Could a lack of magnesium be impairing your metabolic function?
This is not a nutritional topic that gets much exposure. However, there are many reasons to improve your thyroid function. Especially by increasing your magnesium intake through careful food and supplement choices. This is why we have drawn together a range of valuable insights on the role of your thyroid gland, and how nutrition supports it.
Life can leave you wishing there was a ‘magic way’ to overcome fatigue or to tackle total exhaustion! In fact, the solution to low energy is rooted in basic science and there are simple things you can do to tackle tiredness.
This is important, as according to a government survey one in every eight adults in the UK feels tired ‘all the time’. A third of the population feels over-tired ‘half of the time’. This constant fatigue can seriously sap your quality of life, and your motivation to contribute fully at work.
An especially startling revelation is that young people are more likely to feel tired than older adults! The survey even found that many people would prefer more sleep to free cash.
Why am I always tired?
The answer could lie firmly in your lifestyle and diet.
We're going to explore five things you can consume more of to tackle tiredness and give yourself a sustained energy boost. However, before we do, here are five things you can DO to reduce tiredness and fatigue.
- Balance exercise and rest
Any list of recommendations for feeling less tired will include the need for regular exercise. Even if it’s just walking instead of traveling by bus or car, or taking the stairs not the lift, it boosts your supply of the hormones responsible for feeling energised and more ‘awake’.
In contrast, another step towards beating tiredness is to...
This is not a nutritional topic that gets much exposure. However, there are many reasons to improve your thyroid function. Especially by increasing your magnesium intake through careful food and supplement choices.
This is why we have drawn together a range of valuable insights on the role of your thyroid gland, and how nutrition supports it.
You would especially benefit from reading this article if you are keen to improve your weight management, energy levels, and sleep patterns, for example.
What does your thyroid gland do?
Before going on to discuss the role of magnesium - and nutrition in general – in building good thyroid health, here’s a reminder of what this aspect of human biology involves.
Your thyroid gland is located in your neck, in front of your trachea (windpipe). It is small and shaped like a butterfly. Its function is to produce valuable hormones, triiodothyronine (T3) and thyroxine (T4).
As with all human hormones, these ones have important purposes. The ones produced by your thyroid help to support and regulate your metabolism, ensuring that you break down food properly and convert it to energy efficiently.
This also impacts such core processes as your body temperature and heart rate,
Impact of an underactive thyroid
If your thyroid gland becomes ineffective, it is easy to see the main issue involved. You will not be able to generate enough energy from your food.
Therefore, the main symptoms of an underactive thyroid gland – also known as hypothyroidism - include:
• Lethargy
• Depression
• Aching muscles.
Many of your bodily functions rely on a steady flow of energy, so long term they can start to suffer. You could also experience dry skin and be oversensitive to cold temperatures.
Also, a sluggish or inadequate metabolic rate due to an underactive thyroid could lead to weight gain.
What is an overactive thyroid?
There is also a possibility that your thyroid gland becomes overactive, which is medically referred to as hyperthyroidism or thyrotoxicosis. This is ten times more common in women, than men, and can be serious and highly unpleasant.
Symptoms include:
• Heightened emotions such as anxiety and irritability
• Poor sleep patterns
• Heart palpitations
• Twitching or trembling
• Weight loss
• Sensitivity to heat.
An overactive thyroid gland may well also create swelling in your neck.
Causes, diagnosis, and treatments
The reasons your thyroid gland malfunctions are not always easy to pinpoint. However, it is believed that your immune function health can be an essential factor, which is another reason to choose nutrition that supports that vital physiological process.
Blood tests are used to diagnose both an under and overactive thyroid, and you would then be referred to an endocrinologist (someone specialising in hormonal imbalances).
An underactive thyroid is often treated with hormone replacement therapy, with regular blood tests to check if levels remain correct. This is usually a life-long necessity.
Leaving this condition untreated could bring substantial risks, including obesity, pregnancy problems and heart disease.
Treatments for enlarged and overstimulated thyroid can be more immediate and short-term. Including medications, a type of radiotherapy (radioiodine treatment) and surgery to partially reduce the overactive cells.
Protecting your thyroid function
Mention has already been made of the role your immune system plays in keeping your thyroid gland working at the correct level. Adding additional value to the vitamins and minerals attached to a healthy immune function.
However, there is also a valuable nutrient that can directly support good thyroid health – magnesium.
Magnesium is a true powerhouse mineral, serving around 300 different physiological purposes! Including protecting nerve, cell, and bone health, underpinning your immune system, and maintaining a constant heart rate.
It even helps you to make proper use of other essential minerals such as zinc, calcium, and potassium.
This is why the effects of too little magnesium are highly diverse, such as nausea and vomiting, breathing difficulties, and high blood pressure, as well as the symptoms connected to an underactive thyroid mentioned above.
More on magnesium’s role in thyroid function
Why is this particular mineral so key to keeping your thyroid gland working efficiently?
In a nutshell, magnesium is essential to the creation of usable levels of the hormones produced by your thyroid. Too little, and your thyroid can’t maintain the correct hormone levels, to convert food to energy properly.
Hence, low levels of magnesium can have a significant impact on your metabolism, with all the complications that brings, including weight gain and tiredness.
It is important to note that ensuring you get the right daily amount of magnesium in your diet can also provide you with a way to reduce inflammation, including low-grade hypothyroidism.
Also, an underactive thyroid can lead to complications such as diabetes, and high cholesterol levels. The dangers of too much cholesterol in your blood are well known, including making you vulnerable to heart attacks and other cardiovascular risks. Once again, magnesium is not only valuable to maintain thyroid health but can also treat some of the issues involved. In this case, by helping you to balance your levels of cholesterol.
More health benefits of magnesium
Apart from helping you to avoid or tackle the effects of hypothyroidism mentioned above, magnesium has other advantages in relation to a health issue that can be a direct result of your underactive thyroid (or a separate issue).
High blood pressure (hypertension) is now common, and for some people could be a result of their thyroid gland not working efficiently. Whatever the cause, ensuring you consume enough magnesium can help to lower your blood pressure.
How to improve magnesium intake
As this one nutrient serves so many essential purposes it makes perfect sense to make sure you get the right daily amount of magnesium. Something that is increasingly achieved by juicing magnesium-rich vegetables, to get a concentrated dosage.
What is the recommended daily amount of magnesium? The UK RDA for magnesium is 300mg of elemental magnesium for men and 270mg for women.
Getting too little is more common than you possibly think. Largely thanks to the way people rely on processed foods and fail to include sufficient whole grains, fruits and vegetables in their diet.
The best natural sources of magnesium include:
• Wholewheat
• Quinoa
• Leafy greens such as spinach
• Nuts
• Beans, peas, lentils
• Avocado
• Cultured yoghurt
• Bananas.
The best supplements to build magnesium intake
You often find supplements that combine magnesium and B12, or magnesium and selenium. This is due to the similar values these nutrients have.
For example, B12 is something we largely take from animal products such as meat and eggs. Too little can cause tiredness. Making a supplement containing this and magnesium is a great way to boost energy levels, especially if you are highly active or a vegan.
A supplement containing magnesium and selenium makes sense too, as selenium is also key to supporting your body’s ability to cope with exercise and exertion.
Also, selenium is another nutrient that can support good thyroid health and your metabolism in general. Especially as it has substantial antioxidant values and keeps your thyroid’s production of hormones on track.
In fact, studies are underway to map the correlation between selenium deficiency and certain types of underactive thyroid function.
Iodine is another key nutrient that can be considered, but only with the guidance of an appropriately qualified advisor, as in some cases, this maybe contraindicated.
Extra reading:
Could Magnesium Lower Blood Pressure?
Health And Wellness Coach/Entrepreneur
1yInteresting information 🤔 Andrew Wren