How to Heal Hypothyroidism and Hashimoto's Naturally

Today I'm going to share with you exactly how to reverse hypothyroidism, Hashimoto thyroiditis, and other thyroid conditions. I'll be going step by step through exactly what you need to do, including the right vitamins, supplements, nutrients, the ideal food you should be eating, what you need to stay away from, and what the root cause of hypothyroidism and Hashimoto are on today's episode.

So, welcome to the Dr. Josh Axe Show. I am your host, Dr. Axe, and each and every week on this show, I dive deep into the principles and science behind how to grow in body, mind, spirit, and take your health and your life to the next level.

Did you know that nearly five out of every 100 Americans ages 12 plus have hypothyroidism? And listen to this, 60% of people that have hypothyroidism aren't aware that they have it. So think about that, more than half the people that have hypothyroidism, they don't realize they have it. And today, I'm going to be covering how to heal hypothyroidism naturally.

Before I jump into the content, though, make sure to subscribe here to the channel and hit the notification bell so you don't miss a single episode.

Now, here are the most common symptoms of hypothyroidism. And if you have any one of these conditions, it's an indicator that you might have hypothyroidism. And like 60% of people who have it, you may not fully realize it. So, if you are fatigued and tired frequently, okay, so afternoon rolls around, you're tired, and maybe you're not sleeping well at night either, but the big thing is is fatigue. That is the hallmark sign of hypothyroidism and Hashimoto. After that, it's weight gain, cold intolerance, especially your extremities like your hands and feet, any sort of chronic constipation, dry skin, hair changes like your hair getting thinner, more brittle, or even falling out, uh, muscle weakness, joint pain, depression, memory problems such as brain fog, menstrual irregularities. And if you have any one of these symptoms, it's a big indicator that you could likely have hypothyroidism. But I would say that weight gain and sometimes your your extremities being colder at certain points are the biggest ones. Uh, and again, fatigue, that is the biggest one of all the symptoms that you could have that's an indicator you have hypothyroidism.

Now, I want to go through the factors that affect your thyroid function. Then I'm going to walk you through literally every vitamin, mineral, and nutrient your body needs in order for your thyroid to function properly. And really, one of the first things you need to know is that your body has to have certain vitamins in order to produce T3 and T4, those thyroid hormones in your body. Typically, your body creates T4 first, and then that's converted into T3, which then your nucleus and your cells and your mitochondria need to function properly as well, in certain cases for for the thyroid gland. But you have to have iron, iodine, tyrosine, zinc, selenium, vitamin A, B2, B3, B6, vitamin C, vitamin D, and probiotics for your thyroid to function properly. And if you're missing any one of those nutrients, it's going to affect how well your body creates T3 and T4 in terms of your thyroid hormones.

Now, also, there is an issue related to how well your body can convert T4 to T3 of thyroid hormones. And so that's an important part of this is that your body has to be able to convert hormones for them to be used by the body. And so a few things impact that. One of the biggest things is stress. We know that emotional stress has a big impact on thyroid function, especially if you have worry and fear. If you aren't sleeping enough, so those are some big factors that increase conversion. Trauma, it could be emotional abuse or physical abuse or some sort of abuse from your past that you're still living with today, that can affect the thyroid. Um, inflammation, uh, if your body is inflamed and you have an inflammatory diet, those that affect the thyroid. Toxins, if you've been exposed to arsenic or mercury or, uh, forever chemicals or Spates or parabens, these all add up and cause toxicity of the thyroid. Chronic infections, if you have Epstein-Barr, CMV, Long COVID, or Lyme disease, that will affect the thyroid. And then also, if other organs aren't functioning well, specifically your gut, your liver, and your kidneys, if those aren't functioning properly and they're sick, it can actually impact the thyroid. Of course, your immune system would be part of that, and that's connected to the gut. And then even certain medications. You know, studies have shown that if you take birth control pills long-term, you have a 283.15% increased risk of hypothyroidism because birth control pills and antibiotic drugs specifically pull nutrients like B vitamins out of your body and keep you from being able to produce and convert thyroid hormones properly. So again, if you've ever taken any medication, it's going to increase your risk of hypothyroidism, but especially birth control pills and antibiotic medications.

Now, I want to mention there are other factors that inhibit your body from producing, uh, these thyroid hormones that we've talked about. Um, other toxins I didn't mention, fluoride is a big one in our drinking water. This is an antagonist to iodine. Um, I mentioned a lot of the toxins, the pesticides on our food supply. And then, of course, if you have autoimmune disease, Celiac's disease is an example of that. If you have food sensitivities, you're eating those foods that can affect thyroid function.

Here's another big one: methylation. If you're not methylating properly, about 40% of the population are known as poor methylators. That means that your body isn't as good as some people at converting certain B vitamins like folate into the usable forms, and that puts you at a disadvantage early on. It could be partly due to those genetics, the variance in methylation that you can have. That's another cause of decreased or ineffective thyroid function. And then, of course, as I mentioned, there are lots of other things, but there's also things that happen at the cellular level. Your cells, in order to function properly, need selenium, zinc, vitamin A, even movement, exercise, in order to function properly.

So, what I'm going to do today is go through the science and exactly what you should in terms of the food you should eat, the supplements you should take, in order to, and actually even some really amazing treatments like heat therapy, in terms of what you can do to start to reverse hypothyroidism. By the way, you know, I, I have worked with tens of thousands of patients helping them reverse and heal numerous conditions, everything from hypothyroidism to Hashimoto's disease to autoimmune disease, and I believe that this is going to help you as well. Also, every, just to give a little bit of my background, I ran a functional medicine practice for years. I'm a graduate of Johns Hopkins University, and this is something I'm very passionate about because my own mom, and my sister, and my brother, I have three family members that suffered with thyroid issues. My mom with hypothyroidism, my brother with Hashimoto thyroiditis. I was able to help both of them reverse that condition and heal the natural way, which is what I want to help you do today as well.

By the way, this is also important. Even if you don't have hypothyroidism, many of the, if you have low energy or thinning hair or any of those other things we discussed, this is going to help you prevent it. Or you might even be borderline where blood work isn't showing it, but you still have hypothyroidism or borderline hypothyroidism, just like someone could have pre-diabetes. It's a very, very similar thing. And so this is going to help you tremendously. And by the way, if you know anyone that has hypothyroidism who needs to hear this information, hey, make sure to share this with them.

Okay, so let's dive in here to go through the top nutrients your thyroid needs to function properly. And the first one is vitamin B2, also known as riboflavin. Now, there's a study published in the Journal of Crohn's and Colitis, and what they found was is that vitamin B2 is essential for reducing inflammation of the thyroid and reducing oxidative stress. And so a study has found that vitamin B2 helps. And one of the reasons why vitamin B2 is important is it's one of those key factors in methylation. And so methylation is it's taking something like folate, adding on a methyl group to where now your body can use it. So think about it like this: if I had a skateboard, okay, and it didn't have wheels on it, okay? So your body is manufacturing things, or you're getting something. So somebody gives you a skateboard but has no wheels on it, okay? Well, you can't go very far on that. That's like your body right now when you're eating certain foods. Uh, your body, if it doesn't have certain enzymes or vitamins, it can't convert and utilize the food you're eating. So what vitamin B2 does, it's like putting wheels on a skateboard. Now you can now you can use it. Well, very similar thing happens. And so if your body's deficient in vitamin B2, also B9 or B12 and B6, actually, so those four nutrients, your body can now methylate properly and convert things better. So that's why vitamin B2 is essential.

Uh, the other nutrient, another B vitamin, is vitamin B6. There's a study published in the British Journal of Nutrition, and they found that vitamin B6 is crucial for neurotransmitter function, and this is important for managing fatigue and depression around hypothyroidism. There's a, there was a study that found that supplementing with about 50 milligrams of vitamin B6 daily for 8 weeks led to a 25% reduction in fatigue and a 30% improvement in mood with patients with hypothyroidism. So this is really great research showing B2 is helpful, vitamin B6 is helpful.

The next B vitamin is vitamin B12. There's a study published that found that vitamin B12 deficiency is common in hypothyroid patients, and supplementing with this can improve your energy and cognitive function. This trial was done on 200 patients with hypothyroidism, and they found that 60% of those who received vitamin B12 supplementation reported significant improvements in energy level and cognitive function over a 12-week period for these people who had hypothyroidism. So we know again that's important. So remember this, B vitamins are essential for thyroid hormone production and for thyroid health, B2, B6, and B12 specifically. In addition, and by the way, there are other B vitamins. B1 has been shown in studies, B3, and folate. So really, your thyroid needs all of the B vitamins in order to function properly, and it's important, as I mentioned, for proper methylation. So what happens at the cellular level, which then impacts the thyroid as well.

Now, another vitamin that is crucially important for thyroid health is vitamin D. There's a study published as well on vitamin D, and they found that vitamin D deficiency is prevalent in Hashimoto thyroiditis or thyroid disease that's related to autoimmunity. Supplementation reduces thyroid antibodies. And a study was done on 50 patients with Hashimoto thyroiditis, and they found that 70% of patients with Hashimoto had low vitamin D levels. And they found that supplementing with just 2,000 IUs daily for 6 months resulted in a 40% reduction in thyroid peroxidase antibodies. So by simply supplementing with 2,000 IUs daily of vitamin D, we're reducing autoimmune hypothyroidism in Hashimoto's by 40%. It's really incredible. Now, I would recommend for most people to actually get closer to 5,000 IUs daily. Now, if you're out in the sun that day, or it's the middle of summer and you're getting plenty of time outside, you can, you can, uh, really take zero a day because you're going to be getting 20,000 IUs a day if you're outside for probably about 30 minutes in the summer. So you're going to get a lot of vitamin D. I do want to mention as well, if you struggle with chronic constipation, you want to make sure that you take vitamin D with magnesium, okay? And vitamin D should also be coupled with K2, but you want to take vitamin D and magnesium together. It'll work more effectively for the thyroid function as well as for your cells and your gut. And so you want to take vitamin D and magnesium together in most cases. By the way, there's another study done on vitamin D and magnesium on 8,000 individuals, and they found that individuals with low vitamin D levels had a much greater chance of hypothyroidism, a much greater chance. And so we know there's a lot of research behind vitamin D. The reason why vitamin D works is it's a prohormone. Remember, prohormone, your body needs it to produce hormones like T3, T4, TSH. And so vitamin D is not just a vitamin, it is a hormone that helps produce other hormones within the body.

Another big one here is vitamin A. This is one that's not talked about a lot in the thyroid community, but there's a lot of clinical research behind this. Vitamin A helps convert T4 to T3 and improves thyroid hormone metabolism. A study involving hypothyroid patients found that 50% showed improvements in T3 levels after supplementing with vitamin A for 12 weeks at 5,000 IUs a day. Now, I want to mention this, you don't have to go and take every single one of these vitamins and supplements I'm talking about. You can get a lot of these from your food, which I'll talk about at the end. Uh, for instance, there are a lot of great vitamin A foods that you could just, you know, eat instead and not have to supplement with, or you can take one supplement that might have most of these in it that would really help with supporting the thyroid.

A few others that are important: magnesium. I think magnesium is important because it works at a cellular level for thyroid hormone production. What's even more important than magnesium, though, is selenium. Selenium supplementation is critical for both hypothyroidism and Hashimoto. Selenium, along with zinc, is crucial for converting T4 to T3 and reducing oxidative stress. There are studies showing that it shows great improvements in patients with Hashimoto's thyroiditis.

Another big one, of course, we've heard this before, is iodine. Now, I do want to mention, you really want to be conscious and not overdo iodine because if you have an autoimmune form like Graves' disease or Hashimoto's and you do too much iodine, it can actually cause a growth of a goiter or make your situation even worse. And so typically, you want to do a lower dosage of around 100 to 150 micrograms of iodine daily. You could do that as as a kelp supplement, and that helps a lot of people. And what I would say is what you tend to want to do with iodine is you want to take a kelp or an iodine supplement at a low dose, take it for about a week or two, and see how you feel to see if you feel like it makes any changes. Okay? And I would do anywhere from, again, one week to maybe even even a month or two, see how you do before you change anything else. And if you feel like it helps, then, and, and also, you can go and get your iodine levels tested, though sometimes it's hard to really determine if you are deficient or not. But I would say again, iodine, iodine, and selenium are absolutely crucial for thyroid hormone production. If you're missing those two in particular, your body will not produce the right amount of thyroid hormone or convert the right amount.

Zinc is also a big one that's not talked about very much in the thyroid community. A study was done on 90 hypothyroid patients, and they showed that zinc supplementation of 30 milligrams a day for 12 weeks improved T3 and T4 levels by around 15%. So zinc is responsible for tissue regeneration. For a lot of people with hypothyroidism and Hashimoto and thyroid disease, your organs are not regenerating properly and creating enough stem cells. And so if you think about it like this, like every year your thyroid gland is new, isn't that amazing? Every year your body is continually regenerating. And so every year your thyroid gland is new. The problem is, is your body isn't able to create new healthy thyroid tissue if you're deficient in certain nutrients like zinc. So if you get zinc, if you get peptides, if you get selenium, and some of the other nutrients we've talked about, now your thyroid can regenerate properly. And if you reduce the toxins and the inflammation, okay, now you can heal. And so zinc is crucial for tissue regeneration. It's, it's the, it's the regenerative mineral. It's also important for your immune system and immune function. And so if you have autoimmune disease with this, it's also very important. So zinc is critical for thyroid function. Typically, people, and if you also notice in addition to hypothyroidism, you have weak immunity or gut issues, let's say sometimes you have loose stool or constipation or gas or bloating, or maybe you also have, you get sick with a cold and flu pretty often, you feel like your immune system is just weaker than it should be, that's another sign if you have hypothyroidism and a weak immune system that you're likely deficient in zinc.

Another critical mineral for thyroid hormone production is iron. And I would say if you, in addition to having hypothyroidism and low body temperature, if you also have a lot of fatigue, okay, you're just tired a lot, you just don't feel like you have a lot of strength and stamina and energy, there's also a good chance you're deficient in iron. And maybe you're not anemic, but you're borderline. You have more in what Chinese medicine they'll call a blood deficiency. And if you have a blood deficiency, uh, in iron and hypothyroidism, there's a really good chance you are iron deficient. And so you want to consume a lot more red meat, organ meats, a supplement like liver tablets, an herb like dong quai would be absolutely amazing in this case. And so getting things that are going to support your body in that way and the iron levels is going to be very, very helpful to your healing. But again, if you're a thyroid person and you, and a woman, and you have very low energy, there's a really good chance you're also iron deficient.

Now, there's a couple other things I want to mention that are really important here. These aren't vitamins and minerals, these are actually amino acids. The next one here is L-tyrosine. There's a study published in the European Journal of Endocrinology that found that tyrosine is a precursor to thyroid hormones. And in this study, they found supplementing with 500 milligrams of tyrosine daily for 8 weeks improved T3 levels by 20%. Now, also, if you're eating a healthy diet of mostly real food and your gut's healthy, you're getting probiotics, that's going to help the conversion of tyrosine, specifically. Consuming fish is very good for tyrosine levels, especially salmon. Chicken is also very good, and turkey, red meat, cottage cheese, raw organic cheeses like Mimolette, beans, pumpkin seeds, and wild rice. Those are foods that support tyrosine and also are very, very good for the thyroid for thyroid health. Okay? So again, fish, chicken, red meat, cottage cheese, beans, pumpkin seeds, and rice tend to be very good for thyroid function. And tyrosine is a precursor for neurotransmitters that really impact mood. If you're a person that has hypothyroidism and also you feel a, a, a level of depression and lack of motivation, then there's also a good chance you are tyrosine deficient. And so, and sometimes one single nutritional deficiency can be causing multiple issues within your body.

Another big one here is taurine. Okay, taurine has antioxidant properties that supports immune function and thyroid health. Um, this is found in liver, kidney, heart, meats, eggs, and seaweed. It's also important for bile acid production. Now, here's why taurine is important: your thyroid needs vitamin D, vitamin A, vitamin E in order to function properly. Well, if you are deficient in taurine, it, you are, your body is typically not producing enough bile acid, and so you're not able to break down fat enough or absorb fat-soluble vitamins. And so that's really important if your body is not producing enough bile acid. And so again, things that really help that are liver, so any type of organ meat or meat, egg, specifically it's the egg yolk, and seaweed. Those foods all help thyroid production and that way as well because it helps you better absorb the healthy fats like omega-3s, vitamin D, vitamin A, as I mentioned, which are critical for thyroid production. And so obviously, there's a lot of vitamins and minerals, but I would say this for most people, as we go through these vitamins and minerals, if you just take a methylated multivitamin or a methylated B complex, you're going to be getting most of these nutrients in ample amount, outside of vitamin D. Vitamin D, you might have to also do, um, you know, 2,000 to 5,000 IUs if you're not outside getting a lot of sunshine that day. But if you do that, that's going to cover your bases for most of those. And maybe even taking an organ or glandular supplement like a liver capsules or tablets, that with the other.

Now, there is one other supplement I think that is absolutely crucial for thyroid production, and that is probiotics. Here's the reality is, probiotics help you better absorb every one of those nutrients I did just mention. And I found in working with thousands of patients with hypothyroidism, almost all of them, almost all of you who have that, have a microbial imbalance in your gut, too much bad bacteria, not enough good bacteria and microbes. And you really want to do higher doses of probiotics. And there was a study to prove this. This is a meta-analysis. This wasn't one study, this is on eight different studies. And they found that certain strains of bacteria like Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium, these are the type of probiotics you'd find in things like, uh, yogurt, Greek yogurt, or cottage cheese, any sort of fermented dairy, coconut yogurt as well. In patients with hypothyroidism and Hashimoto thyroiditis, probiotics showed potential to reduce inflammation and improve all thyroid hormone levels across the board. Now, probiotic supplementation resulted in a reduction in TSH levels by approximately 10 to 15% and an increase in free T3 and T4 levels by around 5 to 10%. So probiotics are one of those, my one of my top five supplements for people with hypothyroidism, and especially Hashimoto thyroiditis, for reversing the condition.

Now, I want to dive into the herbs that have been used for thousands of years that support thyroid health and production. And by far, the number one herb used for thousands of years to reverse and heal the thyroid is ashwagandha, also known in Ayurvedic medicine as Withania. And there's studies on this that show that consuming just 300 milligrams of ashwagandha daily improved T4 levels by approximately 20%, T3 levels by around 40%, and TSH levels decreasing those by about 17%. And in all my years of practice, I have never seen a supplement as effective for improving hypothyroidism as ashwagandha.

Now, here's another amazing study on ashwagandha. They did a study on patients with hyperthyroidism and hypothyroidism, and in both groups, ashwagandha improved thyroid hormones. And the group that was low, it brought them up, and the group that was too high, it brought them down. The reason for that is, is ashwagandha is known as an adaptogenic herb, meaning it helps, it helps your body adapt and deal with stress, helps bring down that cortisol, helps bring down that insulin, that then helps normalize your thyroid hormones. And so it really helps you heal by creating more homeostasis and balance in your body. And I recommend typically about 1,000 milligrams daily of ashwagandha for people with hypothyroidism, or around 300 to 600 milligrams two times daily. And if you can do ashwagandha, if you could take only one single herb for hypothyroidism or Hashimoto, ashwagandha is the herb. And again, I've seen great results with this in my clinical practice.

Another herb that was used frequently in Ayurvedic medicine to heal the thyroid is Forskolin. Now, Forskolin is known as more of an adrenal booster, but in many cases, hypothyroidism, the root of it isn't with the thyroid, it tends to be more with the adrenal glands or the gut. And so this herb in particular helps with strengthening the adrenal glands, as Ashwagandha does as well. And studies have proven this as well. This herb is also good for balancing blood sugar and testosterone levels. So it's good for testosterone and insulin. And remember, the way hormones work, they're like a domino. If one hormone is changed, it affects every other hormone around it. So if you can improve insulin and cortisol, well, now that's going to improve testosterone, it's going to improve thyroid hormone, it's going to improve melatonin, every other hormone in the body. And so that's why this herb is really so amazing. It's probably my second favorite herb for hypothyroidism right after ashwagandha, and that is Forskolin.

All right, let's go into a few others here. There are mushrooms now that improve thyroid function. And my favorite mushroom for the thyroid is Cordyceps. Cordyceps are a fungus that were prized in Asia for supporting testosterone levels, adrenal hormones, and thyroid hormones. And there was a 12-week study done on Cordyceps, and they found a 25 to 30% improvement in T3 levels and TSH levels. And Cordyceps shows promise in improving these thyroid hormone levels associated with hypothyroidism, as we've talked about. And so this is my favorite mushroom for hypothyroidism. I also do think Reishi has a lot of long-term benefits as well, but generally speaking, Cordyceps is the best for hypothyroidism.

Another herb that I love for hypothyroidism is Dong Quai. It's also known as Angelica sinensis. And there was a study done on 100 women with Hashimoto thyroiditis, and they found that supplementing with just 500 milligrams of Dong Quai daily for 10 weeks led to a 20% reduction in thyroid antibodies and a 15% improvement in these T4 levels. And Dong Quai may help because it reduces the, the autoimmune activity and it supports building the blood and energy levels. In association with any form of hypothyroidism, this is the herb I mentioned earlier where if you feel anemic, if you feel tired, if you, if your menstrual cycle is also off, but if you have low energy, any sort of, you know, paleness to your skin as well, and you just feel just borderline anemic, Dong Quai will help tremendously for for those people. And so again, Dong Quai is one I really love. And for a lot of women, it's an absolute game-changer. In fact, Dong Quai is one of the top five herbs prescribed in all of Chinese medicine for women, tremendous, tremendous benefits, and one that we should be recommending a lot more to people with, uh, hypothyroidism.

Now, here's another big one that I don't recommend to everybody, but I do think for a lot of people can be beneficial, and that is Panax Ginseng. Now, this is an herb in Chinese medicine that's typically prescribed more for men over the age of 50, or if somebody is very sick. But I would say if you have hypothyroidism and you, and chronic fatigue syndrome combined, okay, you're just very, you're exhausted all the time, then you should really consider Panax Ginseng and taking it for about, probably about 12 weeks, about 3 months, and seeing where it gets you. I would say taking it around 200 milligrams daily tends to be enough for most people. Ginseng, the reason I say Ginseng, it's, it's the, the most powerful adaptogen there is. It's very strong. It's one you typically do short-term for about anywhere from two to three months, and not long-term. But if you are sick or you have chronic fatigue syndrome with hypothyroidism, but your energy levels are just very extremely low, then this is the herb that will have the greatest benefits to your body. And you tend to want to do it for about 3 months. In addition, seeing an acupuncturist while you go through this, while you're supplementing with Ginseng and trying to heal hypothyroidism, can be a, a really great combination.

Another herb I love is Astragalus. Astragalus is one of the top five herbs, probably prescribed as well in Chinese medicine. Studies have shown that if you take around 1,000 to 1,200 milligrams daily, it decreases thyroid peroxidase and improves T4 levels. And Astragalus has the potential to benefit reducing autoimmune activity associated with Hashimoto thyroiditis. So if you have both hypothyroidism and poor digestion, autoimmunity, or a weakened immune system, anything immune-related or digestion-related, you should take Astragalus. Okay? So again, if you're a person, you have hypothyroidism, but you also know you have an immune issue or a digestive issue, you want to consider Astragalus because it, it is known as an adaptogen for the digestive system and the immune system and the adrenals and thyroid. And so very effective. I've put some patients on this, and I tend to recommend probably about 1,000 milligrams twice daily, or around 2,000 to 2,500 milligrams daily for about 3 to 4 months, and see what happens in your body. But for some people, it's an absolute game-changer and loads of benefits.

Another one I really like is Schisandra. This is a berry that's known as the only berry that has five flavors. It also can be good for thyroid hormone production. And if you also have adrenal issues, stress issues, or immune issues, Schisandra is great. It's also great for anti-aging, for longevity, it's an amazing superfood. Rhodiola Rosea is another herb that if you're tired, or you want to maybe you're an athlete and you want to improve your athletic performance, but you also have thyroid issues, taking Rhodiola, Cordyceps, and Ashwagandha together is a really, really great combination. And also, um, a few other herbs that might benefit your body if you have hypothyroidism are licorice root, Rehmannia, and ginger are some of my other favorites there for supporting thyroid function. And I know I hit on a lot of herbs, but I really want to cover the gamut here in terms of the clinical research of which ones are most beneficial and have been used throughout history, and the ones that have a lot of scientific evidence backing them. So Rhodiola really works again through supporting the thyroid and adrenal glands by stimulating cellular energy production, which is really crucial for that T3 hormone specifically.

And I want to talk about thyroid medication, specifically a more holistic medication and the more synthetic conventional. There is a study done comparing levothyroxine and similar medications like Synthroid versus desiccated thyroid extract, known as DTE, which also includes things like Nature-Throid and Armour Thyroid. Now, this was a randomized, double-blind, crossover study, and this found that patients preferred desiccated thyroid extract, like Armour, Nature-Throid, over doing a combination therapy of levothyroxine alone. And these DTE, again, the desiccated thyroid, like Armour Thyroid, provided a combination of T4 and T3, which most people found to be more effective than T4 alone. And so what these medications are is they'll take tissue, desiccated, they'll take part of the, the Armour is actually a, the thyroid from a pig, and they will then take that and they will extract the hormones out of that that are live and active still, and then give, put that in medication. So it's taken directly from an animal. So the thyroid hormones that you would get, they take it from an animal and they will put that in a pill form. And by the way, this has been done in a way for thousands of years. In fact, I actually prefer just desiccated thyroid tissue. The problem is, is that when you don't do it, the, the way that medicine does it today, the, the levels aren't always the same, so you really have to dial it in. But I think it's better to just consume thyroid tissue of an animal. Now, you can get deactivated, uh, thyroid tissue that has the peptides, but the thyroid hormones are no longer active or they're absent. And I think there are lots of benefits of just doing a thyroid glandular, but you do have to sort of dial it in and listen to your body and spend time doing that. Our medical system doesn't have time for that. Most doctors don't want to take the time with a patient to spend time seeing them and dial in what that thyroid hormone should be if you're doing a natural form from an animal. Or of course, they don't want to take the time to work with you on your diet and supplementation and do the lowest dosage possible.

Listen, the reason why I think that you want to focus on doing things as naturally as possible, focusing on diet, lifestyle, vitamin supplements, glandulars, mushrooms, those sort of things first, is that taking thyroid medication does have side effects. It's going to deplete your body of certain nutrients and it's not the ideal long-term. Now, listen, in an ideal world, you're getting off all thyroid drugs. Now, you want to work with your physician on that. But in an ideal world, you have to know that you can't take a synthetic chemical and it not have some sort of side effect in the body versus the more naturally you do things. Again, think about it like this: blueberries are an amazing food, okay? Now, if you take blueberries and you just do blueberry juice, it's not as good, okay? But it's definitely not as good as blueberries. But it's also better than blueberries that were taken and heated to where you only take the, the sugar and that alone from blueberries and all the antioxidants were removed, okay? So there are different levels of benefits. You want to do as natural as possible, like the whole blueberries. Your body does the best. Clinically, we know that blueberry juice, okay, it's not as good, but it's a little better. And again, blueberry where you just take the sugar and get rid of everything else, that is not good for you at all. Think about this in the same way. The sugar that's like taking a thyroid medication like Synthroid. The blueberry juice, that's like doing the Armour Thyroid or Nature-Throid or something like that. Doing the blueberries, that's like doing what I've talked about, the Ashwagandha, the B vitamins, you know, eating more wild-caught fish, like those sort of things, reducing stress. That's the most natural. You want to lean the most natural possible because despite what studies say, the general principle I just shared with you, that's the truth, that's the reality. And so you always want to be as natural as possible to eliminate the side effects. So if you can even go from being on Synthroid or levothyroxine to Armour or Nature-Throid, that's a step up, that's a step in the right direction. And then from there, if you can do a lower dosage by doing all the things I'm sharing with you, the Ashwagandha, the B12, the probiotics, those things, well, then hey, you're even better. So the goal is not perfection, the goal is to get as far over as you can to being as natural and holistic as you can, because that's going to improve your longevity, your lifespan, your overall health when you can be as natural as possible, yet at the same time keeping your body balanced and healthy.

Now, I want to give you the Chinese medicine perspective on hypothyroidism. In Chinese medicine, it's known as Qi and Yang deficiency. Qi is connected to the adrenal glands and your cellular ATP, okay? So your mitochondrial health and your adrenal health, that's Qi. And Yang is tied more to tissue regeneration, it's being more anabolic in your body, being able to, um, uh, you know, use zinc and a lot of the nutrients in red meat and things like that for tissue regeneration. And that's also tied to your, uh, to your adrenal glands as well. But again, it's your adrenals and gut. Those are the two primary organs that cause hypothyroidism. So when we think of hypothyroidism in Western medicine, we think, oh, it's a problem with the thyroid. Well, Chinese medicine, they actually believe it's a, the primary issue is your adrenal glands. If it's just hypothyroidism. If it's Hashimoto, they believe it's a combination of the adrenals with the gut. And then sometimes they believe, well, there's also a cellular aspect going on here with the body's mitochondria and how we need to re-energize these cells within your body. And so Chinese medicine is a much more effective and accurate form of medicine at treating hypothyroidism versus Western medicine, and even a lot of natural medicine today, in terms of getting to the root cause.

And I want to go through some of the things that you want to stay away from, and then some of the things you want to be consuming and doing in order to reverse hypothyroidism according to Chinese medicine. The first thing here is, is that when you have hypothyroidism or Hashimoto, you have a lower body temperature. Okay? When you take your temperature, it's probably not 98.6, it's probably maybe 97 something. Okay? And if that's the case, we need to warm your body internally. One of the worst things for you to eat if you have hypothyroidism is cold foods and raw foods. If you're eating raw vegetables, raw salads, uh, ice cold drinks and smoothies, raw nuts and seeds, those foods are hard on your body and they're more cooling. You don't want to consume those foods. You want to consume a lot of soups and and warming foods on a regular basis. So again, if you have hypothyroidism, stay away from raw and cold foods. I have people all the time that I work with as patients who have hypothyroidism, and they're eating a lot of salads and a lot of raw and cold foods. That will make you worse. Okay? And so you want to stay away from the ice cold frozen smoothies, ice cream, raw vegetable salads if you have hypothyroidism.

And number two, dampening foods. Dampness will increase your chance of hypothyroidism. That is related to Candida in Western medicine. Foods that are going to increase dampness are dairy products like milk, any, any added sugar. If you go to Starbucks and get a Frappuccino and there's added sugar, which there tends to be 60 to 70 grams of added sugar, that's going to make you much worse. Greasy or fried foods, peanuts, bananas, and any soy products. Those tend to create more dampness within your body. So staying away from those seed oils, refined sugars, dairy, those will make you much worse. Processed foods, again, I mentioned the seed oils, fast foods, those are going to make you worse as well.

Here's now, that's from the Eastern perspective. From a Western perspective, I want to hit on a few others. If you're eating raw cruciferous vegetables, that will make you worse. Raw broccoli, raw cabbage, raw cauliflower, raw Brussels sprouts, raw soy products. You want to consume vegetables that are cooked. So you can do broccoli and cauliflower and cabbage. Now, you don't want to do large amounts of those because of something called, um, goitrogens. But you can do those steamed or baked or or or sautéed, and that's fine. That actually helps break down those compounds that can have a negative impact on the thyroid. But you never want to consume cruciferous vegetables raw if you have hypothyroidism. Soy products will make you worse. Soy protein, soy milk, soy, uh, tofu. Gluten, if it's not from a sourdough process, if you're doing a sourdough bread you've made at home, your body will tend to do okay with that, okay? But if it's not a sourdough bread, you want to stay away from gluten. Uh, generally speaking, uh, if you have hypothyroidism. Excess iodine, I mentioned this earlier, like iodide salt, you want to stay away from. Again, sugary foods and drinks, you want to stay away from. An excess alcohol, you want to stay away from. Now, one to two glasses a week total of red wine or a drink that's fine with hypothyroidism, but you wouldn't want to drink even a glass daily or probably more than four glasses a week if you have hypothyroidism. Again, one to two a week is probably fine, but you don't tend to want to go over that because of what it does to the liver, your cells, and your metabolism.

Now, in traditional Chinese medicine as well, again, what you really want to do is warm your body. Remember, your your core body temperature is cold, so you want to warm the body. So you want to consume a lot of soups, okay? You want to do a lot of cooked meat and cooked vegetables and things like, like, uh, sweet potatoes and squash and rice. Those are sort of the ideal foods there.

I want to walk through my top thyroid-nourishing foods now, according to both Western medicine and Eastern medicine. The first food is bone broth. Bone broth is very nourishing to the adrenals and the kidneys. So drinking both chicken and beef bone broth and doing a lot of soups. In fact, the, the most common meal you should do if you have hypothyroidism and Hashimoto are soups. Chicken vegetable soup, beef stew, uh, any type of regular soup and broth would be beneficial. Lamb, this is very warming and beneficial to the body. So it could be, uh, everything from, you know, lamb chops to leg of lamb. Chicken and turkey, also very warming and good for the body, doing those in soups and stews. Wild-caught fish, especially salmon, grass-fed beef and bison, and organ meats. These build the blood. So doing and making sure it's grass-fed and organic. Walnuts are also very good for the body. And if you can do walnuts that are even sort of roasted, that's even better. Okay? Uh, sweet potatoes, yams, and squash. These foods are very nourishing to the spleen and digestive system, very, very good for the thyroid. So again, sweet potatoes, yams, and squash. One of the things I have my patients do for breakfast is do a sweet potato smoothie where they put in about a cup of sweet potato, maybe a little bit of coconut milk or water, and then I have them put in about 30 to 40 grams of protein. I have them put in a bone broth or collagen protein and a healthy plant protein, and have them do that for breakfast, like something like a vanilla-flavored protein, and have them do that sweet potato smoothie for breakfast. And then I'll have them add in about a half a teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice, which has cinnamon and ginger in it, which is also very good for thyroid health. And those herbs like ginger, doing those as herbal teas are in your food. Warming herbs like ginger, garlic, cinnamon, clove, very good for thyroid health. Uh, dates. This is a good, if you're going to use a sweetener and you have hypothyroidism, dates are probably my favorite, followed by honey. And then you can also do stevia, monk fruit, allulose is fine as well. But doing dates, for instance, is a really good option. Goji berries, getting a goji berry powder and doing that in some water or as part of with some vanilla protein powder daily is great. Oats are fine. Brown rice or basmati or wild rice. These are also very good for thyroid hormones. Black beans, kidney beans, chickpeas, lentils. Doing some beans regularly, like a bean soup, is very good for thyroid hormones. And then cooked vegetables and leafy greens, but make sure they're cooked. Steam them, dip them in hummus, or maybe some homemade, you know, cashew cheese or something like that with a little bit of sea salt. But doing a lot of steamed vegetables, steamed spinach, carrots, peas, green beans, great options for healing the thyroid.

If you can follow a diet similar to what I just shared with you, so in the morning, you're waking up, you're doing that sweet potato smoothie or a smoothie with maybe some beets and some or beetroot juice powder, some goji berry powder, maybe a half a cup of blueberries, doing some vanilla protein, or the sweet potato smoothie, or something like a chicken or turkey sausage with some sweet potato hash, or some some oatmeal or rice congee with some dates and walnuts. And then you do some collagen or bone broth protein on the side. If you can do meals like that for breakfast, that's ideal. For lunch, do a soup, do a stew. For dinner, do some grass-fed beef or some, uh, grilled salmon with a lot of steamed vegetables and hummus. Like if you eat meals like that all day long with some warming herbal teas like cinnamon, ginger tea, or chai tea, or turmeric tea, you will heal and reverse hypothyroidism. You will be blown away how much your body will heal. So if you follow a diet like what I just shared with you there, along with taking certain other supplements, it's going to help.

Now, I do want to head on one other study that's really powerful, and this is a treatment that I love for hypothyroidism and Hashimoto, and it's infrared sauna therapy. There is a study conducted by Paloma Health with 100 subjects on hypothyroidism. They found that regular infrared sauna sessions improved thyroid function and reduced antibodies in patients taking levothyroxine. The study noted a reduction in TSH levels by approximately 10 to 15% and improvement in free T3 and T4 levels by around 5 to 10%. So getting in an infrared sauna every other day, or about 3 to 4 days a week, reduces inflammation and helps heal the thyroid. So if you just do one holistic treatment or therapy, do infrared sauna. Now, there's a brand out there I think it's called Bonge. They also have an infrared sauna blanket, so you can actually just get in a blanket at home while you're watching TV or use an infrared sauna just a pad on your body. So it doesn't have to be owning a full infrared sauna. It can be. And I think there's a couple great brands out there that I've personally used for infrared sauna therapy. Um, but I would do those again, infrared sauna, if you have one or get one for, you know, for for your own therapy or get.

An infrared sauna blanket, if you can do that, tremendous benefits. There are a couple of great brands out there. Probably the one I love is Sunlighten. I actually have a Sunlighten infrared sauna at home. So again, you can get, you know, Sunlighten or another good brand, or a Bond Charger, one of those brands for infrared sauna or a sauna blanket at home, but get some infrared light therapy.

Another thing you can do is take a hot bath at night with some Epsom salt. Okay. Also, so you actually want to really work on warming your body and your internal temperature. I love infrared saunas and baths, and I also love acupuncture. Acupuncture, they can do something called moxa on your body, warming your internal temperature, and also treat the thyroid, adrenals, and the gut at the same time. And acupuncture is an amazing treatment for hypothyroidism. If you've never tried it, I recommend you find somebody that treats hormone-based conditions with acupuncture and get some acupuncture treatments. About once a week to once a month would really be sufficient in getting your body to where it needs to be.

There's another great survey that was done by a friend of mine, Dr. Isabella Wentz, in looking at the benefits of infrared saunas and their ability to reduce stress by increasing norepinephrine and promoting relaxation to help heal hypothyroidism and Hashimoto's thyroiditis. In her survey, she found that 74% of respondents with Hashimoto's reported mood improvement and overall improvement with regular sauna use. And so again, there are several studies and evidence and surveys showing that infrared saunas are good for hypothyroidism.

Now, I talk, I covered so much information today, but I want to go over the highlights here for you to heal and reverse hypothyroidism. And remember, you can reverse hypothyroidism. You can reverse Hashimoto's. My own mom reversed hypothyroidism. My brother, my sister, thousands of patients I've worked with have been able to reverse it or at least greatly improve their symptoms and go from the not-so-natural to very natural and holistic, to add years to your life, to add health to your thyroid and to your body.

The first thing you want to do is improve your diet. Okay. Follow the diet I talked about. I gave you an example menu plan. A lot of warming foods, a lot of soups, bone broth, meat, cooked vegetables, a little bit of berries, yams, squash, uh, and, um, even things like some rice, right? So, so follow that diet.

Number two, get good quality sleep. That's critical for healing. Eight hours. Make sure your room is dark and cold and do everything you can to get good sleep at night.

Reduce stress. Do that by scheduling things you love to do. Okay. Look at your schedule, schedule walking and spending more time outside, time with your friends, and just downtime to read novels. Okay. So, so schedule downtime.

And then from there, take the right supplements. Here are my top five supplements for healing the thyroid and reversing hypothyroidism and Hashimoto's thyroiditis.

Number one is Ashwagandha. Remember, it's an adaptogenic herb that really supports balancing out thyroid hormones. You want to take about 1,000 to 2,500 milligrams a day.

Number two are probiotics. Probiotics treat leaky gut, which is connected to Hashimoto's thyroiditis. It also lets you better absorb all of your B vitamins. You want to take about a 100 billion to 1 trillion probiotics daily. Look for a probiotic that also has prebiotics and postbiotics.

Number three, take an organ and glandular supplement that has liver, adrenal, kidney, and thyroid in it. So again, take a glandular supplement, uh, that's going to have many of those nutrients your thyroid needs and take as directed.

Number four, take a methylated B complex supplement that has methylfolate and methylcobalamin. This is going to help support methylation and getting your thyroid the B vitamins it needs to function properly.

And last but not least, can take an adrenal thyroid support. This is going to be a herbal supplement that's going to have a blend of maybe things like Rhodiola, for Scaly. Also might also have some other nutrients like selenium, iodine, and zinc, and maybe some other herbs and even mushrooms like Reishi, Chaga, and Cordyceps as well.

Those are my top five supplements to take to heal and reverse hypothyroidism. Now, some other remedies I mentioned that are important is remember acupuncture, infrared sauna. I truly believe in prayer for healing as well, and praising God and saying, God, thank you for healing me. Uh, reading spiritual growth books. I think is important. Uh, to actually, according to Chinese medicine, this is getting a little bit deeper, but the thyroid and the adrenals are connected to going deep in life. If you don't feel like you're going deep in life, you don't have a purpose, as well, that affects the thyroid function, according to Chinese medicine. So focusing on spiritual growth and using your gifts to impact the world and having a purpose will also help heal your thyroid.

Walking in nature, scheduling in downtime to do the things you love to do, strength training. Something I didn't cover, but actually weight training along with walking are probably some of the best forms of exercise to heal the thyroid, along with actually something like pickleball or tennis, also very good.

If you follow this advice, I think you'll see incredible improvement in your thyroid health in a very, very short period of time. And listen, there are millions of people today suffering with hypothyroidism, and many of them don't know they have it. If you know somebody with hypothyroidism or somebody just in general who needs to listen to or watch this episode, please share this with them. Send them a text to say, hey, you should listen to this, or post on your social media like Facebook and Instagram, letting people know, hey, this is a great episode on exactly what to do to heal the root cause of hypothyroidism.

I want to say thank you so much for tuning in here to the Dr. Josh Axe Show. Remember, every week I'm diving deep into how to heal your body, mind, and spirit. Make sure to subscribe, like, and share. I can't wait to see you on the next episode.