Thyroid Detox: 5 Ways to Gently Detox for Better Thyroid Function

Whether you realize it or not, your thyroid is under attack on a daily basis. 

And I’m not talking about your own immune system which does happen a lot as well!

Instead, I’m talking about the onslaught of chemicals and toxins that your body comes into contact with day in and day out.

Compounds like…

• Dioxins (1)
• BPA
• PCBs (2)
• Pesticides (3)
• Phthalates (4)
• Heavy metals

…And more, act as endocrine disruptors which can and do negatively impact thyroid function.

In fact, some of these chemicals sit on your thyroid receptors and block your own thyroid hormone from doing its job.

It sounds terrible, and it is, but for healthy people, this usually isn’t an issue. 

Most people can tolerate reasonable exposure to these compounds and they are eliminated without any issue.

But this isn’t necessarily the case with thyroid patients.

Due to the way that thyroid hormones impact systems in the body, thyroid patients have a much more difficult time removing them compared to the average population.

What does this mean for you? Two things:

#1. You need to be more cautious about avoiding these compounds.

And #2. You might find significant relief in your symptoms and a boost to thyroid function by aiding your body in eliminating them.

Today we are going to talk about 5 easy things that you can do right now to help do just that:

#1. Sweat More Often

Sweating is a simple and effective way for your body to eliminate toxins. 

In fact, we know from some studies that sweating may be the preferred way (5) that your body eliminates them.

Meaning, all other things being equal, if given the chance your body will prefer to use the sweat pathway to eliminate a toxin over other pathways.

But here’s the problem:

Thyroid patients have a hard time sweating.

Not only is your body less likely to sweat from your thyroid problem, low thyroid states cause fatigue and one of the best ways to access the sweating pathway is through the use of exercise. 

But how are you going to get up and exercise with so much fatigue?

It’s going to be difficult, to say the least. 

The good news is that you don’t have to rely solely on exercise to get your body sweating.

One of the easiest, and most effective, ways to sweat is with the use of a sauna.

And not only will using a sauna help you support your thyroid, it also comes with benefits to sleep, stress, mood, and weight loss.

As far as which sauna to use, you have two options:

• The traditional Finnish steam sauna – Steam saunas work by dramatically increasing the temperature in the air which heats up the body. Finnish saunas are typically much hotter than FAR IR saunas but usually don’t result in as much sweat. 
• The newer FAR infrared sauna – FAR IR saunas use a combination of dry heat and FAR IR wavelengths to heat the body from the inside. The result is a deeper sweat compared to Finnish saunas. The FAR IR wavelength may also provide additional benefits by itself. 

Both can work but FAR IR sauna is usually the best option if it’s available to you.

Aim to get 60 minutes of total sauna time each week, split up however you’d like, at a temperature of at least 110 degrees.

Both types of sauna are effective at activating heat shock proteins which enhance the detoxification process and improve cellular health through protein folding. 

In addition, sauna therapy also activates cytokines which can reduce inflammation in your entire body. 

#2. Improve Lymphatic Drainage

Your lymphatic channels don’t get the attention they deserve, especially when it comes to detox!

These channels, much like your arteries and veins, move fluid, proteins, bacteria, and other cellular waste through your body.

They act as a sort of clean-up network that brings things back into venous circulation to be eliminated by your kidneys and liver.

The lymphatic channels in your body start from the periphery and move in toward your heart where they enter into circulation via the left subclavian vein. 

The big difference between your lymphatic system and your arteries or veins is that the lymphatic system is not under pressure.

Meaning, your body won’t automatically push your lymph fluid back to your heart without some help!

And this is where you can step it.

You can augment the return of lymphatic fluid to more rapidly bring back cellular waste into circulation for elimination.

Here’s how to do it:

• First: exercise and muscle contraction – Any movement of your muscles will increase pressure in your lymphatic system thereby improving flow. Even simple movements like walking can do this, but weight lifting is especially beneficial.
• Second: massage therapy – Massage therapists learn and are trained in how to give massages to improve lymphatic flow. You can use this as an excuse to get a massage if you want! 
• Third: dry brushing – Dry brushing is basically a form of body massage with a stiff dry brush that helps exfoliate the skin, but it also happens to enhance lymphatic flow. It’s also a simple way to reduce stress and improve skin texture!
• Fourth: stretching – If you are having trouble with regular exercise then stretching is something you can do instead.
• And fifth: yoga – Yoga has plenty of other benefits but it will also help with lymphatic flow.

Regardless of which method you choose, just make sure you are doing it regularly!

#3. Support Liver Function

Your liver is considered to be the master detoxifier for your entire body. 

It’s filled with enzymes and proteins that break down pretty much everything from pharmaceutical drugs to food and everything in between.

Not only does it help chew through chemicals and toxins for elimination, it also provides a direct elimination route to the gastrointestinal route via the bile ducts. 

And, it also happens to be the major site of T3 thyroid hormone creation.

No matter how you look at it, ensuring that your liver is functioning at an optimal level is a no-brainer for thyroid patients.

The question becomes: 

How can you ensure that your liver is functioning optimally?

Traditionally, doctors will look at your liver enzyme tests such as AST and ALT.

An elevation of either of these indicate your liver is under stress and likely damaged.

The most common reason for liver stress and damage is insulin resistance secondary to excessive sugar consumption. 

In fact, the emerging #1 cause of liver damage (7) is from fatty liver!  

If you have access to your AST and ALT levels then you’ll want to look for levels that are below 20 U/L. 

Levels higher than 20 U/L of AST and ALT may indicate early liver impairment and a reduced ability to detox. 

While AST and ALT are helpful, they only give you insight into the health of your liver cells. 

These tests may miss other causes of liver impairment so they can’t be relied upon 100%.

This is because we have a hard time measuring the activity of enzyme function inside of liver cells, there just isn’t a really good way to widely assess for this. 

The good news is that there are several ways that you can improve this process:

• First: consume liver-supporting foods – Foods high in sulfur help your body eliminate free radicals (8) and enhance detoxification pathways. Cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, brussels sprouts, and cauliflower provide your body with glucosinolates which are sulfur-containing compounds. Try to have at least 1 serving of cruciferous vegetables each day! And don’t be worried about goitrogens in these foods, you can reduce those by steaming your veggies before you eat them.
• Second: eat more spices – Turmeric and ginger are spices that have anti-inflammatory effects as well as detoxification effects. You can easily these to milk (for golden milk), smoothies, or tea.
• And third: use liver detoxifying supplements – Three of my favorites for thyroid patients are milk thistle, NAC, and calcium d-glucarate.

#4. Have Regular Bowel Movements

Because your thyroid helps to control the kinetic movement of your bowels, thyroid patients often suffer from constipation. 

Why does this matter?

Because your stool is another huge route of toxin removal!

In fact, your body tends to send fat-soluble toxins out through your stool and water-soluble toxins out through your kidneys.

When you are constipated your stool stays in your body longer which means that harmful compounds stick around longer as well.

Constipation can also damage your gut microbiome which may impact hormone health, lead to immune problems, and even damage your intestinal lining.

As a thyroid patient, your goal should be to have at least 1 productive bowel movement each and every day.

How can you achieve this goal if you are currently constipated? 

Try these things:

• First: make sure you are taking enough thyroid hormone – Taking more thyroid hormone may improve your thyroid to the point that your bowels become regular. This may require changes to your thyroid medication and dose. 
• Second: use Vitamin C and Magnesium citrate – The combination of Vitamin C and magnesium citrate can help solve constipation in the short term but they do not treat the underlying problem. 
• Third: take supplements that have a prokinetic effect on your bowels – Natural supplements such as Triphala may help encourage your gut to move more on its own. 
• Fourth: take supplements to improve general gut health – You can improve your gut health more generally by taking supplements such as probiotics, prebiotics, and l-glutamine.  
• And fifth: balance out bacterial concentrations in the gut by treating overgrowth syndromes if present – Thyroid patients are prone to experience overgrowth syndromes such as small intestinal bacterial overgrowth and small intestinal fungal overgrowth. You may need to use antibiotics or antifungals to help balance your gut if you have these problems. 

When evaluating the quality of your stools, you can use the bristol stool chart as your guide (9).

Aim to get your stool into the type 4 range.

#5. Support Kidney Function

Your kidneys receive about 20-25% of blood from your heart even though their mass is tiny compared to other organs.

This is because they function as the filtration system for your blood.

Save a few people with chronic kidney disease, most people have kidneys that are functioning well and don’t have any obvious kidney problems or damage. 

The problem with optimizing your kidney doesn’t come from damage directly to the organ itself but from the pressure that we put on it ourselves. 

Nowadays, it’s common for people to put excessive pressure on their kidneys through the consumption of beverages such as caffeine, soda, tea, energy drinks, diuretics, medications, and even supplements. 

Compound this with the fact that up to 75% of people are chronically dehydrated, your kidneys are probably working overtime to try and keep up.

So what can you do?

The easiest thing to do is simply drink more water.

And in the process, avoid beverages such as coffee, tea, and soda. 

How much water you should consume is hotly debated, to say the least.

But my recommendation for thyroid patients is to consume at least half a gallon of filtered water each day or enough that your urine runs clear.

If you feel that your kidneys are actually damaged then you can look at your labs to assess their function. 

Kidney damage is not typically missed by doctors, but it never hurts to double-check.

Doing these five things can provide an almost near-immediate boost to your thyroid.

But if you want to take that boost even further then I’d recommend looking into thyroid support supplements as well.

Check out this article next if you want to see which ones work best.