a small bowtie or butterfly-shaped gland located in your neck around the windpipe, behind and below your Adam's apple area. The thyroid produces several hormones, but two are absolutely essential: triiodothyronine (T3) and thyroxine (T4). These hormones help oxygen get into your cells and are critical to your body's ability to produce energy. This role in delivering oxygen and energy makes your thyroid the master gland of metabolism.

The thyroid has the only cells in the body capable of absorbing iodine. It takes in the iodine obtained through food, iodized salt, or supplements, and combines that iodine with the amino acid tyrosine. The thyroid then converts the iodine/tyrosine combination into the hormones T3 and T4. The 3 and the 4 refer to the number of iodine molecules in each thyroid hormone molecule.

Of all the hormones produced by your thyroid when it is functioning properly, approximately 80% will be T4 and 20% will be T3. Of the two, T3 is the biologically active hormone -- the one that actually has an effect at the cellular level. So while the thyroid produces some T3, the rest of the T3 needed by the body is actually formed when the body converts T4 to T3. Once released by the thyroid, the T3 and T4 travel through the bloodstream. The purpose is to help cells convert oxygen and calories into energy to serve as the basic fuel of your metabolism.

As mentioned, the thyroid produces some T3. But the rest of the T3 needed by the body is actually formed from the mostly inactive T4 by a process sometimes referred to as T4 to T3 conversion. This conversion can take place in the thyroid, the liver, the brain, and in other organs and tissues.

As T3 circulates through your bloodstream, it attaches to and enters your cells via receptor sites on the membrane of the cells. Once inside the cells, T3 increases cell metabolic rate, including body temperature, and stimulates the cells to produce a number of different hormones, enzymes, neurotransmitters, and muscle tissue. T3 also helps your cells use oxygen and release carbon dioxide, which helps smooth metabolic function.

So how does the thyroid know how much T4 and T3 to produce? The release of hormones from the thyroid is part of a feedback process. The hypothalamus, a part of the brain, emits thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH). The release of TRH tells your pituitary gland to in turn produce thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH). This TSH that circulates in your bloodstream is the messenger that tells your thyroid to make the thyroid hormones T4 and T3, sending them into your bloodstream. When there is enough thyroid hormone, the pituitary makes less TSH, which is a signal to the thyroid that it can slow down hormone production. It's a smoothly functioning system when it works properly. When something interferes with the system and the feedback process doesn't work, thyroid problems can develop.

Prevalence

At minimum, experts estimate that there are 20 million thyroid sufferers in the United States, and 13 million of them are undiagnosed. The majority of people with thyroid conditions have Hashimoto's disease, an autoimmune condition that causes hypothyroidism -- an underactive thyroid. Thyroid disease is actually the most common autoimmune condition in America today.

Women are seven times more likely than men to develop thyroid problems. Women face as much as a one in five chance of developing a thyroid problem during their lifetime. The risk of thyroid disease increases with age; by age 74, the 16% prevalence of subclinical hypothyroidism in men is nearly as high as the 21% rate seen in women.

Thyroid cancer is the fastest-growing cancer in the United States. The incidence has increased 20% since the late 1990s, and experts believe it's due to increased radiation exposure from nuclear accidents and x-rays.

Thyroid problems are also common in many other countries, particularly areas covered at one time by glaciers, where iodine is not present in the soil and in foods. In many of these countries, an enlarged thyroid, known as goiter, is seen in as many as one in five people and is usually due to iodine deficiency. Around the world, an estimated 8% of the population has goiter, most commonly women. Thyroid problems, including autoimmune thyroid disease and thyroid cancer, are more prevalent in the areas around and downwind of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident.

Overview of Conditions

The main conditions that can occur with the thyroid include

• Hypothyroidism -- when the thyroid is underactive and isn't producing sufficient thyroid hormone
• Hyperthyroidism -- when the thyroid is overactive and is producing too much thyroid hormone
• Goiter -- when the thyroid becomes enlarged, due to hypothyroidism or hyperthyroidism
• Nodules -- when lumps, usually benign, grow in the thyroid, sometimes causing it to become hypothyroid or hyperthyroid
• Thyroid cancer -- when lumps or nodules in the thyroid are malignant
• Postpartum thyroiditis -- when the thyroid is temporarily inflamed, in addition to hypothyroidism or hyperthyroidism triggered after pregnancy

Causes and Risk Factors

The most common causes of thyroid conditions are autoimmune diseases, notably Hashimoto's thyroiditis and Graves' disease, where the body's immune defenses inappropriately target the thyroid as an invader. Hashimoto's disease may cause periods of hyperthyroidism, followed by permanent hypothyroidism after the immune system destroys the gland's ability to produce thyroid hormone. Graves' disease typically causes an overproduction of thyroid hormone that can become life-threatening if not treated. If you have Graves' disease, you'll most likely receive antithyroid drugs, radioactive iodine, or surgery that will partially or entirely disable the thyroid's ability to produce thyroid hormone. Most people will become hypothyroid after treatment for Graves' disease ...