The Eczema Thyroid Connection: Research & Personal Experiences

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Have you ever wondered if there is an eczema-thyroid connection? If you suffer from either eczema or a thyroid disorder, you are probably aware that they are by instinct. When you are trying to help your clients with thyroid disorders, it is important to recognize that thyroid disease is truly a multi-system disease, including the skin.

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As both practitioners and prior sufferers ourselves, we are able to share with you some unique perspectives about how to help both thyroid disorders and skin problems at the same time. The eczema journey can lead you into countless hours of search and research to find some hope and relief! We will break some of that down for you here.

When you see a skin condition like eczema, there is always something much deeper going on.

In the simplest of definitions, eczema is an inflammatory skin condition that is due to dryness. Underneath this, all can be a brewing hormonal, nutritional, and digestive current of imbalance. This imbalance can be modified by thinking of it and managing it from a thyroid perspective.

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Table of Contents

The Thyroid Gland and Your Skin

According to the American Academy of Dermatology, signs of thyroid hormone imbalances as they relate to the skin include: “dry, pale, and cool skin, dry skin with deep cracks and scale, deep, noticeable lines on your palms and soles, slow-healing wounds, flushing in your face, rashes, reddish spots that come and go, scaly, and discolored skin.”

Sound anything like eczema to you? Yes, to me too.

You see, our skin is like a window to our internal health. When we have signals of imbalance on the outside, you will certainly find an imbalance on the inside. Meaning problems with digestive health, adequate absorption of nutrients, presence of antibodies, poor immunity, and more. Healthy skin will look resilient, soft, hydrated, and nourished from the inside.

People with hypothyroidism and other thyroid disorders may also have common dermatological changes in hair and nails. This includes dry, brittle hair and nails, dull lifeless hair, hair loss, cracked nails, and more.

Both eczema and low thyroid hormone are increasing in numbers too. This has to be about our food, our environment, our stress, and how our genes respond to all of these things. The good news is this: these are all controllable factors: how empowering for you and your clients.

Thyroid Hormone and Skin Manifestations

As it turns out over 70% of people with hypothyroidism have dry skin, according to research. Dry skin and eczema will be some telltale signs of thyroid disease, in other words.

Don’t just assume if you live in a dry climate that your skin should be dry and eczema ridden.

The thyroid gland determines whether or not new skin cells are produced. While low thyroid often reduces skin turnover, there is also often redness due to autoimmune conditions as well.

Nutrients are integral to both thyroid health and skin health. In fact, the skin and thyroid both really reflect all nutrients. There are 7 are particularly important nutrients, including vitamin A, omega 3 fatty acids, zinc, vitamin D, vitamin C, and all the B vitamins.

As a perfect example, vitamin D is central to hormones’ function and balance. This includes the parathyroid hormone, thyroid hormone, insulin, calcitriol, and so much more.

Healthy skin and nutrients mean a healthy thyroid!

Heidi’s story

If there is a topic near to my heart, it is eczema. Anyone who has had it know that it disrupts and it’s not just a little rash. If anyone says it’s a minor issue, they have never had it.

For me, my whole face and chest were covered with it eczema, along with my lower legs, my hands, and my forearms; basically my whole body. I couldn’t sleep due to the itch, the pain. I couldn’t function well because I was tired.

This is not even to mention how embarrassing my appearance was and how difficult it was to work. I swear that the inflammation was also making me anxious and sad. It was a very rough period.

The Silent Swollen Thyroid

I was so focused on all of the discomfort of all of these things that I didn’t even notice my thyroid was swollen until I visited with my naturopath. This wasn’t the first time in my life that my thyroid silently but surely was affecting me!

Little by little, over the course of 6 months, my eczema all but disappeared using a functional nutrition approach and with the help of my naturopath and dermatologist. It also took a lot of digging into the research on my part! My thyroid tissue is also calmed down too.

Here are the things that helped my thyroid and my eczema heal together. The eczema thyroid connections are close if you pay attention to the body’s signals. Here, I will talk about vitamins for eczema sufferers as well as some healing foods.

The Thyroid Iron Connection

Heavy periods have vexed me from age 13 to age 45. Does this take a toll on iron? 100% yes.

So many people have told me to “just eat some red meat.” I laughed with my naturopath about this one: I would have to sit down and eat a bucket of meat every day to be enough iron!

My naturopath, Dr. Margaret Coffey at a local clinic called Natura, wisely suggested that we try to slow down my period with herbs along with getting iron in my body. That way, my iron “tank” didn’t drop critically low each month, only to barely rise again for my next period.

I take Slow Flow when my period hits. It’s an herbal combination specifically designed to help reduce heavy periods. No research out there really, but let me tell you, it works for me. Slow Flow does have some key components that do have research, however, such as vitamin A.

Iron Intolerance

Another issue I had: I couldn’t tolerate iron! With a course of GI Repair powder, my body wasn’t yelling at me anymore when I tried to take iron.

How does low iron affect the thyroid eczema?

Iron is involved in the circulation and oxygenation of tissues as well as the energy of each cell. Iron also helps the body have proper ratios of T3 to reverse T3 and T4. When your thyroid is imbalanced or you have hypothyroid, the oxygenation of your skin is reduced, making it more likely to be dry and have eczema.

Vitamin A

While I started taking vitamin A to support the healing of the skin, it had another very surprising effect: it has lightened up my periods too! How do I know this? One month, I was hiking and didn’t remember to bring the Slow Flow with me. My period was still much lighter than it used to be.

I wasn’t taking carotene for my vitamin A. Why?

I have genes that make it so my body doesn’t use plant sources of vitamin A well. If you haven’t had your genes tested for this, I highly recommend you do, especially if you get heavy periods or eczema.

Taking active vitamin A, or retinyl palmitate didn’t work overnight for my skin, but slowly I did notice that my skin is more resilient. A couple of research studies were done early on to show how effective vitamin A is in reducing blood loss.

I’m taking more than the RDA too. Why?

Do you think 30 years of heavy periods depletes you of just about everything? Yes.

And vitamin A is a big one according to some research done a long time ago. Seriously, if I had all the money in the world I would conduct a research project on this one today to help women like me all over the world.

Does Vitamin A Help Thyroid Function?

Yes. In a recent, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial, supplemental retinyl palmitate over 4 months reduced TSH in premenopausal women. Active vitamin A is involved in the regulation of thyroid hormone metabolism and TSH.

Vitamin A may also reduce the rate of instances of goiter well.

Medicinal mushrooms

Perhaps my favorite of all my remedies for eczema so far is medicinal mushrooms, including reishi and Chaga. Within 2 weeks of having some of these every day in my diet, my eczema itch and symptoms all but disappeared.

How does this work? Reishi mushrooms have the ability to possibly balance out allergic immune responses. In animal models, Chaga mushrooms help improve Th1/Th2 ratios and also IgE response.

This is the step that has possibly made the biggest difference in my eczema. Mushrooms are good for so many health benefits, so you have nothing to lose by giving them a try. Our favorite brand to use is Medicinal Foods.

Removing Mercury and Nickel

Mercury has been shown to disrupt the endocrine system and our thyroids are at risk for damage from heavy metals.

My body was screaming at me that it doesn’t like them. How do I know this? I would be wearing a pair of pants with a button and my skin would flare. Earrings? Forget it. Never can wear them. This decision was a big one for me: time to get my amalgam fillings out.

While I can’t say for sure that this is a big one in helping me heal from eczema and thyroid conditions since I did have them taken out, the last little nagging itchy spots are finally completely calmed down; so has my thyroid.

I also added daily cilantro and Chlorella for a month to help gently remove heavy metals from my body.

Identifying triggers

I followed an elimination diet as well, which may have helped. When I added back foods, it seemed like I was reacting to peanuts and maybe dairy. But here’s the thing I reacted to most: eating a lot of ANYTHING.

Moderation in my diet seems to be key. And no gluten or alcohol ever. One glass of wine or a cocktail will make me instantly itch.

Scented products

All scented products, even natural ones, had to go. My skin became hypersensitive to them, so they simply weren’t worth the risk.

Unscented salves and lotions are a good friend of mine. Contrary to popular belief, the use of coconut oil topically can be drying, so I avoid it, using lotions with olive oil, hyaluronic acid, glycerin, and urea instead.

Sauerkraut

Sauerkraut has become my best friend. The probiotics in fresh and raw sauerkraut are so great and my body craves this.

I feel sauerkraut was another cornerstone of the healing process of my gut and my thyroid as well as my eczema. To this day, I make sure to have at least 2 big spoonfuls a day.

Kelly’s Eczema Story

My eczema symptoms started when I was finishing up my last semester in graduate school. My final capstone project was writing a thesis and I got a late start because my computer crashed during my first deadline. I was scrambling to get ahead but I was also in jeopardy of not graduating on time.

The constant stress of weekly meetings with my professors, writing, editing, left me frazzled. My stress was so bad that I was not eating, sleeping, or exercising, yet I continued to burn the candle from both ends trying to meet the deadlines.

Unfortunately, I missed my deadline for submitting my thesis therefore, I could not present my thesis to the rest of my class. The final big stressor was presenting my thesis alone with just my two professors. Finally, my thesis was accepted a week before graduation.

My eczema started during my last semester of grad school, but I was too busy to do anything about it. I started noticing a small rash on my neck, that burned when I took a shower.

The rash was the size of a small child’s fist, scaly, red, and raw. The dermatologist determined it was stress-related but was quick to give me a steroid lotion.

I was curious about asking the doctor if the rash was due to something that I ate. She said it could be a variety of reasons but not food, I continued with steroid lotion for over 6 months and still had flare-ups frequently.

I was determined to do my own research on the cause of this burning eczema. What I found was interesting. Skin conditions like eczema normally do not react quickly to food just eaten. It’s more like a slow build which means a rash can pop up and can make itself known at any time.

There are over 100 varieties of eczema and psoriasis.

Eczema and Toxins

Where do mystery rashes stem from? Your liver. Toxins and viruses like Epstein Barr Viruses disrupt the liver and make it sluggish causing the build-up to cause skin conditions like eczema and psoriasis.

The most common dermatitis is called classic dermatitis which feeds on deposits of aluminum, copper, and pesticides inside your liver causing dry skin, dandruff, or itchy irritated skin.

Eczema thyroid connections with Epstein Bar Virus (EBV)

Sluggish liver, Epstein Bar Virus (EBV), and eczema are all related to thyroid disease, due to your body being unable to convert T4 to the active T3 hormone correctly.

I finally got rid of my eczema after a year of drinking celery juice. Having researched all homeopathic options I was open to trying different remedies to get rid of my eczema. I then came across Anthony Williams’s book on celery juice entitled Medical Medium Celery Juice: The Most Powerful Medicine of Our Time Healing Millions Worldwide.

After incorporating celery juice into my diet I found it was the only thing that helped to get rid of my eczema! I drank the recommended 16 ounces every morning before my workout.

Now each morning I crave the taste of celery juice and it gets me up going in the morning.

Vitamin C and Liver Health

Research has found that vitamin C in celery helps restore the liver’s immune system to help fight off any viral load of toxins in your system.

Celery juice flushes out mercury based-toxins that reside in the small intestinal tract. The sodium clusters in the celery juice minimize the viral load inside the intestines and start to clear up eczema. Also eliminating eggs, dairy, and gluten (all foods that feed EBV) can speed up the healing process.

You can find out more about how gluten affects the thyroid here.

Nutrients in Celery Juice

Researchers agree that celery juice is loaded with magnesium, calcium, potassium, protein, beta carotene, and vitamins A, B6, C, and K and can reduce inflammation.

Can it cure eczema or prevent flare-ups? The evidence for celery that shows antioxidant properties is limited to animal studies. A review of the literature shows celery plants do have powerful antioxidant properties showing.

Researchers say no. However, it worked for me.

Want to try it for yourself? Learn more about celery juice and its possible health considerations.

Summary

There is evidence of the prevalence of eczema among those with thyroid conditions. Like thyroid conditions, eczema is triggered by diet, allergen exposure, stress, and irritants. While these are personal accounts of what worked for Heidi and Kelly it may be another avenue to look into when dealing with these symptoms among your clients.

What is the thyroid and why is it important?

Ever been told “you need to balance your hormones”? Well, that’s where the thyroid comes in! The thyroid is an extremely essential gland located in the front of your neck, right under your Adam’s apple.

It’s job is to produce hormones that directly act on your brain, gut and digestive tract, bone, heart, glucose, and protein metabolism, liver function, and much, much more.

These important hormones are called thyroxine (“T4”) and triiodothyronine (“T3“).

T3, in particular, is extremely important: it regulates our body’s temperature, metabolism, and heart rate! In fact, every single person needs a proper balance of this hormone to be able to function properly.

T3 and T4 also strongly influence the junctions in the stomach and small intestine that form the gut barrier, and have been shown to play a big role in protecting our gut mucosal lining.

This means that you almost cannot have a healthy gut and immune system, without having a healthy thyroid. They interact together!

When your thyroid is healthy, it works well: producing necessary hormones that help to strengthen and protect your gut lining. This also works vice-versa: when the gut is healthy, it works with the thyroid to produce necessary hormones.

However, the problem occurs (you guessed it!) when either the thyroid or gut are unhealthy. This commonly leads to a thyroid disorder.

Thyroid disorder and its effects on the skin

A thyroid disorder occurs when your thyroid produces too much or too little hormones.

Hyperthyroidism: too much hormones.

This occurs when overactive tissue in the thyroid gland causes an overproduction of thyroid hormones (T4 and/or T3). Hyperthyroidism can lead to thyrotoxicosis, the clinical condition of increased thyroid hormones in the blood.

Effects on the skin:

In the case of thyrotoxicosis, your skin is affected by the overproduction of hormones. The skin often becomes thin in some areas, and thicker, darker, and hyperpigmented on others.

Hives and itching also occurs as a result of hormone overproduction, and skin can become intensely dry. In serious cases, a thick redness called pretibial myxedema may appear at the front of the legs, and spread to other areas.

Because of the similarities to skin disease, many dermatologists tend to diagnose this as a form of contact dermatitis or eczema.

Hypothyroidism: too little hormones.

This occurs when your thyroid gland is under-active, and doesn’t produce enough of the hormones T4 and/or T3.

Effects on the skin:

In some cases of hypothyroidism, the skin may receive as little as one-fourth to one-fifth of its normal blood supply.

This reduced circulation can prevent the blood from providing nourishment and completely removing waste products from the bloodstream.

As the skin is the body’s largest elimination organ, it often results in the body trying to push the waste products through the skin: especially if your gut is “leaky”, like I talk about in my book.

This can lead to breakouts of eczema, psoriasis, or itchy, blistering patches of skin.

Additionally, unbalanced hormone levels create other problems

Think of your body as a clock, with the thyroid as one of the main gears: when it works, the whole system moves smoothly! Likewise, if the thyroid is producing too much or too little hormones, this can lead to a hormone imbalance: negatively bringing down the other parts of the “clock” (such as your brain, heart, liver, gut, and entire body function), affecting your overall health and performance.

Here are some of the most common side effects of a “slow” or unhealthy thyroid:

• Weakness and random fatigue (even after a full night of sleep)
• Difficulty sleeping
• Increased sensitivity to temperatures (hot or cold)
• Dry or puffy skin
• Skin itching
• Urticaria (a type of hives activated when you feel stressed or warm)
• Candida
• Hair loss
• Hand tremors
• Increased heart rate
• Puffy or dry eyes

Who is affected by thyroid disorders?

Presently it’s been estimated that at least 200 million people worldwide have problems with their thyroid, and that number continues to grow every year. In America alone, it’s been estimated that over 30 million people have a thyroid disorder, but only half of the people are diagnosed! (That means there’s a lot of people out there who don’t even know that their thyroid is affecting their health.)

Women, in particular, are 10 times more likely to have a thyroid problem compared to men, and a recent analysis suggested that 1 in 8 women will develop a thyroid disorder in her lifetime!

If you’re constantly feeling tired, have unexplained skin or eczema breakouts, or are experiencing any of the above symptoms, then there’s a big chance that your thyroid is not producing the right amount of hormones.

What causes these thyroid disorders?

There are many lifestyle factors that can cause our hormones to become unbalanced. Daily things such as chronic stress, poor nutrition, extended low carb diets, mineral and vitamin deficiencies can all affect our thyroid negatively, resulting in breakouts of eczema.

However, one of the most important factors is your overall gut’s health: in regards to hormone production.

As mentioned above, the thyroid is responsible for producing important hormones, specifically the hormone called T3 (triiodothyronine).

This hormone is so important that having low levels of T3 has been shown to greatly contribute to a thyroid disorder. This is why doctors test your blood for low levels of T3, if he or she suspects that you have a thyroid disorder.

So how does the gut affect T3 hormone levels?

• By not having enough good bacteria.

Did you know that the gut is considered to be a reservoir for necessary T3 hormones? Research shows that the gut helps regulate thyroid hormone activity by converting inactive T4 into active T3, with the help of healthy gut bacteria.

This healthy gut bacteria is called intestinal sulfatase, and it’s responsible for converting about 20 percent of T4 into necessary T3!

However, if you have a gut dsymbosis (an overgrowth of bad bacteria and not enough good bacteria), this can significantly decrease the T3 levels.

Also, as the gut helps regulate hormone activity, an unhealthy gut can lead to general hormone dysfunction.

• By having too much inflammation

When your gut has too much inflammation (due to poor nutrition, infections, diseases, or harmful medicines), it releases pro-inflammatory cytokines to help the immune system destroy whatever is harming it.

Now while inflammation is necessary (to help you get rid of bad toxins), chronic inflammation over a long period of time can be dangerously unhealthy.

Interleukin-6, in particular, is a pro-inflammatory cytokine released during inflammation, and is positively correlated with reverse T3 (an inactive form of T3) and negatively correlated with free T3.

This means that the more Interlukin-6 you have in your body (through inflammation), the less T3 hormone you will have available to your cells.

• By raising cortisol

Again, this has to do with inflammation.

Pro-inflammatory cytokines (which are released by the immune system during the inflammatory response), can negatively affect T3 levels by raising another hormone called cortisol. Raised cortisol through chronic inflammation has been shown to decrease T3 levels, contributing to negative thyroid function.

Additionally, raised cortisol can cause high levels of chronic stress: another factor that influences the health of your thyroid.

How to balance your hormones to heal your eczema

As I’ve explained in my Training series, the skin is the body’s largest elimination organ, and is often the first thing to be affected when the body is unhealthy. In many people, a lingering breakout of eczema, usually manifests when something inside is wrong or out of balance: including your hormones.

• If you suspect your eczema is correlated with imbalanced hormones and have symptoms of a thyroid disorder, then the first step to take is to start healing your gut. As your thyroid and gut work together for hormone production, your gut’s health should be your first priority if you’re looking to balance your hormones. If you’re following my program, this is one of the best places to start!

• For those of you already taking steps to heal your gut and eczema, you’re on the right path! As I mentioned, you cannot have healthy skin without a healthy gut, and you almost cannot have a healthy gut without a healthy thyroid.

There are still other areas to cover on thyroid health and balancing hormones for your eczema, so I look forward to post more on this topic soon.

In the meantime, I hope this short introduction to the thyroid helped you understand more about your body, skin, and health! If you enjoyed this article or have any questions about eczema and gut health, leave me a comment below! I always love hearing from you! 😀

PS: Don’t know where to start? Sign up to my free series The Clear Skin Plan !

References

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The Eczema Thyroid Connection: Research & Personal Experiences

The Thyroid Gland and Your Skin

Thyroid Hormone and Skin Manifestations