Expert Advice
Acella Pharmaceuticals, LLC., is partnering with Helene Zahn-Chilberg, MA, LPMHC, LCAS-A to bring greater awareness to the importance of thyroid care and education. This post was sponsored by Acella Pharmaceuticals and should not be construed as medical advice. Please talk to your doctor about your individual medical situation.
Disclaimer: The information provided is for educational purposes only and does not substitute professional medical advice. Consult a medical professional or healthcare provider before beginning any exercise, fitness, diet, or nutrition routine.
We exist in this life in a body. It sounds very straight-forward, but most people walk around never considering this simple fact. Just as our car or vehicle takes us places every day and requires care to continue running, so do our bodies. Our bodies are the vehicles that allow us to be here in the world. If we do not take care of them, just like a car that is neglected, they will break down.
What is the language of your body? Perhaps you have never considered this before. Many people wait until their body is literally screaming with pain or disease before they take steps to listen to it. Most of us never learned the skill of union with our bodies; because you are reading this it’s not too late to do so. Wherever you are on your journey, I encourage you to begin to connect with mindfulness to your body and develop a deeper caring and union with your physical body.
Are you willing to develop a greater relationship to your physical body? What if your wellness, quality of life and healing were directly related to that self-care? Would you be willing to consider making you and this relationship a greater priority?
What would or could this this new relationship with your physical body look like? You might not know. These are all areas that we will explore here. I will be suggesting easy ways to build your relationship with your body. There are certainly infinite ways, and I encourage you to explore.
Here are a few steps to begin:
You may want to keep a small notebook just for you and your observations and growth:
Step 1: Giving Yourself Permission
Permission to be a priority. Permission to take care of yourself as you do others. Permission to be kind to yourself.
Step 2: Willingness to Explore
Try, and you’ll discover new things even if you are not sure what you like or might enjoy. This starts with Step 1 and not judging yourself if you try something new and it is less than what you had hoped. Perhaps take a risk and do it a second time to make sure it wasn’t a self-imposed disappointment caused by not meeting the story you created about how it would be.
Step 3. Learning, Practicing and Integrating New Skills
Know it is a journey – see Step 1 – and let go of perfection (our greatest unkindness to ourselves).
New Skills to Practice to Enhance Your Mind-Body Connection
Skill 1: Listening to Your Body’s Feedback
Take a moment and close your eyes. Take a few deep breaths, focusing on the sensation of your breath entering your lungs and abdomen, and then leaving. Take a moment to scan your body from your head to your toes. Where do you notice tension, pain, discomfort, relaxation or ease? What do you notice? Now continue to take deep breaths. Let your focus remain on the inflow and outflow of your breath as you practice conscious breathing. If you get dizzy, open your eyes. Many people have never done conscious deep breathing, so don’t worry if it feels awkward at first. Go at your own pace.
Before you move on, pause and check back in with a body scan. Do you notice any changes in the areas where you originally noticed tension, pain or discomfort? Is there any greater ease in your body? Take a moment when you finish to make notes on what you noticed and the changes you are aware of.
Skill 2: Stress and Tension Check-in
Once you feel that you have the breathing exercise down, start with your body check-in and rate the level of stress or tension you currently notice on a scale from 1 to 10, with 10 being the most discomfort and one being the least. Then do the above exercise. Before you finish, check in again and notice what has shifted.
Body Awareness to Support Thyroid Health
By practicing these exercises, you can continue to grow your body awareness in new ways. Practice allows for the mind/body system to gain comfort with and memory of the activity. This allows for the activity to build effectiveness in reducing overall stress, and to give you a greater gauge of your body’s feedback. When you expand your awareness and acknowledge what you are aware of, you are aligning with the wealth of data your body is providing you. This acknowledgement creates a much deeper union with your body as a living, breathing sensory system.
In our future articles, we will continue to look at ways to increase mindfulness. We will be discussing:
How to actively engage the parasympathetic system to increase calm and lower stress and anxiety
Ways to prevent burnout and lower stress by creating greater life-balance and self-care
Enhancing quality of life by engaging in activities and relationships that bring you joy
I look forward to continuing to encourage you to grow in your body awareness as you move along your journey toward greater health.
INDICATIONS & IMPORTANT RISK INFORMATION INCLUDING BLACK BOX WARNING
Important Risk Information
Drugs with thyroid hormone activity, alone or together with other therapeutic agents, have been used for the treatment of obesity. In euthyroid patients, doses within the range of daily hormonal requirements are ineffective for weight reduction. Larger doses may produce serious or even life-threatening manifestations of toxicity, particularly when given in association with sympathomimetic amines such as those used for their anorectic effects.
- NP Thyroid® is contraindicated in patients with uncorrected adrenal insufficiency, untreated thyrotoxicosis, and hypersensitivity to any component of the product.
- In the elderly and in patients with cardiovascular disease, NP Thyroid® should be used with greater caution than younger patients or those without cardiovascular disease.
- Use of NP Thyroid® in patients with diabetes mellitus or adrenal cortical insufficiency may worsen the intensity of their symptoms.
- The therapy of myxedema coma requires simultaneous administration of glucocorticoids.
- Concomitant use of NP Thyroid® with oral anticoagulants alters the sensitivity of oral anticoagulants. Prothrombin time should be closely monitored in thyroid-treated patients on oral anticoagulants.
- In infants, excessive doses of NP Thyroid® may produce craniosynostosis.
- Partial loss of hair may be experienced by children in the first few months of therapy but is usually transient.
- Adverse reactions associated with NP Thyroid® therapy are primarily those of hyperthyroidism due to therapeutic overdosage.
- Many drugs and some laboratory tests may alter the therapeutic response to NP Thyroid®. In addition, thyroid hormones and thyroid status have varied effects on the pharmacokinetics and actions of other drugs. Administer at least 4 hours before or after drugs that are known to interfere with absorption. Evaluate the need for dose adjustments when regularly administering within one hour of certain foods that may affect absorption.
- NP Thyroid® should not be discontinued during pregnancy, and hypothyroidism diagnosed during pregnancy should be promptly treated.
Indication
NP Thyroid® (thyroid tablets, USP) is a prescription medicine that is used to treat a condition called hypothyroidism from any cause, except for cases of temporary hypothyroidism, which is usually associated with an inflammation of the thyroid (thyroiditis). It is meant to replace or supplement a hormone that is usually made by your thyroid gland.
NP Thyroid® is also used in the treatment and prevention of normal functioning thyroid goiters, such as thyroid nodules, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, multinodular goiter, and in the management of thyroid cancer.