Thyroid Supplements

Dangers of Thyroid Supplements
Written by Grant Kara   
The world of supplements can be very confusing and it can be tough to tell the difference between a poison and a cure.  When you are in the market for a thyroid supplement, you have to be knowledgeable about the condition you are trying to remedy and the supplements that claim to help.  There are good quality supplements on the market that help your body work to its best potential and contribute to good health, but there are also products that make outlandish claims of quick weight loss, metabolism boosting and thyroid regulation that are not only untrue; they may actually be dangerous. 

Why do you need a thyroid supplement?

The two most common ailments that send people looking for thyroid supplements are weight gain and hair loss.  Although both of these can be signs and symptoms of other conditions, they are often associated with hypothyroidism, or the underproduction of hormones in the thyroid gland. 

Your thyroid gland, whose name is derived from the Greek word for shield, is located in the neck and serves a very important function in your endocrine system.  It actually regulates metabolism for every organ in the body by taking in iodine and converting it to two individual and important hormones.  With too many of these hormones, people develop goiters, are sensitive to heat and may suffer from hyperactivity.  With too few of these hormones, people tend to gain weight, become fatigued, lose large amounts of hair and suffer with a plethora of other symptoms. 

Once people are diagnosed by their doctor, they are usually given a prescription for synthetic hormones to try to regulate the thyroid artificially.  But a diagnosis can take a long time and can be hard to come by for many people who only have a couple of symptoms or for whom the symptoms are mild.  

Buyer beware: dangerous supplements

All prescription medications are scrutinized and tested for safety by the FDA, or Food and Drug Administration.  Supplements, however, are not governed by these rules and thus they are ripe for problems.  Many so-called supplements are nothing more than stimulants, that although natural, might be very dangerous. 

Many diet pills and supplements claim to boost metabolism, but they depend heavily on herbal or other natural stimulants to do the job.  Ingredients like ephedra and caffeine can give the feeling of an energy boost but it comes at quite a cost.  For people with heart problems like high blood pressure, heart palpitations or prior heart attacks, these products can actually cause more problems than even they claim to fix. 

People with kidney disease, diabetes, heart disease and other ailments should check any kind of supplement they want to take with their physician before beginning to take them.  The side effects of many of these thyroid boosters are in direct counter-indication to medications that treat these conditions.  In rare cases, these combinations could be deadly.  

Even in the absence of a medical condition, these types of stimulant based supplements are probably not the healthiest choice.  You want a supplement that does what it says: supplements your body’s natural processes and functions.  You should avoid anything that will put your body into a dramatically stimulated condition.  Even people without prior heart or kidney problems have had adverse reactions to stimulant supplements.  

A healthy approach to supplements

Rather than choosing supplements that contain a stimulant, you should look for a broad spectrum, vitamin and mineral supplement that will also work to get more iodine into your diet and help boost your thyroid.  Among other ingredients, most good quality thyroid supplements will contain herbal ingredients like:

  • Licorice
  • Shilajeet
  • Makandi (Coleus Forskohlii)
  • Kanchanara
  • Green Oats (Avena sativa)
  • Bladder wrack (Fucus vesiculosus)

With good quality herbal ingredients and the vitamins and minerals most of us are lacking in our every day diets, a safe thyroid supplement can be a great addition to your healthy lifestyle.  

Good thyroid supplements and diet

Changing your diet and adding exercise when you are also adding a thyroid supplement to your regimen is the best path to weight loss success and thyroid health.  Because the symptoms of hypothyroidism lend themselves to becoming an avalanche of other symptoms, it is easy to get caught up in the cycle of weight gain.  Once weight gain, fatigue and depression have set in, it can be hard to get the motivation to make changes.  Obesity can be a vicious cycle that is hard to break.  

With an internal boost from a thyroid supplement, the groundwork is there for the internal and external changes that need to be made for optimum health.  If you stay away from the potentially dangerous ingredients that are in many diet pills, even those that claim to be natural, you can see an improvement in your overall health and your hypothyroidism symptoms.  
 
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