Underactive Thyroid (Hypothyroidism): What Mr Iyengar, The Yoga Doctors And The Research Say

Tired all the time, always cold, and the scales creeping up, even on your thyroid tablets? An underactive thyroid can feel like living with the brakes on. Yoga does not replace your medicine, and the trials say it does not need to: added to it, yoga lifted energy, mood and thyroid blood results. This guide brings together what Mr BKS Iyengar, the yoga doctors and the research say about hypothyroidism and Hashimoto’s disease. Last updated: 1 November 2026.

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Underactive thyroid and yoga: the short answer

Does yoga help hypothyroidism? Yes, as an add-on to your medicine. In randomised trials, people with an underactive thyroid who added yoga to their levothyroxine (thyroid hormone tablets) had better thyroid blood tests, lower cholesterol, more energy, less low mood and better quality of life than people on medicine alone. In one trial they needed less medicine. Mr Iyengar’s books have no thyroid course, but his institute’s teachers work the chest and neck with props, and the yoga doctors add a useful caution: no single pose does the job on its own. A whole practice does.

One thing to keep in mind as you read: every trial on this page tested “yoga” from Indian research centres, mostly integrated programmes of many parts. None has yet tested Iyengar yoga, taught by trained Iyengar teachers, for the thyroid. In our view, well-taught Iyengar yoga is likely to go further than the average. Why the kind of yoga matters.

The bottom line: five key moves for an underactive thyroid

1. Go to a yoga class at your level, several times a week. The trials that worked ran for 3 to 6 months, often an hour a day, five days a week. Come often and give it 12 weeks.
2. Add pranayama (breathing practice). Slow breathing calms the mind and brings stress and low mood down, and it was part of nearly every programme that helped.
3. Keep moving on low days. Choose restorative, supported poses rather than stopping. Rest in a pose is still practice.
4. Keep your medicine going. In every trial, yoga was added to levothyroxine, never used in its place. Always follow the directions of any doctor you are consulting.
5. Start now. New to Flametree, or away 3 months or more? 2 free classes, then 10 at half price, in Darwin or LIVE online.

Iyengar yoga is the style we teach at Flametree. During the 20th century, Mr BKS Iyengar was the major person who codified traditional Indian yoga, through his seminal books and widespread teaching. He also pioneered the use of props, so poses can be adapted to almost any body. His style is sometimes called modern classical yoga. This guide is part of our encyclopaedia of yoga for health conditions.

This guide in short

• Mr BKS Iyengar: no thyroid course in his books; his Pune institute’s notes open the chest and curve the neck back over props.
• Geeta S Iyengar: a few short lines only, and a rule worth keeping: practice should never end in fatigue.
• Dr Timothy McCall: no thyroid chapter; an underactive thyroid is one cause of carpal tunnel.
• Dr Krishna Raman: the cautious voice. One pose cannot do the work alone.
• The research: 13 studies listed below, from three reviews to four randomised trials.
• Take it further: a free ebook, our January 2027 sleep and energy masterclass, and classes in Darwin and online.

“Fear and fatigue block the mind. Face both, then courage and confidence flow into you.”

What is an underactive thyroid?

The thyroid is a small gland at the base of the front of the neck. Its hormones set how fast the body burns energy. In hypothyroidism it makes too little, and the body slows down. Up to 5% of people may have it, with perhaps as many again not yet diagnosed, and it is more common in women. At Flametree, thyroid medication is one of the things new students most often mention at their first class.

Common hypothyroidism symptoms, also called underactive thyroid symptoms, in our own words:

• Body: tiredness, feeling the cold, weight gain, aches, dry skin and hair loss.
• Mind: low mood, poor concentration and feeling slow.
• Blood tests: a high TSH (thyroid-stimulating hormone, the brain’s signal that rises when the thyroid is lagging) and low T4 and T3 (the thyroid hormones).

Hashimoto’s disease (Hashimoto’s thyroiditis) is an autoimmune cause of hypothyroidism: the body’s defences attack the thyroid itself. The usual medicine for both is levothyroxine, a daily thyroid hormone tablet. Men get hypothyroidism too, and the largest tele-yoga trial below included men, but nearly all the people studied so far are women.

What did Mr BKS Iyengar teach about the thyroid?

In short: he gave no thyroid course, but his institute’s teachers work the chest and neck with props, inside a whole practice for the person.

• No thyroid course. Yoga: The Path to Holistic Health sets out a yoga approach for 72 health conditions, and an underactive thyroid is not one of them.
• A sluggish thyroid and cold hands and feet. In his section on cold extremities (p. 264) he describes blood collecting in the trunk and not reaching the hands and feet, often from a sluggish thyroid, stress or nerves. His course brings effort and warmth outwards through standing poses, twists and inverted work. Our circulation guide covers cold hands and feet in full.
• Women’s health. In the same book (p. 378) he lists thyroid imbalance among the women’s problems he says yoga can help: his claim, made from long practice.

In Light on Yoga, his first book, Mr Iyengar’s appendix of asanas for ailments has no entry for the thyroid, goitre or hypothyroidism. The nearest entries are for obesity and general tiredness.

The Pune teachers’ notes. Two sets of therapy notes from Mr Iyengar’s institute in Pune (the Pune Medical Notes, 1996 and 1997, marked student study material) cover students with hypothyroidism. In our words, the approach lifts and opens the chest, curves the neck back over a support such as a bolster, platform or rope, and uses supported inverted work. The 1997 note is for one woman of 51 who also had diabetes and neck trouble, so her practice was built for all three at once. Two points stand out. The notes stress opening the front of the neck more than tucking the chin. And there is no single thyroid formula: the practice is built for the whole person. We do not publish the sequences. They need a teacher who can see you.

“Never perform asanas mechanically.”

What Geeta S Iyengar wrote

In short: very little on the thyroid, but a clear rule for anyone low on energy.

An underactive thyroid is far more common in women, so we checked Geeta S Iyengar’s Yoga: A Gem for Women closely. The thyroid comes up only in a few short lines on what certain poses do (pp. 126, 176 and 216), and she notes that the parathyroid glands, which sit beside the thyroid, govern how the bones take up calcium (p. 70). She gives no thyroid course.

Her guidance on how to practise matters more here. She says the time in poses should be built up gradually, judging your own strength, and that practice should not end in fatigue. A feeling of fresh health afterwards is her sign that you are working correctly. For someone whose thyroid already leaves them tired, that is the right test of a good class.

“…practice of Yoga should not end in fatigue.”

What Dr Timothy McCall says

In short: no thyroid chapter, but the thyroid turns up where you would not expect it.

Dr McCall is a US medical doctor and yoga therapist, author of Yoga as Medicine and former medical editor of Yoga Journal. His June 2019 list of conditions helped by yoga includes hypothyroidism (no. 44). His book has no chapter on it. In his carpal tunnel chapter he notes that an underactive thyroid is one of the things that can narrow the space in the wrist and press on the nerve, which is why wrist trouble and thyroid trouble sometimes come together. Our wrist pain and carpal tunnel guide covers that in full, and his chronic fatigue chapter is set out in our chronic fatigue guide.

“Practice of yoga destroys the sluggishness of the body…”

What Dr Krishna Raman says

In short: be realistic about any one pose, and about weight.

Dr Raman is a Chennai physician who trained in yoga under Mr Iyengar. His question-and-answer book on yoga and medical science has a short section on the glands. His views, in our words:

• One pose is not enough. In his view, Shoulder Stand done daily cannot on its own correct a thyroid problem. That cuts against the popular promise that one pose will reset the thyroid.
• Weight. In his view, yoga does not bring weight loss in disease states such as hypothyroidism. Our weight and cortisol belly guide carries the same caution.
• Inversions still matter. He also says inverted poses affect the pituitary and thyroid glands: his view, not yet tested in a trial.

His caution and the trials fit together. The trials did not test one pose. They tested whole programmes of poses, breathing and relaxation, and BMI (body mass index) did fall in one of them. That is how we teach too.

“Yoga does not eat away energy; it supplies. That’s the beauty of it.”

Other yoga voices on the thyroid

• The teaching tradition links the neck and chest poses to the thyroid. Many Iyengar teachers, Chris Lalor among them, include Shoulder Stand, Plough, Legs Up The Wall and backbends in women’s classes with the thyroid in mind. This is known from practice, a teaching tradition rather than a tested result. Our yoga for hormonal balance note sets out that tradition, and which poses it uses.
• The trial programmes used the same families of poses. A 2025 review of 13 studies found sun salutations, Cobra, Fish, Shoulder Stand and Plough were the most common, with ocean breath (Ujjayi), alternate nostril breath, humming breath (Bhramari), shining skull breath (Kapalabhati) and the chin lock.
• Dr Loren Fishman and Dr J. T. Shah: we have found nothing from either on the thyroid so far. We will add it if we do.

“…this gives rest and helps one recover from fatigue.”

What does the research show about yoga for hypothyroidism?

In short: a young but fast-growing body of research, almost all positive. In every trial, yoga was added to the person’s usual levothyroxine. Most of these studies tested yoga in general, mostly integrated programmes from Indian research centres; no Iyengar yoga trial for the thyroid exists yet. Why the difference matters.

Reviews

• Most studies found better thyroid results, lower cholesterol and BMI, calmer heart control, better mood and better sleep. Programmes of 1 to 6 months, mostly sun salutations, poses, pranayama and meditation. Baishya and Metri 2024, a review of 11 studies and 516 people with hypothyroidism. Read the study.
• Yoga improved the thyroid profile, cholesterol, heart rate variability (a measure of calm heart control), lung function, anxiety, depression and quality of life. Bhandari and Mahto 2024, a review of 8 studies and 421 people with hypothyroidism, 392 of them women, over 3 to 6 months. Read the study.
• Thyroid hormones moved towards balance, and stress, anxiety and depression fell, with better quality of life. Amrita 2025, a review of 13 studies and 389 people with thyroid disease, 9 of the studies on hypothyroidism. Read the study.

Randomised trials

• Yoga improved TSH, T3 and T4, cut the levothyroxine dose needed, improved cholesterol and BMI, and lowered daytime sleepiness and depression. Three months of live online yoga, an hour a day, five days a week, on top of medicine, against medicine alone. Bhandari 2025, 62 women from AIIMS Rishikesh. Read the study.
• Quality of life rose in every area, most of all in mental health and energy, and the thyroid profile, BMI, blood pressure, fatigue and stress all improved. Six months of instructor-led online yoga with levothyroxine, against a waiting list. 95% of the yoga group were satisfied. Nilkantham 2025, 134 people. Read the study.
• TSH fell, along with interleukin-6 (a marker of inflammation) and a marker of oxidative stress; the control group did not change. Eight weeks of standard yoga poses added to usual care. Sharma 2024, 112 people. Read the study.
• The calming (parasympathetic) side of the nervous system grew stronger, the blood pressure reflex improved, and blood pressure fell. Three months of yoga with levothyroxine, against levothyroxine alone. Karthiga 2025, 99 women aged 18 to 50. Read the study.

Smaller studies

• Depression fell by 58%, fatigue by 64%, anxiety by 57%, stress by 55% and TSH by 37%. Three months of integrated yoga, an hour a day, five days a week, with medicine held steady. Rani 2021, a pilot of 38 women with hypothyroidism and depression. Read the study.
• Cholesterol fell, good HDL cholesterol rose, and the thyroxine medicine score dropped by 15%. Six months of yoga, an hour a day, four days a week. Nilakanthan 2016, a pilot of 22 women. Read the study.
• Quality of life rose after one month of daily yoga. Singh 2011, 20 women with hypothyroidism. Read the study.

Iyengar yoga studies

No trial has yet tested Iyengar yoga, taught by trained Iyengar teachers, for an underactive thyroid. Not yet studied is not the same as not working. The programmes that helped share a lot with how we teach yoga for hypothyroidism: poses, breath and rest together, practised often, over months.

Hashimoto’s disease and the immune system

• After six months of yoga with standard care, TSH fell by 67%, thyroid antibodies by 11%, and depression, anxiety and stress scores dropped sharply. Chakraborty and Kumar 2026, a case report of one 32-year-old woman with Hashimoto’s. The authors note one case cannot show how much was the yoga. Read the study.
• Yoga, including Iyengar yoga, improved stress, anxiety, sleep, confidence and depression in autoimmune conditions. Nagy 2025, a review of 11 studies, mostly multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis. No Hashimoto’s trials were among them. Read the study.

Pranayama, humming breath included, helps balance and improve the immune system, and so helps with what the immune system does. Our inflammation and immune system guide sets out why.

Breathing practice (pranayama)

• Six months of pranayama and meditation improved lung function in women with hypothyroidism. Forty-five minutes a day, alongside their usual medicine. Swami 2010, 20 women. Read the study.

That study used pranayama itself. In the larger trials, breathing was one part of a package, and the papers rarely say exactly which techniques were taught, or how. The pranayama we teach (staircase, ocean, alternate nostril, humming and a gentle shining skull breath) is slow, nasal and taught step by step, and we suggest starting with some yoga poses first, because asana quietens the mind and makes the breathing easier to learn. Why the kind of breathing matters.

Relaxation

• Fatigue and depression fell sharply in four weeks, while the routine care group did not change. Progressive muscle relaxation (tensing and releasing each muscle group) twice a day. Safarabadi 2026, a trial of 68 adults whose symptoms continued on thyroid hormone. Read the study.

That was relaxation, not yoga, but every Iyengar class ends in Savasana, a deep, guided relaxation lying down.

“Everyone desires more life energy.”

How this comes together in a Flametree class

Everything above points the same way, and it is how we teach at our Darwin studios and online.

• Props in every class: bolsters, chairs, blankets, belts and the wall, so the chest can open and the neck is protected.
• Classes adapted to the people in them. No one-size-fits-all. Tell your teacher about your thyroid or a sore neck, and the poses are changed for you.
• A whole practice: standing poses for warmth and strength, chest openers, supported inversions and rest, not one magic pose.
• Low-energy days: our restorative yoga and gentle yoga classes are built on supported poses that rest the body while they restore it.
• Breath and calm: every class ends in rest, and our pranayama classes go further when you are ready.

Read more on the thyroid, energy and hormones

• Yoga for hormonal balance: the glands, cortisol, and the poses taught for the thyroid
• Chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia and fatigue: when tiredness will not lift
• Weight, stress eating and cortisol belly: why the yogic approach to weight is counterintuitive
• Perimenopause symptoms and yoga: midlife tiredness, mood and sleep
• Circulation and cold hands and feet
• Yoga in pregnancy and after the birth
• Depression and low mood
• Shoulder Stand and Plough: the queen of yoga poses
• What is restorative yoga? The science behind lying still

Take it further

This guide gives you the facts. The ebook, the masterclass and the classes are how you put them into action.

• Classes, in Darwin or LIVE online: new, or away 3 months or more? 2 free classes, then 10 at half price. Already practising yoga? See the non-beginner half price pass. See every class time.
• Masterclass: Yoga for sleep and energy, Sunday 10 January 2027, one of our 2027 Sunday Arvo Masterclasses with Chris Lalor, Certified Senior Iyengar Yoga Teacher and certified Yoga Therapist. You learn the restful poses, sequences and pranayama that lift a tired body, in Darwin or online.
• Retreats: a week of daily yoga and rest in Bali. See the retreats.

Other conditions are in our encyclopaedia of yoga for health conditions.

Underactive thyroid and yoga: questions people ask

What is the difference between hypothyroidism and Hashimoto’s disease?

Hypothyroidism means the thyroid makes too little hormone. Hashimoto’s disease (Hashimoto’s thyroiditis) is one cause of it: the body’s own defences attack the thyroid. Most yoga trials enrolled people with hypothyroidism in general and found it helped as an add-on to their medicine. No controlled trial has yet tested yoga for Hashimoto’s on its own, though a 2026 case report described a woman whose thyroid results and mood improved over six months of yoga.

Why am I so tired with an underactive thyroid, and can yoga help?

Thyroid hormone sets how fast the body uses energy, so too little leaves many people tired, cold and slow. In a 2025 trial of 134 people, six months of live online yoga lifted energy and vitality scores sharply and lowered fatigue and stress. A 2026 trial found a simple relaxation practice twice a day cut fatigue in four weeks. Our chronic fatigue guide has more.

What did the yoga programmes in the hypothyroidism trials involve?

Most ran for 3 to 6 months, about an hour a session, often five days a week. They combined poses, pranayama (breathing practice), relaxation and meditation, rather than one pose. Sun salutations, Shoulder Stand, Plough, Fish and Cobra were common, with ocean breath, alternate nostril and humming breath. Everyone kept taking their thyroid medicine.

Does yoga help with the weight gain that comes with an underactive thyroid?

It can help. In the 2025 Bhandari trial, women who added three months of yoga to their medicine had a lower BMI (body mass index) than the control group, and a pilot found BMI fell by 6%. Dr Krishna Raman adds a caution: in his view yoga does not bring weight loss in disease states such as hypothyroidism on its own. Our weight guide covers stress eating and cortisol.

Is Shoulder Stand good for the thyroid?

Shoulder Stand is taught in the yoga tradition with the thyroid in mind, and it appears in many of the trial programmes. No trial has tested it alone. Dr Krishna Raman’s view is that Shoulder Stand alone cannot correct a thyroid problem. At Flametree it is taught on folded blankets to protect the neck, and changed for you if your neck is sore.

What did Mr BKS Iyengar teach about the thyroid?

Mr Iyengar’s books give no course for an underactive thyroid, and Light on Yoga has no thyroid entry. In Yoga: The Path to Holistic Health he names a sluggish thyroid as one cause of cold hands and feet. Notes from his institute in Pune show teachers working the chest and neck with props, curving the neck back over a support, as part of a whole practice for the person.

Can relaxation or pranayama help the low mood that comes with hypothyroidism?

Yes. In a pilot of 38 women with hypothyroidism and depression, three months of integrated yoga cut depression scores by 58% and anxiety by 57%. The 2025 Bhandari trial found less depression too, and a 2026 trial of progressive muscle relaxation lowered depression in four weeks. Pranayama trains the same steady, slow breathing that calms the mind.

Where can I do yoga for an underactive thyroid in Darwin or online?

Flametree Yoga Studio teaches Iyengar yoga at Woolner and Coolalinga in Darwin, and LIVE online across Australia, with props in every class and restorative and pranayama classes for low-energy days. New, or away 3 months or more? You get 2 free classes, then 10 at half price.

Where this comes from: BKS Iyengar, Yoga: The Path to Holistic Health (Dorling Kindersley), cold extremities (pp. 264 to 265) and women’s health (p. 378); Light on Yoga, Appendix II (no thyroid entry). Pune Medical Notes, Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute, 1996 and 1997 (student study material, described in our words only). Geeta S Iyengar, Yoga: A Gem for Women, pp. 70, 126, 176 and 216 and Hints and Suggestions for the Practice of Asanas. Timothy McCall MD, Yoga as Medicine (Bantam), carpal tunnel chapter, and his June 2019 list of health conditions helped by yoga. Krishna Raman MD and S. Suresh MD, Yoga and Medical Science: FAQ, the questions on the glands (Q397 to Q400). Nasim, Iyengar Yoga Canada, 2026. Studies as linked above, checked on PubMed. Everything is summarised in our own words.

This page is general information, not medical advice. Flametree Yoga Studio, Darwin and LIVE online.