Thyroid Hormone Deficiency Benefits

When your body doesn’t have enough thyroid hormone, your thyroid gland goes into overdrive. To meet the body’s demand for thyroid hormone, this gland adds new cells, which leads to the enlargement of your thyroid. If this process goes unchecked, it leads to a condition called goiter in which your enlarged thyroid causes noticeable neck swelling.

Making sure that your diet contains enough iodine is the best way to ensure that your thyroid creates enough iodine without enlarging itself. When you stabilize your iodine levels, goiter usually goes away on its own, but this condition can require surgery.

Since your thyroid gland controls your metabolism, not having enough iodine in your system can lead to sudden weight gain. Weight that you gain due to iodine deficiency is hard to lose unless you get your thyroid in balance, and iodine deficiency can also make you feel cold all the time.

Neurological Benefits

People with higher thyroid hormone levels do better on tests, and scientists have discovered that healthy thyroid activity is associated with increased cognitive ability. Low thyroid levels can actually impede the growth and development of your brain, and when you have a chronic iodine deficiency, your hippocampus shrinks. The hippocampus is critical for memory and learning, so any diminishment in the size of this brain structure will impede your ability to process and retain information.

Reproductive Benefits

Women who are pregnant need to consume enough iodine for two, and they are highly susceptible to thyroid hormone deficiency, which causes hypothyroidism. Pregnant women who have iodine deficiency give birth to babies with lower birth weights, and when mothers don’t have enough iodine when they’re breastfeeding, their babies have developmental issues.

Iodine deficiency during pregnancy even increases stillbirth rates. What’s more, when you don’t have enough iodine, your period will be heavier and more painful.

Hair and Skin Benefits

Scientists have linked thyroid deficiency to hair loss. When you don’t have enough iodine, your hair follicles can’t regenerate, and they eventually die. This condition also leads to skin breakdown, which can cause your skin to feel dry and flaky.

Cardiovascular Benefits

The thyroid gland controls your heart rate, and iodine deficiency can lead to a dangerously slow heart rate. When your heart rate is too slow, you have less energy, and you could even become dizzy or lose consciousness.