Vitamin A + Thyroid Health
Did you know that vitamin A is one of the many nutrients our body needs to convert T4 to T3?
T4 and T3 . . . what are you talking about, I hear you say.
If you have Hashi's (Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis), you will probably already know what I'm talking about here, however if not - in very basic terms - our thyroid gland (found at the base of the throat) takes in iodine from the food we eat and converts it into 3 thyroid hormones, which are then released into our bloodstream - two of these hormones are known as T4 and T3. These 2 hormones support a wide range of processes in our body, including our metabolism, our body’s temperature and also our heart rate.
Vitamin A works with the thyroid hormone T3 - helping it to “get into” the cells of our body to help support our immune system. So as you can imagine, being deficient in vitamin A means we’re unable to use this important thyroid hormone.
More on other benefits of Vitamin A can be found here and here.
When eating plant food sources of vitamin A (known as carotenoids), our body must convert these carotenoids into retinol through our liver first before it can be used. If we have wonderful health, this process isn’t an issue, however for those of us with Hashimoto's - we most likely will have a difficult time with this conversion, so no matter how many carrots or sweet potatoes we consume, we will still more than likely end up with not enough vitamin A.
This fact highlights the importance of healing and supporting your gut and liver - not just your thyroid!
One super simple way I enjoy eating my plant based vitamin A …..
