August 14, 2025 • 37 mins
So many symptoms, so few answers. Until now.Camilla shares the diagnosis that changed her life forever with thyroid specialist Dr. Izabella Wentz.
Hear how easy it is to chock up symptoms to stress and our busy lives, when there could be something else going on in your body!
Find out what that was for Camilla and how she’s now thriving… not just surviving.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Call It What It Is with Jessica Capshaw and Camil
Ludington and iHeartRadio Podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Hello, Hello, Hello Call.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
It crew, and welcome to another episode of Call It
What It Is. I Kamila Ludington. I'm flying solo for
this episode today.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
And before I tell.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
You guys about our amazing special guests that I'm really
excited that we have on today, I want to talk
a little bit about last week's episode. So obviously I
revealed that I had Hashimoto's hypothyroidism, and I have to say, you, guys,
(00:51):
the feedback from all of you has just been really
incredible and has felt.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
So support and I've been reading so many of.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
Your comments and I'm overwhelmed, honestly by how many of
us in this Call It community also have thyroid diseases
or you've had your thyroid removed and you're experiencing very
similar symptoms. And I asked you guys for any questions
(01:26):
you had to send them our way, and you guys
absolutely followed through. One person I kept seeing come up
online was doctor Isabella Wentz Now. She is a pharmacist
and a functional medicine expert who became a leading voice
in thyroid health after her own diagnosis of Hashimotos hyperthyroid
(01:49):
itis in two thousand and nine. So many of you
have read one of her books. It just kept coming
up and it was called the Hashimotos Protocol. And I'm
very happy to welcome her onto the podcast. Doctor Weed's
welcome to call it what it is.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Thank you so much for having me, Camila, such a
pleasure to be here with you.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
Can you tell us a little bit about your journey?
Speaker 1 (02:15):
Sure? So, in full disclosure, I was never interested in
the thyroid land during my own training. It wasn't until
I was diagnosed myself with hashimotos in two thousand and nine,
after about a decade of some really confusing and debilitating symptoms,
is when I decided that I was going to figure
out how to get myself better, and then I was
(02:36):
going to help others do the same. So I became
a hashimotives expert by ways of being a bit of
a human guinea pig and being my own experiment.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
I think it's amazing to have a doctor and talk
to somebody that actually understands the experience because it is
very confusing.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
What are some of the symptoms. I'm interested that you.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
Were feeling for a long time that you felt could
have been something else but then ended up being hashimotos.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
I would say unrelenting fatigue, where I was just chronically exhausted,
and everybody would say, you need to sleep more, you
need to sleep less, you need to exercise more. Have
you tried this? You know, you're just getting older. And
I would say that was the most damaging symptom because
it took so much of my life away in my twenties.
(03:26):
Then there were symptoms like panic attacks and anxiety, which
were not really part of my personality and they sort
of came out of nowhere, and you know, of course
people would say, oh, well everybody's anxious. You're in graduate
school or you're working. This is hard, this is big
girls stuff. Of course you're going to be anxious. And
then there were symptoms like carpal tunnel syndrome and brain
(03:48):
fog and hair loss, where I would go to see
different experts and they would say, oh, the hair loss,
this isn't related to this, or this isn't related to that.
So I would go to see some like a specialist
for pain for my carpal tunnel syndrome, and then somebody
to help me with acid reflex and it was just
very confusing because the symptoms were all over the place.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
It affects so much and that's what I'm learning, and
affects so much of your body, and so it does
feel like these symptoms are sort of all over the place.
I'm going to jump into all the questions, so is
that we can get through as much as possible because this,
you know, we had such a huge response from people, so.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
I think people were very shocked.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
Can you let us know again how commonness is and
why you believe it's more common in women?
Speaker 2 (04:39):
That question came up a lot.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
Hashimotos sounds like an exotic Japanese sword fighter, but it's
actually very very common condition affecting one in five women
at some point in their lives. Typically pregnancy, puberty, and
perimenopause are going to be the peak three times when
women are diagnosed. There is a school of thought that
believes that hormone changes, you know, all of our hormones
(05:02):
talk to one another, can be one of the primary
reasons why women may be more susceptible.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
Wow, okay, is it something that is hereditary and genetics?
So I have a daughter, is she more likely to
develop something like this because I have it.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
It's an interesting condition because it's both hereditary, but it's
also environmental, and so you can have identical twins if
a condition was purely genetic both if one twin had
the condition, the other one would as well. That's not
necessarily the case with hashimotos. So if my twin had it,
then I would have a greater chance of having it,
(05:38):
but not one hundred percent chance, So we know there's
a big environmental fact. We do know that children are
going to be at greater risk if parents who have
the condition. Interesting studies have shown that the dad having
Hafshi motos, there's going to be a much more higher
likelihood that the children will as well. With moms, it
(05:58):
can be hit or miss. I do think it's an
important thing to monitor and be aware because a lot
of times hashimotos can start for five, ten, fifteen years
before we get a proper diagnosis, and sometimes that can
show up in children in different ways than it could
show up in adults. For example, children might have growth issues,
(06:20):
teenagers might be extra extra moody. We might have young
women in their twenties and hashimotives might show up as
irritable bowel syndrome. Then we might have women in their
thirties and hawshimotives might show up as trouble trying to
conceive or multiple miscarriages, And unfortunately a lot of times
this diagnosis is missed, which is so amazing that you're
(06:41):
raising awareness about this and you've gotten your own diagnosis.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
So I want to touch on something that you just
mentioned there, because we did have a lot of questions
about this. People were wondering do women with hashimotos need
to take extra precautions when they're pregnant or breastfeeding and
can't affect your fertility.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
It could absolutely impact your fertility. So having not enough
thyroid hormone on board, which is going to be an
advanced stage of hashchimotos, can lead to trouble with getting pregnant.
It can lead to miscarriages. It can also lead to
developmental delays in the offspring. Having hypothyroidism can lead to
(07:21):
trouble with breastfeeding, so you may not make enough breast milk.
It can lead to postpartum depression. And then there's also
the hypothyroidism piece, which a lot of I think endochronologists
and doctors may talk about, but there's also the autoimmune
piece where a lot of functional medicine practitioners tend to
focus on that. The autoimmunity when you have the elevated
(07:44):
thyroid antibodies, that can actually interfere with fertility and implantation
as well. That can impact our ability to carry a
baby to term, and that can also be associated with
issues like postpartum psychos postpartum health issues, So it is
extra important to make sure. I would advocate for every
(08:07):
woman trying to get pregnant to test for thyroid antibodies
and to test for thyroid function, to make sure that
was dialed in because you're going to you're going to
feel so much better, you're gonna have a greater chance
of getting pregnant, and your babies are going to be
much healthier. And if you're already on thyroid meds, you
also need to adjust your dosage when you first get pregnant.
(08:29):
Generally speaking, people are going to need more thyroid hormone
to ensure that the baby gets enough right because babies
and when they're still developing right top thyroid glands, so
they depend on moms circulating thyroid hormone and that helps
with brain development and so many other important parts of
the baby's growth.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
How do they test ren like, what do they need
to specifically ask their doctors.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
For when they're going for their labs, What do they
need to be doing?
Speaker 1 (08:58):
So I would ask for a panel, a full thyroid paneling.
If you were to go into an office and say
I want my thyroid tested, the H tests would be done,
which is very helpful for advanced cases of thyroid dysfunction,
but it can actually be normal in the first five
to ten years. And so you also want to ask
(09:20):
for thyroid antibodies. The two most commonly associated with hashimotos
are going to be thyroid peroxidase antibodies and thyroglobulin antibodies
TPO and TG is how I have people just write that,
and then I look at the thyroid hormones. In rare cases,
(09:40):
somebody might have normal thyroid levels of TSH, and they
might have they might not have thyroid antibodies, but there
might be a communication breakdown between their pituitary gland that
secretes TSH and between the actual thyroid hormones that are present,
and so T three and T four hormones are also
(10:03):
we want to look at and I would say that
would be a minimum for me, for every woman in
the child bearing ages, anybody with weird symptoms like anxiety
or fatigue, or pain or even irritable bowel syndrome.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
Wow, Okay, now I was seeing a lot online people
talking about my TSH level looks normal, but I'm still
feeling awful. Why is that most of my clients feel
best with the TSH between point five and two, and
really anything above I would say two point five is
(10:40):
going to be suspect.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Where I've seen dozens of lab tests that people have
brought to me and their doctors will say, your TSH
is five, or TSHS six or seven or eight, that's normal.
We don't need to do anything where personally, I felt
like a sloth when I had a TSH of four
point five that was wearing two jackets in the middle
(11:01):
of a scarf and just all over the place. And
so this is going to be another important reconsideration. And
then of course there's the autoimmune component. So you can
have a normal TSH, but if you have really high
thyroty into bodies, these santibodies can be leading to a
whole host of different symptoms such as anxiety, such as fatigue,
(11:24):
just an overall feeling of unwell. And then of course
we have to look at the thyroid hormones. Sometimes that
TSH might be high, it might be normal, it might
be low, but we also want to take a look
at what's actually happening. Do we have enough of those
thyroid hormones to bide thyroid receptors.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
So now is that a different kind of medication because
when I got diagnosed, I got put on lee both
by roxine. If your TSH is now normal, but you're
noticing in your panel that other things are not, is
there an additional medicine that then you should be taking,
or prescription you should be taking, or supplement for sure.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Definitely, if you have a TSH that's normal but you're
still not feeling your best, I would look thyroid hormones.
T four is one of the main active thyroid hormones,
and levothyroxine is the same as T four. Now we
also have T three that gets converted from T four,
(12:25):
and T three is the more physiologically active hormone. Generally speaking,
when your T three levels are dialed in, you're going
to have beautiful hair, lots of energy, your metabolism is
going to be working really well for you. Your brain's
going to be working for you really well. And on paper,
the T four to T three conversion happens really really nicely. Right. However,
(12:47):
in the human body, in some cases, a person might
be taking levothyroxine and their body just doesn't convert enough
of it to that T three and end up having
a lot of thyroid symptoms even though they're on thyroid medicine.
And so this is where other types of thyroid hormones
can come in in prescription format, so you can take
(13:08):
T three directly. There's a medication known as cytaml or
leothyronine that could be added to the T four. Some
patients might benefit from using a natural desiccated thyroid medication
like armor thyroid, and this is derived from animal thyroid
glands and has some T four and some T three
(13:28):
in it. Or patients might wish to get compounded versions
of T four and T three and just the right
ratios for them. And then, of course I always like
to look at what are the underlying reasons why somebody
might not making might be making that conversion. So why
why are you getting all this T four but your
(13:50):
body's not making enough T three from it, and a
lot of times it has to do with low iron status,
it has to do with stress. It can also be
an issue when you're living is overburdened, or you have
nutrient efficiencies. So we can do a lot of different
we can do a lot of different things to optimize
those pathways. But for some people it's easier just to
(14:10):
take a teethreecontaining medication directly.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
Okay, thank you so much for that, because I know
a lot of people are still not feeling great on
their medication. There's a lot of talk online and this
(14:35):
is where got confusing for me. Should we be avoiding
gluten and dairy?
Speaker 1 (14:42):
For me from a practicality standpoint, I tell people, why
don't you try a gluten free diet for three weeks
if you improve? And some people are like, I'm never
this is never going to work, And then all of
a sudden they're like, holy cow, so many things improved.
I have so much less inflammation. And your body will
(15:02):
tell you the other reactive foods are going to be
dairy and soy. So about eighty percent of the people
that I've worked with feel better dairy free. About seventy
eight percent of the people feel better soy free. The
other major dietary change I recommend is blood sugar balance.
So generally speaking, maybe not in LA but a Western diet,
(15:28):
we want to eat more protein and carbohydrates potentially more
of a more healthy fats versus being very very dependent
on carbohydrates. So getting on like a very blood sugar
balanced diet can be very very helpful for people because
the blood sugar swings actually really can impact hashimotos antibodies.
Speaker 3 (15:51):
Okay, I love Okay, that's great. That was actually my
next question, so it's perfect. Okay.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
Is there a link between breast implants and hashimotos?
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Rest Implant illness can be a potential factor for various
types of autoimmune disorders in some women have observed that
their health started really declining once they had breast implants
put in right. I have had some clients, and definitely
there are clients that never had breast implants and still
(16:21):
had hashimotos right, but getting them their breast implants removed
would be has been a really big game changer for
them as far as they're lammatory markers and feeling their best.
I've had clients that were eating the cleanest diets and
trying to do everything perfectly well on thyroid medications and
still not thriving. And then they would connect with a
(16:43):
breast implant surgeon and in some cases they might have
leaky breast implants or perhaps some growths around them that
could potentially what can happen is they can essentially stimulate
the immune system and upregulate it, so you end up
attack sucking whatever pathogens are perhaps growing as myri gland
(17:05):
that may cross react.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
Okay, what about a link between UTIs and hash motos.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
That's a very interesting link. So typically UTIs can be
caused by E coli and CLUBCILA. I did a bit
of an outcome survey with some of my followers and
clients to see if there was a connection there, and
about fifty percent of people mentioned that before the onset
of hashimotos they struggled with urinary track infections. Wow, the
(17:37):
UTIs themselves or all of the antibiotic treatment that follows,
and that really challenges that got microbiome which helps us
absorb all of our thyroid nutrients. But there's definitely a
connection there.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
Wow, that's fascinating.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
Okay, So I think one thing that's been asked a
law is so someone was saying, someone wanted to know
their fourteen year old just got diagnosed and her TSH
was ninety one Mine was ninety seven point five and
(18:17):
eighteen months ago I had normal labs.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
Sup, I guess, and.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
Is there does that mean that like I had no
hashimotos before that it could have or could have been
like lying dormant.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
Yeah. Absolutely so. There are different stages to hashimotos. Five
have been described. The first stage is essentially just the
genetic predisposition, So for all intents and purposes, you don't
have thyroid antibodies. There's no attack against your thyrog land,
and your thyroid function is normal. The second stage of
hashimotos is when you start having an attack against your
(18:56):
thyroid land. Typically this is going to present with elevated
thyroid antibodies, so high levels of those TPO and TG antibodies,
but your TSH might still be perfectly normal, and your
thyroid hormone levels might still be perfectly normal. Then the's
stage three, but you might still be symptomatic just because
of those thyroid antibodies. Stage three of hashimotos is when
(19:19):
you start seeing a little bit of a gradual rise
in TSH where you might have a TSH of up
to ten. And then stage four is when your TSH
goes really high above that eight or ten mark. Your
T four T three may get impacted. Stage four is
when most people actually get diagnosed. But everything else starting
(19:40):
stage two could have been going on for five, ten,
fifteen years, so it could have been marinating in the
background where you're fire goin, could have been under attack,
but it was still compensating. By stage four, you've damaged
the immune system, has damaged enough of the thyroid gland
where your body is no longer able to compensate. It's
just essentially shouting PA is more thyroid hormone and setting
(20:02):
out more of that TSAH signal. And then stage five
is progression to other autoimmune conditions. I'm a big proponent
of getting an early diagnosis. So can we figure out
when you're in stage two that you have thyroid antibodies,
and we can work on reducing those thyroid antibodies so
you don't progress to overt hypothyroidism, and we prevent five, ten,
(20:23):
fifteen years of getting the run around going to psychiatrists,
going to pain doctors, going to all these different places.
Because you have no idea what's going on, and nobody
can figure out why you know, why you're sick, why
you're struggling.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
Am I more likely because the sort of mine ended
up being very severe right when I got diagnosed.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
I'm I now in a situation where.
Speaker 3 (20:45):
One auto this autoimmune disease can go on now to
lead to another.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
Am I more susceptible to that?
Speaker 1 (20:51):
If you have one autoimmune condition, you're going to be
at greater risk for additional autoimmune conditions.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
If someone is you know, has a ninety one like
this lady is saying that her daughter has, or like
a ninety seven point five like I.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
Have, how quickly are we able to feel better?
Speaker 1 (21:08):
Generally speaking, you can feel significantly better in about ninety
days or so with a really elevated tsage. It might
take you a few months of starting thyraid meds and
then following up retesting your levels. You don't want to
go on like a super megadose right away and want
to figure out exactly how much your body needs, and
(21:29):
that may take a few months to really tight trate
up to that target dose for you and starting the
lifestyle changes. In lifestyle interventions, people could feel better within
a few weeks few days, depending on if they do
the right type of intervention. I typically walk people through
a ninety day protocol and they do start feeling better
(21:50):
within the first week or so.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
What does that protocol look like? Can you break it
down for us?
Speaker 1 (21:54):
Focus? We focus a lot on nutrition, so getting through
a blood sugar balance diet. We might cut out gluten, dairy,
and soy for a period of thirty to ninety days
to make sure those are not an issue for that person.
And then we really start focusing on supporting some of
the body's own pathways. So for example, a lot of
(22:17):
times people have a hard time with conversion of thyroid hormones,
so I have them support their liver function to help
to process various hormone, various toxins in our environment, and
this can help them feel better in about two weeks.
Then we really focus on their stress response. We might
use thiamine for energy production, we might use some we
(22:43):
might use some adaptogens like ashwaganda to help them calm
down their stress response, and we'll do that for about
a period of four weeks, and then we'll really dial
in some gut health. I typically work that a little
bit longer. A lot of times the there are triggers
that bring on the autoimmune conditions. Sometimes they are related
(23:05):
to having chronic stress in your life. Sometimes they're related
to a toxic exposure, and sometimes they're related to a
gut infection. And so we're just trying to dial those
things in and cover all of our bases to get
a person into feeling better and into that remission state
so that their thyrid antibodies aren't continually destroying their thig land.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
Some people online are talking about how they've been able
to put their hashimotos into remission naturally without taking any medication.
Is that I guess My question is like, is that real?
Like can you really do that?
Speaker 1 (23:46):
Definitely in the early stages, Okay, write in stage two
of hashimotos and you don't have any damage to your
thiry land, then you can absolutely take on lifestyle changes.
Selenium and myoinocetol in the very early stages. When used together,
they seem to have a synergistic approach where the thyroid
(24:06):
antibodies can lower and normalize, and even like very I
guess I would say small disruptions in thyroid function can
be normalized, and so the very early stages, you can
utilize something like that for two to three months and
you can absolutely get into remission. Now, if you're in
stage four of hashimotos and you've had ninety percent of
(24:29):
your thyro gland damaged, you can absolutely still do all
the lifestyle interventions. They're going to make you feel a
lot better, they're going to reduce your thyroid antibodies, but
you're still going to need to be on some kind
of thyroid hormone because you know, we can't necessarily grow
back at thyroid in this day and a. There are
some innovative companies that are trying to figure out a
way to do so, but we're not there yet right
(24:50):
maybe in five years, but at this point, we do
have to take thyroid hormones when we are in those
advanced stages.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
Okay, so that would be me. A lot of people
are asking it. Can your thyroid affect your sex drive?
Speaker 1 (25:06):
Absolutely, both for men and for women. So thyroid hormones
can impact our testosterol levels. Interestingly, I will say women
typically complain about hair loss on fatigue and waking, and
men will come in because of sex drive issues, right
or they can't grow a beard, So just thyroid hormones
themselves can absolutely impact our libido and sex drive.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
Can birth control mess with your thyroid?
Speaker 1 (25:45):
That's a really interesting question. When I first started researching hashimotos,
I thought about that question and it made sense to
me that the birth control could do that. I wasn't
one hundred percent sure, but I look at all the
different pathways with alterrain gut microbiome, with changing different hormones,
(26:08):
as well as the impact on various vitamins and nutrients,
and it made a lot of sense to me. In
recent years, large scale studies have actually come out and
confirmed this that yes, getting on birth control pills can
potentially lead to THYROI dysfunction. So this is something I've suspected,
but just recent very recently, the research has confirmed.
Speaker 3 (26:30):
Okay, somebody else has asked what age should you get
regular blood checks or general health checks.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
We have a lot of young listeners.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
Gosh I would say at eighteen. I have a son,
and as much as he hates blood work, we try
to do it on an annual basis. We put some
numbing cream on his arm. He plays a little bit
of Minecraft, and I do think it is important to
be proactive with our health and especially if you have
(27:00):
a family history and if you've got anything weird going on, right, So, yeah, teenager,
that's moody. Or maybe she doesn't have her period, or
she's losing her hair or gaining weight or losing too
much weight. Let's get some blood work for her. And
it takes a few few minutes. You know, I'm I'm needlephobic,
and I do it, so I've yeah important, Okay, And
(27:24):
can you could you be I have my daughters eight
years old. Could you be eight years old and this
be something that happens to you or is that very rare?
It can happen in children. It tends to be more
common around puberty.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
Interesting, Okay, that's that's great for everyone to look out for.
If people are a stage four like me, is their
hope because sometimes there's a lot of doom and gloom
when I've been on TikTok and it gets so overwhelming it.
Have you seen women men with you know, ninety seven
point five maybe even in the hundred something extreme be
(27:59):
able to feel normal again? Have you and have their
levels returned to normal? Oh?
Speaker 1 (28:04):
Absolutely, I see it all the time. So it is
some work that you have to put in so you
have to probably dial in a few things. If your
thyroid has been dysfunctioning for a while, you might have
to You might be nutrient depleted, so you would want
to address nutrient deficiencies. B twelve, ferretin, vitamin D are
some of the ones that come up in addition to
(28:25):
doing you know, the thyroid hormones. Typically I would say
we might need to adjust a few different things to
get you back on track. But absolutely, and I've had
women who are in their seventies and eighties, and by
following some of these lifestyle changes, sometimes it's as simple
as starting on one nutrient. You know, depending on what's
(28:46):
going on within their bodies, they can be completely transformed
in three, five, seven days. Sometimes sometimes it doesn't put
longer they've got more going on. But one example that
I'm always excited to share is thiamine. Women with thyroid
fatigue and low blood pressure. Some of them, when we
(29:07):
would give them around six hundred milligrams of thiamine, they'd
have a resolution of their fatigue in like three to
five days. I've had women wow stability for twenty years
and with the addition of thiamine, even though they had
been on thyroid meds and tried some other things. They
were able to get a complete remission of their fatigue
(29:28):
and they started to feel human again. So definitely you
can get there. I'm so glad that you were diagnosed,
and I'm so glad that you took charge of your
own health and ordered your own labs, because sometimes we
have to right ourselves. And now you're doing you know,
now you're doing the research and figuring out what things
you need to dial in. I think a lot of
(29:50):
us do have to advocate for our own health doctors.
You know that everybody's a little bit different, So one
person might be super well first in something, and another
person might just be very much by the book where
they learned that thiray disorders are no big deal and
you just need to give this one medication and if
somebody has ongoing symptoms, they're probably just making it up.
(30:13):
And I'm not kidding. That's what some people have learned.
Speaker 3 (30:16):
No, I'm saying that a lot online, a lot of frustration,
a lot of people not feeling by like they're being
heard because their labs are t stage. It's coming back normal,
and it's overwhelming.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
It can be very challenging. It can be very overwhelming.
One of the challenges I've seen is that some people
simply do better on natural desiccated thyroid. They tend to
have for whatever reason, their unique biochemistry responds much better
to that of the synthetic medications and the natural desicated
(30:52):
thyroid hormones. They contain T four, T three, and perhaps
small amounts of T one and T two that may
play some physiological actions. And unfortunately, these medications are commonly underutilized.
Many practitioners don't know how to work with them, and
recently the FDA has asked for them to be removed
(31:12):
off the market. So there's a lot of challenges we
need to advocate for ourselves.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
Okay, can we still enjoy alcohol?
Speaker 1 (31:23):
So I've had alcohol, I've had mohetoes, and I've had
margaritas and all kinds of things, and this is definitely
something that you can enjoy in moderation on your healing journey.
I would commit thirty sixty to ninety days and just
just try to focus on eating a clean diet. Blood.
We know wine, as much as we love it, it can
(31:44):
cause a lot of blood sugar swings, right, Yeah, blood
sugar swings hypoglycemia or even too much blood sugar can
really impact those thyroid antibodies and increase the aggressiveness of
the attack on the thyrid land. And so I say,
you know, generally, in my protocols, I'll have people go
for at least two weeks off of alcohol. That doesn't
(32:07):
mean you'll never be able to have alcohol again. You
know you can. In many cases, you can introduce a
lot of the foods and dairy and all the things
back into your body. But some of the things initially
gives you an opportunity to recognize what your individual triggers
might be. Like I had no idea that I had
(32:29):
irritable bowel syndrome, carpal tunnel syndrome, horrific bloating despite all
the pilates classes I went to and how flux And
within three days of going gluten and dairy free, all
that was gone, and that different things are triggering you.
Gluten and dairy are being some of the more common ones.
For some people, it's alcohol. I have random strange foods
(32:52):
like pineapple, that's a trigger. But it's a matter of
figuring out, like what's kind of messing with your immune system,
what's messing with blood sugar right, and how to dial that.
Speaker 3 (33:02):
In before you go. I want to just reiterate because
I want you just to repeat one last time for
anyone listening to this as thinking, wait a second, I
have anxiety, I'm tired, I'm my hair spinning, or any
combination or one of these and wants to go to
their doctor. I would love for you to just repeat
(33:25):
one last time what they need to be asking for
to find out if there is a thyroid issue in play.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
To find out if you have a thyroid issue in play,
you definitely want to ask your doctor for a TSH
test that's going to see if your pituitary is responding
to your thyroid hormone levels. You're going to want to
ask them to check for T three and T four hormones,
and you definitely want to ask for thyroid antibodies. The
two most important ones are going to be thyroid peroxides
antibodies and thyrodglobulin antibodies. You can ask for TPO and
(33:56):
TG antibodies. They'll know what you're talking about. Often max
these antibodies can be elevated for five, ten, fifteen years
before we see a change in TSH.
Speaker 2 (34:06):
This is so informative. Thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (34:08):
I was equally comforted and horrified about how common this is,
and thank you, and I would love to have you
back on the show again. I'm sure we're going to
get more questions from the listeners, but thank you so
much for being here. I feel more educated. I had
so many of these questions myself. I think it is
so confusing when you're reading everything and you sort of
(34:29):
don't know what you should be doing, and it's an
overwhelming diagnosis when you get it. But I think that
you've really made sense of so much of this and
it's just so encouraging. So thank you for being here
and educating all of us.
Speaker 1 (34:45):
Thank you so much for raising awareness about this topic.
I know it's probably not something that was on your
radar until you were personally diagnosed, but know that you're
making a big difference.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
Just thank you.
Speaker 1 (34:59):
I know that you will heal and you're going to
find ways to get yourself feeling better. It's absolutely possible.
I think sometimes there's a lot of doom and gloom
online because people come there to complain, but I think
it's also important for us to share stories of healing. Yes, yes,
I'm an example of that, and I have a lot
of friends and colleagues and clients who are also examples
(35:23):
of people that have taken charge of their health and
healed themselves. They don't have any more symptoms, they're thriving,
they're living their best lives. I would love to have
you on my show with Thyroid Pharmacists Healing Conversations. I
would love that you can share your healing journey and
we can inspire other people to take charge of their
own health. There's so many solutions out there. You can
(35:44):
absolutely live symptom free. If you got caught in the
early stages, you can definitely get the condition into remission
in most cases. And then there's also ways to dial
in your thyroid hormones even if you got caught in
the later stages. It just takes a little take a
little bit of time, and it does take advocating for yourself.
Speaker 3 (36:04):
Amazing. Thank you so much. I will happily go on
your podcast anytime. All right, guys, I'm so happy that
we got to talk to her and pick her brain
and ask her all the questions. Honestly, sometimes I was
just thinking this is I was talking to her sometimes
when I realized that I was so severe. You know,
(36:24):
she's talking about TSH levels that are way lower than mine,
and then I'm like with my almost one hundred. But
I know that there are listeners out there that are
also you know, you guys are in the stage four
like I am, and and I think that this brings
a lot of comfort and a lot of hope.
Speaker 2 (36:43):
And for any of us.
Speaker 3 (36:44):
Listening to this and just thinking, like, you know, I'm
really tired all the time. Maybe it's not just me,
Maybe it's not just me being a mom and all
those things that we just discussed, really advocate for yourself.
Go get tested, because to have an answer like this,
even though it's intimidating, is just so helpful. Please send
(37:07):
us any more questions that you have. I will continue
to have her on the show. I'm going to continue
to take you guys on this journey with me. I
think it's so important, and for now I will call
it
Speaker 2 (37:18):
The end of the episode.
Call It What It Is with Jessica Capshaw and Camil
Ludington and iHeartRadio Podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Hello, Hello, Hello Call.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
It crew, and welcome to another episode of Call It
What It Is. I Kamila Ludington. I'm flying solo for
this episode today.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
And before I tell.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
You guys about our amazing special guests that I'm really
excited that we have on today, I want to talk
a little bit about last week's episode. So obviously I
revealed that I had Hashimoto's hypothyroidism, and I have to say, you, guys,
(00:51):
the feedback from all of you has just been really
incredible and has felt.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
So support and I've been reading so many of.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
Your comments and I'm overwhelmed, honestly by how many of
us in this Call It community also have thyroid diseases
or you've had your thyroid removed and you're experiencing very
similar symptoms. And I asked you guys for any questions
(01:26):
you had to send them our way, and you guys
absolutely followed through. One person I kept seeing come up
online was doctor Isabella Wentz Now. She is a pharmacist
and a functional medicine expert who became a leading voice
in thyroid health after her own diagnosis of Hashimotos hyperthyroid
(01:49):
itis in two thousand and nine. So many of you
have read one of her books. It just kept coming
up and it was called the Hashimotos Protocol. And I'm
very happy to welcome her onto the podcast. Doctor Weed's
welcome to call it what it is.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Thank you so much for having me, Camila, such a
pleasure to be here with you.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
Can you tell us a little bit about your journey?
Speaker 1 (02:15):
Sure? So, in full disclosure, I was never interested in
the thyroid land during my own training. It wasn't until
I was diagnosed myself with hashimotos in two thousand and nine,
after about a decade of some really confusing and debilitating symptoms,
is when I decided that I was going to figure
out how to get myself better, and then I was
(02:36):
going to help others do the same. So I became
a hashimotives expert by ways of being a bit of
a human guinea pig and being my own experiment.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
I think it's amazing to have a doctor and talk
to somebody that actually understands the experience because it is
very confusing.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
What are some of the symptoms. I'm interested that you.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
Were feeling for a long time that you felt could
have been something else but then ended up being hashimotos.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
I would say unrelenting fatigue, where I was just chronically exhausted,
and everybody would say, you need to sleep more, you
need to sleep less, you need to exercise more. Have
you tried this? You know, you're just getting older. And
I would say that was the most damaging symptom because
it took so much of my life away in my twenties.
(03:26):
Then there were symptoms like panic attacks and anxiety, which
were not really part of my personality and they sort
of came out of nowhere, and you know, of course
people would say, oh, well everybody's anxious. You're in graduate
school or you're working. This is hard, this is big
girls stuff. Of course you're going to be anxious. And
then there were symptoms like carpal tunnel syndrome and brain
(03:48):
fog and hair loss, where I would go to see
different experts and they would say, oh, the hair loss,
this isn't related to this, or this isn't related to that.
So I would go to see some like a specialist
for pain for my carpal tunnel syndrome, and then somebody
to help me with acid reflex and it was just
very confusing because the symptoms were all over the place.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
It affects so much and that's what I'm learning, and
affects so much of your body, and so it does
feel like these symptoms are sort of all over the place.
I'm going to jump into all the questions, so is
that we can get through as much as possible because this,
you know, we had such a huge response from people, so.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
I think people were very shocked.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
Can you let us know again how commonness is and
why you believe it's more common in women?
Speaker 2 (04:39):
That question came up a lot.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
Hashimotos sounds like an exotic Japanese sword fighter, but it's
actually very very common condition affecting one in five women
at some point in their lives. Typically pregnancy, puberty, and
perimenopause are going to be the peak three times when
women are diagnosed. There is a school of thought that
believes that hormone changes, you know, all of our hormones
(05:02):
talk to one another, can be one of the primary
reasons why women may be more susceptible.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
Wow, okay, is it something that is hereditary and genetics?
So I have a daughter, is she more likely to
develop something like this because I have it.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
It's an interesting condition because it's both hereditary, but it's
also environmental, and so you can have identical twins if
a condition was purely genetic both if one twin had
the condition, the other one would as well. That's not
necessarily the case with hashimotos. So if my twin had it,
then I would have a greater chance of having it,
(05:38):
but not one hundred percent chance, So we know there's
a big environmental fact. We do know that children are
going to be at greater risk if parents who have
the condition. Interesting studies have shown that the dad having
Hafshi motos, there's going to be a much more higher
likelihood that the children will as well. With moms, it
(05:58):
can be hit or miss. I do think it's an
important thing to monitor and be aware because a lot
of times hashimotos can start for five, ten, fifteen years
before we get a proper diagnosis, and sometimes that can
show up in children in different ways than it could
show up in adults. For example, children might have growth issues,
(06:20):
teenagers might be extra extra moody. We might have young
women in their twenties and hashimotives might show up as
irritable bowel syndrome. Then we might have women in their
thirties and hawshimotives might show up as trouble trying to
conceive or multiple miscarriages, And unfortunately a lot of times
this diagnosis is missed, which is so amazing that you're
(06:41):
raising awareness about this and you've gotten your own diagnosis.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
So I want to touch on something that you just
mentioned there, because we did have a lot of questions
about this. People were wondering do women with hashimotos need
to take extra precautions when they're pregnant or breastfeeding and
can't affect your fertility.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
It could absolutely impact your fertility. So having not enough
thyroid hormone on board, which is going to be an
advanced stage of hashchimotos, can lead to trouble with getting pregnant.
It can lead to miscarriages. It can also lead to
developmental delays in the offspring. Having hypothyroidism can lead to
(07:21):
trouble with breastfeeding, so you may not make enough breast milk.
It can lead to postpartum depression. And then there's also
the hypothyroidism piece, which a lot of I think endochronologists
and doctors may talk about, but there's also the autoimmune
piece where a lot of functional medicine practitioners tend to
focus on that. The autoimmunity when you have the elevated
(07:44):
thyroid antibodies, that can actually interfere with fertility and implantation
as well. That can impact our ability to carry a
baby to term, and that can also be associated with
issues like postpartum psychos postpartum health issues, So it is
extra important to make sure. I would advocate for every
(08:07):
woman trying to get pregnant to test for thyroid antibodies
and to test for thyroid function, to make sure that
was dialed in because you're going to you're going to
feel so much better, you're gonna have a greater chance
of getting pregnant, and your babies are going to be
much healthier. And if you're already on thyroid meds, you
also need to adjust your dosage when you first get pregnant.
(08:29):
Generally speaking, people are going to need more thyroid hormone
to ensure that the baby gets enough right because babies
and when they're still developing right top thyroid glands, so
they depend on moms circulating thyroid hormone and that helps
with brain development and so many other important parts of
the baby's growth.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
How do they test ren like, what do they need
to specifically ask their doctors.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
For when they're going for their labs, What do they
need to be doing?
Speaker 1 (08:58):
So I would ask for a panel, a full thyroid paneling.
If you were to go into an office and say
I want my thyroid tested, the H tests would be done,
which is very helpful for advanced cases of thyroid dysfunction,
but it can actually be normal in the first five
to ten years. And so you also want to ask
(09:20):
for thyroid antibodies. The two most commonly associated with hashimotos
are going to be thyroid peroxidase antibodies and thyroglobulin antibodies
TPO and TG is how I have people just write that,
and then I look at the thyroid hormones. In rare cases,
(09:40):
somebody might have normal thyroid levels of TSH, and they
might have they might not have thyroid antibodies, but there
might be a communication breakdown between their pituitary gland that
secretes TSH and between the actual thyroid hormones that are present,
and so T three and T four hormones are also
(10:03):
we want to look at and I would say that
would be a minimum for me, for every woman in
the child bearing ages, anybody with weird symptoms like anxiety
or fatigue, or pain or even irritable bowel syndrome.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
Wow, Okay, now I was seeing a lot online people
talking about my TSH level looks normal, but I'm still
feeling awful. Why is that most of my clients feel
best with the TSH between point five and two, and
really anything above I would say two point five is
(10:40):
going to be suspect.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Where I've seen dozens of lab tests that people have
brought to me and their doctors will say, your TSH
is five, or TSHS six or seven or eight, that's normal.
We don't need to do anything where personally, I felt
like a sloth when I had a TSH of four
point five that was wearing two jackets in the middle
(11:01):
of a scarf and just all over the place. And
so this is going to be another important reconsideration. And
then of course there's the autoimmune component. So you can
have a normal TSH, but if you have really high
thyroty into bodies, these santibodies can be leading to a
whole host of different symptoms such as anxiety, such as fatigue,
(11:24):
just an overall feeling of unwell. And then of course
we have to look at the thyroid hormones. Sometimes that
TSH might be high, it might be normal, it might
be low, but we also want to take a look
at what's actually happening. Do we have enough of those
thyroid hormones to bide thyroid receptors.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
So now is that a different kind of medication because
when I got diagnosed, I got put on lee both
by roxine. If your TSH is now normal, but you're
noticing in your panel that other things are not, is
there an additional medicine that then you should be taking,
or prescription you should be taking, or supplement for sure.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Definitely, if you have a TSH that's normal but you're
still not feeling your best, I would look thyroid hormones.
T four is one of the main active thyroid hormones,
and levothyroxine is the same as T four. Now we
also have T three that gets converted from T four,
(12:25):
and T three is the more physiologically active hormone. Generally speaking,
when your T three levels are dialed in, you're going
to have beautiful hair, lots of energy, your metabolism is
going to be working really well for you. Your brain's
going to be working for you really well. And on paper,
the T four to T three conversion happens really really nicely. Right. However,
(12:47):
in the human body, in some cases, a person might
be taking levothyroxine and their body just doesn't convert enough
of it to that T three and end up having
a lot of thyroid symptoms even though they're on thyroid medicine.
And so this is where other types of thyroid hormones
can come in in prescription format, so you can take
(13:08):
T three directly. There's a medication known as cytaml or
leothyronine that could be added to the T four. Some
patients might benefit from using a natural desiccated thyroid medication
like armor thyroid, and this is derived from animal thyroid
glands and has some T four and some T three
(13:28):
in it. Or patients might wish to get compounded versions
of T four and T three and just the right
ratios for them. And then, of course I always like
to look at what are the underlying reasons why somebody
might not making might be making that conversion. So why
why are you getting all this T four but your
(13:50):
body's not making enough T three from it, and a
lot of times it has to do with low iron status,
it has to do with stress. It can also be
an issue when you're living is overburdened, or you have
nutrient efficiencies. So we can do a lot of different
we can do a lot of different things to optimize
those pathways. But for some people it's easier just to
(14:10):
take a teethreecontaining medication directly.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
Okay, thank you so much for that, because I know
a lot of people are still not feeling great on
their medication. There's a lot of talk online and this
(14:35):
is where got confusing for me. Should we be avoiding
gluten and dairy?
Speaker 1 (14:42):
For me from a practicality standpoint, I tell people, why
don't you try a gluten free diet for three weeks
if you improve? And some people are like, I'm never
this is never going to work, And then all of
a sudden they're like, holy cow, so many things improved.
I have so much less inflammation. And your body will
(15:02):
tell you the other reactive foods are going to be
dairy and soy. So about eighty percent of the people
that I've worked with feel better dairy free. About seventy
eight percent of the people feel better soy free. The
other major dietary change I recommend is blood sugar balance.
So generally speaking, maybe not in LA but a Western diet,
(15:28):
we want to eat more protein and carbohydrates potentially more
of a more healthy fats versus being very very dependent
on carbohydrates. So getting on like a very blood sugar
balanced diet can be very very helpful for people because
the blood sugar swings actually really can impact hashimotos antibodies.
Speaker 3 (15:51):
Okay, I love Okay, that's great. That was actually my
next question, so it's perfect. Okay.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
Is there a link between breast implants and hashimotos?
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Rest Implant illness can be a potential factor for various
types of autoimmune disorders in some women have observed that
their health started really declining once they had breast implants
put in right. I have had some clients, and definitely
there are clients that never had breast implants and still
(16:21):
had hashimotos right, but getting them their breast implants removed
would be has been a really big game changer for
them as far as they're lammatory markers and feeling their best.
I've had clients that were eating the cleanest diets and
trying to do everything perfectly well on thyroid medications and
still not thriving. And then they would connect with a
(16:43):
breast implant surgeon and in some cases they might have
leaky breast implants or perhaps some growths around them that
could potentially what can happen is they can essentially stimulate
the immune system and upregulate it, so you end up
attack sucking whatever pathogens are perhaps growing as myri gland
(17:05):
that may cross react.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
Okay, what about a link between UTIs and hash motos.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
That's a very interesting link. So typically UTIs can be
caused by E coli and CLUBCILA. I did a bit
of an outcome survey with some of my followers and
clients to see if there was a connection there, and
about fifty percent of people mentioned that before the onset
of hashimotos they struggled with urinary track infections. Wow, the
(17:37):
UTIs themselves or all of the antibiotic treatment that follows,
and that really challenges that got microbiome which helps us
absorb all of our thyroid nutrients. But there's definitely a
connection there.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
Wow, that's fascinating.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
Okay, So I think one thing that's been asked a
law is so someone was saying, someone wanted to know
their fourteen year old just got diagnosed and her TSH
was ninety one Mine was ninety seven point five and
(18:17):
eighteen months ago I had normal labs.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
Sup, I guess, and.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
Is there does that mean that like I had no
hashimotos before that it could have or could have been
like lying dormant.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
Yeah. Absolutely so. There are different stages to hashimotos. Five
have been described. The first stage is essentially just the
genetic predisposition, So for all intents and purposes, you don't
have thyroid antibodies. There's no attack against your thyrog land,
and your thyroid function is normal. The second stage of
hashimotos is when you start having an attack against your
(18:56):
thyroid land. Typically this is going to present with elevated
thyroid antibodies, so high levels of those TPO and TG antibodies,
but your TSH might still be perfectly normal, and your
thyroid hormone levels might still be perfectly normal. Then the's
stage three, but you might still be symptomatic just because
of those thyroid antibodies. Stage three of hashimotos is when
(19:19):
you start seeing a little bit of a gradual rise
in TSH where you might have a TSH of up
to ten. And then stage four is when your TSH
goes really high above that eight or ten mark. Your
T four T three may get impacted. Stage four is
when most people actually get diagnosed. But everything else starting
(19:40):
stage two could have been going on for five, ten,
fifteen years, so it could have been marinating in the
background where you're fire goin, could have been under attack,
but it was still compensating. By stage four, you've damaged
the immune system, has damaged enough of the thyroid gland
where your body is no longer able to compensate. It's
just essentially shouting PA is more thyroid hormone and setting
(20:02):
out more of that TSAH signal. And then stage five
is progression to other autoimmune conditions. I'm a big proponent
of getting an early diagnosis. So can we figure out
when you're in stage two that you have thyroid antibodies,
and we can work on reducing those thyroid antibodies so
you don't progress to overt hypothyroidism, and we prevent five, ten,
(20:23):
fifteen years of getting the run around going to psychiatrists,
going to pain doctors, going to all these different places.
Because you have no idea what's going on, and nobody
can figure out why you know, why you're sick, why
you're struggling.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
Am I more likely because the sort of mine ended
up being very severe right when I got diagnosed.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
I'm I now in a situation where.
Speaker 3 (20:45):
One auto this autoimmune disease can go on now to
lead to another.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
Am I more susceptible to that?
Speaker 1 (20:51):
If you have one autoimmune condition, you're going to be
at greater risk for additional autoimmune conditions.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
If someone is you know, has a ninety one like
this lady is saying that her daughter has, or like
a ninety seven point five like I.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
Have, how quickly are we able to feel better?
Speaker 1 (21:08):
Generally speaking, you can feel significantly better in about ninety
days or so with a really elevated tsage. It might
take you a few months of starting thyraid meds and
then following up retesting your levels. You don't want to
go on like a super megadose right away and want
to figure out exactly how much your body needs, and
(21:29):
that may take a few months to really tight trate
up to that target dose for you and starting the
lifestyle changes. In lifestyle interventions, people could feel better within
a few weeks few days, depending on if they do
the right type of intervention. I typically walk people through
a ninety day protocol and they do start feeling better
(21:50):
within the first week or so.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
What does that protocol look like? Can you break it
down for us?
Speaker 1 (21:54):
Focus? We focus a lot on nutrition, so getting through
a blood sugar balance diet. We might cut out gluten, dairy,
and soy for a period of thirty to ninety days
to make sure those are not an issue for that person.
And then we really start focusing on supporting some of
the body's own pathways. So for example, a lot of
(22:17):
times people have a hard time with conversion of thyroid hormones,
so I have them support their liver function to help
to process various hormone, various toxins in our environment, and
this can help them feel better in about two weeks.
Then we really focus on their stress response. We might
use thiamine for energy production, we might use some we
(22:43):
might use some adaptogens like ashwaganda to help them calm
down their stress response, and we'll do that for about
a period of four weeks, and then we'll really dial
in some gut health. I typically work that a little
bit longer. A lot of times the there are triggers
that bring on the autoimmune conditions. Sometimes they are related
(23:05):
to having chronic stress in your life. Sometimes they're related
to a toxic exposure, and sometimes they're related to a
gut infection. And so we're just trying to dial those
things in and cover all of our bases to get
a person into feeling better and into that remission state
so that their thyrid antibodies aren't continually destroying their thig land.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
Some people online are talking about how they've been able
to put their hashimotos into remission naturally without taking any medication.
Is that I guess My question is like, is that real?
Like can you really do that?
Speaker 1 (23:46):
Definitely in the early stages, Okay, write in stage two
of hashimotos and you don't have any damage to your
thiry land, then you can absolutely take on lifestyle changes.
Selenium and myoinocetol in the very early stages. When used together,
they seem to have a synergistic approach where the thyroid
(24:06):
antibodies can lower and normalize, and even like very I
guess I would say small disruptions in thyroid function can
be normalized, and so the very early stages, you can
utilize something like that for two to three months and
you can absolutely get into remission. Now, if you're in
stage four of hashimotos and you've had ninety percent of
(24:29):
your thyro gland damaged, you can absolutely still do all
the lifestyle interventions. They're going to make you feel a
lot better, they're going to reduce your thyroid antibodies, but
you're still going to need to be on some kind
of thyroid hormone because you know, we can't necessarily grow
back at thyroid in this day and a. There are
some innovative companies that are trying to figure out a
way to do so, but we're not there yet right
(24:50):
maybe in five years, but at this point, we do
have to take thyroid hormones when we are in those
advanced stages.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
Okay, so that would be me. A lot of people
are asking it. Can your thyroid affect your sex drive?
Speaker 1 (25:06):
Absolutely, both for men and for women. So thyroid hormones
can impact our testosterol levels. Interestingly, I will say women
typically complain about hair loss on fatigue and waking, and
men will come in because of sex drive issues, right
or they can't grow a beard, So just thyroid hormones
themselves can absolutely impact our libido and sex drive.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
Can birth control mess with your thyroid?
Speaker 1 (25:45):
That's a really interesting question. When I first started researching hashimotos,
I thought about that question and it made sense to
me that the birth control could do that. I wasn't
one hundred percent sure, but I look at all the
different pathways with alterrain gut microbiome, with changing different hormones,
(26:08):
as well as the impact on various vitamins and nutrients,
and it made a lot of sense to me. In
recent years, large scale studies have actually come out and
confirmed this that yes, getting on birth control pills can
potentially lead to THYROI dysfunction. So this is something I've suspected,
but just recent very recently, the research has confirmed.
Speaker 3 (26:30):
Okay, somebody else has asked what age should you get
regular blood checks or general health checks.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
We have a lot of young listeners.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
Gosh I would say at eighteen. I have a son,
and as much as he hates blood work, we try
to do it on an annual basis. We put some
numbing cream on his arm. He plays a little bit
of Minecraft, and I do think it is important to
be proactive with our health and especially if you have
(27:00):
a family history and if you've got anything weird going on, right, So, yeah, teenager,
that's moody. Or maybe she doesn't have her period, or
she's losing her hair or gaining weight or losing too
much weight. Let's get some blood work for her. And
it takes a few few minutes. You know, I'm I'm needlephobic,
and I do it, so I've yeah important, Okay, And
(27:24):
can you could you be I have my daughters eight
years old. Could you be eight years old and this
be something that happens to you or is that very rare?
It can happen in children. It tends to be more
common around puberty.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
Interesting, Okay, that's that's great for everyone to look out for.
If people are a stage four like me, is their
hope because sometimes there's a lot of doom and gloom
when I've been on TikTok and it gets so overwhelming it.
Have you seen women men with you know, ninety seven
point five maybe even in the hundred something extreme be
(27:59):
able to feel normal again? Have you and have their
levels returned to normal? Oh?
Speaker 1 (28:04):
Absolutely, I see it all the time. So it is
some work that you have to put in so you
have to probably dial in a few things. If your
thyroid has been dysfunctioning for a while, you might have
to You might be nutrient depleted, so you would want
to address nutrient deficiencies. B twelve, ferretin, vitamin D are
some of the ones that come up in addition to
(28:25):
doing you know, the thyroid hormones. Typically I would say
we might need to adjust a few different things to
get you back on track. But absolutely, and I've had
women who are in their seventies and eighties, and by
following some of these lifestyle changes, sometimes it's as simple
as starting on one nutrient. You know, depending on what's
(28:46):
going on within their bodies, they can be completely transformed
in three, five, seven days. Sometimes sometimes it doesn't put
longer they've got more going on. But one example that
I'm always excited to share is thiamine. Women with thyroid
fatigue and low blood pressure. Some of them, when we
(29:07):
would give them around six hundred milligrams of thiamine, they'd
have a resolution of their fatigue in like three to
five days. I've had women wow stability for twenty years
and with the addition of thiamine, even though they had
been on thyroid meds and tried some other things. They
were able to get a complete remission of their fatigue
(29:28):
and they started to feel human again. So definitely you
can get there. I'm so glad that you were diagnosed,
and I'm so glad that you took charge of your
own health and ordered your own labs, because sometimes we
have to right ourselves. And now you're doing you know,
now you're doing the research and figuring out what things
you need to dial in. I think a lot of
(29:50):
us do have to advocate for our own health doctors.
You know that everybody's a little bit different, So one
person might be super well first in something, and another
person might just be very much by the book where
they learned that thiray disorders are no big deal and
you just need to give this one medication and if
somebody has ongoing symptoms, they're probably just making it up.
(30:13):
And I'm not kidding. That's what some people have learned.
Speaker 3 (30:16):
No, I'm saying that a lot online, a lot of frustration,
a lot of people not feeling by like they're being
heard because their labs are t stage. It's coming back normal,
and it's overwhelming.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
It can be very challenging. It can be very overwhelming.
One of the challenges I've seen is that some people
simply do better on natural desiccated thyroid. They tend to
have for whatever reason, their unique biochemistry responds much better
to that of the synthetic medications and the natural desicated
(30:52):
thyroid hormones. They contain T four, T three, and perhaps
small amounts of T one and T two that may
play some physiological actions. And unfortunately, these medications are commonly underutilized.
Many practitioners don't know how to work with them, and
recently the FDA has asked for them to be removed
(31:12):
off the market. So there's a lot of challenges we
need to advocate for ourselves.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
Okay, can we still enjoy alcohol?
Speaker 1 (31:23):
So I've had alcohol, I've had mohetoes, and I've had
margaritas and all kinds of things, and this is definitely
something that you can enjoy in moderation on your healing journey.
I would commit thirty sixty to ninety days and just
just try to focus on eating a clean diet. Blood.
We know wine, as much as we love it, it can
(31:44):
cause a lot of blood sugar swings, right, Yeah, blood
sugar swings hypoglycemia or even too much blood sugar can
really impact those thyroid antibodies and increase the aggressiveness of
the attack on the thyrid land. And so I say,
you know, generally, in my protocols, I'll have people go
for at least two weeks off of alcohol. That doesn't
(32:07):
mean you'll never be able to have alcohol again. You
know you can. In many cases, you can introduce a
lot of the foods and dairy and all the things
back into your body. But some of the things initially
gives you an opportunity to recognize what your individual triggers
might be. Like I had no idea that I had
(32:29):
irritable bowel syndrome, carpal tunnel syndrome, horrific bloating despite all
the pilates classes I went to and how flux And
within three days of going gluten and dairy free, all
that was gone, and that different things are triggering you.
Gluten and dairy are being some of the more common ones.
For some people, it's alcohol. I have random strange foods
(32:52):
like pineapple, that's a trigger. But it's a matter of
figuring out, like what's kind of messing with your immune system,
what's messing with blood sugar right, and how to dial that.
Speaker 3 (33:02):
In before you go. I want to just reiterate because
I want you just to repeat one last time for
anyone listening to this as thinking, wait a second, I
have anxiety, I'm tired, I'm my hair spinning, or any
combination or one of these and wants to go to
their doctor. I would love for you to just repeat
(33:25):
one last time what they need to be asking for
to find out if there is a thyroid issue in play.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
To find out if you have a thyroid issue in play,
you definitely want to ask your doctor for a TSH
test that's going to see if your pituitary is responding
to your thyroid hormone levels. You're going to want to
ask them to check for T three and T four hormones,
and you definitely want to ask for thyroid antibodies. The
two most important ones are going to be thyroid peroxides
antibodies and thyrodglobulin antibodies. You can ask for TPO and
(33:56):
TG antibodies. They'll know what you're talking about. Often max
these antibodies can be elevated for five, ten, fifteen years
before we see a change in TSH.
Speaker 2 (34:06):
This is so informative. Thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (34:08):
I was equally comforted and horrified about how common this is,
and thank you, and I would love to have you
back on the show again. I'm sure we're going to
get more questions from the listeners, but thank you so
much for being here. I feel more educated. I had
so many of these questions myself. I think it is
so confusing when you're reading everything and you sort of
(34:29):
don't know what you should be doing, and it's an
overwhelming diagnosis when you get it. But I think that
you've really made sense of so much of this and
it's just so encouraging. So thank you for being here
and educating all of us.
Speaker 1 (34:45):
Thank you so much for raising awareness about this topic.
I know it's probably not something that was on your
radar until you were personally diagnosed, but know that you're
making a big difference.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
Just thank you.
Speaker 1 (34:59):
I know that you will heal and you're going to
find ways to get yourself feeling better. It's absolutely possible.
I think sometimes there's a lot of doom and gloom
online because people come there to complain, but I think
it's also important for us to share stories of healing. Yes, yes,
I'm an example of that, and I have a lot
of friends and colleagues and clients who are also examples
(35:23):
of people that have taken charge of their health and
healed themselves. They don't have any more symptoms, they're thriving,
they're living their best lives. I would love to have
you on my show with Thyroid Pharmacists Healing Conversations. I
would love that you can share your healing journey and
we can inspire other people to take charge of their
own health. There's so many solutions out there. You can
(35:44):
absolutely live symptom free. If you got caught in the
early stages, you can definitely get the condition into remission
in most cases. And then there's also ways to dial
in your thyroid hormones even if you got caught in
the later stages. It just takes a little take a
little bit of time, and it does take advocating for yourself.
Speaker 3 (36:04):
Amazing. Thank you so much. I will happily go on
your podcast anytime. All right, guys, I'm so happy that
we got to talk to her and pick her brain
and ask her all the questions. Honestly, sometimes I was
just thinking this is I was talking to her sometimes
when I realized that I was so severe. You know,
(36:24):
she's talking about TSH levels that are way lower than mine,
and then I'm like with my almost one hundred. But
I know that there are listeners out there that are
also you know, you guys are in the stage four
like I am, and and I think that this brings
a lot of comfort and a lot of hope.
Speaker 2 (36:43):
And for any of us.
Speaker 3 (36:44):
Listening to this and just thinking, like, you know, I'm
really tired all the time. Maybe it's not just me,
Maybe it's not just me being a mom and all
those things that we just discussed, really advocate for yourself.
Go get tested, because to have an answer like this,
even though it's intimidating, is just so helpful. Please send
(37:07):
us any more questions that you have. I will continue
to have her on the show. I'm going to continue
to take you guys on this journey with me. I
think it's so important, and for now I will call
it
Speaker 2 (37:18):
The end of the episode.
Hosts And Creators
Jessica Capshaw
Camilla Luddington
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