24 Mar Thyroid Health from an Ayurveda + Western Science Perspective
The following are two in-depth audio lectures from part of a 2014 Mentorship Dr. Welch offered, on the relationship between stress, the liver, and thyroid function. They assume a fairly in-depth understanding of Ayurveda. We chose to put them on their own page because thyroid issues are so common and information on them from an Ayurveda + Western science perspective is not so common, and we are not currently offering the mentorship.
Lecture on Thyroid From March 06, 2014:
Summary: When our thyroids are hit they can go from a continuum from hyper to hpyo: Hyper/Graves (which looks mostly high laṅghana) to Hashimoto’s which has mixed laṅghana and bṛṃhaṇa symptoms to total burnout at Hypo, which can be a result of Hashimoto’s. We looked at what we would expect to see with adrenal burnout (the concept of the kidneys, adrenals, ovaries and testicles all being part of the “Kidney” system in TCM and the root of duality/bṛṃhaṇa and laṅghana in the body), what we would see with the insulin-producing portion of the pancreas being hit and what we would see w/ the various thyroid issues. We talked about the difference between single organs and double organs (like kidneys, brain, lungs) and the double ones relating to duality and the lungs “governing the entering and exiting of ojas”. We looked at the idea of when to treat an organ or problem directly and when to treat it locally and how we would apply this to the thyroid. Local treatment being things like herb mixes (sample mix: Ashwagandha 5, bala 3, kombu 3, hai zao 3, shatavari 3, guduchi 3, licorice 2) and “dissolving obstructions” track aimed at the throat, castor packs on the thyroid (without added heat, for 1⁄2 hr maybe 3x/week). We observed at the end that Graves and Hashimoto’s are considered autoimmune problems, where the body attacks itself and how maybe our bodies learn to do this from our behavior—from us attacking ourselves.
Lecture on Thyroid From March 26, 2014:
On our final call of 2024 Mentorship, we explored the western view of the thyroid a bit more, looked at how we need to look holistically at the thyroid, instead of just at that one gland, when we are addressing treatment. The 10 vessels and heart (in western medicine the 5 senses and heart) provide feedback to the hypothalamus about the state of the organism. The hypothalamus sends messages to the anterior portion of the pituitary (through TRH-thyrotropin releasing hormone), which then uses TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) to prod the thyroid to dial dhātu agni up or down. The thyroid dials up or down through T4 and T3. T4 is more plentiful than T3, which is more concentrated and powerful. T3 is made from T4 in not only the thyroid, but also the brain, gut, skeletal muscles, kidneys and, especially liver are all responsible, as well as the thyroid, for turning T4 into T3 and so we need to look at all of these organs and tissues, and not only the thyroid, to discover where the problem is coming from. We also looked specifically at the kidney and liver, to understand their roles more. We looked at Dr. X’s case study (unfortunately she couldn’t be here with us for this) and went through the case, looking at the thought process we might apply. We came back to the idea that most women’s health issues are due to either the bucket syndrome or stagnation and, in Dr. X’s case study, probably both. We looked finally at how intelligent prāṇa is, whether in directing blood cells, to maturing an ovum and how we could address recalibrating that intelligence through the basics: lifestyle, diet, nāḍi śodhana, abhyaṅga, and meditation.