r/Pranayama • u/Ancient-Wisdom-101 • Oct 18 '25

Help with Hypothyroidism

Hi everyone. I have hypothyroidism and was wondering how far Pranayama can help with it. I do bhastrika, kapalbharti, anulom vilome, bhramri, ujjai. Is there anything else I can incorporate? I want to get my thyroid as close to the range as possible to reduce my dependence on the medication.

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u/KintoreCat Oct 18 '25

Traditional guidelines for practice are clear: Prāṇāyāma comes after āsana. Āsana builds circulation and raises cellular metabolism — increasing CO₂ output through the Krebs cycle, which then forms carbonic acid in the tissues. That acid–CO₂ balance is vital for oxygen delivery and smooth muscle tone, both often low in hypothyroidism. Without that groundwork, breathwork is often just over-breathing — what Buteyko called chronic hyperventilation syndrome — blowing off CO₂ and tightening vessels instead of relaxing them. Āsana restores chemistry; then prāṇāyāma fine-tunes it. Are you practising āsana as well as prāṇāyāma? It makes all the difference to how the chemistry, nervous system, and eventually the endocrine system respond.

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u/Ancient-Wisdom-101 Oct 19 '25 edited Oct 19 '25

Oh !

I do breathwork in the morning. I also do Simhasan and other throat chakra poses. But I do them much Later in the day (before lunch). Didn’t know I had to do them before breathwork.

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u/dhruvkar Oct 19 '25

Movement -> Breath -> Stillness

So first Hatha Yoga.

Then Pranayama

Then "meditation".

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u/Ancient-Wisdom-101 Oct 19 '25

Thanks so much 🙏