Poor Brain Function: One of the Most Common Causes of Persistent Thyroid Symptoms in Hashimoto’s

How brain health determines the progression of your Hashimoto’s hypothyroidism

Hashimoto’s is more than an autoimmune disease that affects the thyroid. It creates inflammation that impacts the entire body, but especially the brain, the tissue most sensitive to inflammation. The autoimmunity of Hashimoto’s keeps the brain in a constant state of inflammation that impairs brain function and atrophies the brain.

In addition to inflammation, long-standing hypothyroidism leads to other mechanisms that wreak havoc on the brain, such as poor circulation, blood sugar fluctuations, hormone imbalances, gluten sensitivity, and leaky gut, just to name a few.

Thyroid antibodies bind to brain tissue, causing degeneration

The most frightening thing about Hashimoto’s is that thyroid antibodies can bind to brain tissue. That’s right — thyroid antibodies can also bind to brain tissue! When thyroid antibodies bind to something, they are telling the immune system to attack and destroy it. This means when thyroid antibodies bind to the brain they are telling the immune system to attack it.

The worst outcome of this situation is the development of Hashimoto’s Encephalopathy (HE), which causes acute brain inflammation that leads to seizures, personality changes, loss of cognition, loss of speech, and delirium.

However, in many cases things do not progress that far. Instead, the reactions are subtle, causing increasingly progressed brain inflammation and degeneration without it ever advancing to acute HE.

How Hashimoto’s hypothyroidism can lead to brain degeneration

Here are factors that can lead to accelerated brain degeneration if you have Hashimoto’s hypothyroidism:

• You went years without being diagnosed with Hashimoto’s hypothyroidism or treated with thyroid replacement (insufficient thyroid hormones accelerates neurodegeneration).
• You went years before being diagnosed with gluten sensitivity
• You have poor circulation because hypothyroidism decreases blood flow to the brain
• You’ve had constant inflammation, autoimmunity, and leaky gut patterns for many years.

What your thyroid symptoms may be telling you about your brain health

The three most common symptoms of hypothyroidism are fatigue, depression, and brain fog. Not surprisingly, these are also the three most common symptom of early brain degeneration. But how do you know if it is your thyroid or your brain causing these thyroid symptoms?

The answer is simple. If thyroid replacement immediately made the symptoms go away, then it was most likely caused by lack of thyroid hormones. On the other hand, if you continue to have these thyroid symptoms despite being on thyroid hormone replacement with normal thyroid lab results, it is likely your brain health that is causing them.

Brain health is the second biggest factor in determining the progression of your Hashimoto’s

In my private practice I have seen a wide spectrum of Hashimoto’s disease. I have seen those in the early phase who have abnormal lab tests but no symptoms, and I have seen those so devastated from this disease they are confined to theirs beds and wheelchairs.

The biggest factor that determines the progression of Hashimoto’s is the intensity of the autoimmune response. But second to that is the health of the brain. That’s right — brain health is the second biggest factor in determining how functional a person with Hashimoto’s will be.

I have seen many Hashimoto’s patients get their autoimmunity under control through the autoimmune diet, changing their lifestyle, and taking different supplements. However, their fatigue, depression, and brain fog persists. Their labs may look better, but they are still struggling because their brain health was overlooked.

This motivated me to learn how to help my patients with brain dysfunction. After years of clinical investigation, I released my second book called, Why Isn’t My Brain Working? to share what I learned. The book has received many positive testimonials, but I also received feedback that it was difficult to know how to begin implementing the information. Readers did not know where to start, especially if their brain function was very compromised, and many couldn’t find a practitioner who knew how to help them. They needed a plan with organized steps to help them.

This is why I created the One-to-One program, Save Your Brain: The Six-Week Rescue Plan.

Learn how to take care of your brain health in new online course.

Each week I’ll walk you through the same steps I walk my patients through, in order of what to address first. I’ve made the video chapters short and easy to understand, and included workbook material to help guide you along.

During the course I will give live webinars and answer the most popular reader questions. If you miss the live webinar, not to worry, as a member you can listen to it whenever you want, including on your phone.