How to naturally address issues with shallow breathing or “air hunger”, a common but overlooked problem in those suffering from thyroid problems or adrenal dysfunction.
Every single tissue in the entire body has thyroid receptors. This means that the thyroid, if not functioning properly, can cause a wide variety of symptoms beyond what we would normally consider.
It is most common to question the health of the thyroid in cases of fatigue, constipation, weight gain, chilliness, and dryness.
However, it is also very common in cases of depression, fibromyalgia-like muscle aches, gastrointestinal dysfunction, and even foggy brain.
The thyroid is one endocrine organ in a delicately and intricately related chain of hormone-producing glands.
Although it may be one of the easier glands to measure, others in the chain, i.e. the hypothalamus, the adrenal glands, and the gastrointestinal system have a major effect on the thyroid’s function.
In one two-week period alone, I treated three unusual cases of thyroid dysfunction.
- One was an 8-year-old girl with Hashimoto’s auto-immune disease.
- Another is a 22-year-old male who looks like a bodybuilder.
- The third was a 14-year-old very slender female.
None of them fit the picture of a typical thyroid patient…but if you don’t test you never know!
Common Misdiagnosis in Conventional Tests
When testing the thyroid you must test several markers to understand if the thyroid is working properly:
- TSH
- T4 total
- Free T3
- Free T4
- T3 uptake
- Free thyroxine index
- Thyroid antibodies
Laboratory ranges are very wide on the thyroid and, sadly, do not reflect optimal functioning in the real world.
It is very common for conventional doctors to just order a TSH and say your thyroid is fine when it really isn’t.
The reason is most doctors treat all thyroid conditions the same – give enough Levo-thyroxin until the TSH blood level is within normal limits.
This conventional approach only works for one kind of thyroid dysfunction!
There are six different types of low thyroid function with at least 22 other bodily dysfunctions resulting in a suboptimal thyroid.
How Other Organs Affect the Thyroid
I will give you a few examples of how other organ systems affect the thyroid.
If you have positive antibodies TPO or TGB, you really have an auto-immune disease where your own immune system is destroying thyroid tissue.
Shockingly, it is estimated that at least 75% of hypothyroid cases are auto-immune in nature.
This problem can really be helped by clinicians who understand the relationship between thyroid, gut, immune system and brain.
Attention should be directed to these areas:
- Resolve food allergies
- Measure and optimize Vitamin D levels.
- Heal leaky gut
- Balance the two arms of the immune system Th1 and Th2 is very important.
Pitfalls with “Immune Tonics”
Common health food store “immune tonics” such as echinacea and maitake are Th1 stimulators while caffeine is a TH2 stimulator.
If one is Th1 dominant they will frequently complain that echinacea or other Th1 stimulants make them feel bad.
It is important to realize that your individual body may not fit the common marketing scheme currently advocated in medicine or natural health care.
Buyer beware!
Iodine Can Sometimes Make Things Worse
There are other tests such as cytokine testing or TH1 and 2 challenges to get this system balanced.
It is paramount to understand that those diagnosed with Hashimoto’s or showing positive antibodies will be made WORSE with iodine supplementation.
Free T3 is the real workhorse of thyroid hormones. It is what your cells use, yet only 6% of T3 is made in the thyroid.
The vast majority is converted from T4 in the liver and from the bacteria in the GI tract. Can you start to see how important the GI tract is and the importance of fermented foods, prebiotics, and probiotics?
Thyroid and Adrenal Dysfunction Usually Go Hand in Hand
It is rare to see thyroid dysfunction without seeing adrenal dysfunction. The adrenals are the glands that deal with stress.
In our culture, most people are just worn out…usually all the time!
This leads to the under-conversion of T4 to T3.
It frequently leads to blood sugar issues which dampen communication between the hypothalamus, pituitary, and thyroid glands.
Shallow Breathing aka “Air Hunger”
Again, these problems are made worse by people skipping meals, eating low-protein or vegetarian diets, and using stimulants such as caffeine to increase the adrenal output of hormones.
I always use nutrients and whole food diets emphasizing higher protein and healthy fats for this condition.
One of the most important treatments is breathing exercises to remedy air hunger.
It is common to find people that suffer from shallow breathing when endocrine conditions present.
Shallow breathing is characterized by breathing from the chest up without using the diaphragm.
Put another way, shallow breathing involves breathing without expanding out to allow the diaphragm to create a vacuum in the lungs.
It is impossible in a short article to completely explain the thyroid gland. My goal is rather to show you the many facets of thyroid dysfunction and testing.
As in all my writings, my goal is to help you connect the dots between one particular system and its relationship to the whole body.
I hope to convey the message that if you are chronically ill and your doctor has only tested your TSH please ask for more.
Do not take over-the-counter formulas for your thyroid unless someone is specifically monitoring your case as what makes one type of thyroid condition better can aggravate another type.
Again Iodine is a very individual nutrient for certain thyroid types and not for others!
More Information
Thyroid Disease as a Psychiatric Pretender
6 Little Known Signs of Adrenal Fatigue
This is Your Body (and Brain) on Gluten
I wonder if Dr Frank does video calls since I do not live in FL?
I sadly started getting this problem after a year and a half of doing intermittent fasting and a light version of keto. It tends do get worse if I go too low carb, so I had to gradually learn that. My problem isn’t just the air thirst. I can usually relieve that by forcing myself to lean back in a chair until I can start to yawn, even if they’re incomplete yawns (which they usually are). If I’m lucky enough to get a full yawn to come, I can feel little bits of relief.
But the problem that goes hand in hand with this, for me, is what a lot of people with thyroid issues describe as a buzzing in their body. Usually it’s just in my legs and up to my lower abdomen, and always shows up during extreme constipation bouts (regardless of fiber and water intake). It most times leads to frequent urination and constipation that won’t let me sleep, and the less I sleep, the worse the buzz gets. It got so bad I was having on average 3-4 allnighters a week, spending 3-6 hours running back and forth to the bathroom, straining to go (because it seemed like it wouldn’t let me sleep until it was all gone). My left side feels swollen with it, and the tingling/buzzing feeling seems to have spread from my legs into my chest. Sleep aleviates it, temporarily, but the perpetual cycles of sleep chaos are making it impossible. I can no longer maintain a stable sleep cycle for more than a week at a time.
Doctors aren’t interested in my thyroid, probably since I’m male, and have reported body temperature crashes and neurological twitching storms since my early 20s. They hear even an ounce of this, and they would just throw Ativan at me, once the UTI tests came up negative. This was a bandaid. Still didn’t help the organ dysfunction. Even if I was lucky enough to get them interested in the thyroid and adrenal aspect (the latter which feels absolutely fried), I’m sure they’d give me the wrong tests. It’s tricky to try to advocate for your own health when every time you muster up the strength to gamble with the medical system (and that’s what it’s been, a gamble. Disheartening losses and humiliation), when you’re so sleep deprived and brain fogged from lack of sleep and adrenal meltdown. Even people who see me go through it, it’s hard for them to grasp beyond “a lot of trouble sleeping”.
It’s gotten bad since 2016 and is just so high maintenance to try to manage with zero support or answers, especially since the autoimmune and neurological stuff that probably led to this started back in 2003. It’s maddening paying Blue Cross their new premiums of $500 a month for a 7k deductible paywall that I don’t even get to make real use of until it leads to cardio events. I go in, am lucky to get 10 minutes, was never offered a referral even when I pleaded for one, and now I’m stranded up a creek.
I am so sorry, I went through similar problems with doctors.
It took me a while, but I finally just started picking my own endocrinologists that were in my network and had good reviews, made appointments with them myself, and then called my Primary Care’s office staff to send referrals for my insurance without engaging the opinions of the doctors who didn’t have any experience with it, and had bias. And if i didn’t like one or found myself arguing with them because they didn’t believe me, I went to another. It was a pain for a while, but it worked.
I have no idea if this will help at all, but I hope it will.