What is SIBO?

Do I have SIBO? 

It is a question you might ask yourself if you search the internet!

The internet is full of self diagnosed Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth or SIBO cases. There are hundreds of blogs showing you how people “cured” their SIBO and hundreds of other blogs ready to tell you that you have this gastrointestinal tract condition. It seems to be the trendy diagnosis much like Candida was in the 90’s. 

What is SIBO? 

It is a diverse syndrome distinguished by a more than normal amount of bacteria in the small intestines- hense the name. There are two kinds of SIBO. One in which bacteria from your upper respiratory tract and mouth invade (due to the use of acid blockers such as PPI- proton pump inhibitors) and one in which the bacteria from your colon invade (this can be due to a few different reasons one of which is slower movement of food through the GI tract).

Signs and Symptoms can include but are debated in the research

• bloating

• gas

• pain in abdominal area or discomfort

• burping often

• diarrhea

• nutrient malabsoprtion leading to weight loss or fatty stools

• joint pain

• nerve degeneration which is secondary to nutrient deficiency

• rosacea

• anemia

 Our digestive system has something called cleansing waves. It is how the food you eat, chew and swallow ends up moving from stomach to small intestines (where nutrient absorption happens) to the colon where stool is formed. There is a whole bunch of things that can go wrong with this process and in hypothyroidism, many of you experience constipation which backs things up but may also mess with this cleansing process. The process keeps things moving so the food (called chyme at this point I believe) is not sitting in the small intestine. When it is not regularly moving through, there is potential for the small number of bugs that do reside in the small intestines to take that opportunity to overpopulate. 

We also secrete stomach acid which will break down food in the stomach and helps to keep things moving further down. Our pancreas secretes enzymes and our liver produces bile (stored in gallbladder) that prevents the bacteria from multiplying in the small intestines. We also have a valve between the small intestine and the colon or large intestine that keeps the bacteria from the colon in the colon. The body is just an amazing thing isn’t it!?

What puts you at risk for getting SIBO? 

• use of proton pump inhibitors

• narcotics and opiates

• partial or full removal of the stomach

• chronically inflamed pancreas

• digestive system muscles that do not work as they should, moving contents through the digestive tract

• AIDS

• diabetic neuropathy (causes an issue with moving contents of stomach)

• being older than 75 years

• cirrhosis and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease 

• IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) is often floating around as either a symptom or a cause. It is probably more common in people with IBS but should not be assumed if you have IBS that you have SIBO. 

The internet proposes that a Lactulose Breath Test is how you can test for this. This measures the amount of hydrogen and methane we exhale after drinking 3 teaspoons of lactulose which is only available by prescription in the US. This testing method is patented by a doctor who at the time worked for or consulted for the pharmaceutical company that owns the patent for the antibiotic Rifaximin which is widely used to treat SIBO. In this test you consume the lactulose and then wait for 90 minutes and if you have an increase in hydrogen (20ppm or higher) it is considered positive for SIBO. This test is not very sensitive and is not super accurate. It appears to be best at seeing how long it takes for food to get from mouth to small intestine which is a type of transit time test. Something else to consider with this test is that people with Asian heritage have a quicker transit time than Caucasians which can skew the test. People with anxiety also tend to have quicker transit time rendering this test very inaccurate. Bottom line is it appears to miss a lot of cases of SIBO and should not be the only test done to verify the condition. 

There is a more invasive procedure that draws fluid from the small intestine and cultures it to see what kind and amounts of bacteria are there. It is expensive and not widely used as far as I know. One problem with this test is that not all species of bacteria can be cultured and therefore get missed. 

The Glucose Breath Test which is done the same way as lactulose has a much higher accuracy rate but only finds bacteria in the upper small intestine so some cases can be missed. It does have fewer false positive test results. 

One way to get a more accurate test result is to do lactulose, glucose and fructose breath testing. This way if one test misses it, the others are likely to pick it up. This along with your signs and symptoms can be a big clue as to whether or not you have SIBO. 

Self diagnosis or incorrect diagnosis by a health professional can lead to you being told to restrict your diet which can affect your microbiome, potential unneeded use of antibiotics which also affects your microbiome. 

How is SIBO treated? 

• if possible, remove the opioids and narcotics (dependent upon what they are used for)

• stop use of proton pump inhibitors

• antibiotics are often used (Rifaximin and Metronidazole)

  • 7 days showed a moderate reduction in SIBO

  • good chance of SIBO coming back after treatment

• herbal antimicrobials 

  • peppermint oil improved test results but did not get rid of SIBO

  • pomegranate fruit rind

  • garlic, fresh is more potent than capsules or tablets but high allicin ones will work

  • clove, thyme, oregano (oils enteric coated so they make it to the small intestine without damaging tissue in the stomach or esophagus)

  • berberine

  • tea polyphenols (astringent effect)

• Galactooligosaccharides (supplement) or GOS

• Partially Hydrolyzed Guar Gum

• No snacking- stops those cleansing waves

• Probiotics- specific strains (Bifidobacterium lactis HN019 helps GI symptoms such as gas and abdominal pain) 

• Glutamine

• Saccharomyces cerevisiae variety boulardii Biocodex

• Digestive enzymes with meals, bitters, potentially HCl

• Low FODMAP diet up to 6 months. 

The Specific Carbohydrate Diet and the Low FODMAP diet are suggested for treatment of SIBO. But….

SCD is based on removing foods like starches and some sugars while eating protein, fat and easy to absorb carbohydrates so the bacteria starve and die off. This is based on the assumption that all bacteria eat only carbohydrates which is not the case. This diet may reduce some symptoms but it does not mean you are killing off bacteria. Protein which gets putrified in the gut feeds bacteria too. E. coli, Bacteroides and Clostridium all are protein consuming bacteria and Bacteroides specifically is found in high amounts in people with SIBO. This diet could be reducing bifidobacteria which live in the small intestine and also in the colon and lower the bacteria that produce food for the cells of the colon. 

Low FODMAP diet which reduces or eliminates many fruits, vegetables, and legumes is studied in IBS and does reduce gas symptoms. It may decrease bacteria in the small intestines and will definitely affect the make up of the bacteria in the colon (we don’t want this). 

An Elemental Diet is used for some people. This is kind of like baby formula for adults. It does reduce symptoms and gives negative test results but it doesn’t have long term follow up or placebo controlled studies to show long term effectiveness. 

If you are someone who has been thinking about making some changes to your diet and lifestyle, this is a great time to do it and you can get a personalized protocol and plan until June 30th for only $37. This is a great value and includes a nutritional assessment which will show me where your body is out of balance, we will chat for 15 minutes so you can have questions answered and then I send you a protocol and diet plan based on your unique situation. So far everyone who has taken me up on this offer has really enjoyed the process. This is great for someone who can just take the info and go with it. In fact, research shows that the average person sees a nutrition professional something like 1.8 times which is really sad to me because many people need 3-5 visits before they are on their way to a healthier them. You can learn more at www.outofthewoodsnutrition.com and look for Covid-19 special at the top. This is my way of giving back since so many of us, myself included are dealing with a loss of income. It is more important than ever that we get as healthy as we can so we can prevent some of the more severe conditions associated with Covid-19. 

You can sign up for my newsletter on my website while you are there. I will be sending out some great information about nutrients to help your body fight the virus and a recipe. The podcast and the newsletter are where my time is being concentrated. Social media has increased anxiety in me and brought on depression so I’m pretty much off it. Too much censorship, too much hate, too much polarization and too much misinformation. My only source of news is the Epoch Times, an unbiased newspaper reporting the facts, not what their bosses want them to report on. Off my soapbox. You can leave a comment on this podcast episode on my website, search for Episode 84. 

Until next time. Peace and love and an abundance of health to you all. 

What is Celiac Disease?

I’ve said before that Hashimoto’s and Celiac Disease together are very common. 

There are three gluten related health issues. Wheat allergy, celiac disease and gluten sensitivity. 

A wheat allergy has symptoms of wheezing, trouble breathing, cramping, nausea, throwing up, bloating, gas and diarrhea. You might also see symptoms come out in your skin with hives and itchy skin. Most often this is common in toddlers or younger and is diagnosed with a skin prick test. If you have a wheat allergy you only have to avoid wheat- not gluten. 

Celiac disease is an autoimmune disease of the small intestine that is set off by consuming gluten and while there is technically gluten in all grains, the gluten proteins in wheat, Rye, Barley, Spelt, Oats which are not digested in the small intestine. 

You can have the genes HLA-DQ2 or HLA-DQ8 which will predispose you to celiac disease but does not mean you have it if you have these genes. Around 1% of the population has celiac disease in the US.  There appears to be a rise in the disease not necessarily due to better testing methods but because of the higher content of gluten in wheat due to hybridization, fertilizer on the fields- nitrogen applied to wheat fields actually increases the gluten content. There is some research to show that babies being formula fed or not being breastfed for very long also play a role in the rise in celiac disease. One study showed that when a baby before four months old is given gluten (probably from wheat) has a 500% higher chance of getting celiac disease.  

The big issue and I want you to pay attention to this- you can have symptoms in weeks to years and years after being exposed to gluten. Once you go gluten free, your symptoms can show up almost instantly after being exposed. The trigger for the disease is different for everyone. Like I said, you can have the genes for this disease and never get it- you can then have some issue in your life that triggers the onset. The trigger is individual. 

What are the symptoms of celiac disease? 

The most common ones are diarrhea, fatigue, stomach pain, gas, bloating, weight loss.  Some of the lesser known or not thought of as related to celiac symptoms are bone loss- this is when someone goes a lifetime without diagnosis and they are in their 50’s and are diagnosed with osteoporosis because their bones are like those of a 70 year old. Other symptoms are having elevated liver enzymes with no explanation for it, iron deficiency anemia, and constipation. 

There are sometimes no symptoms that present but a person tests positive for it. If you have type 1 diabetes or other autoimmune disease including Hashimoto’s or Graves disease. If you have recurrent miscarriages, migraines or IBS consider being tested for celiac disease. 

The amount of gluten you consume and get a reaction from it is different for everyone. Some people can have no symptoms from consuming gluten and some will have terrible reactions. 

If you go in for a test there are a couple options. Tissue transglutaminase IgA is the test your doctor is likely to use because it is the cheaper of the two tests. It is pretty accurate UNLESS you have celiac and you are not making any IgA (immunoglobulin A), which by the way is not unheard of, then this will not show up as a positive marker. I hope that makes sense- I’ll say it another way. People with celiac disease often don’t make Immunoglobulin A which is what the test looks for so you have to ask them to test IgA along with IgG. 

The other test is the antiendomysial IgA (EMA) which has a false negative rate as high as around 26%. 

If you test positive from one of these tests you will probably be having a biopsy of your small intestine which is the gold standard way to diagnose the disease. You have to be eating gluten for a minimum of six weeks before having this done and then you have to have a certain level of damage to the small intestine for a diagnosis of celiac disease to be made. This means the villi on the brush boarder of your small intestine have to be basically flat. I’ve heard Dr. Tom O’Brian describe it as a healthy microvilli in the small intestine are like shag carpet and the microvilli in a celiac disease are like berber carpet. 

Now you can have some damage to the microvilii and you won’t be diagnosed though you might be on your way to the full disease and if there is not significant damage throughout your small intestine, you may not be diagnosed either because the biopsy will have missed a damaged spot. When a biopsy is done, they take a part of your small intestine out and look at it. They need to find the damage in order to diagnose you! 

If you are not eating enough gluten or taking immune suppressing drugs you can come up with a negative test. 

If you have family members with celiac disease you will have a higher chance of having it. 

If you have undiagnosed celiac disease you are likely to have a bunch of nutrient deficiencies. This is due to the microvilli in the small intestine being damaged. This is where we absorb most of our nutrients. Zinc, selenium, iron, protein, B vitamins and more. In addition, you can have issues with detoxification. You’ll have more toxins reabsorbed rather than eliminated. The long term risks of not being diagnosed properly are potential cancer of the small intestine, esophagus and even non hodgkins lymphoma so it is pretty serious. 

If you have celiac disease you have a 3x higher risk of hypothyroidism and are 3-10x likely to have other autoimmune diseases. 

A gluten free diet is the only treatment so far for this disease and it can take a year or two before you see some major healing to the small intestine so not only is a gluten free diet important but a really nutrient dense and healing diet is important. Everyone who has celiac disease has a leaky gut so healing the gut is important. 

Read labels. Know what is in your food. 

Fatigue, pain, depression, obesity, insomnia, anxiety, headaches, foggy thinking. 

Common symptoms for many people. 

Some might even say normal, a part of getting older. These symptoms may be common but they are not normal. Common means a lot of people are dealing with them. Normal means they are supposed to have it. 

You don’t have to live with these symptoms, you don’t have to accept them as normal and you definitely should not ignore them.

"Thank you so much for the consult just now! 

I want to emphasize again how much I appreciate all of your *time*!  For what it's worth I really appreciated the (crazy) low price during this Covid situation and just know that you are making a tremendous difference in the quality of my life.”- Client, Arizona

This client took advantage of the fantastic deal to get their health on track to being the best it can be. For $37 you will get a nutritional assessment, protocol and diet plan in a 15 minute consult with me where we can address any questions you might have. Head over to outofthewoodsnutrition.com and take advantage of the covid-19 special. That feels like such a cheesy name for it but truly- I get that many of us are dealing with financial hardship, myself included and it is my way of helping out or giving back by giving such a price break on my services. 

I said this last week and I’m saying it again. I want you to know that it is okay if you are not doing okay. This whole situation sucks. If you can find the silver lining in all of this I applaud you. Personally, I am struggling as I have said before. I get a little irritated at all of the celebrities who are saying to stay home and saying it with a smile. It’s not that easy for a lot of people. Many of us feel isolated even in a house full of people. My kids are even feeling a bit lost. Not motivated to even try in school because “it doesn’t really matter”.  Please just do the best you can.  Take care of your mental health- keeping your diet clean will help a lot with that. I’ve also deactivated my personal facebook account and am staying off social media. 

Sign up for my newsletter at outofthewoodsnutrition.com. A new recipe is going out in a couple days. 

My heart is with you all. Peace. 

Can Probiotics Help Hashimoto’s

The short answer is no. The long answer is it depends. There is so much more to probiotics than I have ever imagined. They are not one size fits all and the strain that you take is everything. Let me explain. 

Probiotics in general are defined as live microorganisms that when given in sufficient amounts should produce a health benefit to the host organism (i.e. us). The caveat here is that there is no one sized fits all probiotic for everyone and every situation and that probiotic you can get at your big box store or even at a more health centered store may be a big old waste of your money. 

I’ve given out pretty general information on this topic before and what I have recently learned about them has changed and it is information you should have in your took kit. 

There are two major probiotics that you often hear about are lactobacillus and bifidobacteria. These are the two that we are exposed to at birth through the birth canal and our mothers fecal bacteria and the environment around us. If you are breast fed the bifidobacteria is able to grow quite strong. Breast milk has around 1 billion bacteria per liter which include lactobacilli and bifidobacteria and is a good reason to encourage breast feeding. It is natures way of protecting infants. 

I grew up in a time when it was not encouraged to breast feed and I was also born to a mother who had been on penicillin for 10 years so I got the short end of the stick when it came to being inoculated with bacteria. If you were formula fed your flora as a baby will have looked more like that of an adult with less bifidobacteria and more of other kinds of bacteria. When we were fed solid food the flora will have changed again. 

The important part here is that we feed our gut the proper things to allow for the beneficial microorganisms to grow in numbers and not allow the less beneficial ones to take over. This is where you will see a decline in health and feel symptoms. Whatever those symptoms may be for you. It is all bioindividual. 

One thing that is extremely important for you to understand is these are micro organisms we are talking about. They have a genus (for example lactobacillus is a genus), a species (acidophilus, plantarum, rhamnosus etc) and a strain is even more specific (lactobacillus rhamnosus GG or L. rhamnosus HN001). Each strain does something different in the body and those strains - the rhamnosus strains are not interchangeable for healing or supporting the body. It is a very specific thing. 

Some very important properties for probiotics are that they can make it through the upper GI unharmed. So they can pass through stomach acid without being destroyed, they make it past the bile salts without being destroyed and they can get to their destination and set up shop. An important property of probiotics is that they stick around in the mucus membrane and cells of the large intestine. This allows them to take up space where the pathogenic bugs would want to go- so the bad guys don’t stick around- they just move on through and you maintain your health. 

Lactobacillus bacteria are a very diverse group of microorganisms that produce lactic acid as an end product of carbohydrate fermentation. We can find these bacteria in fermented veggies, fermented dairy, in our GI tract and for women in the vagina. These bacteria help stimulate a proper immune response by helping prevent pathogens from getting in to our circulatory system. They increase the white blood cells that destroy cells infected with viruses and help our immune system remember which viruses and pathogens we have seen before so they can be attacked again. They also enhance the ability of cells to destroy pathogenic bacteria and viruses. The lactobacillus bacteria also eat the same nutrients as the pathogenic bacteria so if there are enough lactobacilli eating all the food there isn’t enough for the pathogens and they die off keeping you healthier. 

Bifidobacteria are part of our GI tract naturally, the end product of their fermentation is acetic acid. They help prevent the growth of the harmful bacteria and keep our small intestinal environment in top shape. It is more potent than other acids at stopping the growth of E. Coli. It is also an important acid in the health of the colon. 

You can get lactobacillus bacteria from some foods like yogurt, sauerkraut, kimchi or other fermented vegetables. This would be where I would go first unless you need to supplement for a specific health issue like intestinal permeability. Not all yogurts are going to be worthy of buying and eating. I checked out a few brands and if you can tolerate dairy (questionable if anyone with Hashimoto’s should consume dairy at all) you can look at brands like Maple Hill Creamery and Wallaby Organic are two brands that have live active cultures added to them. This is what you want to look for- the live and active cultures on the label and of course keep the sugar content to a minimum. When consumed with dairy, the amount of bacteria can be much lower than when taken as a supplement. For some reason dairy is the perfect way to get the bugs in. 

Sauerkraut or kimchi is another good way to get a good dose of probiotics and is really really cheap to make if you are in to that. Personally I love making sauerkraut so that is something I eat frequently. The bacterial strains in the end product are usually Lactobacillus plantarum at around 100 million per ¼ teaspoon (I think I did the math right on that) and is enough to give you a therapeutic effect. So very inexpensive and easy to do. There is not a lot of research on the efficacy of the bacterial strains in fermented veggies so the health effects are not for sure but we do know that it keeps the bad bacteria in check. 

Other things that probiotics are good for is to make B vitamins and Vitamin K. They keep things moving along through the digestive tract which you know is important so we don’t reabsorb toxic compounds through the colon. They help make your digestion work better, help you absorb nutrients better, improve gas and bloating and more. One of the things that is important is the creation of short chain fatty acids. This product of fermentation and provides energy for the cells that line the colon.  Eating resistant starches like cold potatoes or cold rice is a good food for the bacteria that produce short chain fatty acids. 

When taking a probiotic supplement- quality matters. You have to make sure you know which specific strain you are taking- if your supplement label doesn’t list a strain, be leery of taking it. Many probiotics do not survive the manufacturing process of freeze drying, spray drying or frozen storage. Some companies will put a coating on them to help get them past the upper GI or stomach which helps survival and allows them to go to work where needed. I recommend you get probiotics from a practitioner and only take them if you need them. There are very specific strains for specific health conditions. Some strains have been well researched and will be helpful in giving you a specific outcome. There are strains used to help with airborne allergies, eczema, stomach flu, diarrhea, colitis, chronic fatigue syndrome, constipation, Crohn’s disease, candida overgrowth and more. 

The more fiber you eat from a variety of plants, the more food you provide for your gut bacteria to thrive. These are called prebiotics. The non digestible fiber from plants makes it past the stomach or small intestine and is used as a food source by some of the beneficial organisms in the large intestine. 

You can buy supplements that contain fructooligosaccharides, galactooligosaccharides  or lactulose- all of these will provide food for your colon, increase short chain fatty acids, and provide overall health benefit. Microbiome Labs has a good product called Megaprebiotic and Biotics Research has a product called IAG. These are good general prebiotic fibers you can take daily but they are expensive. The cheapest way is to consume a wide variety of vegetables and fruits each week so your gut gets a variety of different fibers. If you want to try either of these products mentioned contact me via my website contact form and I will set you up with an account at my dispensary. Everyone gets 10% off MSRP.

I hope you found that helpful and maybe a little interesting too. I am such a nerd for this stuff I find it fascinating. 

How would you like to have the disappearance of symptoms like reflux, stomach pains, bloating, night sweats, hot flashes, headaches, joint pain, constipation, diarrhea, cold hands and feet? Sounds pretty good doesn’t it? 

Right now, because we are all dealing with some major stress and many of us financial issues including my own household which has seen a reduction in income by about 35-40%, I am offering my very awesome and accurate Nutritional Assessment Questionnaire with supplement recommendations, a plan and a 15 minute call with me to answer any questions for $37. This is for people who can take what I give them and run with it. If you need more guidance or hand holding to navigate diet and lifestyle changes, you may need more support. If not, this is a great way to kickstart your health when it is more important than ever to have a strong immune system and healthy gut to fight off viruses and bugs. This is a super affordable option and honestly a really really good deal. Email me at STephanie@outofthewoodsnutrition.com or fill out the contact form on my website with subject DEAL and I will get you all set up. 

Thanks for listening. I am so grateful for all of you. Please leave me a rating or review on Apple Podcasts so more people with Hashimoto’s can be helped by this information. 

Until next week. Stay sane.

Sick and Tired of Being Tired

Welcome to episode 80. This break from school has been the longest break in the history of breaks. haha. I don’t normally leave the house to do much but now because it is kind of mandated that we stay home I am feeling really cooped up. I am grateful there is no snow though so I can comfortably walk outside and get some fresh air. My dogs are loving the daily walks my daughter and I take them on.

I was looking through one of the many note books I use for journaling- I have notes here and there in about 4 or 5 different notebooks and I came across one as I was going to use it for some self improvement journaling and the entry was from July 18 2015. This was the summer where I decided I could handle working out at a gym so I was driving about 30 minutes to a strength and conditioning gym in Minneapolis and working out twice a week. I was 8 months graduated from my Nutritional Therapy program, my blood sugar was still not managed well, hormones were a mess, I was not eating enough vegetables and this is what I wrote- 

I cleaned the house. I finally had the energy but ended up exhausted by the end of the day. I’m so tired of being tired. I have so much guilt over the lame summer we have had because I am too tired to do anything . I am frustrated with myself and my body for not working well. I just wonder what it would feel like to feel good. And happy. I’m beginning to wonder if I will ever be happy or feel great again. I feel like I am dying very very slowly. Like each day a piece of my future is being taken from me. 

Pretty sad and I bet many of you can totally relate to that. I have always been high strung and carried on conversations in my head with myself that lead me to become more agitated and stressed. I had to work really hard at stopping that and I can tell you that right now, with being cooped up with my family, a lot of that negative self talk is rearing its ugly head. The difference now is that I am able to stop it in its tracks sometimes right away, sometimes after a couple of days. 

Either way, I put a stop to it so I don’t become a complete emotional disaster. Things are hard right now. My husbands business is very very slow- almost slow enough to close. We have cut our pay from our business completely. His regular job is tied to the industry that our business is in so there have been layoffs, and talk of people giving up one paycheck to help keep more people from being laid off. That is stressful. We have savings we can dive in to which we are using to cover some expenses from the month before all of this virus stuff happened. We will be okay but it is still stressful. And we don’t talk about it with each other because he tends to be kind of gloom and doom and that raises my anxiety through the roof so I avoid talking to him- more isolation within the already isolating circumstances of the last few weeks. 

I’m meditating, doing Wim Hof breathing, I did a workout with Marie Forleo on Instagram along with a meditation with her partner after. I’m avoiding the news and staying off social media to avoid all the crap being put out there as well. And I’ve come a long way since that journal entry from five years ago. A really long way. But I am a work in progress and learning new things every day. I’m eating more vegetables, I am working on managing stress, daily. Managing autoimmune disease is a daily task- always needing to be mindful of so many things to avoid flare ups. 

I just signed up to take a course specifically on Hashimoto’s and new treatment strategies. I was reading materials in preparation for the class which is in May and learned that the top prescription in the US is levothyroxine with 114 million prescriptions being written every year. That is nuts. How many of you feel your best on that medication? I know some people do but I am not one of them. I’m loving my compounded NDT medication. A lot. But that means there are 114 million people with thyroid problems. That is insane. 

I’ve been reading also about how our hormones, and I’m speaking specifically to women here, play a very specific role in inflammation of the immune system. PMS and periomenopause can cause inflammation in the body which can exacerbate food intolerances and autoimmune flares. There are different kinds of estrogens in the body and certain forms can wreak havoc if not metabolized or detoxified properly in the body. 

Have you heard of estrogen dominance? It is quite common with symptoms like: 

• low libido

• thyroid problems

• menstrual problems, PMS

• breast swelling/tender breasts, breast fibroids

• brain fog

• insomnia, fatigue

• fat accumulation at hips and abdomen

• mood issues

• slower metabolism

What contributes to estrogen dominance?

• stress

• overweight

• poor digestion

• crappy diet

• oral contraceptives

• hormone replacement therapies

• environmental toxins (plastic, perfume, nail polish, pesticides….)

When your thyroid isn’t working well or not being managed well, it can affect your body’s ability to make the right kinds and amounts of estrogen along with proper levels of progesterone. These two need to be in balance and estrogens need to be detoxified properly in the liver. If not, you can get a recycling of estrogens which causes higher levels of the “bad” estrogens that lead to inflammation. 

So we are back to basics- what is your diet like, how is your digestion, are you keeping your blood sugar stable? All systems in our body are connected. When one is off, many others will be affected. Not everyone will feel great by just making diet changes and taking medication. Some of you will need to do a little more work. 

Now let’s talk about bugs- it is one more thing that affects thyroid health but affects all the body systems. Having a very diverse population of microbes in your gut is important in maintaining good health. The less diverse your gut bugs are, the more prone you are to chronic conditions like Hashimoto’s. The more diverse, the healthier you will be. It is thought that your genes play a pretty big role in your gut bugs or microbiome to the tune of about ⅓ of the bugs being linked to genetics. That doesn’t mean you are screwed if your genes dictate that much of the microbiome. It might mean you may struggle a bit more or a bit longer than someone else though.

What can you do to positively impact your gut microbiome?

-Avoid eating animal products that were raised with antibiotics. This means going as organic and local as possible. The majority of antibiotics sold in the US go to livestock operations. 

-Eat a lot of veggies and fruit- a wide variety too. 

-Avoid taking anti-biotics if you can. Sometimes they are necessary so don’t feel bad about that. 

-Don’t drink a lot of alcohol

-Avoid chemicals like pesticides, herbicides and the like. Those chemicals kill the bugs in your gut too. 

It appears that research on the microbiome shows it is even more complicated than the liver when it comes to how it works and what it does for our health. The gut is where we get around half of our vitamin K (important in blood clotting, bone health and preventing insulin resistance).  It also helps our body use all the great nutrients in the plant foods that we eat. Certain compounds in things like green tea extract, for example, will not be used by the body unless they are first processed by the bugs in our gut.  The microbiome helps our metabolism work better and helps us better use insulin. This last part is important for us because many people with thyroid issues will also have trouble regulating blood sugar.  

One thing I read from Dr. Kharrazian was that if you grew up with a gut microbiome that was not great from the start, your goals may be more suited to having more good days rather than bad days instead of searching for perfect health. This is sad to think and based on other information from people like Dr. Bruce Lipton who wrote Body Belief and Dr. Joe Dispenza who literally changed his cells to heal an injury that left him unable to walk, I’d like to believe that this is just not 100% true for everyone. I don’t want to limit my healing ability by thinking that I may just have to settle for more good days than bad. I’m also not living in a fantasy world so I understand it may not work for everyone. 

Eating a lot of plants and a wide variety of plants along with avoiding processed foods and sugar will go a long way to improving your gut microbiome and thus your health in general.  

Is Hashimoto's a Life Sentence ?

I have been listening to your podcast and want to thank you so much for the amazing information and support I feel and I know others do as well!

I was diagnosed (by the antibody test) finally in October, 2019 after about 4 years of suffering and being told everything was fine (seems like a familiar story of so many). I have hashimoto's but my T4/T3 test results are within the current "normal range". I am taking 25 mg of levothyroxine because the T4 was on the lower end. I am experiencing every hashimoto's symptom on the list and I'm very unhappy, in pain, and tired of it all. (Background: Have had thyroid goiters for over 10 years as well and recently found arthritis in my lower back.)

Anyway, although I have several questions, I want to start with something that is really causing me so much emotional distress right now.

I finally went to my first appointment with a functional medicine doctor this week. Although I have been following a gluten, sugar, soy, alcohol and grain free diet since my diagnosis, the doctor looks at me and says "you need to stop using nail polish and coloring your hair".

These two things are what keep me from going full blown depressed. To be able to at least feel pretty even though, inside I'm in pain 24/7, is what brings me some joy. Sounds superficial I know, but personal upkeep is a huge part of who I am. I'm not huge on makeup, just some eyeliner and lip gloss with foundation if I go out, but my hair is huge for me. With all that my husband puts up with, with this illness, at least he still lifts me up by telling me I'm beautiful. I've given up all the other things that bring me joy; pizza, tacos, breads, chocolate, alcohol and the pain prevents me from doing anything too physical/fun, etc etc. and it's been so hard, but now I am expected to not only feel like a 95 year old but look like one too. My hair has always been dark brown, I only use the mildest demi colors I can find, but I am very gray under there. My toes are always painted, even in the winter, and I have my finger nails done at the salon for strength (because without the strong coating, they are paper thin and I bite them).

These added restrictions will cause me so much stress, something I know is detrimental. It will also cause me to avoid social situations. My confidence will be at the lowest possible level.

My question today is do you agree with this and/or do you have any suggestions for products that are safe(r)? One other question, once all the lab tests are done and I find out the root cause of my problems and work hard to fix them and heal my body, will I always have these limitations... will I never be able to safely color my hair, paint my nails, have a few drinks with friends, have a piece of chocolate??  Or is this a life sentence? My dr. also told me to stop chewing gum, but I literally need it; my mouth is sooo dry and has a bad taste (likely from some issue I will find out through testing) but the sugar free ingredient is her concern. I am a gum addict. I have cut down, but don't know how to give it up completely.

I haven't seen much of these types of issues addressed in articles or podcasts, so I thought I'd ask. I know there must be many other women who could benefit from any help in this area as well.

I understand about the toxins, and I know how important it is to remove as much as possible, and allow the body to heal, but we still need to have some way to be happy and feel somewhat attractive or what is the point of even being here? I am converting to natural cleaning products, hair care, skin care, etc. as well. Just takes time and research to find safe and affordable options in this regard. If you have suggestions for personal care products, that would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you for all that you do to help others with this. My one question kind of turned into more, I apologize, but I really hope you can give some input on this.

LeeAnn

49, mom of three, in Colorado

do you agree with stopping hair dye and nail polish and/or do you have any suggestions for products that are safe

My answer will likely drive you nuts. Yes and no. Removing all toxins may be what you need to do but if it is going to cause you stress as you have stated that will also cause a toxic response so then I would not agree with stopping dying your hair. There are safer hair dye options and there are safer nail polish options and if that is all you have left that makes you happy then I say find safer options and do it. Maybe avoid polish on your feet in the winter to give your body a break. As long as your diet is clean and you provide lots of colorful fruits and vegetables along with quality protein sources you will be able to detox much of the chemicals from those products you are still using.

I understand fully where your doctor is coming from. Not removing them may impede healing or make the healing process that much more difficult but so will unmanaged stress or distress due to the way you feel about yourself. If you can get your diet dialed in to be really clean and work really hard on keeping it clean that is a great first step and you should feel really good about that. It is hard to do all of this at once. In episode 76 I mention all the products I use and you can find that in the post on my site under that episode. It is called How To Begin a Detox Program. 

I asked my Nutritional Therapy Community what they recommend because I rarely use polish and don’t dye my hair so it’s not my wheelhouse. They are liking 100% pure nail polish, Sophi and stay away from Keeki which flakes easily and then you have to file off what doesn’t come off.  Water based polishes also come off almost immediately after putting them on. Someone else suggested dazzledry.com so you can check them out too. Honeybee Gardens, Static Nails and Cote were also suggested. I don’t know how clean these are though. 

Madison Reed is the most recommended hair dye. Naturtint, Nectaya by Goldwell, All Nutrient Color,  Hairprint, Organic Colour Systems were also recommended. You can google to see what salons near you are using The Organic Colour Systems in their salons.  I saw you wrote back to me and said you discovered the Environmental Working Group which is a great resource for telling you how clean something is. They have a whole database just for beauty products. EWG.org is their website. 

once all the lab tests are done and I find out the root cause of my problems and work hard to fix them and heal my body, will I always have these limitations... will I never be able to safely color my hair, paint my nails, have a few drinks with friends, have a piece of chocolate??  

To this I say, probably. This all depends on what the root cause is and how it gets taken care of. We don’t all have the same root cause and we don’t all need to do the exact same things to heal. There are basic things that most people need to do such as clean up their diet, heal their gut, manage blood sugar, make sleep a priority, manage stress, drink clean water, exercise. You may have to work on your gut for a year, maybe you need an elimination diet for 6 or 8 months. This all depends on what’s going on with you. 

Personally, I have been able to reintroduce most foods after doing an elimination diet. I did just take a new food sensitivity test so I am excited to get those results back to see what is going on with me currently. For instance, I took chocolate out of my diet for about a month aside from some cocoa powder in my protein powder and there is a noticeable difference in the tinnitus or ear ringing when I eat chocolate. The ringing gets more intense and loud when I have eaten chocolate. 

You may decide that something you really like to eat will cause some upset to your system in some way and if you are willing to deal with those consequences that result from what ever your choice was, that is up to you. I do not ever recommend gluten again because of the similarity between its proteins and those of the thyroid. You might be asking for a flare up of your condition. Once your body has time to heal you may be able to enjoy a life like you envision or like the one that you had. We just need to remember that something we were doing before was a trigger for the disease so we have to be mindful of that. Avoid the trigger- even then you may heal enough that whatever that is doesn’t trigger you anymore. 

My dr. also told me to stop chewing gum, but I literally need it; my mouth is sooo dry and has a bad taste (likely from some issue I will find out through testing) but the sugar free ingredient is her concern. I am a gum addict. I have cut down, but don't know how to give it up completely. 

There are better for you gums on the market. You just won’t find them in regular stores. Pur and Spry are sold in food co-ops and other natural food stores. You can get Xylitol Fruit Gum at my dispensary https://us.fullscript.com/welcome/hfh. All products are always 10% off MSRP. The aspartame is horrible for you. There is even a website dedicated to all the adverse effects people have reported. 

If you have suggestions for personal care products, that would be greatly appreciated!

In episode 76 I mention all the products I use. It is the episode entitled How To Begin A Detox Protocol.  My favorite household cleaner is Branch Basics- we use it for hand soap and cleaning all things in the house. I use a steam mop to clean floors. I like MyZen Skin Care and for make-up which I don’t use often I use Beautycounter but am always looking for cleaner brands as their cosmetics are not super clean but their skin care is highly rated on EWG. I just don’t like their price point- mostly because there are so many middle women that get paid and that jacks the price up. 

If anyone ever told you getting well from chronic illness was going to be easy they were lying to you. When you have an autoimmune disease, such as Hashimoto’s, you have it for life. You can quiet it, put it in to so called remission, but you have it for life. That means you have to make changes for life. It doesn’t mean you have to be deprived or feel deprived but there is a certain amount of emotional work that goes along with creating a new life and lifestyle so you don’t have to live the rest of your life feeling like crap.  

You probably will need to take some supplements for a few years until your body gets nourished. You probably will have to permanently cut some foods out of your diet but the trade off is getting your life back. Feeling really good again. Having energy, losing brain fog, no more pain. You get to participate in your life. YOU just have to decide if the work is worth it. Are you to the point of being sick and tired of being sick and tired and ready to do the work? This is when the real change begins to happen. This is when the work becomes less of an issue for you because you know the only thing you have waiting for you is fatigue, depression, not being able to participate in your own life. To me, that is no way to live. My kids were young when I started making changes- 4,8,10. They saw a mom who wanted more for her life. They saw someone who was willing to do the hard work so she could be the best version of herself. They saw struggle and grief. I literally grieved for a good two years over not being able to eat bread anymore. I eventually found some good quality bread and a couple recipes that I could enjoy as bread and have some occasionally. I was able to find joy in food and cooking again and if you don’t even like to cook, you may have to do some work on that because healing your body, feeling good again, requires eating real whole foods. There is no way around that. I do know that anyone can do this. You can do this and you are worth it. You are enough. I’m here to help you figure this out but you also have to be willing to do the work. 

Ultimately it is up to you. You have complete control over how you feel. I completely understand how hard it is to get started. Believe me. I was so fatigued that just getting through the day was really hard. Some days were great, some days were not but each day, I got up and forced myself to make some clean, real whole food and eat it. I started eating vegetables that I had not tried before. I found ways to cook them that I liked. I played around with what foods worked and what didn’t. I avoided some foods on my food sensitivity test and others I ignored until I figured out through the elimination diet that they didn’t work for me. 

I learned to listen to my body. I gave it what it needed to heal. I started learning about nutrition through the Nutritional Therapy Association because I was so amazed at how eating real food could make me feel. I knew I had to share this with the world and help people like me so they don’t have to suffer like I did. Now, in my masters program I am diving even deeper in to how the body works and what I can do to support others in their healing and I’m so grateful I get to learn and help others. 

What your job is, is to take what you learn and use it. Put it in to practice. Make some small changes until those small changes become just part of your everyday life, then make some more changes. Start where you are at and give yourself some grace. There will be days where you will slip up and your body will let you know and then you just get back to it- healing your body. 

Sometimes I want this for people more than they want it for themselves because I’ve been through so much pain with this disease. I was in the thick of it while my kids were growing up and It was horrible. I had terrible moods, was angry all the time, I didn’t sleep, my blood sugar regulation was on the biggest roller coaster out there. It nearly destroyed my family life. The way I treated my body triggered Hashimoto’s and while I was pregnant- my body killed my baby. That is a lot to deal with. The choices I made with food, unmanaged stress, and all the stuff I talk about on here- that killed my baby. I don’t wish that upon anyone. I don’t wish the suffering that can come with this disease on anyone. That is why I am here. I really do want you to not have to suffer like I did because no one should have to. 

No one should have to practically beg their doctor for proper medication, or not be able to get out of bed because they hurt so bad. No one should have to deal with debilitating fatigue because their meds are not right. But everyone can choose to eat well, and make themselves a priority so they can heal. It isn’t easy but it can be done. Try sitting with yourself or meditating on what it would feel like to feel good again. Envision what that is for you. What do you see yourself feeling and doing? Feel the emotions of being in that moment of feeling well. How we feel about our illness is important and it is especially important that we don’t become our illness or identify as sick. 

I hope this helps you. Thanks so much for writing in. 

Please send your questions to helpforhashimotos@gmail.com or go to my website and fill out the contact form. I love getting your questions. 

Since most of us are in some kind of lock down- stay at home situation I was thinking it would be nice to do some group coaching via zoom between April 1 and May 1. If this interests you reach out via my website and the contact form using group coaching in the subject line. Maybe you want to get a group of friends together. I have not decided on a price but it will be significantly discounted and the more people who do it the lower the price. We can meet once a week for an hour or hour and a half and discuss a topic around nutrition.  For that same month if you want one on one services I am discounting them 30%. Now more than ever we need to be diligent about our health and well being. 

If you could be so kind and leave me a rating and review on apple podcasts that would be super helpful so more people can find the show. 

Thanks for listening. I am grateful for all of you. 

Coronavirus info and listener question answered

I have been struggling with hypothyroidism for many years.  I have gone from my Dr doing nothing to finally seeing my numbers change and starting me on a low dose of levothyroxine 50 mcg.  I gradually moved up to 175mcg and was still  suffering symptoms.  I changed to a new Dr and she listened to my symptoms more than my numbers and switched me to Armour thyroid. I seen a slight improvement for a while but now I seem to be slumping again.

What do you think the chances are that I have Hashimoto’s Disease?

Also do you think. Gluten free diet would help?  I feel as though I have been on my knees begging for help and no one is listening to me.  I am currently taking 120 Armour thyroid

Thank you for any advice you can give me

Nannette

Hi Nannette, 

I think that slumping your are feeling is due to your adrenals not being in balance. This is generally called HPA  Axis dysfunction and it is a big player in regulation of your immune system, your energy, mood and more. The package insert for your medication probably says not to treat thyroid if there is an underlying adrenal disease (usually addisons disease where your adrenals just don’t put out the hormones). Conventional medicine doesn’t really recognize HPA axis dysfunction as a real thing so it won’t be listed in your medications package insert either but it seems to affect the ability of a lot of people to feel well when they are put on their medication. 

Here are some signs that you might be dealing with some kind of HPA Axis or adrenal dysfunction: 

You tend to be a night person

You can’t fall asleep

You can’t get going in the morning

You feel “keyed” up and have trouble calming down

You have higher or low blood pressure

You get a headache after exercising

You don’t tolerate caffeine

You clench or grind your teeth

You have chronic low back pain that gets worse with fatigue

You get dizzy after standing up too quickly

You don’t hold chiropractic adjustments

You crave salt, sweat easily

You have chronic fatigue

You yawn in the afternoon or get an afternoon headache

You tend towards shin splints if you were to exercise

You need sunglasses outside even if its not sunny

These are coming straight from my Nutritional Assessment Questionnaire. If you have any number of these symptoms you are likely dealing with adrenals. 

As far as the chances you are dealing with Hashimoto’s- well the statistics I have read on this are that about 90% of hypothyroidism in the US is autoimmune related. If your doctor won’t test your antibodies (sometimes it is frowned upon) then you can decide if you want to just assume you have it. The care you receive from your doctor won’t change if you do have it. They will still just give you your thyroid meds and check your numbers once a year if you are stable. Having antibodies or not doesn’t change the way I help my clients either- I always recommend a gluten free, dairy free diet for all thyroid clients and then depending on how their assessment comes out as well as their history we make decisions about how to proceed from there as far as bringing the body back in to balance. 

Some other things to think about are: 

1. How is your digestion? Do you have good eliminations? 

2. How is your blood sugar regulation? This ties in with adrenal health. 

3. Are you deficient in vitamins, minerals or fatty acids?

4. Are you sleeping?

5. How is your stress?

How long have you been on Armour? It can take 6-8 weeks for things to normalize when you are finding a dose of medication. Also, consider that it is the medication and not you that is the problem. There are other formulations out there. Other brands you can try but you might want to start with some diet changes and see if that helps you feel better. Go gluten free and dairy free for sure. I would start with these diet changes and see how you feel. Maybe you are not getting enough T3 or not converting from T4 to T3? 

You also need to consider gut health as much of the conversion from T4 to T3 happens in the gut and some in the liver and then in other tissues in small amounts. This is a whole body approach because all of those systems that may not be optimal are going to affect the thyroid and be affected by the thyroid. I hope that helps. 

That is it for today. Please stay safe and healthy and wash those hands. 

If you are struggling with autoimmune disease and would like some help navigating how to get your health back, go to my website and book an appointment for a quick 15 minute zoom or phone call to see if we are a good fit. You can also email me at stephanie@outofthewoodsnutrition.com  

Have a question for me? Fill out the contact form on my website with PODCAST as the subject or write me at helpforhashimotos.com

I’m not podcasting next week but will be back with lots of great information in the coming weeks as I start up my GI imbalances course. I’m so excited to share what I learn with you about keeping your gut healthy. 

Do low thyroid antibodies mean I don't have Hashimoto's?

Hi Stephanie,  

I am 55 years old and have been hypothyroid for many years. I just had bloodwork done (3 days ago) and my TSH is 1.0, my T3 is 3.9 and my T4 is 11. I have thyroid nodules and I was also told I had Hashimotos. My anti TG is currently 315 and my anti TPO is 11.  I just did 30 days of AIP diet and don’t feel any different but my anti TG has come down from 396 and anti TPO is down from 17 (blood test about 6 months ago) I have read that anti TPO is what determines hashimotos but have also read that either anti TG or TPO determines hashimotos.  With my TPO antibodies only 11 do I really have Hashimotos?  Also, since I do not feel any different how can I figure out what food is causing my anti TG to be so high?  

Thanks,

Tracey

Hi Tracey, 

Thanks for writing in. I’m going to break this down so everyone understands. Let’s start with the nodules. 

Nodules are often found via some kind of radiologic imaging- usually ultrasound but sometimes through a physical exam or even you might feel them yourself. Some studies show that anywhere from 20-75% of people have at least one nodule so it appears it could be quite common and doesn’t always mean there is something terrible on the horizon. Sometimes a needle aspiration biopsy will be done to determine if there is something serious going on. 

Things your doctor should be looking at is your history, in detail. Is there any pain on the front of your neck or are the nodules growing quickly. If the nodules are growing fast, there is concern for cancer. Do you have trouble breathing, feel like you are suffocating, have a hoarse voice and of course have symptoms of hypo or hyper thyroid. Your doctor should also be asking if you have had radiation over your whole body, did you have a nodule in childhood, anyone in your family have thyroid nodules? If you don’t have any symptoms they are usually benign.  

The problem I have with finding information in the scientific literature is that everything says that if TSH is normal then the free T3 and free T4 don’t need to be checked and that just isn’t true as far as those of us who are thyroid patients feel. What they do say is that Low TSH and high FT4 indicates hyperthyroidism, so for you Tracey with your TSH at 1.0 and T4 at 11- you might be feeling a little hyper. This could be due to the antibody levels being higher. 

When antibodies are high, the thyroid is probably being attacked which can kill off tissue and release T4 in to the system. I hope that makes sense to you. I think your T3 is in an okay place but again, I’m struggling to find anything in the literature. Having positive TPO Ab indicates Hashimoto’s. When I put anti thyroglobulin antibodies in to the search of the literature I actually found a paper talking about reducing test requests for antibodies by making it more difficult for the labs to be requested. The study discusses removing actual number values and putting either positive or negative since “TPO is not useful in monitoring autoimmune thyroid disease” and for Tg Ab it is only to be requested in the case of thyroid cancer and if there is a positive test on TPO they won’t even run TgAb. 

Another study confirms that both antibodies are found in Hashimoto’s with TPO being considered to THE test to confirm hashimoto’s and TgAb are also found in Lupus. So, as long as you have positive results for the antibodies tests, the science is saying that is hashimoto’s. I do not diagnose or treat anything because I am not a doctor- this is a disclaimer. If I had those labs I would consider myself to have hashimoto’s. 

Thyroid peroxidase is an enzyme that helps make thyroid hormones. It needs iodine to do its job which is to add iodine atoms to tyrosine on thyroglobulin so thyroxine (T4), triiodothyronine(T3) etc. can be produced. The enzyme needs peroxide as part of the process which is created by the body and neutralized by selenium. One study says that this is the major antigen in Hashimoto’s. This study was looking at how consuming certain polyphenols or plant compounds can also help in eliminating the damage caused by the creation of the hydrogen peroxide that isn’t otherwise neutralized naturally in the body. When you have antibodies to thyroid peroxidase you are impeding this whole reaction. 

Thyroglobulin antibodies are attacking the thyroglobulin protein that is made by the thyroid gland. Thyroglobulin is the most abundant protein in the thyroid gland. TSH from the pituitary tells the thyroid follicular cells to make thyroglobulin. 

So if you are making antibodies there is an immune system issue going on. 

After being on AIP for 30 days it looks like there was some change in antibodies but not much and you said you don’t feel any different. It is hard for me to comment here on why you don’t feel different when I don’t know how you felt before. So I would like to know more about that. Maybe 30 days was not long enough? Maybe it just isn’t helping. AIP will not work for everyone- it isn’t a be all end all diet and that is okay if it didn’t help you feel better. Unfortunately there are too many factors for me to consider to be able to say anything helpful right now. I just need to know more. Maybe you need to heal your gut.  What is your blood sugar like? How about your adrenals? What is the status of your fatty acids? Lots to consider here. 

As far as your labs- let me first say that some labs have different metrics and functional medicine lab values are different from conventional lab values.  

Your TSH is 1.0 - Depending on the lab and the practitioner an optimal range is anywhere from 1-3 mlU/L (milli international units per liter). So that looks okay. Personally, I feel great with a lower TSH. 

Your T3 which I am assuming is free T3 is 3.9 which also looks pretty good. FM values for that are 3.0-4.0 pg/mL (picograms/milliliter). 

Your T4 is 11 and again I am assuming that is free T4 and the optimal range for that is 1.0-1.5 ng/DL (nanograms/deciliter). So again, that is on the high side which indicates potential hyperthyroid. Do you have symptoms of hyperthyroid? 

TgAb is best between 18-27 ug/mL (micrograms/milliliter)(yours is 315)  and TPO antibodies are best below 15 (yours is 11). Ideally these should be zero and if not there is some kind of attack going on. 

I hope this helps. I would certainly consider lifelong gluten and dairy free for sure. It looks like a quick even one time consultation might be something that would help you figure out just where to start in feeling better. Or maybe you feel fine. I don’t know. When you have autoimmune disease you have to be sure you are managing diet and lifestyle for the rest of your life to avoid flare ups and have a good quality of life. It is unfortunate to be dealt those cards but it is the way it is. We have to make the best of it and move forward living our best life. 

Okay. That is it. I will be answering more questions in the coming weeks so if you have a question for me, please send it in either via helpforhashimotos@gmail.com or on my website outofthewoodsnutrition.com and fill out the contact form there and ask away. 

Someone did write in and ask for any and all advice on hashimoto’s which is great but if you can be more specific that is helpful to and for any and all advice I say, listen to the podcast and sign up for my newsletter on my website and that should be a great start. 

I thank you so much for writing in, keep sending those questions and if you can give me a rating and or review on apple podcasts I would greatly appreciate it! It helps make the podcast more visible so more people can be helped. 

If you are looking for someone to walk with you through your healing, I am taking on new clients. I am allowing about 2 new clients each month. I have lowered my rates by adding more time with me on to my packages so if you are already on a package you now get double the amount of time that you had before. I felt like it was necessary to spend more time each meeting to really make some progress. You can make an appointment for a 15 minute call to see if we are good fit by going to my website under make an appointment. I look forward to hearing from you. 

Until next week. 

How to begin a detox program

You always start with food first. You need to remove all the offending foods and things in your environment that are suspected to be causing you a problem. You might start with an elimination diet which is meant to figure out which foods are an issue for you. Then you move on to the detoxification food plan which is just that- a plan for the rest of your life. That doesn’t mean that you never again can eat out or enjoy a treat or whatever- it means that for your health and longevity you will need to maintain a new, healthier lifestyle and way of eating. You do this by adding in nutrient dense foods that feed those detoxification pathways or phases that we talked about in the past few weeks. You literally want to eat a rainbow of colorful vegetables and fruits every day. 

How do you know if you are a candidate for needing detoxification? As I said before almost everyone needs to do it but here are some symptoms to look out for: 

• bloating, gas, GERD

• joint pain, muscle aches

• low energy

• immune system issues- sick a lot or autoimmune disease like hashimoto’s or Graves

• IBS

• leaky gut

• asthma

• skin rashes- this is a big sign your body is toxic

• fibromyalgia, arthritis

• mood disorders- anxiety, depression etc

• allergies

• weight gain

• food intolerances/sensitivity

• high liver enzymes

The detox food plan used by the Institute for Functional Medicine focuses on whole foods though a supplemental detox powder can be very helpful. It also focuses on organic foods for the big reason that most non organic or conventional foods are sprayed with more chemicals than organic. The ideal situation would be to get as much locally from growers who don’t spray at all. You do the best you can and at a minimum follow ewg.org list of dirty dozen and clean fifteen. 

You will want to also make sure you are getting enough protein balanced out with some healthy fats and lots and lots of a variety of vegetables and some fruits. Your everyday diet should be low in sugar and processed foods. If you are able to make this work for you, you should not have to “diet” or restrict calories in any way. It is gluten and dairy free which are best for those of us with Hashimoto’s or autoimmune disease. This will keep your gut bacteria in balance, reduce cravings and food addiction. You will get the antioxidants your body needs to repair and support itself as well. 

Fish is a big problem for heavy metal exposure. Mercury half life in fish is 2 years long which allows for greater accumulation of this heavy metal the bigger the ocean fish consumed. We have a 60 day half life for methylmercury so if you ate fish once a week, it can raise your own blood levels.  There are mercury advisories for many bodies of water around the country and  you can find out more about your local area at www.epa.gov . Fish from the great lakes will expose you to persistent organic pollutants but farmed salmon (restaurant) exposes us to 97% of all POPs in our diet. ⅔ of salmon eaten in the US is farmed and the POPs come from the food pellets fed to the salmon. Sardines are high in PCBs. 

A note on the organic aspect. This gets expensive. I do realize that and that it won’t be affordable for everyone to eat 100% organic. Make sure your protein choices are leaner cuts of meat or you are trimming the fat. Buy organic of whatever you eat the most of whenever possible. I have been using Imperfect Foods delivery of imperfect produce and you can get organic produce delivered to your door for cheaper than most grocery stores. Stick to real whole foods- they will keep you full and nourished. The cleaner the food, the better.  

Now you also need to look at what else in your life might be exposing you to toxins. 

Air pollution is a problem in urban areas, office buildings and your home. Things like air filtration systems or tightly sealed homes and buildings are all something to consider as well as smoking, exhaust, diesel fuel exhaust (ever been behind a school bus at a stop light or just behind a bus on the road?). What about air fresheners- those terrible chemical things you can plug in to your outlets- or just regular spray air fresheners. How about non stick cookware? That is one thing you should definitely get rid of. Carpeting emits semi-volatile organic compounds and collects all kinds of toxicants which includes things you bring in to your home on your shoes. 

Do you have vinyl shower curtains or live in a city that chlorinates their water so when you shower you are showering in chlorine? You can get a filter for your shower head and use a cloth shower curtain. 

To remove all these things from the air you can use air purifiers with HEPA filters and surprisingly house plants are good air filters. Or maybe not surprisingly to you. This was new to me until a couple of years ago. Spider plants, mother in laws tongue, Janet Craig, Sweet chico, peace lily are all great options for cleaning the air in your home. 

Next is looking at the plastic in your home. Do not cook food in plastic, do not store high fat foods in plastic or put warm liquids in plastics. Don’t use plastic microwave safe containers in the microwave. Use glass storage for foods. You can find inexpensive glass containers at stores like HomeGoods, Marshalls, and TJ Maxx. 

Clean up the water you drink. Get a reverse osmosis water system for your drinking water at a minimum. If you have a well, get the water tested. Your county often will do water testing but you have to check with them as to what exactly they are testing for. 

Personal care products and household cleaners are big ones too. This is one big way you can reduce your body’s toxic burden. 

• body lotion

• shampoo, conditioner

• body wash, soap

• deodorant

• cosmetics

• perfume

• skin creams, cleansers, serums

• lip balms

• nail polish

• hand soap

• laundry detergent

• household cleaners

This list can be overwhelming and I suggest just making one or two changes at a time so you are not burdened by this. I’ll share with you what I use and you can also check out ewg.org as they have some resources there for cleaning products and cosmetics. 

Here is my list: 

• Branch Basics for cleaning products and hand soap. It is a concentrated non toxic cleaner that really really works. I add Good Samaratin essential oil blend from Pranoram to the hand soap and to the general cleaning bottles. It smells good and has antiviral, antibacterial properties. You can also use this for laundry but I find it gets really expensive so I use Ecos or BioKleen. 

• Dr. Bronners liquid and bar soaps for cleaning. The bar soap is at our utility sink and I have used the liquid soap to clean really dirty dogs. 

• Ecos dish soap

• Seventh Generation dishwashing detergent and non chlorine bleach. I do keep chlorine bleach around for when someone has a stomach virus or for some special cleaning jobs but use it rarely. 

• Bar keepers friend and Bon Ami for cleaning tough spots on pots and pans and for cleaning my kitchen sink. 

• Beautycounter is mostly what I use for cosmetics but there are other brands such as Araza Beauty, W3LL People, RMS Beauty, 100% Pure, Crunchi, Mineral Fusion, Vapour, Lawless, Gabriel Cosmetics. I know nothing about these companies except Beautycounter which I used to sell to get the discount but am not selling anymore. They are not the cleanest but are better than many and I don’t wear a lot of make-up. I also like Celtic Complexion skin care and MeiZen skin care as well as Evan Healy and Intelligent Nutrients. 

• Hair products, I use are Intelligent Nutrients (they often have a 30% off sale) and I have started using HairStory which is not as clean. 

• I use Shea Butter or Jojoba oil for moisturizer or Allafia or Everyone lotion and body wash

• Allafia makes a non aluminum and non baking soda based deodorant which is nice. 

• I use a steam mop to clean my floors and I have microfiber cloths as well. 

• I use cast iron pans, stainless steel and enameled cast iron. We do have a non stick waffle maker and griddle but I just got a new stove with a cast iron griddle attachment so I am looking forward to using that. 

I think the other thing I would like to briefly mention is genetic testing. You may have a polymorphism in your genes- well we all have them it just depends on which ones you have and how many that determines if your body has some difficulty with detoxification. You can do genetic testing and work with someone who can create a nutrition plan for you based on your SNPs but you can do some general dietary recommendations like what I have talked about here. What you eat plays a role in turning on or off your genes that can create or keep disease at bay, especially chronic illnesses. Chronic illness like autoimmune disease is influenced by what we put in our body. 100 calories of cake is not the same as 100 calories of apples. It just isn’t. We also have to keep in mind epigenetics which is the role the environment plays in our overall health and what it is doing to our genes. So a clean diet that is full of plants of varying colors and quality proteins are your best bet for the beginnings of good health. 

Thanks so much for listening. Please head over to my website and sign up for my newsletter. It has been awhile since I sent a recipe out and I am due to get something together this weekend. If you could leave me a rating or review on apple podcasts I would really appreciate it. The goal is to educate as many people as possible to take control of their own health and I can’t do it without you. Share this with someone you know who might be struggling with autoimmune disease, especially hashimoto’s. 

How to eliminate toxins from the body.

Welcome to Episode 75. I’m so glad you are here and I’m really grateful that you are listening. You know, when you have hashimoto’s and you are in the thick of it- you are dealing with a hypothyroid, your medication might not be optimal, you have zero energy and you just feel kind of like giving up on it all. I don’t mean on life but just feeling like there is no way out- like this is all you have in life and it just feels really hopeless. I want to tell you that it can get better. You can get better. You can feel better. You can have a wonderful life and you can really live again. You have to do some work to get there though and I think that can feel daunting especially when it might feel like a lot just to get out of bed or just to make it through the day.

 I remember feeling like that, especially when I was first diagnosed. I had to get out of bed because I had a toddler and a newborn. My husband was not a lot of help and I was not good at asking for help. I put it all on me to get everything done and to be good at it all and that was freaking exhausting. That caused me to burn out my adrenals and sadly I had no idea about any of the stuff I am teaching you in this podcast. 

You all have a leg up on me. You can learn from all this information I am giving you and you can begin to take those first steps to start to feel better. Even if, like I posted on Instagram a week ago, it is just taking a few extra steps in a day. If you are struggling to make it through the day just doing regular day to day stuff- the next time you go to the store park in the back of the parking lot and walk those few extra steps. The next time you are watching tv, get up at the commercial and just stand for one of them, or walk around your living room just for one commercial. Then keep doing that until it gets easier and easier and you can go for a walk in your neighborhood. Little by little a little becomes a lot. You can do this. You really can and the reason I am here doing this is so you don’t have to suffer like I did. Seriously. I want life to be good for you because you deserve a good life, a happy life, a life fulfilled. You are worthy and you are enough. 

Ok. Now let’s get on with the bones of the show. This week in the detoxification series is all about how to get these toxins out of the body. Last week, I think it was I mentioned how you may need to heal your gut using something called the five R program and I couldn’t remember what the five R’s were. This is the week we dive in to what it means to heal your gut and why it is so important. 

Healing the gut is not only important as far as removing toxins from the body goes but it is so important for autoimmune disease in general.

 In functional medicine we are taught to start by healing the gut. A side note here is the gut can’t heal if you don’t provide it the right tools to do so which includes a diet change. You can’t eat fast food and work on your gut at the same time. You will be wasting your money. So diet changes first- like gluten free, dairy free for Hashimoto’s and hypothyroidism (and Grave’s disease too) then work on healing the gut. They kind of go hand in hand. 

The first step in the 5R program is removing all the stuff that is causing gut issues- stress, food intolerances and any microbes that should not be there such as parasites, bad bacteria, overgrowth of yeasts, etc.  You can do lab testing via a stool test to find out if there is specific bugs here but you don’t have to. It is probably cheaper just to go on a protocol because most of us if not all of us have some kind of bug in us that should not be there. If you have uncontrolled cravings you likely have some kind of bug/parasite issue because they will cause you to crave what they need to survive. They are very tricky buggers. I would say if you think you have small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) you probably want to be tested for that because a general gut healing protocol won’t likely take care of that. 

Once you have removed all the problematic stuff, you need to replace what is either not working optimally or missing altogether from your digestive tract. So here I am talking about stomach acid, ox bile replacement or support for gallbladder and/or pancreatic/digestive enzymes. You may only need one or you may need all. It is quite common for people with hypothyroidism to be producing low stomach acid so it is something to consider. In general we need support with digestion. I’ve discussed digestion in detail before so I won’t go in to details here. Pancreatic enzymes come in handy to help us break down fat and carbohydrate. The idea behind taking them is not to take them forever or need them forever but to help the body heal itself so it can begin to make them on its own again. 

We need an enzyme called lipase to breakdown triglycerides and other larger fat molecules. The job of bile is to emulsify fats like dishsoap does to fat when you wash a pan. It breaks it down. That has to be working well in order for your body to be able to assimilate the fat from your diet and get your fat soluble vitamins. So if you have a stool test done they might look for fat in your stool- you might even be able to tell by looking in the toilet after you go to the bathroom. If you have shiny or greasy stools or floating stools those are indications that you might not be digesting fats. You need healthy bile which comes from consuming healthy fats and breaking them down. This, again, is where supplementation comes in handy. It can help your body until your body can do it on its own. You need bile to get the toxins out of your body through stool. Often ox bile is used to help with fat digestion and cleaning up the bile but you can start by taking artichoke leaf, milk thistle seed, dandelion root, or bitters. 

Protein digestion is also very important because you need protein to be properly broken down for the phases of detoxification but also if you have leaky gut or intestinal permeability, you need to have protein broken down so it doesn’t “leak” through the gut and inflame your immune system. You can try bitters before you try a stomach acid supplement. I like Urban Moonshine bitters but you can ask for bitters at a restaurant and drink that before you eat. If the restaurant has a bar they likely have bitters. But you can also consume bitter greens like endive, dandelion, wild lettuces, milk thistle, chicory or even potentially a little coffee. It is acidic and may stimulate your stomach to produce acid. There isn’t a whole lot of science to back that up though. 

You definitely don’t want to do a stomach acid supplement such as Betaine HCl if you have ulcers or an H.Pylori infection. You need to get those cleared up first. 

When food is not digested well it results in fermentation in the colon. Gas, bloating, feeding the “bad” bacteria and it means you are not assimilating the protein or the carbohydrates you ate. 

Constipation is common in hypothyroidism- fiber is the answer. We all should be getting 50 grams a day of fiber and drinking lots of water to ensure that fiber can do its job. Fiber mops up toxins and takes them out through stool. So, get your veggies in. The fiber in veggies helps with the third step of feeding the good bacteria in your gut. 

Once you have replaced digestion to good working order it is time to re-establish your gut bacteria with prebiotics and probiotics. There was a study done that found a link between inflammation in the gut, the microbiome and chronic fatigue syndrome. Fixing leaky gut and feeding those good bacteria can play a role in lessening CFS. Pretty cool. The biggest thing you can do to increase the gut bacteria is to eat lots of plants and a variety of plants and if you need a fiber supplement go for things like pectin, rice bran, chlorella, matcha green tea. All will pull toxins out of the gut. Mostly though, eat a lot of plant foods.  You can also take probiotics, make your own yogurt (dairy free is ideal for hashimoto’s patients) and there are a ton of recipes online if you google dairy free yogurt recipes. 

Repairing the gut is then next step. We do this with specific nutrients like L-glutamine, Omega 3 fatty acids, B vitamins, Zinc (carnosine), Vitamin E, Aloe vera or DGL. Specifically zinc is needed for wound healing and new cell growth. The lining of your gut turns over every 7 days or so and if you are deficient in zinc do you think you will have such a turnover? Maybe, maybe not. Be careful just taking a zinc supplement because you can deplete copper stores. You also need to reduce gut inflammation in order for the gut to heal which is why I said you also need to make diet changes to ensure your body has all the tools it needs to do this. 

Ok. Lastly, this is a functional medicine ending to repairing the gut. You need to balance your life. Reduce stress, get enough sleep, exercise, consume a healthy diet and find things that bring you joy! 

Head over to my website and tell me what you do that brings you joy. Leave a comment under this podcast post. Let’s start a conversation about how we can bring more joy to our lives. While you are there you can sign up for my newsletter for recipes and more sent right to your inbox. 

That is it for today. Thanks for joining me. Please leave me a rating or review on apple podcasts. It really helps more people find the show. 

If you or someone you know is struggling with Hashimoto’s or autoimmune disease, I am taking new clients and specifically allowing 2 new clients a month. Head on over to my website and fill out the contact form and we can see if we are a good fit for each other. 

What you need to know about detoxification.

Welcome to episode 74. 

This week I am going to give you a simple primer on the phases of detoxification in your body. This is important to know so you know how the food you eat actually might be affecting how you feel and the process of disease. When the body is out of balance due to your detoxification  systems not working well or at all, you will feel sick and it will affect your thyroid. We are made of many systems and they all work together. Our current medical system has developed specialties for each of our systems. Maybe you see an endocrinologist for your thyroid- they deal with the endocrine system. We have gastroenterologists who specialize in our GI tract. We have cardiologists who specialize in our heart health and so on. The missing piece here is that all of these systems work together and when one is out of balance, it is likely that others are also out of balance and that can create systemic dis-ease. 

When your detoxification system- and interestingly, there is no conventional medical specialty for this system. The only way this system gets attention is from scientists who are developing pharmaceutical drugs because all drugs get processed through this system and that is kind of what I am going to talk about today. It is important stuff because when things go wrong here you can end up with cancer, heart disease, liver problems and more. 

Okay. Let’s get started.  I mentioned a bit last week that there are three phases of detoxification. Phase I, Phase II and Phase II. We will go through each of these and I will try to make this as simple as possible to understand. The basics of this system is we take in a toxin- and most toxins are what we call fat soluble meaning they like to hang out in our fat tissue. Toxins can come from the outside- from our environment, from the air we breath, from our food, from our clothes- pretty much anywhere. It is unavoidable. 

Those toxins come in and  some will be eliminated through our stool or sweat without going through phase I but if they are not eliminated they go to the liver and through phase I detoxification. The liver will process them and then they get eliminated through our urine or our stool. Now, many people with hypothyroidism and mismanaged medication have constipation so these toxins are not being eliminated right away through the stool. They are getting reabsorbed in to the body. Not good. We want to get those out. 

In the liver, in phase I- it is called biotransformation- this means the substance is transformed or changed into something else so it can be prepared for elimination. We have enzymes in our liver that break down these foreign things called xenobiotics. This process creates free radicals which are molecules that are unstable due to missing and electron and create oxidative stress. They damage tissue in the body if they are not neutralized. We do that with antioxidants. 

You have likely heard that things like blueberries are a good source of antioxidants. There are special components of blueberries and other fruits and veggies that help neutralize these free radicals that our body has created. Also - before they create damage in the body they are supposed to go through phase II where they are further changed by other molecules in the body joining with them (molecules which are created through our consumption and breakdown of protein) and creating these harmless water soluble substance that will be sent to the kidney for elimination through urine or through the GI tract for elimination through stool. The elimination part is phase III. 

In order for this to happen we need to provide our body with nutrients. For phase I we specifically need B vitamins, especially riboflavin, niacin, B6, folate, B12, flavonoids (these come from the colors in our veggies), you need some good healthy fats to build healthy cell structures and you need glutathione which is the body’s master antioxidant. 

Before these broken down and more harmful products from phase I can move on to phase II they need the antioxidants and those require the use of things like vitamin A, vitamin C, selenium, copper, zinc, CoQ10, things called thiols which are found in garlic, onions and cruciferous veggies like broccoli, bioflavonoids (found mostly in citrus fruits, black currents- if you have bleeding gums you could be missing bioflavonoids in your diet). 

Next they move on to phase II where the biggest nutrient needed here is protein. Protein, when broken down provides all the amino acids needed for this second phase to work really well and this is important because if this phase is not working up to the speed of phase I, you have all these really harmful compounds that will be moving throughout the body, damaging tissues and wreaking havoc on the body. 

This means you need to be not only eating quality proteins but you also need to be breaking them down and assimilating them. Now quality proteins in the scientific literature means that you are getting all the amino acids needed for the body to operate- typically the essential amino acids and there are about 20-22 essential amino acids meaning our body cannot produce them and we need to get them from our diet. We can get them from plants or animals but easiest is from animals. 

Once these compounds are changed again in phase II they get set for elimination and in order for that to happen well you need a few things to be working really well there too. The transformed compounds, and those that didn’t get transformed are sent to the river of bile that flows through our digestive tract which will then be eliminated through our stool. This means that you need to be producing healthy bile from your liver. Past episodes will talk more in depth about that but basically you need to be consuming healthy fats- not canola oil or vegetable oil or trans fats. You have to minimize fried foods and consume olive oil, some coconut oil and eat avocados. These help build healthy bile which will help keep your gallbladder healthy so you can excrete all these toxins in your stool. You also will excrete through urine but first the toxic byproducts are shuttled to the blood, then they are filtered through the kidneys and then excreted through urine. This means you need to be drinking enough water so you are peeing this stuff out. 

How do we support these phases with food? Phase I foods include things like mushrooms, eggs, asparagus, almonds, turkey, chicken, salmon, lamb, beef, sardines, brown rice, sweet potato, beans, broccoli, leafy greens, fish, undenatured whey protein, turmeric, avocado, garlic, foods high in vitamin C and selenium, all the plant foods, sunflower seeds. 

Phase II foods are all about protein and digesting and assimilating that protein. So you must have good digestion and you probably should heal your gut if you have intestinal permeability or leaky gut. That would be important. How do you know if you have good digestion? What are your stools like? Are they well formed, sort of sausage shaped? Do you have much on the toilet paper when you wipe? If you do have a mess on your toilet paper and they are not well formed you likely need to work on your digestion. You might need a stomach acid supplement, you might need a gut healing program, you might need more fiber. Is your gallbladder doing its job? If not, that needs to be taken care of too. Do you have gut dysbiosis like an issue with candida or an issue with an imbalance in your microbiome?

If you have any genetic mutations such as MTHFR or COMT you will need extra help feeding the proper nutrients to your body so the detoxification system can do its job. If you have issues with these SNPs- they are related to methylation which is part of the detoxification process and you might have higher homocysteine levels on a blood test, you might have low B12, low folate status and low methionine (an essential amino acid). The short answer for this issue is to make sure you are consuming a lot of leafy greens, a mediterranean type diet can be really helpful and you want to be sure you are getting all the b vitamins but you don’t want to take them in too high amounts. You want to not smoke or drink too much coffee and avoiding alcohol is beneficial. Some medications can affect your folate status, particularly methotrexate. 

I talked a little bit about glutathione being your body’s master antioxidant. It is pretty important and there are some things that go in in the body that can cause it to be depleted so you want to make sure you provide the raw materials to keep your glutathione status healthy. Protein, brassica veggies, turmeric, fruits and veggies (cruciferous especially at 5-10 servings a day), green tea, N-acetycysteine, omega 3 fatty acids, salmon, resveratrol, allium veggies (chives, leeks, garlic, onion), vitamin C and E and whey protein. 

This is your very simple and quick primer on the phases of detoxification. I do not recommend doing a detoxification plan without first healing your gut and doing an elimination diet. You can’t start a detox while you are feeling really bad because it can just make you worse. You should always work with a practitioner who can help you navigate this. 

That is it for today. I want to thank you for being here and for listening. I do appreciate it. If you could leave me a review on apple podcasts it helps me reach more people. If you need some help with your health or you know someone who does, I am taking new clients and would love to chat with you. You can set up a discovery call on my website and click on the appointment tab where you can select a free 15 minute call to see if we are a good fit for each other. 

While you are there, sign up for my newsletter for recipes and other tips sent out every few weeks. 

Here’s to you until next week. 

What does detoxification mean?

Welcome to episode 73. Thanks for joining me. I am super grateful you all have stuck with me for 73 episodes. 

Please send me your questions to helpforhashimotos@gmail.com or head over to my website outofthewoodsnutrition.com and fill out the contact form putting in the subject line, podcast and then ask away. I’m here to help so you can live your best life and feel fantastic even while dealing with chronic illness and thyroid disease. This disease does not have to make or break you and let me remind you that you are not your disease. You are a person who deserves love and kindness and to feel good. It isn’t going to magically appear just because you know you deserve it though. You do have to make choices day by day that are going to bring you out of dis-ease and in to wellness. What you put in and on your body and what you have going on in your head all do play a role in your health and in disease. Those small and seemingly insignificant choices we make on a daily basis add up to a lot over time. Cutting 125 calories of crap from our diet over 2 ½ years can result in significant weight loss. Reading 10 pages a day of a book can result in you reading more books than you ever imagined over that same period of time. The point here is with a little change here or there you can and you will start to feel better. It is all up to you. Are you in?

Okay. Now let’s get down to business. This is another show about detoxification because I want you to be really clear what it means and what it does in your body. Again, this is not a discussion about cleanses or water fasting or any sort of fad type of detox. This is what is happening on a daily basis in your body and how you can provide your body with the tools it needs to work optimally for you to feel your best. 

Detoxification can be defined as giving the body what it needs to break down and excrete the toxic compounds we take in through our day to day life and to break down and excrete the toxic compounds created by our own body and it breaks down external compounds we have been exposed to. At the same time detoxification is about taking the steps we need to do to reduce our exposure. 

Detoxing or cleansing has been around for 100’s and 100’s of years as part of a healing practice. Think about the season of lent in the catholic church. You are giving up something and bringing something else in to your life. The point of it is to look at your life with curiosity and self examination. When you change the kind of food you put in to your body to something more healing, your life will change too. This can also be called detox but biotransformation is a better name in my opinion. It is access to greater change and healing. 

We have three phases of detoxification within the body. Phase I, Phase II and Phase III. Phase I & II have been studied a lot in conjunction with pharmaceutical drugs and how they are metabolized in the body. Phase III is elimination of toxins in your cells but also elimination from the body via urine, sweat, feces and so on. 

There was a study done on women with chronic fatigue syndrome- possibly some of you have been diagnosed with that in addition to Hashimoto’s? These women took a detox supplement powder along with doing an elimination diet. So they took this powder that had all the nutrients your body needs and it was mixed with water or something. Along with the powder they consumed an elimination diet that was loaded with phytonutrients (a component of plants that are beneficial to our health). They took the Medical Symptom Questionnaire from the Institute For Functional Medicine before the program and then again when the program was done. This specific detox program which is food based reduced the participants medical symptoms significantly. There is a clear benefit here but I want to stress that you should not do this on your own. Get support from a practitioner because you may need to heal your gut before doing something like this or you may need to make sure you are pooping regularly etc. 

A program like this can help you get rid of brain fog, pain, help you understand what foods you should avoid, give you more energy, clear up your skin, reduce medications and stress and inflammation and can help you recover or go in to remission. This is kind of a big deal. Is it worth it to you to do the work to get to this place? If so, I am your girl. These are my favorite kinds of clients to work with. 

The work you may need to do to get to this feeling is not only clean up your diet, but your home, your personal care products, your mind and even your relationships. Your results will all depend on how much work you put in as with anything. There is no magic and I am sorry to say that because I too wish there was a magic pill here. 

So where do you begin if you want to do something like this? First make sure you are pooping 1-2 times a day. This is really really important. You don’t want to go to the work of cleaning up the body and then not be able to get rid of all the garbage because it will just go right back in to circulation and make you sick. Not good. You also need some energy to get through something like this so if you are low on energy as many of us with hypothyroidism are, you will need to do some work on that first. You may need to do some supplementation to support your body through this as well. 

Your gut needs to be in good shape before detoxing so working on healing your gastrointestinal tract is important. If you have intestinal permeability you have a good chance that these external toxins are escaping in to the blood stream along with proteins that have not been broken down etc. We need to have a very acidic stomach- not usually the case in hypothyroidism and as we get older so we need to possibly supplement with stomach acid in order to break down our foods. Your liver needs to be working well because much of the breakdown of toxins happens there. You need good bile flow which means you need to have a proper functioning gallbladder. If you have referred pain in your shoulder blades or if you put some pressure on the area under your right rib cage and it is painful or uncomfortable, then you have some healing to do there too before implementing a detoxification program. 

We know that mercury is a big player in autoimmune disease and Hashimoto’s right? Well 80% of the mercury in our body comes out in our stool. If we have leaky gut and are not pooping regularly this can be a real problem. You can be pooping daily but if you are not pooping out what you ate the day before that means you have slow motility and that is not good either. You might want to do a transit time test- eat some beets or like a half a cup of organic corn or take 5-7 activated charcoal tablets in the morning. Write down what time you take it, then watch your stool. Write down what time you first see one of those things in your stool (you will likely see red in your stool with beets) and then write down the date and time you last see them. The time between when you first ingested the stuff and the last time you see it in your stool is your transit time. This should be around 16-24 hours. Anything longer than that, there is a good chance you are reabsorbing some toxic materials. Anything less than that and it is likely you are missing out on absorption of nutrients.   If your poops are not perfect you likely need to do a gut healing program before you begin. Again, this is something you should do with a practitioner- it requires some diet change and supplementation but is so worth it. 

What kinds of nutrients do you need to help your body detoxify?

 Fiber- most of us don’t get enough of it. Get your fiber from a variety of plant foods and avoid supplementation if you can. Fiber is in veggies, nuts, legumes (beans), fruit and grains. The more fiber you eat the more toxins you will naturally pull out of your body. If you need help through supplementation you can take psyllium which works great but be aware that taking it for too long can result in developing an intolerance. It will reduce transit time, it can help lower blood sugar and LDL cholesterol and it is pretty safe. Biotics Research makes a really nice psyllium product called Colon Plus that works well. When I first started doing this, I was still in school and had a practice client who had not pooped for a month. She started on this product which I tested her for and she called me up to tell me she pooped 5 times in one day and she was feeling fantastic.  So it really gets things moving. 

Aloe vera can be used for up to 2 weeks to stimulate your eliminations but it doesn’t really taste great. It is anti-inflammatory and can be cooling to our system. 

Prebiotics- you can get those from fiber containing foods. They reduce inflammation and IBS symptoms, they are good for your colon and allow our body to assimilate vitamins and minerals. They can also promote feeling full and weight loss. Prebiotics feed the beneficial bacteria in our gut allowing for the population to remain strong and healthy. 

Probiotics- many strains help our body detoxify things naturally so building up a good, strong healthy gut is important. 

What organs are involved in detoxification?

The liver- the super detoxifier. So much goes on in our liver and detoxification is one of the really important and big jobs it has. We need to support the liver with antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients and herbs. Milk thistle is well known to be supportive of the liver and helping it eliminate toxins from the body. It is an antioxidant and supports the production of our master antioxidant, glutathione. N-Acetyl Cysteine is a powerhouse of a nutrient too. It has been studied in the prevention of the flu. It prevents or combats oxidative stress, protects the liver and is what is given to people who OD on acetaminophen. You can take 1000-1500mg per day depending on your needs. 

Just like in constipation, when stools sit in our colon too long, toxins can be reabsorbed. The same thing happens in the kidneys. We have these tubules in our kidneys where resorption of toxins can happen and it is all dependent upon a more alkaline pH in the body which we get by consuming a ton of fruits and veggies. 

We also detox through our lungs just by breathing. So deep breathing practices can be very helpful. Avoid perfumes, even essential oils can be problematic for some people, and incense. 

We detox through our skin too. Emotionally you can think about whether or not you feel good in your own skin but in addition to that- what are you putting on your body? We talked about what to put in your body but what goes on your skin is equally important. You want to avoid aluminum in your deodorant and clean up your make-up and skin care. Think about shampoo, conditioner, hand soaps, dish soap, laundry soap. Household cleaners and on and on. It gets overwhelming for sure but start with one area and clean that up and then move on to other areas. Little by little. 

If you have access to a sauna to sweat that is really helpful in moving toxins out quickly. Use a dry brush on your body before getting in the shower and start working on self love. 

The limiting thoughts and beliefs we have about ourselves and our ability to heal can be a real thing. What are you thinking about most of the time? For me, for years, it was how much I hated this disease and how it made me feel so terrible. I had a lot of toxic thoughts, still do in some areas. It is a daily practice to work on changing those thoughts in to something good. What kinds of thoughts are controlling you? Take a moment to think about that. Our thoughts are powerful. The toxicants that we take in, like actual chemicals, can change our mood and behavior making us angry, irritable or moody. Toxic thoughts can do that too. 

We need meaning and purpose. We need to believe in something greater than us- whatever that is for you. We need to feel peace. This is all part of the functional medicine model. Having purpose is good for our health. My dad lost all sense of purpose once he couldn’t drive anymore. Once his car was sold- that was it for him. He now spends most of his time sleeping. It is really sad. 

Anyway, starting some kind of spiritual practice can be really helpful- whether it is prayer, meditation, saying a mantra or even just journaling your gratitude. When I am feeling really terrible I will go for a walk and just say out loud as I am walking: “I am grateful for these feet that can move on the ground, I am thankful for my eyes that can see, I am grateful for my hands that can feel the breeze, I am thankful for ears that can hear the birds…”. You get the idea. Just small things to be grateful for and about halfway in to the walk- about 20 minutes- I start to feel lighter and much better. Little things. Find some time to just be quiet for a minute or two even if it has to be while you are on the toilet. 

Who needs to do a detoxification program?

Pretty much everyone these days. If you are obese or overweight, been on a diet your whole life, if you eat processed foods at all, if you use any kind of personal care products, if you have inflammation, live in a city or the country, if you are a Vietnam vet- actually any veteran could use a detox and if you travel a lot. These are just a few of the reasons someone should consider a detoxification program. If you have symptoms of fatigue, fibromyalgia, diabetes, brain fog or other brain/cognition issues, neurological issues, asthma, allergies, chemical sensitivities, autoimmune disease, chronic infections, infertility or hormone imbalance. The list really goes on and on. 

Do you think you need to clean things up in your body?  Shoot me an email and we can discuss it. Just go to the contact form on my website and fill that out. You can also just schedule a free 15 minute consult under Book An Appointment on the bar at the top of my webpage. While you are there, sign up for my newsletter and get recipes sent directly to your inbox. 

Please leave me a rating and or review on Apple Podcasts so I can reach more people and help others navigate the tricky waters of autoimmune disease. If I can help one person have to go through all I have gone through, it makes me so happy. 

I’m going to leave you with this mantra: I let go of everything that I no longer need. 

How to test for toxins in your body

We talked about toxins last week and how some particular toxins can affect the body. How do you know if you have an issue with toxins? Functional medicine can be helpful here when you use their timelines and you work with a practitioner to gather information about your health. 

Your practitioner should ask you, “When was the last time you felt good or when was the last time you remember feeling really good?”

There should first be a focus on your symptoms before you spend a dime on lab testing, except your obvious thyroid labs of course. Your practitioner should take a very thorough history and plotting your life on a timeline with you. Plotting all your toxin exposure on a separate timeline can be very helpful for you to be able to see just how much of a burden your body is under. 

Some of the things that are involved in your toxic burden are genetics, things like polymorphisms in your genetic make up called SNP’s. Things that you come with at birth, maternal heath habits and health history. What was it like while you were in the womb? Then think about things you were exposed to as a child or exposure over time to a particular toxin. For me it might have been mercury through a mouthful of amalgam fillings. Next we are thinking about how disease gets triggered. You have a lifetime of exposure to something- for me it was second hand smoke, then I had a root canal as an adult- maybe you had something else. The point is you get this compounding effect and something in your body is triggered. When my son died, I am pretty sure the trigger for the thyroid storm was stress. I didn’t handle stress very well at all back then and didn’t learn how to really manage it until the last couple of years if I am being honest. So stuff is brewing and finally your body breaks. The final straw could be something as simple as gluten. It really depends on you and your bio-individuality. That is why the timeline is so important in helping you figure out your root cause. 

Next you look at what keeps the symptoms going over time. What is making things worse? It could be not enough water or vegetables in your diet or chronic constipation which is common in hypothyroidism and is sure to keep you in higher toxic burden. Maybe it is mold. 

I will share some of my timeline I had to do for my class as an assignment. Each functional medicine timeIine starts with prenatal exposures so we always start there. My mom had rheumatic fever and was on penicillin for ten years so she basically had a completely destroyed gut microbiome before I was born. She grew up on a dairy farm- probably exposed to some chemicals in the fields there and diesel fuel as well. I was born in the early 70’s and it was okay for women to smoke while pregnant so I had that exposure in the womb as well as the occasional bit of alcohol exposure. I had second hand smoke exposure my whole life, ate a Standard American very processed foods diet all while growing up. Both my parents worked so there was a fair amount of convenience foods though my mom did cook meals from scratch most of the time. I consumed a ton of sugar as a kid and young adult- not so young adult as well. I had a mouth full of amalgam or silver fillings, lots of hair perms in the 80’s and early 90’s, regular alcohol use for at least 10 years, Round up exposure for sure over the years but a time frame is hard to pinpoint. Lots of household cleaner chemical exposure as a kid too. My mom used to choke while using a certain cleaning product that took lime off the shower every single weekend. New furniture and new carpet and new construction off gassing over a lifetime, several flu shots in my past until my kids put up such a fight over getting them, we quit going. The use of plastic food containers, heating food in plastic containers in the microwave. Chlorine and fluoride exposure in drinking water, non stick cookware.  

You can see how seemingly small things add up to a lot of exposure over time and can contribute to dis-ease. Plotting all this out can be super helpful for you and your practitioner to see where your exposures were and are and you can start to make small changes over time. 

Some other very important things you need to consider before labs are things that play a role in your overall health and not just your physical health but your mental and emotional health as well. 

How are your relationships? Hashimoto’s and thyroid disease in general can create some loneliness. You don’t look sick but you feel like crap or have zero energy so you don’t make an effort to be with friends or family. You maybe start to stay home more than socialize and people don’t understand. You might feel depressed and certainly there are many of us who have been told by our doctors that we are depressed and there is nothing wrong with us. 

How is your stress level? Not just your physical stress but financial stress, are you a caregiver? cortisol issues, any kind of thing you or your body perceives as stress. 

Diet- what do you eat and drink? Processed foods, foods with little to no nutrient density? Artificial sweeteners? Chemicals, food dyes? Do you eat fish that has high mercury levels?

Are you exercising? All you have to do is just move to start with if you don’t feel like you can do much. Maybe you are working out too hard, too long or too many days a week. That is stressful for your body too. Maybe you are dehydrated or you use energy drinks or caffeine to help you get up and go. 

Are you sleeping? Many of you are not. I spent my college years not sleeping- of course. I recovered on the weekends by sleeping in. Then I had kids. I didn’t sleep through the night for probably 6 or 8 years. Then my blood sugar was a mess and my thyroid problems started so I had a lot of insomnia, tons of fatigue. Then my husband started snoring and having sleep issues. He actually chokes in the night and then flails about, kind of punching his way to a breath so I got woke up by that with a shot of adrenaline and couldn’t sleep. I am 49 this year and I had had enough of the no sleep so I now sleep in a separate room and am sleeping hard and through the night and it feels wonderful. Not so great for my relationship- so that part of my functional medicine matrix paperwork is suffering but I am sleeping and sleep is important to me. I cannot function without it. My brain doesn’t comprehend when I don’t sleep and being in school, brain function is important. I made a choice but so did my husband when he let the doctor tell him he didn’t need a sleep apnea machine because he was borderline.  That is probably more information than you needed but I want to keep it real here. The other important parts of sleep are things like keeping electronics out of your bedroom, keeping the room cool and dark and making sure you have down time. What do you do to relax?

What kinds of dis-ease can be attributed to toxin exposure? Well just about anything but I’ll run down some general things: 

• Poor digestion, constipation, IBS

• Infections, either chronic or things that are recurring, autoimmune disease in general, skin problems, cancer

• Fatigue

• Multiple chemical sensitivities, kidney problems, elevated liver enzymes

• Cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, asthma or things like COPD

• Hormone problems, thyroid problems, type 2 diabetes

• Bone loss, leaky gut

• Brain fog, anxiety, depression, feeling a lack of purpose

For toxic exposure in particular, once you pinpoint the types of exposures you have had, you can then think about potential lab work that might help you set a baseline for measuring how you are moving these toxins out of your system. 

Without addressing your thyroid issue or autoimmune disease, and just thinking about removing toxins from your body, you want to be sure that you have great digestion and you are pooping at least 1-2 times a day so that once you get the toxins mobilized, you can eliminate them without causing you to feel sick.  You will work on avoiding any more significant exposures, probably make some lifestyle changes and then work on a diet plan to clean up your body’s insides. 

Once you do that, then maybe test to see if you are assimilating nutrients meaning- is your body using or able to use the vitamins and minerals you are taking in through your diet. 

But you can take the Toxin Exposure Questionnaire from the Institute for Functional Medicine to get a picture of where exposure is in addition to plotting your life on a timeline. Every one of us has a toxic burden. We want to figure out if your toxic burden is one reason you have thyroid problems or autoimmune disease. So besides doing the questionnaires and having an interview with a practitioner you can have some lab work done. I want to emphasize that the other work should be done first and lab work can come later. 

You can have blood, urine, hair or stool testing done pretty easily to measure some of your toxic load. Maybe have a heavy metal lab test done if you have skin issues, heart disease, high blood pressure (and you know it isn’t from a crap diet), peripheral neuropathy, chronic headache, sleep issues, memory problems or issues with concentration. Anemia, regular abdominal pain, cancer. Any of these can be due to chronic heavy metal exposure. 

Some labs have toxicity panels- I think Genova, Great Plains Labs and a few others offer these types of tests. They are not super cheap though so be sure it is something you need or want. They can test for things like BPA, organophosphates, PCB’s, pesticides, and more. Say you used a ton of plastic over the years- maybe you want a baseline for BPA so you can measure how well your new diet and lifestyle changes are doing at excreting this out of your body. This would be a reason to have a blood test done. 

You can check with your doctor to have a full blood work up done too for things like your blood sugar, maybe mold, your thyroid panel, sex hormones, some doctors do adrenal hormones, homocysteine which measures the level of inflammation in your body, I think you can even get a glyphosate test, red blood cell count, liver enzymes. All those can help you learn more about where your body is at even if they are in the “normal” range. The high end of normal can be indicative that something is going on that you might want to pay attention to. 

IMPERFECT FOODS

Can exposure to toxins cause Hashimoto’s?

Welcome to episode 71. We are discussing toxins today and detoxification. I might have mentioned before that I was on a forum once and I suggested to someone that they may want to work on detoxification in their body in order to help their thyroid work better. I was shunned by the moderator with some links to prove that detoxification is a myth and that it doesn’t really work. I had to explain to this moderator that I was talking about our body’s natural detoxification system which works really hard for us every day. 

We are exposed to a significant amount of man made chemical pollutants in our drinking water, our food supply and the air we breath. We also have to consider all the products we bring in to our homes as well as any pesticides we might use on our yard. The exposure is everywhere. This is not a doom and gloom episode, though it might feel that way. I think education is important because when you know better you do better and that is the case with anything. These toxins are not going anywhere. Some will be here longer than humans so we have to know what to do about them and how we can keep our body as healthy as possible. In other words we have this body burden that we need to be mindful of. 

It is estimated that we each have around 700 contaminants within our body and most of those have not been studied for safety. 

What is a toxin then?  That could be considered anything inside or outside of the body that keeps us from having good health. There are toxic things- physical, mental, emotional, chemical- that are poisonous to us. There are toxicants- a kind of poison, usually man made that is put into the environment by humans. 

Maybe you have heard the term xenobiotic. This is a chemical or organic compound not recognized by the body. Xenohormesis on the other hand is a stress compound made in plants that are beneficial to our health. The prefix xeno means foreign. 

We can be exposed to toxins through heavy metals, persistent organic pollutants (POPs- chemicals that stay in the environment for a long time because they are resistant to biodegrading), toxins from foods like GMO’s, hormones, antibiotics, fat loving toxins, aflatoxins, sugar, food allergies, xenoestrogens (a synthetic or natural compound that imitates estrogen). 

One of the big problems we have is the constant exposure to this stuff builds up in our body over time and leads to dis-ease. We have the exposure from the environment, genetic susceptibility, dose after dose of chemical for long periods of time- basically our lifetime which makes the toxins potent and that leads to disease. 

How do toxins affect us?

It often starts with some kind of problem with the immune system and then extends into neurological issues, endocrine system issues or gastrointestinal problems. One toxin can cause multiple issues in the body. 

If you have not responded to specific therapies that are known to be effective for your condition, if you have allergies, infections, autoimmune disease or you have known exposures to toxins from jobs, hobbies, home exposure, whatever- then you probably have an issue with toxicity of some kind. 

Toxin exposures and how it relates to health. 

People with the highest levels of PCB’s were more than 4x more likely to have high antinuclear antibodies than people with low levels of PCBs. These levels are linked to higher rates of autoimmune disease. 

Having high mercury levels in blood or urine were associated with high antinuclear antibody levels. This is coming from the NHANES study done between 1999-2004. 

Chlordane- a chemical used as a termiticide, even when applied per manufacturer directions exposes the homeowner to it for decades and is causing incidence of the development of antibodies against self, specifically against smooth muscle tissue. 

Chlorpyrifos- info from the EPA website: 

Chlorpyrifos has been used as a pesticide since 1965 in both agricultural and non-agricultural areas:

The largest agricultural market for chlorpyrifos in terms of total pounds of active ingredient is corn.

It is also used on soybeans, fruit and nut trees, Brussels sprouts, cranberries, broccoli, and cauliflower, as well as other row crops.

Non-agricultural uses include golf courses, turf, green houses, and on non-structural wood treatments such as utility poles and fence posts.  It is also registered for use as a mosquito adulticide, and for use in roach and ant bait stations in child resistant packaging.

This chemical causes high antibody levels anywhere from 1 to 4.5 years after exposure causing antibodies against the parietal cells in your stomach- this means low stomach acid production and anti-thyroid antibodies as well as hepatitis. 

Formaldehyde— exposure causing antibodies against brush boarder in small intestine, mitochondria and smooth muscle tissue. 

Lupus- has a huge association to certain pharamceutical comounds and with environmental chemicals. Focus here is on the environmental chemicals since that is what I am studying. A neighborhood in Hobbs New Mexico had higher than normal exposure to chemicals like benzene, xylene, toluene, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, mercury and more due to living near an oil field waste dump and a very high rate of Lupus- about 870 people per every 100,000. 

Mercury- Those same New Mexico residents were 11x more likely to have inflammation in the joints and they were 19x more likely to be diagnosed with lupus. They had problems with dizziness, balance issues, extreme fatigue, sleep problems, concentration issues and more. 

Antithyroid antibodies are linked with high blood mercury levels. Having blood mercury levels above 1.81 ug(microgram)/L means a 2.2x higher chance of developing thyroid autoimmune disease. Eating mercury containing fish just once a week can give you that level of mercury. 

Heavy metal exposure in general is a problem. These metals will bind to oxygen and other things in the body messing with all the enzyme activity that goes on every second. Chronic exposure can lead to CVD and related disorders, peripheral neuropathy, sensory disorder, anemia, abdominal pain, cancer, skin issues. Dental amalgams are a big culprit for mercury exposure. 

Regular and ongoing exposure to hair dye has been associated with higher rates of lupus as well. People who use nail polish have a 10x higher risk of developing lupus than those who don’t. 

Smoking also puts you at a higher risk of Lupus. 

Living with PCB contamination in your area will give you increased risk of antinuclear antibodies and anti-thyroperoxidase antibodies. Antinuclear antibodies are a general test for autoimmune diseases. 

From EPA: PCBs belong to a broad family of man-made organic chemicals known as chlorinated hydrocarbons. PCBs were domestically manufactured from 1929 until manufacturing was banned in 1979. They have a range of toxicity and vary in consistency from thin, light-colored liquids to yellow or black waxy solids. Due to their non-flammability, chemical stability, high boiling point and electrical insulating properties, PCBs were used in hundreds of industrial and commercial applications including:

• Electrical, heat transfer and hydraulic equipment

• Plasticizers in paints, plastics and rubber products

• Pigments, dyes and carbonless copy paper

• Other industrial applications

Chemical sensitivities are on the rise. This is also known as multiple chemical sensitivity, environmental illness, idiopathic environmental intolerance or toxicant induced loss of tolerance. About 20% of the population has this issue. 

You can have negative physical, mental, or emotional symptoms with minimal exposure to chemicals. Pesticides and solvents are the main culprits in bringing this on with new construction, gasoline and petroleum products a close second. Those of us with this issue may have a genetic SNP or two that lower our ability to break down organophosphate pesticides or solvents. 

Obviously avoiding toxins is going to be very helpful. It is your first line of defense. Clean up all things you can to the best of your ability and finances. Good air filters with a minimum efficiency rating value MERV of 7 on your ventilation system at home. This particular rated filter will help reduce dust particles which are  big culprit in at home exposure to toxins. Getting a good quality air purifier will be even better than a filter. There are things called sham units (no filters) and fully functional air purifiers. Using a reverse osmosis water filter will remove most groundwater contamination. Avoid high mercury fish, see a dentist that doesn’t use mercury in their office and if you need to remove high levels of mercury find a doctor that can use chelating agents.  I will go in to more details on how to clean things up in a future episode but using a sauna or sweating through exercise can be a great way to get toxins out of your system very gently and taking antioxidants or eating a rainbow of fruits and veggies will go a long way to helping your body clean things up and keep you healthy a million other ways. 

How to tell if you are drinking enough water?

Why does coconut and avocado give me diarrhea?

HI everyone. Welcome. Thanks for joining me today. I want to thank you for listening and for being a part of this. I do this for you whether you are listening to better understand what is going on with someone in your life or you are listening to get information about your own health. You have to be an advocate for yourself and your health and sometimes you have to fight for it. Help me reach others, won’t you? I recently spoke out about keeping our right to have choices in our health care and not be forced to take on any medical procedures for the greater good, especially when those procedures have zero liability. Please leave me a rating and/or review as some trolls have made a point to give me one star on iTunes which means people won’t find the podcast as easily. I would really really appreciate it if you could help me out with that. Let’s keep our right to choose to listen to what we want, read what we want and do what we want with our body. It is important that we don’t start forcing anything on anyone. Some of you know what it is like to only be able to get Levothyroxine when you might feel so much better on a natural desiccated thyroid hormone. We need to work with one another, work together instead of be divided, to keep our freedoms. Especially our freedoms over our own medical choices. Thanks for listening. Now, let’s get to a listener question.

Hi Stephanie 

I have tried to do AIP once (I have hashimotos and low cortisol). So when I tried AIP I got severe diarrhoea, I am pretty sure it's the fat content, I surmise that  it's because I have been on a diet most of my adult life, all of which have been low fat. 

I cannot stomach anything coconut based or avocado. Just the smell makes my stomach turn and if I try to eat either, I wretch. 

Is there a way I can still do AIP without coconut and avocado, and not end up running to the toilet? 

To add to the mix I am recovering from binge eating disorder. 

Thanks in advance 

Sarah

Thanks for writing in Sarah. I have to say, I think you are right about the fat content of the AIP diet. Elimination diets like that one can be a great option to find out just what foods you are sensitive to and it is okay if it’s not working for you. I’ve got some things I want you to think about:

Do you have pain between your shoulder blades? Maybe not all the time but occasionally? If so this is a sign that your gallbladder is not able to do its job, likely due to not having free flowing bile. If you have thick and viscous bile, it will be even more thick and viscous in your gallbladder because it is concentrated there. This is not a 100% for sure sign as pain there can be related to other things like nerve impingements, frozen shoulder, bursitis and more. Just something to think about.

Sounds like your stomach is getting upset. This is again related to bile production and the ability to digest fats or break them down. It might indicate you need some gallbladder support. Maybe some enzymes with lipase in the formulation or even bile acids- often referred to as ox bile. It will help you break down your fats and allow you to consume some of those healthy fats and then make healthy bile in your liver. When your bile can’t emulsify fats (think of how a dish soap can dissolve grease on a pan- same idea with bile and fat in your gut) that can irritate the small intestine.

Are you seeing greasy or shiny stools in the toilet? If so this indicates that there is a decreased output of bile from the gallbladder which will cause fat to remain undigested in the small intestine leading to greasy or shiny stools or floating stools. Again, bile salts can help get things working again.

As far as the coconut and avocado go- you don’t have to eat them. AIP can simply be about eliminating the required foods and then reintroducing them one at a time to figure out which foods your body doesn’t like. It is not meant to be a lifelong diet. When doing AIP, your vegetable intake should be really high. You should be eating veggies at every meal and a lot of them. You can get your fats from olive oil. In fact, you only need less than a tablespoon of fat daily to get enough fat in so you can easily skip coconut and avocado. Now I have said in the past that some people continue this diet long term and you can as long as you get all your nutrients in. Going low carb on this diet can really mess up your energy levels, especially if your body isn’t processing fat very well right now.

Since you are recovering from a binge eating disorder, you are walking a slippery slope with this diet because it is so restrictive it can trigger old thoughts and feelings. Since I don’t know anything about what your current diet looks like, it is hard to tell you where to start, but- I would consider easing in to this if you do it at all. Before you eliminate a bunch of foods, start adding in some nutrients. Add in bone broth, soups, lots and lots of veggies. Then start by eliminating the big gluten grains- wheat, barley, spelt. Get good at that for some time while continuing to fill your body up with those healing foods- broth and veggies. If you can do organ meats, go for it. They are not my thing but they can be good for you too as long as they are from clean animals raised on pasture- low on chemicals in other words.

Work on getting good rest/sleep and managing stress while eating all the veggies. Did I say you need to eat veggies? You do. Women in general need more carbs, especially at certain times of the month. So honor where you have been with your disordered eating and don’t make your life all about the food. If this diet doesn’t work for you, that is okay. There are other elimination diets out there.

I’d like to say too that eliminating the beans and legumes for a time on AIP may be helpful for some people but those foods are really nutrient dense and it’s okay to eat them. Obviously soaking and sprouting beans is helpful but please don’t feel guilty about eating them.

I’ve learned so much about food in the last 9 months in this masters program and I just want you to know that it’s okay if this diet doesn’t work for you and it’s okay if you find another way to heal. I think so many of us, including myself, get caught up in all the social media personalities telling us what works for them. We need to remind ourselves that what works for some people doesn’t work for everyone.

I did AIP- I didn’t feel good on it because I didn’t eat enough of anything except bacon and a lot of coconut and a lot of avocado and not enough protein and definitely not enough veggies. I crashed hard and had really low energy for years. When you have low energy to begin with you get in to this vicious cycle of not enough energy, not enough energy to make the food, not enough energy to eat and so on. On days where I ate enough protein and carbohydrate (in the form of veggies upon veggies), my energy levels started to come up and I started to feel better. Then when I slacked off, I felt like crap. My body, in particular needs more carbs. I feel better on them. I eat rice and regular white potatoes now and my body loves me for it. I’m able to be active again and it feels really good.

Bottom line- do what works for you. That’s all any of us can do. Find your individual version of AIP and go with it.

I hope that helps you! Thanks for writing in.

Do you have a question you want answered about Hashimoto’s or even about nutrition in general? Please send me a message at either helpforhashimotos@gmail.com or fill out the contact form on my website. OutofThewoodsnutrition.com . I look forward to hearing from you!

Again, please leave me a rating and/or a review on apple podcasts to help me reach more people. Let’s take back our health together.

Until next time.

I feel worse after changing my diet.

Welcome to episode 67. I missed last week. Sorry about that. I was writing a paper on sarcopenia for my sports nutrition class. I’m now in week 8 of 11 and cannot wait for this class to be over. The class is a little demoralizing so 3 more weeks to go after this week and that cannot come soon enough. Makes you want to run right out and get enrolled in this nutrition program doesn’t it!? Anyway, I’m grateful you are listening. Let’s get to this weeks topic/listener question. 

Hello! I am a new listener and I really appreciate the podcast, thank you for doing the work to put it out.

I was diagnosed with Hashimoto's after my first son was born - he turned 5 in August and I have been very fortunate with how it has very minimally affected me. I am an athlete and have an overall very healthy lifestyle and recently, after a conversation with an NP at a kid's birthday party about autoimmune disease, I thought that perhaps I should be doing more with my diet to try to minimize or, if possible, stop the degeneration of my thyroid.

In that effort, I have gone gluten and dairy free and have done pretty well with it for about 4 weeks now, it terms of preparing food and keeping those things out of my diet but I'm writing to you because I have to say, I really feel worse now than I did before I started changing things.

My two primary complaints are significantly increased migraines. I've been having a few a week for the last few weeks when previously it was mainly just the last week of my cycle. I mentioned that I am an athlete earlier because I suspect part of the problem is that I might not be eating quite enough with the elimination of gluten and dairy, do you have other thoughts on this?

I also feel like my heart is just a little bit racy and out of breath which makes me feel....blah. I wouldn't say I feel fatigued, I still have energy for the things I want to do, I just feel like I've lost my power...if that makes sense? 

My inclination is to stop taking my levothyroxine which I have never had a problem with before now. I wake up in the morning feeling good and then 10-15 minutes after taking it, I start to feel stressed. I would like to make an appointment to have my meds adjusted but before I do that I wanted to get input from you in case you wanted to suggest other questions to ask or points to bring up with my Dr. 

I really appreciate your help, thank you so much! 

Hi Beth, 

Thanks for writing in. This is a really good question and timely since I am in a Sports Nutrition class right now. Going gluten and dairy free were the right thing to do though replacing those carbs in your diet may be what you need to do. Depending on what you do for exercise and from your picture on the Gmail it looks like you are a runner. You want to be sure you are fueled properly for your workouts but here is the thing. The running- it is creating a stress response, like a fight or flight response for you which will eventually create problems with your adrenals. Athletes need some source of carbohydrate for fuel. Carbs turn in to glucose in the body which are an immediate source of fuel for you as you are exercising. You probably have no problem storing glucose in the muscles- that is called glycogen. We all store glycogen in our muscles but those of you who have more muscle are able to store more glycogen for fuel when you need it, such as in exercise and in Beth’s case, running. Physiologically, as the duration and intensity of your exercise increases- so how long and hard you workout, your body will quit using fat for fuel and will burn only glucose or sugars. This is not what my ketogenic diet people will want to hear, but it is what the science says. 

The current recommendation for an athlete’s carb intake is 2-12g/kg of body weight daily- take in to consideration that this study that determined this amount probably only tested men so I would play around with the lower end- 2-6g/kg of body weight. Though if you are doing a long run, you may want to go a little higher than that. It is something you have to play around with. Generally, hashimoto’s patients do better on a higher carb diet- lots and lots of veggies and you need a fair amount of starches in your diet on your workout days- again, something you have to play around with. Use rice or sweet potato and make sure you are getting in at least 100g of protein per day, especially on workout days. Shoot for 1.2 or so g/kg of body weight in protein and supplement with a powder if you have to- for a 10km run, my book recommends 6-8g/kg of carbohydrate as well. Designs For Health Pea Protein is what I use because I struggle to get enough protein in- most of us do. Now because you are an athlete, you will be able to tolerate some sugar too, especially on running days so you may want to do some kind of sports drink. Be  mindful of digestive upset due to too much sugar though you can do a mouth rinse which works well for some. If you are exercising less than an hour, you may not need to replenish your carbs with a bunch of sugar but because you are dealing with hashimoto’s you might need to do a banana, rice or sweet potato or something like that. 

You gave up gluten- wheat products typically have B vitamins in them, and B vitamins are helpful for migraines. This is one possible clue. It sounds like they are hormonal if they are happening around your cycle. Our endocrine system not only includes our thyroid but it also includes our reproductive glands and when one is out of whack, the others will be also. My thoughts on this are 1. it is possible your thyroid is getting better with the elimination of gluten and dairy which is balancing your sex hormones too and things might just be wonky for awhile. 2. when the adrenals are exhausted, that can trigger migraines as well. There is not a lot of research on migraines and exercise except to say that it is thought that regular exercise can help reduce them- though I know a few people that is not true for. Menstrual migraines are either cycle related or something called pure menstrual migraines- a migraine associated with the onset of menses. Cycle related migraines are ones that happen throughout your cycle. The menstrual migraine is thought to be because of the quick drop in estrogen that occurs with your period starting each month. These usually don’t have an aura that comes with them, they are more severe and debilitating and treatments with conventional drugs like NSAIDs don’t work as well. Of course I cannot find any research that gets to the WHY of this issue. Why are you getting migraines? I can’t say for sure. My first inclination is that you need some liver support to help clean things up in house so the body can do its job well. 

I would see if you can go back in and have your labs done again because it sounds like your medication dose might be too high based on how you describe the way you feel. I don’t recommend stopping it altogether as that can be dangerous- I did that and completey f-d up my body for a good year, so don’t do that. If you feel like crap after taking your meds, your adrenals (also part of the endocrine system) are being impacted and you can try to do half doses but really you need to be taking it easy and working on getting your adrenals back, as well as keeping hormones balanced. So you want to make sure that you are managing your blood sugar. If you are not eating enough, that will be a problem. Insulin is there to bring sugars to your cells, when you have too much sugar in the blood at once, you get a surge of insulin which leads to that crash an hour later- the rollercoaster. Cortisol on the other hand will raise your blood sugar along with epinephrine (adrenaline) and the hormone glucagon. We have several mechanisms to raise blood sugar but only one, insulin, to lower blood sugar. If you are not eating enough, going too long between meals, cortisol will take sugar from your muscles and your liver to raise your blood sugar. Cortisol is also involved in the stress response which will raise your blood sugar too. I wouldn’t bet you are dealing with insulin resistance as an athlete but for those of us who are not athletes, if that sugar has no where to go it will be stored as triglycerides- aka fat. 

Without knowing more about how much you workout and how hard in addition to what exactly you eat and what your labs say, this is about as much as I can say. I hope it helps. 

Thanks so much for listening. Please leave me a rating and review on iTunes. It helps me reach more people. The more reviews I get, the higher up in the rankings the podcast gets which means more people will see it when they are searching for something to listen to. Let me know what you like and don’t like so I can make this the best listening experience for you. 

Sign up for my newsletter and outofthewoodsnutrition.com and if you have a question for the podcast you can write me at helpforhashimotos@gmail.com. 

Again, thanks for listening. I do this for you. 

Can eating celery cause a goiter?

I have a multi modular goiter due to having Hashimoto’s.  My concern is I’ve read regular celery consumption can fuel a goiter to grow bigger and possibly cause hyperthyroidism. 

Have you heard of this ?  My tsh is on the low end 0.89 being more hyper than hypo so I really don’t want to push myself towards hyperthyroidism.

Pls advise you thoughts I would greatly appreciate them.

Mickey

Buffalo, New York

Thanks for your question Mickey. There is almost zero research on celery and celery juice and the Medical Medium is getting his information from spirit so we have no way of backing it up. I have not heard that regular celery consumption can fuel a goiter to grow bigger. I do not think that celery is goitrogenic, I looked up goitrogenic foods and it is not on the list. What could be the issue is the chemicals sprayed on to the celery because even organic crops are sprayed- just with less toxic chemicals. 

Goitrins, thiocyanates, and nitriles are all goitrogenic chemicals derived from natural plant pesticides called glucosinolates. An enzyme breaks these chemicals down during digestion into goitrogens and goitrogenic byproducts. 

Other things that can affect goiter are antibiotics, medications for irregular heart beat, bromides (from pesticides, plastics, and brominated vegetable oils- found in that yellow drink representing mountains), Dioxins, heavy metals (mercury, lead, etc), Over the counter pain meds such as ibuprofin, acetaminophen, benzodiazapines, paint fumes, perchlorates, pesticides and thiocyanates found in cigarettes. 

The reason that goiters appear is because your thyroid is enlarging itself so it can take up iodine that is missing from the diet. If you don’t have enough iodine, you will have low T4 and low T3. This would also trigger TSH production and your TSH is on the low end- some practitioners like to see it between 0.5 and 1-2 so I would pay attention to how you feel and watch this very carefully. Goiters also have genetic and environmental factors but not much is known about this. 

Celery is a super food really. It has anti-inflammatory properties and is excellent at preventing things like CVD, jaundice, liver diseases, urinary tract obstructions, gout, rheumatic disorders, and in rats it has been shown to improve their fertility. Celery lowers blood sugar and blood lipids (so cholesterol), and blood pressure. There is some experimental research to show it has anti-fungal and anti-bacterial properties. The seeds help treat bronchitis, asthma, and skin issues such as psoriasis. Celery root is used for treating colic. I could go on an on. Real food is amazing. 

So my gut is saying it isn’t the celery necessarily. Do you feel your thyroid is enlarging? If so I would consider having it checked. 

If you are dealing with hyperthyroidism, the treatments are kind of barbaric if you ask me. They kill it off with radioactive iodine or they give you a nasty drug to slow it down or they take it out. Not good choices. These are also all just bandaids to the problem. You must always the question why? Why is your body creating a goiter? Why is your TSH suppressed or low? Always ask why. 

What does hyperthyroidism look like?

One paper I found defines subclinical hyperthyroidism biologically- a concentration of TSH below the normal with free T4 and free T3 within the normal range. It is then divided by how severe it is. 

Grade 1: TSH around 0.1 and 0.39 mU/L

Grade 2: TSH less than 0.1 

Subclinical terminology suggests there are no symptoms and we know that symptoms matter most when it comes to treating our thyroid disorders. 

Clinical signs of hyperthyroidism are: 

Now this is important- Serum TSH concentration below the reference range, but corresponding to a normal concentration for this person because the normal values only refer to 95% of the population. As with everything in the body- there is bioindividuality. You may be an outlier in your lab work. And you may have to fight for yourself to get proper care. 

• Low TSH due to pituitary gland not working properly

• Low TSH concentration observed at the end of the first trimester of pregnancy

• Treatment with high doses of glucocorticoids or dopamine

• Low TSH concentration observed in some disease-free thyroid diagnosed subpopulations; smoking, elderly and certain ethnic groups (of course, the ethnic groups are not mentioned in the information I found)

• Low TSH concentration observed in the context of iodine overload

It is common to see low TSH after pregnancy, in toxic multinodular goiter and in a single autonomic nodule 

Graves disease is also a factor in low TSH- when all the sudden you are having hyper symptoms. 

Now, goiter is not just for hyperthyroidism. 

Goiter with hypothyroidism can result from iodine deficiency and lack of selenium and iron intake. 

I found a study with goiter being treated by Traditional Chinese Medicine that was pretty interesting. 

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) practitioners have been treating goiter for hundreds of years and have a substantial amount of clinical experience.  In the theory of TCM, Qi is the vital energy important for physiological processes in the body. A Qi deficiency of the spleen and stagnation of Qi from the liver can cause phlegm, eventually leading to the development of goiter.

Based on their perspective they use an herbal protocol that restores and enhances, the flowing of Qi as a potential therapeutic agent for the treatment of goiter.

The Chinese Medicine Hospital of Shaanxi created a Qi-promoting herbal regimen called Xing Qi Hua Ying Tang (XQHYT), of which showed great promise in treating goiter in clinics.

This study showed that treatment with XQHYT contributed to reduction in the size of goiter and reduction in clinical symptoms.

XQHYT, which consists of astragalus (30 g), white peony root (15 g), bupleurum (9 g), Citrus aurantium (15 g), chuanxiong (10 g), tangerine peel (10 g), wide wood incense (9 g), dried rind of unripe mikan (9 g), Prunella vulgaris (15 g), Fritillaria thunbergii (12 g), Fructus trichosanthis (15 g), calcined oyster shell (30 g), and honey-fried Glycyrrhiza uralensis (6 g)

 Astragalus, one of the major ingredients of XQHYT, was reported as able to reduce clinical symptoms of patients with Graves’ disease.  C. aurantium was shown to have protective effects on thyroid. The extract of P. vulgaris was shown to reduce goiter size in clinical patients.

Based on this information, if you have goiter or hyperthyroidism/Graves disease, seek out a doctor of Chinese Medicine or a Licensed acupuncturist who uses Chinese herbs in addition to getting care from your doctor. 

That is it for today. As always, thanks for listening. Please share this with anyone who thinks it might help and if you could be so kind to leave me a rating or review it will help me reach more people. 

I am taking new clients right now. If you or someone you know is dealing with unmanaged chronic illness or autoimmune disease, please send them my way. 

Join the Help For Hashimoto’s facebook group and get support there as well. You can sign up for my newsletter at HelpforHashimotos.com and if you did sign up and have not gotten your ebook, please let me know. I have been having trouble with the server that collects my email addresses. 

Have a wonderful health filled week! 

References:

Bel Lassen, P., Kyrilli, A., Lytrivi, M., & Corvilain, B. (2019). Graves’ disease, multinodular goiter and subclinical hyperthyroidism. Annales d’Endocrinologie, 80(4), 240–249

Yang ML; Lu B, Journal Of Alternative And Complementary Medicine (New York, N.Y.) [J Altern Complement Med], ISSN: 1557-7708, 2018 Apr; Vol. 24 (4), pp. 374-377

Root Chakra, Throat Chakra and how they relate to Hashimoto’s

Chakra/energy systems

• We are all made up of energy. This has been proven and scientifically accepted as we can see with the use of diagnostic imaging, EKG, and other medical diagnostic tools. Think MRI and CT scans that use the electrical signatures of the body to create an image, or EKG that records the electrical pulses of the heart.

• From a Western medicine perspective, which is more anatomically focused we look at energy in the form of electrical messages. Specifically, for the purposes of this talk, we are looking at the electrical messages that travel along nerves.

• The nervous system has two main parts: the Central Nervous System that contains the brain and the spinal cord and the Peripheral Nervous System, that connects the brain and spinal cord to the rest of the body. There are different categories of nerve bundles within the peripheral nervous system, but for the purposes of our talk today and for simplicity, we are focusing on the autonomic nervous system that controls the involuntary actions of the body. This system is divided into two categories of sympathetic and parasympathetic. When we look at where the major nerve networks lie within the parasympathetic nervous system, we see they are located along the spine and at specific glands. The brain is then connected to these via the vagus nerve.

• The vagus nerve is one of the body’s communication pathways. The vagus nerve runs from the colon to the brain carrying information from the body’s organs and glands to the brain to be deciphered.

• That was a lot of information, what’s the take away? When we are looking at the body’s communication pathway for electrical messages, we are looking at the vagus nerve (the big-dog) that is fed information from major nerve plexus or ‘network hubs’ that is located along the spine next to the body’s major glands. So let’s pin that.

• From a metaphysical perspective, energy or life force, travels in and out of the body

• There are 7 energy centers along the spine called chakras.

• Chakras are aspects of consciousness, and they interact with the physical and energetic body through two major vehicles, the endocrine system and the nervous system.

• Why is this important? Because when we overlay a diagram of the vagus nerve and the major nerve ‘hubs’ that I previously described over where the chakras are located, we see that the chakras are in the same place as those physical hubs and glands. Its beautiful how what we perceive as polar opposite approaches to healing are actually talking about the same things; medicine and energy healing. It’s the same canvas (the body) different interpretation of the scenary.

• Each chakra or energy system has a corresponding gland as well as several other associations such as color or musical note. It is the frequency, whether it is sound, smell, color, etc that the energy system responds to.

• Emotions are energy in motion, and energy preceeds matter. Emotions they carry their own frequency, and so emotions can have a large impact on these energy centers which can then manifest into a physical condition.

Throat - hypothyroid

• The throat chakra is associated with the color blue. In this energy center, we are looking at expression of truth. Speaking our truth, expression through our voice. This center is connecting our higher selves with our heart chakra which is all about compassion. Combining the two, for a healthy throat chakra we want to speak our truth with compassion and express our authentic self. Telling lies or gossiping would negatively impact this center.

• The thyroid is the gland located in this center. Therefore, it is impacted by stagnation of the energy within this center.

• For energy workers, it is commonly accepted those with hypothyroid conditions also have stagnation in the throat chakra typically due to not speaking their truth or not being able to express their authentic selves.

• This is most commonly seen in women, as we have been told to ‘be seen and not heard’, ‘speak quietly’, ‘don’t say ugly things’, or have had our power taken away in other ways resulting in suppression and oppression.

Root - Hashimotos

• This energy system is associated with the color red. Here were are looking at our most basic, primal needs being met. We are looking for safety and security. This is the first energy system to mature. So think of an infant. They need to have their needs met. Food, water, shelter, survival. Even pack loyalty, which translates to where in your immediate family do you fit and who is going to meet your needs and where do you feel safe. We are creating our foundation from which we will build our identity.

• So when we are looking at Hashimoto's, we are taking the thyroid condition a step further in that the body’s immune system is treating it like a foreign invader.

• For me, I believe the reason for the difference between how the body reacts to hypothyroid (think lack of use of the voice to speak and express) to Hashimoto’s (the body trying to get rid of that which no longer serves or is viewed foreign) is because of the involvement in stagnation at the root chakra.

• Our body’s first line of defense is the immune system. Keeping us ‘safe’ from what would harm our body. So, dysfunction in the immune system would be reflective of stagnation in the Root chakra.

• Let’s then combine the two stagnations and illustrate how that would manifest into Hashimoto’s. As I mentioned, the Root chakra is the first to mature, from conception to about age 7.

• Can you think of a time during those ages that you NEEDED something. Doesn’t matter how important it seems now, but at that early age it was super important to you for whatever reason. And you were told no in such a way that you felt completely shut down, that you were not being heard, that you wanted to make them understand why it was so important to you, but you didn’t feel safe talking about it anymore. You were silenced.

• At the Root chakra level, your needs were not being met, you did not feel safe using your voice, and at the Throat chakra level you were silenced from communicating your needs.

As a practitioner, that statement is it in a nutshell: ‘I did not feel safe communicating my needs’.

Now, will everyone that has that type of experience develop Hashimotos? No, certainly not! We are all individuals, with unique needs and unique experiences on several different levels. But at an energic level, this is something I am taking into consideration clients.

What to do?

• Journal! That is my go-to first recommendation when dealing with energy is to journal how you feel, what is your experience. I find that is a very powerful tool to help people get to answers and experiences they cannot come to on their own.

• For the Root, there are several supportive tools which carry a frequency that will help you connect to the Root, but it will not do the work for you!

  • Essential oils cinnamon, cedar, clove

  • Stones ruby, bloodstone, black tourmaline

  • The color red, a red scarf, red candle, red shoes, consuming red colored foods.

  • Minerals because they are of the earth, literally consuming what the earth has to offer

  • Protein, because while consuming animals, we are consuming the vitality of the earth

  • Root vegetables, because they have spent their entire lives living in the earth. They are intimately connected and tend to be high in minerals.

• What is the work? Once you are able to connect to the Root center, to remove stagnation you need to identify, recognize, and face the fear. You then can journal about the fear, write a letter to your inner child regarding forgiveness, tell that child you are safe. Are you not safe in your present? Do you not feel secure? Those feelings need to be faced and dealt with.

• What about the throat? We can’t forget about the throat!

  • Essential oils rosemary, lavender, geranium

  • Stones turquoise, aquamarine

  • The color blue is associated with the throat chakra, so things that carry the blue frequency like blueberries and blackberries for food.

  • Moist foods to help lubricate the throat help to support this area as well like herbal teas, soups and stews, or moist fruit like watermelon.

• Since this area is all about expressing your authentic self and speaking your truth I recommend practicing speaking your truth, and for those with Hashimoto’s, expressing your needs. For some it might start slowly. They may have lost connection with what they need and the first step might actually be divorcing martyrdom. Recognizing those situations where you said yes, when you wanted to say no.

Honoring your boundaries can be extremely difficult for those that have the outlook that their needs do not matter compared to others. So, recognizing your needs and practicing say no. Maybe instead of giving an answer right away, your default answer is ‘that sounds interesting, let me get back to you’ giving yourself space to explore if it is what you actually want to do. If you want to decline, do not make up an excuse! You are not doing yourself any favors by lying. Simply say ‘No thank you, maybe next time’ or something along those lines. As you practice more and become more comfortable speaking your truth and asking others around you to honor your needs, you can begin to elaborate more so that others understand your boundaries. If you are speaking from a place of love, you are honoring both yourself and those you are communicating with.

Above all, know that words are powerful. Always speak from your heart, from a place of love. Love for yourself and for others. When we are expanding our voice and power of will (Heart and Throat chakra), remember every thought, every word, and every action is an act of power that has consequences on a biological, environmental, social, personal, and global scale.

In practice, I am a Functional Nutritional Therapy Practitioner first. I work with clients to identify areas that their body is calling for support. I help them answer that need through diet, supplements, oils, and lifestyle changes such as strategies to manage stress. But, through working with clients, I cannot ignore the need to address the emotional and energetic support needs of the client. I have found that when these are recognized and addressed, healing can continue to move forward. This is why I continued my education to include energy work.

Jennifer’s Food and Spirit Practitioner training is the perfect bridge that allows me to address diet while addressing the energetic profiles. Understanding how each of the energy systems work, what helps clients connect to these centers, and educating them what physical and emotional symptoms present when an energy center needs support. This training has equipped me with tools that I can then explore with clients to see which one resonates with them that will allow them to balance and remove stagnations.

Jennifer’s passion lies in helping clients reconnect to themselves and tap into multiple resources benefiting the client mind, body, and spirit. It’s like learning a new language. Deciphering the physical and emotional messages that your body gives you to let you know it needs help. Once you are fluent, you will find you have a life partner that loves and values the beauty and uniqueness of you.

www.thesproutedpath.com

Do I really need to be taking a collagen supplement?

Welcome to the show. Today we are talking about collagen because it is all the rage on the internet and even in some health food stores. This is coming from a lecture in my Sports Nutrition class which I am not enjoying in the least. I am learning a lot but it is really hard. There is a lot expected of us from the teaching staff many of whom are knee deep in scientific research for a living. I hate reading scientific research studies. I know they are important but that doesn’t mean I have to like doing it, especially about a topic I am not interested in. 

Okay, on to collagen. Glycine is an amino acid that is part of collagen. It is not considered essential because we can make it in our body from other amino acids but it doesn’t mean it isn’t an important one. It isn’t something that we get a lot of from our diet as it is found in high amounts in collagenous proteins- so in meat, gristle, and connective tissue basically. In other words it is found in collagen. 

Glycine plays a role in many many body functions, one of which is collagen turnover. It is also a neurotransmitter - those are chemical messengers that send signals from one nerve cell to another specific nerve cell such as a muscle cell or a gland cell (thyroid is a gland).  It helps your body make methyltetrahydrofolate- MTHF which helps your body detoxify, it plays a role in lowering homocysteine levels in the body too.  High levels of homocysteine in the blood lead to inflammation of blood vessels which can lead to heart disease. Hypothyroidism that is mismanaged is a risk factor for heart disease. 

The Standard American Diet will give you around 2 grams of glycine per day and a very conservative estimate on how much the body needs per day is at least 15 grams.  Now the body can make about 3 grams per day if your body is working as it should for a total of 5 grams per day and maybe a bit more if you are getting enough protein. 

You can do that by eating collagenous proteins- things that gel up when cooled. I find that collagenous gooey stuff in a beef roast, salmon skin, chicken skin and making broth with knuckle bones and chicken feet. It is also in the hooves of animals but, you know, most of us are not eating that kind of stuff. I do make a bean and ham soup with ham hocks which have quite a bit of collagen. So there are ways to get it from your diet. Just be sure the whole animal sources you are getting them from are from a trusted source, pastured, organic is best due to the potential heavy metal burden coming from conventionally raised animals. 

We are likely running at a deficit in collagen for our whole lives as one of my course facilitators puts it. We are not getting enough right from the start and there are researchers hypothesizing that this deficit is what contributes to the aging process in things like wrinkles and osteoporosis (another issue those of us with mismanaged hypothyroidism and Hashimoto’s have to be concerned with).  Wrinkles and osteoporosis don’t present an immediate threat to our survival so our body has not evolved to make collagen production or non production an issue. 

You can also just supplement with hydrolyzed collagen which has been shown to partially absorb right in to the blood stream through the small intestine and it will tell your body to make more collagen. It has been studied in athletes where consuming collagen peptides with vitamin C does cause your body to make more collagen. It has also been shown that it can help with joint pain and increasing the ability to move a joint better in osteoarthritis or just arthritis. 

There has even been a study done on diabetics (insulin resistance can be an issue for many of us) which found hydrolyzed collagen lowered blood sugar by about half so if you take collagen peptides or consume collagen in supplement form and you don’t feel well on it, this could be why. Another potential reason is if you are not a good methylator- have MTHFR issues, you may not do well on it either. 

You can take 2 heaping tablespoons of collagen each day with some vitamin C or ascorbic acid. 

I’m currently taking Garden of Life Collagen but you can get Vital Proteins via a link on the sidebar of my website or you can do Great Lakes Gelatin which is a good brand and frankly is the most affordable. I will link to that one too. 

Thanks so much for listening. Do you take collagen? Shoot me an email and let me know how you use it. 

Come join me in the Help for Hashimoto’s facebook group and sign up for my newsletter at helpforhashimotos.com. I just sent out information about resistant starch with a really good recipe link for a great way to get more of it. 

Until next week! 

 Create an account with Fullscript here for Garden of Life Collagen Peptides (other brands available too) and ascorbic acid or chewable vitamin c. 

Great Lakes Collagen- Amazon 

How to heal your body with your mind with Beth Daniel Jones of Healing Solutions

We are going woo woo today talking about energy medicine and how to identify and clear blocks to healing in the body. When you have a thyroid problem it can be related to not being able to speak your truth. Are you speaking your truth? Learn more at www.besthealingsolutions.com