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The Links Between Constipation and Hypothyroidism
16 Plays3 months ago
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Hosted by functional health practitioner and longevity author, Christian Yordanov, this podcast is dedicated to helping women struggling with gastrointestinal problems such as gas, bloating, constipation, and other digestive distress.
Whether you have a diagnosis such as IBS (irritable bowel syndrome), IBD (inflammatory bowel disease; Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis), SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth), GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease) or not, you will benefit from the insights we'll share.
Join us as we explore the intricate connections between gut health and overall well-being, addressing common issues like fatigue, poor sleep, hormonal imbalances, and anxiety.
Learn how stress impacts your digestive system and discover effective strategies to reduce inflammation, improve digestion, and enhance your quality of life.
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Transcript
Link Between Hypothyroidism and Constipation
00:00:44
chrisyzen
Okay, so today we're going to talk a little bit about the link between hypothyroidism and constipation. It's actually been known for decades that hypothyroidism is associated with constipation, right? It's not really, I'm not saying it's common knowledge or anything like that, but it's not like some obscure fact that you have to dig into the research to to uncover, right? How does it happen? Very simply, hypothyroidism slows down metabolic processes in the body in general, and that includes the gastrointestinal tract, right? There's insufficient thyroid hormone production or conversion, and these hormones, T4, T3, these are essential for maintaining the normal motility of the intestine.
00:01:39
chrisyzen
and in folks with hypothyroidism these muscles in the intestine especially the large intestine they contract less frequently and with less force that leads to slower two transit times okay that results in constipation so this in and of itself could be a big contributor for many women because we know that hypothyroidism is much more prevalent in in women than men for starters, right?
Hormonal Sensitivity in Women and Hypothyroidism
00:02:14
chrisyzen
Women are also
00:02:17
chrisyzen
a lot more sensitive to hormonal disruptions that can then affect the metabolism and thyroid function. I'll get into that in a little while. um But to to to basically give you a spoiler, things like low carb diets, fasting, dieting in general, eating low um ah just a low volume of food in terms of calories and so on.
Stress, Diet, and Gut Motility
00:02:46
chrisyzen
these things these stresses and and stress in general these basically directly contribute to hypothyroidism okay we'll discuss that in a little while so what else so thyroid hormones influence the function of the smooth smooth muscle cells in the GI tract
00:03:07
chrisyzen
And these regulate muscle tone and contraction strength, we kind of touched on that. And then the enteric nervous system, so the nervous system of the gut, which is sometimes called the second brain, is also modulated by thyroid hormones. These hormones help to regulate the autonomic nervous system, which controls involuntary functions like gut motility. And hypothyroidism can disrupt this neural regulation, further slowing down this intestinal movement. okay And it's also known that thyroid hormones affect the secretion of various gastrointestinal hormones crucial for digestion and motility. okay Now in terms of clinical findings,
00:03:57
chrisyzen
So studies have already established a strong link between hypothyroidism and GI symptoms, particularly constipation, but others as well. And some researchers have found that hypothyroid patients frequently report GI dysmotility, so issues with the motility. And constipation is the most prevalent one of those. And um and then so some rat studies have shown more directly the physiological changes induced by hypothyroidism. And basically, hypothyroidism impairs the colonic motility in rats. So there is um animal data, which excuse me which is where they can do it slightly more
00:04:47
chrisyzen
ethically
Thyroid Hormone Conversion and Gut Health
00:04:48
chrisyzen
questionable things especially in terms of like human experiments where they they can kind of see more directly the mechanisms or at least um causal links between doing X and then seeing Y right so um the and animal data very strongly supports the clinical observations that obviously hyperthyroidism will affect intestinal motility and causing constipation in many women, especially women again because they're more sensitive to this kind of stuff. And then what else? So clinical observations also indicate that thyroid hormone levels directly impair GI motility, low levels of T4,
00:05:31
chrisyzen
T3 which is the active so if in case you don't know the thyroid gland creates the T4 for the most part and then T4 is um basically converted to T3 in the liver for the most part and that's the more active um form of the thyroid hormone.
Liver Function and Hormone Conversion
00:05:53
chrisyzen
came um What's interesting is that the data is clear that at least at least a quarter of Americans have non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and then
00:06:07
chrisyzen
There's another few percentage points on top of that for non-alcoholic steatohepatosis. There's hepatitis and a few a couple of other things like alcoholic steatohepatitis and then cirrhosis. there So there's a lot, of a massive proportion of the world and in this case ah um America, the US that have um liver disease, right? So non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, it's a fatty liver, but having a fatty liver means there's a lot of dysfunction going on in the liver. And if the liver is dysfunctional,
00:06:48
chrisyzen
um that can then lead to issues, trouble come with conversion, not just from um you know thyroid hormones from T4 to T3, but just in terms of general detoxification. um And we'll cover this in a future episode, but estrogen is one of those things that gets detoxified in the liver. So if you have a dysfunctional liver, Not only may you ah might you have issues with um thyroid hormone conversion to the active hormone, you could be having issues with detoxification and detoxification of estrogen. And that's
Symptoms of Hypothyroidism
00:07:24
chrisyzen
going to cause a lot of other issues, um which is a whole episode in and of itself.
00:07:30
chrisyzen
so that's one thing the other thing is that if you look at the general symptoms of hypothyroidism what are they fatigue right weight gain cold skin like cold extremities that's a very common sign cold hands and feet dry skin and hair hair loss that's another one thinning of hair but there's also a lot of other more cardiovascular stuff which only when you know we're kind of in middle age and we start kind of progressing to our 40s, 50s, 60s do we start to notice these other things. A big one here is actually high cholesterol is a sign of hypothyroidism.
00:08:19
chrisyzen
So they're actually very um strongly inversely correlated. When I say they is TSH, thyroid stimulating hormone, which right now is kind of basically the way hypothyroidism is diagnosed and cholesterol total cholesterol, these are inversely correlated quite strongly. So when um the cholesterol is high, Sorry, they're not inversely correlated. I meant to say positively correlated. When the TSH is high, cholesterol will be high a lot of the time. And when the cholesterol lowers, the TSH lowers. um but It's correlated. I'm not saying it's causal, but it's clear that hypothyroidism
00:09:07
chrisyzen
is is one big reason a lot of people are going to the doctor and their cholesterol is high. It's got nothing to do with eating too much saturated fat or you know not not getting enough polyunsaturated fats or omega-6s or you know this other nonsense that they're using just to shield these um cholesterol lowering drugs. That's ah the biggest cash cow, the biggest cash cow of all the many cash cows they have. That one is the biggest. I think it's plus 1
Historical vs. Current Diagnostic Methods
00:09:39
chrisyzen
trillion at this point in terms of sales. so And so if we look at these symptoms and um just kind of ah add before the TSH, the thyroid stimulating hormone became kind of the quote unquote gold standard for diagnosing hypothyroidism. Back in the day,
00:10:03
chrisyzen
Let's say in I think in like the even the 50s or earlier the 1950s and earlier doctors would use underarm temperature and heartbeat to basically diagnose hypothyroidism, okay, and You can nowadays You can actually monitor your morning heart rate your underarm temperature when you wake up and then after after your breakfast you can monitor them then and then this is not I'm not saying you should like use it diagnostically or anything but it's a good way to see if the things you're doing to improve your health are actually improving your health right so for example if your heart rate is very low in the morning
00:10:55
chrisyzen
um and then it's speed or let's say your heart rate is like low or normal and then it speeds up after breakfast right and then your let's say your temperature is whatever if so the heart rate speeding up after a little bit after breakfast that's that's actually a good thing but let's say if it was the other way around if your heart rate was normal or on the higher end and then it slowed down after breakfast that actually indicates you were stressed and the the breakfast the the food reduced your stress okay reduced your cortisol and then for example if you if your temperature was let's say x for a month you were you're measuring it and then you did some stuff to improve your health
00:11:43
chrisyzen
And then your temperature, your basal body temperature in the morning ah increased a little bit, let's say, I don't know, half a degree or whatever. It's very subtle, the the changes here. um That's generally an indicator that your your metabolism has increased because high metabolism means higher body temperature low metabolism means lower body temperature less stuff is going on less processes less processes processes are working right so this is how they used to do it back in the day how um you know smart clinicians would with the help of their clients or patients would ascertain not only is a person hypothyroid
00:12:27
chrisyzen
But is whatever changes they're making, they're adding to their diet, supplements, whatever else, lifestyle, stress reduction, is that taking them in the right direction in terms of improving their metabolism, which improved metabolism generally means improved health. all other things being equal. Okay. So where am I getting, what am I getting at here? So in my textbook of natural medicine, which is a the fifth edition is the one I um consulted for this. It's a 2000 page, $250 volume, very well respected ah series. So in there, in the chapter on hypothyroidism,
00:13:10
chrisyzen
They state that if they use if we use basal body temperature and heart rate as a diagnostic tool, it's more like 25% at least, I think it was, at least 25% of the US adult population would be classified or diagnosed as hypothyroid. now What we currently use is TSH, which is not even a thyroid hormone. It's a pituitary hormone. It's secreted from the pituitary gland to stimulate the thyroid gland to produce thyroid hormones. So the higher that goes,
00:13:58
chrisyzen
the more the pituitary is giving a stronger signal to the thyroid gland to produce thyroid hormone. So the way they use it is the higher it is, the more diagnostic quote-unquote it is of hypothyroidism and the lower it is within a certain range the less it generally means the thyroid gland is functioning well because less it needs less of a stimulant or stimulus to um to produce thyroid hormones like T4 and so on. So
00:14:37
chrisyzen
The problem is that you your TSH level can be within the the the normal boundaries of normal, which are actually not great. right So what they what they did is actually um in recent years, they actually reduced the the higher end, the cutoff of the TSH. So it it was like six. Now it's four or four and a half um in most countries. And so even more people would be hypothyroid based on the new diagnostic criteria. But the thing is that a lot of people can be under that range. Let's say it's four or four and a half, four point five. um And they can still show a lot of signs of hypothyroidism. And if you look at, let's say, the basal body temperature upon rising,
00:15:26
chrisyzen
the heartbeat, the they genuine, and let's say cholesterol levels, they genuinely, you know, they might be fatigued, weight gain, weight loss resistance, hair thinning or hair loss, they might have, you know, increased increased blood pressure, constipation, and a number of other different things. So ah neurological stuff like cognitive impairment, brain fog, that's a symptom of hypothyroidism it could be many ah other things like toxicity and a number of other things as well but just it is a it is well known that things like the also depression that's another one in specifically for women menstrual irregularities infertility um also um swelling right puffiness puffy face uh
00:16:23
chrisyzen
a hoarse voice, like changes in the voice, that that's another one. So there's a lot of different, not I suppose, nonspecific symptoms of hypothyroidism, right? So ah you could be in a decent, quote unquote, range according to the the current medical standard for what hypothyroidism is and isn't. but you could still be having a lot of these
Debate on TSH Diagnostic Range
00:16:50
chrisyzen
issues. like I know a lot of my clients will have fatigue and weight gain and cold intolerance and dry skin and you know maybe high hybrid ah high blood pressure, hypertension, constipation, appetite issues, right depression or just feeling low mood. So these are there's a lot of stuff going on and here's the other thing. So
00:17:12
chrisyzen
you you let's say your TSH is like three and a half 3.5 you might say okay I'm within range therefore I'm good but here's the problem and this is another big big big problem is within the range these ranges are so wide because just the population is getting sicker and sicker so these are very wide populations and generally sick people go to the doctors to the to get lab testing more often than they very healthy people right so these lab ranges are way too wide for the most part for most markers so you don't want to be within the range you want to be within an optimal range so the optimal range for a TSH would be closer to
00:17:54
chrisyzen
about one you want to be under two for sure they've actually I don't think they've there was a there was a few kind of studies where they couldn't find people with a TSH under over two that didn't have health problems, right? So it's its it looks like TSH needs to be very low for you know to to be experiencing good health. And generally, if it's two or above, now when I look at my client's lab work, if the TSH is two plus, but still within the
00:18:37
chrisyzen
within the kind of the normal range, which could be like up to, like I said, four, 4.5. Some labs still do like 5.5 and whatnot, but it's generally four to four and a half. So if I stood above two, but still kind of within the the labs range, i'm I'm thinking that's not optimal. Like there's something in this clients diet, lifestyle, health history, imbalances. Could it be nutrient deficiency? Could it could it be um a number of other imbalances that we need to investigate and help the client implement those changes so they can you know so the body can return to balance or achieve a higher level of being, right? And
Impact of Diet on Metabolism and Thyroid Function
00:19:20
chrisyzen
this this kind of Goes to the last point I want to discuss in this episode is what are some of the most prevalent things? Contributing or downright causing hypothyroidism. I'm gonna tell you ah right now what they are Some of them dieting just not eating enough. This is such a big problem. I'll tell you With all of my clients so far I I'm not even joking
00:19:51
chrisyzen
with all of my clients, female clients. I have not had one woman that was overeating, not one, not a single lady was overeating. for the most part, they all under eat. Occasionally, you know, someone will be very close to like a ah good amount where where I don't have to like, come on, you got to eat more. Come on. You got to eat more. Right. So this sort of dieting mentality that's been again ingrained by social social sort of stuff, you know, Instagram and like you got to look this way and
00:20:32
chrisyzen
You know all that stuff that's only to belabor that point so this we're kind of Made to believe that if you gain a bunch of weight It's because you ate too much But just a drop in metabolism could be enough and then drop that drop in metabolism Not only will it lead to weight gain but then all the other symptoms that are already discussed that are kind of common in hypothyroidism so your you know like your brain sluggishness constipation you know high blood pressure a bunch of other stuff okay so we think that if we gain a bunch of weight it's always because we ate too much and sometimes it can be but then it's not a it's not like ah an equal equation where you you eat a bunch you gain weight then you
00:21:22
chrisyzen
If you cut all that that let let me give an example. Let's say you ate a hundred thousand calories too much over a year and You gained a bunch of weight whatever that is very kind of out there example it does that does not mean that in the next year or the next two months if you cut a thousand a hundred thousand calories you're gonna get look the same way and be the same weight the same sort of muscle mass and fat mass no very very quickly in that initial dietary cut
00:22:00
chrisyzen
your body will lower its metabolism, okay? And it will ramp it up very, very slowly if you were to bring your calories back up, right? So I'm gonna probably have to do a whole episode on why wait fast weight loss to weights currently practiced is very bad and very unhealthy and can lead to a lot of health problems. um But that's a big reason why people have painted themselves into a metabolic corner, as I sometimes say, because of fasting. Here's here's the other culprits. So dieting in general, not the under-eating chronically. Big problem for many, many women nowadays.
00:22:41
chrisyzen
Then um ah intermittent fasting that actually is shown to lower your metabolism. Right i'm not but now I'm not going to pull up the studies. so I'll do a separate episode on that. um The regular fasting, water fasting definitely slows down your metabolism. There's data on that. Here's the other one. Low carb diets, keto diets, not eating enough carbohydrates. Basically cutting carbohydrates out of your diet is giving the exact same, so almost the exact same signal to the body that starvation or fasting would give. Just cutting out the the carbs, right? In about four days, you kind of go into this catabolic sort of breaking down state, which lowers the metabolism, right?
00:23:29
chrisyzen
And then stress in general, but all those things are very stressful, but just stress in general. Anything chronic that raises cortisol and keeps it high will have this sort of met metabolism lowering effect because that's a that's a survival mechanism that the body uses to to ensure its survival. If if things are stressful, cortisol goes up. Now cortisol could be up because you're you you don't have food or because you're like in a war running away from predator, um whatever else, right? Or it could just be your your job or or lifestyle. It doesn't matter because in all of those circumstances, cortisol and the stress hormones going up, they result in the same sort of cascade of metabolic adaptations that the body will
00:24:19
chrisyzen
again do in order to increase its chances of survival so no matter the stress the response is lower the metabolism so we're consuming less energy right and we're storing more that comes in because we don't know is the stressful period the famine the war whatever else going to go on for a day a month a year we don't know so the body doesn't know so it airs on the side of caution okay so the problem is once the metabolism is lowered it's a bit of a journey to get it get it back up right this is where you know you need to really have your ducks in a row so that's obviously beyond the scope of this
00:25:08
chrisyzen
um
Healing Strategies for Metabolism Support
00:25:10
chrisyzen
this episode but this this is just kind of to give you a little bit of insight ah you may you may be struggling with some of these issues and it kind of it begins to sort of paint a picture that we'll be building on about why especially when trying to heal yourself right when the person is trying to heal themselves you don't want to do stressful things like too much exercise or you know fasting or inter inter even intermittent fasting you know like 16 18 hours a day that's insanity when you're trying to heal yourself um and we'll cover the the mechanisms of why uh in a later episode and then um yeah low carb diets and under reading and stuff like that i mean
00:25:55
chrisyzen
if you don't have energy coming into the body or you're you're stressing the body with a lot of activity and whatever else it's going to in both situations again it's going to lower its metabolism and then that can have an impact on constipation on gut function on mood sleep And then, of course, there's cardiovascular and other issues that can arise. Right. So these stressful practices, many of which are purported to be healthy in today's society, are actually anything but and they're especially
00:26:33
chrisyzen
um ah Harmful when a person is trying to heal themselves trying to restore their health from a health issue Okay, so I hope you found that informative is used and useful. I'll see you in the next episode