Adrenal Fatigue Revisited

The adrenal glands sit on top of your kidneys. When your brain perceives some kind of stress, you get a signal from your brain that actually goes right from your spine to your adrenal glands. Other organs and glands have a little different way of getting their signals from the brain. It’s kind of cool and maybe signifies how important the adrenals are that they get a short cut signal from the brain. This signal will tell the adrenal glands to release cortisol after a series of reactions. So this hasn’t changed. 

I mentioned in an earlier podcast that it turns out there is really no such thing as adrenal fatigue. What it actually is is a low output of cortisol. So your adrenal glands are working fine but something is getting in the way of them releasing the hormones your body needs.  There is a ton of information on the internet about adrenal fatigue with books written and websites dedicated to it. This idea of adrenal fatigue is what was known several years ago. Like I have said before, it is what I was taught in my Nutritional Therapy training. The science has changed because scientists have learned more and done more research on the adrenal glands. I think there is rarely a time we can say that the science is settled- maybe that we know vitamin C keeps us from getting scurvy but honestly even that could change at some point. Scientists are still discovering new body parts so I don’t really think the science is settled at all. 

Searching the internet for health advice can be confusing and mind boggling with so many so called experts each telling you that their way is the best way and sometimes the only way. I don’t profess to be an expert in anything but I will try my best to help you walk through the forest of information and in some cases misinformation to figure out what might be correct. My goal has always been to help you get clear about what’s out there.  I don’t want you to suffer like I have - know that in my heart I just want to help. 

So how does cortisol get low?

First of all, you need cholesterol to make cortisol but also sex hormones which are also produced in the adrenal glands. The production of cortisol happens in the mitochondria which are those energy factories in each of our cells. So if you have any type of dysfunction in your mitochondria or in your cells you may struggle with cortisol being low. 

What causes Low Cortisol? 

There can be a communication problem with your hypothalamus and your pituitary gland in your brain. There can be dysfunction at the cellular level, you can have low cholesterol, you can also be dealing with infection, inflammation or too much leptin (appetite hormone that tells you you’re full).  Nutrient deficiency (around 80% of people are deficient in vitamin E- don’t just go supplementing this), intestinal permeability, toxins- big player in all of our health. 

There is no protocol for Adrenal Fatigue in general. There is no specific diet for Adrenal Fatigue. You can try an elimination diet which will lower inflammation or paleo or you know, what works for you.  You have to clean up the toxic chemicals in your life. Organic food when and where you can, clean up your beauty products, your household cleaning products etc. A good resource for learning more about this is ewg.org

My favorite household cleaner is Branch Basics. You can get $10 off your first purchase by going to www.branchbasics.refer.cc/stephanieewalsntp 

My favorite skin care is kind of all over the place but you can get 10% off meizenskincare.com by using the code 10% OFF 

I also love Intelligent Nutrients for skin and hair care and Evan Healy skin care. 

What else can you do if you think you have low cortisol? 

Figure out how to deal with your mental/emotional stress- whatever works for you. Journaling, meditation, whatever you need. 

You can use an adaptogen like Ashwagandha or rhodiola but they will only be a bandaid until you figure out what is going on with your body. That is the biggest thing.  We all need to remember that when something goes wrong in one area of the body there is usually something systemic - system wide going on and that is what you need to figure out. 

If you can’t figure out where things are going wrong in your body, you can use my Nutritional Assessment Questionnaire to get a picture of where your body is out of balance and get headed in the right direction. A one hour initial consultation is $153 right now with 30 minute  follow up visits at $79. 

You will get a personalized protocol which includes diet and supplementation to be used for 3-6 months and then you should recheck where your body is at and what needs to change within your protocol. 

If you want support with diet changes, I am running The RESTART Program from 2/1/2021 until 3/1/2021 via Zoom. That is a wonderful way to get started on feeling better. This program is a five week nutrition education program, a sugar detox and support group all rolled into one wonderful class. People love this class and what it has to offer. The cost is $119 for the five weeks and I supply all the materials via email the day of class. It will be running from 6:30 pm CST until around 8:00 pm CST each Monday from 2/1-3/1. There are only a few spots left so email me at stephanie@outofthewoodsnutrition.com if you want to enroll. 

All my best to you all. Thank you so much for listening. Please always remember to think critically in not only the health arena but all areas of your life. Always ask why. 

I have no plans to join the main social media outlets due to their censorship. I have joined Parler but don’t currently post anything on there. The best way for now to see what’s up is to join my newsletter. 

Until next time. 

Is Synthroid better than Levothyroxine?

Hi, I love listening to your podcasts, I have recently been diagnosed with hashimoto's and the doctor put me on levothyroxine. I have been reading that name brand thyroid medication has much better results. Is this true and if so is it safe to switch from levothyroxine to Synthroid? Or other name brands? Are there major differences between the different brands? Thank you so much for your time and expertise! Brie

Hi Brie, 

Thanks for asking this question because it can be really confusing for people especially when the internet is full of “experts”. Since I have been in school I am a bit of a convert to following what the scientific literature says in addition to going with clinical experience. First I would ask where you read that name brand thyroid medication has better results. Who wrote that or said that? Is it a blogger who has better results on Synthroid vs. Levothyroxine? Is it the makers of Synthroid saying there are better results on their product? These are the kinds of questions you want to ask yourself when you are reading something like this. Becoming a critical thinker is crucial to you taking control of your own health. 

On the website for Synthroid, there is a lot of marketing telling you that this product is more effective and better for you. They don’t list the full ingredients on their website so I searched the internet via DuckDuckGo for Synthroid Package Insert. Because it is a drug there should be a full list of ingredients and side effects for it in the package insert and it should be available to you to read. You can ask your pharmacist for it. I have done this before and it totally stumps them because they often just throw it out. They sometimes don’t know what to do with me when I ask for that kind of stuff. You have a right to know what is in it so don’t be shy about asking for it. 

The package insert for Synthroid aka levothyroxine sodium tablets, USP shows you the chemical equation for the product as well as the ingredients. The main ingredient is synthetic crystalline L-3,3’5,5’-tetraiodothyronine sodium salt which is levothyroxine (T4) sodium. Basically this means it is a lab made T4 only medication.  The inactive ingredients are listed as Acacia (or gum Arabic which is an emulsifier, stabilizer, binder), confectioners sugar (with cornstarch), lactose monohydrate (a milk sugar used to compress the tablet- only an issue if you have a severe lactose intolerance), magnesium stearate (used to keep the drug from sticking to the equipment it is made on and can be made from plant or animal sources). There are also artificial colorings added to the medication depending on the dose: FD&C yellow #6 or 10, red #4 or #27 or 40, Blue #2 or #1. 

On the Synthroid website under safety information that you should not use this medication if you have adrenal problems that have not been fixed and that taking too much of this product has been associated with increased bone loss, especially for those of us who have entered menopause. It also says that foods like soybean flour, cottonseed meal, walnuts and dietary fiber may keep you from absorbing all of your medication. If you consume a SAD diet you are likely getting a ton of soy flour because it is in everything these days- read an ingredient list for bread from your grocery store. One of the local stores near me who does their own bakery bread lists soy flour as one of the top ingredients. 

Your pharmacist likely says to not take this product with food but the website says to wait 4 hours before or after eating when taking this product. 

I found a study called Comparative Effectiveness of Generic vs. Brand-name Levothyroxine in Achieving Normal Thyrotropin Levels in the Journal of American Medical Association. The study included almost 18,000 thyroid patients where around 15,000 had generic prescriptions and 2200 had brand name prescriptions. The study concludes that generic levothyroxine is as effective as name brand. The conflicts of interest listed in the study are interesting and should be considered. Some researchers received funding from Blue Cross and Blue Shield, the FDA, support from the Mayo Clinic from the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Innovation. This tells me that there was a benefit to finding that generic drugs, which are cheaper, were as effective. The listed generic drug manufacturers in the study are Mylan Pharmaceuticals, Sandoz AG, and Lannett Company, Inc. 

Maybe the reason why you read better things about name brand thyroid meds is because there are many manufacturers of generics which means when you refill your prescription you could be getting a different generic each time. I would ask your pharmacist if they switch between generics as you have a right to know. They will just give you a different medication if they run out of one kind. It has happened to me before and I let my pharmacy have it. This medication is a Goldilocks drug- they can’t switch it on you or it can cause problems for you. It doesn’t for everyone so I want to be sure I say that. 

I went to the FDA website and looked up FDA approved drugs for levothyroxine and came up with a whole list and it says at the top of the list: “products listed on this page may not be equivalent to one another”. There is a whole rabbit hole to go down here with each of the drugs listed but they are as follows: Euthyrox, Levo-T, Levolet, Levothyroxine Sodium, Levoxyl, Synthroid, Thyquidity, Thyro-tabs, Tirosint, Tirosint-Sol, Unithroid. 

Levothyroxine Sodium alone has 8 different manufacturers listed where all others have one manufacturer listed. With one manufacturer there is less likely to be inconsistencies with the drug. Tirosint is supposed to be a hypoallergenic formula meaning there is nothing else in the medication but the same synthetic drug as Synthroid but the only other ingredients are gelatin, glycerin and water. 

So there are differences and you finding which drug works best for you takes some time. Maybe you won’t feel good on any of the synthetic drugs I talked about and will do better on a natural desiccated thyroid hormone. Some people do better on the natural medication and some people don’t. It is helpful to find a doctor willing to try switching. 

The natural desiccated thyroid medications are called combination therapy because they contain T4 like the synthetic drugs but also contain T3. The natural drugs available are sometimes harder to come by. The main one is Armour thyroid which is the easiest to get. Others include WP thyroid, Naturethroid, and a few more. A study comparing the long term effects of treatment with these types of drugs compared to synthetic only drugs found that  people taking the natural desiccated drugs not only normalized their TSH but found improvements in mood, well-being and something called psychometric function which is hard to define in terms easy to understand but has to do with your ability to respond to certain stimuli. To be fair, some studies listed in this meta analysis showed no difference in symptoms on either type of drug. Overall though, many people find their overall quality of life on natural desiccated thyroid (NDT) hormone replacement to be better. Personally, I feel my best on a compounded NDT hormone replacement for which I pay a lot of money out of pocket. When the medication is compounded, it is made in house at the pharmacy where they mix the powder with a cellulose powder and put it in capsules. I pay around $200 for a one month supply or $450 for a 90 day supply. This is the only medication that has improved my quality of life besides WP Thyroid (I think it was this one but it’s been so long I don’t remember exactly) which was not available for a long time. So for now, I use my health savings account to pay for my meds and have a much improved quality of life. 

So the bottom line here is if you don’t feel good on one medication I would suggest asking your doctor to switch you to a different one. If I had no choice but to be on synthetic medication then I would go with Tirosint first and avoid the generics since there are so many manufacturers unless you can talk to your pharmacist about ensuring that you are getting the same product every time you renew your prescription. 

Other things you can do to improve quality of life are of course diet changes, figuring out which foods you are sensitive to, healing your gut, working on blood sugar balance and of course ensuring you have no adrenal issues. There will be more on this to come- my next class for my masters program is all about hormones and we will be focusing on the hypothalamus pituitary adrenal axis or HPA axis and I cannot wait to learn the latest information on this. I will give you a hint though- there is no such thing as adrenal fatigue- our glands and organs don’t get tired. Until next time. Thanks for hanging in there with me. This year has sucked and it has been a bit of a challenge for me to be motivated to do anything let alone get this podcast out. I’ve been battling a bit of depression and have been supplementing with some things that have helped a bit along with exercising and avoiding all the negativity on the news- I’ve also been trying to laugh more and it feels really good. 

Ok. Take care everyone! 

Help (ing) someone with Hashimoto’s

Hello everyone and welcome to episode 94. I’m so happy you are here and have stuck it out with me. I’ve been on a break for about 6 weeks to spend some time with family out of state but I am back! It feels good to be back at it and into my routine again. I’m grateful to have you all to come back to! I’m grateful to you for listening and for writing to me to say you love the podcast and to keep doing it. It really means a lot to me to have your support and to know that what I am putting out there is helpful. For this episode, I thought I would take you through what it is like to work with me. I have a real person with Hashimoto’s who has taken my nutrition assessment. So we are going to dive into what her body is doing and what my suggestions will be to her. There are some visuals for this one so you may want to follow along on my website www.outofthewoodsnutrition.com  and search episode 94. There will be a blog type post or transcript for this, and most episodes actually. 

When someone works with me my current practice is to use my nutrition assessment questionnaire or NAQ. It is extensive and covers all the body systems showing me where you, the client, have imbalances. I also get a health history and like to see a minimum of three days of food journaling. I have no judgment. My job is to help you optimize your health so I need your reality, whatever that is. Normally I would also take the time to listen to my client when we meet via Zoom or in person. For this client, that is not the case because I am keeping their information private and we are not meeting. They were willing to allow me to use their information on the podcast as an example of what to expect. So please keep in mind that the information provided in this episode specifically is a bio-individual approach. What I recommend here is for this person, NOT for everyone because there is no one sized fits all approach to health. There is no specific diet that will help heal you. In fact, as a side note, research shows that the best diet for you is one you can follow. So how about that. If AIP is too hard, there are other ways to get there. 

Ok. Let’s get started on this client’s info. I’m going to start with their health history. 

I guess I have to give away some personal information in that this is a 28-year-old female. her top health concerns are blood sugar dips with a severe symptom of feeling light-headed. She is also dealing with anxiety and overthinking along with brain fog. Her goal is to become healthy again and feel like how a 28-year-old should feel. 

She states that she sleeps well, doesn’t wake up in the night, and gets a good amount of sleep but feels like she has been hit by a train when she wakes up, sometimes feels just a little better than that when she wakes. 

She drinks around 3 liters of water a day, no caffeine. 

Her childhood eating habits were pretty good with sugary treats being a rarity while consumption of meat and veggies was standard. 

99% of her food is home-cooked while she eats out about one time per week. She cooks with mostly olive oil. She has just started AIP but had contacted me because she wasn’t feeling any different on this diet. Her current three worst foods she eats are dark chocolate rice, cakes, gluten-free and dairy-free cookies, and fried rice. Keep in mind that this is subjective information. What you think is bad for your diet is not what someone else sees as bad for them. Her three healthiest foods she eats are coconut yogurt, fruit, meat, fish, veggies. 

She often feels tired, bloated, and/or gassy after a meal and has constipation which was 7 days a week until she began the AIP diet. She craves sugar but not salt. 

She has exposure to gas fumes at work and she loves doing farm work. She walks 1-2 days a week. She spends about an hour per day in front of a screen. She perceived her stress level to be between 8-9 on a scale of 1-10. 

She is currently taking T3, zinc, magnesium, B6, selenium, and vitamin D along with a couple of other things. 

Ok- that is the health history. I don’t see anything out of the ordinary here. A few things stand out - We will find out more about the gas and bloating in a few minutes.

She reports the following items as being severe or regular: 

• Bloating within one hour after eating

• Sweat has a strong odor

• Feel like skipping breakfast

• Sleepy after meals

These are all indications that your stomach is not breaking down the food you eat due to a variety of reasons. 

• Become sick if you were to drink wine

• Easily intoxicated if you were to drink wine

• Easily hung over if you were to drink wine

• Sensitive to chemicals (perfume, cleaning agents, etc.)

• Exposure to diesel fumes

These indicate issues with liver detoxification or an issue with gallbladder health and/or function. 

I’m going to just highlight a few things from other categories since this client has so many issues. 

Small intestine imbalance: hives, wheat or dairy sensitivity, bloating within 1 hour of eating

Large intestine imbalance: cramping in lower abdominal area, yeast symptoms increase with sugar, starch, alcohol such as fatigue, poor memory, feeling spacey, muscle aches, joint pain

Essential Fatty Acids are out of balance: headaches in the sun, sunburn easily, dry flaky skin

Blood sugar dysregulation: excessive appetite, crave coffee/sugar in afternoon, sleepy in afternoon, fatigue relieved by eating. 

Now let’s take a look  at her food journal: 

Day 1

• Breakfast: (I sometimes fast until 10am) coconut yoghurt with some fruit

• Morning tea - coconut wrap with leg ham (unprocessed) salad

• Lunch: meat and veggies including sweet potato plus more fruit (I get sugar cravings and migraines until I bring my blood sugar back)

• Dinner: coconut chicken and broccoli soup

Day 2:

• Breakfast: coconut yoghurt fruit and carrot/bacon fritters topped with avo

• Morning tea: same again

• Lunch: chicken, veggies and sweet potato

• Dinner: coconut chicken soup with broccoli 

Day 3:

• Breakfast: same as day 2 just no Avocado on fritters

• Morning tea: lamb chop with veggies

• Lunch: soup with chicken

• Snack: watermelon and mango

• Dinner: steak with veggies

“I get a bad slump at 2pm just after my lunch at 1pm and I get dizzy, light headed and bad anxiety. My thoughts lately have been all over the place as well since starting AIP. It’s like everything has been disrupted.”

This diet looks good at first glance. When you take in to consideration that she has a potential issue with digesting fat, the AIP diet may not be ideal since it is pretty high in fat. She is consuming quite a bit of fruit and since she is having blood sugar issues, those snacks of fruit would be better served by switching them to veggies and doing less fruit. That said, for the constipation- blackberries and kiwi can be very helpful in getting your bowels moving. If I were to discuss her food journal with her I would want more details about how much animal protein at each meal and how much veggies. The average healthy person should be consuming around 1 to 1.5g/kg/day in protein and ¾ of a plate of veggies at each meal. This person needs some help with digesting their food so a recommendation of some digestive enzymes and potentially  some stomach acid supplementation will be the first step. This might also help the constipation. If we are not digesting our food, we are not extracting the nutrients from it which can cause all kinds of imbalances. I might also recommend something to aid in fat digestion such as TUDCA which is a water based bile support. 

As far as the slump in the afternoon- after lunch- it could be due to waiting too long between the morning tea and lunch, it could be that the lunch meal is too heavy, it could be that it isn’t enough food, it could be a food sensitivity. These are all things we would normally  hash out on the phone. 

The sugar cravings could be a blood sugar issue or they could be a yeast overgrowth or a vitamin or mineral imbalance. 

Since you feel horrible on AIP, I would back off of the restrictions, keeping off gluten and making sure you are eating a ton of veggies, moderate protein and even less fat until you get your body back in to better balance. I would do this for 3 months and then revisit your progress on the NAQ and then make adjustments. 

As far as supplementation goes, I would have you take something to help with fat digestion such as bile salts or TUDCA. This will also help with sugar cravings. You may also need some kind of blood sugar regulation support and I will not give the specific product name here because it isn’t supposed to be sold on Amazon and it is being sold there. It is a practitioner only product. Next, you probably need some digestion support. Likely low dose Betaine HCl- look for 150mg betaine in a product. I would suggest electrolytes in your water or a pinch of salt and if you like fish, consume fatty fish 1-2 times per week. I don’t like to throw supplements at a problem so I won’t recommend anything more. You definitely need some help via supplementation but as I always say, you should be able to get what you need from food most of the time. There are exceptions to that of course, as there always are. 

So, this is a short version of my process. I have had people come to me for help and then not follow a single bit of my suggestions and then wonder why they don’t see any changes. You really have to be willing to trust the process, make yourself a little vulnerable, be willing to change a bit and know that healing your body takes time. It didn’t all the sudden break down and it won’t all the sudden be well again either. Give yourself some credit and compassion. You deserve it. 

Ok. That is it for today. I hope that was helpful for you guys. Please sign up for my newsletter at outofthewoodsnutrition.com and if you could leave me a rating and review on iTunes/apple podcasts I would be so grateful. It helps more people find the show! 

Until next time. Peace.

Can you have chronic illness and not be chronically ill?

Michael Arterberry, Master Encourager, and Dynamic Motivational Speaker.

As a teenager, Michael was fortunate to receive guidance from positive adult role models who helped him overcome adversities and set high expectations for his future. Grateful for the role these mentors played in his own development, Michael decided to dedicate his professional life to helping people navigate the difficulties of life and launch their future into motion. For more than 25 years, he has been helping teens and adults to use what they have gone through as a catalyst for success rather than an obstacle for failure.

Michael received the 2010 USA Network’s Characters Unite Award for exceptional commitment to combating prejudice and discrimination while increasing tolerance and acceptance within the community. He is also the recipient of the 2014 100 Men of Color Award for leadership in education, government, mentorship, entrepreneurial success, and community service.

In 2008, Michael founded Youth Voices Center, Inc. a non-profit with the mission of helping young people to become active, productive members of society by overcoming their obstacles, their history, stereotypes and even their own self-image and limiting beliefs.

www.michaelarterberry.com

www.shakethedirtexperience.com

www.youthvoicescenter.org

www.facebook.com/michael.arterberry

www.linkedin.com/michaelarterberry

Can Acupuncture Help My Thyroid?

www.myzenskincare.com use code 10% off

Can you be a vegetarian with Hashimoto's and be healthy?

Hey guys, before we get to todays episode, I want to share with you an awesome skin care brand. Last year I had facial acupuncture done for vanity sake. I am turning 50 next year and I wanted to do something about some of the lines that were appearing. I always used to wonder why women can’t just age gracefully. Well, once those lines really started to appear, I knew the answer. I think I look pretty good for my age but I am not happy that my outsides look older than how I feel on the inside. Sometimes I still feel like a kid but I don’t look like one. My acupuncturist uses this skin care line in her office and I trust my acupuncturist (Aleesha D. Acupuncture in Anoka MN) so I tried the skin care. Turns out it is great stuff, clean and made by a small business which I am always up for supporting. I emailed the maker and asked if I could procure a discount for my listeners. She was happy to offer one so you all can take a look at what she has and get a 10% discount. 

We all want to look more youthful. It is one of the number one things we strive to preserve…our youth! Modern-day living can often take its toll, particularly on your skin. Rather than a vibrant and radiant shimmer, your skin ends up looking dull and dreary, and due to the high levels of toxins and pollutants around us, we may notice more signs of skin blemishes or chronic skin conditions such as eczema or acne. However, it is not all doom and gloom! Skincare requires focus, attention, and of course, the right products that work well with your skin. Those products are My Zen Skin Care! Our products have natural ingredients that are always far better to use on your skin, both short term and long term. My Zen Skin Care uses unique combinations of Chinese herbs for the skin, essential oils for your skin and spirit, and all-natural, active cosmeceuticals so your skin gets a treatment from every product.

I’ve tried it all and I love it all and they are not paying me to say that. And by now you all know that I don’t blindly recommend anything to anyone. I have to really love it.

Give it a try. go to meizenskincare.com and use the code 10% off. That’s m-e-i-z-e-n skincare.com 

If you have a chance to discuss how to follow some of your great advice while being vegetarian, that would be amazing. I find a lot of the options for Hashis to explore unfortunately seem to rely on eating meat. 

I am 47, I was diagnosed 5 years ago. I had fertility issues, and early menopause at 45, but otherwise no serious symptoms except regular headaches and moments with zero energy . I have been vegetarian for 22 years. I eat eggs and some goat cheese. I have a typical vegetarian diet meaning lots of vegetables, different grains, nuts and beans. I avoid gluten (since March) and all other dairy except occasionally butter. 

I clearly have blood sugar issues, I recognize myself in most of the symptoms you list in the recent episode on PMS. 

I usually need to eat every 3 hours to keep my energy up (and I have sweet cravings). 

I have been wanting to try the elimination diet but I am not sure what to remove! 

I am not on medication, I am trying to improve with dietary changes first. 

Best,

Priscilla 

Let’s first talk about things that can cause thyroid dysfunction. Too much copper, mercury, bromine, chlorine, fluoride. Your medication may mitigate symptoms from thyroid dysfunction but it isn’t addressing the underlying condition, right? All of these can be environmental toxins except maybe copper. Copper is found in food, in balance with zinc and other minerals. Copper is used in some city water treatment plants to kill bacteria. Even the dreaded coronavirus taking over our lives can’t live on copper. Vegetarian diets can be higher in copper because beans, nuts, seeds, avocado and soy are very rich in copper. If you combine a copper rich diet with a zinc deficiency you can end up with a big imbalance between the two. The biggest source of zinc is oysters and red meat. 

The other thing to consider when being a vegetarian and having hashimoto’s is making sure you are eating enough and making sure you are eating enough protein. You may have to add in protein powder, maybe pea to start. You need protein for your phase II detoxification system to work (after toxins are converted in phase I, they go through phase II to be made harmless and eliminated). You also need protein for your immune system so you may need to take an amino acid supplement- something that has all the essential amino acids. Since you are not on medication you may not have severe destruction of your thyroid gland so you are in a better place than some. 

Make sure you are very intentional with each of your meals being sure you are getting in quality protein options with each meal. Eggs are good. Beans and rice are good. Work towards complete proteins. Soy is not the devil I once thought it was. There is a lot of research, clinical trials involving healthy adult women and men indicating that soy does not have an adverse affect on thyroid function. However, consuming a lot of soy may cause a need for increase in your medication dosage if you are taking meds. You may also need to be mindful of iodine intake. 

Organic soy, not every day in the forms of miso, tempeh and maybe the occasional tofu.  The average female adult needs around 46 grams of protein each day. If you are active or trying to build muscle you need more. You need a variety of plant foods to meet your protein needs and you can do that with a vegetarian diet. 

The following foods protein content is based on 100grams of that food. 

• Tempeh- 20g

• Beans- 20g

• Tofu- 10g

• Steel Cut Oats (get certified gluten free)- 9g (I am guessing that is dry weight)

• Brown rice- 7g, again dry weight

• Broccoli- 3g 

• Soy Milk- 8-10g per cup

• Almond milk- 1 g per cup

• Hemp milk- 2g per cup

If you are needing to eat every three hours to keep your energy up, you are either not absorbing nutrients or you are not eating enough. I would food journal for seven days and keep track of how you feel 1-2 hours after a meal and see if you can find a pattern. I honestly think that because you are vegetarian, an elimination diet is maybe not for you unless you are willing to eat meat. They are too restrictive and not conducive to vegetarians. Food journaling may be a good way to see if you are reacting to any particular foods as well. 

You also need to consider where you will get your essential fatty acids from. Most non vegetarians get them from fish and fish oil so if you are not willing to take fish oil, do some research on where to get those. You may get Omega 3’s from products using algae or yeast. I don’t know much about these sources though so you will have to look in to them. 

You are eating goat cheese and butter occasionally  too. Those along with eggs have vitamin A but much less than you may need so you will want to be aware of that. Maybe you need a good multi-vitamin? You will want to have your vitamin D levels looked at too. Many of us with autoimmune disease are already low so you may need to supplement but have your levels checked first. 

Iron is also really important for women especially and many thyroid patients have lower levels of ferritin which is our storage iron so you should also have that level checked and supplement if needed. 

If you have a question or several, please send me a message by filling out the contact form on my website or email me at helpforhashimotos@gmail.com. You can get your first one hour consultation with me for $153. We will spend that time going over the results of your very comprehensive nutritional assessment and discuss what your next steps are to feeling better, sleeping better, getting your thyroid meds optimized and more. If you are not a thyroid patient but need help with figuring out what you need to do to feel your best, I can also help. I do love working with thyroid patients but I can also help others. 

One of my clients emailed me this: 

“Just an update. You gave me a consult two months ago. I've been following your guidelines.

Well, I have lost 16 pounds so far and my painful bloating is completely gone!

I have energy and feel very clear-headed most of the time!

Thank you!  I will send you another update in two months.

Just thank you so much!”

If you wouldn’t mind leaving me a rating and or a review on apple podcasts or spotify, I would really appreciate it. The more ratings I have the more this podcast will get in front of others who may need the help. I can’t thank those of you enough who have written in to tell me how much you like the podcast. It means a lot to me. All I wish for in life is to help people not suffer  like I have. 

Remember to check out meizenskincare.com and use the code 10% off.  Or visit them using the link in the notes for this episode. 

Listener questions about Food sensitivity testing and more.

Hey guys, before we get to today’s episode, I want to share with you an awesome skincare brand. Last year I had facial acupuncture done for vanity's sake. I am turning 50 next year and I wanted to do something about some of the lines that were appearing. I always used to wonder why women can’t just age gracefully. Well, once those lines really started to appear, I knew the answer. I think I look pretty good for my age but I am not happy that my outsides look older than how I feel on the inside. Sometimes I still feel like a kid but I don’t look like one. My acupuncturist uses this skincare line in her office and I trust my acupuncturist (Aleesha D. Acupuncture in Anoka MN) so I tried the skincare. Turns out it is great stuff, clean and made by a small business which I am always up for supporting. I emailed the maker and asked if I could procure a discount for my listeners. She was happy to offer one so you all can take a look at what she has and get a 10% discount. 

We all want to look more youthful. It is one of the number one things we strive to preserve…our youth! Modern-day living can often take its toll, particularly on your skin. Rather than a vibrant and radiant shimmer, your skin ends up looking dull and dreary, and due to the high levels of toxins and pollutants around us, we may notice more signs of skin blemishes or chronic skin conditions such as eczema or acne. However, it is not all doom and gloom! Skincare requires focus, attention, and of course, the right products that work well with your skin. Those products are My Zen Skin Care! Our products have natural ingredients that are always far better to use on your skin, both short term and long term. My Zen Skin Care uses unique combinations of Chinese herbs for the skin, essential oils for your skin and spirit, and all-natural, active cosmeceuticals so your skin gets a treatment from every product.

I’ve tried it all and I love it all and they are not paying me to say that. And by now you all know that I don’t blindly recommend anything to anyone. I have to really love it.

Give it a try. go to meizenskincare.com and use the code 10% off. That’s m-e-i-z-e-n skincare.com 

What Food Sensitivity Test is best?

This is a good question and one I don’t have a good answer for. Foods play a pretty big role in immune system reactions. All foods can be a source of antigen, which is something foreign that causes an immune response in the body and produces antibodies.  Most food sensitivity testing is done by looking at toxicity in cells, called a cellular cytotoxic assay (ALCAT) or IgG (most common antibody in the body) or IgA (found in the lining of respiratory and digestive systems) antibodies tests. 

IgG antibodies cause inflammation and is a delayed reaction to a food and after some healing, in the body, you could potentially reintroduce those foods that had high antibodies. They produce symptoms like GI distress, joint pain, headaches, rashes. 

IgA is not a super concern for us but still worth noting since it is an identifier of an immune response in our mucosal lining, i.e. small intestinal lining.  

IgE antibodies are reactions that occur in the body immediately upon consumption and are life long allergies. IgE reactions produce histamine reactions like hives, sneezing, vomiting, stomach cramps, immediate diarrhea, breathing problems, or anaphylaxis. 

IgG, IgE testing is common from Genova Diagnostics. 

Another type of food sensitivity testing looks at immune reactivity to both raw and cooked food proteins reflecting how foods are commonly eaten. Looking at cross-reactivity between proteins can be helpful in autoimmune disease and only one company does that. Cyrex labs does and their test is expensive- around $600. I used my HSA to pay for their array 10 test and it showed I had cross-reactivity to T4, T3, borellia, and a few other things via chicken, bromelain (pineapple), chia seeds, sunflower seeds, and a few other things. They also look for some weird stuff you wouldn’t think of like meat glue- used in lunch meat, imitation crab, chicken nuggets, and more. 

There is no gold standard here. I used to say that an elimination diet might be closest to the gold standard and I do still believe that to some extent except for the fact that an elimination diet is going to say that chicken is okay and for me, it was a potential immune system stimulant so…… I’d say start with an elimination diet and if you still don’t feel better, save your money for a Cyrex array 10. I don’t make any money to say that and in fact, cannot even order that test for anyone until I get my license which frustrates me a bit but whatever. Can’t do anything about it right now. 

You will likely know if you have an IgE reaction to a food because you will feel bad right away. Think of nut reactions- you can start with an oral allergy to nuts- feeling flu-like symptoms on down to anaphylaxis. A good example of this is an extended family member last year- who was eating nuts here and there and wasn’t feeling so hot. Almost flu-like. Then, they ate nuts at work in a sundae and for their body, it was the last straw. They went to the store to get Benadryl and it didn’t help. They ended up having a friend drive them to the hospital and they almost died from an anaphylactic reaction. So it can build over time ending in serious consequences. The big culprit nut was hazelnuts with others being less reactive but the advice was to stay away from all nuts. I have an oral allergy to nuts so I stay away from most nuts because I feel horrible after eating them. Every once in a while I test it out to see if it really is the nuts that make me feel bad and every time my body lets me know I should not have eaten them. 

So first elimination diet with careful reintroductions to foods. Then food sensitivity testing. No one is better than the other though Cyrex claims to be the best. 

-How much is too much when it comes to cruciferous veggies? Are they best cooked?

Too much cruciferous veggies would be eating several a day for all meals each day for a week straight. It is hard to over do it despite what you may have heard. The idea that these veggies are bad for you if you have thyroid problems is outdated information. Cooking them does reduce goitrogenic properties but again, you don’t really have to worry about that as long as you are not eating them every meal. 

-Are all Hypothyroidism’s cases Hashimoto’s?

-Can you have Hypothyroidism and not Hashi’s?

No. Most cases in the US are but you can have hypothyroidism without having hashimoto’s, it just isn’t very common. 

-Can you have Hyperthyroidism and not Graves Disease?

From what I understand, if your thyroid is in a hyper state it is usually due to Grave’s disease. You can have hyper symptoms due to hashimoto’s though. When there is destruction of the thyroid due to antibodies being created against the thyroid directing the immune system to destroy it, you will get a release of thyroid hormone into your system causing hyper symptoms. 

-I am retaining too much water, bloated/lower ab pressure and retention under the eyes, tingling, achy hands, and ankles. I am gluten-free, dairy-free, soy and corn-free, and alcohol-free, additionally, my sodium=138.7, and Potassium=4.7 levels are normal. What could be causing this? My best guess here is that your medication is not optimized. Puffing and water retention may be due to a slower than normal metabolism. 

Tingling- this could be a need for B12 but I can’t say without knowing more about your health. 

Achy hands and ankles- could be food-related, could be medication-related. Maybe you need medication with T3 to see if that helps. Sometimes gluten-free and dairy-free are not enough. They may help stop the destruction of the thyroid but there may be more that needs to be done. Could be food sensitivities to nightshades which include tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, and spices made from peppers such as chili powder and paprika. 

Ok. I hope this helps. If you have a question or several, please send me a message by filling out the contact form on my website or email me at helpforhashimotos@gmail.com. You can get your first one-hour consultation with me for $153. We will spend that time going over the results of your very comprehensive nutritional assessment and discuss what your next steps are to feeling better, sleeping better, getting your thyroid meds optimized and more. If you are not a thyroid patient but need help with figuring out what you need to do to feel your best, I can also help. I do love working with thyroid patients but I can also help others. 

One of my clients emailed me this: 

“Just an update. You gave me a consult two months ago. I've been following your guidelines.

Well, I have lost 16 pounds so far and my painful bloating is completely gone!

I have energy and feel very clear-headed most of the time!

Thank you!  I will send you another update in two months.

Just thank you so much!”

If you wouldn’t mind leaving me a rating and or a review on Apple podcasts or Spotify, I would really appreciate it. The more ratings I have the more this podcast will get in front of others who may need the help. I can’t thank those of you enough who have written in to tell me how much you like the podcast. It means a lot to me. All I wish for in life is to help people not suffer like I have. 

Remember to check out meizenskincare.com and use the code 10% off.  Or visit them using the link in the notes for this episode. 

How to fix PMS and Flare ups with diet.

I have terrible PMS and I feel like my Hashimoto’s symptoms get worse right before my period. I am exhausted and extremely emotional right before my period and my breasts are really tender, like they hurt to touch them. What is going on?

************************************************************************************************************

My question is about flare ups and what tools you can use to combat them. I have Hashimoto’s and am on 30 mg of armour a day. In the last week, my grandmother died, I lost my job and had a late night. The next day I had debilitating symptoms of 100-101 fever, terrible body aches, chills, fatigue, was really weak and had no appetite. I went to the doctor and was tested for a bunch of stuff including covid- everything was negative. When this has happened before I usually recover within a few days and am starting to wonder if this is what is considered a flare up. - Kim

How to manage your blood sugar and why it is so important for managing Hashimoto’s.

If there is one thing I would suggest you do in order to get your autoimmune condition, any autoimmune condition in the direction of being under control rather than it controlling you, it is managing your blood sugar. It was the one thing that kept me from feeling better in the beginning because all I got from my naturopath was “watch your sugar intake”. Well, I needed to really watch my sugar intake. I didn’t manage my diet well in the beginning. I thought the paleo diet was going to be the life giving diet answer and it wasn’t. That’s not to say it isn’t a good diet if done properly but all I am learning now is that a balanced diet might be better for me. We are all biochemically different, remember? What works for me may not work for you. BUT when it comes to blood sugar and Hashimoto’s and other autoimmune diseases, keeping it balanced is a really big deal. Blood sugar levels that are out of balance will F up your adrenals as well because they play a role in blood sugar management when things get out of hand. It also will cause your antibodies to rise. 

Blood sugar in medical terms is called glucose. It is a part of sugar but it is also a part of fruits and other carbohydrates, especially refined or white foods. It is what our body uses for energy for the most part. As sugar or glucose goes in to your blood stream through your gut or small intestine where most nutrients are absorbed. When we take in too many sugars our blood sugar becomes out of balance and insulin is released from the pancreas to shuttle sugar to our cells and what is left over gets converted to triglycerides in the liver. The more sugar we eat, the more insulin is released. Carbs are not bad, I want to be clear. Even starches like beans and potatoes are not evil but they can be a problem when consumed in high amounts. The key here is balance. I eat beans and potatoes but I don’t eat them everyday and I don’t eat a lot of them though I have been eating beans and rice with a vegetable for lunch for the last few days. That combo is a great source of protein and I have been enjoying a break from meat two to three meals a day. I’m trying to mix things up because I tend to eat the same thing over and over and over. 

When your blood sugar is on that roller coaster, it can flare up or increase symptoms of Hashimoto’s. Diabetes and Hashimoto’s have a relationship. One more reason to manage your blood sugar. Blood sugar dysregulation is a stress on the body and as with any stress, it can cause flare ups or damage to your thyroid gland. 

What are some signs you may have a blood sugar imbalance?

If you wake up between 1am and 3am and have a hard time getting back to sleep that is a classic sign of low blood sugar. Your blood sugar will drop at night, especially around 1am, causing you to wake up due to a surge of adrenaline. When your blood sugar gets low while you’re sleeping, it is your adrenals that release cortisol to help raise your blood sugar and sometimes it releases too much and you get a big enough surge to wake you. This release of cortisol can also cause an immune response or flare. When this happens regularly it is a form of chronic stress on the body and can lead to chronic fatigue, mood swings and an increase in thyroid antibodies. 

Another indication is when you are constantly craving something sweet. Sugar cravings. The bane of my existence. I still battle with that though I have healed my gut enough to be able to occasionally enjoy a sweet treat. I still crave sugar though, like a drug. No joke. Sometimes those cravings are not something we can control with will power. There can be very physiological reasons for your cravings so just let go of the guilt right now. You can have a deficiency of B vitamins, a yeast overgrowth in the digestive tract, a deficiency in digestive enzymes or HCl, or even hidden food allergies. 

• You may have an excessive appetite- you can never get full or you always feel hungry.

• You may crave coffee or sugar in the afternoon as a pick me up

• You may feel sleepy in the afternoon

• You may have fatigue that is relieved by eating

• You may get a headache, become irritable or shaky if you skip or miss a meal

• You may have brain fog, forgetfulness, nervousness

• You may have cold hands and feet

• You may have trouble losing weight

You can test your own blood sugar swings at home by getting a glucose monitor. If you have big swings in blood sugar after eating, this will be a good idea to do. High carb meals can be the cause of this type of blood sugar swing, called Reactive Hypoglycemia, but not always. 

Here is how you test: 

First thing in the morning you test your blood sugar. Don’t eat first. Record the number on your monitor. The monitors usually come with a little book for this purpose. 

Then eat your normal breakfast writing down what you eat then check your blood sugar with the monitor every 30 minutes for the next four hours. This will give you a good picture of what a meal does to your blood sugar. You can continue to test the whole days worth of meals so you know what foods cause such spikes and dips in your blood sugar. It will help you really start to hear your body when it is telling you something isn’t right. Not all foods will cause a blood sugar spike and you might be surprised which foods do cause a spike for you. 

Other things that can cause a blood sugar imbalance are 

• Low HDL cholesterol levels

• Being overweight with a bigger midsection

• Insulin resistance

• High blood pressure

• High triglycerides

• Type 2 diabetes (an obvious one)

• PCOS for females

  • menstrual irregularities including not ovulating

  • insulin resistance

  • hair growth on the face or other odd places

  • acne

You can control your blood sugar levels through diet and lifestyle changes. You can try a Whole 30 or join a RESTART class or work with someone qualified to help you figure out just what you should be eating. You don’t have to do a ketogenic diet, paleo diet, vegan diet, carnivore diet or anything else. If you are in a flare you should be doing some kind of diet change anyway. Learn which carbs cause blood sugar spikes by checking your blood sugar levels with a glucose monitor. Proteins and fats will slow keep your blood sugar more stable than carbohydrates for the most part though that doesn’t mean stop eating them. Have one serving of protein to two servings of carbohydrates which could look like a 4 ounce pork chop with 8 ounces of rice or potato. Vegetables are carbs but are typically not an issue with blood sugar regulation. Many practitioners may tell you to follow the glycemic index to know which foods may cause a spike in your blood sugar but glycemic load may be more important.  It takes in to consideration the quality and quantity of a carbohydrate.https://lpi.oregonstate.edu/mic/food-beverages/glycemic-index-glycemic-load#glycemic-load

the glycemic index of a serving of watermelon and a donut is 76. The watermelon has 11g of carbs and the donut has 23g of carbs. The glycemic load of watermelon is 8 but a donut is 17 so in this case, the watermelon is going to be the better choice. Glycemic index compares the potential of foods with the same amount of carbohydrates to raise blood sugar. Glycemic load again, takes in to consideration the quality and quantity of the food. 

Until you get things working better you may need to eat 4 or even 5 smaller meals to help your body out. Opt for protein type snacks like hard boiled eggs, nuts or seeds. Avoid any sugars before bed time- so nothing after 7pm. Limit caffeine and try to eliminate coffee altogether for some time to allow your body to heal. Obviously we want to avoid gluten and potentially dairy but you don’t have to avoid beans and legumes. Grains may be an issue for some but not all. Eat breakfast and be sure to eat protein with each meal. 

Cinnamon can help lower blood sugar because it slows the rate at which carbohydrates are broken down in your gut and will keep your blood sugar from spiking. Add it to anything and everything you can. 

Exercise. It helps your cells become more responsive to insulin, meaning they will use it and not be resistant to it. This will help reduce thyroid symptoms. Our muscles typically use glucose for fuel so even walking everyday- for an hour if you can will help pull sugar from your blood and let your muscles use it. After awhile it will help keep your blood sugar stable. Swimming and yoga are good options too. No need to over do it. Your body doesn’t need any extra stress while it is trying to heal. 

Drink water. This will help your kidneys flush out excess blood sugar through your pee. Adding electrolytes will help that water get to your cells. I like Designs For Health Electrolyte Synergy which you can get at https://us.fullscript.com/welcome/hfh. To me it tastes like gatorade without sugar but I haven’t had gatorade in 15 years so I could be way off. 

Make sleep a priority. Big time. The quality of sleep you get is very important to healing. I probably hadn’t sleep well for 20 years and was one of the reasons why I was not getting better. My sleep suffered due to blood sugar problems and the wrong sleeping environment for years. Plus having kids- those early years, I didn’t sleep much like any mother. Not sleeping well was the bane of my existence. Honestly, when I started school last year, I had to move out of my bedroom because my husband snores so loud and he chokes in the night and then punches the air. One time he almost hit me and that was it for me. It makes me sad, I guess, that we can’t sleep in the same bed but I’ve been told it is more normal than I realize and I just wasn’t willing to sacrifice my sleep or my sanity or my health any more. I now sleep soooo good in cold, dark and peace and quiet. But my relationship has suffered and that is another stressor to deal with. For right now, I’ll take good sleep because physically I feel so much better. 

Supplements. Magnesium (most of us are deficient and we need it to process sugar at the cellular level). Chromium (helps break down carbs and fats as well as control blood sugar- found in eggs, nuts, green beans, broccoli, meat or supplements). B vitamins, particularly thiamine or B1 (converts carbs to energy, aids digestion of proteins and fats which help us use those nutrients and not crave or feel hungry). A good B complex may be needed. Florastor probiotic and prebiotic fibers like fructooligosaccharides and inulin. Glutamine (for gut healing and curbs carb cravings by suppressing insulin levels and stabilizing blood sugar). 

Is my poop normal?

When you have hypothyroid symptoms you probably are familiar with constipation. It is a clear sign things are not working right in your body and in hypothyroidism, when you don’t have enough thyroid hormone, particularly T3 you can experience constipation regularly. 

If you have abdominal pain, bloating or abdominal distention, excessive gas, and or constipation which may or may not be associated with excessive straining you may have irritable bowel syndrome or IBS. Conventional medicine defines constipation as less than 3 bowel movements a week. Natural medicine might define it as less than one a day. You really don’t want stool sitting in your colon for three days. You will reabsorb much of the water and many toxins including estrogen for recirculation in to the body which is not good. For our purposes here, we will say less than one bowel movement per day is considered constipation. 

You may have alternating constipation and diarrhea with the above mentioned symptoms which can also be categorized as IBS. To get a diagnosis of IBS, other gastrointestinal issues need to be excluded as causing your symptoms. There is no test for IBS or markers to make a diagnosis so it is diagnosed based on symptoms. You need to have abdominal pain at least one day per week in the last 3 months associated with two or more of the following symptoms: pain related to bowel movements, pain and a change in how often you go or pain along with a change in the appearance of your stools. People with IBS generally are very sensitive to pain in their gut, have inflammation in the colon (which makes the nerves in the colon extra sensitive), changes in transit time (the time it takes food to travel through the GI tract from mouth to anus) and a change in the types and amounts of bacteria found in the colon. 

IBS is thought to be the most common GI issue in the Western world and seems to affect more women than men. You might be more at risk for it if it runs in your family, if you have had some kind of gut infection, if you have been given antibiotics or even if you have had some kind of stressful or traumatic event occur in your life. 

This disorder affects quality of life, causes people to miss work, and costs the healthcare industry in the US around 20 billion a year. 

If you are suffering from constipation, IBS related or not, here are some things you can try. 

Galactooligosaccharides or GOS at 3.5 grams a day. You don’t want to start out taking that much or you can make gas and bloating much worse so work your way up to a dose that high. A study using that amount found it improved gas and bloating as well as constipated stools over 4 weeks. 7.0 grams a day also helped to reduce anxiety.  

The top three things you can do to get rid of constipation are fiber, fluids and exercise! Adding ground flaxseeds, slippery elm powder, psyllium husks, oat bran, chia seeds or pectin can be very helpful. It may take awhile to see some improvements as one study showed three months of treatment with either ground flax or psyllium husks at 6 grams a day improved constipation, bloating, and abdominal pain. The flax appeared to work better for the participants in this study.

Fiber from fruit, especially blackberries and kiwi fruit, improved bowel movements significantly. If you are dealing with blood sugar issues, you want to be mindful not to overdo it on the fruit but these two fruits seem to be really good at getting things moving quicker. Keep fruit servings to no more than 4 serving a day. You also want to be sure you are consuming plenty of leafy green salads, beets, whole grains (not all grains are bad for all people), tons of veggies and nuts and seeds if you tolerate them. 

Drinking water. Make sure you are getting around half your body weight in ounces. Maybe a little more if you are sweating in warmer weather and try electrolytes with your water if you are not ever feeling refreshed by drinking. 

Moderate exercise, especially in the morning is helpful to get things moving as well. Our bowels wake up in the morning and sometimes that morning walk is all they need to increase transit time. 

If you are desperate to get things moving, licorice root can be used short term. You can ask your doctor for a prescription for lactulose if you are in the US. Everywhere else in the world you can buy it over the counter. It can speed up transit time or get things moving as I like to say. Take with slippery elm, oat bran, and licorice root. If you can. 

If you tolerate dairy, you can eat Activia yogurt. It is the only way you can get the specific probiotic that moves your bowels. If you are dairy intolerant a different strain, Bifidobacterium lactis HN019,  found in Garden of Life Raw Probiotics, Genestra HMF Multi strain, Now Foods Women’s Probiotics 20 billion and more can help you out. 

Improving how your liver works can also be helpful. When the liver is congested it can be what is causing the constipation so taking turmeric, globe artichoke, dandelion (all parts of the plant) and beets. You can make a raw beet salad consisting of equal parts shredded beets, carrots and dandelion greens. Make a dressing of olive oil and vinegar or lemon juice and season with a bit of salt. Very good for your liver. Eat it as a condiment with meals. It is delicious too. I am not a fan of beets but I am a fan of this salad. 

What about diarrhea? Some of you likely experience that too. This is more rooted in anxiety so supporting your nervous system with things like caraway, fennel or dill seeds, peppermint, cardamom, ginger, chamomile, lemon balm all help with abdominal pain and bloating. Saffron works amazingly well to lift depression and can help diarrhea. The nervous system can be supported with verbena (vervain), rhodiola, or panax (korean) ginseng. 

If you have severe gut pain and inflammation you can try to take a product called Iberogast which will fix the underlying issue of inflammation and the sensitivity of the nerves in the gut. You can also try licorice root again, chamomile, or turmeric. A combination of peppermint and caraway essential oils (eco-certified and organic) reduce inflammation too. I just want to note, that in some countries essential oils are sold in pharmacies and I don’t recommend ingesting oils unless supervised by someone qualified to help you do that. 

Food allergies or sensitivities are a big trigger for diarrhea, especially gluten. A study showed that all symptoms of IBS were reduced within 6 months of a gluten free diet. A low FODMAP diet also improved IBS but it eliminates a ton of really good for you foods so you should not do this long term. 

If you are over 45 and have had major changes in your bowel movement patterns should send you to the doctor to have your health checked. If you have blood in your stool, you have something else going on. Other signs there is something going on other than IBS or constipation related to hypothyroidism is weight loss, fever, and a family history of colon cancer. 

Ok! I hope this information was helpful. If you have a question related to your thyroid or thyroid health, please reach out at helpforhashimotos@gmail.com or go to my website, www.outofthewoodsnutrition.com and fill out the contact form with subject, podcast question. You can also sign up for my newsletter and get my report on five things your doctor won’t tell you about hypothyroidism. 

I’d really appreciate it if you left me a review and rating at apple podcasts so more people can find the podcast and get help. The covid19 special is over but because it was so popular it has morphed in to a 60 minute consult with no package purchase for $153.00. If you can take information and run with it, this is for you. You will fill out a health history and complete a nutritional assessment questionnaire and then I will meet with you for 60 minutes to answer any questions, go over results and provide you with a personalized recommendation that includes a diet plan and supplements if needed. It is always recommended to have a follow up in 3 months so you can compare your results with your beginning. It is fun to see the changes tracked on a graph. Have questions about this or anything else I offer, please shoot me an email at stephanie@outofthewoodsnutriiton.com

My philosophy on supplements is this: sometimes we need a little help to get our body functioning at its best and supplements do that. My goal is to get your body working on its own so you don’t need supplementation. And I can’t stress enough that buying on Amazon means you cannot guarantee what you are getting. There are lots of shady people selling supplements that are not what they say they are and most of the brands I use and support have agreements you are supposed sign stating you will not sell on Amazon. When you buy from there instead of from someone like me you are supporting a multibillion dollar company rather than a small business. 

All my best to you all. It’s a crazy time right now and I’m sending you all peace and love. 

Buy supplements here:  https://us.fullscript.com/welcome/hfh

Thyroid Cancer with Tiffany Flaten of Rock Bottom Wellness

Hi there and welcome to episode 87!  This week I am talking with Tiffany Flaten of Rock Bottom Wellness.  She is a certified Nutrition Specialist (she is currently supervising my CNS hours) M.Ed., MSN, CNS and a thyroid expert in nutrition. As founder of Rock Bottom Wellness, Tiffany helps thyroid patients improve their symptoms through proper nutrition education. She’s helped hundreds of women and men get to the root cause, find a way up from rock bottom, be their own best advocate, and shortcut the path to an amazing life. Rock Bottom Thyroid Treatment: An 8-Week Thyroid Diet for People with “Normal” Thyroid Test Results to Thrive Not Just Survive is Tiffany’s first book. Meet others on the journey to better thyroid health at www.rockbottomwellness.com/group. Book a free Thyroid Breakthrough Session with Tiffany at www.rockbottomwellness.com/breakthrough to get a personalized plan for the next leg of your thyroid journey.

We recorded this in January and the audio is a little choppy on her end in some places but it is a great conversation with some great info about how she dealt with her thyroid cancer diagnosis. Here is a little bit about her book: 

If Your Thyroid Numbers Are Normal But You Feel Terrible, Read This Book

Tiffany Flaten knows what it’s like to feel sick. For ten years, she felt depressed, irritable, and hopeless. And tired. Crazy tired. Like pregnancy fatigue every day. By her first baby, Tiffany was overweight and had high cholesterol. So why did her thyroid test always come back normal?

In 2007, Tiffany was diagnosed with thyroid cancer, the “best” cancer to have. Doctors advised “easy” treatments like thyroidectomy, radioiodine, and prescriptions for the rest of her life. Then the cancer came back, and Tiffany hit rock bottom. Would she ever feel normal again?

Yes! All thanks to proper nutrition. When Tiffany learned how nutrient deficiencies contributed to both her thyroid health symptoms and causes, she cured her depression, lost weight, got her energy back, and finally felt like herself again. She went back to school to earn her Master’s of Science in Human Nutrition and Performance and become a board certified nutritionist (CNS).

Today Tiffany teaches proper nutrition to alleviate thyroid symptoms. Her secret to helping thyroid patients turn their health around is an eight-week thyroid reset diet, a personalized thyroid eating plan and thyroid cookbook with thyroid friendly recipes for people who’ve hit rock bottom. Tiffany’s first book, Rock Bottom Thyroid Treatment: The 8-Week Thyroid Diet for People with “Normal” Thyroid Test Results to Thrive, Not Just Survive, helps people with thyroid disorders:

• Translate medical mumbo-jumbo into thyroid essentials

• Advocate for your own thyroid healing

• Feel better with nutrition, the natural thyroid cure

• Help your thyroid function optimally

• Balance your blood sugar

• Get off the mood roller coaster

• Give up food rules (and cravings)

• Get better sleep with thyroid balance

• Lose weight and lower your anxiety

• Experience thyroid and adrenal balance

• Choose the right thyroid glandular supplement

Rock Bottom Thyroid Treatment is the last hope for thyroid disease patients and the first step towards better thyroid health. Whether you’re going through cancer treatment or are simply concerned about “normal” thyroid numbers when everything feels off, Rock Bottom Thyroid Treatment gives you the answers that neither your doctor or Google will.

What should I ask my doctor at my follow up appointment?

Hello everyone. Thanks for tuning in. Obviously I have been on a break for the last month or so and it feels good to be back. I have not had a lot to say over the last month, I felt like there was not much to say with all the terrible things that were happening. I live in the Minneapolis area. It was a tragic thing that happened here and I’m not going to go into it with you guys at all. This is not what this space is for and you can hear plenty of political opinions all over the internet and television. The political unrest, the censorship by google and the social media platforms is very disturbing to me. Facebook had turned in to nothing but a negative place to be for me so I did something I had been thinking of for awhile now. I deleted by account. I deleted all my social media accounts. Permanently. I didn’t take a break, I didn’t deactivate them, I deleted them all. And you know, I feel so much better. I had been holding on to facebook for some time because I was in some pretty cool groups on there. I have an addictive personality and I couldn’t just hop on to check my Help For Hashimoto’s group or my business page and hop off again. I got caught up in their “fake news” fact checking and got really really angry. It’s been a couple of weeks since deleting my accounts and I feel soooo much better. I figure if people want to get in touch with me, they will. If they don’t, they won’t and if facebook was our only way of communicating, then we weren’t that close to begin with so no real loss for me. I want to encourage you to begin to think more critically of what you are seeing and hearing on the news and on social media platforms. Our news outlets basically have to make their advertisers happy and it shouldn’t be too hard who their biggest advertisers are and how that skews what you see and hear about. Most of the bigger media outlets are so completely against our president. Love him or hate him, he is our president and you never hear anything good that he has done because the media outlets don’t share any of that. I have been reading what appears to be an unbiased, fact seeking newspaper called the EPOCH times where there is no bashing of either political side but reporting of the facts. Please get the facts, no matter what you believe. Question things, always.  Rant over. Thanks for listening. 

I had mentioned I had some labs done a while ago and I think I promised to go over them with you all. That is in the works. I plan to have someone go over my DUTCH test with me on an episode so you can understand more about it. And I am working on an essential oil episode too. In the coming weeks I will be chatting with a certified nutrition specialist about a book she wrote on thyroid disease too. So lots of fun things in the pipeline and as I have said many times before I am concentrating more on my newsletter- which will really be the case now since all my social media accounts are gone. Writing is time consuming and so I usually put it off because I have to write a lot for school. I only have about a year and a half left though so…. :) I’m also interning at a functional medicine clinic working with clients and getting hours towards my own certified nutrition specialist certificate. Each class I take now gives me so much new knowledge to pass on to you and to my clients. It is very exciting to me because I love helping people and I love helping people avoid all the crap I went through with my own thyroid disease and failure of conventional medicine to help me.  My long term goals are to have a thyroid clinic in my area- all the functional medicine practitioners are at least an hour from where I live so I want to bring functional medicine to my almost rural community at an affordable price. Some of these practitioners charge up to $6000 for a package which prices out a lot of people, including myself. The biggest challenge we face is finding a doctor to prescribe our medication. I aim to fix that for my community and I wish I could fix it for all of you. Maybe with all this Covid stuff the rules on practicing will change and you won’t need to be physically seen by a doctor to get that first prescription. If they don’t change, I will work hard to educate doctors on how to best treat thyroid patients so they can feel their best. We can do a lot together to change diet and lifestyle but some of us will always need that prescription. I have hope for a much better future for the way we are treated as patients and for the whole world too. Sounds corny but I have to have hope because if I don’t have hope, what do I have? A deep dark hole and I don’t want that for any of us. 

Okay, on to the question sent to me.  

Hi Stephanie, I have a question that may be good for your podcast. I’ve recently been diagnosed with hashimoto’s by a doctor of natural medicine and I’m expecting to get my food sensitivity panel along with extensive blood work back in the coming weeks. after listening to almost all your podcasts and doing my own research, I believe that I’ve been suffering from it and adrenal fatigue for about 10 years. I’ll give you some background on my medical history first. 

For about 6 years I was seeing my doctor and others numerous times for fatigue, joint pain, severe allergies to any and all chemicals/fragrance as well as to pollen, vision problems, blood sugar management, depression, brain fog, digestion problems, unexplained and extremely difficult to lose weight gain and frequently becoming so weak and exhausted/sick that I couldn’t get out of bed... I was given prescriptions to address the symptoms, and getting bloodwork done to check my vitamin and mineral levels but I was left with no results or answers. 

I’ve been dairy free for about 3 years (self diagnosed based on symptoms) and gluten free (suggested by a different doctor) and both those things helped with many of my symptoms but didn’t fix everything going on in my body. In September 2019 I began eating vegan. The first few months were great because I was eating loads of vegetables, curries, and other nutrition packed meals but about 6 months in I got lazy with my meals and began to feel my thyroid “swell”. I finally went to see a Natural med doctor and got some answers.

As I’ve been waiting for my follow up apt I began the AIP to get a jumpstart on healing my body. I've been off coffee for 2 weeks now, 1 week full AIP and I’m feeling rather lousy and fatigued. I even have slight pain in my thyroid area. I’m eating lots of veggies (every meal) and meat (organ meats even), balancing meals, sleep, and light exercise. Could this be because my body isn’t used to eating meat or could it be something else?
What kinds of questions should I be asking my new doctor at my follow up appointment?

Thank you so much for any advice you can give! Your podcast has been incredibly helpful in my understanding of this disease and the things to be vigilant about.

Best wishes,
Ciera
I really appreciate

Thanks for writing in Ciera. I’m so glad you did and I appreciate you telling me that the podcast has been helpful because it is a lot of work to make! :) I’m grateful you listen! 

I am guessing that your natural medicine doctor did an antibodies test and that is how you were diagnosed with hashimoto’s. If this is the case, make note of your antibody levels and use this as your baseline.  As we know already, autoimmune thyroid disease is the cause of around 90% of hypothyroid cases in adults. Some of the symptoms of hypothyroidism are dry hair, loss of eyebrow hair, mostly on the outer third of eyebrow, a puffy face, enlarged thyroid, slow heart rate, arthritis, intolerant to cold, depression, dry skin, fatigue, forgetfulness, menstrual disorders, infertility, muscle aches, weight gain, constipation and brittle nails. This is not an extensive list but some of the more common symptoms that can wax and wane with your disease. 

Many of us go to the doctor with complaints of fatigue, depression, brain fog, chronic constipation and GI disfunction and the feeling that no one believes we are sick. No one believes you are sick, including your doctor because in the early stages of this disease, a clinical exam will show things are normal.

Conventional diagnosis and treatment will test TSH and maybe T4 if you are lucky. If you have elevated TSH you get thyroid replacement hormones and are sent on your way. If you have “normal” TSH you will be offered antidepressants, anti-anxiety meds, birth control or some other band aid for treatment because you are otherwise “fine”. 

With alternative practitioners such as myself and hopefully your natural medicine doctor, you are given suggestions for diet, nutrition, lifestyle and other therapies. One thing you can look out for with your doctor is whether or not they are treating the whole you and not just the thyroid disease because it affects basically most if not all of the systems in your body so the whole body has to be looked at, not just the thyroid. Inflammation throughout the body must be considered, how it affects the brain, blood sugar management, liver function, immune system, endocrine system, your gut health and more. 

Did your doctor run a full thyroid panel? Does your doctor take in to consideration that TSH levels fluctuate in Hashimoto’s? TSH can be different every time you get tested. This is why you need more than just a TSH test. When there is tissue destruction (autoimmune attack on the thyroid) this will increase the amount of T4 and T3 in your system but your TSH will be normal or low. The best diagnostic tool for Hashimoto’s is TPO antibodies though getting both TPO and TgAb tested is a good idea. 

Remember I said that your antibody test is a good baseline for you. This is because the level of antibodies you have is not associated with how severe the disease is for you. You can know if you are in a relapse if your antibodies go up from your baseline. 

Other things to consider are whether or not your Hashimoto’s is stable- no fluctuations in your TSH (low TSH) with normal T4 and T3 or high T4 and T3 (hyper). Once your condition is stable, you should not see your TSH levels rise above 3 (ish) or go much below 1. 

If you are in an active and more aggressive state of Hashimoto’s you may need to continually increase your dosage of hormone replacement. When you are not getting enough hormone it can lead to all kinds of issues that include brain issues, GI problems (including gallbladder sludge and stones, less production of digestive enzymes and slower motility), breakdown of bone and muscle with less energy, exercise intolerance, blood sugar problems, temperature regulation issues and immune system dysfunction. 

Potential triggers for autoimmunity:

• gluten

• intake of salt

• intake of iodine

• lectins

• no diversity in your diet

• glyphosate

• inflammation causing foods (fried foods, etc)

• grains

• casein (dairy protein)

• egg whites

• cross reactive food proteins

• insomnia, lack of rest

• sedentary life, over exercising

• smoking, alcohol consumption, drug use

• poor relationship status, stress

• environmental chemicals like BPA or BPA alternatives, mercury, etc. 

• GI infections like H. Pylori, candida overgrowth, lyme 

There is no one perfect protocol for this disease and where you start working on it for you is different than how someone else will need to be treated. So in other words, the protocol is not linear. Ask your doctor if they have a specific protocol they use for Haashimoto’s. If they do and they use the same protocol for everyone, then you might not be getting the care you need. You may still have to see them though if they are your prescribing physician.

Be sure they are not throwing a bunch of supplements at you as well. You definitely will need some but you don’t need 10. The naturopath I saw when I was first diagnosed was, I think, just out of school and she used supplements like conventional doctors use medication. There was not a lot of dietary suggestions other than what came from my food sensitivity testing and I needed so much more. She was applying bandaids with supplements and you really want to avoid that unless it is something that needs a bandaid until you can really work on it. 

It sounds like you are really sensitive to chemicals which is usually an issue with your liver being really overwhelmed and not able to process those chemicals very well which causes you to be really sensitive to them. 

The inability to lose weight can be related to blood sugar dysregulation, or insulin or cortisol issues. These are the likely culprits though systemic inflammation or liver issues can also be the problem.  You said you are feeling lousy and fatigued on AIP- my first inclination is that you might be eating too much protein and fat and not enough vegetables though you said you are eating veggies at every meal so I wonder if there is some sort of detoxification going on that is making you feel poor. And good for you for doing organ meats. I am not there myself- no desire at all. If you don’t feel better soon, take a look at how much you are eating- maybe not enough protein? This one is tough to answer without looking at a food journal. 

You said you felt your thyroid swell while on a vegetarian and vegan diet - there is not a lot of research to support the idea that goitrogenic foods are the cause. You can cook your vegetables before eating them which can reduce the goitrogenic activity if you are concerned though. These foods, the goitrogenic foods, reduce oxidative stress which is what we want. You may want to look at how much salt you are consuming as that may be an issue for thyroid swelling and make sure you are not taking in any iodine. So watch the shellfish, seaweed and iodized salt intake. 

I guess I didn’t give you any specific questions to ask your doctor which may be a bit of a bummer for you. Just be sure they are not using a protocol they use on everyone else and that their plan is individualized for you. There are just so many factors at play here and everyone is different in what they need. I hope this helps and I wish you all the best of luck in your health journey. 

The average person sees their nutritionist 1.8 times. Maybe that is all you need to start feeling better? Maybe you need more. I can help you either way. The Covid-19 special is over but I’m still doing those one off consults because they were so popular. The price and the amount of time I spend with you has changed though. Instead of 15 minutes (which really turned out to be 30 minutes for most people taking advantage of the deal), you are getting an hour with me to go over your results and recommendations for $153. Follow up appointments will still be $37 for 15 minutes.

Here is what Ashley had to say about her results. 

“Hello Stephanie!

Just an update. You gave me a consult two months ago. I've been following your guidelines. Well, I have lost 16 pounds so far and my painful bloating is completely gone!

I have energy and feel very clear-headed most of the time!

Thank you!  I will send you another update in two months.

Just thank you so much!”

I’d say that speaks for itself. If you are someone who can take my advice and run with it, you may also have results like this. You have the power to change your health and your life and I am here to help you do that! Book now at www.outofthewoodsnutrition.com, go the to the Work With Me tab and scroll down to purchase the 60 minute consult with no package purchase for $153.00.  

Please send me your questions at outofthewoodsnutrition.com by filling out the contact form or just email me at helpforhashimotos@gmail.com. 

Until next time! 

I love you guys. 

Should I take iodine to support my thyroid?

The short answer is no. Here’s why. 

It is considered a trigger for Hashimoto’s and for thyroid autoimmunity in general which would include Grave’s disease. There have been several large studies that show people consuming iodine have higher thyroglobulin antibodies. People who have iodine deficiency to begin with have a 4x higher chance of increasing their thyroglobulin antibodies when they take in more iodine. Just 500 mcg of iodine triggered or provoked autoimmunity in previously healthy people when iodine was added to the diet. 

If you have long term exposure to iodine, it can have long term effects on regulation of your immune system, again, triggering autoimmunity. 

Iodine increases oxidative stress and promotes inflammatory reactions. Oxidative stress and destruction of thyroid cells within the thyroid leads to your body’s inability to make thyroid hormones and leads to destruction of your thyroid gland over time. 

Some examples of what it looks like when you supplement with iodine are: 

1. You have high TSH and have hypothyroid symptoms so you supplement with iodine which causes destruction of the thyroid gland but will give you a normal TSH and improve your symptoms for a while. 

2. You have normal TSH and no thyroid symptoms but you are consuming a fair amount of iodine through your diet or supplementing (it’s in all processed foods). You get thyroid gland destruction which will raise your TSH and maybe cause you anxiety and insomnia. 

3. You have normal TSH (all of these normals are according to conventional medicine) and are on thyroid hormone replacement. You have no symptoms. You supplement iodine, you have destruction of the thyroid gland and you get depressed TSH (around 0.01), high T4 and T3 and you have hyperthyroid symptoms. 

4. You have normal TSH, no symptoms, positive TPO antibodies (called silent autoimmunity), you supplement iodine, thyroid is being destroyed, you end up with normal TSH, no symptoms and TPO antibodies become elevated. 

Iodine is a goldilocks nutrient. Your intake needs to be just right. According to Datis Kharrazian you need about a pin drops worth each day which amounts to about a tablespoon a year. That isn’t a lot. I guarantee you are getting much more than that in a year if you eat a standard American diet or take a thyroid supplement with iodine in it. So if you are taking a supplement with iodine, I might consider stopping it. If you are prescribed iodine by your doctor, I don’t even know if that is a thing, then I would not stop without talking to your doctor. 

Another study, “Effect of small doses of iodine on thyroid function in patients with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis residing in an area of mild iodine deficiency”, states that just 250 mcg of iodine to people with euthroid status (meaning their thyroid is working fine) but that had silent autoimmunity showed significant changes to their thyroid hormone function. One woman in this study had a TSH that went from 2.5 to 43.3 after supplementation. Most of the other people in the study saw their TSH double but antibodies were all over the place from a 900 point increase to very minimal proving that this disease and anything else in health and nutrition is very bio-individual or personalized. 

A study on salt content in Slovenia showed that when the iodine in regular table salt there was increase from 10mg to 25mg of potassium iodide per kilogram of salt their rates of Hashimoto’s more than doubled. 

It also has been shown to increase nodular goiter in people. 

Iodine restriction may be a way to combat some of the thyroid disease plaguing the world. One study on this topic showed that 78% of subjects had normal thyroid function with just restricting their iodine and had no need for thyroid hormone replacement in just 3 months. Restriction in this study was less than 100mcg per day. 

In subclinical hypothyroidism which is when you have high TSH but no symptoms, iodine restriction is thought to normalize or decrease TSH levels and these iodine levels are correlated with urine iodine concentrations. It is thought that iodine restriction could be a major or preferred treatment option for some people. 

Where do we get most of our iodine? 

• Iodized salt is probably the biggest and that is in every processed food that has salt as an ingredient unless it is specified. 

• Seasoning mixes made with salt or things like onion salt, celery salt etc. 

• Seaweed and the snacks made from seaweed

• Foods containing iodates, iodide, algin, alginates, carrageen, agar

• All processed bread products

• Milk (1 oz a day is allowed)

• Egg yolks

• Seafood minus freshwater fish

• Many supplements, especially multi vitamins and thyroid supplements

• Anything with Red Dye #3

• Most restaurant and processed foods

• Soy products: edamame, tofu, soy burgers

Goitrogens on the other hand, we have long been told to avoid and that may not need to be the case. 

A study on broccoli sprouts in thyroid patients found that it was completely safe for thyroid patients to consume. The thyroid was not negatively affected at all. In fact, in this study, the broccoli sprouts were shown to activate Nrf2 which protects us against toxins and oxidative stress related conditions. 

Bottom line for goitrogens from food are that they do not cause goiter or affect how much T3 or T4 is produced.  They actually increase our levels of glutathione, our major antioxidant and protect our thyroid from oxidative stress/damage. 

Goitrogens from chemicals do cause goiter and do negatively affect the thyroid and should be avoided when possible. These are things like PCB’s and Phthalates. So cleaning up your environment including getting rid of plastics might be helpful which I have talked about on the detox podcasts. 

So bottom line, consider how much iodine you are getting in your food. If you are not feeling well or you can’t get your antibodies down, you might consider a low iodine diet to see if it helps. We also need to remember that there is an ebb and flow to this disease. We will always have to mind things like stress and food in order to feel our best. If you are in a place where normal to you is tired, moody, stressed, irregular bowels please know that is not normal, that is your body telling you something is off. 

Did you know the average person sees a nutrition professional only 1.8 times? That statistic is very disheartening but I get it. Diet and lifestyle changes can be really challenging, especially right now. If you are the type of person who can take information and run with it, the Covid-19 special might be just what you are looking for. It is an exceptional value at $37. For that price, you get to take the state of the art Nutritional Assessment Questionnaire (NAQ) which will show me where your body is out of balance. This allows me to make a personalized protocol for you and your unique situation. 

This is for you if you need a boost in the right direction for your health, not if you are dealing with multiple chronic health conditions. Now more than ever, we need to take control of our health and well being and this is a great way to get started. Once you do, you will be invited to join Nutri-Q and take your assessment and fill out a health history. Then we will meet by phone or Zoom for 15 minutes to go over your results and discuss your plan. I look forward to working with you on your health journey. 

You can learn more at outofthewoodsnutrition.com and click on covid-19 special at the top. This deal is going away at the end of June so now is a great time to get a kickstart on your well being and feel your best. 

Take care. 

What is SIBO?

Do I have SIBO? 

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

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

What is SIBO? 

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

Signs and Symptoms can include but are debated in the research

• bloating

• gas

• pain in abdominal area or discomfort

• burping often

• diarrhea

• nutrient malabsoprtion leading to weight loss or fatty stools

• joint pain

• nerve degeneration which is secondary to nutrient deficiency

• rosacea

• anemia

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

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

What puts you at risk for getting SIBO? 

• use of proton pump inhibitors

• narcotics and opiates

• partial or full removal of the stomach

• chronically inflamed pancreas

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

• AIDS

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

• being older than 75 years

• cirrhosis and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease 

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

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

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

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

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

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

How is SIBO treated? 

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

• stop use of proton pump inhibitors

• antibiotics are often used (Rifaximin and Metronidazole)

  • 7 days showed a moderate reduction in SIBO

  • good chance of SIBO coming back after treatment

• herbal antimicrobials 

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

  • pomegranate fruit rind

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

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

  • berberine

  • tea polyphenols (astringent effect)

• Galactooligosaccharides (supplement) or GOS

• Partially Hydrolyzed Guar Gum

• No snacking- stops those cleansing waves

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

• Glutamine

• Saccharomyces cerevisiae variety boulardii Biocodex

• Digestive enzymes with meals, bitters, potentially HCl

• Low FODMAP diet up to 6 months. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What is Celiac Disease?

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

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

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

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

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

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

What are the symptoms of celiac disease? 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Read labels. Know what is in your food. 

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

Common symptoms for many people. 

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

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

"Thank you so much for the consult just now! 

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

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

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

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

My heart is with you all. Peace. 

Can Probiotics Help Hashimoto’s

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Until next week. Stay sane.

Sick and Tired of Being Tired

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• low libido

• thyroid problems

• menstrual problems, PMS

• breast swelling/tender breasts, breast fibroids

• brain fog

• insomnia, fatigue

• fat accumulation at hips and abdomen

• mood issues

• slower metabolism

What contributes to estrogen dominance?

• stress

• overweight

• poor digestion

• crappy diet

• oral contraceptives

• hormone replacement therapies

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

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

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

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

What can you do to positively impact your gut microbiome?

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

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

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

-Don’t drink a lot of alcohol

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

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

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

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

Is Hashimoto's a Life Sentence ?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

LeeAnn

49, mom of three, in Colorado

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Coronavirus info and listener question answered

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

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

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

Thank you for any advice you can give me

Nannette

Hi Nannette, 

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

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

You tend to be a night person

You can’t fall asleep

You can’t get going in the morning

You feel “keyed” up and have trouble calming down

You have higher or low blood pressure

You get a headache after exercising

You don’t tolerate caffeine

You clench or grind your teeth

You have chronic low back pain that gets worse with fatigue

You get dizzy after standing up too quickly

You don’t hold chiropractic adjustments

You crave salt, sweat easily

You have chronic fatigue

You yawn in the afternoon or get an afternoon headache

You tend towards shin splints if you were to exercise

You need sunglasses outside even if its not sunny

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

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

Some other things to think about are: 

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

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

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

4. Are you sleeping?

5. How is your stress?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hi Stephanie,  

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

Thanks,

Tracey

Hi Tracey, 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Until next week. 

How to begin a detox program

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

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

• bloating, gas, GERD

• joint pain, muscle aches

• low energy

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

• IBS

• leaky gut

• asthma

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

• fibromyalgia, arthritis

• mood disorders- anxiety, depression etc

• allergies

• weight gain

• food intolerances/sensitivity

• high liver enzymes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• body lotion

• shampoo, conditioner

• body wash, soap

• deodorant

• cosmetics

• perfume

• skin creams, cleansers, serums

• lip balms

• nail polish

• hand soap

• laundry detergent

• household cleaners

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

Here is my list: 

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

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

• Ecos dish soap

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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