Episode 17: Are Electrolyte Imbalances Giving You Hypothyroid Symptoms?
I am all about grabbing the low-hanging fruit to move towards feeling good. The easy, hardly-have-to-think-about-it, things you're already doing and can just tweak sort of low-hanging fruit to start feeling better quickly.... and today's episode is one of those things.
Now, hydration may not be the first thing you think of when it comes to Hashimoto’s and thyroid health– actually, it probably is not the first thing you think to address with any health condition BUT having adequate levels of water is absolutely essential for all areas of health — and electrolytes play a crucial role in ensuring we stay hydrated.
In fact, the research shows that people with certain health concerns — including thyroid conditions and adrenal dysfunction — may be more prone to dehydration caused by electrolyte imbalance, and may be more intensely affected by symptoms.
In this episode, we’re talking specifically about electrolytes.... What they do in the body, how they support our hydration levels, and how they impact our hormone health and adrenal health. And of course, I have a few simple shifts that you can do to start making an impact in this area today.
Glad you're here,
Sarah
Resources Mentioned In This Episode:
Take the Quizzes: bit.ly/thyroid-tools
Products and Tools to Support Hydration: bit.ly/thyroid-tools
Disclaimer: Information shared on this podcast and any referenced websites are not to be taken as medical advice or to be used as a diagnosis or treatment plan for any medical condition. I’m sharing my educated opinions & experience but nothing shared here can be taken on a one size fits all basis and we always recommend you do your own research, talk to your own doctors and practitioners, and take full responsibility for any health & medical choices you make.
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Want to read this episode instead? Here’s the transcript?
Okay, so I am all about grabbing the low hanging fruit and moving towards feeling good. The easy, like hardly have to think about it. Things that are you're kind of already doing or maybe just need to shift how you're doing certain things that you can just tweak for grabbing that low hanging fruit and starting to feel better. And today's episode is one of those things. So I've already done a whole episode on hydration and I would encourage you to go back and listen to that 'cause it's crazy how something as simple as being hydrated can really impact how you feel and what your hormone levels are. It's important that I keep beating that drum. It's that important. So you will hear me talk about that a lot. But this is connected to hydration. It's a a little different today we're talking specifically about electrolytes. Now hydration, it might not be like the first thing that you think of when it comes to hypothyroidism or Hashimoto's thyroiditis or thyroid health in general.
And actually it's probably not the first thing you think about to address any health condition. But having adequate levels of water is critical for literally all areas of health. I would actually go so far as to say is if you are having any sort of weird health things or weird symptoms that pop up, I would encourage you to first think about how much water have I been drinking? Am I hydrated? And get yourself hydrated and see if things resolve just with that. So the water levels are just critical and electrolytes, they, they play a crucial role really in ensuring that we actually stay hydrated. In fact, there's research that shows that people with certain health concerns, including thyroid conditions and adrenal imbalances, might be more prone to dehydration. And that dehydration is oftentimes caused by electrolyte imbalance. And you can see an uptick in your symptoms just by being dehydrated and having your electrolytes be off. So in this episode we're talking specifically about electrolytes, what they do in the body, how they support our hydration levels, how they impact our thyroid hormone health and our adrenal health. And of course, I'll have a few simple shifts that you can do to start making an impact in this area today. So grab a notebook and a pen and let's get started with today's episode.
Before we jump in, I just would like to encourage you to head on over to the quiz section of my website, and you can do that by heading to bit Lee slash Thyroid Health. I've created a couple quizzes that help you to assess the subjective symptoms that oftentimes are associated with hypothyroidism, associated with adrenal fatigue, or just having too many toxins in your body that are negatively affecting how your liver can function. And so there's a couple quizzes you can take. They're so short, you can just take them right there online and then you'll see which areas you should focus your energy and effort on in working to resolve these symptoms over time. So you can head to bit dot lee slash thyroid dash tools and take any one of those quizzes. Take all of the quizzes if you'd like. And this is a great tool to kind of come back to as well, if this is something you've been working on for a while and you can see how things have changed over time, which is important when you are peeling back the layers of the beast that is hypothyroidism. But the whole point is to get your feeling good as you move through your days. And these little quizzes can serve as tools to help you do that.
Welcome to the Natural Thyroid Fix. I'm Sarah Geisinger, a holistic lifestyle and nutrition coach and former hypothyroid mom who has reversed her thyroid disease using a natural approach to thyroid health. Trust me, I know what it feels like to move through the life in a brain fog, needing a nap by mid-afternoon and constantly be cleaning the hair you've lost outta the shower drain. Do you know what I'm talking about? If you're here, I bet you do. So if you're ready to reject the notion that this tired hypothyroid life is as good as it gets and start implementing simple natural strategies to live a vibrant symptom-free life, then this is the podcast for you. Let's dive into today's show.
A Personal Journey: Navigating High School Sports and Health Challenges
Hello again, let's capture the low hanging fruit with this one. I mean, it's super easy to balance your electrolytes and I don't say that about everything when it comes to working through resolving your symptoms to get to the symptom-free promise land when you have hypothyroidism and are dealing with thyroid disease. But this, this one's easy, it's simple to make some shifts, tweak some things to increase your hydration level and at the same time balance out your electrolytes. So let's just do it, especially 'cause it's gonna make you feel better. So a little, little story here when I was back in high school, so I'm, how old am I? Like 40. I'm 41. So this was a good bit ago. I graduated high school in 1999, but when I was back in high school, I played a lot of sports like a lot of sports <laugh>.
And I hit this point when I was, I think I was maybe a sophomore in high school. So I was starting, I was getting a lot of, I was spending a lot of time playing sports and my body just started not feeling so good. I had had a, a pretty intense bout of mono that really affected my energy levels, a lot of other things going on, but I hit this point where I would get, I would be playing and I would get super lightheaded and I'd sometimes even pass out. And so started trying to work through what was going on. We did this thing called a tilt table test, and this was something, you can look it up, it's still something that, that they do basically, if you are someone who is lightheaded and passes out a lot <laugh>. And so we did this tilt table test and determined that I had super low blood pressure, which I still have low blood pressure, like almost always.
And also something they called low blood supply. And so that felt kind of weird. But anyway, just in a I don't wanna go too deep here, but you know, I was prescribed to help with that. The first thing was taking salt tablets. I would take salt tablets like three times a day. These two, two tablets that were just salt <laugh> salt tablets. And I also had to carry around this little like bag that had two giant bottles of Gatorade each day. Isn't that so funny? I mean, maybe it's not funny to you, but it's funny to me now knowing what I know because here I am back, you know, 15 years old or something. And even back then there were these little indicators that something was amiss in my system and a few years later, those things would start to look like thyroid disease or adrenal dysfunction.
And those were like little breadcrumbs. Which again, knowing what I know now, I can look back and be like, interesting how things are connected, right? Crazy, the body's crazy. Anyway, so throughout my whole journey with Hashimoto's and thyroid disease, I have for sure felt the effects of having low electrolytes. And it's definitely not a coincidence that those symptoms like feeling dizzy when I stood up or feeling fatigued or just feeling like muscle weakness. Those were absolutely connected to when I was in like the worst state, the the autoimmune flare state of thyroid disease. And a lot of times I would be able to kind of work at them, I would, you know, decrease the symptoms and then they would, they would pop up again when I was kind of flared up and really struggling. So I definitely, when you hear as I, I'm gonna talk about what foods have electrolytes in them, part of like a healing whole foods diet, you're naturally gonna be eating foods that increase your electrolytes.
So I, I do make it a point to consume foods that are high in electrolytes like sea salt, bone broth, things like that. I also find that that supplementing is helpful as well with, especially if I am maybe working out more. If I know I'm in like a stressful season, I really try and support my body in that because I've learned that if I can maintain good hydration and electrolyte balance, and that really goes a long way for making sure that I feel good even when life gets crazy. So staying hydrated and replenishing those electrolyte levels, it's really an important part of healing. And a lot of our symptoms, as you'll hear here as I'm gonna rattle off some of the symptoms of electrolyte imbalance, they sound very familiar to hypothyroid symptoms. So if we can work at those, then, then you can see a lot of, a lot of shifts.
Signs, Causes, and the Role of Electrolyte Imbalances
So things we're gonna talk about today, we're gonna talk about some of the symptoms and causes of electrolyte imbalance. We're gonna talk about the connection between electrolyte imbalance and hypothyroidism and Hashimoto's thyroiditis. We're gonna talk about the adrenals. You cannot talk about this without talking about the adrenals and how, you know, if you maybe need to give your electrolyte levels some attention. And then where, where, how to do that, where to do that. Okay, so the, the first question is what are they, what are electrolytes? It's something that you've probably heard of. If you played sports and have ever had Gatorade, <laugh>, then you've probably heard of electrolytes, right? But basically they're minerals that play a super critical role in the body. There's like processes that electrolytes become, they become ions and that helps connect the electrical signals in the body. I've actually heard it described as electrolytes are kind of like the spark plugs in our system that allow processes to be able to happen.
And so if we don't have those things, then those processes can't happen. They are able to help create communication signals between our nerves and our muscles as the electrolytes move in and out of our cells. And so they're important to balance fluids, they're important for muscle contraction and control. They're important for blood pressure. And there's a lot of other roles. So the electrolytes include things that you've probably heard of before too. Sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, chloride, phosphate and bicarbonate. And these are all electrolytes, potassium and sodium probably get the most attention because they are the ones that work on the cell most. I guess they're most prevalent in the processes of the cell. Potassium and sodium are probably the most important of the electrolytes for maintaining good hydration. That's not to say the others aren't important. In fact, magnesium is incredibly important. We're probably all deficient in magnesium.
And again, I'll do a whole episode just on magnesium deficiency, but sodium and potassium, they, they function at really a very specific balance within our cells. And so that's why they're really important and why they probably get the most attention probably. Yeah. Anyway, okay, so the pituitary gland helps to manage electrolytes throughout the body. It is kind of, it's part of its job. It does other things as well. It can, a lot of times it can be hard to measure the status of electrolytes because our body, it can shift and change so quickly. And so it's possible for electrolytes to look like they're really low in one area because electrolytes are being used in another part of our body at a different time. And so electrolytes and fluids are really important for cardiovascular health. They're important for hormone levels. I mean so many things, but things like heartbeat and blood pressure regulation, that's how it, that's the role they play in cardiovascular health.
Recognizing the Simplicity of Balancing Electrolytes
So historically, electrolytes were pretty much solely obtained through food. They can be, electrolytes can be found in meat, fish, bone broths, fruits, vegetables, sea salt, sea vegetables like seaweed and tea. And it wasn't until like the 1920s and 1930s that people started consuming like electrolytes independently of foods. And, and usually that was in like a medical setting. So if you were in the hospital, there was a recognition that your electrolytes were decreased if you were dealing with a certain medical condition or certain sickness. And so that would be something that they would, they would supplement you with. And gator this, this became more, more mainstream with the creation of Gatorade. And so Gatorade has been around since 1967. Its first iterations came about as a part of the, I think the story is the, the Florida Gators football team. They were again, struggling with lightheadedness and passing out and things like that, especially practicing football in the hot Florida sun.
And so scientists came up with the, with Gatorade to help to remedy that electrolytes combined with some glucose and water was the original combination. Now Gatorade is not my recommended choice for balancing electrolytes, I don't think it's very great. It's got a lot of dyes, it's super high in sugar. It uses high fructose corn syrup now. So just says everything. It used to be good. And now not so much, but I'll talk about that later. Anyway, so that's where electrolytes, that's kind of the history of electrolytes. And today electrolyte supplements are pretty commonplace. I feel like they're out there everywhere, especially for supporting athletes. People who might have like a stomach bug kind of, you know, I, I feel like historically moms would be told to go give their kids Pedialyte, which is an electrolyte drink to replace electrolytes if their kids were vomiting and had diarrhea.
Again, Pedialyte is not my recommended go-to thing because of questionable ingredients in addition to the electrolytes, but the principle is the same. And so electrolytes supplements are pretty commonplace these days. But basically an electrolyte imbalance can occur when one or more of the electrolytes in the body becomes too high or too low. And you know that you might be at risk for having an electrolyte imbalance. If you have a stomach bug and have been spending a lot of time vomiting or having diarrhea medications, certain medications like diuretics, they can put you more at risk for having an electrolyte imbalance. Same with laxatives using laxatives dehydration from having just excess sweating. Like if you are exercising intensely or maybe using a sauna a lot or you just live in a place where it's hot and humid and you're sweating a lot, then that you're more at risk for having electrolyte imbalances.
Maybe you just don't consume enough foods that have electrolytes in them, like fruits and vegetables or salt. In general, if you eat a super low salt diet, then you are likely to have more electrolyte imbalances. Struggling with eating disorders, struggling with diseases that impact the kidney specifically is a, a real red flag that you may have some electrolyte imbalances going on. Having thyroid disease such as Hashimoto's thyroiditis or hypothyroidism, those are indicators that you may have some electrolyte imbalances. Oh, eating a low carb or keto diet, that is also another thing that might tell you you need to pay attention to what's happening with your electrolytes. Just not drinking enough water, having other nutritional deficiencies, having adrenal dysfunction and being pregnant. These are all things that can trigger electrolyte imbalances or cause them. And so if you are, if where you are in life has you, if any of that, if made you kinda go, Ooh, that, that's me, then you might wanna just pay attention, tune in to your electrolyte levels and see if what you're feeling might be connected to electrolyte imbalances.
And again, so you can get these things tested, which is it can be helpful. The challenge is is that when you get, if you get your electrolytes tested, what you're seeing is a snapshot of a moment in time that can really change depending on what you ate the previous day, how hydrated you are. And so it can be helpful to see, to get some testing done to see if your electrolytes are I balance. But what I think is actually more helpful is to pay attention to your symptoms and start to, and address things from there. Again, I'm not saying don't get things tested, I'm just saying that you can spend time doing tests and still not really have a clear picture. And that's also because a lot of times what can happen is that you can, your test could come back that you're in a normal range.
But as is the case with so many things when dealing with thyroid health we're always looking at optimizing levels and those optimized levels could be different for you than they are for me and they're for the next person. And that means that you could kind of be functioning at like, kind of like a subclinical or just a, a little bit off a electrolyte and balance. But for you specifically, it could make a really big difference like the, because it's all based on averages and quote normal ranges. So it's really possible to have low electrolytes or have an imbalance of electrolytes that is less severe, but it can still impact how you're feeling and impact your health. Especially when we're talking about thyroid health, we're talking about adrenal health. It can really contribute to your symptoms even if they're off just a little bit. Pay attention to the symptoms, which we'll talk about here in just a minute, especially.
Unveiling the Power of Electrolytes in Combatting Fatigue
I just wanted to, I just looked at my notes here and like, big thing is if you're experiencing fatigue or you're feeling like, like kind of like that bone tired muscle weakness that is so common when you're dealing with hypothyroidism, definitely look at electrolytes and it's again, just try making some shifts in supporting your electrolyte levels and see if it change, see if things change, especially if you're feeling super tired, like that bone tired feeling like soul crushing tired, right? Easy thing to do doesn't take much and it can really have a big impact. So I wanna talk a little bit about some of the research and then I wanna jump into some things that you can do to impact electrolyte le levels. So research suggests that electrolyte imbalances directly correlates with thyroid imbalances, and that is partially due to the connection between thyroid issues, thyroid abnormalities and changes in the kidneys, which can impact electrolyte imbalance.
Thyroid hormones are also involved in the metabolism of minerals. So as people who deal with hypothyroidism, especially if you've got really significant long history issues with hypothyroidism, we generally have a slower metabolism generally means that we're not processing minerals and foods as effectively because our metabolism isn't firing on all cylinders. And so that can result in electrolyte imbalances as well. So that is a factor. There are a number of studies that have looked at electrolytes and mineral levels, a bunch of them. And basically the main outcome was that there, people who had electrolyte imbalances had, they had suppressed levels of T three and T four. Their T s H levels were a little bit off. They were, they were off. And they found that all of this played into creating hypothyroidism, a hypothyroid state. And so in many cases, people who have electrolyte imbalances with hypothyroidism, the thyroid medications play a role in balancing electrolytes.
But what they found is that if you are dehydrated, then your thyroid medication doesn't actually even work as well and really makes it hard to figure out what the right dose of thyroid medication is. And so there again, when electrolytes are like the spark plugs to making other processes happen, it can really impact what's happening with not only your thyroid itself, but making sure that you're getting the right thyroid medication and that your cells are being able to take that thyroid medication and actually utilize it appropriately. And so I thought that was super interesting that how cool would it be if the first steps for doctors was tweaking something simple like hydration, right? And so I'm here to tell you before you go, like chasing down like different solutions or different medications to kind of address your problem. Why don't we try filling up a glass of water, putting a pinch of Celtic sea salt in it, and doing that a couple times a day to rebalance these electrolytes?
I think that's super cool when we have the power to do these simple things that can make big differences. So good news is if you struggle with electrolyte imbalance, then it, you really can pretty quickly reverse what's happening with your electrolytes. You can shift it, you can increase your hydra hydration and move your, all of your thyroid hormone levels that are impacted in the positive. So that's pretty cool. So addressing the thyroid hormone imbalances due to hypothyroidism, hydration just plays a huge, huge role in not only getting your medication right, but getting the, the way that your body uses thyroid hormone, whether that be the synthetic version from medication or what your body's actually creating, actually using it. Well, super cool. Okay. I would also like to mention the adrenals. And so I've done whole episodes on adrenal for fatigue, adrenal dysfunction, and all the things associated with that.
Scientific Insights: Link Between Electrolytes and Thyroid Imbalances
And a big factor here, we're gonna bring this up again because dehydration, nutrient deficiencies and adrenal issues are all interconnected. And if you have hypothyroidism, there's a 90% chance 90% of people who have hypothyroidism also have adrenal issues, adrenal some level of adrenal dysfunction. And again, i, I would be interested to know what the numbers show about the entire world population. Like all the people, I'm gonna bet that many, many people living in modern society have adrenal, some level of adrenal dysfunction. This is really important when it comes to electrolytes because when we're addressing thyroid health without addressing the adrenal dysfunction can really oftentimes exacerbate the problems and make your hypothyroid symptoms even worse. So the adrenal glands, as I've mentioned before in episodes, done completely on the adrenals. I'd encourage you to go back to those episodes. I'll link those down in the show notes.
But the adrenals are responsible for producing lots of different hormones that play a lot of different roles in our body. One of the main ones is cortisol. And so cortisol is probably one of the things that we think of most. It is one that is directly responsible for our stress response and it's also tightly connected to thyroid hormone production. And so when there's too much cortisol in our body because we are living too stressed out, and that is what we get, we get more cord increased cortisol when we are super stressed out, the thyroid hormone production is suppressed because resources are kind of reallocated to make more cortisol. So it totally makes sense that the body was suppressed that in that situation. And I think that's kind of one of those like protective mechanisms to conserve resources with all of that. But the problem is, is that our modern world is so stressful that we're living in a constant state of stress.
We have too many toxins. We have phones in our pockets that like pinging out little stressors in the form of text messages or bad news headlines or social media posts or whatever. We sit in traffic, we work long hours trying to balance work and family life. All of these things are stressors, and those stressors are read as our body as issues that demand more cortisol. And so because of that chronic stress, that is what can lead to adrenal dysfunction. Additionally, you layer in sodium imbalances, electrolyte imbalances, plus the constant high levels of cortisol and having high levels of cortisol depletes potassium and magnesium. And so you've got right there three different electrolytes who are being sucked dry just by stress, not to mention others. There's other things like zinc and iron and copper and vitamin C and B vitamins. All of those things get burned up when there's a high demand for cortisol.
And so it's pretty happens pretty quick that we can be thrown outta balance and start to really see symptoms of adrenal dysfunction. So when you take a look at that at the adrenals, it's really important to pay attention to electrolytes and that is something that you can rebalance, but it takes a focused effort on things like sleep, stress, supplementing, things like that, adrenals, thyroid, electrolytes are all all connected. So if you are wondering if your electrolytes are low, I'm gonna talk about that part right now. And so you can get electrolytes leveled as a part of like routine, maybe annual lab work that you get with your doctor, your primary care physician, and you can get those labs more often. And again, I think that's important. Those blood levels like of sodium, potassium, calcium, if they are out of the normal range, that would be a sign of serious electrolyte imbalance.
And that that's, those are like the, the indicators that most conventional medical doctors look at the sodium, potassium and calcium as being electrolytes outta balance. But again, those things can, you could have quote normal ranges of that and still not feel good because you could kind of be subclinical. It could just be these, you know, blood work is a snapshot of a moment in time. And so you can kind of, things can shift based on what's happening in your life, what you're eating, what you're doing, whatever. And so it's important also to look at maybe just like the checklist of symptoms to look for. So here are some of the common symptoms to look for of electrolyte imbalance. And again, I think you're gonna see here as I read through this list, an overlap of Hashimoto's thyroiditis symptoms, adrenal imbalance or adrenal dysfunction symptoms.
These symptoms, there's layers here. They all kind of interweave and you're like, oh man, how do I know if those things are caused because of a thyroid issue or adrenal issues or electrolyte issues? Well, you don't. And so because you don't, that's why I encourage you to start with the simplest thing, the simplest intervention. I think it's pretty simple to add a little bit of Celtic sea salt to some water and drink up a couple times a day. Anyway, that's an aside. Okay, so common, some of the common symptoms to look for. You might be dealing with electrolyte imbalances. If you have fatigue even after a good night's sleep. You have cravings for salty things, you have low blood pressure if you get faint from standing. If you experience brain fog, you kind of struggle to concentrate and remember what you're doing. If you have low blood sugar, if you have a difficult time waking up in the morning, the snooze button is your best friend.
If you're feeling mildly depressed or feel like you have just a de decreased ability to handle stress or less resiliency. If you have headaches, if you have muscle aches or cramps like a dull muscle ache or cramp diarrhea or constipation, like any sort of digestive distress can be an indicator. Frequent urination, including drinking water and feeling the urge to urinate right away, having a fast or irregular heartbeat, having increased thirst, having anxiety and symptoms of anxiety and having dry skin and dry lips. Those are all indicators of electrolyte imbalance. And so if you sort of experience a collection, a little gathering of these symptoms, then you might wanna experiment with increasing your electrolytes and see if it helps improve your symptoms. Also, it's just a little aside here, electrolyte imbalances can be compounded by a couple things, by intense exercise, living in a hot, dry climate drinking caffeine and alcohol in excess.
Practical Steps to Rebalance Electrolytes for Thyroid and Adrenal Health
And so if any of those things are true for you, then you are gonna need to double down on your need for water and hydration and electrolytes like way more than you think. So just that's a little note. Like I said, electrolytes can be replenished through food and through drinking them like, or by over the counter like supplementations, or some people go and get like an IV drip for more serious cases that would be common in the hospital or some of these like boutique places that you can go and get IV drips of certain vitamins and minerals. Electrolytes are almost always on the list. And so that is something, those are kind of the ways that you can start to, to supplement some of those things. Okay, some of the foods that you might want to add in that are ways of getting more electrolytes in your body are with high sodium foods like sea salt.
Make sure to choose a non iodized varieties 'cause the iodine in salt in table salt can actually be problematic for your body can kind of build up and cause some problems. Things like bone broth, celery, pickles, sauerkraut, other fermented foods and seafoods are all high sodium, so that's good. High potassium foods are things like bananas, sweet potatoes, potatoes, coconut water, avocados, squash, beans, prunes, raisins, yogurt, spinach, artichoke, beet greens. There's a long list there. High magnesium foods include kale and spinach and dark leafy greens, nuts like almonds, cashews, Brazil nuts, avocado, dark chocolate, black beans and other beans and things like pumpkin, flax and chia seeds. And so if you can include those foods into your diet, you're well on your way to having some of those key electrolytes through food, which is great. And I'm always an advocate of eating, of, of having food be the main source of your nourishment.
Additionally, you should be drinking enough water that is critical because that helps get the electrolytes to the right places. If you're dehydrated, you're nothing's gonna work well. So you might need eight to 10 glasses of water a day and you might need more if you're exercising a lot or if you're drinking caffeinated beverages, which can dehydrate you, which is fine, you just need to account for it. So I always tell people to focus on drinking half their body weight and ounces of water per day and then just try and get that in. And I encourage you to get it in early in the day by like three or four o'clock so that you're not up all night peeing. That is my recommendation. I also love, there's just some great supplement things out on the market, but there's a lot of electrolyte products that are out there, drinks like Gatorade that are not necessarily adding in healthy options in addition to their their electrolytes.
So you wanna look for electrolyte drinks that don't have a ton of sugar, definitely don't have high fructose corn syrup, don't have dyes in them and other flavorings, but having maybe like a little bit of sugar or you know, something that actually is help can be helpful because glucose actually helps the body to absorb electrolyte minerals. You can make your own electrolyte drinks, which is great. I actually can, I'll link to some great recipes for d i y electrolyte drinks in the show notes. You, or you can find those at bit lee slash thyroid tools. Or I recommend products like I love an electrolyte drink called Redmond relight. I also like a, a brand called Element. And again, I'll link to those at bit lee slash thyroid tools. I've got a whole bunch of stuff that I think is really helpful for maintaining optimal hydration and electrolyte balance.
I wanna give you just a few things that you can do today to start moving the needle and how you feel. And these, this isn't gonna be like all you need to do or have massive impacts, but that's the deal with approaching thyroid or any health issues from a holistic perspective. They're a culmination of small steps that are combined together over time to create a massive impact. And so here's what I've got for you today. Number one, drink half your body weight in water or hydrating liquid each day. And so that means doing a little bit of quick math. How much do you weigh? What does half that amount, that's what you need to drink each day. If you're 150 pounds, that's 75 ounces of water. And so if you're someone who has a hard time drinking water, start slow. Just increase six to eight ounces a day, and that is helpful.
I always encourage people to get a bottle, like a stainless steel or a glass water bottle, maybe about 20 or 30 ounces, and then do the math as to how many times you need to fill it and drink it each day and keep track. I also encourage people to start their day, like first thing right outta bed, go to the bathroom, and then drink 20 ounces of water. I love adding a pinch of Celtic sea salt. So right away you're starting with 20 ounces of hydration with some electrolyte rebalancing right from the start. If you need more suggestions or some ideas of what tools are awesome to support this, then I would encourage you to head to bit lee slash thyroid tools to see some of the tools that I love for keeping hydration and electrolyte balancing super simple and something I can actually do throughout the day.
So that is important. Number two, add a pinch of Celtic sea salt to your water. So this just a pinch of gray Celtic sea salt adds so many minerals that we're deficient in just by adding a pinch in the water. And so by doing like a pinch and then shaking up and dissolving it, I, I think it actually tastes really good. And I think that's probably a sign that my body really needs it. It's not like salt water like the ocean, it's just like a little bit salty. There's like a little bit of flavor to your water that I don't know, it tastes like a mineral water by doing that. I think that's really, really easy. And what that does is it helps your bodies and your cells retain more of the water you're consuming by balancing out those levels of sodium, potassium, magnesium, et cetera, all the electrolytes.
Additionally, I would encourage you to add an electrolyte drink to your routine, something like Element or Redmond relight, those are my favorites. And maybe just once a day you're filling up the, you know, 20 ounces, 16 ounces of water, mixing that in. So you're getting like a well-rounded kind of dose of all of those electrolytes. And then you can fill in from there with just pinches of Celtic sea salt and adding the electrolytes in here and there. The last thing I'll recommend is eating your electrolytes. Start salting your food, not with table salt. That is the levels of iodine that can be problematic. But Celtic sea salt or Redmond salt are my favorites. You can find links for those at bit.ly/thyroid-tools. But salt, good quality salt is actually your friend. Your body needs it. And so you can start salting your food with that high quality salt and then you're gonna be eating your electrolytes and balancing things that way.
All right, so there we have it. So be sure to head to the show notes or go to bit.ly/thyroid-tools for all of the tools that I love to use for helping to balance electrolytes. And you can also take any one of the three quizzes that I've created to help you assess where you're at in terms of your toxic load, your adrenal dysfunction, and your thyroid symptoms in general. That's at bit Lee slash thyroid tools to take any one of those quizzes. So I hope you're able to apply some of these things and start making some small shifts towards feeling healthy and good, because I believe when you do it that way, when you focus on those doable lifestyle shifts, living a symptom-free life is totally possible. And I want that for you.
Real quick before you go, if this show has helped you in some way, then I know that it'll help others too. So please head over to iTunes, subscribe, and then leave a review so that more women can find health and healing too. And do you know that you can have an incredible impact on the women who deal with thyroid issues in your circle? Yep, that's right. All you have to do is take a screenshot of this podcast, tag me at Natural Thyroid Fix and post it in your stories. Let's light a path for all the other hypothyroid mamas looking for hope and healing, and to just feel like themselves again, I'll look forward to connecting with you over on Instagram until next time on the Natural Thyroid Fix.