​Can Stress Cause Thyroid Problems?

Most of us have heard about how bad chronic stress is for overall health and wellbeing. But it’s also bad for your thyroid, especially if you are predisposed to a thyroid condition or already suffer from one. Stress is a routine part of our daily lives whether it’s a work deadline or a hectic commute, our stress levels are sometimes off the chart.

Your thyroid is a delicate gland that functions well under balanced conditions. When stress puts your hormones out of whack, it throws off your thyroid and makes it work harder to do its job. You may notice your thyroid symptoms increase when you experience prolonged stress.

Here is how stress and your thyroid function are related and some tips for managing both.

Stress Makes Hypothyroidism Worse

Generally speaking, chronic stress doesn’t cause an underactive thyroid, but it does worsen underlying or existing hypothyroidism. This is because your adrenal glands and thyroid work together. The adrenal glands function well when handling small amounts of stress. They release cortisol to enhance other bodily functions while under pressure or during a threat.

But too much stress or chronic stress throws your system into overdrive, causing your body to produce too much cortisol which overworks your thyroid. Excessive cortisol stimulates it to work harder to produce adequate amounts of thyroid hormone.

So, what’s happening? Cortisol triggers an increase in thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) while also inhibiting the conversion of T4 hormone into T3 hormone. T3 is your body’s “metabolically active” active hormone (i.e. it’s usable form). Essentially, your thyroid is working harder but putting out less hormone.

As you move from an overworked thyroid to a thyroid disorder, your metabolism slows as your thyroid is no longer able to produce enough thyroid hormone.

Lab Tests Don’t Tell the Whole Story

This thyroid-stress connection may be why your thyroid hormone levels show normal or improved results while you still feel fatigued or are gaining weight. Lab tests don’t always paint a clear picture of thyroid function, especially when stress is affecting your body. In other words, there is a delayed reaction between what’s happening in your body and what shows up in lab results. Stress might create symptoms for years before you see the effects in a lab report.

Stress Is a Risk Factor for Autoimmune Hypothyroidism

You’re more susceptible to developing an autoimmune thyroid condition like Hashimoto’s if you experience chronic stress. Hashimoto’s is an autoimmune disease in which your immune system attacks healthy thyroid tissues. As your thyroid is slowly destroyed, function is disrupted and ultimately, your thyroid hormone levels fall.

You experience all the typical hypothyroid symptoms and must take prescribed medication to replace the lacking hormones. But with Hashimoto’s, your thyroid will continue to be destroyed, which means you’ll likely need to take increasing doses of thyroid replacement medication like levoythyroxine.

Studies show that stress affects your immune system and prolonged stress can trigger autoimmunity if you’re predisposed.

What Kind of Stress Affects Your Thyroid?

All kinds of stress cause physical reactions and trigger elevated cortisol levels, whether physical or emotional/mental.

Examples of different types of stress include:

• Exercising above your tolerance level
• Taxing physical labor
• Lack of sleep
• Relationship stress
• Experiencing physical threats
• Feeling overwhelmed (having more than you can do)
• Work or deadline-related stress
• Anger or frequent provocation
• Fear or worry (financial, relational, health related, etc.)
• Conflict

How to De-stress for Thyroid Health

You can reduce physical stress when you take care of your body through a healthy a diet, daily exercise, and adequate sleep. And it’s also important to address mental and emotional stressors.

Watch Your Diet

When your body is properly nourished your system and your thyroid run more smoothly. You experience less physical stress, even when you avoid foods that you don’t digest well or have an intolerance to.

It’s also helpful to reduce (or eliminate) alcohol, caffeine, and sugar to improve your overall energy. Consuming these actually saps energy and stresses your body.

Exercise Daily

We know exercise can be a great stress reliever, and light to moderate exercise is good for thyroid health. You want to balance your energy use so that your overdoing it and can actually be energized by your workout. But if you push too hard or to do much, this can stress your body and trigger thyroid symptoms.

Cardio, flexibility exercises (like yoga), and some light strength training are all great to incorporate into your week.

Get Adequate Rest

Sleep is your body’s time to de-stress and recharge. Nothing throws your system off more than a lack of sleep. This restful time helps you recover from yesterday’s stress and prepare for the next day’s stressors. It’s easy to bring on thyroid symptoms when you skimp on sleep.

Reduce Mental and Emotional Stress

You can’t always change your circumstances, but you can learn to manage them. Do what you can to unload your schedule or streamline your days. Simplify where you can. Find ways to take the pressure off of yourself. Learn some new time-management skills

Be sure to take some time for yourself each day and pray or mediate to help clear your mind and process your emotions.

Hypothyroidism Can Affect Your Bladder

Constipation and weight gain are common underactive thyroid symptoms that can also cause a leaky bladder. Shop TYE Medical’s online store for free, discreet shipping on all order.