Did you know that thyroid disease can be a root cause of anxiety? In fact, most of my anxious clients have thyroid issues.
Having an excess amount of thyroid hormone can make us extremely anxious, irritable and on edge. This is one symptom that is commonly attributed to Graves’ disease but can also happen in Hashimoto’s.
In the early stages of Hashimoto’s, the thyroid is under attack by the immune system. Thyroid cells are broken down, and they release thyroid hormones into the bloodstream. This causes thyroid hormone surges or a transient hyperthyroidism.
I know how awful anxiety can feel, I had anxiety, panic attacks and pyroluria (social anxiety) in my late 30s, together with an underactive thyroid, adrenal issues, gluten sensitivity, heavy metals, low progesterone (I call it my perfect storm!).
I’m excited to share that there is a way out and that you don’t have to feel this way forever. Everyone is different, but two of the things that worked wonders for me and now work for my clients are nutrition and targeted individual amino acids (like GABA and tryptophan).
But are you aware that the amino acids will be effective for addressing low GABA and low serotonin (in their typical quick manner, often providing relief in 5 to 10 minutes) ONLY when thyroid health is optimal (not many people know this!)
And by optimizing your thyroid health, I don’t just mean taking thyroid medications….
Dr. Izabella Wentz, the Thyroid Pharmacist, is a personal friend of mine – we’re both members of Mindshare, a collaboration of like-minded functional medicine practitioners.
I adore Izabella and love how she is connecting all the dots with the research and the feedback she receives from her community. She is trailblazing and always focused on the why of how a condition develops.
She has found that thyroid disease is triggered by a combination of food sensitivities, nutrient depletions, intestinal permeability, chronic infections, toxins and also a faulty stress response.
The thing about thyroid disease, just like anxiety, is that it’s a sign of a bigger imbalance in your body – while thyroid medications and glandulars can certainly help, they do not get to the underlying root cause of the condition, and thyroid conditions, which are usually autoimmune in nature, may progress to other types of autoimmune disorders.
Hashimoto’s, a condition that affects up to 27% of the population in the United States has 5 stages to it. Out of the 90 million or so people that have it, close to 80 million don’t know that they have it. Often, they are in the earlier stages that are missed by conventional tests.
Hashimoto’s is the primary cause of hypothyroidism, accounting for 95% of cases of hypothyroid in the United States. This condition occurs when the immune system recognizes the thyroid gland as foreign invader and launches an attack against it, eventually destroying enough of the thyroid to produce hypothyroidism.
The five stages of Hashimoto’s are:
1) In the first stage, for all intents and purposes, you will just have the genetic predisposition
2) In the second stage, you start developing an autoimmune attack on the thyroid gland – at this stage, you will also have thyroid symptoms (the most common one is anxiety), but the TSH test will still be normal. Only the thyroid antibodies will be elevated at that point, and at this stage people are often misdiagnosed with anxiety or depression
3) The third stage is when the thyroid gland starts to have more damage than it can repair, and begins to fail. More symptoms are seen, but doctors often miss this stage as well because the TSH is only “slightly” elevated according to their reference ranges
4) The fourth stage, we see overt hypothyroidism. At this page a person has had a significant amount of thyroid damage, and their thyroid fully loses its ability to compensate and create thyroid hormone
5) The fifth stage is the scariest, this is when a thyroid condition progresses to another autoimmune condition. The immune system finds another target to attack, and person may end up with lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, Sjogren’s or even multiple sclerosis.
The only treatment that is offered by conventional medicine is thyroid hormones, which is prescribed in stage 4. When that can help of course, it doesn’t address most people’s symptoms and doesn’t stop the progression of the condition and autoimmunity. There is no conventional treatment for stopping or reversing the progression, but luckily we have functional medicine and nutrition to the rescue!
A shocking thing that Izabella has shared, is that it takes people on average of 10 years to get diagnosed, and this is also the time it takes to get from stage 2 to stage 4 of Hashimoto’s! Izabella was actually misdiagnosed with anxiety and chronic fatigue for almost a decade before she got the Hashimoto’s diagnosis, and many people are told that they have intractable infertility, lifelong anxiety that they are told they will have to “manage” forever or even told they have treatment-resistant depression, or that they are simply overweight and lazy.
I know that many of my clients with anxiety are likely still in the earliest stages of Hashimoto’s, and there is hope that you can eliminate your symptoms, AND you can actually prevent the damage to the thyroid gland if you intervene at this point.
Izabella created the Thyroid Secret documentary series to help you connect the dots of your own thyroid condition, so that you can rebuild your health and eliminate your symptoms (and potentially your health conditions). She shares her latest research in overcoming thyroid disorders, and interviews the top experts who share their best strategies as well.
I was so excited when Izabella asked me to join the Thyroid Secret as an expert – in fact my interview was the very last thing I did in the United States, before I moved to Australia! This topic is so important to me (and so key for my clients and you to know about) that I did the interview in an empty house, with just a few chairs and our almost-packed suitcases, and just a few hours to spare before we got on the plane!
Here are a few pictures (I was ironing my clothes on a spare table in the mostly empty study!):
The Thyroid Secret covers not just the symptoms of thyroid disease (like anxiety) that can masquerade as mental illness, but also the triggers that can cause both conditions, and the solutions and protocols you need to recover your health.
When your thyroid is working as it should be, the amazing amino acids like GABA and tryptophan are truly effective in 5-10 minutes – so you really can say they are amazing! You will see incredible results – anxiety relief right away – and a feeling of hope while you dig deeper for root causes that can take longer to address.
I wrote this blog for everyone using amino acids and not seeing results. And also for everyone with a thyroid condition or if you have unresolved symptoms that could be related to your thyroid.
I do hope you’re already signed up and are enjoying watching, listening and learning as much as I am.
If you haven’t yet signed up you can still join as my guest to view the entire series at no cost (it started March 1). Just use this link to register.
We’ve come together in this Thyroid Secret documentary to give you this information because you deserve to feel on top of the world again!
Got questions or feedback? Your favorite speaker and some takeaways?
Did you find that GABA, tryptophan and other amino acids were more effective once you addressed your thyroid health? If you’re a practitioner do you see this with patients/clients?
Please share in the blog comments below.
I am clearly in stage 5 with other autoimmune conditions having shown up. I work with an integrative doctor. She has me GF, soy free, sugar free. I have many food sensitivities so am very limited in what I can eat. I stick to whole foods & the supplements she recommends..is there anything else I should be doing? I have Hasimotos with both types of antibodies. Was diagnosed by a conventional doctor in 1997 (at age 42) with a TSH of 15 but am sure I had it for many years before then. Id had symptoms since puberty. (Unexplained weight up & down, depression, anxiety, foggy or speeded up thinking, hot or cold, etc.) Any advice at this point in Hashis? PS All my siblings have it too & my grandmother died from Graves disease at age 36.(in 1924)
Aj
If your antibodies are down to 1 and you have no more symptoms then you’re all good. If not, Dr Izabella recommends a complete functional workup and has found that dysbiois and parasites are common underlying factors, especially when dietary and other approaches have not been helping. Other factors include heavy metals, environmental toxins, leaky gut, the liver and various nutritional deficiencies (which I’m sure you’re addressing with your integrative doctor).
If you’re not already watching The Thyroid Secret documentary I encourage you to sign up – so much is being covered (it’s also all online). Here is the link to my trailer and the optin page http://thethyroidsecret.go2cloud.org/aff_c?offer_id=102&aff_id=1050.
Her new book “Hashimoto’s Protocol” releases at the end of the month (find it here on Amazon http://amzn.to/2lFhl0I). I have read an advance review copy and it’s excellent!
I was hoping that 5HTP would help me control anxiety and stress but unfortunately I got brain zaps in the first days and I stopped taking it. I was affraid that something worse could happen.
Is it a normal side effect of 5HTP?
Simone
When someone has low serotonin symptoms I start with tryptophan because 5-HTP can adversely affect folks who are wired-tired and have high cortisol. I have not heard anyone say they have had brain zaps from 5-HTP.
I also do a trial to find out the ideal starting dose of the amino acid as too much can also cause adverse effects https://www.everywomanover29.com/blog/how-to-do-an-amino-acid-trial-for-anxiety/
Keep in mind that there can be many underlying causes of anxiety and low serotonin is just one. If the anxiety is thyroid related (like Hashimoto’s or Graves) then that would need to be addressed. Also I always look at diet, blood sugar control, caffeine, gluten, gut health etc.
The interesting thing is that some of these same root causes can trigger both anxiety and be a factor with thyroid issues so do tune in to The Thyroid Secret documentary – so much is being covered! It’s also all online
I recently quit ssri’s because of the constant drowsiness I felt on them. I tried several brands – all with the same outcomes. Since quitting I’ve been dealing with anxiety, depression and insomnia (waking with a pounding heart at 3am and not being able to get back to sleep). Only positive is that my constant fatigue seems to have improved.
I tried taking 500mg of trytophan before bed and it made me feel completely out of it and “drugged” for most of the next day. So then I tried taking only a “dab” before bed and it gave me insomnia. I then tried taking about 125mg in the morning and it made me feel like a zombie all day. Although it does pretty much instantly get rid of the pounding heart, anxiety and depression I’ve been experiencing. Could it just be that any substance that alters my serotonin (pharmaceutical or natural) causes me to be fatigued? Any advice would be appreciated!!
I have had different types of insomnia for the last 13 years since I was dx with medullary thyroid cancer which I feel is more thyroid medication imbalance related, however my endo just chalks it off and tells me to take sleeping pills. When I take over the counter sleeping pills I get drowsy and anxiety and have brain fog the whole next day. When I take lumnesta I feel better when I wake but then I am extremely tired with brain fog. I had a total thyroidectomy and am currently taking 100mg generic synthroid with 15mg generic cytomel, fish oil, vitamin D3, magnesium citrate, beberine, tumeric, probiotics, b complex, and calcium, zinc, pharmgaba250, 5HTP, grass feed whey protein powder by Thorne Any suggestions? Thank you for all you do for patients like us that don’t get answers from our doctors. You are always in my prayers.
Hi There,
I have been suffering from anxiety and insomnia on and off for the past 5 years (I am 33 years old), since the birth of my son 5 years ago. I went on Paroxetine 20mg which got me sleeping back on track (with the help of zopiclone that I weaned off a few weeks later)…4 years later I managed to wean off paroxetine and had 4 months of greatness -feeling happy and ‘normal’ with the occasional sleep disturbance at time of ovulation or menstruation – which would only last a couple of days. I Was also taking progesterone capsules, as my levels were .04 after the birth of my son. I stopped my progesterone 3 months ago, as I was feeling so good, and wanted to let my body ‘do things naturally’, only to experience insomnia again……about 1 month after stopping it. I am now back on progesterone (200mg per night and 100mg in the morning for 22 consecutive days, with an 8 day break….once my period returns (which has been very out of kilter the last 3 months – I would stop the progesterone and commence on my Bi-est cream applied twice from the 1st day of my cycle through to the 12th day of cycle, and recommence on progesterone from the 8th day of cycle), in the hope it will help get my anxiety and insomnia back under control. I REALLY DONT want to take paroxetine again, as I feel like I had come so far over the past 5 years…I really need an alternative to this and am not sure what supplements/amino acids to start taking. I have purchased your online home program, but am still unsure of what to take….are you please able to get back to me as I am in a desperate situation and really need some help to get my life back on track.
It appears that I cannot purchase GABA in New Zealand, but this sounded like it could have been a good option for me?
Any help would be an absolute life saver – thanks so much in advance xxx
Riana 🙂
Riana
I’m sorry to hear you’re battling so much. With the program you do the amino acids questionnaire and follow the instructions per each of the modules. I walk through it all as if I’m doing a one-on-one consult with a client (except it was delivered as a live group program and is now offered as a homestudy version).
With anxiety and insomnia I’d consider low serotonin and low GABA first. Both tryptophan and GABA can be purchased via companies in the USA and I’ve also recently found products in Australia. I can vouch for GABA by Body Ripped Sports Nutrition. I don’t yet know how effective the tryptophan from Healthwise is.
And apologies that you were directed to the blog instead of helped via email
My FMD had me try nature-thyroid and in a week I was more anxious. More energy which was nice, but definately more anxious. Do you know of why the nature-throid would not agree with me or anyone? Have you heard of this?
Jerri
Too much thyroid hormone can increase anxiety and using less often helps. Some folks need to address adrenal health first.
HI Trudy,
I am now under the guidance of Dr Steve Joe, from Hamilton New zealand….
He has prescribed the attached supplements. Do you think 5HTP is best for me or is tryptophan going to be better – as I often feel wired, but rarely tired – unless I have had a night of only 2-3 hours sleep.
I managed a natural 8 hour sleep on Wednesday night after having a 2 hour Thai massage…I felt a lot better the next day, but was not tired at all to go to sleep on Thursday, and was still wide awake with anxiety at 130am, so took 1/2 a zopiclone and managed only 3.5 hours of sleep…I feel so awful and depressed and can’t see how this is going to get any better…..I so need some reassurance to know that i can do this without the paroxetine (anti depressant), which helped the sleep last time, but made me feel awful during the days.
Thanks Riana
Riana
I’d talk to Dr Joe about doing adrenal saliva testing – if cortisol is high then I like to use tryptophan. Also be aware that when I see clients using a medication like zopiclone it can be confounding things and making sleep worse
Dear Trudy,
I have not written anything here for months. I had been feeling awesome and happy! with your protocol. I take 1 Glycine 1000mg before breakfast, and throughout the day, this helps control down my occipital neuralgia. I have also implemented in the morning after breakfast VIT, B6 100mg, 1300 of EVO and 30mg OPTIZINC as well as 1 ASHWAGANDHA 500mg. I also sip throughout the day CAROLYN DEANS REMAG in a 64oz water bottle I pour 2.5 tbsp of REMAGA. Now at night I will continue to take 1 GLYCINE and to sleep the TAURINE still works for me……UNTIL……………
June 29th I was driving back from a 5 hour trip to an amusement park, I took my children to. I started to feel a pulsing sensation on my right calf. At home a couple of days after that I felt tingling sensations and thought ” crap since I have neuralgia in my head perhaps I developed it on my legs”.
I went to the ER with a slight shortness of breath and leg pain. I always have higher levels of platelets in my bloodwork and I was on my menstrual cycle and I clot a lot and its painful as a matter of fact as I write this Im still on my menstrual cycle. It is the 19th day ugh!!!!
At the ER, the leg U/S was negative, chest x-ray was negative, my blood work came back that my D-DIMER was high so because of that they wanted to do a lung cat scan to rule out any possible lung clot. I have an allergy to shellfish so because so they had to medicate me to prepare me for the cat scan contrast. I was put on an IV and then was told that they would give me benadryl through the IV.
The nurse came in gave me the benadryl and my body went limp, my heart felt like it slowed down leaving me breathless, I felt nauseated and started to tingle all over and tremor, the shakes were unstoppable. I was going in and out and asked if they can make me feel normal again. They gave me more Iv solution to dilute the benadryl. I then felt better but tired and was not able to speak nor think. Nothing made sense to me. I even forgot why I was there. They offered me an adivan! and I declined with a ” get the F**k out of my room”!
Later on nurse came back to apologish because she said she gave it to me too quick through the IV. I asked her what did she give me, she said a combination of benadryl and a prednisone. The whole time she told me she was just giving me the benadryl. Till this day I think my body reacted to the prednisone but she said no, she thinks its because she went in too quick. I never react with benadryl so then she said well a few people to have a slight reaction to prednisone ugh!!!!
Since then Iv felt off, not present,sad, nor a care for whatever, very tired for no reason, heart palpatations. I was not even aware of my environment, I would cross a parking lot and never saw a car coming at me. I had diarrhea, my stomach hurt, I was nauseated. I thought I had shortness of breath oh my I could not walk the five stairs in my house. I then woke up 21h of this month with diarrhea and as I was sitting on the toilet my hearts started to beat fast, I could not breathe and felt faint. I ran downstairs called 911 as I hoped a cabacalm.
Cabacalmed worked for me for the very first time. I don’t know if you will remember I purchased it without success but kept them in case. For a full blown panic or anxiety attack it worked. It worked so that I told the 911 operator not to send anyone because I was home alone with 4 of my little guys. They came anyway and checked me out, everything seemed fine. But when they left I had another one, they came back after my neighbor called them in and took me because I said “oh my goodness I could run into a car to just stop the feeling”.
Today is my 4th day since the attack, at the hospital they concluded I was depressed and had an anxiety attack. They gave me resources and offered me drugs in which I declined. I went home and took more cabacalm and then tried the tryptophan I had also. And if you don’t recall I tried tryptophan before but had a lot of thoughts in my head so back then I thought I did not need it, however this time around it did work for me. I have even put some on my tongue or under and seems to work for a little bit.
The issue is my heart still races and wakes me up so I take more tryptophan and today this morning I woke up so tired that I could barely speak but my heart is still racing and I feel a panic coming on. My 10 year old asked me if I was not feeling good because my voice is slow and low. Im concluding that tryptophan perhaps not working but I will continue to try. I am trying to tap and breathe as well in order to control the attacks. My throat feels tight and I still have diarrhea.
I feel like if I have diarrhea that nothing is gonna work and therefore I will still have the attacks come on. I don’t know what to ask you since my mind feels lost. Im not as sad I was but Im in fear of having another attack. I want it all to go away!!!!!!
Any suggestions I could try I would highly appreciate as Im sure you know.
Thank you Trudy……….
Well I just got back from the gyno, he wants to remove a large fibroid on Monday and said my cervix is dilated due to the large fibroid. After I left there thinking I’m not ready for surgery due to the anxiety attacks/heart palpitations/stomach issues, I went to pick up my thyroid ultra sound results. Lobes on both sides of thyroid, I guess that explains the tightness at the throat area. It said hypothyroidism. Perhaps this all explains the way I have been feeling after the episode at the hospital. I had not experienced anything wrong before the hospital episode but tightness of throat and I wonder if the combo of medication given to me at the hospital sent my thyroid flying for its life.
Iv been rewatching the THYROID SECRET and I am ready to fight this! I ironically I saw it before and thought it would not happen to me.
Previous to writing here I had visited a functional doctor. I spend an hour in her office just answering questions for $400.oo, no insurance coverage. I just found out from her office that in order for her to interpretate my results I would have to pay her again. She never called me to tell me of my hypothyroid results and that got me upset. She was waiting for me to pay ahead , set an appointment. I wish she would of said to me, your results were positive so come on in so that we may discuss. But she could not say that without payment first. Im thinking this is medical negligence. I was thinking there was nothing wrong and was not about to pay again if results were normal ugh……..
Just wish Trudy you had a list of thyroid doctors that we can reach out to. Im in New Jersey.
By the way opening the l tryptophan under the tough has worked better that swallowing them. Perhaps its just going through me due to the diarrhea and thats why iv been feeling sad. Iv been eating just yogurt and bits of food here and there. At night apart from my last food intake I then swallow tryptophan and fall asleep but I still have the diarrhea in the morning. But less then before, then again I’m not eating much, feel nausea when I do eat.
Hi Trudy,
I just wanted to ask you about copper…I know from having been
following you for quite a while now that you suggest copper free
supplements but here is my question….I have Hashimotos as well as
Lyme and I have been reading quite a bit about a copper
product(copper1)
https://www.mitosynergy.com/product/ms-mitoactivator-extra-strength/
that is being hailed as amazing for killing spirochetes! I was
considering taking it but am wondering what you would say? Granted
copper1 is not the same copper found in supplements but before I buy
any of this and it’s expensive, I thought I would see what you have
to say. Thanks so much!!!! Holly
Hollis
I’m pretty new to bioavailable copper and it’s on my list to dig into as it appears to have some applications for certain individuals but right now I don’t know enough to comment.