Why Do People Get Thyroid Problems-

Questioner: Sadhguru, these days, many people are diagnosed with thyroid problems, either hypothyroidism or… hyper or hypothyroidism. Even though we are consuming iodized salt, still thyroid problems are prevalent. What is the cause for the increase in these problems? Is it stress-related like diabetes or hypertension? Can we overcome these conditions with hatha yoga, or kriya, or being in a consecrated space like Isha Yoga Center? What are the things we can do to come out of it?

Sadhguru: I think a whole lot of people have come out of it with hatha yoga practice, no question about it. Being in a consecrated place definitely adds to it. But, this pretty widespread manifestation of thyroid imbalance. See, we must understand this. What you’re calling as thyroid - in yoga, we don’t look at the glands like that but medically, what you’re calling as thyroid is that secretion within you, which is trying to calibrate your system on a daily basis. It’s just calibrating how much digestion should happen, how much energy should be produced, how much fat should be produced, how much muscle should be built, everything, it’s trying to calibrate your physical structure.

Your physical structure is very closely related to your psychological structure. Today, there is substantial evidence to show you that if you sit here and think of the mountain, your glandular function will happen in a certain way, if you think about a tiger, it’ll happen another way, you think about a ocean, it’ll happen another way, you think of a man or a woman, it’ll happen another way. Just a thought – nothing, no contact with mountain, no contact with tiger, no contact with man, woman or ocean – just a thought will fluctuate the glandular function. I’m saying that is how fine the system is that it is trying to calibrate everything to keep you in a good place.

The problem with you is you need a bullock cart because you are the missing link (Laughs). You need a bullock cart but they gave you a fine spaceship, tch. Every little thing will do a world of things. Simply if you touch it, it’ll go boom, waves of stuff happening in the system. Simply if you look like this (Gestures) and make one conclusion about the tree, this (Referring to oneself) will go into many varieties of chemical and other kinds of variations. Glandular functions will change.

Wherever you may be, whether you’re in Mumbai, or New York, or London, wherever – just look at the situation in which you’re walking. Maybe socially, you’ve gotten used to those things. But look at the kind of atmosphere you’re walking in, the number of things that are happening. None of them are conducive for this life (Referring to oneself). You might have gotten adjusted to it, maybe now you can’t live out of those cities, that’s another matter but the life that you are, is not seeking that kind of atmosphere. So the number of variations that are happening within you are not in your favor. Glandular dysfunction is just one manifestation. A very highly calibrated function of glandular function, one thing is the thyroid. It’s easily noticeable, the first thing, your physiological and psychological parameters get thrown off a bit, simply because disturbance.

And another dimension is what’s the disturbance that’s happening from within you – your own psychological patterns. Another dimension of disturbance is what kind of food is getting into you. There is no way you can eat anything today, which is not chemically infested. If you’re eating very organic food, it’s little organic chemicals they’re using. It’s come to that place (A participant laughs). It’s very difficult to eat something that’s just grown in the wild forest, you can pluck out something and eat. That’s very, very little. Not even a small percentage of people are...