Warrior Fit Boot Camp Fitness Fun!

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I’ll admit that I’ve never really understood chia seeds; they just remind me of eating a lot of kiwi seeds. Throwing them into a blender has totally changed my perspective, however. These tiny little seeds have the miraculous ability to thicken and turn liquids into delicious pudding-like mixtures without the use of dairy or eggs!

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Ready to take the plunge and add a pressure cooker to your roster of kitchen appliances? It’s the secret to ridiculously fast and delicious meals. Dishes that usually eat up time, like braises and risotto, take hardly any time in a pressure cooker, turning once weekend-only affairs to easy weeknight dinners.

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In a post we published earlier this month about must-haves from kitchens around the world, I noticed quite a few comments about electric tea kettles and whether or not they were really better than a stovetop kettle. As someone who has exactly four electric kitchen appliances — a blender, a stand mixer, a coffee grinder, and a brand-new food processor, which I’m still on the fence about — I tend to favor anything that doesn’t require a plug. My kelly green Le Creuset kettle sits on my stovetop, ready to go at any minute. I use it to make French press coffee most mornings and tea at night (when I’m being virtuous and not having a glass of red wine), and to fill up my hot water bottle (yes, I have one).

That said, there are good arguments to be made for an electric tea kettle. Here are five reasons for going to the electric side.

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How To Make Marshmallow Peeps at Home

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As a kid, I really lucked out with Easter baskets. Since my dad was a single parent, a family friend took on the responsibility of making one for me and my sister and she always nailed it. There were plastic eggs filled with pastel-colored M&Ms and more jelly beans than I knew what to do with, as well as less common treats, like chocolates from the local candy shop.

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Pressure-Cooker Hawaiian Kalua Pig

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Here at The Kitchn, we love the pressure cooker and can’t stop singing its praises. It’s a game-changer for weeknight dinners, churning out dishes that usually take hours, like roasts and braises, into ones that cook up no time at all.

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A central principle of functional medicine is addressing the underlying cause of a disease, as opposed to just treating symptoms. In a previous article on the blog, I discussed the connection between overall gut health and the thyroid. In this article, we’ll focus on the microbes themselves and the many ways in which they are connected to thyroid function.

The importance of microbes and their metabolites in endocrine health

In recent years, the microbiota has been implicated in numerous chronic diseases, from obesity to inflammatory bowel disease to multiple sclerosis (1). It really should be no surprise that it also has a profound impact on endocrine organs like the thyroid. Disruption of the intestinal flora and subsequent impaired thyroid function was first hypothesized back in the early 1900s, long before the terms “microbiota” and “microbiome” were even coined (2).  

Today, microbial sequencing of human fecal samples allows us to measure compositional differences in the microbiota. A 2014 study found that individuals with hyperthyroidism had significantly lower numbers of Bifidobacteria and Lactobacilli and significant higher levels of Enterococcus species compared to healthy controls (3). No equivalent study has yet been done in individuals with hypothyroidism, but given that 90 percent of hypothyroid cases are autoimmune in nature (4) and the fact that an altered microbiota has been implicated in countless other autoimmune diseases, it’s quite likely that dysbiosis plays a significant role (5).

Will healing your gut improve your thyroid function?

Microbes recognize a number of different host endocrine molecules, including adrenaline, noradrenaline, sex hormones, and thyroid hormones, and can even change aspects of their metabolism and virulence in response to these signals (6). Moreover, germ-free rats, which are raised in sterile conditions and lack gut bacteria altogether, have smaller thyroid glands than conventionally raised rats, suggesting a crucial role for these microbes in thyroid health (7).

Gut bacteria influence nutrient availability

The epithelial cells that form the lining of the gut have fingerlike projections called villi, which increase the surface area for transporting nutrients into the body. When the gut is inflamed, as is often the case with microbial dysbiosis, these villi can become truncated, resulting in impaired nutrient absorption. This includes nutrients like iodine and selenium, which are vital for thyroid health.

While the microbiota provides many benefits to the host, it also competes with the host for nutrients. The nutrients that are essential for our cells to function properly are also important nutrients for our microbes! The composition of the microbiota may therefore influence a person’s requirement for various nutrients. In fact, a 2009 study in mice suggested that the microbiota competes with the host for selenium when selenium is scarce, impairing synthesis of selenoproteins, which are necessary for proper thyroid function (8). In another study, rats fed kanamycin, a broad-spectrum antibiotic, had significantly lower iodine uptake by the thyroid (7).

Gut bacteria and LPS

Lipopolysaccharide, or LPS, is a component of bacterial cell walls. When intestinal permeability is increased, often as a result of gut dysbiosis, LPS can “leak” into the bloodstream. This can wreak havoc on the thyroid in a number of ways.

Thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) induces the thyroid to produce T4. T4 is the inactive form of thyroid hormone and must first be converted to T3, the active form.  Our bodies produce an enzyme called iodothyronine deiodinase that is responsible for making this conversion. LPS has been shown to inhibit this enzyme, decreasing the amount of active T3 in circulation (9).

Not only do you need active thyroid hormone, but you also need receptors for thyroid hormone on cells throughout the body. Even someone whose thyroid hormone panel looks perfect could suffer from symptoms of hypothyroidism if their body does not produce enough receptors to receive signals from the thyroid. LPS has been shown to decrease expression of thyroid receptors, specifically in the liver (10).

LPS also induces expression of the sodium-iodine symporter (NIS) in thyroid cells, increasing iodine uptake in the thyroid (11). Since iodine is important for thyroid health, this might sound like a good thing, but excess iodine (especially with concurrent selenium deficiency) has been found to contribute to the development of Hashimoto’s, the autoimmune form of hypothyroidism (12).

Gut bacteria influence conversion of T4 to T3

Remember in the last section how we said that inactive T4 must be converted to active T3? Well, about 20 percent of this conversion takes place in the GI tract! Commensal gut microbes can convert inactive T4 into T3 sulfate, which can then be recovered as active T3 by an enzyme called intestinal sulfatase (13).

Bile acids present another interesting connection between gut bacteria and thyroid function. Primary bile acids are produced in the gallbladder and secreted into the small intestine following the consumption of fats. Metabolism of primary bile acids by the gut bacteria results in the formation of secondary bile acids. These secondary bile acids increase activity of iodothyronine deiodinase (the main enzyme that converts T4 into T3) (14).

We’ll see one more way that gut bacterial metabolites influence thyroid health later when we talk about prebiotics.

SIBO and the thyroid

Thyroid function is also closely related to small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO). In a healthy individual, the majority of microbes are concentrated in the large intestine. In SIBO, certain bacteria and archaea are able to colonize the small intestine and proliferate, causing bloating, gas, and distention, among other unpleasant symptoms.  

The connection between SIBO and the thyroid is underappreciated. A 2007 study found that among people with a history of autoimmune hypothyroidism, 54 percent had a positive breath test for SIBO compared to 5 percent of controls (15). It is currently unknown whether the relationship is causal. Since thyroid hormones help stimulate gut motility, it is also possible that low motility and constipation provide an environment in the small intestine that is conducive to bacterial overgrowth. This may be one of many examples of bidirectional interaction between the host and its resident microbes.

Conclusion: heal your gut to improve thyroid function

So how can we apply this information? Here are four ways that you can improve your thyroid function:

1. Eat plenty of fermentable fiber
   Bacterial metabolites are potent endocrine modulators. When you consume fermentable fibers like cassava, sweet potato, or plantains (prebiotics), your gut bacteria ferment these fibers and produce short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs). SCFAs have been shown to inhibit enzymes closely involved in epigenetic regulation. In other words, they help determine whether a gene is expressed or not. Among many other things, SCFA-mediated inhibition of these enzymes increases expression of thyroid receptors (16).
2. Take probiotics or eat fermented foods
   Despite the long-hypothesized link between gut microbes and thyroid function, there are few controlled studies in humans that have tried manipulating the gut microbiota to improve thyroid health. However, supplementation in broiler chickens with lactic acid bacteria has been shown to increase blood plasma thyroid hormones (17), and Lactobacillus reuteri supplementation specifically improved thyroid function in mice (18). Lactic acid bacteria are commonly found in fermented vegetables such as sauerkraut and kimchi and fermented dairy products like yogurt and kefir.
3. Get tested/treated for SIBO or intestinal pathogens
   While the jury is still out on whether thyroid problems cause SIBO or SIBO causes thyroid problems, it certainly doesn’t hurt to get tested, especially if you are experiencing bloating, abdominal discomfort, or other symptoms characteristic of an overgrowth or infection.
4. Take other steps to heal your gut
   Remove inflammatory foods, manage stress, and eat a nutrient-dense diet that includes plenty of gut-healing foods like bone broth. For some people, healing the gut may be sufficient to ameliorate thyroid symptoms.

Now I’d like to hear from you. Did you know about the connection between the microbiota and the thyroid? Have you noticed any improvement in your thyroid symptoms by eating a gut-healing diet? Share your experience in the comments section!