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Are you having a hard time with blood sugar control?  Check your body temperature.

Research shows that people with type 2 diabetes are more likely than normal to also have thyroid problems. People with low temperatures have a harder time controlling their blood sugar level, and are more likely to sustain collateral organ damage such as kidney failure. In fact, “Failure to recognize the presence of abnormal thyroid hormone levels may be a primary cause of poor management of diabetes mellitus type 2,” state one group of researchers.

Even if your

Selenium is an essential trace mineral, which means that we need to get some of it through our diets in order to live and also to thrive.  We need only a tiny amount–measured in micrograms (one millionth of a gram)–but clearly some people do not get even that small amount.

Selenium is highly concentrated in the thyroid gland, and plays a crucial role in proper thyroid function. It is an essential part of the enzyme that catalyzes the conversion of T4, the inactive form of thyroid hormone, to T3, the

If you have PMS that isn’t responding well to lifestyle changes, you may want to check your body temperature. Check it three times a day, starting three hours after you wake up, for a full menstrual cycle or two. If it is consistently low, typically below 97.8 F, chances are good you have slow metabolism. Slow metabolism makes many premenstrual symptoms worse. That includes fatigue, fluid retention, muscle aches, headaches, depression, trouble sleeping, and irritability.

Ob/gyn practice guidelines recommend ruling out hypothyroidism before making a diagnosis of PMS. That’s

It’s well known that drastic weight loss slows your metabolism and has an adverse impact on your thyroid gland. But a new study shows that even modest weight loss affects thyroid hormone activity in your body–which could make it harder to continue to lose weight or even set you up for regaining and then some.

The study, by researchers at the National Institutes of Health, found that overweight people who lost 5 – 10  %  of their body weight over the course of a year had a corresponding decrease in serum T3

Fluid retention is usually thought of as one of those harmless but annoying physical conditions that we just have to put up with.  But fluid retention isn’t normal. It means that your body’s delicate fluid balance is under strain. Fluid is being driven in between your cells, into what’s called interstitial spaces, instead of being removed by the kidneys. Your tissues become water-logged. You get swollen feet and hands and headaches. You may even have swelling that makes your eyes bulge.

Fluid retention can be caused by many things–heart

Most of us know at least a few things about vitamin D, called “the sunshine vitamin” because we can make it in our own bodies when our skin is exposed to sunlight. We might know, for instance, that vitamin D is important for healthy bones.  It helps our intestines absorb calcium, the main mineral in bones.

But did you know that vitamin D also plays an important role in cell differentiation and proliferation, and something called apoptosis?  That means it helps cells to behave properly and mature into their final

Hair loss is one of the classic symptoms of thyroid dysfunction.  That’s because hair follicles require thyroid hormones in order to produce hair. Thyroid-related hair loss can be diffuse–thinning hair on the scalp, eyebrows and other parts of the body. Or it can occur in patches. Autoimmune thyroid disease can lead to low body temperatures and hair loss, and thyroid antibodies can often be found with blood tests. However, far more people can have hair loss from low body temperatures due to stress even when all their thyroid

If you have any sort of thyroid disorder, you should pay attention to how much soy you are getting in your diet.  Research shows that people are consuming more soy than ever in the U.S. It’s cheap and is often considered healthier than meat, although that is not the case for people with thyroid problems!

Most people are aware of the obvious sources of soy, such as tofu,

If you have been diagnosed with fibromyalgia, you should learn about how  treatment with T3–the active form of thyroid hormone–can help, and often even completely eliminate, your symptoms of muscle pain, brain fog and fatigue.

This treatment can help even if you’ve been told you have normal thyroid function and have normal blood levels of thyroid hormones — T4, T3 and TSH. It can help if you are taking T4 (Synthroid, or levothyroxine) for hypothyroidism and still not feeling fully functional.  In either case, however, you will might have low body temperature,