Dr. David Clark, DC -Center for Low Thyroid Solutions in Durham, NC-helps women suffering with low thyroid symptoms avoid the huge mistake of taking tyrosine supplements.
Huge Mistake #2 Made by Women Suffering with Low Thyroid
A long time ago someone mis-interpreted some research and they concluded that tyrosine would be good for thyroid metabolism.
There’s never been a single study to show that tyrosine improves thyroid hormone metabolism.
In fact, what really happens is tyrosine gets converted into catecholamines such as epinephrine and norepinephrine and these compounds actually suppress thyroid function and worsen her symtpoms. You can look it up.
This shines a real bright light on something I was just talking about on another post..
The problem is that this realm of “alternative” medicine, in a lot of ways is not so alternative.
They have their conventional standard way of doing things that have been going on for 30 or 40 years and they’re doing it blindly…. and they’re doing it without even referencing or thinking about new scientific findings.
Tyrosine in fact doesn’t do anything good for improving thyroid metabolism.
What it does more often than not is actually suppress thyroid metabolism by converting into sympathetic nervous system chemicals, adrenaline and noradrenaline, epinephrine and norepinephrine. These will slow down thyroid function.
So here’s a common scenario… a woman starts feeling low thyroid symptoms like
- depression
- hair loss,
- quick weight gain
- feeling cold all over
- constipation
- brain fog.
And she seeks help at her local health food store or she goes to the mall, or she even sees a well-meaning alternative medicine practitioner. And that person, since they don’t understand the full spectrum of what can be causing low thyroid, suggests tyrosine–which will probably only make her symptoms worse.
Side note: Often the NON-effectiveness of tyrosine gets missed because the woman will take the tyrosine as part of a supplement with MANY ingredients, some that might actually help. So it’s a two steps forward, three steps back situation.
But because it’s kind of a tradition, the well-meaning health food store or practitioner looks in one of these books that you can get for $10 or $15. It’s like a recipe book for all sorts of ‘common” problems. (You know what I’m talking about.)
They flip it open; say oh, the person needs tyrosine and iodine. Iodine I already talked about, and they give the woman tyrosine and what usually happens is…nothing happens. Or they give her tyrosine and because tyrosine is converted into chemicals that will further squash her pituitary and thyroid…she feels worse. Yuck!
So the second mistake I see, the first one was iodine and please go back and look at that post. The second mistake is tyrosine support.
Tyrosine support should not be used with someone with low thyroid.
It just shouldn’t. There are formulas available that do not contain tyrosine–But better yet, don’t even try to supplement yourself. Find someone that understands the complex nature of thyroid hormones. And it is more complicated than iodine and tyrosine.
The thing you’ve gotta remember and I’m gonna say this a million times if you listen to me very often…
The number one cause of low thyroid in America is an autoimmune disease called Hashimoto’s.
If you have Hashimoto’s autoimmune thyroiditis, it needs to be controlled right now.
Because if you don’t get it under control, that autoimmune process is going to march through your body and find other things to kill…such as your pancreas, brain, cartilage. I think understand how these could ruin your life.
So it’s time to do your homework. If you’ve got low thyroid problems, please, don’t take tyrosine. Find a doctor that can actually do the detective work and find out what’s wrong.
© 2010 Dr. David Clark, DC DACNB DCCN FACFN FABVR
What if you are taking it in a supplement to replenish neurotransmitters? My doctor wants me to do this. (he is a Functional MD) The Supp is called NeuroReplete and after awhile I am to start CysReplete.
My TSH is already very low and my frees have been slipping for months until finally my FT4 is below range and FT3 is at the bottom. (I am on Armour)
MUCH more to the story here with my health, but question is if you need to use amino acids to get the brain back in balance & hopefully heal(trust me there are issues there – I believe with lifelong chronic stress leading to non-functioning adrenals as well – I had to be put on cortisol replacement) is this going to make me feel even more hypo than I already do?
Such a mess. I would like to follow the docs thoughts and try it out but I knew I had read something about tyrosine. Now I am even more confused.
Suddenly I began to have symptoms of dryness_skin,certain mucous membranes, burning of eyelids, sagging of face (loss of collagen). I started a gluten-free diet before that, and it helped a lot with digestive problems. Could there be a relationship? The symptoms above started about a year after being gluten free.