Episode 3: How Your Liver Affects Your Thyroid and Two Ways to Improve It
The connection between your liver and your thyroid is STRONG... and by supporting your liver, you can see big shifts in how your thyroid is functioning and how you feel.
In this episode, we're talking about the interconnected parts of the body, particularly the liver and the thyroid. You'll learn why having your liver working well and in balance makes it possible for your thyroid to be working well. And of course, I have some actionable steps for you to take to start supporting your liver as you move towards reversing hypothyroidism.
Grateful you're joining me!
-Sarah
Mentioned on the show:
Hypothyroid Symptom Assessment (& Thyroid Testing Tip Sheet... plus my favorite Liver Loving Smoothie recipe): bit.ly/thyroid-checker
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Want to read this episode instead? Here’s the transcript!
Okay, so take your right hand and find the lower part of your right side of your ribcage. Actually, it's probably easier. Take your left hand and reach across to the lower part of the right ribcage on the right side. Get that little pat that's your liver under there, one of the hardest working organs in your whole body. And I, for one, had no idea how important the liver is to thyroid health until I started unraveling my own thyroid issues. But it is, everything's so interconnected and I had no clue how important the liver was to thyroid health until I started digging. But it's critical. And so in this episode, we're gonna talk about one of the interconnected parts of the body, the liver, and why having your liver working well and imbalance makes it possible for your thyroid to be working well. And of course, I have some actionable steps for you to take to start supporting your liver.
So grab that pen and paper and let's get started with today's episode. Before we jump in, I wanna share that quick assessment tool with you this week, which is, especially for people who are trying to figure out what's going on, if they're dealing with thyroid issues, maybe you have a laundry list of random health things happening that haven't necessarily been connected back to a thyroid issue. So you can head to the link in the show notes or go to bit dot lee slash thyroid dash checker to take the hypothyroid symptom assessment. It's a little quiz that lets you see where you're at and kind of quantify your more subjective hypothyroid symptoms. This is also a great tool to come back to from time to time as you start to work at supporting your thyroid in a holistic, natural kind of way, because it allows you to see what gains you've made in resolving these symptoms over time. So I'll also be sending you my thyroid testing tip sheet and some of my favorite smoothie recipes that are packed with veggies that nourish and support the organ that we're talking about today, the liver. So you're gonna wanna head to bit lee slash thyroid dash checker to take the short quiz, assessing your symptoms to see where you're at, and start to keep tabs on the things that are keeping you from feeling good as you move through your days.
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.
So I sort of love the liver <laugh>. I know it's a little bit weird, but the more I learn about the interconnectedness of our bodies, the more I'm amazed at just, well, I'm amazed at a lot of things, but I'm amazed particularly for the purposes of this episode that the liver just keeps popping up with so many different important roles to play as you learn about the different, the the ways that the way that our body works together, the parts of our body work together, I just think that it is amazing what the liver does. And so I think the other reason that I really love the liver is that we really have the ability to impact, to have an impact on how it functions. Like we, there are a lot of things that we can do by virtue of our daily decisions that can have an impact on how the liver is functioning and how we can help and support it.
And that's not always the case with other organs, or it may be, but they may be a little more involved. And so the liver really offers a lot of gains for really simple interventions, and I love that. So we can really make some pretty, pretty impressive gains just by helping to support the liver. So when I was learning about thyroid issues, I kept coming across information that just spoke to the idea that environmental toxins were just wreaking havoc on our health. That was actually how I started, aside from just digging into nutrition and food and, and things like that, it was actually the role of environmental toxins that they had on our life and, and our health that actually had me digging into wanting to be in this space at all. And that was really what I focused on, on first in our family, switching over our food to help support less inflammation in my body.
What does your liver actually do?
And then, um, reducing the amount of toxins and helping to support my liver. So the liver is, is just one of those big key players in the body's ability to move toxins out of our body efficiently. It's like a, like a big filtration system that binds up toxins into the bile and moves them out of the body through various detox pathways that we have. So it's also though the liver that does some pretty heavy lifting when it comes to converting inactive thyroid hormone into active thyroid hormone, which is a pretty big deal because our body, well, it needs both. It needs the inactive and it needs the active, but it really to feel good and to have our cells be utilizing thyroid hormone in all the ways that we know that thyroid hormone impacts our cells, it needs to be deactive form. And so it is critical for the liver to be able to play its role in converting the inactive thyroid hormone into active thyroid hormone, but it also helps to balance our blood sugar.
Part of what the liver does, it helps to regulate glucose in the body. And so those blood sugar and insulin levels, they can also impact the thyroid as well. And so the liver really is playing a critical, critical role. So here's the thing, today we are exposed to so many chemicals, like so many chemicals beyond what, beyond what we, any, any people living in any time are exposed to just because of the, of modern life, right? And so there are so, so many studies that are out there going back for nearly 60 years that indicate the connection between environmental factors and health consequences, particularly to hormones and the endocrine system. Organizations like the Cleveland Clinic, the Mayo Clinic, you know, these highly regarded organizations have extensive resources on their websites for the connection between chemical exposure and health ex health concerns. And these are not like, you know, major chemical exposures.
These are every day chemicals. Uh, in fact, the environmental working group has a survey that's based on actually lots of other smaller studies where they found that the average American woman put 168 chemicals on their body each day. What? And that's a combination of personal care products, cleaning products, you know, all sorts of things. And obviously every, every single product has many different chemicals in it. So, but that's wild. It's wild. You can see the liver is so bogged down with detoxing from over-exposure to toxins that it becomes difficult for it to be able to do secondary jobs like converting thyroid hormone into its active form. Basically just a little rundown. If you don't know the thyroid, it actually produces mostly t4, which is inactive thyroid hormone. And then it sends that T4 to the liver. Uh, and, and really a couple other, the liver, the kidneys, the gut, and a couple of other tissues that also do that conversion.
But it's largely the liver that does that conversion. And so it's difficult when the liver is bogged down with detoxing from over-exposure to toxins. It becomes difficult for it to do its secondary job like that conversion from the inactive T4 into the active form of t3. And this doesn't even mention the havoc that can be wreaked on our bodies when toxins, the liver should be moving out of our body through those detox pathways are getting kind of trapped because our liver is congested. And so since 80%, it's 80% of the active form of thyroid hormone comes from the liver, from the thyroid making the t4, the inactive form, sending it to the liver, the liver converting the T4 in a t3, making 80% of what we need of that active form of thyroid hormone. Doing that conversion is really, really important. So just by making some small simple shifts to impact the liver, we can really see some pretty dramatic ripple effects of what's happening in our thyroid health because we are freeing up the liver to be able to do a better job, a more efficient job of that conversion.
A and a lot of these things that we can do to support our liver are kind of like low hanging fruit. And I am all about snagging the whole, the low hanging fruit that's not gonna require major life overhauls because there's certainly space for that. But if we can get the low hanging fruit that we don't even have to think about doesn't really cost us too much in terms of time or energy or mental bandwidth to implement these things. Additionally, if you are, if you're someone who's been working on your thyroid issues for a while, and especially if you're someone who is taking thyroid hormone replacement, then this is an excellent place to really make some gains that aren't too challenging to put into play. Because oftentimes when we're taking a thyroid hormone replacement, it's, it's actually just T4 most times. And that's a synthetic version of what the body creates in the inactive thyroid hormone of t4.
And so that's synthetic version of the thyroid hormone. It still is dependent. We're still counting on the body, we're counting on the liver, we're counting on the kidneys, we're counting on the gut to convert the T4 into t3. And if that conversion can't happen efficiently, then you're just not gonna feel the benefits of medication that you could be feeling. And so this has, this has potential implications and benefits for all sorts of people who are struggling with thyroid issues. Whether it's something you've been dealing with for a really long time or something that you are just starting to kind of dig into and unravel, it has the potential to be a great starting point to just make some shifts and see. So I can remember when I, way back when I was starting to unravel my thyroid issues, I can remember when I came across this little inventory that was just like a check to see if you had a congested liver and you just kind of checked things off and could determine the level of toxicity that was happening in your body based on the symptoms that you were having.
And as I looked at that and I was checking off these little things, I started thinking like a liver problem that sounds like serious, this is like a big deal. Liver problems, that sounds like major. Uh, and don't get me wrong, liver problems can get real serious real fast. But as I took this little inventory and checked off a lot of boxes on the list, I mean I checked off a lot of boxes on the list and I was super surprised cuz on the list there were things like acne, brain fog, dizziness, muscle weakness, all all of these things could be indicators of liver congestion, just skin issues, stuff like that. And I was able to check all these off and I wouldn't have said that I was someone who was at a high risk of toxicity. And so here's the thing, just like when your nose is congested and you can't breathe when your liver is congested, it makes it really hard for it to do its primary job of moving toxins from the body.
And so that is the same. And so my liver was kind of congested and there's maybe a good possibility that yours is too. So I mean, at that point I really wouldn't have thought much about toxins in my life. I wouldn't have necessarily said I was super exposed to chemicals, but I wasn't necessarily real concerned about them either. And thinking about them on the regular, I certainly didn't think they were having any impact on my health either because I was, especially cuz I was seeing all these doctors. And surely if I had some liver congestion or my liver was negatively impacting my health with everyday environmental toxins, if they were impacting my health, like surely these doctors would say something to me. But no, no, that's not the case. So in the past few years, I'm, you know, we're seeing more and more talks more, more and more talk about toxins and health and a lot more shifts to natural chemical-free products.
Just the simple fact of the number of non-toxic products that are even available on the market is just a testimony as to how heightened our collective consciousness is about this, which is great. There's also so much more research about the impact that chemicals have on our health that it's not just like a, oh, maybe I should think about the chemical, the chemicals that I'm using in my home or in my life. No, no. There are as much more research out there on the, on the actual health impact. So you can literally go to, I would actually encourage you to do this, go to PubMed, um, website and go to PubMed and type in chemical exposure and blank, literally any chronic disease you can think of. Thyroid issues, skin issues, hormone imbalances, anything. And all of a sudden you'll see these connections and research that will pop up on the PubMed website.
How to Support Your Liver
And so there's just so much more research out there about the health impact that being exposed to more toxins has on our health. In the, in the process of doing research, I came across a, some info, some pretty significant info about people who have thyroid issues and having the impaired ability to detox. There's also, there are some studies out there about some se pretty serious situations like people who live near like Trenoble when there was a nuclear meltdown or major chemical exposure. And that's not actually what I'm talking about in this situation. Those for sure, there are for sure major health implications and there is an increased risk, uh, risk of thyroid disease among those groups of people who lived really close to a nuclear power plant or were exposed to chemicals in some other way. That is true, there are studies out there that demonstrate an increased rate of thyroid disease within those populations, but that's not what I'm talking about.
That was sort of my thought process though when I was thinking about chemicals and thyroid health and liver health and all of those things. And the reason I was thinking that is cuz it seemed like that would be a big deal, right? But I couldn't necessarily pinpoint some kind of like, I, you know, I'd never lived next to a nuclear power plant in my life that happened to meltdown that hadn't happened to me, and that probably hasn't happened to you, but I like to call it like a drop in the bucket type of toxin exposure. And that is really what I would say the vast majority of people are dealing with is a drop in the bucket toxin exposure. And so what I mean by that is, is our bodies, our bodies aren't just these fragile flowers. They, they can handle toxins. I mean, they are not gonna just crumple at the first exposure to some chemical cleaning agent.
Uh, we're, we're not fragile flowers. Our bodies have a built, we were designed with a detox system. And so the idea that we have to move toxins out of our body is something that we were created to address. But here's the thing, too much over time is like a drop in the bucket that eventually spills over. And so, you know, you're cleaning your house with chemical cleaners, it's little drip poop working, uh, in an office with maybe all sorts of air fresheners, making the place smell fresh and clean. Oops, there's another little, a little drop, uh, maybe using makeup or skincare products or perfumes that are filled with synthetic chemicals and fragrances. Oops, drip. There's a little, another little drip into the bucket eating food that is grown with pesticides drip. There's a little, another little drop in the bucket. And eventually all those little drips, they, they fill up the bucket and the bucket overflows onto the floor.
And our liver, our liver's, the same way we each have this threshold, we have a threshold for managing toxins effectively. But once we exceed that threshold, that's when the, the health problems start to stack up and start to pile on and becomes difficult for us to kind of think back that all those little drips were actually the thing. There didn't need to be some massive instance, although there could be you, there could be mold exposure, major chemical exposure, some kind of major incidents, and that could for sure serve as a trigger. But on the by and large, most people are dealing with these small little drips, the drop in the bucket over time that ultimately gets their liver to the point where they exceed the threshold of toxins that they can handle. So here's the good news. This is something we can totally do something about.
We can absolutely lower our toxic exposure, our chemical exposure. Now it's, it's literally, it is not possible to never be exposed to toxins. The idea that you can live a toxin free life or a chemical free life is just, it's not possible. We live in the world and unless you're living in like a cabin in the woods, in the middle of nowhere, where you have 100% control of all the things that are coming and going into your house and that you're, you know, using and making, it's just not reasonable. And so living toxin free or chemical free, that's not the goal. That's not the goal at all. We can lower our toxic exposure because that is what we're focused on. We're focusing on lowering toxic exposure and controlling the controllables. We cannot control every scenario. We cannot control that when we go to our dentist that they use air fresheners in the waiting room.
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Can't control it. We cannot control, uh, in certain instances the type of cleaning products that are used in the bathrooms of the public gym that we go to. You know, maybe, maybe you can make requests, but still it's not always within your control. But it's okay. Our bodies are able to detox. Our bodies have a detox system that are able to handle these things. However, it's wise for us to lower the toxic exposure to control the controllables where we can, which means taking a look at our own personal life and figuring out where we can make some gains. In addition, we can support the liver while it's detoxing to kind of, uh, come at it from both angles. One, reducing chemical inputs and also supporting the liver so that it, it can do the job better of one detoxing. And that, that we, we wanna support the liver in detoxing well, ultimately, with the goal of freeing up the liver to be able to more effectively convert inactive T4 thyroid hormone to convert it into the active form, which is t3.
3 Ways To Support Your Liver Naturally
That's what us, especially people who are, have hypothyroidism on the radar. That's what we really want, is to make sure we have enough active form of thyroid hormone and that our body can use it well. And those are things that by supporting the liver that we can do. So I wanna give you a couple things that you can do today to just start moving the needle in how you feel. And again, these are not gonna be the, uh, all the things you need to do, and they're not gonna have massive, massive impacts. But the deal is, when approaching the thyroid or really any health issues from a holistic perspective, the the wins come as a culmination of small steps combined together to create a massive impact. Here is what I want to encourage you to do.
Choose Non-Toxic Products
Number one, choose one area of your home to start making some swaps from chemical-based products to more natural non-toxic products.
And this could mean, um, that maybe you choose your laundry room and you start making swaps for laundry detergent that doesn't have synthetic fragrances, that isn't filled with chemicals that are gonna cause problems for your endocrine system. Instead of having dryer sheets, which are known to be like laid in with endocrine disrupting chemicals to swap those out for wool dryer balls, maybe you look underneath your, your sink where you keep your cleaning products and start pulling out some of the chemical based cleaners that you're using to clean your bathroom or your kitchen and you start to make some natural swaps for things that are non-toxic options that are going to be safe and effective cleaning products to use in your home. And so these are, you know, you just pick an area. So areas to consider, you can consider, um, looking at your laundry routine, looking at the cleaning products you're using in your kitchen and your bathroom, looking at some of your personal care products starting there and saying, okay, instead of buying personal care products like moisturizers and lotions and soaps that are laden with synthetic fragrance, which are always chemicals, what can I use that's maybe a more natural option.
And starting there and just pick one area. This is not a call to go trash everything in your house and just replace it with all non-toxic things. That is the goal over time is making these swaps. But let's be reasonable. Choose one area, make some swaps, move on. If you wanna even use up what you have to not be wasteful, great. And then when you replace it, let's replace it with something that's non-toxic. Anything that you can do to make small gains towards lowering toxic exposure is something that your liver and your body overall will thank you for. That's the first thing. The second thing that I would encourage you to do is to choose one thing to do to gently support your liver in its detox function every day. Now, here's something that you are not gonna hear me preaching. I am not necessarily on board with these big dive in forceful detox situations because they can sometimes, sometimes they can be helpful, but they can also sometimes cause problems because of some, some die off.
You're just kind of putting extra stress on your body. It can kind of, it, it can be harsh, especially if it's something that you, that you struggle to do if you struggle to detox. I would encourage you though, to think about detoxing as a way to gently support the process each and every day. So if you're already doing some things, it also might be a call to go a little bit deeper. So here's some ideas for you. One, increase your water intake. Again, the simple low hanging fruit, we should be drinking half our body weight and ounces of water. And the way this helps with detoxes, it gives your body a natural easy pathway to flush the stuff out, flush things out. So that is very, very effective if you are already really nailing it on the water intake. An, uh, an easy way to go a little bit deeper would be to add some lemon, either some organic lemon juice or I love to just use, uh, lemon essential oil that's high quality and pure so that that can help pull toxins out as well.
Eat Your Veggies
Another easy way to support the liver in its detox function is to increase your consumption of cruciferous vegetables. These are just little like magnets for toxins that one have so much fiber, they help move things out efficiently, if you know what I mean. And then also grab onto the undesirables that are hanging around in our bodies. So increasing cruciferous vegetables. Along those same lines, if you're already doing a great job with vegetables, maybe a bit, a good way to go a little bit deeper is to start making swaps to buy more organic produce and cut down on the number of things that you're bringing into your home that aren't organic. Especially. I like to use the list of the, the dirty dozen and the Clean 15 and sort of make up my buying decisions based on that. And, you know, I have a family, I've got kids, you know, we've got limited resources.
<laugh>, the, the sky's not the limit on the grocery budget. And so we're constantly looking at what we feel comfortable buying, conventionally grown, not organic, and what we feel really like we need to buy organic. And so those are great resources. Um, you can just type into Google the Dirty Dozen and you'll get a good list of things that you really should work hard to get organic because they're known to be really just lading with pesticides. So that could be another way to go a little bit deeper. Also, cutting on processed foods is always going to lower your chemical intake. As we eat more and more packaged foods that are available in our modern society, there are more and more chemicals that have been historically foreign to our bodies in them. And so by cutting those out and limiting processed foods, we are automatically cutting those things down.
Supplements for Liver Support
The other thing that you can do, there are supplements that can support the liver herbs, things like dandelion, turmeric, milk, the are all great supports for gently helping support detox. And a simple, simple practice like doing a castor oil pack, which is when you're putting castor oil, some flannel, and, uh, a warm, like a heating pad over top and just kind of relaxing for a while. It helps move things out of the body really effectively. These are all, there's so many ways to kind of gently go deeper in your detox. These are just some suggestions, but I would encourage you to do those two things. One, support the liver by cutting down on the overall toxic load. And two, add in some way that you can gently support your liver in its detox function every single day. There we have it. Be sure too, click the link in the show notes to take that hypothyroid symptom assessment. You're gonna get the thyroid testing tip sheet and some of my favorite smoothie recipes that support the liver, which is a great tool. And so these are just great resources for you to start to make some gains. And the reason that I would love for you to start doing that even today, is when you focus on doable small lifestyle shifts, then living a symptom-free life is totally possible. And that is what I want 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 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 dot thyroid dot 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.