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When we consume carbohydrate, this stimulates the release of insulin. Insulin is going to support the production of thyroid hormone and support the conversion of T4 to T3 through suppressing another hormone called glucagon.

The connection between hypothyroidism and diabetes has been well documented for many decades now, and the two conditions often coexist together. Why is this the case? And can we improve both of them at the same time? Great news, yes you can, and I’ll review how in this video. Hi, my name is Jeremiah Farias. I’m a functional registered dietician, and I help adults suffering from blood sugar dysregulation issues, conditions like diabetes and pre -diabetes, using a bio -energetic approach to optimize cellular energy production.

I review the science and mechanisms involved in improving blood sugar and overall health while providing you with practical takeaways. I hope you enjoy today’s content. Rates of hypothyroidism and diabetes are on the rise. As of 2019, approximately 30 million adults 18 years or older in the United States are suffering from hypothyroidism. And as of 2021, approximately 38 million adults are suffering from type 2 diabetes. I also think it’s worth mentioning that rates of hypothyroidism are likely underestimated because of the diagnostic criteria,

typically using TSH as the only marker. In the research that I found, they used a TSH of greater than four million international units per liter to diagnose hypothyroidism and did not assess T3, T4, or reverse T3 in considering taking a full picture of what was going on with someone’s thyroid function. And this makes sense because conventional medicine will often only look at TSH and at most T4 when diagnosing and treating hypothyroidism. However, there is research that indicates a TSH above

to milli -international units per liter can begin to indicate thyroid abnormalities. So many people only become aware of thyroid issues when their TSH is much higher. Now let’s get back to the diabetes and hypothyroid connection. Both conditions affect each other. Insulin resistance in diabetes can negatively impact thyroid function and hypothyroidism can negatively impact glucose control and blood sugar metabolism. Let’s start with how thyroid function is involved with blood sugar.

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Hypothyroidism can lead to poor glucose tolerance and diabetes because of thyroid hormones effect on glucose oxidation in the cell. Specifically, T3 induces insulin mediated glucose uptake in the muscle cells. Additionally, a lower concentration of T3 can reduce mitochondrial -uncumpleting protein 3, which can lead to insulin resistance in skeletal muscle. Thyroid hormones also increase mitochondrial biogenesis, where this is the creation of new mitochondria.

Therefore, thyroid hormone is required for optimal energy production in the cell. If you remember from previous videos, I’ve mentioned type two diabetes is an issue of cellular energy production, specifically being able to turn glucose into ATP. Lastly, human trials comparing euthyroid individuals and hypothyroid individuals saw lower glucose disposal in those that were hypothyroid. Just to clarify, euthyroid is a normal functioning thyroid without any hyper or hypothyroidism.

Now when it comes to managing diabetes, unfortunately many people are led to believe that they need to restrict or avoid carbohydrates to start reversing their diabetes. Now you will see a reduction in A1C or fasting blood sugar when you’re restricting carbohydrates. Unfortunately, this is not getting to the root of the issue. And when I say the root of the issue, uncovering why the body’s having issues oxidizing glucose in the cell.

in the first place. Additionally, by restricting carbohydrates to try to improve diabetes or blood sugar levels, you can end up worsening your overall thyroid health. In a previous video, I reviewed how restricting carbohydrates and severely restricting calories will negatively impact one’s health, which is what most people are not wanting to do. This is because the restriction of carbohydrates is going to impair thyroid hormone production and the conversion of T4 to T3. And because you’re going to see lower levels of thyroid hormone,

you may experience poor glucose oxidation in the cell. In his book, Dr. Brodebarn shared similar observations with his diabetic patients. These individuals were not responding to diabetic treatments or medications, and it was only when they were treated for their hypothyroidism that diabetes complications and their blood sugar issues resolved. You can see this connection is real. Thankfully, you can address both thyroid and blood sugar health at the same time without compromising other aspects of our health. We will dive into that shortly.

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Let me know in the comments if you knew that hypothyroidism and diabetes were connected. Also, after finishing this video, let me know if you have any other questions about this topic. If you’re enjoying this video, please be sure to hit that like button. If you’re tired of restricting or avoiding carbohydrates, trying to improve your blood sugar levels, reverse your diabetes, you can schedule a free 30 minute discovery call that I offer. In this call, I’ll review how I can help you get to the root of what’s driving your blood sugar issues and overall improve your health. The link for that will be in the description below.

So how can we start optimizing our thyroid health while improving our diabetes? As I mentioned earlier in this video and previous videos, diabetes is an issue where the cells cannot turn glucose into energy. Therefore, we want to eat and live in a way that supports our body’s ability to turn the food that we eat into energy. We can first review what diet and lifestyle should look like and then review what we want to limit or avoid to optimize both thyroid health and blood sugar.

I’ve reviewed the importance of having balanced meals. This means having a high quality protein source, a whole food carbohydrate source, a healthy fat, and some non -starchy vegetables. We typically want to aim for around 0 .72 grams per pound of body weight for protein. And you can space or evenly split this amount of protein over three to four meals. Sufficient protein allows for more stable blood sugars when paired with whole food carbohydrates, provides the raw material to maintain and build muscle mass, increase bone mineral density,

It also gives key amino acids that are necessary for liver detoxification and optimal liver health. If you remember, T4 to T3 conversion primarily occurs in the liver, so we want a healthy, robust liver. To learn more about the quality of protein that you want to prioritize, you want to check out my video where I compare animal proteins versus plant -based proteins. I’ll link to that above. Whole food carbohydrates are another important piece in creating balanced meals. We want to primarily meet our carbohydrate needs using fruits, squashes, and certain tubers.

Having sufficient carbohydrates in the diet leads to increases in T3 production and also increases the conversion of T4 to T3. This is because when we consume carbohydrate, this stimulates the release of insulin. Insulin is going to support the production of thyroid hormone and support the conversion of T4 to T3 through suppressing another hormone called glucagon. Having sufficient carbohydrates in the diet will keep counter regulatory hormones like cortisol, adrenaline, and glucagon at levels required to

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optimized thyroid hormone production, thyroid hormone conversion, while also allowing for proper cellular energy production. With fats, we want to prioritize monosaturated fats and saturated fats. This includes olives, olive oil, macadamia nuts, avocados, butter, ghee, tallow, and coconut oil as some examples. Finally, you want to ensure you’re getting enough non -starchy vegetables that do not cause any gastrointestinal issues or symptoms. Non -starchy vegetables provide fiber for the gut microbiome,

They reduce putrefaction. They provide additional polyphenols. They help with facilitating detoxification. And finally, they help to support balanced blood sugars. Having three to four balanced meals is often a great place to start. However, if we’re trying to optimize thyroid health and even blood sugar metabolism, we want to ensure that we’re getting enough overall calories to meet our energy demands. My video on why it’s hard to lose weight when you have diabetes goes over how to assess your current calorie intake, calculate your estimated energy needs,

and then slowly start to increase your calories without gaining any weight. Be sure to check out that video after this one and you’ll have a better idea of how many carbohydrates and fats you’ll need or you should include in your diet. In addition to optimizing our diet from an energy, macro and micronutrient standpoint, we also want to be sure we’re addressing other areas of our lives. This means managing stress through various stress management self -care practices, getting enough high quality sleep,

usually anywhere from seven to nine hours per night and syncing our bedtime and our wake time to when the sun sets and when the sun rises to optimize our circadian rhythm. This will often require sleep hygiene practices that includes a nighttime or bedtime routine. We also want to make sure that we get enough sunlight exposure during the day. This is going to be helpful with our sleep and our circadian rhythm, but also is required to synthesize vitamin D, an extremely important fat soluble vitamin. Lastly, we want to be moving throughout the day.

doing 30 to 60 minute exercise sessions and then sitting or remaining sedentary for the remainder of the day is not ideal. Okay, so we now know what diet and lifestyle factors need to look like in order to optimize thyroid health, blood sugar metabolism, and our overall health. But what factors can negatively impact diabetes and thyroid health? Some of these concepts I’ll review, I have reviewed in previous videos so I may not go into as much detail in this video but instead I’ll link to

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previous videos that you can reference. First, restricting carbohydrates, extended fasting, or even intermittent fasting is going to increase counter regulatory hormones, specifically increasing baseline levels of cortisol. Some of these counter regulatory hormones can impair glucose oxidation, thyroid hormone production, and thyroid hormone conversion. Poorly managed mental emotional stress will also increase cortisol levels and drive the same issues.

that are caused through physiological stress. Next, excessive amounts of polyunsaturated fats are problematic for several reasons. First, when the polyunsaturated fats make up the cell membranes and the mitochondrial membranes, you’re going to experience or see a leakage of protons and other ions. This essentially means there’s an inefficiency with energy production at the cellular level and mitochondrial level. Additionally, polyunsaturated fats or PUFAs for short,

highly susceptible to oxidative stress or oxidative damage and lead to the formation of lipid peroxides. Lipid peroxides in their byproducts, malondialdehyde, also known as MDA or 4 -hydroxy -tunenol or 4 -HNE, further cause oxidative stress. This oxidative stress damages cellular membranes, impairs cellular function, including glucose oxidation, eventually leading to insulin resistance and diabetes. When it comes to thyroid function,

Pufas can inhibit the conversion of T4 to T3 and also inhibit nuclear T3 binding. When nuclear T3 binding is inhibited, this means that T3 cannot be delivered to the tissues that require it. This is the reason for avoiding high Pufa seed oils that are found in processed foods, fried foods, and restaurant foods. You also don’t want to be cooking with these oils at home, and so this means using butter, ghee, coconut oil, or another more stable fat or oil. Other common sources of Pufas that people aren’t aware of are fatty,

chicken, fatty pork, high amounts of nuts and seeds in the diet are gonna be contributing to a lot of polyunsaturated fats as well. And I would recommend limiting your intake of fatty fish to one to two times per week. Next, we wanna eat foods that are not causing any gastrointestinal issues or symptoms. As GI symptoms can often indicate some intestinal permeability, also known as leaky gut. Anytime you have this leaky gut, you’re going to have higher amounts of a compound known as endotoxin,

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entering circulation, which causes blood sugar issues and thyroid issues. Lastly, environmental toxins are known to cause thyroid issues. Many of them decrease thyroid hormone production and increase TSH. Some of these include prochlorates, which are found in drinking water or other foods that are raised on contaminated soil, pesticides and herbicides used when growing food, flame retardants found in many home appliances and furniture, and air pollution. When it comes to navigating these environmental toxins,

The goal should be overall reducing your toxic load. This can include using high quality air purifiers in your home and even plants to clean the air. Switch to non -toxic products when it comes to cleaning and personal care. Don’t eat or drink out of plastic and try to buy organic produce and other foods as often as you can. Specifically, you can prioritize organic for those that are listed on the EWG’s Dirty Dozen list.

Lastly, have a high quality water filter for drinking water and possibly even a shower water filter depending on the quality of your municipal water. I understand if you feel overwhelmed, this is why I recommend making small changes at a time. For example, once you’ve finished a particular personal care product or a cleaning product, you can then replace it with a better option. You can slowly chip away at replacing one item at a time. Also, by eating meals that provide you with sufficient amounts of energy,

micro and macronutrients, you’re going to be supporting your body’s ability to detoxify. So we address exposure while also allowing for and optimizing excretion of toxins. If you need help constructing meals, you can download my free macronutrient guide. The link will be in the description. You should now have a better idea of how diabetes and hypothyroidism are connected as well as how to support both conditions through diet and lifestyle.

Because nourishing your body is so important for diabetes, thyroid health and overall health, you’ll want to check out my video on why it’s hard to lose weight when you have diabetes as it will allow you to assess your current calorie intake, calculate what your estimated needs are and give you guidance on how to slowly begin meeting your body’s needs. You may also want to check out my video on how to eat carbohydrates while losing weight. I’ll link to both of those at the end. If you enjoy this video, please be sure to hit that like button.

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share it with someone who you believe would benefit from it. Also, make sure that you subscribe and turn on notifications so you don’t miss any future videos. Take care and I’ll see you next week.