The Thyroid-Cortisol Connection

Right.

So let's go ahead and discuss the thyroid-cortisol connection.

So a question I sometimes get asked is, "Can stress really affect my thyroid?" It seems like stress is used as, as an excuse for many different health conditions.

And the short answer is yes, but it's a lot more complex than most people realize.

So really, the goal of this episode is to dive a little bit deeper into the thyroid-cortisol connection.

I mean, I did speak about stress in the past.

I have spoken about stress in past podcast episodes, um, but I want to dive a little bit deeper but still make it easy to understand.

So let's start out by briefly discussing the role of cortisol.

So cortisol is produced by the adrenal gland, specifically the adrenal cortex, and it helps to regulate how you adapt to stress, also plays a role in blood sugar balance along with insulin, helps with controlling inflammation, plays a role in immune system function, regulating blood pressure, uh, even energy production.

It controls how your body uses glucose, uh, for energy.

And then we have acute versus chronic stress.

So I've discussed this in past episodes where... a- and articles and elsewhere, where acute stress is a good thing.

I mean, it's-- we, we want stresses-- I mean, we, we have that perception that stress is all bad, but fight or flight mode is important.

Acute stress is not necessarily bad, and our body was meant to adapt to acute stressors.

It's really the chronic long-lasting stress that could be a really big factor, a really big problem, can disrupt multiple systems.

And so there really is a big difference between surviving a stressful event, you know, an acute, really an acute stressor, and then living in a constant state of chronic stress.

And then you've also heard me and probably others talk about what's called the HPA axis, which is the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis.

So you have the hypothalamus, which communicates with the pituitary gland, and then the pituitary gland communicates with the adrenals.

And then this actually communicates with the HPT axis, which is the hypothalamic-pituitary-thyroid axis.

So, so similarly, you have the hypothalamus communicating with the pituit- pituitary gland, which communicates to the adrenal glands.

And most listeners to this are familiar with TSH.

TSH is thyroid-stimulating hormone, and that is what communicates with the thyroid gland, and that's actually a pituitary hormone.

TSH is a pituitary hormone.

And then there's ACTH, which is also a pituitary hormone.

So AT- ACTH is what communicates with the adrenal gland.