YOUR THYROID’S BASE IS FROM PROTEIN AKA AMINO ACIDS
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Wait, what? Barbara, I thought you said all hormones are made from cholesterol?!
Sure, that’s true, BUT, thyroid hormone is built from the amino acid tyrosine.
Let’s look into this⬇️
Phenylalanine is one of our essential amino acids that we require to get through food because we do not produce it on our own. Its main job is to produce adequate tyrosine (if we don’t get any in our diet), neurotransmitters like dopamine, norepinephrine, and epinephrine, and the skin pigment melanin, which can also be found in our hair and eye colour
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From phenylalanine comes tyrosine, which is a precursor to the mentioned adrenal hormones, epinephrine and norepinephrine, as well as thyroid hormones including thyroxine. Without adequate tyrosine, we risk under producing inactive thyroid hormone (T4) as well as active thyroid hormone (T3). Remember that every cell in your body has a thyroid receptor, so we NEED to be producing enough or we’ll end up with symptoms like fatigue, depression, slow digestion, hair loss, low progesterone… all in which are correlated to a slow metabolism
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Lastly, the thyroid does not work alone. Our liver is the main organ that converts most of our inactive thyroid hormone (T4) to ACTIVE (T3), and one important amino acid, methionine, has been shown to help prevent fat accumulation in the liver, and helps to detoxify metabolic waste and toxins.
Granted, other amino acids are imperative for liver function, such as cysteine, glutamine, glycine, n-acetylcysteine, and taurine.
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It’s important to note that we do need particular nutrients as well to convert tyrosine from phenylalanine, such as iodine, selenium, and b vitamins.
Ironically enough, we can get make of these nutrients along with tyrosine in protein rich foods like organic dairy and meat
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Have you been eating the right types of protein for your metabolism?