A HEALTHY YOU
How To Keep Your Thyroid Healthy
January is Thyroid Awareness month.
This tiny gland located in the front of the neck is responsible for producing hormones that play a key role in regulating many important functions in our body including blood pressure, body temperature, heart rate, and metabolism.
Your thyroid could be overactive or underactive. An underactive thyroid gland (hypothyroidism) is where your thyroid gland doesn’t produce enough hormones. Common signs of an underactive thyroid are often tiredness, weight gain and feeling depressed. An overactive thyroid gland (hyperthyroidism) means your thyroid gland is producing too much hormone. Common symptoms of an overactive thyroid include nervousness, anxiety and irritability.
Your diet has a huge impact on your thyroid health. Eating Vitamin D rich foods such as fatty fish like salmon, drinking plenty of milk and consuming other dairy products are ways to eat to protect your thyroid. In addition to diet, being in the sun produces vitamin D in your body which serves to further protect your thyroid. Checking vitamin D levels once or in cases where your levels are low, twice a year, to help you to track your levels of this very important vitamin. In addition to vitamin D, Selenium, Zinc and essential fatty acids are also beneficial to thyroid health.
Diet is important for thyroid health as is lifestyle. Daily exercise can boost thyroid hormone levels as it helps to stimulate the thyroid gland which in turn increases metabolism. Decreasing stress is important as stress can increase cortisol levels which can in turn decrease the production of the key thyroid stimulating hormone.
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About the Author
Cynthia Conigliaro is the Sales and Marketing Director for Organizational Wellness and Learning Systems (OWLS), a consulting firm focused on employee emotional wellbeing and organizational culture analysis. For almost five years she has worked alongside the owner of OWLS to design and implement mental health related employee wellness trainings and workshops for organizations across the United States.
For almost 15 years she has had her own health and wellness coaching business. Cynthia works with individuals and groups and runs virtual and in person workshops for employees on a variety of health and wellness topics relating to both physical and mental health. She is an Infinite Possibilities Certified Trainer and a Resilience and Life Coach. She has been a volunteer with the Worksite Wellness Council of Massachusetts (WWCMA) for the past 4 years where she sits on both the Programs Committee and the Marketing Committee. Cynthia has her Master of Social Work and her Master of Business Administration from Boston College and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology with a Minor in Spanish from College of the Holy Cross.