Blood Sugar, Adrenals & Thyroid

by Glen Depke

Your blood sugar, adrenals and thyroid are intimately connected and potentially create quite a bit of pain and suffering when they are not balanced. So the question is, what does it feel like when your blood sugar, adrenal and thyroid balance is off?

Well, do you recognize any of these?

• Crave sweets
• Fatigue after meals
• Depend on coffee
• General fatigue
• Feel shaky or jittery
• Constant hunger
• Feel agitated or nervous
• Need for sweets after meals
• Upset easily
• Waist girth larger then hip girth
• Blurred vision
• Frequent urination
• Eat often to relieve fatigue  
• Difficulty losing weight
• Poor memory or forgetfulness
• Migraine headaches or pain
• Become lightheaded missing meals
• Sweet cravings not relieved by eating them
• Become irritable when missing meals
• Grouchy in the morning

If you recognize these with any consistency, you could be living with blood sugar, adrenal, thyroid imbalance. This could be due to hypo or hyperglycemic issues.

Looking at blood sugar very simply, our bodies have evolved to regulate this during times of famine when blood sugar drops and sweets were scarce. This is typically not an issue in these times and honestly, sweets are anything but scarce. An over indulgence in carbs such as white rice, fruit, soda or your favorite latte can and does often lead to a spike in blood sugar, which in turn leads to a release of insulin to normalize your glucose levels. When this mechanism occurs often, which is generally the case, the pancreas overproduces insulin, which in turn can drop blood sugar too low, with the end result of exciting the "fight or flee" response. This response will then lead to a production of cortisol, which in the end can create difficulties for digestion, immunity, overall hormone balance and of course, the thyroid. Understand that if you body is in a "fight or flee" thyroid balance is no longer important. Your body will almost always pick the "fight or flee" over general health and balance.

I trust that you can see where this creates some issues.

When this cycle continues over time, the body can lose its ability to keep blood sugar stable. When blood sugar is not stable this effects adrenal function which ends up being a core challenge for so many other health issues. The challenges that this causes with the gut, brain, immune system and chronic inflammation often sets individuals up for autoimmunity, which often effects thyroid function.

Here's a catch 22 on this though.

Low thyroid function slows the response of insulin to elevated blood sugar, so the glucose is slow to enter the cells for energy production. This can actually lead to individuals testing with normal glucose levels, yet still challenged with symptoms of too low of blood sugar.

Specific to a hypoglycemic, you could feel any of the listed symptoms:

• Crave sweets
• Depend on coffee
• Feel shaky or jittery
• Feel agitated or nervous
• Upset easily
• Blurred vision
• Eat often to relieve fatigue  
• Poor memory or forgetfulness
• Become lightheaded missing meals
• Become irritable when missing meals
• Grouchy in the morning

To assist in normalizing these blood sugar instabilities, here are some simple tips:

• Never skip breakfast
• Eat a protein with your breakfast
• Eat a protein with every meal
• Keep your carb consumption to low glycemic choices
• Don't allow yourself to be "starving" prior to eating
• If ever indulging in moderate to high glycemic foods always eat with added fat
• Never eat sweets or sugary foods prior to bed
• Avoid fruit juices and carrot juice
• Avoid caffeine
• Always combine fat, protein and carbs every time you eat

This would be a good start to you regulating your blood sugar and definitely play a role in the entire blood sugar, adrenal and thyroid challenges.

If you have yet to register for our complimentary webinar "Thyroid Treatment...Ridiculous!" on Tuesday August 7th, register now.

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