Welcome to Episode 75. I’m so glad you are here and I’m really grateful that you are listening. You know, when you have hashimoto’s and you are in the thick of it- you are dealing with a hypothyroid, your medication might not be optimal, you have zero energy and you just feel kind of like giving up on it all. I don’t mean on life but just feeling like there is no way out- like this is all you have in life and it just feels really hopeless. I want to tell you that it can get better. You can get better. You can feel better. You can have a wonderful life and you can really live again. You have to do some work to get there though and I think that can feel daunting especially when it might feel like a lot just to get out of bed or just to make it through the day.
I remember feeling like that, especially when I was first diagnosed. I had to get out of bed because I had a toddler and a newborn. My husband was not a lot of help and I was not good at asking for help. I put it all on me to get everything done and to be good at it all and that was freaking exhausting. That caused me to burn out my adrenals and sadly I had no idea about any of the stuff I am teaching you in this podcast.
You all have a leg up on me. You can learn from all this information I am giving you and you can begin to take those first steps to start to feel better. Even if, like I posted on Instagram a week ago, it is just taking a few extra steps in a day. If you are struggling to make it through the day just doing regular day to day stuff- the next time you go to the store park in the back of the parking lot and walk those few extra steps. The next time you are watching tv, get up at the commercial and just stand for one of them, or walk around your living room just for one commercial. Then keep doing that until it gets easier and easier and you can go for a walk in your neighborhood. Little by little a little becomes a lot. You can do this. You really can and the reason I am here doing this is so you don’t have to suffer like I did. Seriously. I want life to be good for you because you deserve a good life, a happy life, a life fulfilled. You are worthy and you are enough.
Ok. Now let’s get on with the bones of the show. This week in the detoxification series is all about how to get these toxins out of the body. Last week, I think it was I mentioned how you may need to heal your gut using something called the five R program and I couldn’t remember what the five R’s were. This is the week we dive in to what it means to heal your gut and why it is so important.
Healing the gut is not only important as far as removing toxins from the body goes but it is so important for autoimmune disease in general.
In functional medicine we are taught to start by healing the gut. A side note here is the gut can’t heal if you don’t provide it the right tools to do so which includes a diet change. You can’t eat fast food and work on your gut at the same time. You will be wasting your money. So diet changes first- like gluten free, dairy free for Hashimoto’s and hypothyroidism (and Grave’s disease too) then work on healing the gut. They kind of go hand in hand.
The first step in the 5R program is removing all the stuff that is causing gut issues- stress, food intolerances and any microbes that should not be there such as parasites, bad bacteria, overgrowth of yeasts, etc. You can do lab testing via a stool test to find out if there is specific bugs here but you don’t have to. It is probably cheaper just to go on a protocol because most of us if not all of us have some kind of bug in us that should not be there. If you have uncontrolled cravings you likely have some kind of bug/parasite issue because they will cause you to crave what they need to survive. They are very tricky buggers. I would say if you think you have small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) you probably want to be tested for that because a general gut healing protocol won’t likely take care of that.
Once you have removed all the problematic stuff, you need to replace what is either not working optimally or missing altogether from your digestive tract. So here I am talking about stomach acid, ox bile replacement or support for gallbladder and/or pancreatic/digestive enzymes. You may only need one or you may need all. It is quite common for people with hypothyroidism to be producing low stomach acid so it is something to consider. In general we need support with digestion. I’ve discussed digestion in detail before so I won’t go in to details here. Pancreatic enzymes come in handy to help us break down fat and carbohydrate. The idea behind taking them is not to take them forever or need them forever but to help the body heal itself so it can begin to make them on its own again.
We need an enzyme called lipase to breakdown triglycerides and other larger fat molecules. The job of bile is to emulsify fats like dishsoap does to fat when you wash a pan. It breaks it down. That has to be working well in order for your body to be able to assimilate the fat from your diet and get your fat soluble vitamins. So if you have a stool test done they might look for fat in your stool- you might even be able to tell by looking in the toilet after you go to the bathroom. If you have shiny or greasy stools or floating stools those are indications that you might not be digesting fats. You need healthy bile which comes from consuming healthy fats and breaking them down. This, again, is where supplementation comes in handy. It can help your body until your body can do it on its own. You need bile to get the toxins out of your body through stool. Often ox bile is used to help with fat digestion and cleaning up the bile but you can start by taking artichoke leaf, milk thistle seed, dandelion root, or bitters.
Protein digestion is also very important because you need protein to be properly broken down for the phases of detoxification but also if you have leaky gut or intestinal permeability, you need to have protein broken down so it doesn’t “leak” through the gut and inflame your immune system. You can try bitters before you try a stomach acid supplement. I like Urban Moonshine bitters but you can ask for bitters at a restaurant and drink that before you eat. If the restaurant has a bar they likely have bitters. But you can also consume bitter greens like endive, dandelion, wild lettuces, milk thistle, chicory or even potentially a little coffee. It is acidic and may stimulate your stomach to produce acid. There isn’t a whole lot of science to back that up though.
You definitely don’t want to do a stomach acid supplement such as Betaine HCl if you have ulcers or an H.Pylori infection. You need to get those cleared up first.
When food is not digested well it results in fermentation in the colon. Gas, bloating, feeding the “bad” bacteria and it means you are not assimilating the protein or the carbohydrates you ate.
Constipation is common in hypothyroidism- fiber is the answer. We all should be getting 50 grams a day of fiber and drinking lots of water to ensure that fiber can do its job. Fiber mops up toxins and takes them out through stool. So, get your veggies in. The fiber in veggies helps with the third step of feeding the good bacteria in your gut.
Once you have replaced digestion to good working order it is time to re-establish your gut bacteria with prebiotics and probiotics. There was a study done that found a link between inflammation in the gut, the microbiome and chronic fatigue syndrome. Fixing leaky gut and feeding those good bacteria can play a role in lessening CFS. Pretty cool. The biggest thing you can do to increase the gut bacteria is to eat lots of plants and a variety of plants and if you need a fiber supplement go for things like pectin, rice bran, chlorella, matcha green tea. All will pull toxins out of the gut. Mostly though, eat a lot of plant foods. You can also take probiotics, make your own yogurt (dairy free is ideal for hashimoto’s patients) and there are a ton of recipes online if you google dairy free yogurt recipes.
Repairing the gut is then next step. We do this with specific nutrients like L-glutamine, Omega 3 fatty acids, B vitamins, Zinc (carnosine), Vitamin E, Aloe vera or DGL. Specifically zinc is needed for wound healing and new cell growth. The lining of your gut turns over every 7 days or so and if you are deficient in zinc do you think you will have such a turnover? Maybe, maybe not. Be careful just taking a zinc supplement because you can deplete copper stores. You also need to reduce gut inflammation in order for the gut to heal which is why I said you also need to make diet changes to ensure your body has all the tools it needs to do this.
Ok. Lastly, this is a functional medicine ending to repairing the gut. You need to balance your life. Reduce stress, get enough sleep, exercise, consume a healthy diet and find things that bring you joy!
Head over to my website and tell me what you do that brings you joy. Leave a comment under this podcast post. Let’s start a conversation about how we can bring more joy to our lives. While you are there you can sign up for my newsletter for recipes and more sent right to your inbox.
That is it for today. Thanks for joining me. Please leave me a rating or review on apple podcasts. It really helps more people find the show.
If you or someone you know is struggling with Hashimoto’s or autoimmune disease, I am taking new clients and specifically allowing 2 new clients a month. Head on over to my website and fill out the contact form and we can see if we are a good fit for each other.