Acid blockers, digestion, and elimination. Episode 8.

Terrible heart burn !!What helps? Has anybody had any issues with Omeprazole or any acid reducer.

OMEPRAZOLE: aka Losec, Prilosec, Prilosec OTC and Zegerid

classified therapeutically as antiulcer agent and pharmacologically as a proton-pump inhibitor

Used for maintenance of healing in erosive esophagitis, duodenal ulcers with or without H.Pylori. Short term treatment of active benign gastric ulcer. The OTC or over the counter is for heart burn occurring more than or equal to 2x a week. 

What does it do?  it binds to an enzyme on gastric parietal cells in the presence of stomach acid. It diminishes the accumulation of acid in the gastric lumen with lessened gastroesophageal reflux and helps heal duodenal ulcers. 

Binds 95% of protein and is metabolized by the liver with a half life of 30 min to an hour. Half life means how long it takes for half of a medication to be eliminated from the blood stream.  

It says to use cautiously in liver disease, in geriatric patients due to increased risk of hip fractures in patients on high doses for longer than one year and in pregnancy, lactation or children. 

Acid blockers like the ones mentioned and also things like mylanta, maalox, tums alka-seltzer, tagamet, pepcid, zantac etc all will lessen the amount of stomach acid you have in your stomach. So how will you break down your food? That is what it is there for.  The acid blockers change the pH of your stomach which is supposed to be very acidic at around 3 I think. This low pH is how we break down our food, especially protein. Protein gets broken down in to amino acids which become neurotransmitter. Stomach acid breaks down our food so we can extract the nutrients we need from it. 

Low stomach acid, which happens naturally as we age and most of us with hypothyroidism don’t make enough of it can lead to anemia, candida, fatigue, constipation/diarrhea, tooth decay, hair loss, and a higher risk of developing food sensitivities. 

So you have less acid when you take an acid blocker but you also have a deficiency of good bacteria, calcium, coq10, folate, glutathione, iron, magnesium, melatonin, niacin, potassium, B vitamins, selenium, vitamin A, C, D and zinc. 

Hypothyroidism can lead to hypochlorhydria or too little stomach acid. This is what often causes acid reflux. When food is not digested well by the acid in your stomach it will putrefy, ferment and become rancid in the stomach. Our small intestine doesn’t like to let undigested or poorly digested food from the stomach enter there so it backs up in to the esophagus, irritating the tissue there and causing heart burn. 

Coffee and nicotine reduce the pressure on the esophageal sphincter so you end up with more reflux.

The food is not as acidic as it should be it doesn’t stimulate the gallbladder to secrete bile to emulsify fat and the pancreas doesn’t get signaled to release digestive enzymes to further digest the food. So you have this rotting food moving through the intestines which will eventually cause inflammation, maybe even an infection and likely leaky gut or intestinal permeability. 

The fat in the food isn’t being broken down by bile from the gallbladder so your cells are not getting any minerals. Zinc is a mineral which helps us produce enough stomach acid. Having hypothyroidism messes with our gallbladder function and it can cause it to become sluggish and it won’t release enough bile. Combine that with the SAD and you have the perfect storm for gallbladder attacks.  When the gallbladder isn’t working well, the liver also becomes sluggish and backed up so it can’t detoxify our hormones, toxins or other things. 

So as you can see, having less than good digestion is a real big problem for those of us with sluggish thyroids. Along with zinc, we end up depleted in tyrosine, selenium and vitamin A and D. When it is not working well it plays a role in autoimmune disease as well. Perfect. Look at all we have going for us!  We have a large amount of our immune system in our gut- around 60-80%. If our digestive tract is out of wack, inflamed, or if we are dealing with parasites then our adrenal glands will end up depleted. This will make your thyroid sluggish as well. 

It just keeps getting better for us. 

Ideal elimination from the time you eat a meal to the time it leaves you in the form of a bowel movement is between 16-24 hours. This is slower with hypothyroidism.  Constipation is anything longer than what your normal elimination would be. You can end up with malabsorption issues and toxins  and hormones get recycled which add fuel to the fire. There is a good chance you will be growing more of the harmful bacteria putting your good guys at risk for being taken over by the bad guys. Remember that we convert some T4 to T3 in the gut but we won’t do that as well when there is an imbalance of bad to good bacteria. 20% of thyroid function relies on the right balance of bacteria. 

Another biggie mentioned briefly earlier is the elimination of hormones, particularly estrogen. I am not a hormone expert but I do know that poor digestion means you can end up with higher amounts of estrogen that can lead to hypothyroidism that doesn’t show up on a blood test. This information came from Why Do I Still Have Thyroid Symptoms from Datis Kharrazian. He says that “excess estrogen binds the thyroid transport proteins so that thyroid hormones cannot get to the cells to do their jobs, causing hypothyroidism symptoms”

There are a lot of things you can do to eliminate acid reflux and keep things moving along smoothly. 

Food sensitivities or allergies can cause reflux or silent reflux which often has a cough with it. 

Look at your diet. As per usual, gluten free, dairy free and an elimination diet are the first place to start.  Remove also, eggs, corn, soy and yeast. This will give your immune system a break. A chance to calm down and your gut can repair itself.  These foods should be eliminated for 3-4 weeks. The longer the better.  Typical food reactions can look like skin rashes, eczema, acne, fatigue, joint pain, bloating, gas, heartburn, constipation, diarrhea and even nasal congestion. You can have anxiety, irritability, headaches and more. 

Manage your blood sugar. 

Stress. Don’t eat when you are stressed, take a minute to calm down, sit at the table without a phone, book or anything else. Take a few deep breaths, say grace if you like or whatever. Then take a bite of your food and chew it really well. Like 20-30 times per bite. 

Don’t drink a lot of water and avoid anything bubbly with dinner. The phosphorus in pop can put you in to sympathetic or fight or flight which will automatically turn off stomach acid production. 

You can take digestive bitters about 20 minutes before dinner and if that is not enough you may need to supplement with stomach acid. Something called Betaine HCl. I like a product called Hydrozyme from Biotics Research. I recommend buying it from a practitioner, not off of Amazon. 

To find out how much you need you take a bite of food, chew it well, swallow it and then take an HCl supplement with a small amount of water. Take another bite of food, chew it well and take another pill. Keep doing this until you feel a little burn, kind of like heartburn or like you just took a shot of alcohol. If you felt the burn at 3 pills then you know you only need 2 at each meal. Eventually you can get enough healing of your body done that you will start to make more stomach acid and you won’t need to take as much of the supplement. 

You can check in on your digestion by keeping a food journal. Write down everything you eat and drink and how you feel afterward. Keep track of your bowel movements. Look at them. Do you see undigested food in your stools?  What shape are they?  You can google the Bristol Stool Chart and see where you are at and where you need to be. Your eliminations should be solid, about the length of your forearm from your elbow to your wrist. It should come out with no straining, you should not feel like your elimination wasn’t complete and you should not have much on the toilet paper after you wipe. 

If you want to test your transit time you can take some activated charcoal pills, like 5 of them or you can eat about a cup of beets, or take 2 tablespoons of sesame seeds. Take them first thing in the morning, don’t chew the seeds if you use them, just swallow them. You want to be able to see them when they come out.  Write down what time you take them and what day you take them. Then keep track of your bowel movements. Write down the first time you see the seeds, beets or charcoal (your stool will be black with charcoal and reddish with beets) and write down the last time you saw them in your stool. The difference between the time you swallowed them and the last time you saw them is your transit time. Remember we are looking for anywhere from 16-24 hours.  Also, ideally you might go two times a day. 

That is it for me today. If you have any questions about this episode or you would like to submit a question for the podcast, please feel free to leave a comment on my website, www.outofthewoodsnutrition.com or www.helpforhashimotos.com or email me at helpforhashimotos@gmail.com

You can find me on facebook at www.facebook.com/outofthewoodsnutrition or on instagram at stephanieewalsntp. 

Thanks so much for listening. I really appreciate it. If you enjoy listening to this and want others to have access to it, I would appreciate it if you left a review on iTunes for me. My goal is to help as many people with thyroid problems and Hashimoto’s or other autoimmune diseases and I can’t do that without your help. Please help spread the word.

The first step to getting your life back is believing that you can!

Thanks again. See you next time. 

Natural desiccated thyroid hormone vs. synthetic, dry brittle hair, and having invisible illness. Episode 6.

I have Hashimotos and recently my hair has turned extremely dry and brittle. My doctor increased my medication a month ago, but still no change in my hair. I definitely feel as though it’s caused by something with in me as opposed to any products I may be using on my hair since those have not changed. Any suggestions would be sincerely appreciated!

Jody

Losing your hair and or having dry brittle hair are common symptoms in hypothyroidism. Some things that might be causing this for you are: 

1. is your thyroid medication/treatment optimal?

   1. all the cells in our body need thyroid hormones to function properly. T4 only medications like levothyroxine and synthroid might not be working well for you. Maybe your body doesn’t do well converting t4 to t3 which is what your cells use. You might need a T4/T3 combo medication.

   2. Make sure your doctor is testing TSH, Free T3, Free T4, Reverse T3 and the antibodies- TPO and TgAb. Functional medicine lab ranges according to Datis Kharrazian for TSH are 1.8-3.0 mU/L (milliunits per liter). Personally, I have felt best when mine is a bit below 1.0 which is common for those of us on Natural desiccated thyroid hormone. Free T3 functional range is 1.2-4.9 mg per deciliter, free t4 functional range is 1.0-1.5 ng/dL (nanograms per deciliter. If you lab results are not in these measurements, you can google how to convert them in to these numbers. Don’t worry about taking notes on this either, all of this will be on my website at out of the woods nutrition dot com. The antibodies should be at zero but that doesn’t mean you don’t have the autoimmune thyroid conditions of hashimoto’s or graves disease. Our immune systems fluctuate- when you have your blood test they might be considered within range- so don’t rely on antibodies testing alone to mean you do or do not have the disease.

   3. What are your iron levels like? Ferritin is our storage iron. If that is low it can result in hair loss and probably are related to dry hair too but more so hair that is falling out. Having good ferritin levels encourages hair growth and having low levels means your body will put hair and nail health on the back burner to ensure that the tissues that really need iron get it first. Liver is a great way to get your iron. Personally I can’t stand liver in the form of pate or cooked so I take either an iron supplement occasionally or I take Vital Proteins liver capsules which are not cheap. I have liver in my freezer and have not taken the time to dehydrate it and put it in capsules which would be way more cost effective.

   4. If you are not making enough stomach acid, you will not be breaking down your food, protein in particular, so you will not be getting all the nutrients you need from your diet which will affect how supple your hair is. Are you eating enough protein? Hair and nails are made of protein. If you are deficient either because you are not eating enough or because you are not breaking down your food well enough you will be deficient and your hair will pay the price. I recommend starting out on a low dose of HCl aka Betaine Hydrochloric Acid with Pepsin to help you break down your food. Something like 150mg to start with and go up from there………..

   5. Something your pharmacist won’t tell you- some thyroid medications can cause hair loss. So, the very thing you are depending on to feel well is causing your hair to fall out. The package insert for your medication will also tell you that you should not be taking it if you are suffering with adrenal insufficiency- adrenal fatigue.

   6. If you have hashimoto’s you have an autoimmune disease and that means you are likely susceptible to having more than one autoimmune disease- most commonly 3 AID and the likelihood of having a total of 7 over your lifetime. These things don’t happen overnight either. Your body suffers internally for years before another disease becomes symptomatic. This is why it is soooo important to address diet and lifestyle issues. We don’t just all of a sudden get sick overnight. Our body is like a car- pick your dream car or even the one you are driving now. How you care for that car today and for the time you drive it will determine just how long that car runs well for you. You have to put the right kind of fuel in to it. You have to change the oil and have other fluids checked. Your car wants to run well for you but it will break down if you don’t give it what it needs to run properly. Our bodies are the same. You only get this one chance to be here now. Your body does what it can daily to maintain homeostasis or balance. It works really hard to keep us alive and running well. What we fuel it with really does matter. A calorie is not just a calorie. You will get so much more out of 100 calories of veggies vs. 100 calories of cookies.

   7. Speaking of fuel- how is your blood sugar? According to Izabella Wentz: Blood sugar swings- due to high refined carbohydrates and not enough good quality protein and fats will cause T4 to be converted to Reverse T3 which keeps T3 bound up so the body and the cells can’t use it. This can cause us to lose hair too. Again, I know you were more concerned about dry brittle hair but the two go together.

   8. Are you digesting your fat well? Are you eating a good balance of omega 3 and omega 6 fats? Get a high quality fish oil and eat some healthy fats like olive oil, avocados and coconut oil to get a good mix of omega 3 and omega 6. The ratio of those should be around 1:1 and most of us get about 1:20 with omega 6 being the 20 because it is in a lot of processed foods and restaurant foods in the form of canola oil and soybean oil.

   9. Some people believe that supplementing with collagen can help your hair. We make less of this protein as we get older so you can try it to see if it helps. I would give it about a month.

   10. I would lastly look at your hair products. It doesn’t sound like this is an issue for you as you said you didn’t have a problem before and you had not switched products. My favorite hair products are Intelligent Nutrients- they are good for your hair and for the environment. I do think you are right though, your hair problem is internal. I would encourage you to use a food journal to keep track of what you are eating and how you feel and you may notice that you might need to change some things.

Good luck Jody, and please let me know if any of these suggestions helped you! 

Hi! Your podcasts have been great so far...thank you, thank you, thank you. I have been diagnosed with hashimotos for the past two years. I am 34 years old.

I decided to visit the doctor two years ago when I started having body aches and unusually dry skin. I was extremely tired all the time, however I thought that was natural due to having a newborn. I soon realized it was much more than being a “tired mom”.

I was put on levothyroxin. Seemed to even my levels out until recently. Started having stronger symptoms again and revisited the doctor. Taken off of levothyroxin (synthetic thyroid medication) and placed on nature throid (natural thyroid medication). What do you believe are major differences in a synthetic vs natural thyroid prescription?

Thank you again for all of your honest, transparent, and giving information.

CM

We have a similar story. I was diagnosed after my second child was born. I went in for a literal pain in my behind which turned out to be sciatica and when the doctor asked me if I needed anything else I told him I felt extra tired but thought it was because I had a toddler and an infant. He did a TSH test- standard for conventional medicine and my TSH was at 150- so clearly I had an issue with hypothyroidism. He put me on levothyroxine and I never felt good after that. My periods were heavy, I was cold all the time- like chilled to the bone and my adrenals were shot. 

Your question is about the differences between synthetic medication like levothyroxine and natural desiccated thyroid hormones like Naturethroid. I will get to that but I want to first address why things leveled off for awhile but got worse and your medication had to be adjusted. 

1. You were diagnosed with hashimoto’s which is first an issue with your immune system and second and issue with your thyroid- likely hypothyroid symtoms. When the autoimmune disease is not treated with diet and lifestyle modifications, your immune system can remain on high alert and can continue to attack your thyroid tissue killing it off. This often gives us the feeling of going between hypo and hyper symptoms. Maybe this has happened to you, maybe not. Anyway- one of the reasons for needing your dose to be increased is because more of your thyroid has been killed off. I guess you never said that your dose was increased but just changed to a different medication. Still, this is something to be mindful of.

2. Now, on to the differences between synthetic and natural hormone medications.

   1. NDT was used in the 1800’s to treat patients with hypothyroid symptoms. The medication is made from pig thyroid glands and this is why it is called natural. It also contains all the thyroid hormones present in our own thyroid tissue. Desiccated means that the pigs are bred for the purpose of getting the thyroid. It is removed with a specific protocol, frozen, minced, dried and made into a fine powder. It is defatted and batches are combined to get a uniform mixture of T4 and T3. The benefit of the natural desiccated medications is that you get what your body would have normally provided for you had your own thyroid stopped working properly. This means the right ratios of T4 and T3, and T2, T1 and T0. There is not a lot of research on T2,1 and 0 but they are obviously there for a reason so this might be why some people really feel so much better on NDT. The dosages are often referred to as grains. One grain equals 60 mg of NDT In Armour which is made up of 38mcg of T4 and 9mcg of T3. You can find conversion charts from manufacturers for most of the NDT medications on the market.

      1. Armour, NatureThroid and Westhroid are the most common prescriptions. My favorite was WP thyroid until I couldn’t get it anymore but have found great success using a compounded thyroid medication which is just the thyroid powder and cellulose which I open the capsule and put under my tongue. This is called taking the medication sublingually. It bypasses your stomach, gut and liver and goes right in to the bloodstream. This works for me, but doesn’t mean it will work for you. You can try it and see how you feel after a week on it. I take my meds in divided doses. Half in the morning when I wake up and half in the late afternoon. Western Research Labs or RLC labs is the manufacturer of your medication. You may be able to get all the ingredients of your medication on their site. Also be aware that your pharmacy can switch your medication without telling you if they run out of what is prescribed. You can ask your doctor to write your prescription to be dispensed as subscribed or you can let your pharmacist know that you do not want them to switch your meds. The main reason NDT meds are different is because they contain more than just T4. T3 plays a big role in cognitive abilities in the brain and how the brain functions. Got brain fog? Maybe you are not converting T4 to T3 or maybe you are lacking in T3. NDT might be what is the key to your brain fog, depression and mood problems for us. If you don’t feel any changes in those things, maybe you are not on a high enough dose or your body isn’t using it well. This is where diet changes can help. T3 is supposed to be better absorbed by the gut than T4. Studies show that 95% of T3 is absorbed within the first 4 hours of taking it and will happen even faster on an empty stomach. Back when Armour was first being used, they were making doses of medication based on symptoms and relief of those symptoms. Novel idea huh!?

      2. In 1926 synthetic thyroxine was created. Synthroid was made. To market this great money making drug- the maufacturer sold physicians on the idea that it was better than NDT. Research was funded to prove it was better than NDT. Unfortunately the study didn’t show Synthroid to be better than NDT. The research study was not published and the Dr. performing the research was discredited. A journalist caught on and broke the story and there was a lot of trouble for the manufacturer in the 90’s. The FDA pulled the medication due to irregularities in formulation. It was even marketed and sold in the US without formal FDA approval. In 2013 28,000 bottles of 150 mcg of Synthroid were recalled due to being a lower dose than stated on the bottle. Your doctor likely is just used to prescribing this medication because that is what they are taught. They have been told that NDT causes heart problems which is really a load of crap. Too much can lead to atrial fibrillation, osteoporosis, insomnia, heat intolerance, tremors, and more. My body takes awhile to get used to a NDT Medication change and that is why dosing it twice a day is recommended. Fight for the chance to try this kind of medication if you don’t feel well on synthetic only medications. The synthetic medications are really about money. Synthroid is the 4th most prescribed medication in the US at 70 million prescriptions a year. The profit from Abbott Labs funds endocrinology groups and their meetings as well as clinical research grants. Do you think they are going to publish studies that show their medication doesn’t work as well? Probably not. Pharmaceutical companies have more to gain by you being on a synthetic medication that keeps you sick vs. the Natural medication that makes you feel better.

I want to also talk about how it feels to have a disease that isn’t visible. I was talking with my niece and her husband last weekend about thyroid. Somehow the subject came up and my nieces husband said something about if your thyroid isn’t working right you are basically screwed or something like that. I had to laugh because he is so right. We don’t look sick but some days we just feel terrible. It is hard on us and hard on our families. My parents don’t understand, especially my dietary restrictions. They quit inviting my family over for dinner. My mom never makes an effort to understand how this has affected me. I don’t hold that against her- she is doing the best she can with the tools she has. So she says things like, let’s go out for pizza- you can eat a salad. Oh that sounds like so much fun to eat a salad while everyone else is enjoying pizza. It’s never- “let’s go to a restaurant where you can really enjoy the food”. She has thyroid problems too but all I ever hear is “I am so glad I feel so good”- what is normal for her is to feel tired and have a headache or just say she doesn’t feel good. She lays on the couch most afternoons and she had a headache everyday of my life in the morning. Sometimes we think we feel good because normal is to feel bad. 

Here are what some people are saying about what they want people to know about hashimoto’s. 

BA says:  In my case support... You don't "look" sick... My husband truly truly is trying to understand it all. He sees what it does to me but doesn't understand why. Thinks with diet and exercise I'll be just fine...

LH says:  Digestive issues, fatigue, stress,

GH says:  That everything can be great and you look and feel wonderful then you suddenly crash and feel like death. For weeks.

TF says:  Like one minute I lost 60 pounds, was working out every day at the age of 50 and living my best life and out of nowhere this monster hits me and now it’s horrible. I don’t know from one day to the next what is coming. I don’t even understand most of it. this disease is so extensive and complicated

TC says:  Why food makes us sick? Hurt? Not sleep?

KT says:  Always test your thyroid ANTIBODIES! All my “usual” thyroid labs were in the normal range, but antibodies off the charts... so grateful I finally had a doc test them!

TW says:  The fatigue is real, I’m not lazy. I don’t “want” to take a nap, I have no choice. What is needed? Research. Education of MDs and endocrinologists.

SJ says:  Extreme fatigue, and excessive weight gain ! 100 lbs, which I've been unable to loose for 20 years. Insomnia as well , and digestive issues ( gluten intolerant ). HASHIMOTO'S IS A BEAST !

TB says:  Research to determine which diet is the best for Hashimoto's. Extreme fatigue and brain fog are real!

SD says:  Educating MD's who are still treating all of our symptoms seperately, telling patients they are overweight because they eat too much and don’t exercise enough, and prescribing thyroid replacement that is man made instead of natural desiccated thyroid (NDT). Quit my doctor of 21 years 8 years ago and found a naturopath. Best decision of my life!!!

MH says:  More education, more testing. Doctors to understand test results vs symptoms and please don’t say” well you are  borderline even though you have these symptoms, so we will not treat you.”

TM says: Our tired is not their tired , it’s not even in the same realm . Our weight gain is not our fault . We are not lazy, we’re tired.

CE says:  Our inflammation is unlike others due to the constant aches we endure along with insomnia, depletion of vital nutrients, and gut problems.

AO says:  It may seem invisible but our body is having a nuclear war. New symptoms and concurrent disorders are constantly showing up, that don't seem to be related sometimes, and there hasn't been enough research to do anything but regulate diet and control some symptoms. It IS disabling for a large amount of people. With mine I had to quit work and can only last 2-4 hours of any type of work before I am too exhausted/weak/ill to function.

RS says:  More knowledge/awareness for everyone...So doctors stop running basic labs, so that people are more aware of symptoms and can ask for the correct labs, so loved ones can be more supportive of those with AI diseases, and so everyone realizes how vastly important our diets effect our health. The majority of people who find out I have Hashi’s have no clue what it is. I don’t look sick, so they don’t understand how I can go from 100 to bed ridden for days, or understand why I eat the way I do if I don’t have “food allergies.” People just don’t understand any of it, even my family and closest friends.