Did you know that our digestive process is more than just about food? From the first sight and scent of food we start to release enzymes that help the digestive process. Our enzymes trigger bile, and our bile triggers the release of an enzyme that converts our inactive T4 into the active and usable form of T3. When our digestion is not functioning properly, due to stress, medications or a bad diet we end up converting to reverse T3 (which is not usable at all). We also mess with our guts microbiome, since we need proper bile flow to have nice diverse microbiome
We need to have a healthy bile flow in order to have adequate fat metabolism, this is important in order to make our needed thyroid hormones. One of the most common things I see in clinic is poor bile flow, this means you have a much higher (7x higher!) risk of hypothyroidism.
For those who don’t have a gallbladder you might be wondering how this affects you…well you no longer have a storage unit but you are still producing bile. I tend to suggest supplementing with some ox bile though as a precaution. Fun fact… most of my thyroid patients who have had to have their gallbladder removed had pre-existing (undiagnosed in some cases) thyroid issues. Why is this? Because our bile is dependant on our thyroid hormone to have a steady and properly released amount of bile. It contributes to the flow in to the small intestines.
It’s no secret that a high risk factor for the development of gallstones is hypothyroidism. This also includes a decrease in liver cholesterol metabolism which is why we need to investigate thyroid when gallbladder issues are present, the signs can start with simple digestive issues. Want better digestion, fix your thyroid. Want to fix your thyroid, look into your digestion. We are a multi system being, which means all our systems need to communicate with each other to be healthy.
Want to have proper comprehensive thyroid testing to see where the health of your thyroid is, even if your doctor says ‘It’s normal’ and ‘within range’ – lets chat
