Most people have heard of the thyroid, but they don’t know what it does and where it is located in their body.
The thyroid is a gland that’s shaped like a small butterfly. It’s located in the front of your neck and it makes thyroid hormones, which end up traveling via your blood throughout your body.
Thyroid hormones control your metabolism– the rate at which your body burns calories. They also can raise/lower your body temperature, speed up/slow down your heartbeat, affect how slow or fast food moves through your digestive tract, and control how quickly your body replaces dying cells. Obviously, they’re important. Overall, they determine whether your body works at its normal pace… and if something’s wrong, then your body either works too fast or too slow. When the body isn’t getting enough thyroid hormone, you feel tired and cold. Too much thyroid hormone makes you warm and nervous.
Common treatments for thyroid issues typically involve taking synthetic thyroid hormones or radioactive iodine, as well as surgery to remove much of the actual gland. However, can chiropractic care help your thyroid gland function properly, non-surgically? Yes, chiropractic care is a natural way to deal with some thyroid issues.
Chiropractors work on balancing people’s nervous systems. So, they can work on getting rid of any interference with the nerves supplying the thyroid gland. They can also explain the link between one’s nervous system and immune system. For instance, if the nervous system is out of balance, then a person might also have a weakened immune system. This can cause an infection which triggers an autoimmune response. Or the nervous system imbalance from too much stress in a person’s life can cause leaky gut, which affects the thyroid, too. Chiropractors like to take a look at what’s going on with the whole body rather than just focus on one spot.
Some thyroid disorders happen because there’s a malfunction of the nerves in the brain and spinal cord controlling the production of a person’s thyroid hormone(s). Chiropractors recognize that the brain, pituitary gland, spinal cord and thyroid are all linked, and if a person has spinal distortions irritating their nerves, that could be contributing to their thyroid issue. Thus, chiropractors work toward restoring normal nerve function and communication. The body, in essence, is able to heal itself such that it works the way it should. Thankfully, this can be accomplished naturally without pills or surgery.
