I'm still learning things about hypothyroidism…

Greetings!

After living with hypothyroidism, learning about health for years, going through my health coaching certifications, and now helping other women navigate their own health…

You'd think I'd have heard just about everything there is to hear about hypothyroidism by now.

Nope. 😂

I recently established care with a new naturopathic doctor, and during my first appointment, she pointed out a few things that had me thinking:

How am I STILL learning new things about my body?

And honestly, I hope I always am. That's how we continue to grow, right?

So today I thought I'd share a few things that came up during my appointment — along with an important reminder that I'm learning right alongside you.

1. My reflexes weren't doing much of anything.

You know the little reflex hammer doctors use to tap below your kneecap and your leg is supposed to kick?

Mine apparently didn't get the memo. 😂

She also checked my ankles and wasn't getting much of a response there either.

What was interesting to me is the connection with hypothyroidism.

One neurological finding associated with hypothyroidism is slowed relaxation of deep tendon reflexes, especially at the ankle.

I actually learned how this reflex works in school, so here's the super-short anatomy lesson:

When a doctor taps the tendon below your kneecap, it briefly stretches the quadriceps muscle. Sensory nerves detect that stretch and send a signal to your spinal cord. Your spinal cord rapidly sends a signal back through motor nerves telling the muscle to contract — which produces that familiar little kick.

It's essentially a tiny communication loop between your muscle, nerves, and spinal cord.

And it happens automatically.

Pretty cool, right?

What I didn't fully appreciate before this appointment was that thyroid function can affect the speed of that response.

Now, an absent or diminished reflex can have many different causes, so this isn't a DIY test for hypothyroidism.

Please don't go grab a kitchen utensil and start whacking your knees. 😂

But it was another reminder for me of just how many systems thyroid hormones can influence.

2. Losing some hair every day is actually normal.

This one surprised me a little.

My doctor mentioned that losing around 100 hairs per day can still fall within the normal range.

And she's right — dermatologists generally consider shedding somewhere around 50–100 hairs a day normal.

Which made me think…

Who counted them to figure this out?! 😂

But more importantly, there's a difference between normal daily shedding and noticeable hair thinning or excessive shedding.

And since hair changes are something many women with thyroid conditions pay close attention to, I thought this was a helpful bit of perspective.

Seeing hair in your brush or shower doesn't automatically mean something is wrong.

It's changes from your normal that may be worth paying attention to.

3. Then she looked very closely at my eyes…

This was probably the part of the appointment that left me with the most questions.

She commented on the outline around my iris and told me that a thicker outline can be associated with increased stress or inflammation in the body.

I hadn't heard that before.

And this is where I want to make an important distinction:

Just because a practitioner tells me something doesn't mean I automatically accept it as established fact.

I've been looking into this one since the appointment, and I haven't found strong clinical evidence supporting the idea that the thickness of the outline of the iris can reliably tell us how much stress or systemic inflammation someone has.

So for now, I'm putting that one in my:

“Interesting. I want to learn more about that.”

category.

And I think that's an important part of taking ownership of your health.

You can listen to your providers AND ask questions.

You can be open-minded AND discerning.

You can say, “That's interesting — where can I learn more about that?”

You don't have to blindly accept everything you're told.

And then there were my pupils…

She shined a light into my eyes and commented that my pupils weren't responding to the light the way she expected.

Interestingly, she didn't seem particularly concerned about it.

Me?

I immediately filed that away as another thing I want to understand better. 😂

Our pupils normally constrict in response to light, and there are different reasons that response can be altered. So it's not something I'd try to interpret on my own — and if I have questions about it, it's something I can follow up on with an appropriate healthcare provider.

And THAT may actually be my biggest takeaway from this whole appointment.

I'm still learning, too.

Sometimes I think there's an assumption that because I'm a health coach and I work with women with hypothyroidism, I must know everything about it.

I don't.

And I don't claim to.

I've learned a lot.

I've lived with this condition.

I've studied health.

I've worked in healthcare.

I've completed certifications.

I've researched.

I've experimented with routines and habits in my own life.

And I'm continuing to learn.

But I'm still on this journey right alongside every other woman trying to understand her body.

There are things I'm going to encounter that I've never heard before.

There are things I'll question.

There are things I'll research and decide don't have enough evidence behind them for me to put much weight on.

And there will probably be things I'll learn five years from now that make me rethink something I believe today.

I'm okay with that.

Because I don't think taking the lead in your health means knowing everything.

I think it means being willing to pay attention, ask questions, stay curious, keep learning, and become an active participant in your own care.

That's what I'm doing with my own health.

And it's what I want to help other women feel confident doing with theirs.

We're all learning.

We're all figuring out our bodies.

And we're allowed to change what we think as we learn something new.

That's part of the journey. 💜

With you,

Jackie