Thyroid Health Management in Scottsdale
Our thyroid can act like our body’s gas or brake pedal, influencing our energy, mood, weight, and even our capacity to handle stress. The thyroid gland is small, yet powerful and has a profound impact on numerous bodily functions through its regulation of metabolism, energy production, and hormonal balance. The most common thyroid concerns include hypothyroidism, hyperthyroidism, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, and Graves’ disease, which can lead to changes in energy, weight, hair, mood, and more!
Many people are prescribed thyroid replacement therapy medications, but that may not be enough to produce drastic and long-lasting changes. While these medications may be necessary or helpful, they don’t resolve the underlying cause(s) to why the thyroid is out of balance in the first place.
Assessing and treating patients using an individualized comprehensive approach allows patients to feel better without bothersome symptoms, observe more balanced lab results, and find the root cause(s) so their overall health can be improved for years to come!
The Conventional Approach: Medication without finding the “WHY” behind your symptoms or doing anything to improve your overall health.
Conventional medicine often relies on synthetic hormone replacement therapy, such as levothyroxine (Levothyroid, Levoxyl, Synthroid, etc.) to help normalize thyroid hormone levels for patients with hypothyroidism, or anti-thyroid medications when someone is diagnosed with hyperthyroidism. These medications may be beneficial and offer symptomatic relief, but they don’t address the factors that cause the thyroid to become imbalanced. As a result, patients may experience recurring symptoms, dependence on medication, or additional health symptoms related to underlying causes that haven’t been resolved.
Our Naturopathic Approach: Addressing the underlying causes to thyroid imbalances by supporting you as a whole person instead of just focusing on lab numbers.
When our thyroid gland is out of balance, our hypothalamus, pituitary gland, adrenal glands, and liver (at minimum) are also impaired as our body is an interconnected system. Behind the scenes, it is trying to perform thousands of biochemical processes to stay in balance, but over time if the underlying causes to dysfunction aren’t addressed, our body will try to get our attention through hair loss, fatigue, and weight changes.
Thyroid dysfunction can result from any combination of lifestyle factors, nutritional deficiencies, physical or mental/emotional stressors, genetic predispositions, and environmental toxicants.
Physical Factors
Physical considerations are diverse and interconnected. They may include, but aren’t limited to:
Nutritional Deficiencies
Iodine, selenium, and zinc are just some of the nutrients that are necessary for optimal thyroid function, therefore, nutrient deficiencies can impair the thyroid's ability to produce hormones effectively. Just like it’s impossible to make a recipe without the core ingredients, we need specific nutrients to assist our body’s ability to create hormones effectively.
Gut Health
Our digestive tract does so much more than simply digest food and is largely responsible for immune function and hormone regulation. Replenishing healthy gut bacteria and repairing “leaky gut” can improve thyroid health by decreasing stress/inflammation on the body and improving our body’s ability to absorb nutrients. Finding out (and avoiding ☺️) your specific dietary intolerances can reduce digestive toxemia and improve our overall health. Likewise, learning about your food intolerances can help to heal your digestive tract.
Toxicity
The liver plays a crucial role in hormone conversion, particularly in converting specific thyroid hormones into usable “free” forms. It’s important to prevent overburdened detox pathways by decreasing toxicants in our daily life as well as supporting our detox pathways (lymphatic system, liver, kidneys, skin, lungs, bowels, uterus) so we are giving our body the best chance to function efficiently. We educate patients on how they can decrease their toxic burden, while also improving their body’s natural ability to detox more efficiently long term.
Hormonal Balance
Various hormones such as estrogen, cortisol, and insulin can negatively impact the health of our thyroid, which is why it’s essential to work with the entire body, vs. solely focusing on one system, pathway, or hormone. We consider lifestyle factors such as diet, exercise, sleep, and stress in addition to toxicity, genetics, age, and each patient’s health history to help people get their health back! Just like a tapestry, our body is beautifully interconnected and dependent on so many more variables than what we may be led to believe from society or conventional medicine.
Mental, Emotional, Spiritual Factors
Thyroid imbalances often have a causative or correlated connection to chronic stress.
HPA/HPT Axis Connection
The hypothalamus and pituitary gland are involved in both the HPA axis (A for adrenal glands) and HPT axis (T for thyroid gland), which are neuroendocrine systems responsible for releasing hormones in response to nervous system stimulation. The longer our body is under stress and the more intense the (physical or emotional) stressors are, the more strain our body is under, and the more consequences there will be. Chronic stress eventually leads to imbalances of many hormones including cortisol and TSH/Thyroid stimulating hormone and can produce symptoms of fatigue, hair loss, weight or mood changes, and more.
Stored Stress or Trauma
The body has a fascinating ability to store unprocessed emotions which can negatively affect our mood, stress resilience, energy, weight, and yes even hormones. We help patients resolve this stored emotion on deep subconscious levels with various techniques so patients can feel lighter, calmer, and more resilient to current and future stressors. When we experience less internal stress, our hormones are more balanced, which allows our thyroid and entire body to function better.
Domino Effect of Despair
The longer we feel tired, depressed, and dissatisfied with our body or life, the more likely we are to feel hopeless, helpless, and apathetic. This can lead to a lack of motivation to engage in healthy habits, self-care, or taking the steps needed to create positive change. Sometimes, patients have seen various practitioners and tried various products or plans without significant changes, which can lead to despair that things will ever improve. I can assure you that if you are ready for a change, and willing to trust that your body is capable of healing, and give it the proper conditions to do so, YOU TOO CAN HEAL!
Heal From Within - Address the Cause with A Comprehensive Approach and Personalized Plan
Our naturopathic approach involves a thorough assessment of your health history, lifestyle, and genetics with a comprehensive consultation, in depth lab work, physical exams, nutritional and toxicity assessments, and an evaluation of all of the potential contributing factors mentioned above.
We truly listen and consider much more than your symptoms or numbers on a lab report to gather information and find out any and all of the causes that have shifted your body out of balance. Your body is designed to heal itself; it just needs some additional support and guidance which we can help with!
If you’re motivated to dig much deeper than traditional basic laboratory markers and medication, we would be honored to guide you on your healing journey. When you are ready to address the root causes of your thyroid concerns, we can help you move past the frustration and fatigue so you can experience better overall health with more energy, less frequent illness, healthier digestive function, and more balanced emotional health!
My Commitment as your Naturopathic Doctor
My commitment is to listen to you and your body and find the causes that are holding you back from living the life you deserve. I don’t treat symptoms, nor do I limit my focus to one aspect or treatment as you deserve so much more than that. I take into consideration ALL contributing factors and teach and empower you how to heal on all levels.
Dr. E
Dr. Shawna Eischens (Dr. "E."), Naturopathic Doctor, and owner of Hope and Healing Naturopathic is an expert in finding the cause of your concerns so you can live a life free of pain, anxiety, fatigue, or other symptoms that are holding you back from enjoying the life you deserve!
Dr. E attracts motivated patients who are ready for a health advocate who is non-judgmental, passionate, experienced, and determined to help you THRIVE instead of just survive! Dr. E is a graduate of Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine, a mentor through Big Brothers/Big Sisters, a volunteer for Naturopathic Medicine Institute, and nature-loving outdoor enthusiast.
Dr. Eischens is a licensed Naturopathic Physician in Arizona and Minnesota.
She has received additional training and is certified in:
- QNRT (Quantum Neuro Reset Therapy)
- NET (Neuro Emotional Technique)
- Bio Craniopathy
- Vitalist of the Naturopathic Medicine Institute (VNMI)
Dr. Eischens is a member of:
- AANP (American Association of Naturopathic Physicians)
- NMI (Naturopathic Medicine Institute)
- AZNMA (Arizona Naturopathic Medical Association)
Hope and Healing Naturopathic was awarded "BEST OF THE VALLEY" in 2024 for the "Naturopathic Medicine" category.
Other Common Conditions We Help People Overcome
