Did you know that it's really common to have nutrient deficiencies when you have hypothyroidism?

There are certain nutrients that are essential for thyroid health. Being deficient in any of these nutrients can be part of the cause of your thyroid issues, it can make symptoms worse, or it can even impact your thyroid medication.

So, here are 9 nutrient deficiencies that are linked to thyroid problems.

Iodine

Iodine is the building block of your thyroid hormones. T3 is made of 3 iodine molecules and T4 is made of (you guessed it) 4 iodine molecules. Not having enough iodine in the body will mean you won’t be able to make enough thyroid hormones. 

Magnesium

Magnesium helps the thyroid by regulating calcium. Too much calcium in the body can slow down the thyroid, but when you have the right amount of magnesium, it does its job by balancing out that calcium so the thyroid isn’t impacted. If you don’t have enough magnesium, those calcium levels will go up… which isn’t good.

Selenium

Selenium is one mineral that helps your body convert inactive T4 to active T3 before your thyroid can start using that hormone. Being deficient in selenium means that conversion will slow down, leading to hypothyroidism.

Zinc

While often just associated with our immune system, zinc actually plays an important role in thyroid conversion, too. Low levels of zinc have been linked to decreased levels of free T4 and increased levels of TSH (which is exactly what we don’t want!). In turn, there have been direct correlations between low zinc levels and lowered metabolism (one of the most common symptoms of hypothyroidism!).

Potassium

Potassium is another mineral that helps with thyroid hormone conversion - probably one of the most important in that process! And interestingly, if your potassium levels drop too low, it can actually lead to hyperthyroidism, which is an excess of thyroid hormones in the body. This can lead to something called Graves’ disease.

Vitamin B12

Studies have found that about 40% of patients with hypothyroidism and Hashimoto’s have a vitamin B12 deficiency. B12 supports our red blood cells, and therefore our energy levels and metabolism, too. Supplementing B12 to get the recommended daily intake can really help improve these symptoms and make you feel better. 

Vitamin C

Vitamin C helps balance out abnormalities in our free T4, T3 and TSH levels. Interestingly, as well, for anyone on Levothyroxine (a common thyroid medication), increased vitamin C levels help the body absorb Levothyroxine better!

Vitamin D

Vitamin D helps regulate potassium and calcium in the body. Low levels of vitamin D have been linked to Hashimoto’s disease. But at the same time, too much vitamin D can lower your potassium levels while raising calcium to levels that inhibit thyroid hormone function. So this is one vitamin that, yes, we want to make sure you’re not deficient in, but that we also don’t want to blindly supplement, either. 

Vitamin A

Finally, vitamin A helps regulate the thyroid by inhibiting TSH, which is good - we want low levels of TSH! If we don’t have enough vitamin A in our system to balance out TSH, it can make this hormone spike and this leads to a lot of thyroid symptoms. 

As you can see, this is quite a list. Addressing nutrient deficiencies can make you feel better quickly!

So what can you do? 

• Eat a varied diet of nutrient-dense foods including veggies, fruit and proteins (foods like brazil nuts, carrots, chicken, turkey, avocado, coconut water, cooked broccoli, etc are just a few)

• Use regular table salt in your cooking (it has iodine in it, sea salt does not!)

• Investigate any nutrient deficiencies (I love to use the Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis for this)

• Only supplement if you know you need it (blindly supplementing can sometimes make things worse!)

• Work with a functional health coach to help guide you in finding out why you have these nutrient deficiencies. Contact me if you want to get started on investigating your nutrient levels.

Have you had to deal with nutrient deficiencies before? Tell us in the comments below!