By Maïté De Jaegher, co-founder of Suplemint
You’re exhausted from the moment you wake up. You’re always cold. You gain weight for no reason. You’re losing your hair. Your doctor looks at your test results and tells you: “Everything is normal.”
If you recognize yourself in these words, know that you are not alone. And above all: you are not crazy.
I know what I’m talking about. Before co-founding Suplemint, I experienced exactly the same thing. For years I suffered from unexplained fatigue, I gained weight despite all my efforts, my hands were constantly cold and my hair fell out in handfuls. And each time, the same answer: “Your tests are normal, ma’am.”
It was this frustration that pushed me to dig into the subject. In creating Suplemint with my husband Adrien, I spoke with hundreds of functional medicine doctors, nutritionists and clients — mostly women — who told me exactly the same story. Their tests show nothing abnormal, but their bodies send very clear signals.
Here are the 7 most common signs that your thyroid needs support.
1. Fatigue that doesn’t go away, even after a good night’s sleep
It’s the number one sign, and it’s the one that affected me most personally. It’s not the “normal” end-of-day tiredness. It’s a deep fatigue from the moment you wake up, as if you hadn’t slept. The kind of tiredness that makes you want to nap at 2 p.m., every day.
I remember waking up after 9 hours of sleep and feeling like I’d only slept 3. For a long time I thought that was “normal.” It wasn’t.
What the functional doctors we work with explain to us: when the thyroid slows down, it produces fewer T3 and T4 hormones. These hormones are the “fuel” for every cell in your body. Less fuel = less energy. It’s as simple as that.
2. Unexplained weight gain (or an inability to lose weight)
This one is probably the most frustrating. You eat healthily. You move. And yet, the scale doesn’t budge — or worse, it goes up. When I talk about it with our clients, it’s often the trigger: “I do everything right and it doesn’t work.”
Thyroid hormones directly regulate your basal metabolic rate. When they decrease, your body burns fewer calories at rest. Result: even with a balanced diet, weight settles in, especially around the belly.
3. You’re always cold
Ice-cold hands, cold feet under the duvet, needing to wear a sweater in the middle of summer… How many times have I heard "Aren't you hot?!" while I was shivering in July. It's such a classic sign that functional doctors tell us they often spot it as soon as they shake hands with their patients.
Thermogenesis — your body's ability to produce heat — depends directly on your thyroid hormones. Less hormones = less heat.
4. Hair loss and dry skin
Your hair comes out in handfuls in the shower. Your skin is dry and rough despite creams. Your nails are brittle. It's the sign that scared me the most personally. Seeing your hair fall out without understanding why is distressing.
These are signs that your cells aren't renewing quickly enough — a direct effect of thyroid slowdown. Hair follicles are particularly sensitive to hormonal variations. When the thyroid slows, the hair renewal cycle shortens, causing diffuse hair loss.
5. Brain fog and difficulty concentrating
You forget words. You lose the thread of a conversation. You reread the same paragraph three times. This "brain fog" is one of the most frustrating and least recognized signs of a slowing thyroid.
It's also one of the hardest things to explain to those around you. "I'm not stupid, I'm not distracted — my brain is running slowly." Many of our clients describe exactly that to us.
Your brain is one of the organs that uses the most thyroid hormones. When supply decreases, your cognitive functions are directly affected.
6. Mood swings, anxiety, or depressive tendencies
If your mood fluctuates for no apparent reason, if you feel more anxious or more "flat" than usual, the thyroid could be to blame. Before my diagnosis, I had periods where I felt off without understanding why. I chalked it up to stress or fatigue.
Thyroid hormones play a direct role in the production of serotonin and dopamine, two neurotransmitters essential for emotional balance. When these hormones drop, mood follows.
7. Slowed transit and bloating
Chronic constipation is often overlooked. When the thyroid slows down, the entire digestive system slows with it. Transit becomes sluggish, food sits longer in the gut, which causes bloating, gas, and a swollen belly.
This phenomenon is so common that some specialists call it a "thyroid belly" to describe this abdominal swelling that is not just fat. If your stomach is flat in the morning and bloated in the evening, it's probably not "what you eat" — it's the speed at which your body digests.
Why don't your tests show anything?
That's the question I asked myself for years. And the answer that functional medicine doctors gave me is actually quite simple.
Most doctors rely solely on TSH (thyroid-stimulating hormone) to assess your thyroid. However, this test alone only gives a partial picture. It does not measure your free T3 (the active hormone), the quality of the T4 → T3 conversion, or your antibody levels.
Result: your TSH may be "within the normal range" while your thyroid is not functioning optimally. Normal does not mean optimal. That's the phrase I heard most often from the specialists we work with at Suplemint.
What to do if you recognize yourself?
If 3 signs or more resonate with you, your thyroid deserves special attention. Here's what I wish someone had told me a few years ago:
1. Ask for a complete thyroid panel (TSH, free T3, free T4, anti-TPO and anti-TG antibodies) to your doctor. Insist if necessary. It's your right.
2. Support your thyroid with the right micronutrients. Iodine and selenium contribute to the normal functioning of the thyroid gland.* L-tyrosine is a precursor to thyroid hormones. Zinc and B vitamins contribute to energy metabolism.
3. Take care of your adrenal glands. Chronic stress directly affects the T4 → T3 conversion. Adaptogens like ashwagandha can help maintain balance.
It’s exactly this multi-active approach that we have integrated into the THYROID® Pack Suplemint: iodine, selenium, zinc, ashwagandha KSM 66®, guggul, L-tyrosine and over 20 vitamins and antioxidants, in 4 capsules per day.
When I started supporting my thyroid this way, everything changed for me. Today, 83% of our 6,000+ customers notice an improvement after 1 month.**
Discover Suplemint's THYROID® Pack
*Iodine contributes to the normal production of thyroid hormones. Selenium contributes to the normal functioning of the thyroid gland. **Study carried out on a panel of 500 Suplemint customers who followed the THYROID® Pack for more than 1 month.
Maïté de Jaegher
Co-founder of Suplemint, diagnosed with hypothyroidism
