Why did I get this autoimmune disease?

What happens in autoimmune disease? Why are some people more susceptible than others? Why does the immune system all the sudden become intolerant in our body? People who have autoimmune disease are kind of like canaries in a coal mine. Our immune systems are just more intolerant to what it considers to be a foreign thing, especially if it is something that builds over time.

We don’t necessarily have genes that turn on autoimmune disease but our genes are more likely to react to a foreign ‘invader’ in our body. So if you have a bunch of foreigners or things that look foreign, your body is more likely to react. A simple way to say it is your immune system is just very sensitive to things it thinks shouldn’t be floating around in your system.

You are not an imperfect being. Your immune system is special! Your immune system responds to its environment differently than others. Nothing you can do but it isn’t your fault either. I spent a lot of years thinking if I had eaten better or stressed less, I wouldn’t have this stupid autoimmune disease, I wouldn’t have lost my child but I don’t sit in that thought for long because I would just feel bad all the time.

Can’t do anything about the past. Know better, do better.

What you can do is figure out what is damaging your tissue that is causing your body to react. Fix that and then your immune system can calm down.

What is turning on your genes that are creating antibodies against your thyroid? Diet, lifestyle, activity level, stress, your job, toxins. All of these or one of these or several of these can be triggers. Things like heavy metals, chemicals, radiation, anticonvulsant medications, chronic infection, gum disease, consumption of rancid fats like vegetable oils, or having serious nutrient deficiency like B12 and B6 all can be factors in getting autoimmune disease.

You need to figure out what is causing problems for you. It could be one or many of these things.

The easiest place to start is to clean up your diet and lifestyle. Just doing that can go a long way to getting you to feel better. Maybe your best friend can eat like crap and feel fine but that just isn’t the case for you. It isn’t fair but you have to just decide if you want to feel good or you want to eat crap. It is a choice. You don’t have to switch to a 100% organic diet. You can just start eating real food. Start avoiding processed foods, fried foods, and avoid sugar. Sugar creates damaged proteins and could be enough to inflame your immune system all by itself. Another thing that creates damaged proteins in the body is that nice charring we get when we grill or fry meat. So good and yet so so bad for your body. Focus on getting in omega 3 oils from fatty fish if possible. I don’t like fish so I need a fish oil. Exercise. Just get moving. As we age, we lose muscle and if your meds are not optimized you also have to worry about losing bone density and having the potential for cardiovascular events so moving is really really important. Check out www.getautoimmunestrong.com - Andrea is a great human who’s focusing on helping people with chronic illness get stronger. Very doable workouts.

You don’t want to let this need for change drive you crazy. I did that. I went all in and it created a bit of an orthorexic eating disorder. I was so afraid of not eating clean. Honestly, I still am not thrilled about not buying meat from my farmers. Don’t stress yourself out, just do the best you can. But try to do better.

What I am talking about here is seeing the forrest for the trees. We need to look at how the problem trees affect the whole forrest. I know many practitioners who cannot do this. They don’t see the forrest for the trees. One person I knew said everything wrong in her clients was H. pylori, another only looks at genetics, another is only focused on a certain diet being the cure all. Run, don’t walk from someone who isn’t looking at you as a whole person.

That is one thing I liked about the functional medicine training I got in my masters program. We were taught to look at how everything in one’s life can play a role in how good or bad you feel. It’s usually not just one thing. It is a combo of things over time that creates the immune system reaction.

When looking to find someone to help you, ask yourself if they are interested in your story- not just what is wrong with you but how you came to be here in this situation. Do they want to know how you are living? Are they taking the time to know what is going on in all areas of your life?  Usually this isn’t coming from your clinic where your insurance is accepted. They just don’t have the time to know your story. If you are doing cash pay with someone, they should be taking the time to really know you. The focus should not be on the disease you have but on your health.

How to beat the fatigue that comes with Hashimoto’s and Hypothyroidism

The fatigue that comes with this disease is real. I’ve had debilitating fatigue for long periods over the last 20 years that I’ve been diagnosed with hypothyroidism. When I was first getting diagnosed I felt like I was walking through sludge all day long. Tired when I went to bed and equally tired when I woke up. I was just telling someone I have really felt tired my whole life. I never tolerated the sun well, I didn’t have great endurance and my energy really kind of stunk for a long time. When I was younger I just powered through.

When I had two kids and was significantly more unhealthy I remember making my daughters 3rd birthday cake and being so exhausted by the end of the day to the point that when I sat down to take a load off, I just could not get up again. I was down for the count. I remember trying to run a 5k with my son when he was about 10 and I made it about a half a mile and I hit an energetic brick wall. I told him I couldn’t do it, I had to quit but that he should go on. I was on the couch the whole rest of the day.

I also didn’t not have a supportive spouse. I didn’t have the guts to speak up about how I was feeling and if I ever did, I got sort of blown off as a baby who just ‘couldn’t handle things’. Even a couple weeks ago I was out in the hot sun trying to bring the summer outdoor stuff to the patio and I just needed a rest so I laid on some furniture and my husband gave me a hard time. I had to remind him I have an autoimmune disease that sometimes requires me to take a break. I’m over not speaking up for myself so at least I’m fixing that piece of why my thyroid doesn’t work but that is a whole other episode.

So what can you do to fix your energy? There are many reasons why it might be in the tank. Let’s look at what they could be.

TSH. An obvious one and often difficult to get your doctor to look outside the box on the lab range here as many labs say a TSH of 4 or 5 is normal and that might just be enough for you to feel horribly tired all the time. According to some clinical groups, healthy persons should have a TSH below 2.5 uIU/L and the American College of Clinical Endocrinologiest has decided in recent years that TSH is good between 0.3-3.0 uIU/ml. Your lab likely is using its own range that is not even close to these numbers.

T3. If this is low your cells will not make energy well. If your Reverse T3 is high this means your body is making more of your T3 unusable and this can also affect energy levels. If your medication is a T4 only medication like Levothyroxine or Synthroid, maybe your body is not converting T4 to T3 well- this would look like high T4 and low T3 on a lab and can be from nutrient deficiencies or stress among other things. Ask for Free T3 and Reverse T3 to be tested in addition to TSH and the T4s. If T3 is low, ask for a combo med like natural desiccated thyroid hormone.

Anemia. Having low iron, low ferritin, low B12 can all cause anemia and can be easily found on a basic blood test called a CBC. Optimal ferritin for both men and women should be above 50 ng/mL.

Food Sensitivities. It is 100% possible to experience debilitating fatigue from foods you are sensitive too. Gold standard testing for this is elimination of suspected foods for a minimum of 3 weeks and then monitoring how you feel after a reintroduction of that food. You can do food sensitivity testing but it isn’t really reliable so my go to is doing an elimination.

How’s your blood sugar balance? If you subscribe to my newsletter you got some good info on how blood sugar dysregulation affects your thyroid a couple weeks ago. You can feel extremely tired after a meal containing too many refined or starchy carbs. You can make sure you eat protein with each meal and shoot for protein based snacks as well.

Eating huge meals. Overeating taxes your digestive system and makes you tired. Digesting your food is a big energy taker and most of us with Hashimoto’s are dealing with suboptimal gut function anyway. You may need some digestive support supplementation like digestive enzymes or even an HCL/betaine with pepsin supplement to help you digest your food for some time. Eventually, your body will work better at digesting food on its own and you won’t need to take digestive support but it can be really helpful if you are struggling with digesting your food well.

Cortisol. Adrenal fatigue isn’t really a thing. Your organs and glands don’t actually get fatigued. It is a communication issue with your brain but low cortisol can also be caused by stress. Drinking coffee in these cases can only make things worse in the long run. Taking an adaptogen like Rhodiola can be helpful to improve energy levels. Otherwise if you know you are dealing with low cortisol for sure, licorice root can be really good for this issue. It is quite stimulatory so be sure to take it before 1pm or it could keep you up.

Infections and inflammation.  If you are dealing with gut issues whether it be IBS or some infection in your gut, you can be fatigued from it. Some practitoners would say a stool test will be good to find infections but if you have something like a parasite which lays eggs in cycles, you may not find anything in your stool.

Thiamin. This has been shown to be an issue for fatigue in some people. You can try a B Complex type vitamin or you can look for Benfotiamine which is more absorbable and can help with energy if you are in a deficiency. This you can test for using a SpectraCell test which tests for nutritional deficiencies.

Sedentary lifestyle. I know it is hard to get up off the couch. I have been there. But just getting up and going for a walk will start to improve your energy levels. Eventually you can do more than just walking while also being very careful not to over do it. You can try the Autoimmune Strong workouts which are a great place to start if you are new to exercise and have chronic illness. www.getautoimmunestrong.com. The more you exercise your cells will create more mitochondria which will in turn create more energy for you.

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Is depression and anxiety normal in Hashimoto's?

Hashimoto’s thyroiditis induces neuroinflammation and emotional alterations in euthyroid mice. Yao-jun Cai et al 2018

What this title means is that even in mice with normal functioning thyroids that had Hashimoto’s, there was still brain inflammation.

As I have said before, you can’t always take mouse model scientific studies and carry that over to humans but I guarantee at least half of you listening have experienced difficulty with your mood at some point in your life because of this disease.

About 15 million people in the US alone are dealing with this condition, most of you are women. It is the most prevalent autoimmune disease. As a reminder, Hashimoto’s is characterized by white blood cells called monocytes infiltrating the thyroid tissue as well as antibodies against thyroglobulin and thyroid peroxidase being created. This is the major cause of hypothyroidism the world over. In more general terms this is when the immune system (the monocyte) is attacking our own body and destruction of tissue occurs. The immune system is supposed to rid itself of these immune cells that are specific for our own tissue but sometimes they get missed.

In Hashimoto’s the biggest mechanism of action in destruction is molecular mimicry. This is where our own tissue looks similar to a foreign cell- their amino acid sequence will be similar enough to be mistaken for each other. Other things that can trigger it are mental or emotional stress.

Anxiety can increase Interleukin 6 (interestingly invokes anxiety when high) and TNFa (inflammatory immune cells that make you feel tired, anxious and hostile) and both are high in people with more fat on their body. High estrogen can increase these inflammatory markers and high progesterone can reduce them.  DHEA also helps to keep IL-6 in check.

Another stress contributor can be cortisol which will be involved in blood sugar management if our diet is not great or if you are always running on empty.

Many people will show lab test normal thyroid function with Hashimoto’s, this would include people with subclinical hypothyroidism where you have symptoms but labs are ‘normal’. In this state you can be dealing with anxiety and depression. In fact, these two mood disorders are more common in euthyroid Hashimoto’s patients than those with no thyroid problems.

This study discusses we are the lucky ones who have impairment in cerebral perfusion which is a fancy way of saying we don’t get enough blood supply to the brain and according to the internet gives us an increased risk for cognitive decline and a higher risk of dementia. For us this perfusion happens specifically in the frontal cortex which is the region of the brain that controls emotional behaviors. The authors state the mechanisms of action in damage to the brain are largely unknown in Hashimoto’s.

This inflammation in the brain is our body’s way of protecting us from brain injury but when it goes on too long in a state of inflammation, immune cells increase and release what are called inflammatory cytokines like IL-6, IL-1B, and TNF-a which screw up the neurotransmitters that affect mood regulation. Serotonin is the big one affected.

This was a small mouse study of 10 mice induced with Hashimoto’s and 10 mice in the control group. They were given behavioral tests measuring depressive-like behaviors and anxiety-like traits. After the tests were monitored, and the brains and thyroids were examined they found the mice with Hashimoto’s had more enlarged thyroids than the control mice with destroyed thyroid cells and infiltration of monocytes (immune cells) and antibodies were higher with normal T3, T4 and TSH levels. They also found thyroglobulin antibodies in the frontal cortex portion of the brain.  And the researchers found what they were looking for in that these poor mice did show depression and anxiety traits and those pro-inflammatory cytokines were much higher than in the control group resulting in lower serotonin.

There have been other studies that show no association between anxiety and depression and Hashimoto’s in those with thyroid antibodies. All I have to say to this is there will always be studies that contradict each other. You have to get good at deciphering the difference in them to come to a conclusion.

All this to say, you are not crazy. You might be depressed and you might have anxiety and it could very well be because there is some inflammation in your brain that you may not be aware of. The best thing you can do for yourself is to figure out what is causing the inflammation and work on fixing it.

Don’t guess what it is. Don’t hope a supplement will fix the problem for you. Don’t search the internet and wonder which so called expert you should follow. Maybe you should test instead of guess. Maybe stop searching for the magic bullet online. In the last few months I’ve had so many people come to me confused about what they should believe and they have spent hundreds and hundreds of dollars on supplements hoping it will fix their problem. If you are following someone online that is telling you their products will fix your thyroid- take a step back and think about that.

There is one person online that only sells supplements for thyroid patients and their marketing says they have 70-80,000 happy customers. If those 70-80k people bought just one $40 bottle from this company, that is 3.5 million dollars. And good on them for making a great living. I’m sure many people who were basically nutrient deficient have felt much better using those products. I have no beef with that. I just want you to think about why you might want to go down that road.

Will five products help your brain inflammation that is causing anxiety or depression? Maybe. But it isn’t getting at the root cause so when you stop taking the product you might go right back to square one.

I want to help you understand why your body is fighting you so you can take the steps to make it work better so you have more energy, lose weight, feel fantastic and get your darn life back.

In the last couple weeks I lost a close family member. Out of the blue. No warning. It’s the kind of phone call you don’t want to get. The funeral home was standing room only and the words spoken about this person were amazing. They were loved by many and they lived life to the fullest.

Death always has me reflecting on my own life and how I want to live the rest of it. None of us gets out of here alive. We have to decide how we want to live. I want for you to be able to live a full and happy life- a good quality of life and I hope that you do to.

You don’t have to peruse the internet to find the right thing the might work for you. Let me help you understand just what your body needs to feel fantastic. Getting well is multi-faceted and I can help you put the pieces of this sometimes complicated puzzle together.

Thanks for listening.

You can get The Definitive Guide To Hashimoto’s on my website and while there you can also sign up for a free no obligation 3 day anti-inflammatory meal plan.

I also have a little course I created on Pre-diabetes for $47 which has a lot of fun recipes and cooking videos and is a great place to start for those of you that are new. Blood sugar dysregulation is a big problem in Hashimoto’s so it can get you started in learning about what to eat for better blood sugar. Sometimes fixing that can take you a long way to better thyroid function. Please go check it out. It’s listed under the Get Help tab and then click on Programs and select Nutrition and Lifestyle Change for Prediabetes. You get 4-6 weeks of free meal planning with the program which is a fantastic deal.

See you next time.

Cai, YJ., Wang, F., Chen, ZX. et al. Hashimoto’s thyroiditis induces neuroinflammation and emotional alterations in euthyroid mice. J Neuroinflammation 15, 299 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12974-018-1341-z

https://rdcu.be/dcmAu

What is Fatty Liver? Is My Hypothyroidism Causing It?

What is Fatty Liver?

Is your hypothyroidism causing fatty liver?

I came across a study called Hypothyroidism-Induced Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (HIN): Mechanisms and Emerging Therapeutic Options by Tanase et al 2020 that had some interesting info about the relationship between NAFLD and hypothyroidism, particularly if you are either subclinically hypothyroid or if your medication is not optimized.

Many people are being diagnosed with a fatty liver that are not alcoholics which is how people used to get a fatty liver. Excessive and chronic alcohol consumption will do that. What happens in fatty liver disease is basically an accumulation of fat deposits in the liver that can lead to cirrhosis and liver cancer if not treated.

NAFLD is also sometimes called NASH or non alcoholic steatohepatitis but it is actually under the umbrella of NAFLD with cirrhosis and cancer. It is actually one of the main causes of the need for a liver transplant and for the most part is totally preventable. Chronic conditions that are causal of NAFLD include T2D, chronic kidney disease, gallstones, CVD, metabolic disorders, hypothyroidism, PCOS and more.

When you are dealing with subclinical hypothyroidism or perhaps your doctor believes you are good to go with a TSH of 4-5, you are at risk for metabolic syndrome, obesity, atrial fibrillation and cancer.

These researchers state that other studies have shown that patients with over 10 years of dysfunction of the thyroid have a much higher chance of developing liver cancer. People who had NASH or chronic Hep B infections also had a higher rate of thyroid dysfunction than the control group in one study.

Hypothyroidism induced NAFLD has become its own disease entity. This means that it’s a disease by itself and this is really sad because so many people are walking around with subclinical hypothyroidism and their doctors are told that a TSH of 4-5 and sometimes even higher is normal. It’s maddening to me.

Hypothyroidism on labs would look like a high TSH with FT4 within the reference range and no real clinical symptoms (aside from the ones your doctor just writes off as either in your head or related to laziness and depression) or with low FT4 with any of the clinical symptoms.

According to this paper the cut off for TSH labs is between 4.0 and 4.5 mIU/l

NAFLD is defined as an accumulation of fat in the liver in over 5% of liver cells with no secondary causes or by 5.6% in an MRI. The gold standard for diagnosis is a liver biopsy which is invasive and has some potential severe side effects.

These two problems are occurring in children now with obese children and abnormal thyroid hormone levels had a higher risk of having fatty liver and in obese children with normally working thyroids, there was around a 30% prevalence of fatty liver. Those with fatty liver had a much higher TSH level than those without a fatty liver but T3 and T4 remained the same for both groups studied.

Many studies have been done on adults showing hypothyroid patients, both subclinical and overt hypothyroidism, had a higher prevalence of NAFLD. Said another way, the subjects with hypothyroidism were more likely to have fatty liver than those who didn’t have hypothyroidism.

There was also an association between the level of TSH and a higher risk of fatty liver. The Ft3/Ft4 ratio, insulin resistance, waist circumference, and high triglycerides were also risk factors for fatty liver in both hypothyroid and euthyroid people.

Having low FT3 was also associated with scarring on the liver called liver fibrosis.

There have been a lot of studies on this topic according to this one paper and they suggest that women with fatty liver disease had significantly higher TSH levels than control groups, low FT4, higher triglycerides, and were obese. In addition, and a high AST (liver enzyme marker on basic labs).

The authors did make it clear that there is no clear cause and effect relationship here but that there is some kind of relationship. They don’t really understand physiologically how this is happening though speculation has to do with the weight gain, poor blood sugar regulation, and inability to lose fat that many have due to hypothyroidism.

All of these things also occur in NAFLD which is known to be related to fat accumulation in the liver, inflammation due to oxidative stress and the livers inability to repair itself.

The thyroid gland is hugely responsible for heat production, creation of fat cells, fat distribution, overall energy, fat, carb, and protein metabolism as well as cell metabolism. Metabolism in this case is just referring to all the chemical processes it takes to break down fat, carbs, and protein into the substrate that the body uses for everyday functions. Cell metabolism is referring to all the chemical reactions that take place inside of the cell.

We need T3 and T4 so our tissues can repair themselves, so our cells can communicate and helps with cell differentiation. This is when a cell changes into another kind of cell such as immune cells or when a cell is destroyed.

In fatty liver, it is thought that there is some thyroid hormone resistance (similar to insulin resistance) where the cells are resisting letting the hormone enter. There is a direct relationship to T3’s ability to function in the cells and liver cancer. In addition, T3 is suppressed in injury to muscle, heart attacks and in partial removal of the liver. According to this paper, many chronic diseases result in low T3. This doesn’t mean you need to up your T3, it means you need to figure out what is causing the low T3 in the first place.

Thyroid hormones and your TSH level in particular have direct affects on liver cell membranes and can create blood sugar issues and affect bile production. Low bile production means poor fat digestion and the potential for gallbladder issues like gallstones.

Thyroid hormones play a role in cholesterol: VLDL, LDL, HDL, ApoB as well. So pretty important that the darn gland is working properly or your hormone replacement is good.
These are not necessarily things you would notice right away either, it could be negative changes over time if you are dealing with subclinical hypothyroidism.

The good news in all of this is that thyroid hormones can help prevent all of this given and healthy diet and lifestyle. The problem is finding the right medication for you and getting your doctor to agree to give you a dose that puts your TSH in a better place.

The rest of this particular study goes in to great scientific detail about how and why these two things are tied together and discusses some studies where thyroid hormone treatment improved both.

If you are concerned about fatty liver there is a fatty liver index calculator I use with my clients that takes your trigylceride levels, BMI, a marker called GGT, and your wait circumference and it will come up with a calculation of how close you are to fatty liver.

In addition, looking at an elevated BUN (blood urea nitrogen) level can indicate a potential for fatty liver. AST and ALT are the common markers on basic blood labs your doctor would run. They are enzymes made in the liver and AST will be high when there is active tissue and cell destruction happening. ALT will usually be higher than AST when there is something wrong in the liver. My ranges for these are from my mentor Dr. Bryan Walsh and are much tighter ranges than will be on your labs from your doctor. He combed the research to find healthy controls where liver enzymes were measured and found the healthy range to be much smaller than the lab range.

Alkaline phosphatase will be high when there is some kind of liver issue along with GGT and bile acids. These markers are cheap and easy to get. If your doctor won’t order them, you can order them yourself using my link to Ulta Labs or you can have me order through other agencies and we can go over your labs and make a plan for getting you off the sidelines. Around 30% of the population has fatty liver and 90% of obese people have it. You can have a lab normal ALT level and already have liver damage.

The price has gone up for my 6 month package but it does include a ton of support from me. Let me wade through all the information on the internet for you so you dont’ have to waste time and money guessing what will work for you. Get your energy back, get your life back.

What are you waiting for?

Go to helpforhashimotos.com and schedule your discovery call and we can see if we are good fit to work together. I look forward to talking with you!

Download The Definitive Guide to Hashimoto’s while you are on my site and please leave me a rating and review. It helps more people find the podcast. I’m not so good at the internet marketing thing so your review will help a lot!

Thanks for being here. I’m so grateful for you.

Tanase DM, Gosav EM, Neculae E, Costea CF, Ciocoiu M, Hurjui LL, Tarniceriu CC, Floria M. Hypothyroidism-Induced Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (HIN): Mechanisms and Emerging Therapeutic Options. International Journal of Molecular Sciences. 2020; 21(16):5927. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms21165927

Should I take a T2 Supplement?

Should I take a T2 Supplement?

Studies discussed:

3,5 Diiodo-L-thyronine (T2) in Dietary Supplements: What are the Physiological Effects? by Hernandez

3,5-Diiodo-L-thyroinine (3,5-T2) Exerts Thyromimetic Effects on Hypothalamus Pituitary Thyroid Axis, Body Composition, and Energy Metabolism in Make Diet Induced Obese Mice. Jonas et al, 2015

What supplements do I need to take?

The idea for this episode came to me after I took a digestive enzyme that had 200mg of Betaine HCl and a blend of enzymes to help breakdown food. I had a stomach bug about a week and a half ago and had no appetite for about a week afterwards. I still am not very hungry. I had a heavier meal last night with a lot of beans in it so I wanted to be sure I didn’t have a ton of bloat from it so I took one digestive enzyme capsule at the end of my meal. I think that was my first mistake. I should have taken it at the beginning of the meal because I had the most horrible heart burn afterwards. It honestly felt like there was a huge lump in my chest and it was very uncomfortable. I tried drinking water to dilute the capsule but that did nothing and made me have to go to the bathroom after about a half hour. I went to bed early and read- a super interesting book which I hope to talk about in another episode. The heart burn persisted and got worse as I was now laying horizontal. I fell asleep but never got into a deep sleep and then had to pee so was up twice for that, each time drinking just another sip of water to try to fix the heart burn. Finally at 1am I took about an ⅛ tsp of baking soda in 2-3 oz of water and it helped but did not make the burn totally go away. I was so annoyed. So I was laying there thinking about supplements and how many people take things they don’t even know they need. Clearly I didn’t need that one little capsule last night. 

This episode is going to sound like I’m against supplements and I want to be clear I am not. I take some here and there. I take a mulitvitamin, I have fish oil that I take occasionally and a whole cupboard of stuff for when the situation arises. 

I use magnesium on days when I over do sugar. When I travel I bring melatonin to help me fall asleep. I have done a great evidence based detox program that had me on a few things to support removal of toxins. I have L-glutamine for gut healing (took that last week along with a probiotic after I got sick). 

I’ve got a whole covid protocol in my cupboard, I’ve got homeopathic stuff for things like headaches, fevers, pain, and bug bites. The bug bite one is mostly for my very sensitive dog who gets welts from tick bites and hot spots galore. He currently has an ear infection I’m treating with an herbal formula. Anyway, so all this to say I’m not against them but I am against you just buying stuff thinking it will help you without knowing what you actually need to be taking.  Personally I don’t take anything every day. I probably should take a multivitamin daily but I have been the person trying every supplement over the years and I’m kind of over it. You don’t have to take a bunch of stuff is my point. 

I find that people are often looking for a supplement to fix their health problem. A blood sugar reducing supplement for your blood sugar, curcumin for pain or inflammation, selenium for thyroid problems, vitamin d ‘because everyone is deficient’, and the list goes on. I’m sure you have your reasons for why you take supplements. 

Here’s the thing- when you see a functional medicine practitoner whether it is a medical doctor or a nutritionist or someone who’s certified in holistic nutrition or whatever- they should not be sending you on your way with a $400 bill in supplements. If they are they are taking the conventional medicine model which is a ‘pill for every ill’ and doing the same thing with supplements. 

In these types of cases you might need half or a ¼ of what you were told.

The amount of people I’ve seen who are taking 10 or more supplements is kind of astonishing and the sad thing is that many of these people are not getting better. My gut feeling on this is that these supplements are not doing jack for them. Other things I have seen are women in menopause taking a multi vitamin with iron because her chiropractor just gave her a link to her supplement store. Full disclosure I have also given my dispensary link out on the podcast and the newsletter but I do believe I’ve also suggested you know what you need to take before purchasing. 

The supplement industry is a $39 billion industry with over 150 million people buying and taking them. There are over 85,000 products on the market with 1000 new ones coming each year. 58% of these come from the mass market like your big box stores and 3% come from practitioners. 

There are many reasons to buy from a practitoner as long as they are not selling you on the idea that you need 12 things to take every day. Very few people need to be supplementing in such a way. And I beg of you to avoid big box store supplements as best you can. These things are expensive, I get it but when they are cheap there is a reason. That reason is usually quality. 

A 2014 report by the NY Attorney Generals office showed their investigation found that supplements sold at stores we all shop at had some big problems. 

Ginkgo biloba, often used to support memory and focus, was tested from bottles purchased at these stores and there was no ginkgo biloba found in the products at all 4 of the stores where it was purchased. What was found in the capsules was garlic, rice, spruce, wheat, and a tropical houseplant. 

St. John’s Wort was also tested. This is a popular supplement used as an anti-depressant and again was not found in the capsules from bottles purchased at any of the stores but again had rice, tropical houseplant, and garlic. 

Echinacea was only found in one product from one store. The other stores sold product where it had rice, and garlic. This is a common supplement taken for supporting immune system health. 

A 2010 report by the Archives of Internal Medicine reported on a liquid selenium product, something very popular in the Hashimoto’s community. This product contained a dose over 40,000 mcg where a safe dose is considered to be 200 mcg. The over dose of selenium in this case caused hair loss, memory problems, joint pain, nausea and fatigue.  Do you know anything about the selenium you might be taking? 

Supplement companies are supposed to follow something called Good Manufacturing Process or GMP and a 2012 report by the FDA found there were violations of the GMP in half of 450 companies whose facilities were inspected with violations ranging from rat infested facilities to not having a standardized recipe for their supplement formulations. 

Even more problematic that big box stores are places like Amazon or Ebay where actual prescription medications were found in supplements sold for weight loss or sexual enhancement. 

A former investigator for the FDA found that those cheap supplements on Amazon can be counterfeit, potentially dangerous, stolen or expired product that is repackaged as new.  There are actually people selling on these sites that are creating packaging to look like a name brand or practitioner only supplement brand and selling you a pill that is useless. The most popular supplements on the market are probably being produced by counterfeit and a company from Asia is usually the culprit. The counterfeit supplement industry is a huge industry so buyer beware. 

This is actually why I suggest you buy from my dispensary rather than from a store. You not only save a little money but you know you are getting quality products. I’d recommend a supplement review as well because you may not need what you think you do- though this depends on your diet and lifestyle but just like you can’t out exercise a bad diet, you can’t supplement one either. 

In addition, herbs purchased for ayurvedic products and Chinese herbal formulas have been found to have toxic levels of mercury and arsenic in the past. 

How are supplements made? 

In many cases industrial solvents are used to extract compounds from plants and there is no standard for acceptable limits of these solvents. 

A compound called 1,2 dichloroethan is often used to extract curcumin from turmeric. This chemical can cause lung, kidney, GI and circulatory issues. The FDA rules and GMP do not apply to the suppliers of raw materials which are purchased to make supplements. This means the supplement companies have to police themselves. 

Practitioner grade supplements are often 3rd party tested. This is a big thing in their marketing because the industry is not regulated, the better companies will regulate themselves. They will also often market the efficacy of their products through clinical studies that are often paid for by them so there is clear bias in efficacy. 

Ingredients from raw materials suppliers are often inconsistent with many being of poor quality so you get what you pay for. Third party testing allows for testing bulk ingredients from multiple lots to provide that trust factor. The best products will be consistent, be potent, be clean, and be bioavailable.

Third party testing is looking for things like heavy metals, pesticides, herbicides, microbes, potency, solvents. Facilities are clean and temperature and humidity controlled. Some companies even test the bottles their products go in to be sure they are non toxic as well. 

Quality matters. 

You want to be thinking about the cost and your return on investment. Is the product working for you? Do you have the correct diagnosis for what you are taking?  Are you following an evidence based and informed treatment plan? 

When you self shop for supplements at a big box store you are in the hands of a sales clerk and not a nutrition professional. Know what you need and why you need it. 

Are there any red flags to look for?

Supplement companies cannot claim to prevent or treat disease. Beware of ‘proprietary blends’ where all ingredients are not listed. Is there a purpose for each ingredient? Is the dose appropriate and based on human research, not rats. Often, there are animal model studies where the dose that helped the animal is more than a human could consume in a day. 

Were clinical studies funded by the supplement maker or are there conflicts of interest of paper authors? This is really common in the research. Funding is supposed to be revealed and any one working on the study is supposed to list any conflicts of interest so that there is no bias in producing a certain result. 

So what do you need to take?

This is different for everyone because you are all bioindividual. Your physiology is different than everyone else and what got you sick is not what got someone else sick. Read all your labels so you know what you are taking. If you are a woman in menopause, your multi vitamin probably doesn’t need iron.  If you are taking vitamin D daily, you need to have your levels tested yearly. 

Ask yourself if you are looking for a magic pill. Supplements are meant to supplement your diet until your diet can provide you with what you need. Maybe you need some gut healing so your body can absorb the nutrients you are taking. There is no magic pill and there is no magic protocol to fix your ill so stop looking for it on the internet. 

There is a sea full of information on the internet with every website or article telling you something different. How do you know what is right and what you need?

Get good at listening to your body, when something doesn’t feel right, what is it trying to tell you?

Find out what your cells need by finding your cell blueprint. This is an evidence based questionnaire that will help me figure out what your biggest needs are as far as your cellular health goes. It’s a good place to start. 

At a minimum you might need a fish oil if you don’t eat fish and maybe a high quality mutli-vitamin but even then, the amounts required for you are very dependent upon your needs at the moment so it is still a good idea to work with someone to figure that out. 

I’m only working in 6 month packages right now and there will be a price increase May 1st so now is the time to get on board with your health and getting help for your hashimoto’s! Within that package will come a supplement review- you can take pictures of all you are taking and we will figure out what you need and what you don’t. My whole goal is to have you not need anything but the bare minimum such as fish oil, a multi and maybe extra B’s depending on your needs. 

Download the definitive guide to hashimoto’s when you sign up for my newsletter which for now has been consistently coming out every Friday. 

I’m also working on a little class about how to read your thyroid labs so look for that soon. 

If you could take the time to leave me a review I would really appreciate that. It helps other people find the show. 

Medical Gaslighting. You are not crazy!

I teamed up with my friend and mentor Tiffany Flaten of Rock Bottom Wellness https://rockbottomwellness.com/ to talk about gaslighting. The kind where your doctor makes you feel like you are in the wrong or crazy for being in their office. Know you are not alone and we have your back! 

Get The Definitive Guide To Hashimoto's here. 

Get your free 3-Day Anti-inflammatory Meal Plan here

Join the Rock Bottom Wellness thyroid facebook group here 

Find Tiffany on TikTok, Instagram

Why Can't I Heal Myself

Why Can't I Heal Myself?

What is getting in your way of hiring someone to help you with your hypothyroidism and/or hashimoto’s? Have you worked with people before and you haven’t felt better after spending hundreds or maybe thousands of dollars with them? I’ve been there. I started searching for answers on my own after awhile. Got certified as a nutritional therapy practitioner which just made me even more confused. I tried to fix this on my own and you know I got to a certain point of feeling pretty well but I wasted a lot of money on supplements and books that were promising the perfect protocol for Hashimoto’s.

I was chasing the magic pill.

I can’t tell you exactly how to fix your autoimmune disease without knowing about you. About your life, your physiology, your stresses, your relationships, your self esteem, your brain health…. What is your immune system doing. How are your hormones? How is your gut? How is your blood sugar? What is your toxin exposure?

If someone is just selling you a protocol, they are cheating you out of not only your money but of quality whole person care. I have been there and am so frustrated with myself for chasing that magic pill that I am not willing to get your buy in with a promise I can’t keep.

Getting you well takes work from me but it also takes work from you. What is it that didn’t work on your end before? It isn’t about the money spent in the past. What didn’t work for me is that I didn’t trust myself to get past a certain point. I wasn’t willing to deal with some stuff that was still keeping me sick and rather than take responsibility for it, I blamed all the practitoners I had hired in the past.

You have to trust me but you also have to trust yourself and trust the process. Let go of the belief that you can’t get better and believe that together we can kick this disease in the behind. Take a moment to write down all the reasons why you can trust yourself to be successful this time around.

If you have never worked with someone to help heal your hashimoto’s, write down all the reasons why investing in you and your health is important. Do you want to be better for your kids? Do you want to be better for a partner? Do you want to get up in the morning energetic  to start your day with a smile on your face?  Then write down all the reasons why you can trust yourself to be successful in doing that. Are you fully committed to taking a look at what in your life has contributed to you getting and staying sick?

Setting a goal to get better is great but might be a bit vague because your brain isn’t really sure how to move you in the path of getting better. Your brain needs some actionable steps. It needs purpose and a sense of direction. Doing this will improve your confidence, commitment and motivation to stick with it.

Think about it like this- you don’t just one day decide to go on vacation and just drive to the airport and go to your destination.  You think about where you want to go and why. Do you want a family vacation or a girls trip? How are you going to get there? What airline will you fly? Do you need a rental car? Will you stay in an all inclusive resort, hotel or AirBnB?

Same thing goes for a goal you might have to not be so tired all the time. Well, if you don’t really know much about how your body works, your brain has no idea how to forge ahead on a path to wellness. You have to do some research. Why do you feel tired? Is it just because your thyroid meds are not optimal or is it because of poor sleep or something else entirely? Do you have adrenal fatigue (hint- your glands don’t get tired or fatigued but they can make you feel tired). What does your blood test even mean? How much and what should you be eating? Have you been exposed to any toxins that might be taxing your body? What about an infection?

You see, you can spend thousands of hours trying to understand all of this or you can hire someone who has already done that.

I can figure this stuff out, guide you in the right direction and I can even tell you exactly what to do but it is you that has to follow through with my direction.

Know your why. Why do you want to feel better? Why is not being tired or squishy or whatever it is- why is that important to you? Really sit and think about this. When you know your why, it can be great motivation for sticking with the hard things.

For example:

Why do I want more energy?…… Because I want to make it through the day with out needing a nap.

Why do you want to make it through the day without needing a nap?….. Because I miss out on really enjoying my family?

Why do you want to enjoy your family?……. Because I want to be an active participant in my life?

Why do you want to be an active participant in your life?….. Because I want to be able to do things with my kids….

Why do you want to do things with your kids?…. Because I want my kids to have a mom who can be there for them and do things with them……

Really dig deep. Keep asking why until you get some answers.

Once you are clear about why you want to feel better, what results do you want to achieve?

• Do you want to reduce your meds or potentially get off them altogether?

• Do you want to lose the weight that’s been hanging on forever?

• Do you want to sleep through the night?

• Do you want to be able to not have your joints hurt?

Here’s the problem with wanting these results- you can’t always control them. You might be able to get off your meds but what if you can’t?  You should be able to lose weight but this outcome can be affected by a lot of things:

• You end up having to work long hours for some reason

• Your kids or a family member get sick

• You get the flu and are in bed for a week

• Your vacation plans screw up the diet plan the nutritionist has set for you

• You are just too stressed to deal with changing your diet

• You can’t give up bread- it’s too tempting

When you are only focusing on the results you want, there will be frustration and guilt and maybe even shame when you can’t achieve these goals.

When the goals you set are based on things you can control, like your behavior, you can give yourself a small win to celebrate while you get to your final goal.

If your goal is to balance your blood sugar - that is an outcome you are looking for but if you reframe it to be about a behavior then you might choose berries and coconut cream for dessert instead of a gluten filled dessert.

If your goal is to sleep through the night for 8 hours (been there)- an outcome, try reframing that to a behavior goal of creating a routine around bedtime such as wearing blue blocking glasses while you read in bed, diffusing lavender in your bedroom, keeping the room cool etc. The goal becomes a calming bedtime routine rather than thinking “I must sleep through the night!!”.

Break down your goal into actions. Smaller things you do to get you to your goal. If you want to make your work lunches ahead of time your actions for that might look like, making a list of lunches you want to eat, create a shopping list, go to the store and buy the foods sticking to the list only. Come home and prep 3 lunches on Sunday and make a plan to prep on Wednesday for the later part of the week.

The actions need to be small and achievable so you are at least 85% successful. Chunk your goal into smaller sections to make it doable. Maybe you plan Friday night, shop Saturday and prep on Sunday. Be strategic focusing on the one thing that is in your way right now. What will get you the most “bang for your buck”? Maybe your fatigue is so bad that you can only prep the night before- whatever works. That is a small win too!

Lastly make sure you have support whether that is me or a family member and reward your action with a calendar to mark down every time you follow through and tell yourself “way to go, you are worth it.”

You really are worth it and I’m here for you as a strong advocate for your well being. No more suffering. My goal is to help people like you not have to go through what I have over the years. Trust that this is your last stop and trust yourself to invest in yourself to be ready to do the work needed to finally be free of being held hostage by hashimoto’s. When you invest in yourself you pay attention.  You deserve it.

Go to the Work With Me tab and schedule your discovery call. I can’t wait to help you feel better.

How to Fix Food Sensitivities

What to do when the list of foods you don’t react to gets smaller and smaller.

How to fix food sensitivities.

Food sensitivities can be a symptom of many, many, many types of conditions. Too many to list.  They affect around 20% of the population compared to 1-2% for food allergy. A food sensitivity is technically a non immunological response and diagnosis is not cut and dry. There are also a variety of reasons for a food sensitivity to occur in someone- they can be GI health related, enzyme deficiency related such as a lactose intolerance. There are other mechanisms as well but not as important for you as the client to worry about. The issue I’m discussing today is related to you being triggered by multiple foods.

Do you have multiple foods you are sensitive to that are not getting better or you have a list of food sensitivities that just seems to keep growing?

Have you tried the autoimmune protocol diet (AIP) or an elimination diet and that didn’t help you at all? Or did it make your symptoms worse?

This can be caused by what is called loss of oral tolerance. Oral tolerance is how our immune system works normally to allow us to eat food while also protecting the body from bacteria or other things on the foods we consume.

If your condition hasn’t gotten better on AIP or elimination diet, which is meant to remove foods that might cause inflammation and keep you sick, then it is time to look for other reasons why you are not better.

Maybe your practitioner has had you do a leaky gut protocol but did they address why your gut was leaky in the first place? AIP isn’t supposed to be a months long type of diet, despite what the internet tells you about how long you might have to be on it. I may have even said in the past that up to 2 years might be needed. This is not actually the case. The diet is supposed to help you figure out which foods you are reacting to and then readjust your diet until further healing is done.

If you have hashimoto’s you will probably need to avoid gluten permanently and likely need to avoid dairy as well. For me, even too much of other grains in my diet and particularly gluten free breads have caused reactions in me. This is telling me that I likely am dealing with leaky gut but the reason needs to be dug into. This is called a cross reaction where these foods cause the body to attack thyroid tissue or even brain tissue and both can happen in Hashimoto’s.

What goes wrong in the immune system?

Specific immune system cells called dendritic cells found in the small intestine have a job of checking the proteins that come along to figure out if your immune system should react to them. They tag proteins from foods that are not fully digested. Poor digestion can be a need for enzymes or hydrochloric acid or maybe just a calmer environment in which to eat and a thorough chewing of each bite.

Lack of mucus membrane antibody immune cells (SIgA) may be another reason that you have so many food sensitivities. In this case, you may just need to work on your digestion. When you’re thoroughly breaking down the proteins in your diet by chewing well and eating while in rest and digest mode, you can see an improvement in the reactions of these immune cells.

If you are dealing with lack of SIgA cells, we need to dig into seeing if you have an infection, HPA axis dysfunction, nutrient deficiencies or are using steroid medications.

Another type of immune cell called a regulatory T cell will take the message from the dendritic cells and decide whether or not to tell the immune system to create inflammation to get rid of the invader. This happens in your lymph which is why you can have an inflammatory reaction anywhere in the body. Lymph goes through all of your body so you may have joint pain or muscle aches or skin rashes if you are having inflammation. We all respond differently.

Aside from alerting the lymph, these dendritic immune cells can also bring these otherwise normal proteins to the liver and cause inflammation there making your body’s normal detoxification processes more difficult which can also affect the livers ability to convert T4 to T3.

One way to help your immune system do it’s job better is Magic Mind. I’ve been taking it for about 1 ½ weeks now and it has not only improved my focus and productivity but it has cordyceps mushrooms in it which is an adaptogen that reduces inflammation, strengthens your immune system, and supports higher energy levels and physical endurance by ramping up the production of ADP (needed to make ATP) in your mitochondria. I can feel a change in my brain when I take this. Seeing how well it works for me, I would encourage you to try it as well, especially if you are not at 100% each day. It has ashwagandha in it too which helps reduce stress, rhodiola to give you more energy and help increase your body’s resistance to stress and it enhances mental clarity. All things those of us with thyroid problems deal with almost daily. This little green shot has been a real game changer for me.

You can check it out at magicmind.co/helpforhashimotos and get up to 56% off a subscription for the next ten days with my code HASHIMOTOS.  You’ve got nothing to lose but fatigue!

Being on AIP can alter the make up of your gut bacteria and it is well known that the diversity of the bacteria in your gut is very important in immune health and in allowing your body to tolerate a variety of foods. This is why a wide variety of vegetables and fruits is so important. Challenge yourself to eat 3-4 different veggies each day and work on getting at least one pound of veggies in each day. Have a variety of fruits but not too much as it can cause blood sugar dysregulation.

Other things that can cause inflammation and contribute to food sensitivities from loss of oral tolerance are toxins like BPA and whatever is in your BPA free water bottle- it is still a toxic chemical.

Maybe you have histamine issues. This can be covered in a separate podcast but common symptoms of histamine issues are things like seasonal allergies, sinus congestion, asthma, skin rashes, joint pain, anxiety, irritability, and migraines. A good place to start with histamine is to avoid fermented, smoked foods, dried fruits, and leftovers from the fridge.

You can do food sensitivity testing. I’m kind of on the fence about this one. I’ve done a Cyrex labs test and avoiding those foods while healing my gut did help me but I’m not 100% on board. Cyrex labs does have some good tests that have been well tested so if you are not getting better after trying all the things, this might be a good next step.

Before the food sensitivity testing I would recommend getting your female hormones in balance, fixing chronic stress- both mental/emotional and physiological. Also, getting blood sugar balanced and getting you on the proper thyroid meds.

Lastly, we may have to check, via testing, to see if your immune system is suppressed. One big clue for this is if you never, ever get sick. Getting to your root cause is what I do. It takes time and effort on both our parts but it can be done.

What results is more energy, improved moods, and you get your life back and that is really the end goal!

Some simple things you can do on your own is just try to eliminate  any food you suspect for about a month and when you reintroduce it and you react then you know it should be avoided. You can also keep a food journal tracking your symptoms. Just list out all the foods you have eaten, the amount you ate, and what time. Track how the food was prepared so you can track if a cooked or raw food is the culprit. For instance, my oldest daughter has reactions to raw banana and apple but not cooked. Keep track of symptoms- when you notice them/time of onset, how severe they are and how long before they went away. I got glutened on valentines day and onset was immediate- before I had finished eating and I had bumps appear on my jaw line and neck and my face was itchy and I had immediate brain fog which lasted a couple of hours. Doing this helps teach me about your experience so I can better help you.

What if you could stop sitting on the sidelines of your life and live more fully?

What if you could stop fatigue in its tracks and have more energy?

What if you had a plan to fix your Hashimoto’s?

What if you didn’t have to guess (and waste money) which supplements your body needed to help you move towards healing?

What if you had someone to help you who has been there, knows what it feels like and got out of the hole that is mismanaged hypothyroidism?

These are all things my clients get when they work with me.

Hand holding if you need it. An advocate. Someone who truly cares that you get better and knows how to help you.

I can help you feel better. Day by day.

I’m here when you are ready. Book your Fight Fatigue Discovery Call Here

Yoga for fatigue?

There is no transcript as this is a conversation with a friend and colleague who loves to help people as much as I do.

Here is the link to the yoga session I talk about in this episode.

When you're feeling fatigued:

- Start where you are: begin lying down, and work your way up.  

- Don't overdo it, you may just do part of the video to start with. 

- The breath is a powerful tool: work with the Inhale, slightly increasing it (never longer than the exhale). Most people naturally have a longer exhale, so we will make inhale and exhale equal in length in this class. 

Allison Millers website here Offering weekly live virtual classes on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, and an on-demand video library so you can practice anytime, anywhere! Virtual Memberships are $24/month. 

Nutrifol for Hair Loss in Hypothyroidism

Nutrifol for hair loss from hypothyroidism?

The short answer is no.

Here’s the long reason why.

If you are not familiar with Nutrifol, I’ll fill you in. I don’t watch a lot of regular tv but do watch some streaming services and I often see commercials for Nutrifol for hair growth.

I am always skeptical of things like this mostly because I have been sold supplements by practitoners I saw over the years that did absolutely nothing for me.

They state they use medical grade natural ingredients to target the root causes of thinning hair such as stress, lifestyle, and nutrition. Taking their product is suppose to give you quicker hair growth, and fuller, stronger, thicker hair.

I’ll have a screen shot of the ingredients with the transcript on my website. You can search for episode 116 or Nutrifol to find it.

Some of the ingredients include:

Biotin.

This does build healthy hair. Chicken & beef liver and egg yolks are best sources of this important nutrient. You only need 100mg/day per 100g of protein that you consume and most of us don’t get 100g of protein per day. I try really hard to get 100mg of protein per day and most days I only get in about 50g. You have to be really intentional with EVERYTHING you eat to get this much in. Nutrifol has 3000mcg or 300mg. In high amounts this isn’t toxic but can interfere with absorption of B5 and lipoic acid. High doses can also cause your bloodwork to present false positive results.

Nutrifol label

Read labels on everything so you know what you are putting in your body.

Vitamin C.

This helps manage stress by providing this nutrient to the adrenals. For hair, it contributes to our hair pigment and prevents gray hair or at least makes our hair more resistant to turning gray.

Fresh fruits and veggies are great sources. 100-200mg in supplement form may be needed if you don’t eat a lot of fresh fruits and veggies.

Essential Fatty Acids.

This supplement contains fish but it doesn’t really list how much. Deficiency in omega 6 fatty acids can result in hair loss. The best way to get your omega 6’s is to eat 2 egg yolks or 100g of liver each day. Fish oil is not what you need for the purpose of keeping your hair thicker and fuller.

Iodine.

RDA for iodine is 150mcg/day. Nutrifol has 225mcg. If you have Hashimoto’s or Grave’s disease, taking iodine even at this amount can increase your antibodies and an autoimmune attack on your thyroid.

Iron.

Not in this supplement but deficiencies and excesses can cause hair loss.

Selenium.

The ultimate thyroid supplement touted by everyone on the internet as something you need if you have thyroid problems. Selenium helps us manage stress but too much can cause your hair to fall out and it may raise your risk of diabetes and cancer. Measure blood levels before taking selenium in supplement form. Optimal levels in plasma are between 90-140 ng/mL for most people. Amounts in food vary depending on the content of the soil where the plants were growing and where the animals were eating.

Zinc.

Deficiency early in life can lead to impaired hair growth. Supplements help with decreasing infection, inflammation, and oxidative stress.  Oysters, and red meat are the best sources.

Vitamin E.

This should always be given in a combo of all forms or tocotrienols, not just a single form like in Nutrifol which contains only alpha-tocopherol but in a small dose.

Horsetail.

This has silica in it and has been shown to improve hair luster and may prevent the rate at which your hair falls out. It is the silica that does this and horsetail is said to have high concentrations. Fiji water also has a fair amount of silica in it.

Japanese Knotweed.

This is a good source of resveratrol and is an invasive species plant. It is used in traditional Chinese medicine to aid in GI health and circulatory health. There is zero info that I could find on hair growth or preventing hair loss for this particular plant. It is the resveratrol I believe that is the key here as it is an antioxidant. Antioxidants help protect cells from damage. Blueberries are also antioxidants!

Solubilized Keratin.

This provides amino acids to replace the keratin lost as we age. It may reduce fine lines and depth of wrinkles- I’m all for that! 500mg along with zinc, B3, Copper, B5, B6, and biotin in a 2010 study improved the quality of the human hair shaft creating smoother, shinier hair and reduced the number of hairs lost during washing. This info on keratin, came from a supplement company- just so you know. I’m a little leary of the info when it comes from supplement companies because their whole purpose is to sell you said supplement.

Nutrifol has a blend of 530mg in 4 capsules of amino acids, keratin, horsetail, and knotweed.

Now I want to talk to you about supplements. The supplement industry is a $39 billion industry with over 166 million Americans using them each year. There are around 85,000 supplement products on the market with 1000 new products coming to market each year.

23,000 ER visits are attributed to supplement use each year but side note there are over 730,000 yearly ER visits associated with adverse events to the medical use of prescription drugs. So there is a .015% chance that a supplement will send you to the ER. I still recommend not guessing at what you need to be taking and work with someone who will honestly tell you what you might need.

I’ll give you just a quick history of the regulation of supplements.

The Harrison Narcotic Act of 1914 required narcotics to only be sold through a prescription. In 1927 the Bureau of Chemistry split into the Food Drug and Insecticide Administration and the Bureau of Chemistry and Soil.

In 1930 The Food Drug and Insecticide Administration became the FDA.

In 1938 the Food Drug and Cosmetic Act said that the FDA should oversee cosmetics and therapeutic device and Homeopathic remedies became regulated under this act.

The definition of a drug became anything intended to effect the structure and function of the body and anything intended to diagnose or treat.

In 1958 the Food Additives Amendment created a list of things that are Generally Regarded As Safe (GRAS).

In 1966 the Fair Package and Labeling Act required warning labels of supplements and banned the ability to make health claims with regard to dietary deficiency. Any supplement with more than 150% RDA were to be considered drugs.

The 1976 Proxmire Bill prohibited the FDA from regulating vitamins and minerals as prescription drugs. The 1994 Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act provided a regulatory framework for the supplement industry authorizing the FDA to come up with Good Manufacturing Practices and classified supplements and dietary ingredients as foods, not drugs.

The FDA monitors supplement safety, regulates labeling and claims on products and there is no authoritative list of supplement ingredients before October 15, 1994. The manufacturers of supplements are responsible for determining if an ingredient in their product is a new ingredient.

There was an investigation by the NY Attorney General in 2015 looking at several different supplements sold at 4 major retailers. The majority of these supplements did not even contain the herb listed on the ingredients label. They had powdered rice, asparagus and even houseplants in them but not the thing they were supposed to have.

In addition, a 2010 report found that a liquid selenium supplement had over 40,000 micrograms per dose instead of the 200mcg the label claimed.

Good Manufacturing Practices do not apply to raw materials suppliers. You may have heard me say that the higher quality supplement companies have 3rd party testers making sure the raw materials brought to their docks are free of heavy metals and other contaminants. If they are not, they are sent away for some other company to buy. There is no guideline for what contamination levels are acceptable. Good manufacturing Practices don’t address absorption, dissolution, or bioavailability. The companies that are for use by practitoners only do third party testing and voluntary quality control. Some of these certifications are USP, NSF, and Consumer Labs.

I am not saying that Nutrifol is shady at all. I want to be clear. I just think that at $79 per month for a 30 day supply is a bit much. Pure Encapsulations Hair/Skin/Nails Ultra is $43.99 for a 30 day supply which is about half the price. I’m sure Nutrifol is so expensive because they have a fabulous website and they do a lot of advertising.

You can sign up for an account at my dispensary https://us.fullscript.com/welcome/hfh and get 10% off all your supplements. But please, don’t buy a bunch of supplements hoping they will fix your problem. Supplements for the most part are either bandaids to your root cause or are needed for a time period to replenish your deficiencies and help your body heal.

If you would like to do a supplement review I’m happy to help you with that. An hour and half consult would be needed to do that. You can reach out by emailing me and I’ll send you a link to make an appointment for that. The cost is $295.

You can also schedule a discovery call at helpforhashimotos.com click on the get help and then book appointment. You will be on your way to feeling better, having more energy and getting off the sidelines of your life in no time!

“What’s for dinner?”

We all dread that question...

And for good reason. No one wants to wait until the last minute to try to prepare something nutritious and healthy —that’s stressful!

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Thanks for tuning in. I so appreciate you guys. Please leave a rating and or review at apple podcasts so more people can find the show and get help.

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Why are my periods so heavy?

Let’s understand how your period works. Many of us do not understand the basics of how our menstrual cycle works. And that’s okay. Who did we have to teach us?

Being able to identify any abnormalities in your cycle is one way to find potential health problems so understanding your menstrual patterns can help you a lot.

You and any adolescent girls in your life might want to consider charting your cycles. There are a ton of apps for this purpose. I can’t personally speak to any of them but I’m sure you know someone who can recommend one.

The bottom line is that your period is a definite reflection of your overall health.

The pill is the doctors answer to period pain, PCOS, irregular cycles, endometriosis, heavy periods, acne….. the list goes on.

One thing you need to know is that being on the pill or any other hormonal birth control does not give you a period. The pill actually forces you to bleed but this is not a period. Bleeding from the pill is from the dose of the hormones in your body and the lack of them in that 4th week.  Your period is occurring from an interaction of your natural hormones, ovulation and progesterone production. It occurs about every 28 days- this part most of us already are aware of. Hormonal birth control stops your ovaries from releasing eggs and stops the production of hormones.

Your cycle has 3 phases

• FOLLICULAR PHASE 7-21 days long taking place around day six to day 14

• You have around 608 follicles, each containing an egg and they produce estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone

• Follicles take 100 days to mature from their beginning formation to ovulation. If these follicles are not healthy at any point over those 100 days then that can show up as a problem with your period down the road. Unhealthy cells making unhealthy tissues and you have heard me say this before. So an unhealthy follicle can show up months later as a significant problem for you

• When follicles enter the follicular phase, follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) tells your follicles to make estrogen

• Estradiol comes from your follicles, other forms of estrogen like estrone come from fat tissue and also from your gut bacteria.

• Estradiol boosts mood and libido by boosting serotonin and dopamine

• It helps you be more sensitive to insulin allowing you to keep fat off and preventing insulin resistance

• It also plays a role in your uterus lining growing and thickening- this means, the more estradiol, the thicker your uterine lining and the heavier your period will be

• OVULATION PHASE occurs around day 14

• This happens when a follicle reaches its destination, swells up and releases an egg. This is ovulation. You may feel the rupture on your lower pelvis. Once this occurs, a pregnancy can also occur

• You need ovulation to make progesterone

• LUTEAL PHASE from day 15-28

• The ruptured follicle that released an egg becomes the corpus luteum and releases progesterone

• How healthy the corpus luteum is, is affected by whether or not that 100 day journey of the follicle was healthy. Healthy cells make healthy tissues …..

• This phase and the corpus luteum can be affected by your thyroid health and nutrient deficiencies. You need a solid 100 days of good health to produce a healthy corpus luteum

• The progesterone made in this phase is really made to build a healthy pregnancy. It also balances out your estrogen levels. it thins your uterine lining, it helps prevent breast cancer compared to estrogen promoting it. It boosts thyroid hormone which is actually part of raising your body temperature.

• Having a balance between progesterone and estrogen can keep your period aka your flow light!

• Progesterone reduces inflammation, helps you build muscle and helps you sleep. it protects against heart disease and helps you handle stress better by calming your nervous system

• Hormonal birth control doesn’t provide this calming effect and may in fact cause anxiety and apparently can even change the shape of your brain according to Peterson & colleagues from the American Journal of Psychiatry.

• Your luteal phase lasts 10-16 days if you don’t become pregnant. At this point the corpus luteum shrinks, progesterone drops off and you begin your period.

• A healthy body will produce a healthy period.

• A healthy corpus luteum with adequate progesterone production will create a healthy flow

• period flow should be well formed and flow should not be super heavy

• ideally you would not have any clotting which may be occurring in a hypothyroid state

Day one is the first day of your heavy flow and the start of a new follicular phase. This lasts from 5-7 days.

If you are not making enough progesterone it is due to a short luteal phase. Some causes of this are long or heavy periods, PMS, or spotting.

A very heavy period consists of a flow releasing more than 80mL or a total of 16 fully soaked regular tampons or 8 super over all the days of your period. It can also be a period lasting 7+ days. If yours lasts more than 7 days, you should consult your doctor.

Copper IUD’s, perimenopause, no ovulation, thyroid problems, and endometriosis are reasons for a heavy bleed. The biggest cause of heavy bleeds though is having low progesterone and high estrogen. Too much estrogen will also cause sore or tender breasts, PMS and fibroids.

Hypothyroidism is a common reason for a heavy flow. Remember every cell in your body has receptors for thyroid hormone. Every cell needs thyroid hormone. if you don’t have enough thyroid hormone, your follicles won’t be healthy, you may not ovulate which creates whats called an anovulatory cycle and you won’t make progesterone because you didn’t ovulate.

Hypothyroidism affects your body’s ability to coagulate your blood and slows down estrogen metabolism. This means your body can’t get rid of estrogen as well. So if you have a really really soft bowel movement on the start of your period that can be because you are not able to metabolize estrogen well. Not being able to coagulate your blood means a flow that flows more.

This is the basic story. An important story for you to know even if you are in menopause because it may answer questions for you about why you suffered over the years. If you are currently suffering with a really heavy period, what would it be worth to you to be able to solve it? You don’t have to have a heavy, horrible period. I suffered with this very issue my entire life. My wish for you is that you can take control of your health and your body’s healing process so you can have the highest quality of life possible. No more suffering with heavy periods or fatigue or exercise intolerance or whatever else you’re going through.

Don’t waste your time guessing or even wishing things were different. Your health doesn’t really have a price tag does it? What is the cost of your hypothyroidism now? How is your quality of life? How is the quality of your relationships? Hypothyroidism and Hashimoto’s affect relationships too. Get rid of the crazy that comes with a body that is not getting what it needs.

Are you ready to get off the couch, off the sidelines of your life and feel great again? I’m here to help. I can help you feel better. Health has no price tag and you know you only have this one life here and now. Let’s make it a great one. Schedule your discovery call at helpforhashimotos.com and click on the Get Help tab and you can schedule your discovery call so I can learn more about you.

Sign up for my newsletter while you are there and you can get your Definitive Guide to Hashimoto’s.

Thanks so much for tuning in!

Does Hashimoto’s Cause Leaky Gut?

I was looking at my download statistics of my episodes and you know what the most popular episode is so far? The celery juice episode. I think it is titled Will Celery Juice Help My Thyroid. This tells me that you guys are looking for a quick fix. I get it. I would love a magic pill to just not have to take meds for the rest of my life and to not have to worry about overexercising to not put me in a state of fatigue for days. There is nothing magic about fixing this disease because it affects every system in your body. If you want to feel great, and who doesn’t, you will have to constantly be mindful of your diet and lifestyle choices. That part is simple- the mindful part because either you are mindful about what you put in your mouth and what time you go to bed or you are not. Simple. Do or do not, there is no try as Yoda says. It turns out you will always have to be mindful of leaky gut or intestinal permeability among other things.

Hashimoto’s can wreck your gut.

Remember that Hashimoto’s is an immune system problem causing hypothyroidism so your thyroid is NOT the problem. The problem is autoimmune flare ups that need to be managed. The problem is also that this disease can cause inflammation all through the body systems. Your immune system is not being regulated when hashimoto’s is active (you have antibodies) which means you can lose your gut barrier aka have leaky gut. It also affects the make up of your microbiome or the balance between the good and bad bacteria in your gut.

When there is inflammation due to a flare or high antibodies, and by the way, high antibodies can be 50 or 500 or 5000. It’s different for everyone and when there is inflammation, thyroid hormone won’t be converting. T4 won’t be converting to T3 so your cells can use the T3 or your thyroid receptor sites might not be responding well to T3.

I learned about a study from Dr. Kharrazian that showed that your thyroid hormones, T4 and T3, have a role in keeping your immune system working and bringing down inflammation.

Think about what that means for you if your meds are not optimized. Maybe your TSH is sitting at a 4 or 5 and your doctor doesn’t think you need hormone replacement for that or maybe you feel fine at a TSH of 5 and you don’t want to take medication. Well it turns out that this medication, if your body is in need of thyroid hormone (yet you feel fine without it) will help to regulate thyroid gland tissue destruction. All this to say that taking thyroid hormone replacement will calm down inflammation in your body caused by the autoimmunity.

This is why when you first go on meds you feel really good until you don’t! The thyroid hormone  replacement you are taking started the process of calming the immune attack and calming the inflammation but when you keep doing what you are doing, it isn’t enough to fix the whole problem.

This attack on your thyroid has created a lot of inflammation all over the body and created tons of free radicals and oxidative stress. Oxidative stress just means that your body’s natural abilities to deal with free radicals is overwhelmed so those free radicals are going around in the body and wreaking havoc. Oxidative stress causes damage in the body at the cellular level and remember that we need healthy cells to make a healthy body.

Thyroid hormone replacement helps to protect against those free radicals and oxidative stress causing damage to your cells. Of course anti-oxidant supplements or foods can help you with this but the best first line of defense in this case is to be sure your body has enough thyroid hormone to start with otherwise the anti-oxidant supplements and foods are a bandaid though eating anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant foods is never a bad idea.

One other thing that gets damaged when you have inflammation from poor thyroid hormone optimization is your gut. The gut lining is targeted by Hashimoto’s flares causing leaky gut and then leading to a host of problems including food sensitivities. So thyroid hormones can help in healing leaky gut. You can work on healing your gut all you want but if you need thyroid hormones and your body isn’t producing them or you are not taking them then it just causes this vicious cycle of damage and inflammation leading you to feel horrible.

Maybe you have been diagnosed and you are on thyroid hormone replacement but you have a doctor that doesn’t see the need to test your thyroid hormone levels yearly and you just keep taking the same dose for 3 or 4 years. It happens. So you might be in this subclinical hypothyroid place. Subclinical meaning your labs now look normal but there is autoimmune destruction happening that eventually causes need for more thyroid hormone.

Deficiency in thyroid hormones promotes more autoimmune destruction which produces less thyroid hormone and creates a terrible cycle of destruction in the body and one of the things destroyed or attacked is your gut lining. So now you have leaky gut which in and of itself can be a trigger for autoimmunity.

Here’s the thing though- we can’t just work on healing the gut. There is a whole host of things that need to be worked on and the gut and thyroid hormone replacement are just two of them. Healing the gut while there is a ton of inflammation happening just isn’t going to solve the problem. We have to work to get your inflammation down first with simple things like exercise, and lots of plant foods. These will increase your antioxidants naturally.

  I’ll post a list of antioxidant rich foods from the Institute of Functional Medicine along with the transcript to this episode on my website. As far as exercise goes, just start moving. If you are new to moving at all, check out my friend Andrea’s business called Autoimmune Strong. Her website is getautoimmunestrong.com  She starts at a very beginner level so you can get strong from the inside out.

The point is that we have to find your triggers- what is causing your flare ups, what is causing your antibodies to be higher. What is causing your inflammation? What is causing your immune system to be on fire?

The best places to start are diet and lifestyle which is kind of everything actually. We have to ask if there is something you are eating that is causing inflammation. How is your sleep? How are your relationships? How sedentary are you? Do you get outside? Do you have fun? All of these things matter to your health but to anyones health really.

Let’s get this figured out together. I’m taking new clients and can work with anyone from anywhere through my safe and secure health portal. Video chats are a nice time saver- you don’t have to take time from your day to travel to me. I can keep my services affordable because I don’t have an office to pay for.

What if you could stop sitting on the sidelines of your life and live more fully?

What if you could stop fatigue in its tracks and have more energy?

What if you had a plan to fix your Hashimoto’s?

What if you didn’t have to guess (and waste money) which supplements your body needed to help you move towards healing?

What if you had someone to help you who has been there, knows what it feels like and got out of the hole that is mismanaged hypothyroidism?

These are all things my clients get when they work with me.

Hand holding if you need it. An advocate. Someone who truly cares that you get better and knows how to help you.

I can help you feel better. Day by day.

Reach out today- HelpForHashimotos.com

One more thing before I go:

I try to always take a food first approach and I am happy to report that I can now offer you an Anti-inflammatory 3 day food plan to help you maximize your efforts to keep these cell damaging free radicals at bay. This plan is free on my website if you go to helpforhashimotos.com and click on the meal plans tab, then click just about anywhere on that page to be directed to the meal plan. You can sign up for a free trial to get the meal plan. No credit card required to do so. It’s totally free with no strings attached.

As always, thanks for being here. Thanks for tuning in. Thanks for sharing this with people you know looking for help with their hypothyroidism or other autoimmune conditions. Please leave me a rating and review on apple podcasts so more people can find the show and get help too. If you have not already, go get my new ebook The Definitive Guide to Hashimoto’s. When you sign up for my newsletter it will be delivered to your inbox.

Until next time! Love to you all.

How to manage Hashimoto's when you are a workaholic.

A listener writes in about her busy life and how to get help with fatigue, achiness, weight gain and menopause. 

Good Morning Stephanie,

Thank you very much for the ‘Guide’ and for all the information you provide.

I have a topic of interest that you may be able to address.

How to manage your Hashimoto’s when you are a workaholic.

Example: I have a full time job, Mon – Fri, 08:00 – 4:30

                            Part time job, Sat and/or Sun, 07:00a – 7:00p

                            Help husband with his job, about 10hrs week.

Plus all other items relating to running a home.

I don’t have kids but I do have 5 animals. I’m a fur mom. 😊

I usually only have 3, maybe 4 full days off a month.

And – no – scaling back on work is not an option at the moment.

All thyroid labs are good. Doctor says don’t worry about the Hashimoto’s. ☹

History of thyroid cancer, left side removed. Hashimoto’s, Chronic reactive Epstein Barr, risk for Rheumatoid arthritis, and…menopause, lol.

But still very tired, sore/achy, and weight gain after watching diet, trying to get exercise, and taking supplements.

So any insight you could give pertaining to this type of situation would be great.

I’m sure there are others in this same boat as I am.

Thank you again.

You’re wonderful.

Pam

Hi Pam,

Thanks for writing in. I really appreciate it.

Sounds like you have an extremely busy life and not sure how you power through with fatigue!

First thing I would say is, let’s have a look at your thyroid labs and see if they really are optimal. They may be optimal based on the lab values given but they may not be optimal based on what a healthy persons labs should look like.

Of course your doctor says don’t worry about the Hashimoto’s because standard of care in conventional medicine is not to treat it but to up your dose yearly as your thyroid tissue is destroyed. I’ve said that a million times on here so that is old news.

Next is to see if your medication is at the right dose and kind. Many people do fine on T4 only meds like Synthroid or Levothyroxine but a lot of people don’t. It’s clear you will need thyroid meds lifelong based on the fact that you are missing half your thyroid.

Chronic reactive EBV could very well be due to stress or overworking. In this case with the very busy life you have, some adaptogenic herbs might be called for. Potentially Rhodiola, Schisandra, Ashwagandha, Holy Basil or Maca. Don’t just go throwing these in your regime though. It really depends on what is going on and starting slow with one of these like Ashwagandha or Maca first, see how you feel after a couple weeks of taking it and then add in some others. You can order these through my dispensary at https://us.fullscript.com/welcome/hfh

When you have Hashimoto’s your risk for other autoimmune disease raises by about 30% so I will say, not slowing down a bit or at the very least making sure your diet is dialed in pretty much perfectly means your Rheumatoid Arthritis risk is probably higher than most.

Having a history of thyroid cancer is a big deal as well. Make sure you are having tumor markers tested regularly - I would guess this is being monitored but you never know. It should be if it isn’t.

I’m going to do an episode on cancer in general but to make sure your cancer does not come back into the other half of your thyroid OR appear somewhere else, there is a lot you can do in your diet and your lifestyle.

I want to say that I don’t think being busy is bad, especially if you are happy and you have good relationships, especially with your husband and those close to you. Sometimes this matters more than anything else. So if you feel great, have a sense of purpose and community and are truly happy, you are one step ahead of many people in your same situation healthwise.

It would be good to know what supplements you are taking. With cancer being in your past. L-glutamine is a popular supplement but there is some risk it might feed cancer so be aware of that.

Avoiding sugar as much as possible is a good idea - sugar is the main fuel for cancer cells. Your diet should be from the cleanest sources of food that you can afford. Here is where organic matters most. Lots and lots of fresh veggies, dark leafy greens, fermented foods such as sauerkraut and kimchi, bone broth, berries (keep other fruits to a minimum), locally raised organic meats if you can do it. I know this seems ridiculous given the cost of groceries but these are ideal for preventing a recurrence. I can provide meal plans and do so for my clients when they want them so that finding food to cook becomes much easier. Also, given your busy life, some non starchy carbs are probably needed daily to help maintain your energy.

You stated you are still very tired, sore/achy and dealing with weight gain and the most lovely menopause. The weight gain could be menopause related or it could be inflammation. It could be both. Hard to say without looking at your diet and some labs. Feeling very tired could be due to a need for T3 meds or an upping of your dose- again, those normal lab ranges may not be normal. Menopause can also cause joint pain.

If it is your joints that are sore and achy, this can be due to higher levels of inflammation and with menopause we lose some stability from decreased strength and tension in our tendons. If it is muscle soreness and aches then it could be a mitochondrial issue so we would need to look at what nutrients your body might be in need of.

A good fish oil may be in order for you and possibly a broad spectrum one that has omega 3,6,7 and 9. Designs For Health makes one called OmegAvail Synergy which again, you can get by going to us.fullscript.com/welcome/hfh which is my dispensary and gives you a 10% discount. Clients get 20% discount.

If you are not strictly gluten free, I would start with that and see if it improves any soreness you have. If not, try avoiding nightshades like tomato, potato, peppers, eggplant, etc. A quick google search of nightshade foods will help you find a whole list.

If none of this helps the soreness and aches then I would suggest and elimination diet.

You may also want to support your immune system. Looking for nutrient deficiencies is a good first step so that we can identify what your body needs. Things like vitamin A, C, D, or zinc. Maybe you need nutrients to support your mitochondria like B vitamins or maybe you are anemic? There might be more questions than answers here but it gives you something to think about. Here is also where being gluten free will be helpful along with figuring out if there are other food sensitivities. An elimination diet is the best way to know if you have a sensitivity as there is not one really good blood test for allergies or sensitivities.

You stated you are trying to get exercise. What does that look like? I imagine if you are fatigued that exercising is the last thing you want to do. When you have Hashimoto’s or any autoimmune disease, exercising can cause more fatigue if not done right. We have to not over do it. In your case, you might be working so much that exercise of any kind will send you over the edge. I would try for some restorative yoga if that is the case. It is the most amazing kind of yoga where you lie down in specific poses made to help restore your body and energy. And it is worth doing if you can do nothing else.

If you are doing a lot of sitting at your day job or the weekend job then I would make a plan to do some standing when you can. Get a standing desk to do some work at. Walk at lunch during a couple days a week. When you go to the store, park far away and walk from the back of the parking lot. Take the stairs when you can. All of this adds up and is a great first start to exercising when you can.

I hope this helps a bit. I can’t give specific details about what you should be taking as far as supplements go because that would be irresponsible.

Thanks for sending in your question. I love when you guys do that.

I created a new guide for you all called the definitive guide to Hashimoto’s which you can get by signing up for my newsletter. Use the pop up form on my website to be sure you get access. I am not sure the other sign ups on my site have it attached. If you sign up for my email list and it doesn’t show up, email me and I’ll send it to you!

Thanks so much for listening AND for tuning in! I am so so grateful to all of you.

Please share this with anyone you know who is dealing with Hashimoto’s and if you could be so kind to leave a rating and review, it helps more people find the podcast in the sea of millions of podcasts out there.

How to Fix Hashimoto's

Can you reverse Hashimoto’s?

Is it fixable?

I’ve talked about this before in episodes 52 and 55 but that was a long time ago for me so I am revisiting this topic again today.

I’ve said before that you will never not have Hashimoto’s so I don’t like the word remission. You can fix the reasons why you have it though.

If you are going to have any autoimmune disease, this is the one to have. It is one of the most common and probably the least destructive to your body and you can control how bad it gets once you know you have it. And if you manage it, your likelihood of having other autoimmune disease will be less.

The biggest problem with having hypothyroidism and Hashimoto’s or any thyroid issue really, is that the standard of care just completely sucks most of the time. Doctors often don’t listen, you can’t try a different medication because they won’t prescribe it and you are often told your labs are fine when you feel horrible.

I was perusing a thyroid facebook group that I could access without having a facebook account. If you are on those groups- get off them. I find zero people who are interested in fixing their problems and are just there to agree with everyone else how terrible this disease is.

I’m here to tell you it is terrible if you let it be and it is manageable if you want to manage it. And this is where I come in because I can help you figure out just what you need to do to manage it.

In order to lower your antibodies which is really what remission would be there are several things that need to be considered.

1. You have to remember that Hashimoto’s is first and immune system problem. What does this mean exactly?   Autoimmune disease occurs when the immune system attacks your own tissue.  When immune cells called B cells and T cells are made in bone marrow and they are specific to self tissue, they will destroy themselves.  It is said that some of these cells escape. There are some more complicated biochemistry things that happen that I won’t go into that lead to how things go wrong with this.  One of them is what is called the bystander effect where the immune system is attacking a foreign thing and our tissue gets attacked too. The other is molecular mimicry where a tissue looks like a foreign thing and the body attacks the tissue by mistake.  It is also thought that mental and/or emotional stress can be a trigger for the immune system attacking our tissue and neither the bystander effect or molecular mimicry have to be at play.

1. classic example of this is from my own life when I had an extremely stressful pregnancy and lost my baby in a thyroid storm. I had so much stress and worry and anxiety for a lot of reasons in that pregnancy and I didn’t know how to manage my emotions. I didn’t have to tools to deal with stress and I didn’t have a partner who had the tools to deal with my stress. It was a really terrible situation that resulted in tragedy. Not managing stress and having high cortisol just screws up your immune system.

2. we know a major cause of autoimmunity is genetics plus some kind of trigger like infections, toxin exposure, stressor, plus leaky gut

1. functional medicine tools are really helpful in figuring out triggers and figuring out the root cause of your hashimoto’s. We look at predisposing factors like genes, environment; triggers that caused the symptoms as just mentioned; mediators that will maintain the disease like nutrient deficiencies, cycles of inflammation in the body.

2. we further dig into lifestyle habits that can be changed, look at whether you can assimilate the nutrients you are taking in. Do you have floating stools? low iron? Do you have high CRP, Ferritin, or low albumin? Do you have poor exercise tolerance? Are you sensitive to jewelry, perfumes, air fresheners? Do you have issues with rashes? What about fear, anxiety around your thyroid condition? Really doing a deep dive with these things is super helpful to figure out where to start with YOUR condition. This is why there is no specific Hashimoto’s Protocol that is going to work for everyone because not everyone has the same triggers, predisposing factors, or mediators.

2. Second we need to consider gluten sensitivity. There is a clear association between autoimmune thyroid disease and sensitivity to gluten, unfortunately. This is an easy first step that seems overwhelming and hard to do. It’s not that hard. Take it one day at a time, one meal at a time even. I can put together simple meal plans with shopping lists for you to follow and I have a guide for by clients on how to easily go gluten free. Consider also gluten cross reactivity. Things like dairy, yeast, oats, corn, rice, millet and instant coffee all have been shown to cross react with gluten. This just means the proteins in these are similar enough to gluten that they might cause the same issues for you as gluten when you eat them.

3. We also have to consider if you have any infections. There’s a ton of bugs causing infections associated with Hashimoto’s. Do you have an infection? Good way to know is to start with a CBC with differential that I read for you. It is also helpful to know if you are lacking in the fat soluble vitamins A,D,E,K. If you have infections, it can be remediated pretty easily.

4. Is there inflammation? If your antibodies are high then you have inflammation somewhere in your body. Inflammation can be from poor diet, infection, toxins, trauma. We can stop inflammation by avoiding those triggers mentioned earlier and choosing a healthier lifestyle and diet.

5. Do you have blood sugar regulation issues or insulin resistance? This is common in PCOS and there is a connection between it and Hashimoto’s.

6. Do you have leaky gut or intestinal permeability? This is when molecules from inside the GI tract move across the lining of the gut or the gut wall through tiny openings. Leaky gut greatly contributes to the immune system attacking our tissue. If you have food intolerances other than gluten, migraines, gallstones, chronic fatigue syndrome or an autoimmune condition then you likely have some form of leaky gut. And if you have an autoimmune disease, you likely have to manage leaky gut long term meaning- every so often do a protocol to heal leaky gut. This can be lab tested but is expensive so I start with how you present clinically (inflammation, food sensitivity etc). Do you drink alcohol? Take corticosteroids? Have excessive stress or eat a lot of sugar? Other triggers for leaky gut are things like the standard american diet, an imbalance of gut bacteria, medications, and toxins.

7. What are your other hormones doing? Cortisol, DHEA, testosterone, progesterone, estradiol. If these are out of whack, your thyroid will be affected at some point. A common time for onset of Hashimoto’s is during pregnancy and postpartum. If you already have Hashimoto’s are want to get pregnant- it typically doesn’t get worse in pregnancy though it seems my stillbirth might be the exception to the rule. It also could have been that my doctor took me off my medication and that is why my baby died. I will never know and can’t dwell on it. That is not a good place to live- the wondering why.

8. Emotional Health- stress. Remember that I said stress was a trigger in me losing my baby. Stress increases our susceptibility to infectious disease (think colds, flu, etc), seasonal allergies, bacterial and yeast imbalances, poor sleep, leaky gut, decreased oral tolerance and more. Something as simple as listening to classical music has been shown to reduce hives. So we need to have an outlet to our frustrations and stressors. Hobbies, a sense of control, change the way we interpret stress and most importantly a sense of community and social connectedness. In person- not online. Something we all have been lacking in. I have been listening to The Life Coach School Podcast while I work out. It has been really insightful so far! Controlled breathing is also quite helpful- you can learn from a yoga practice, meditation apps, Wim Hoff method or whatever floats your boat. The relaxation response is very powerful in its ability to regulate gene expression, metabolism, insulin secretion. We all need to work on practicing that more. I definitely do.

9. What about toxin exposure. We are exposed to chemicals every day and they accumulate in our fat tissue so the older we are the more toxins we have in our fat. There are many negative health consequences to toxins including consequences to our hormones and thyroid. Teaching you how to minimize your exposure to toxins and safely eliminating them as you lose weight is part of working with me. Fasting, juice fasting, water fasting and other ways of fasting may make your toxicity worse rather than better. Ways to know if you are dealing with over exposure to toxins are:

1. taking a lot of medications

2. being sensitive to odors

3. having used or been around toxic chemicals or potentially toxic chemicals over a period of time.

4. muscle pain

5. brain fog, poor memory, other cognitive issues

6. numbness on one side of the body

7. symptoms of autonomic dysfunction such as dizziness, fainting when standing, problems urinating, loss of bladder control - this sounds like a drug commerical - and I think you would have to be quite toxic to present with this though I could be wrong.

8. medications, supplements that cause the opposite of intended response or cause a sensitivity

10. 10.Other things to consider

1. sleep- are you sleeping 7-8 hours per night and is it good quality sleep. Until I started sleeping well- I was a complete disaster. I had to move out of my own bedroom because my husband snores so loud and he sometimes chokes in the night and then punches the bed or wall - not conducive to good sleep. He did a sleep study and they said he might have mild sleep apnea. He tells me I’m a light sleeper and minimizes the punching because it only happens every once in awhile. Imagine being sound asleep and all the sudden, there is a fist near your head or you hear it hit the wall. That will cause a cortisol response and probably keep you from falling asleep for a couple hours. While separate rooms to sleep in has not been good for marriage, it has been great for my health and my happiness. If I don’t get good sleep, I am a disaster. Emotionally and physically. It is like I can’t function. If you do nothing else, make good sleep a priority!

2. Liver function is another thing to consider but a complete blood count should cover that. Your liver needs to be healthy to convert T4 to T3 so your cells can use T3. You also need it to make healthy bile so you can remove toxins via your bowel movements.

I want to discuss a few other things too.

Understand what health professionals don’t know - any health professional.

Chances are they are not well versed in autoimmune diseases, especially when it comes to how to manage them with diet and lifestyle (and some people will need medications)- in both holistic and conventional practices, diagnosing AID can be challenging taking many years to do. Some will tell you it is hopeless, some will tell you you can just change it with a few supplements and a diet change.

It is complicated and very dependent upon your own body’s biochemistry.

Conventional and holistic medicine provides little Medical Education around autoimmune disease. My own masters program had a class specific to autoimmune disease and it provided me with little direction on how to work with individuals with AID- I already knew most of what was taught.

Many tissues in the body can be affected so it isn’t super easy to understand. Your practitioner should not take on the idea that when they have a hammer everything is a nail. There is no general protocol for your condition. You don’t get better and then you get frustrated- I have been there!

Do you have your own bias? If you feel food might be bad but you don’t want to try a gluten free diet so you find a practitioner who agrees with you- you are letting your bias determine the management of your disease- we all have some bias but don’t let it gauge your direction

Take charge of your own health- you know how this impacts your body and your life- if you are looking for someone to tell you how to live, what to eat, etc then you won’t get better. You have to be the one in control of your health. Only you know how you truly feel, only you know if a supplement is working ( you should feel something when you take most supplements designed to help a condition)

• how are you going to monitor your condition?

• lab tests

• questionnaires

• journaling

• are you going to be active or passive in your own health care

• How are you going to build your healthcare team?

• nutritionist

• doctor

• trainer

• build a team of trusted professionals who can help support you - every AID is different and each one has individualized expression of each disease - 10 people with MS or Hashi’s won’t present the same way because each has different triggers and ways the disease expresses itself

This is a lot to think about and probably a little overwhelming. Bottom line is you can fix the reasons why you got Hashimoto’s but you will always have to manage it. Stay off those depressing thyroid facebook groups and start thinking about how you can start feeling better now! You don’t have to feel crappy all the time. You can have more energy, lose weight, and get your life back and I can help you do it.

Thanks for tuning in.

Go to Help for Hashimoto’s dot com to get my guide “5 things your doctor won’t tell you about hypothyroidism” and schedule your Fight Fatigue discovery call so you can start to feel better sooner rather than later.

I appreciate you all!

Losing weight after menopause

Hello

I just started listening to your podcast and love it! I heard you mention menopause and how you gained weight and lost it. I would love to hear you elaborate on this subject. Menopause and Hashimotos and weight gain and what to do. I feel desperate with trying to lose and so many different ideas out there from intermittent fasting to keto and I don’t know what to focus on that will work. Please consider doing a podcast show about this.

Thank you

Beth Axxxxxxxx

Thanks for this question Beth.

Weight loss in menopause while also having Hashimoto’s can be a bit challenging. There are a lot of things to consider.

It’s not about calories in and calories out. Calories do matter and what kind of calories you are eating matter but what matters more is what is gong on in your body hormonally.

If you are struggling with weight loss, you could be dealing with a hormonal imbalance of some kind. Maybe your thyroid medication isn’t optimized well. Maybe some other hormone is off, like cortisol, insulin and/or leptin.

Maybe you have estrogen dominance or low testosterone. These things will determine how fat you get from the calories you do consume.

Most of the time the weight loss struggle, when not thyroid hormones, might be an issue of cortisol. When cortisol is high over a period of time it can create lower levels of serotonin affecting mood (depression), keep you from sleeping well (increasing sugar cravings) and can cause you to store fat.

Too much cortisol can create that dreaded muffin top and this needs to be fixed before much of anything else can be taken care of. Higher cortisol can give you that wired but tired feeling, make you quick to anger and make you feel irritable. It also is a cause of fat gain. I spent years like this though the weight gain in my late 30’s and all of my 40’s was really minimal because I was still cycling so estrogen was helping to keep me thinner.

When dealing with low cortisol you can get tired easily or have poor stamina and low cortisol can cause you to look at things in more negative ways, you might find you get sick more often, and of course it contributes to thyroid dysfunction.

Cortisol is 100% related to stress and how you react to it which will sabotage your fat loss. When high, cortisol increases blood sugar which leads to higher insulin levels which can increase fat storage.

Remember stress can be mental/emotional, strained finances, toxic relationships, infections, poor or little sleep (even shift work), food allergies/sensitivities and over exercise.

Bottom line, working to lower stress and manage cortisol will help reduce body fat.

When cortisol is high it will also decrease conversion of T4 to T3 which causes a slowed metabolism which will probably lead to fat gain.

I mentioned leptin before. This hormone tells your body when you are full so if leptin is blocked, you don’t get the full signal and you may end up eating more calories than you need/want leading to poor blood sugar regulation, higher insulin, and fat storage.

Gut health is also important. Many of you know a large percentage of your immune system lies in your gut aka GI tract aka intestines. If your gut is unhealthy, so are you, and this includes your ability to lose fat.

GI dysfunction very simply can look like gas, bloating, undigested food in your stools, terrible smelling gas, constipation and/or diarrhea, bad breath, nausea.

If the bacteria in your gut are out of balance, this can affect the conversion of thyroid hormone from T4 to T3, slowing metabolism. It can also affect the body’s ability to excrete estrogen creating a recycling of the hormone and cause you to gain fat.

If you are not properly breaking down the foods you are eating then you are not absorbing nutrients either. You need adequate protein to be digested and absorbed in order to make neurotransmitters, repair tissues and build a healthy immune system. If you have poor digestion this can lead to anemia which causes muscles to fatigue easily and can make it difficult to exercise and will decrease your ability to lose fat.

Inflammation in the GI tract can cause a stress response in the body which will increase cortisol production which can cause immune system problems in the gut itself leaving you susceptible to infections which will cause more inflammation and more cortisol leaving your body in a cycle of inflammation.

Eating foods you are sensitive to can cause a stress response in the body leading to release of cortisol and, you guessed it, fat storage.

Now you all know that when your thyroid is sluggish it means difficulty losing weight and easy gain of weight. All the stuff I’ve talked about can affect thyroid function and poor thyroid function which can include being on medication that isn’t fully supporting optimal function can affect all the stuff I’ve already discussed.

Sex hormones like estrogen and progesterone, when out of balance, will definitely cause you to hold on to fat as well. These hormones impact your ability to feel emotionally well, have will power and have any kind of motivation. In order for your sex hormones to be in balance, you have to have balanced blood sugar, balanced adrenals, and a healthy GI tract. If your testosterone levels are high you will have trouble losing fat. In addition, if you are dealing with any kind of toxicity at all from xenoestrogens, fat loss will be difficult.

All of this needs to be corrected before fat loss happens and fat loss should not happen if you are not reasonably healthy because you don’t want to be losing fat tissue which will mobilize toxins from that fat tissue and if you are not eliminating them, they will redistribute in other tissue. Not good.

Think if you have some of this stuff going on and then you hit menopause. Our estradiol is lower in menopause and estradiol helps us be more sensitive to insulin. So now we are at higher risk for insulin resistance.

Insulin resistance means your blood sugar levels could be normal but you might have too much insulin in your blood. High insulin with no where to go means fat storage. This means that for some of you for the first time in your life, what you eat will greatly effect your weight. Sugar and anything that converts to sugar will be a problem for you in excess. This means less dessert, less treats, avoiding sugary drinks and for some of us it might mean quitting these things altogether. It just depends on how important getting rid of the belly fat is to you. And it isn’t forever. Just long enough to give your body a minute to get insulin levels regulated and then you can figure out what you can enjoy and how much of it. It’s called finding your carb tolerance. This doesn’t mean you need to go low carb either because that is a problem for hashimoto’s but you might need to reduce the amount of bread, white potatoes and rice until you get things regulated. This is something I can help you with and I recommend having some labs done to see just where your biggest problems lie with this. There are some extra markers you should ask your doctor for but before you do, I recommend meeting with me to figure out what might be going on, then you can go to your doctor and get your labs done with what ever add ons I think you need.

Now, a topic all on its own is detoxification and I’m giving a talk at an online summit in January. Sign up for my newsletter at outofthewoodsnutrition.com for info in that in the coming weeks. There is a fair amount of research tying pesticides to fat gain and to poor liver health. Some in the scientific community suggest that our body creates more fat to handle the load of toxins we get exposed to. I have a couple of different questionnaires you can take to asses your toxin level when you work with me. It is the best and cheapest way to determine toxic burden because most testing is not reliable.

There is an immune system marker called Interleukin-6 or IL-6 and when that is increased due to inflammation of some kind, it can make it difficult to lose weight and keep it off and it may be a trigger for fat gain. Fat tissue is now considered to be an organ in the endocrine system and it likely causes inflammation while inflammation causes us to store body fat. Another vicious cycle.

Decreasing inflammation through diet is a great first step in beginning to lose fat. Cutting sugar, processed foods and eating real whole foods is important. If you need meal plans, I can help you with that. If you are a client in my 6 month package, you get meal plans for free. If you just want a meal plan consult, we can work something out.

All of this is tied to your brain health which I won’t go into detail here but what’s going on in your brain physiology impacts sex hormones, thyroid hormone, neurotransmitters like dopamine, serotonin, GABA and more.

Dopamine helps to keep our metabolism going and when we have low dopamine we have low energy and the worst part- sugar and junk food binges. Don’t let anyone tell you this is about will power. They can seriously suck it if they do. If you are low on GABA, it can also cause cravings for fat and carbs. This is not to say you should supplement with GABA because you can do that but that won’t fix why you are low on it in the first place.

I’m not about bandaids for problems unless they are needed to get your body on the right track while we figure out what problems you are dealing with.

Most of this info really applies to anyone but this question was about dealing with menopause. I went in early. I think I was 46 or 47. Either way I was super happy to not have a period anymore because my periods were horrible my whole entire life. I’m reading a book about hypothyroidism that was written at least 40 years ago and thinking back on my childhood and my first periods- I had so so many signs that my thyroid might not be functioning well all the way back to 13 years old. Sometimes this makes me so mad because I feel like a huge part of my life was just subpar. It’s really why I worked so hard to get my masters and my nutritionist license. I have so much to offer you guys in the way of experience and knowledge around these topics so that you don’t have to suffer like I did. It’s the only way I can not just sit and wallow in losing so many years of well being. I’m so glad I woke up and fought for better health. Some days are still a struggle but those are fewer and farther in between as long as I manage my stress and diet. In all honesty, I’ve gone off the rails a bit with my diet. Sometimes eating super healthy all the time just gets old. And, I’m paying for it a bit. My digestion sucks right now and today my energy level is in the tank but I think that is mostly due to getting up too early, working out too hard and a couple crappy things in my personal life.

I really need to start meditating and journaling again. I have a locked document on my computer where I write out things I would never say out loud or want anyone else to read. It’s where I get all the anger off my chest and just let it go. I highly recommend it for a release, especially if you don’t have anyone you can talk to regularly or you don’t want to always be complaining about certain people.

Anyway, back to menopause. As I said, I was around 46 when it hit for me. The average age is around 51. And let me just tell you- life is not over once you hit menopause. Before you hit it though, you might be having some crazy symptoms- even if you are fit and your diet is dialed.

Anxiety, racing thoughts, heart palpitations, hot flashes, insomnia, depression and so on. You can even have these symptoms in your thirties if your body is going to go into early menopause. If you are fit, these may be milder than someone who isn’t but very few of us make it through perimenopause without some symptoms. Peri-menopause occurs because your hormones, estrogen and progesterone, are all over the place.

Abdominal fat gain in menopause is real and so is loss of lean muscle. This is due to decreased sensitivity to insulin as I mentioned earlier. Your blood sugar is likely higher and there is likely some insulin resistance which lead to fat storage.

Any high cortisol, again, also leads to fat storage. We also become less able to build muscle and you are losing bone mineral density. It becomes pretty imperative at this stage in life to start exercising if you don’t already, and lifting weights is the most beneficial.

Let’s talk estrogen, specifically estradiol or E2. This form of estrogen declines in menopause. It promotes muscle growth and muscle strength- you need to lift heavy weights to make up for loss of estradiol.

You have to watch inflammation and blood sugar too. When estradiol declines but estrone or E1 might be a little higher and progesterone is low, it can cause sore joints.

The average weight gain in menopause is 5-8 pounds. As I mentioned before it was 28 pounds over a couple of years for me. It didn’t help I was mostly sedentary for 2 ½ years sitting at my desk doing homework and not changing how I ate much at all. In fact, I probably ate more sugar and crap due to stress in school which contributed to my weight gain. The change in estrogen levels and cortisol make us gain fat in our stomach which puts us at higher risk for heart disease. If your fat is in your thighs however, you are less likely to be at risk for heart disease.

Exercise and a dialed diet are going to be key to fat loss in menopause. I’m not a trainer so I can’t speak well to exercise but Stacy Sims in her book Next Level recommends sprint interval training for fat loss along with lifting heavy.

Her book gives you plenty of ideas on what kinds of exercise you can do but if you are new to exercising, buy the book and ask a trainer to help you work out based on the principles in the book.

It might take you some time to find a trainer willing to do it- I hired a guy who agreed to read my copy of Next Level and he never did. He told me he knew enough that he didn’t need to after he had the book for a few months.

Then, when I got it back it looked like he spilled water or something all over it. I was slightly annoyed over the whole situation- also I didn’t speak up for myself- still a work in progress there!

Alright- so sprint training and lifting heavy. I use an airdyne bike at my gym and do 8 rounds of 20 seconds high intensity and then 10 seconds off. I also lift heavy using a program from the book Hangry by Sara Fragoso and Dr. Brook Kalinak. I’ve definitely gained muscle and lost some fat but the biggest change has been body composition. My thighs are smaller and the dimples on my behind are getting smaller.

This has been two years in the making for me. In order for this to be sustainable and enjoyable I go to the gym 3 days a week and I foam roll, warm up, lift heavy, sprint and then stretch. I hate working out but after 2 years, it feels good to go. I feel stronger and more confident and the weight is coming off slowly which in my opinion is the only way to do it.

I’ve been more mindful of what I eat but that needs to get more dialed in as well. Like I said, I’m kind of off the wagon which for me just means eating more gluten free bread and too many nuts. I’ve also cut back on chocolate and rarely drink coffee.

By the way, lifting heavy as defined by Stacy Sims is lifting six reps or less of the most weight you can of things like deadlifts, chest press and squats. Get the book, read the book and then find someone to help you write a program from the recommendations in the book. Don’t try to figure it out on your own unless you are well versed in the gym already.

Doing this will help increase your metabolism, help you lose fat, improve your stability so you don’t fall and break a hip and improve your body composition.

Let’s talk diets.

If you are exercising, it will be super important to fuel yourself before you exercise otherwise your body will be stressed which messes with your muscle gain and fat loss. Eat a little protein and a carb like banana and nut butter, toast and nut butter, or something like that.

I tend to forget to do a carb in the morning but I do cold brew and protein powder before I go to the gym and I eat as soon as I get home. Sims states in her book that women specifically need to eat within 30 minutes of a workout in order to build muscle and keep our body from further breaking muscle down.

If you don’t eat right after your workout, your body is in a stressed place, blood sugar is likely high and you are more likely to store body fat. So working out while intermittent fasting is a big big no no. Eat some protein- whey protein is ideal, animal protein is also good. Chicken, eggs, nuts, fish, greek yogurt, cottage cheese. Any of these before or after are good.

Then do your best to get around 100 grams of protein per day or around 30 per meal.

If you google Stacy Sims and Intermittent fasting you will find a good article on why you should not do it. A very brief summary of why you shouldn’t intermittent fast or the ketogenic diet is because both of these diets mess with a neuropeptide called kisspeptin which, when it is disrupted will make our brain think we are deficient in nutrients, especially carbs leading to increased appetite and increases insulin resistance which leads to fat storage.

Fasting and exercising leads to higher cortisol which leads to fat storage. Short term, the keto diet might be great- long term it can mess up your endocrine system and increase fat gain. The article is called Yes! You are an athlete. No! You shouldn’t practice intermittent fasting. It’s a quick read and pretty easy to understand.

Bottom line- no to dieting, yes to exercising. Yes to figuring out your carb tolerance. Yes to looking at your blood work. Yes to joining me for 6 months every other week to help you get and stay on track with all of this. If you are sick and tired of being sick and tired. If fatigue is winning at keeping you on the sidelines of life more than you are winning at having the life you really want, then we need to talk.

You can schedule a discovery call at outofthewoodsnutrition.com under the work with me tab. Let’s see if we are a good fit. I know I can help you get your life back! Let’s do this together! I am compassionate and I have a real passion for helping people just like you get rid of their fatigue!

If you haven’t signed up for my newsletter you can do so on my website as well and get 5 things your doctor won’t tell you about hypothyroidism. I send out recipes almost every week in my emails.

Thanks to Beth for sending in this question. I love when you guys do that. If you have a question, please email me at stephanie@outofthewoodsnutrition.com or fill out the contact form on my website. It’s so much more fun to answer your questions than come up with content or guess at what you might be interested in.

Thanks for tuning in. Until next time.

Is Intermittent Fasting Good For Hypothyroidism?

Hi Stephanie, 

Hope this email finds you well 

This last email of yours got me thinking about how now a days everyone is promoting intermittent fasting, 16 hours or more of fasting, very early dinner and late breakfast or skipping breakfast to have lunch directly. 

I want to know what’s your take on this.  

Thank you for all the content you publish and all the effort you put into giving us updated information. 

Have a great  thanksgiving. 

Kindest regards,

Lucia 

A quick primer on what IF is. It is in the category of time restricted feeding, alternate day fasting, and just plain fasting. This just means that you eat your allotted calories for the day within a specific time frame or eating window. This can be four hours, eight hours, 12 hours- basically whatever you choose as long as you eat within that window.

The idea behind this is that restricting your eating window to a specific timeline causes your body to burn fat and it is said to be good for you, your cells, etc.

The caveat here, and this is the case with most research done on humans, is that the subjects of the research or more often than not, men. A woman's biochemistry and physiology is not the same as a mans so the research cannot always translate to what women should or could be doing for better health.

The second issue is that research on intermittent fasting and the benefits of it, is often done on obese and overweight subjects. Almost any dietary changes made to this category of people will indeed show that it can be helpful in improving health outcomes. Men, especially do fairly well on an intermittent fasting diet with improvements in fat loss, blood sugar and insulin levels. Women, however, show no improvements in blood sugar or insulin levels in some studies, according to researcher Dr. Stacy Sims.

Most review articles on intermittent fasting have looked at things like body weight, waist size, blood pressure, heart rate, blood sugar, cholesterol levels, etc.  There is little research on the effects that IF might have on circadian rhythms of hormones, including thyroid hormones.

A lot of studies of any kind are first done in a petri dish or in animals, usually rats. Sometimes this is all that is done, usually because it would be unethical to do certain research on humans.  These types of studies don’t always translate well to humans. It is something that should be in the back of your mind when you hear things like “Research shows that xyz…”. Always have that critical thinking hat on.

That said, in rat studies, 24 hour fasts lower blood levels of T3, thyrotropin releasing hormone and TSH. In humans, T3 falls pretty fast after a fast. A 3½ day fast in healthy people showed T3 and TSH both dropped within the first two days of the fast. Another study showed T3 dropping by half in 24 hours while TSH remained stable. This is significant for anyone who’s thyroid condition is not already properly managed. And, I’m not sure how long these studies were for. What’s to say that after a year doing this you might also see significant issues with TSH levels. This is the problem. We don’t know because as far as research studies are concerned, thyroid problems are well managed with levothyroxine.

For people doing alternate day fasts from 4 weeks to 6 months long, the amount of T3 in blood was lowered while TSH, again remained the same. Another study showed eight weeks of time restricted feedings for just 8 hours also caused low T3 and normal TSH.

One study in this review showed 6 months of alternate day fasting showed no effects on FT4 or TSH in those with subclinical hypothyroidism. For those that need a reminder, this is when you might be feeling like crap but your thyroid levels don’t present out of the standard lab range so they do nothing for you. This is also when working with a nutritionist is important. Another study though, showed that fasting during Ramadan caused subjects on thyroid meds to need their dose to be raised.

This information is from a review which is referenced on my website with the transcript of this episode in case you want to have a look for yourself. I did not look at the studies mentioned in this review at all. I’m just summarizing what the paper states. If I had a guess, I’d say the studies were not done on women for the most part.

In addition, according to Dr. Sims, intermittent fasting caused more oxidative stress in female subjects where the opposite was true for male subjects. It also slowed production of thyroid hormone and slowed metabolism. Slow thyroid and slow metabolism go hand in hand.

This is a problem for women because when we fast, our body hangs on to fat or tries to hang on to it by slowing things like thyroid and metabolism down. If you exercise and fast together, it makes this even worse. If you are overweight and sedentary, you may see a benefit for awhile at least on the outside but you could be really f-ing things up physiologically.

Same thing applies to the ketogenic diet, another very popular option for weight loss. According to Sims, women’s bodies use carbs to startt hefat burning process and women tend to already be physiologically set to burn fat for fuel but needs those carbs to get things going. She states in her book, Next Level, that the keto diet, even in the short term, may negatively affect bone health meaning causing bone loss which is not a good thing for those of us in post menopause. It might also mess with hunger signals making you feel more hungry and store more fat (another problem for menopause because our satiety signals are not as strong and we hang on to fat much easier). It can also increase cortisol levels which is closely tied to how well your thyroid works.

I hope you found this info helpful. The moral of the story here is not to jump on the latest and greatest health or diet bandwagon. Quick fixes are not long term fixes and they are not a magic pill. The best, most sustainable way to help your chronic health, your thyroid condition, is to make changes you can stick with for the rest of your life. That is what I am here for. You can schedule a discovery call on my website helpforhashimotos.com and we can chat and see if we are a good fit. You can also sign up for my newsletter and get Five Things Your Doctor Won’t Tell You About Hypothyroidism. I’ve been doing a series on mindful eating every Friday in my newsletter as well as a weekly recipe. I respect your inbox and strive to provide you with quality content.

Have a great week!

Welton S, Minty R, O'Driscoll T, Willms H, Poirier D, Madden S, Kelly L. Intermittent fasting and weight loss: Systematic review. Can Fam Physician. 2020 Feb;66(2):117-125. PMID: 32060194; PMCID: PMC7021351.

Kim BH, Joo Y, Kim MS, Choe HK, Tong Q, Kwon O. Effects of Intermittent Fasting on the Circulating Levels and Circadian Rhythms of Hormones. Endocrinol Metab (Seoul). 2021 Aug;36(4):745-756. doi: 10.3803/EnM.2021.405. Epub 2021 Aug 27. PMID: 34474513; PMCID: PMC8419605.

Why balanced blood sugar matters for thyroid health.

Every organ or gland in the body uses sugar (glucose) for energy production. If you don’t have glucose getting into your cells, you will suffer with low energy. Low energy for your cells but also low energy for you. If your cells can’t be fueled, that will definitely affect your overall energy levels.

If you have low blood sugar, either from not eating enough or from being on a blood sugar roller coaster with the dips of low blood sugar, then your thyroid will not have enough energy to do its job creating a sluggish thyroid.

If you are dealing with insulin resistance at all, (and many people are and don’t realize it) which is when your cells are resistant to the insulin trying to bring in glucose for energy use because there is too much glucose in the blood, then your thyroid will suffer. This is because it too will not be getting the glucose it needs for it to work properly.

In addition, having regularly high blood sugar causes damage to the lining of your blood vessels, your organs, your brain, and causes you to store fat.

High blood sugar causes inflammation throughout the body, including your thyroid so it can’t get all the nutrients it needs to produce thyroid hormones. This will lead to an increased TSH but it might not be high enough for your doctor to say, ‘Oh, you have hypothyroidism’. That said, you also might not need medication for a situation where your blood sugar is affecting your thyroid. You can make some diet and lifestyle changes and get things working better and then retest your thyroid labs. If they get better, then you know what you were doing is right.

Aside from diet, the things that can contribute to blood sugar imbalances are poor sleep. Even just one night of poor sleep can cause short term insulin resistance including in otherwise healthy people. I think of all the nights I slept poorly because my husband snored so loud that I was awake much of the night and if it wasn’t him waking me up, I was waking up because my blood sugar was so low in the night that my body used cortisol to raise it and that cortisol caused me to wake with a start and a racing heart.

Sometimes it still happens to me although very rarely and when it does there is some kind of dream involved that creates the racing heart to wake me up. Only now I can fall asleep pretty quickly rather than when my kids were younger and I was up half the night because of either the snoring or low blood sugar or a combo of the two. My poor kids. They took the brunt of my awful moods due to lack of sleep. Thankfully they have forgiven me and we have pretty good relationships. My life was a huge mess for years because of blood sugar. I don’t want that for you.

When you don’t sleep well, you get no growth or repair which is what is supposed to happen while you are sleeping. This is when your body fixes itself. With blood sugar problems like insulin resistance, you are dealing with a vicious cycle when you are not sleeping.

Stress is another issue related to blood sugar imbalances and poor thyroid function. I feel like a broken record because stress is huge. Again, emotional stress, physical stress, environmental stress. All of it is a problem if it is chronic. Cortisol is a stress hormone. When it rises temporarily, it triggers the liver to make glucose and it can even cause a breakdown of muscle tissue and there is some storage of fat.

If you have chronic stress in your life for whatever reason- it may not be in your control but it will affect you. Your brain senses stress, the pituitary gland sends a signal to the hypothalamus to tell the adrenal glands to secrete cortisol to manage the stress. The pituitary and the hypothalamus are also involved in thyroid hormone secretion. Do you think if the brain is dealing with stress, it can tell the thyroid to release just the right amount of hormones? The adrenals and the thyroid gland are very closely tied together when it comes to function and dysfunction. Very important that the adrenals are not having to deal with chronic stress whether it is from external sources or from imbalanced blood sugar.

When you eat in relationship to when you go to sleep is also very important as well as when you eat in relationship to exercise.

Eating right before bed, especially something that will spike your blood sugar which can raise cortisol which will then inhibit growth hormone (for repairing tissue while you sleep).

If you are not eating protein right away in the morning then your body will take it from your muscle. Protein in the morning is important for stable blood sugar all day long. This is a big deal as we age too because the older we get the easier it is to lose protein. Lifting weights is super helpful, especially as women enter menopause.

How many meals are you eating in a day? Not even meals though, it could just be a problem if you are a chronic snacker. Every time you eat, insulin is released. If you are eating/snacking every hour or two, you are releasing insulin. If you are insulin resistant, that glucose can be stored as fat. Your body needs a break in between meals to burn fat.

A lot of practitioners will tell you to eat 4-5 smaller meals throughout the day to deal with blood sugar imbalances. This is not necessarily helpful. It really depends on what is going on with you and what your blood chemistry says. There are a few different reasons why your blood sugar might be out of whack. Let’s figure that out so we know how to deal with it.

So you have all this imbalanced blood sugar, maybe insulin resistance. This has caused inflammation in the body. You are stressed which can also cause inflammation. Your diet is poor because you are stressed which can also cause inflammation. See how this works?

All of this can lead to gut issues like leaky gut aka intestinal permeability which can lead to food sensitivities and more inflammation and can also create the perfect storm for Hashimoto’s to occur.

Let’s review this quickly.

Blood sugar goes up, it can’t get into the cells because of insulin resistance. Your body senses that the sugar is still in the blood so it raises insulin even more. This leads to glucose to be stored as fat. In addition, when the blood sugar is reduced because of insulin you can get those crashes of low blood sugar which triggers cortisol to try to bring your blood sugar back up but the adrenals release too much which brings your blood sugar up too high and the cycle starts over.

It is vicious.

If you have leaky gut, we need to fix that, figure out what is causing it and fix that inflammation in the body.

You can get a glucose monitor relatively cheap. The strips for it are the expensive part but if you want to really see what foods set off your blood sugar, a glucose monitor is a good tool. You can even do a continuous glucose monitor that you hook up to your phone so it is monitored all the time. You will be able to see some really good trends in how your body responds to sugar. Normal blood sugar hovers around 80-90, 80-100 depending on who you talk to. If your blood sugar is higher than that first thing in the morning, then you have a bit of a problem with insulin resistance. There are other tests that are helpful for looking at blood sugar as well and when you work with a practitioner like myself, they can be good tools to see what kind of blood sugar problems you are having. You can be insulin resistant and depending on what your labs say will determine how you fix it. Even blood sugar issues are not once size fits all.

Other things to consider when looking at your blood sugar dysregulation:

1. Cortisol - is it low? I’m not talking about Adrenal Fatigue because that doesn’t really exist. What I’m talking about is low cortisol. Do you crave salt? Is your blood pressure low? Do you wake during the night- usually around 3am?

2. Are you deficient in certain nutrients? There are things needed to allow your cells to use glucose properly. If you have fatigue or weakness, poor cognitive function, insomnia, muscle cramps, inflamed and scaly skin, hair loss, pale skin tone.

3. Do you have stomach pain, nausea, no appetite, bloat?

4. Maybe you have antibodies to insulin?

5. Frequent need to pee? Hungry after meals? Frequent infections? Fatigue? Gaining weight around your waist? Higher blood pressure.

6. Excessive sweating? Tremors, palpitations? Mood disorders?

7. Body pain, joint pain, muscle pain, fatigue, insomnia, depression, anxiety, mood issues.

Any of these can be causing blood sugar dysregulation issues and should be fixed with a practitioner. I can help you figure out just what might be going on and give you the tools you need to fix these issues with ongoing support. I’m no longer doing one off appointments because this does not help you work through the overwhelm that sometimes comes with diet and lifestyle changes. When working with me you get bi weekly appointments for six months to help you overcome your chronic health issues. If you just need one appointment to send you in the right direction that is available too. This would be for someone who can take the info and run with it. I have found that longer term, having support over 6 months to a year is way more helpful in setting you up for success. If you are ready to figure out what is going on with your blood sugar or your thyroid problems, reach out. Book a discovery call to see if we are a good fit at www.helpforhashimotos.com.

If you wouldn’t mind leaving a review on iTunes, I would really appreciate it. Reviews help boost my visibility so others can find the show. I’m eternally grateful for those of you that tune in. It is my sincerest hope that you find value in each one of these episodes and I work really hard to provide you with good information. This is my job. I’m working for you. Now that I have all of my 1000 client hours needed to get my nutritionist license I am taking on a full load of clients. If you need help, please reach out. If you know someone suffering silently with a thyroid condition, please share this with them. Have them sign up for my newsletter. There is a lot of work to be done to take control of chronic illnesses like thyroid disease and that starts with you taking the first steps to want to feel good again. You are here and listening and learning. You have what I didn’t have when I was first diagnosed. You have a world of information on the internet, a lot of which is crap, some of which is good. As I am learning and growing I will fix what mistakes in information I have talked about in the past. I’m always trying to do better so you have the latest information to get you feeling better.

Wishing you a wonderful week. Thanks again for being here.

At home thyroid testing.

An out of whack thyroid means inflammation, chronic mental and/or emotional stress, diet, and our modern lifestyles are walking us right into a hormonal (thyroid and otherwise) nightmare.

Our hormones and the glands that produce them are all connected and all of our body systems are connected. When one is not working well, the others will not be working well.

But you go to the doctor and they check your thyroid, right?

And they usually only check TSH and they tell you everything is fine, and then maybe they offer you an anti-depressant as a solution. Or maybe they tell you to exercise more. All the while you are walking around with a slow functioning thyroid and no one is willing to do anything for you.

You might be feeling a little blue and maybe you are the only one in the room with a sweater or coat on because you are cold. Side note, this has been a family member of mine for her whole life….

My bones used to be cold. I was so cold at night it would take me an hour to fall asleep because the second I took my socks off, my feet were ice. Now, I sleep with a window cracked in the winter and it feels great.

Maybe you are feeling tired, putting on weight or cannot lose it no matter what, maybe you don’t sleep well or your skin looks unhealthy (dry, not glowing, etc). All of this is tied to how well your metabolism works and if your thyroid is working slowly, your metabolism is working slowly.

Anyway, whatever your symptoms are, you are not alone and you can fix them.

And there is a very basic test you can do at home to help you figure out if there is more to your story than what your doctor is telling you.

There is a medical doctor named Broda Barnes who came up with this at home method as he had made it his life’s work to study the thyroid all the way back to 1940.

With this test, the assumption is that your doctor has done a thyroid test and told you it is normal but you still have symptoms.

All you have to do for this test is take your temperature. Full disclosure, I have not tried this because I am lazy and you need a mercury based thermometer called a basal thermometer. The reason for this is that a slow thyroid (hypothyroid) causes your overall body temp to drop and that is why you feel cold.

For men and women in menopause, all they do is take their temp but for women still cycling you have be mindful of doing the test in relation to your cycle and ovulation because your temperature will naturally rise at that time.

Here are the instructions:

1. Shake down a basal thermometer and put it on your nightstand, within reach, before you go to bed.

2. When you wake up in the morning before you do anything else, and try not to move too much, put the thermometer under your armpit which is the most stable place to take your temp for this. No getting up for any reason whatsoever, just take the thermometer and put it under your arm and lay still for ten minutes. Do some deep breathing and do your best to do some kind of meditation so that you are not even thinking about anything - especially anything that might stress you out. No looking at your phone, no texting, no tv, no music, nothing. Just lie there and breathe.

3. After ten minutes, write down your temp. You might want to make a little chart of the day and time you took the temp.

4. Do this for five days in a row- If your temp is normal (above 97.8 to 98.2) then you can stop and we need to do some digging to figure out why you still have symptoms.

5. After five days, you are going to take a thyroid supplement: either Thyrotrophin PMG from Standard Process or Thyroid Synergy from Designs for Health, or GTA Forte from Biotics Research. GTA Forte is the supplement that took away my cold hands and feet.

6. You take these for the next 2-3 weeks and continue recording your temperature. Give it a few days before you even see any kind of changes.

   1. You can get either of these from my dispensary for 10% off at https://us.fullscript.com/welcome/hfh Please don’t buy from Amazon- there are a lot of counterfeit supplements on that platform and buying from a practitioner helps support their small business. It helps me pay for the podcast streaming service.

   2. If you are doing Thyrotophin PMG take 6 capsules in the morning. These can be stimulating so don’t take after 1 or 2pm.

   3. If you are taking Thyroid Synergy then take 4 in divided doses (2 in am and 2 at lunch)

7. You want to be watching for a trend of your temperature rising while you are on the supplements. This will be an indication there is a problem with your thyroid.

8. If your temp goes above 98.2, cut back on the supplements by maybe 1. This should not make you feel hyperthyroid. Obviously if it does then you want to be sure to stop the experiment.

As you work on your health, which you can do with me in my 6 month program meeting bi-weekly, and your overall health improves, your thyroid may start to work better. This of course depends on where you are in the whole thyroid gland breakdown. Working on emotional stress, inflammation, reducing toxins, cleaning up your diet, fixing nutrient deficiencies, and so on will change some things for the better and then you may not need the supplements anymore.

I want to say a word about emotional stress and thyroid too because there is a clear spiritual/emotional/energetic component to this disease. If you want to heal your body and your thyroid, you will eventually have to deal with this component. Thyroid problems are often about communication, the throat chakra if you are in to woo woo. Do you have no voice in your marriage or other relationship? Is there something your are not being honest with yourself about? Are you not speaking your truth? Are you not saying what is on your mind?

You cannot heal your thyroid without dealing with this stuff. They are so tied together it isn’t even funny. We can look at your labs and give you all the tools you need to get better but this stuff also has to be addressed.

I have personal experience with the need to heal this kind of stuff. I grew up not really having a voice and continued being in relationships where I didn’t have a voice my whole life. I am finally to the point where I feel like I can speak freely and use my voice. This stuff is real. And it matters.

But if you are not ready to deal with it, that’s okay too. You can work on all other aspects of your life and deal with it later. There was a time I wasn’t ready to deal with it and I waited until I was ready. It’s okay.

I also don’t want you to blame yourself. You didn’t know what you didn’t know and that is okay. All that matters is that you are here now and even if you are just letting this sink in, I’m proud of you for that.

You can feel better. I can help you do that. I can be your voice for now until you are ready.

You’ve got this.

Stress, gut health and hashimotos

A super short episode talking about all the things stress effects and how it can contribute to thyroid problems. It feels a little incomplete but I published it anyway. :)