This is the second article in a long list I will be writing that links physical body parts and their diseases with emotional, mental and spiritual states so that you can help heal the physical and/or the energetic side.
My Wife asked for me to do the thyroid this time as she said that it’s becoming more and more common to have issues with the thyroid in the modern world. If you have a suggestion about what you’d like me to write about then feel free to email me with your request.
Like the last article, I’ll start with anatomy and physiology that can help you understand later paragraphs and also help you be more able to tune directly into the thyroid if you are learning some of the techniques on my “Learn Energy Healing” series of videos on YouTube or simply doing scanning types of meditation. I’ll also go into some physical-world things that affect the thyroid too. The energetic causes and remedies will be at the end. Let’s get started.
Physical function of the thyroid
The thyroid is located just below the cartilage you can feel at the front of the middle of your neck, called the thyroid cartilage or “Adam’s apple” that protects the voice-box. The basic shape is of two lobes to the sides connected in the middle, like a butterfly shape, but its shape can vary from person to person such as having finger-like projections growing off the middle section or being more enlarged, growing closer towards the upper chest in the case of a goiter, that may stick visibly out or not.
The thyroid is an endocrine gland and thus secretes hormones that regulate the body. This mostly affects the body’s metabolic rate (and thus energy levels), cardiovascular function, growth and development. Thermoregulation, nervous system health, reproductive health and bone remodeling are affected by its hormones too.
The things that people tend to care about with the thyroid tend to be changes in body weight, hair loss, mood and sexual energy, which all can be increased or decreased depending on how the thyroid is functioning. Later in life osteopenia and osteoporosis may also be more relevant.
The thyroid is regulated by the pituitary gland under the middle portion of the brain, which secretes TSH (Thyroid Stimulating Hormone) that encourages the thyroid to make more of it’s own hormones – tri-idothyronine (T3), thyroxine (T4) and calcitonin. So if you are looking into thyroid problems, it is always good to look to see if there are any issues also with the pituitary gland and I will cover that gland at some point in the future too.
As an ex-biochemist who used to work in the hospital labs at Warwick Hospital in the UK, I was amazed at how many doctors would tick the boxes to test for only T4 when suspecting thyroid issues, rather than also selecting for TSH, T3 and calcitonin along with other tests such as thyroid antibodies and thyroglobulin that could help with probable causes of thyroid issues. If your doctor isn’t also testing for these other molecules when they send you for a blood test, they are doing you a dis-service and worse may end up just giving you a synthetic version of thyroxine that you take, rather than trying to find out what may be causing your thyroid issues in the first place!
T3 and T4 affect metabolism in many ways, in turn affecting temperate control, energy levels, growth, development of brain and the nervous system etc. Calcitonin lowers blood calcium levels by putting calcium into your bones and it part of a regulatory loop with other hormones controlling calcium levels in the bones and blood. Lack of calcitonin can lead to osteopenia and osteoporosis.
Despite it’s small size, the thyroid has a huge impact on the health of the whole body. This means that thyroid issues, due to the great interconnectedness of everything in the body, can result in other diseases happening around the body, so it is important not to ignore!
It would be impossible to cover all the ins and outs of thyroid function in this small article, so if you are interested I would suggest looking at more in-depth articles on the internet such as this one that has a nice summary.
Physical world things that affect the thyroid gland
Especially in the modern world, the thyroid can be very sensitive to and be negatively affected by a lot of different things.
1. Chemicals from food, drugs and other sources:
As I no doubt have mentioned over and over again, we are exposed to a lot of chemicals in modern times through our food, pharmaceutical drugs, cleaning products, fire retardents in furniture, toxins in paints on our walls, work-place related toxins e.g. components of car fluids and oils at a garage or all that nasty stuff in nail and hair salons, toxins in beauty products, toothpaste, deodorants etc. The list is endless and it seems a lot of these chemicals greatly affect the thyroid in many ways, so it is highly worthwhile looking into what you may be being exposed to and make efforts to lower your exposure to them.
For example BPA and phthalates in plastics as well as heavy metals such as aluminium are well know to adversely affect the thyroid. Both are common as food packaging and can be absorbed into the food too.
Smoking and drinking are considered major factors in a lot of thyroid diseases because of how inflammaory they are.
Chemotherapy is another way of getting a lot of toxins into the thyroid and many people do have thyroid issues afterwards. Chemotherapy doesn’t just affect the cancer in the body but the whole body via the blood and other fluids. A very barbaric form of “therapy” in my opinion and probably why cancers often reappear elsewhere or in the same place in the body years later.
2. Mold:
Mold can also be worthwhile looking into as they give off nasty chemicals that can affect the thyroid and many other parts of your body too.
Through experience, some of the nasty forms of mold including the infamous “black mold” can be found in homes across the world when you wouldn’t necessarily expect it but if you live in a damp climate (such as the UK) or have a damp area in your home it is highly recommended you look into it and get it sorted if you find it.
I have had several clients that have experienced terrible physical issues and/or psychic attacks, which despite good efforts looking into various other factors, were only solved once they discovered and removed the black mold from their homes or in one case moved house entirely.
3. Light exposure:
The thyroid being at the front of the neck means that it is also exposed to a lot of light. People are often not told about how much we absorb and digest light through our skin and via our organs. Light is literally a “food” for us and getting enough natural light is vital for our health. Why do you think “they” are constantly telling us the sun is bad for us, encouraging sun block, to stay in doors, “cloud seeding” the skies to have us be less exposed to the sun, all whilst telling us about climate change and trying to blame us for it? And yet we as a species are less healthy for following their advice it seems.
Natural light is important for the thyroid just like any other part of the body but of course don’t spend too long in the sun and get burnt. Be sensible about it! Artificial light on the other hand doesn’t contain all of the wavelengths of light our bodies need and is skewed to include more blue light rather than red light typically, which can be especially harmful for our bodily functions very early in the day and at night when naturally we would have a lot less blue and a lot more red light. If you spend a lot of time in front of computer, TV or phone screens and/or use a lot of modern light bulbs that are typically bright you might want to mitigate that and/or use clothes that cover up your thyroid. An older blog post of mine includes many tips you can use to deal with modern light and screens.
4. Halogens:
I could have written about this in the chemicals section but it’s important I felt to highlight these chemicals separately. The halogens are a family of chemicals in the periodic table of elements that include bromine, chlorine, fluorine and iodine as well as the lesser known radioactive elements astatine and tennessine (which by the way some writers contest about). The ionic versions of these chemicals which are more naturally found bound to other chemicals are bromide, chloride, fluoride and iodide.
Iodine is used to create T4 (thyroxine) which in turn is used to make T3 in various organs of the body. Clearly iodine, usually in the iodide format is needed for the thyroid to function properly. Iodine was considered for a long time as a remedy for cancers, gut issues, energy levels, immunity etc because of T4’s affect on so many systems of the body.
Many people often do not get enough iodine and worse are exposed to the other halogens more often. Because the halogens have similar properties to each other, when there’s not enough iodine, the body will try to use the other halogens if they are present, which of course causes issues in the body because you cannot make proper T4 and thus T3 from them.
Bromide was famously used in the tea that was given to soldiers in the UK in the past because it was known to lower sexual energy and thus make it more likely that soldiers would focus on their job rather than be tempted with women! I have no idea whether that is still a practice anywhere around the world but a cautionary tale regardless.
More commonly, people are exposed to a lot of chlorine from tap water around the world and of course swimming pools where in both cases it is used to kill of bacteria and other micro-organisms. Though chloride is naturally found in large quantities in different salts, large amounts and too little iodine negatively affects the thyroid.
The other common one is fluoride which is found in some places in the world in tap water and pretty much everywhere in the world in toothpaste, again to kill off micro-organisms. I remember that adults would always encourage us as kids to spit out toothpaste because they knew fluoride was harmful for the body. Yet as time has gone on, in some places around the world they say ingesting it is good for the teeth even though once it’s past your mouth it won’t be interacting with your teeth at all. I remember seeing American brands of bottled water when I was in the UAE and being shocked at those companies claiming that fluoride was a nutrient – seriously Americans, you have it bad over there! Regardless to say that fluoride is a nasty chemical and as well as being a neurotoxin it obviously has a harmful effect on the thyroid so cut out all sources of it please.
5. EMFs and radiation:
There are various forms of energy radiation that can adversely affect the thyroid but the most common ones you will come across will be x-rays and the sorts of radio-frequencies coming of off modern technologies.
X-rays are well-known to be harmful to the body by directly damaging cells – there’s a reason why lab workers stand behind lead screens when you are having your x-ray taken! While your body can cope with a single or a few x-rays and recover ok, multiple or continuous exposure is very damaging, especially if you don’t look after your health in general.
CT-scans (computed tomography) are particularly harmful as many people don’t realise that CT scans are in fact multiple x-rays – sometimes into the hundreds of x-rays depending on how big an area of the body is being scanned. I would prefer MRI scans as they can in most situations provide the same information but there are often fewer of them around and many clinicians prefer or are more used to CT scans. There are some specific tests only available via CT too. Ultrasound may be another alternative depending on the situation.
Radiation therapy, i.e. as a form of cancer “treatment”. This really in my opinion, along with chemotherapy very barbaric as even if it can be directed better at a particular region of the body than chemotherapy, it does damage healthy tissues in and around the cancer. My uncle received this treatment after cancer was found in his neck vertebrae (the symptoms of which suddenly appeared just hours after his second conspiracy-vid vaccine…) and he said that the pain in his neck was terrible after each radiation session.
Microwaves, not just from microwave ovens but from electricity “smart meters”, wifi routers, mobile phones etc are obviously for the sort of people drawn to my work harmful to the body including the thyroid, so I won’t go into any detail here.
6. Nutrient deficiencies
Along with getting enough basic nutrients that affects the whole body as well as the thyroid, there are some specific nutrients that are particularly helpful to the thyroid. They include zinc for activating T4, selenium for protecting the thyroid against inflammatory damage, iodine obviously to make T4 then T3, magnesium to in general help the body use T4 and reduce stress in general, vitamin A to help thyroid hormones function in cells and vitamin D (actually hormone D but that’s another story) which of course you should preferably get from the sun, rather than supplements.
Please pay attention to what I said in the previous article about the dangers of thinking you can simply take a supplement, rather than get it through good food!
7. Liver factors
Alcohol, refined sugars and ultra-processed foods can be particularly damaging to the liver and even though the liver is one of the best at taking stress and carrying on, even to the point of being able to regenerate if you give it the support, these foods can still make it sluggish and impair its function. Why is this important for the thyroid? Because aside from the thyroid itself the liver is one of the main organs involved in the conversion of T4 to T3.
8. High stress levels including lack of sleep
High levels of stress increases your stress hormone levels which in turn result in cortisol receptor sensitivity changes that result in your brain having more difficulty in communicating to your pituitary and thus lower T3/4 levels. Lack of sleep is obviously a huge contributing factor for stress.
Indications that you might have thyroid issues
The main symptoms to look out for with thyroid issues are sudden weight loss or gain, mood swings, slow of fast heart rate, intolerance to cold or heat, overly dry or moist skin, irregular menstrual cycles, trouble swallowing in the middle of the neck or “frog in throat” feeling or a visibly enlarged/swollen lower front of neck aka goitre.
The energetic cause of thyroid issues in general
Physically you could sum up the thyroid as being related to stimulating and increasing the energy levels of the body. Energetically this means it is related to thoughts and beliefs about how much power, or if you like, how much will you have, especially with regards to expression. Thus how well you can express yourself in life.
When I say expression, I don’t just mean what you say. The way you move, what you do, what hobbies you have, what job you do etc are all expressions of the self. If you hate your job for example and are doing that 8 hours a day 5 days a week then you are spending a lot of your time not expressing yourself the way you wish. Thus a lot of the advice here to sort out thyroid issues relates to you getting up and doing something or changing what you do in some way so that it is more in line with your true desires and thus expression.
If you have more will or feel you need to use more will to get what you want in life for whatever reason, then your thyroid will be more active in response. Similarly if you feel powerless, lack motivation or don’t care much about life i.e. lack will, then your thyroid will be more sluggish.
So one way or another thyroid issues represent misuse of will and this very much relates to a big aspect of the throat chakra – expression. If you feel you cannot be the person and therefore express yourself the way you wish in life then you will either sway towards not activating will and become sluggish or overcompensating with will and becoming overactive in the thyroid.
In the aura, I often see and feel a lot of stuck energies at the back of the neck and in the rear throat chakra rather than at the front of the neck where the thyroid is. So often energy healing is needed at an alternate location to where you think though often it is a good idea to work directly on a diagnosed organ issue.
The rear of the aura especially the rear of chakras 2-5 and the base chakra have a lot to do with the will/energy/power, so you may want to work on the back of the aura in general when you have a thyroid issue.
Physically because the back of the aura and spine are very interrellated and thus the spine has a lot to do with the will/power as well, looking at your posture is advisable. If you think that posture is only about stopping your muscles and back hurting, think again. It is well know that standing like the 1970’s super-heroine “Wonder Woman” increases testosterone in the body. Of course this has a big effect on the strength of the back of the aura too. It is no mistake that teenagers will slump a lot when they are feeling disempowered by their parents or teachers!
Hypothyroidism (underactive thyroid)
This is when the thyroid doesn’t make and release enough of its hormones into the blood stream. This results in a lower metabolism of the body in general meaning that patients will feel tired a lot of the time, even feel exhausted, gain weight unexpectantly or more than usual, have dry skin, brain fog, anxiety, inability to tolerate the cold, frequent or heavy menstrual periods, soreness, muscle weakness and numbness or tingling in the hands.
Typically it is treated by using synthetic thyroxine and monitored by testing T4 and TSH levels and adjusting accordingly, but of course testing every so often is not going to be as effective as the body’s own feedback mechanisms to get the levels right. I would obviously advise as always to look at and try and solve the original cause rather than suffer all the typical side-effects pharmaceuticals produce. Allopathically, they say there is no cure but I would argue otherwise in many cases, and trust in the body’s own healing mechanisms.
There are several types of hypothyroidism depending on whether the thyroid itself was affected directly, the pituitary gland’s ability to produce TSH was affected or the hypothalamus that stimulates the pituitary was affected.
It’s well know that certain medications cause hypothyroidism including lithium, thalidomide and amiodarone for example. Radiation therapy directed at the thyroid, congenital/genetic disorders at birth, tumors including of the pituitary gland, thyroiditis (inflammation of the thyroid) after an infection or pregnancy and low iodine intake in diet are all common causes in medical books. Diet and other environmental factors as listed above should also be considered.
Energetically, it is caused by a lack of will. There is often a feeling of hopelessness, being stifled, disempowered and inability of expressing oneself fully. Mentally there is distraction or laziness and this is reflected physically by not taking action.
This can be common if there where childhood traumas, often ones that aren’t obvious too such as those presented with the “enduring” pattern where they were not allowed to express themselves fully when growing up as a child. Usually this happens at the age when they start to say “no” and start exploring being more independant. If the parents or those looking after the child were too controlling and the child felt powerless then this can set up a disempowered pattern into adulthood.
Goal setting and actively taking steps each day to work towards those goals is important here. While in the last article we talked about this related to the eyes and being able to “see” and how to obtain your desires, the thyroid is more about your beliefs in your power and will to obtain them.
Often with the “enduring pattern” described above, people have become so used to the feeling of disempowerment and being the person they think others wish them to be, that they have forgotten what desires they had. Thus, they cannot connect easily with the heart and their own feelings to know what they wish, to be able to start goal setting. I would say simply get out there and try something new anyway so that you can at least get the contrast of that new thing with which to know better what you like and don’t like, informing you of what you may like to try the next time.
Knowing that yes, at first it will feel uncomfortable and like a lot of effort and that those uncomfortable feelings are simply part of the process of change is important. Often people who find it hard to get the ball rolling are also the best people at keeping the ball rolling once it has started! Some of the best examples of health and fitness successes are those that started extremely overweight and unhealthy but started making the effort to train and eat well because and kept going, rather than giving up half-way.
If you can build a purpose for everything you do each day it can be a very powerful way of building will. All those different tasks each day can be linked or aimed at one specific goal such as a particular sport, spiritual enlightenment, playing a musical instrument etc.
When you start to see all the little steps you make each day starting to take effect, then you start to believe that you do actually have power and control over your life, building confidence as you go. Initially courage is needed i.e. the ability to hear the discouraging thoughts in the mind, feel the uncomfortable emotions of fear, embarrassment, humiliation, anxiety etc, hear all the “friends” and family’s comments that deter you, and going and doing what you wish to do anyway.
I like the Louise Hay solution here “I create a new life with new rules that totally support me.”
Hashimoto’s disease
This is an auto-immune disease affecting the thyroid.
I have a different view of what medical professionals call auto-immune as I would ask “why would the body want to attack it’s own cells?” and though you could say that there may be cell marker protein issues making the immune system confused, I would say that a lot of this is actually due to excessive toxins in the cells causing cell damage and death which the immune cells are trying to remove because the cells themselves are telling the immune system that they are not well or are dying. A long story to explain this fully but essentially on a biochemical level it is usually an abundance of toxins that the body is struggling to remove.
Unlike Grave’s disease listed below, which is also an “auto-immune” disease, it eventually results in lower thyroid function. Initially however Hashimoto’s patients can experience periods of both hypo and hyper-thyroidism as the disease progresses and especially if different medications or diets are incorporated to try and treat the symptoms. This means that a goiter, which is an enlargement of the thyroid leading to a visible lump at the lower front of the neck, can often develop with this disease, much like what happens in hyperthyroidism.
Apart from switching from hypo to hyper-thyroidism one or more times, signs and symptoms are very much like what is listed above in hypothyroidism and treatments are typically the same. Though as always I would again advise people to look at some of the above factors and other possible causes before they throw the towel in to the pharmaceutical industry. Because Hashimoto’s is more likely in people who have other hormonal and/or inflammatory conditions you may find a common link there.
Energetically, the same as is written above for hypothyroidism applies here. The fact that your own immune system is attacking its own cells suggest energetically that there is a self-harm element in effect too. Maybe there is a lot of self-judgement for procrastinating and allowing the feeling of powerlessness to dictate your action and inaction. Maybe it is more about judging others for not giving you the time, energy, resources etc to be the person you wish and making you the victim. This is reflected in a lack of self-love to the extent that you attack yourself or feel attacked rather than follow the path to being the person you wish.
Again goal setting and making those baby-steps as mentioned above is important here for developing self-love and realising that you do have will and enough to create the you and the life you wish.
Hashimoto’s often starts off with hyperthyroidism before becoming hypothyroidism. This is likely reflected in one being scattered in attention and use of will to start with, then later feeling disempowered and giving up. So you might like to look at the energetic advice below for hyperthyroidism too.
Hyperthyroidism (overactive thyroid) including Grave’s disease
This is the opposite of hypothyroidism in that the thyroid is producing too much of its hormones resulting in a speeding up of the body’s functions. This results in rapid heart rate, sudden weight loss/inability to out weight on, increased appetite, anxiety, nervousness, irritable, shaking, increased blood pressure, more frequent pooping, increased sensitivity to heat, increased sweating, hair loss, insomnia, light or missing menstrual periods, and swelling or bulging of the eyes. If left untreated it can lead to more serious issues around the body including stroke and osteoporosis.
Due to the increased activity of the tissues, the thyroid may enlarge itself leading to a goiter. This is more common with hypothyroidism and is not as common in the western world.
Grave’s disease is considered the biggest cause and is considered an auto-immune disease. A risk factor for Graves disease is the presence of other “auto-immune” diseases in your body or your family.
Thyroid nodules (tumors that are rarely cancerous) and thyroiditis which is simply inflammation of the thyroid both can also result in excess thyroid hormone production, though the latter is often temporary. Consuming excess iodine and issues affecting the pituitary to produce too much TSH are other possible causes.
Allopathic treatments vary depending on the cause but can include surgery to cut out nodules, excess thyroid tissues or cancerous growths, drugs to suppress thyroid hormone production and radioactive iodine therapy that ends up completely destroying the thyroid leading to hypothyroidism. Other drugs to deal with the other bodily symptoms of too much thyroid hormones such as beta-blockers to regulate an overactive heart are common too.
Energetically, the cause of hyperthyroidism is related to overactive use of will one way or another.
Often, it can be a scattering of the will because of trying to do too many different things that may even be at odds with each other. If the mind is not focused on one task at a time or too little time is spent on each task, then the will is being used in too many different directions and/or weakly. This results in goals and desires not being met.
Desperation and anger can come from this and one may try to force the will even harder trying to complete all the different tasks, creating a loop where the will and belief in one’s own will is lessened over and over.
In this case, completing a thought fully without distraction and carrying out tasks to completion is important here. People with hyperthyroidism often have goals and desires in mind but it is simply a case or organising their thoughts and time properly to actually accomplish them.
Asking what is most important to do right now and organising the day/week/month so that it becomes the focus and actually gets completed, can help relieve a burden on the mind and free up time and energy to better complete the next task.
Habits is another thing to consider here. If too many processes each day are done out of habit rather than with purpose, whole days can go by without making any steps towards your desires or goals in life. Same goes for not considering your choices in life and thus the consequences of not choosing.
The first step here is to become more aware of your thoughts, emotions and actions. If you are not aware of them then you cannot choose whether they are actually the best course of action or if there is something else that you could choose instead. You will also notice that many of these thoughts, emotions and habits will distract you from the tasks you wish to complete.
You could spend time writing down all your habits so that you are more likely to notice them if you wish. Replacing them with decisions that are in line with your purpose and direction in life is important. Keep making those baby steps towards your goals and desires – this is the correct use of will.
Goiter
A goiter is an enlargement of the thyroid such that it becomes visible. You can get smaller temporary enlargements or swellings of the thyroid when it is inflamed from infection or toxic exposure. These are not considered a goiter as they are temporary. In my Wife’s case she had an enlargement of one of her thyroid lobes after a long course of ashwaganda. Be careful with herbs and funghi please – they are not always better than pharmaceuticals if you don’t know what you are doing, what dosage to use or even how they could simply be naturally harmful for us!
You most often get a goiter from chronic hypothyroidism as the thyroid tissues enlarge to try and capture more iodine and make more T4 and T3, for various reasons. You can also get a goiter due to the different stages of Hashimoto’s disease.
Energetically, in addition to what has already been written about with hypothyroidism and Hashimoto’s disease above, a goiter represents stubbornness. Such people hold onto habits, beliefs and ways of thinking that no longer serve them. They refuse or are very reluctant to receive new ideas that may actually better themselves. This causes a stagnation in life where they are not moving closer to their desires and often refuse to move.
As you can see, this is an extreme version of the factors involved in the energetic side of hypothyroidism. In addition to the advice on this above, attention needs to be given to gaining a balance between giving and receiving.
Developing listening skills so that you actually try to understand another’s point-of-view is really important for gaining new ideas that might help you start to look for and strive for your desires for this life. Acknowledging that you are not where you wish to be in life and thus that your ideas, habits and beliefs are currently not helping you, is important to realise to start with.
Other people may have given you the experience that caused you to believe you are powerless but you are the one maintaining that. Other people can be of great help to you if you reach out and discernment with an open mind can help.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this second article and that it is giving you a fuller comprehension of bodily issues and their mental, emotional and spiritual causes as well as practical solutions. Feel free to write to me if you’d like to see a particular subject.
