Thyroid hormone, Statin Drugs and Energy

Your energy levels are influenced by thyroid hormone and can also be lowered with cholesterol statin drugs.

It is very common for me to see a patient complaining of low energy and find out the patient has 3 factors creating the low energy.  1. They have low thyroid hormone.  2. They have low nutrients needed to produce energy.  3. They are taking a statin drug that interferes with the production of energy.

The little energy factories inside your cells are called mitochondria.  This is where energy is created from the food you eat.

What is needed for energy to be produced is oxygen and food.  The thyroid hormone T3 also plays a part in this by helping the reaction occur, similar to a spark plug in a gasoline engine.

Thyroid hormone is very important to the energy the cell produces by sparking the energy reactions to occur and also by controlling the number of mitochondria in the cells.  If your thyroid is producing too little T3 hormone, you will have less mitochondria, which means that your body is less able to produce sufficient amounts of energy.  This causes you to have less energy and to feel sluggish.

In your late 20’s, your thyroid levels decline and so does your ability to produce energy.  People over 30 years old understand that they don’t have the get up and go that they did when they were 18 years old.  A very obvious example of this is to look at professional athletes.  There is a big drop off in the number of professional athletes for each decade of life when you look at the 20s, 30s and 40s.

The process that occurs in the mitochondria that produces energy is called the Kreb’s cycle.  The chemical reactions in the Kreb’s cycle are dependent on specific nutrients such as the B-vitamins, magnesium, iron, phosphorus, sulfur, copper, manganese, lipoic acid and CoQ10.

People are commonly low in B-vitamins, magnesium and CoQ10.  Being low in these nutrients hurts your ability to produce energy.

How is cholesterol prescribed statin drugs related to low energy and the thyroid gland?

Low levels of thyroid hormones can cause an elevation of cholesterol levels and can also lower your ability to produce energy.

Cholesterol drugs, such as statins, reduce your level of CoQ10.  As I have just pointed out, a low level of CoQ10 reduces your energy level.