These days, all we can talk about is how stressed we are. In the western world, we are often living in a state of chronic, low grade stress. We know that stress can wreak havoc on the body – in fact, it’s linked to two-thirds of all diseases – but it can particularly affect your thyroid health. Stress management can be a daily, habitual practice that helps keep you (and your thyroid) feeling your best. Let’s explore 5 techniques to help get you started. 

Stress Management Techniques For Thyroid Support 

1. Regular Exercise: Regular exercise is known to decrease cortisol levels in the body, effectively reducing stress. Additionally, increased exercise makes for a healthier metabolism, which is very connected to your thyroid health. Regularly including different types of exercise into your routine, whether it be weightlifting, yoga, or swimming, will help you keep your stress levels in check.
2. Breathing & Meditation: Incorporating deep breathing techniques into your daily routine can be a huge help for the chronic, low grade stress many of us deal with. Techniques such as box breathing, abdominal breathing, and meditation create a relaxation response in the body – lowering blood pressure, reducing cortisol, increasing oxygen flow, and more. Considering these techniques are very easy to do, they can be used multiple times a day to help re-ground oneself and reduce stress.
3. Eat A Whole Foods Diet: Consuming highly processed foods that contain chemicals, seed oils, and extreme amounts of sugars can severely damage your thyroid health by causing increased inflammation in the body and disrupting hormone function.
4. Prioritize Sleep: Sleep quality and stress are inextricably linked, as sleep is the time for the body to repair itself mentally and physically. Aim for 7-9 hours of sleep a night to adequately support hormone and metabolic function.
5. Find A Hobby: Find something that brings you joy, and do it as much as you’re able. Having a healthy outlet can help direct stress towards something other than your body, helping to reduce feelings of stress and worry. 

Are There Other Ways to Improve Thyroid Function?

While stress management can play a crucial role in improving thyroid function, there are a few other things that can further help optimize its health. In line with eating a healthy diet, eating certain minerals like selenium, iodine, and zinc has been shown to positively affect thyroid function. This can be hard to do in your regular diet, bu with a product like our Thyroid Multivitamin, you can take care of every vitamin and mineral that your thyroid needs to function well in one capsule. 

Less known methods such as contrast hydrotherapy, alternating application of hot and cold, to the neck has been shown to help boost thyroid function. Its only logical that habits that support a healthy thyroid fall perfectly in line with maintaining a healthy lifestyle and body weight. A healthy body and mind supports a healthy thyroid, and vice versa. So, if you think there might be something wrong with your thyroid function, it is always a good idea to talk to your doctor and get a better idea of what is going on.

Stress Management As Your First Step 

Reducing your stress levels may be the first step in moving towards a high functioning thyroid and metabolism. Often underestimated when it comes to medical issues, stress can be the secret enemy of much of our health goals. If these five habit changes feel overwhelming to you, just start with one, and work your way up. I promise – you won’t believe how much better you’ll feel in the end.