Hi,
Before I get into the story, I want to quickly talk about constipation.
Constipation can be largely down to three things:
- Poor T4 to active Free T3 conversion
- Gut Dysbiosis
- Constipation Predominant IBS
Constipation is important to pay attention to because your body may not fully be clearing hormones, fully detoxifying, or clearing bile, which can lead to other challenges.
High cholesterol, poor liver function, gall bladder challenges, and/or a variation of IBS can be due to gut dysfunction or gut dysbiosis.
When looking at constipation, adding more fiber isn’t always the answer.
Fully passing stools is really important.
If active Free T3 thyroid hormones are reduced by just 1/4 of a teaspoon, weight loss resistance, constipation, and low energy are extremely common.
Just because you are taking thyroxine (T4 medication – most common for hypothyroidism), it doesn’t meant that your body is getting enough Active Free T3 and is the number one reason we find that many of our medicated thyroid patients still struggle with some of the symptoms of hypothyroidism.
Another common cause, which leads up to Maryann, is the type of IBS that is constipation predominant… This is linked to a specific type of bacteria that has to be addressed
Maryann’s story is much like other patients we see!
Maryann had been taking thyroxine for 10 years before she came to us.
She had put on 8 kilos and it wasn’t shifting.
Her energy wasn’t the best, but she was really bothered by the fact that she was taking 100mg of thyroxine (T4) medication every day, and had been for so long, but wasn’t shifting any weight.
Maryann’s constipation was also really intense. She wouldn’t poop for four to five days at time, even though she was eating plenty of vegetables and fruit every day.
Her diet was good.
She was active.
She was an avid swimmer and she kept active in her every day work.
But the weight was really bothering her.
When Maryann came to us, we identified that there was problem with her gut and her T4 to active Free T3 conversion.
She was getting the T4 from her thyroxine medication, but her gut wasn’t working properly and it was effecting her thyroid conversion from T4 to Active Free T3.
We looked at Maryann’s standard blood work and could see metabolic dysfunction, but there wasn’t any clear gut markers in her blood.
Maryann decided to do a stool test and the root cause of the problem came up in this test.
What was really surprising to us is that Maryann’s overall bacteria balance was fairly good. She only had three major bacteria that in a state of overgrowth, but there were three big things showed up in Maryann’s stools:
- Methanobacteriaceae was very high – a constipation dominant IBS bacteria, common in SIBO.
The constipation bacteria was very high (see image below).
- Maryann’s Secretory IgA markers were low.
Which meant that her digestive system wasn’t able to do it’s job properly. Just this marker in deficit explained a lot of the thyroid conversion struggle as 20% of the T4 to Active Free T3 happens in the gut. And, if her gut wasn’t able to do it’s job, it would struggle with this important metabolically active conversion. - Maryann also had Leaky Gut. (as seen in her Zonulin test below)
Her body wasn’t able to hold onto all the nutrients she was getting, and on top of her Secretory IgA numbers, answered a lot of her questions on why she felt she was eating well, but felt like she was on a hamster wheel, where it didn’t matter what she’d eat, she couldn’t lose weight…
The methanobacteriaceae and low Secretory IgA were causing a lot of problems for her.
Maryann also showed that her metabolic bacteria that helped with active metabolism and fat burning were in deficit, which was creating the weight loss resistance.
We identified this was happening because of the three points above and knew these bacteria could get in to the right function.
So Maryann could finally understand that the poor gut function, was pulling her metabolic function downward and she needed to do something about it before it got worse… (image below)
In the past, I’ve talked extensively on multiple bacterias causing dramas, but for Maryann it was clear in her markers that her gut wasn’t able to do it’s job.
The methanobacteriaceae and the Secretory IgA was stopping the gut from doing it’s job properly.
Maryann’s First Month of Treatment
The first month of treatment, we treated Maryann’s:
- thyroid conversion to optimise her active thyroid metabolism,
- had her change up her nutrition plan to provide supportive foods that her body would digest,
- Secretory IgA function, and
- had her take a bacteria that would decrease the methanobacteriaceae in her gut that was causing the constipation-driven IBS.
Maryann’s Results
Maryann lost 5 kilos – in one month!
Just a reminder, it’d been ten years of 8 kilos that were not shifting.
Maryann was shocked that it came off so fast.
And she was beaming with energy.
Where she lost the weight though, really surprised her.
Lots of thyroid patients talk about all the weight around the thighs and the middle.
Maryann saw her middle go first! And her thighs followed.
In previous years when she was younger and she’d go to lose weight, it’d first go in her breasts or her waist, but not the belly or thighs.
So she was able to see that location of her excess weight literally was caused by her thyroid function not being right, and, her gut dysfunction.
Maryann is pooping every day.
And she’s on a diet with lots of diversity.
What we realised with Maryann is that her lining and secretion in her gut were effecting everything.
She had to stop certain fruits because they were aggravating her digestion.
And not all vegetables were helping her.
Now, Maryann had looked at food allergies before and thought she needed to be on a paleo type with mostly animal proteins and lots of veg, but surprisingly to her – many of those foods were aggravating her digestive lining.
We’re still working with Maryann and realistically her treatment with us will continue for another eight weeks.
Once her gut function is restored and her thyroid is converting without the assistance of supplementation, she’ll be able to manage by making sure to incorporate certain foods into her diet every day.
We expect that Maryann will lose between 8 and 10 kilos, so we may have to help her put a bit of weight on if she feels she’s too thin.
All this is being done without intermittent fasting, strict dieting, or many rules. She had a nutrition plan laid out in four phases that she is following, but she eats quite a bit of food every day!
One of the most common concerns patients have when they come to work with us is if they are going to have to go on a super restrictive diet.
That’s rarely the case.
The biggest adjustment for patients is just being a bit more organised and removing one or two foods that have been really disruptive to their bodies.
Food can do a lot of the work,
but with patients still having thyroid symptoms, like Maryann,
or patients struggling with weight loss or constipation,
we typically need to jump start the body with nutrients and supplements.
In Maryann’s case, she needed specific bacteria to get things working properly in addition to a couple of supplements.
You can and will easily self manage and keep the weight off, once you address the root cause of the problem.
I wanted to share Maryann’s story because some patients worry that their symptoms and their issues require an immense amount of work, when really often it’s just a few little tweaks in as little as 3 to 4 months!
And in the last four weeks, we’ve had so many patients that are suffering from constipation.
Sometimes its’s not a bacteria or a parasite causing the problem, but rather it can just be that your gut doesn’t have the ability to break foods down properly and help support healthy thyroid conversion.
Maryann’s story is so common and quite easy to fix!
Sometimes our body just needs a bit of a tweak or a certain bacteria to work at 100% again.
If you would like help or see what’s going on for you, we offer a Free Introductory Consultation that you can book in here: https://calendly.com/nz-naturopathy/intro-consult
I look forward to connecting with you soon!
Have a great rest of your day!
Warmly,
Tiaan
