Your thyroid gland is small but mighty. This little butterfly-shaped organ that sits in the front of your neck affects almost every organ in your body. You can thank it for regulating your body temperature, helping you lose or gain weight, aiding in your breathing, in developing your brain, controlling your cholesterol, supporting your heart, regulating menstrual cycles, keeping your skin healthy, and so much more.

When your thyroid stops working correctly, your body can experience some incredibly distressful and sometimes painful side effects. Sometimes the thyroid gets damaged and does not produce enough hormones for your body to function correctly. This is called hypothyroidism. It is often caused by an autoimmune disease, like Hashimoto's, and can cause you to gain weight, feel extremely tired, dry out your hair and skin, make you less focused, and slow down metabolism. On the other hand, your thyroid may become over-stimulated and produce too many hormones, which is called hyperthyroidism. Autoimmune diseases, like Grave's disease, can cause this and can make you lose wanted weight, be less tolerant of temperatures, have an increased heart rate, and experience frequent diarrhea. There are various methods of treatment for thyroid problems; some that are drastic like removing the entire gland, and others are a simple supplementation for a while. Not all problems need to be treated and some resolve themselves. One method for controlling your thyroid levels is to control what you eat and when you eat it. If you are taking medication it is important you time eating certain foods correctly with when you take your medication. Also, some foods interact poorly with your body and thyroid while others do sometimes when eaten in certain ways or in certain quantities. There are also foods that do wonders for the equilibrium of your thyroid.