114: The Link Between Thyroid & Heart Health w/ Dr. Alan Christianson

Dr. Alan Christianson is an NYT bestselling author and naturopathic doctor who specializes in natural endocrinology. Endocrinology is the study of hormones and hormone-related illnesses, and Dr. Christianson takes a holistic approach to analyze the whole body and how the different systems work together. 

Over 27 million people, or 25% of adults, suffer from some variation of thyroid illness. It takes a keen understanding of the physical structure of your thyroid, how your hormones are working together or against your thyroid, and an analysis of historical and invisible stressors to gain insight on your thyroid health, which is exactly what Dr. Christianson is here today to explain. 

It is possible to optimally tune your body to handle stress, cortisol, and more through effective strategies such as nutrition and lifestyle. While everybody is different, Dr. Christianson has some excellent guidelines to help you improve your mood, get your hormones back on track, and decrease your risk of thyroid or heart-related illnesses. 

Your adrenal health is one of the key indicators of your longevity and its time that you stopped ignoring it and started supporting it instead. How do you work to improve your relationship with your thyroid? Share your biggest takeaway from Dr. Christianson in the comments on the episode page. 

 

In This Episode

• Learn about the role of your thyroid and how it impacts your whole body system
• Discover the most important nutrients to help support your thyroid health 
• How to lower your risk for heart disease even if you already struggle with your thyroid
• Signs that your body is not adapting to the amount of stress you are putting it under
• Why not all carbs are created equal and which carbs constitute a good choice

 

Quotes

“There is a whole lot of science into what is ‘normal’, what is good for you personally, and each one of those has a lot of depth to those stories.” (5:29)

“Working with a naturopathic integrative holistic functional practitioner, someone who has got a sense about not just making sure your levels are normal but making sure they are optimal, and even better yet making sure they are optimal for you.” (11:21)

“In this state of surviving or panic or ‘fight or flight’ type mode, we are making different amounts and different timing of our cortisol. And that changes our cardiac rhythm, our heart entrainment, our overall heart variability, and also our heart rhythm.” (17:00)

“There are certain things that we can grab and change, and then there are certain things that we do not have levers for. And diet is one that we have a lever for that, so we can improve it, it is well within our control.” (21:02)

 

Links

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