Transcription
Hello everybody. This is Dr. Anshul Gupta. I'm a functional medicine MD who specializes in thyroid disorders and Hashimoto's disease. I have written a bestseller book called "Reversing Hashimoto's," where I discussed a three-step process to reverse thyroid conditions. And I'm going to discuss or share with you this three-step process today, which is completely natural and based on functional medicine research. So let's delve directly into this three-step process, so you know what you're talking about.
So, as a background, I'm a Cleveland Clinic physician. That's where I did my research into thyroid disorders and made this process. So, what are we going to learn today? So, first, we are going to learn about what symptoms thyroid patients have and why these symptoms exist even after taking medication. Research now tells us that even after taking medications, several people continue to have symptoms, and that's what we're going to talk about today. Why? What are the underlying causes of thyroid disorders? You might have been wondering, or you might have asked your doctor this question, "Why did I get thyroid disorder?" And your doctor might have just said, "Well, we don't know, it just happens." But in reality, there is research that tells us there are certain causes of thyroid disorders, and we are going to discuss about that today. Now, once you know what are your triggers or root causes, what can you do to improve them? And that's where we're going to talk about this process that I have developed that has helped several people to improve, reverse their thyroid disorders.
Introduction to Thyroid. Basically, thyroid disorders are increasing rapidly. In the last decade, we have seen a very big upsurge of thyroid patients. More and more people are being diagnosed with thyroid disorders, and less and less people are getting better with medications. Different disorders are there of thyroid, which includes hypothyroidism or low thyroid, or Hashimoto's disease. People are getting diagnosed with goiter or thyroid nodules, or even Graves' disease. Now, these thyroid disorders mainly affect middle-aged females between the age of 30 to 65 years of age. But again, as we are seeing an increased trend, so what we are also seeing is that more and more males are being diagnosed with thyroid disorders, and even in children, we are seeing a big surge of thyroid disorders, especially Hashimoto's disease. More and more kids around 8 to 9 years of age or 10 years of age are being diagnosed with thyroid disorders and Hashimoto's disease, which is very alarming.
The worst about thyroid disorders is that, you know, the symptoms which it comes with. There are so many dreadful symptoms or difficult symptoms that people with thyroid disorders go through, and sometimes the medications are not able to resolve these symptoms. So, generally, the symptoms of thyroid disorders are feeling tired or feeling fatigued. Brain fog is another major symptom. What that means is that people are forgetting things, or their mental capacity is not at par as before. They are not able to concentrate on things as best. The other problem is weight issues. Several thyroid patients are unable to lose weight. They keep on gaining weight, even though they have tried different kinds of diets or lifestyle changes. Hair loss or hair thinning, this is again a major, major symptom. Lot of thyroid patients go through gut issues like constipation, bloating, stomach cramping, diarrhea, you name it. So many gut-related symptoms are associated with thyroid disorders. Mood changes. Several people complain of being depressed or anxious, or going from an anxiety to depression, are always stressed out. So mood changes are also a major reason of thyroid disorders. Infertility. Again, infertility cases are on a rise very rapidly, and thyroid issues definitely are a very, very major reason of infertility. These are just some basic symptoms that we have gone through. Obviously, there are much more symptoms which are associated with thyroid disorders, but most people go through these symptoms, or sometimes only one or two symptoms.
Now, what is the most conventional way of treating thyroid disorders? Because majority of the cases of thyroid disorders are either hypothyroidism or Hashimoto's disease, and the treatment is only one: giving them levothyroxine, which is a thyroid hormone, which is a synthetic thyroid hormone. No explanation is given why they develop thyroid, or why you develop thyroid, what is going on with you, why you need this medicine suddenly in your life. And the worst part, this medicine doesn't even work for a lot of patients. What that means is that your lab values definitely will look good, but your body might not be functioning at optimal, that your symptoms might still exist, or they might improve slightly, but they will not go away completely. In fact, there have been research studies which have shown that people who have been taking levothyroxine still have symptoms which are not better.
So, here are a couple of studies. One study was done in the UK, which showed that people with thyroid disorders, when they were put on thyroid medicine, 40% more than 40% of patients in this research study showed that they still had one or the other unresolved symptoms and they were not getting better, which was shocking. And there was another study done which was mainly looking at neurocognitive symptoms like brain fog, symptoms of not being able to concentrate, or feeling depressed or anxious, or brain loss or memory loss. And this showed that with adequate treatment, that means their doctor was giving them the medicine which was required, and the lab values are absolutely normal, and even then, these symptoms did not improve for these patients.
So, this is very shocking. Okay, it might not be shocking for you because you are going through these symptoms. You might have gone to your doctors and told them about it, but the doctors might have said, "Well, we cannot do anything else." They might have even come to the point that they might have told you that you might be thinking all these symptoms or making these symptoms up in your head. But in reality, these are not fake things. The research now does tell us, and you can actually show them this research, saying that, "Okay, well, I'm not alone. There are several people like me who are taking the medicine and still not feeling better."
So, the question is that why is conventional medicine failing? You know, why is that this medicine is not working? Why is that, you know, they're not paying attention to what you are telling them? You know, because you are suffering. So, conventional medicine, unfortunately, still strongly believes that levothyroxine is the only solution. Levothyroxine was discovered a very, very long time ago, and they are not putting any new research into the thyroid disorders to look more of why this is happening and why levothyroxine is not working. They're not looking for underlying reasons for thyroid disorders. When first thyroid disorders were discovered, they were discovered because of iodine deficiency, and because of iodine deficiency, the thyroid was not able to make enough thyroid hormone, and that's the reason external thyroid hormone was useful. But now, in the last 5 to 10 years, the major reason of hypothyroidism is not iodine deficiency, because now most people are actually getting enough iodine through either table salt, or either through food, food, or other fortified food. The major reason of current hypothyroidism epidemic is Hashimoto's disease. It is an autoimmune condition, and levothyroxine doesn't do anything for Hashimoto's disease or autoimmune conditions, and that's the reason this medicine is not working anymore.
Most doctors are not concerned about the symptoms, actually. You know, that is very sad to hear that doctors are not paying attention to the symptoms of their patients, or sometimes they just feel helpless because they don't have any other tool to help their patients, because the only treatment available to them is levothyroxine. But as a patient, you feel frustrated, you feel angry, and sometimes with no hope. So, this is a very scary picture that a lot of people go through.
Now, um, let's talk about why, why is that people with thyroid disorders are not feeling better. So, as I shared with you, the current research tells us that the majority of the thyroid patients now these days have autoimmune thyroid conditions like Hashimoto's and Graves' disease. The worst part, most of the conventional doctors are not even checking for Hashimoto's disease. Most people, when they start working with me, I ask them, "Do you have Hashimoto's disease?" And they say, "We don't know, we have never been checked." Or some people who have been checked, they were checked like a long time ago, and nobody monitors their antibodies anymore. So, again, it is very important to know what kind of thyroid disorder you have. Do you have Hashimoto's or not? And it's a very easy test. Any conventional labs will do a Hashimoto's test, which is basically checking thyroid antibodies like thyroid peroxidase antibody or thyroglobulin antibodies. So, if you can ask your doctor to do it, they should be able to run it, and you will know that whether you have Hashimoto's disease, which is the underlying problem of your thyroid disorder, or not.
But the shocking research says that more than 70 to 90% of patients now these days, the underlying problem is inflammation or Hashimoto's disease, and not iodine deficiency. The underlying problem is inflammation and not the deficiency of this thyroid hormone that we think that we have. Suddenly, your thyroid doesn't stop producing thyroid hormone. There has to be a reason, and the reason is this autoimmune destruction of your thyroid gland and other organs in your body, which causes Hashimoto's, which ultimately leads to hypothyroidism.
Now, the interesting part is that this inflammation and autoimmunity, most people think they only destroy the thyroid gland. But in reality, it's actually based on my research, what I found was that it destroys something called the mito-thyroid connection, which is a connection between your mitochondria and your thyroid. So, it destroys both of these things, and that's the reason you get these symptoms. And again, just replacing thyroid hormone doesn't fix this.
So, let's talk about what is, what is mitochondria, and what is this mito-thyroid connection that we are talking about. So, mitochondria are tiny tiny organelles which are present in each and every cell of your body. Now, mitochondria, the most common way they are known is they are called as the powerhouse of the cell or the body. Your body gets energy from mitochondria. Mitochondria produces energy, and that's the reason you can function. Now, most people don't know that is that thyroid hormone and mitochondria shares a mutual relationship. Thyroid hormone controls mitochondrial health. It regulates mitogenesis, basically, where, what it means is that it helps in dividing mitochondria, regenerating mitochondria, and it also regulates the metabolic functioning of the mitochondria. What does mitochondria do? Mitochondria, in turn, regulates the oxidative balance in the thyroid gland by regulating the production of reactive oxygen species. Basically, mitochondria actually, oxidative balance is what we call as the balance in the body, which helps the thyroid gland to function properly and not let it being destroyed. Whenever, you know, like you can compare it to a factory. In a factory, you are producing any kind of goods, right? And when you're producing any goods, there are a lot of waste material that happens with any production. This waste material, if it accumulates in the factory and not being deployed properly, then it, the accumulation of waste material can impact the factory production and in fact might stop it because it might clog the whole factory. So, same thing, when your thyroid is producing thyroid hormone, it produces certain reactive oxygen species, which if it accumulates, destroys your thyroid gland, and mitochondria helps to get rid of those reactive oxygen species and in turn keeps the machinery of the thyroid gland functioning. So, you see, mitochondria is so much important for thyroid, and thyroid is also important for mitochondria.
Now, let's look what the research says that what is the exact reason that why is people developing thyroid disorders and what is the actual thing on the microscope level which is happening in the thyroid disease, the pathology. So, as I said, you know, like a majority of thyroid disease are autoimmune in nature, where antibodies, these your own body are producing these antibodies, and your environment is creating these triggers to produce these antibodies, and these antibodies start destroying your own body, especially the thyroid gland. But if you go much more deeper, the research actually shows that in the thyroid gland, these antibodies not only lead to the destruction of the thyroid tissue, but also lead to the destruction of mitochondria. In fact, electron microscopy, it shows that in Hashimoto's patients or in thyroid disorder patients, when they were looking through electron microscopy, most of the thyroid cells, they had a very, very high number of accumulation of dysfunctional or dead mitochondria as compared to the general population. So, this is telling us that definitely thyroid disorder patients, in thyroid glands, have very, very high amount of destruction of mitochondria and thyroid cells. So, it is a destruction not only of thyroid, but also mitochondria, which is happening beneath that you are not even aware of.
And what people don't know is that the thyroid symptoms are actually mitochondrial symptoms. Research, you know, has shown and have been associated with several mitochondrial functions with several symptoms, and all of the thyroid-related symptoms are actually associated with mitochondrial functioning. As I said, fatigue or being tired. Now, mitochondria is a powerhouse of the cell, it is producing energy. Now, if the mitochondria is not functioning, what do you feel? You feel tired. That's the reason thyroid patients feel fatigued. Weight gain. Mitochondria is responsible again for burning all this fat and carbohydrate that you consume, and if it is not able to function, that's the reason people gain weight or not able to lose weight, right? Feeling cold. That is another symptom. Mitochondria, when it is producing energy, it also produces heat, and that's the reason you feel warm. And again, if mitochondria is not functioning, that is not happening. Brain fog. The highest concentration of mitochondria in the whole body is in the brain. Brain gets all its energy from mitochondria, and obviously, if the mitochondria is not working in the brain, that's the reason the brain is not working. Same with constipation. Again, you know, like your gut needs a lot of mitochondria, and then when mitochondria is not working, then your gut doesn't work. So, most people are not even aware that the thyroid symptoms are not thyroid symptoms, but actually destruction of mitochondrial symptoms. And levothyroxine, which is the thyroid hormone, is not doing anything to safeguard mitochondria. It is not doing anything to safeguard this mito-thyroid connection, and that's the main reason that people with thyroid disorders are not feeling better, even though they are taking medicines, or even some people don't even take medicines and still feel very awful. So, that's a major reason.
So, the first, the next question happens, people ask me that, "Okay, well, why is my mito-thyroid connection broken? Why, what is going on underneath which triggered my thyroid disorders?" So, again, research suggests that Hashimoto's disease, which, as I said, is a major cause of thyroid disorders, the actual reason of it is interplay between your genetic makeup and the environmental factors around you. Okay? There are several environmental factors which causes triggering of thyroid disorders, and we are going to discuss them in just a second. But just sit with this kind of information that it is an interplay between your genes and your environment. Most people will start blaming their genes, "Oh, it is in my genes, I cannot do anything about it." But that is not true. Everybody has a set of genes, but their genes behave depending on what kind of environment you put them into. So, if you put them into the wrong environment, or environment which triggers Hashimoto's, then only you will get thyroid disorders. And the good part is that the genes can be turned on and can be turned off. So, if your genes are turned on for some reason because of these environmental factors, you have ways of turning them off and improving the thyroid disorder. But that's where the, that's the reason the mito-thyroid connection is broken, or you have underlying thyroid issues because of these triggers in the environment which is present.
So, now let's talk about the triggers. So, I have identified five major triggers which leads to all of the thyroid disorders, and that's what we're going to talk about. Okay? So, these five triggers are food sensitivities, nutritional deficiencies, trauma, stress, toxins, and infections. So, obviously, these are big categories of triggers, and they are very much specific things which are underlying each and every of these triggers, and that's what we're going to talk about. But these are the main five categories of triggers that you should be knowing about. The worst part is that most people do not have just one trigger. It is a minimum of two or three triggers which are combined together leading to thyroid disorders. So, again, a lot of people might think, "Oh, stress is my trigger," or "My food is my trigger," but it is not just one trigger. It's a combination of triggers which leads to Hashimoto's or thyroid disorders.
So, let's talk about the third trigger, which is the food sensitivities. We call food as medicine, which is absolutely right. But the food can also be the cause of our certain diseases if we do not consume the right food. So, why is this that, you know, food is leading to, you know, like all of these disorders and autoimmune diseases? And you might have heard a lot about things about food. The reality is that our food genetic makeup is changing rapidly with the recent industrial and agricultural revolution that happened all over the world. We have been constantly changing our food with genetically modifications, with using a lot of pesticides, spraying all of those things. So, our food genetic makeup changes, and our body recognizes each and every food to certain, you know, sequences of genes, right? Because it has interacted with food for centuries or for millions of years. Now, when your food is changing so rapidly genetically, your body is not able to keep up with this change, and it's not able to recognize these new foods which has been coming into the market. And that's the reason the body thinks it's a foreign invasion or a foreign material being introduced into your body, and that's the reason it starts producing these antibodies, or food leads to triggering of Hashimoto's or thyroid disorders.
Now, the common foods are here are gluten, dairy, soy, corn, processed food, sugars. All of these things are the most common food which leads to, you know, triggering of Hashimoto's because, again, these are the foods which have been genetically modified the most, or these are the foods that your body cannot recognize anymore, and that's the reason they cause this issue. Now, the other thing which is very important to know is that there is a difference between food sensitivities and food allergies. A lot of people will say, "Well, I don't have any allergies because I got tested." Well, they're checking for food allergies. Food allergies is a kind of a situation where you consume peanuts, you know, and if you're allergic to peanuts, you will blow up like a balloon and you will land up in the emergency room. But the food sensitivity is, let's say you're sensitive to gluten, you will eat gluten, your body will say, "Hey, gluten, you're not my enemy, but I don't like you here." So, it will produce very, very small amount of antibodies to the point that will not give you a full-blown anaphylactic reaction, but these antibodies start a very slow destruction of your body. So, that's the reason food sensitivities go unnoticed for a long amount of time because they do not give big symptoms.
Again, let's go on the research. So, again, a systemic review was done on 12 research studies which actually looked for association between thyroid and celiac disease, where people are sensitive or allergic to gluten. And it did show that people who have celiac disease also have very high chance or have high likelihood of developing thyroid disorders. There was another research study done which showed that, you know, like people who consume more of processed meat, processed fat, and butters, they have higher levels of thyroid antibodies in their body. So, we have several these research studies which link different kinds of foods with different kinds of thyroid disorders. So, it is very clear that wrong foods can definitely be a very, very big trigger of thyroid disorders, and it is unfortunate that, you know, most people are not even aware that the food they are eating might be the reason of the thyroid disorders. So, very important trigger, food sensitivities, I think everybody should be aware of it and start working on things for it.
Um, the next trigger that we will talk about is trauma or stress. Now, when, whenever I see a patient in my clinic, and I ask them the first question is that, "Okay, well, you got diagnosed with thyroid disorders, just go back to that time and one or two years before you got diagnosed, look at your life and see if there was any major stressful event and time." And time and again, 90% of my clients are able to identify some major event, whether it was personal issues like divorce or difficult relationships, or major work issues, or major health issues, or even something called like, you know, pregnancy, postpartum, you know, like because there's so much hormonal changes that are happening in females that it can lead, which is a big kind of stressor for any kind of females, that can trigger Hashimoto's or thyroid disorder. So, major events like, you know, trauma and stress definitely is a major player that almost 90% of my clients can identify some trauma or stress they went through, and a year or two later on, they were diagnosed with thyroid disorder. So, make sure you are aware of it because it is real. It is not again in your head. A lot of people think, "Oh, well, you know, stress is stress, you know, everybody goes through it." But no, certain kinds of stress that your body doesn't like can actually lead to triggering of your thyroid disorders.
The third big one, actually, is toxins. You know, we are living in a toxic world, and our system is being overloaded with toxins each and every day. More and more toxins are being poured into our environment, and our body has to deal with it. You know, the toxins, various toxins are involved in an environment like heavy metals like lead and mercury, which we have known for centuries causes havoc to our body. Now, new toxins are also being introduced like environmental toxins like, you know, pesticides, insecticides, organophosphates, you know, whole bunch of environmental toxins are there. And plus, mold toxins. There is clear-cut new research suggesting that mold toxins are very detrimental to thyroid disorders. People who do get exposed to mold toxins have high chances of Hashimoto's disease and also have low levels of thyroid disorders. So, mold is creating a havoc, and again, most people are not even aware of it.
Again, let's look at a couple of research studies. Heavy metals. So, it was this was a research study done, and again, a lot of people have this misconception is that they need to be exposed to very high amounts of chemicals in their system to being diagnosed. A lot of people come to see me, "Well, I think I eat organic, or like, there is no chemicals I use in my body." And suddenly, we do a, you know, like a checkup or a special test to check heavy metals or things, and boom, they have a lot of heavy metals. So, what I'm coming at is that there is very low dose exposure that can happen to these chemicals because they're present in all over our environment. So, this study showed that 54 male adolescents were exposed who were exposed to low levels of lead. Their results showed that they have low thyroid levels or they had thyroid disorders as compared to healthy males which have never been exposed to any kind of lead. And obviously, they are looking at lead levels in their blood, and that's the way they know that, you know, they were exposed to very low levels, not even high levels which will be called toxic, very low levels. And even then, that showed that, you know, they had higher chances of thyroid disorder. Again, another study that was done with people who were exposed to lead had higher chances of getting all different kinds of thyroid disorders, not only hypothyroidism, but hyperthyroidism, and also thyroid cancer. So, that's a major, major finding that you should be aware of that, you know, even very slow or low exposure of heavy metals like lead and mercury can certainly cause issues with your thyroid, and unless you test it or unless you check them, it is very difficult to know whether those are the cases or not.
So, this was a study, you know, like Aspergillus is a mold. Okay? So, this was a study which showed that Aspergillus exposure. So, Aspergillus grows basically in a lot of water-damaged buildings. So, let's say like, you know, if you had flooding in your house, or ever, you know, had any water leaks or water problems or plumbing issues, those things actually, the water can seep into the walls and the cracks, and those damaged buildings can create mold issues. So, it was found that people who were exposed to any kind of water-damaged buildings had high chances of developing thyroiditis or thyroid disorders, or they had low levels of thyroid in their body. So, again, you know, we have more studies that do show that the mold exposure can certainly be very detrimental to thyroid hormone production and also thyroid in general. And again, it's very important factor to know about. And then again, there have certain, there are several other studies which have shown a lot of correlation between pesticide exposure and development of thyroid illness. So, we have again several studies that, you know, do show that also that there is a correlation that, you know, people who do get exposed to pesticides do develop thyroid disease. So, again, toxins are very, very important and a very big reason of developing thyroid disorders.
Now, infections. Chronic infection or infections can lead to triggering of thyroid disorders. The most common infection that people might be knowing about is EBV or Epstein-Barr virus or infectious mononucleosis. There are at least a dozen research papers which show the association of Epstein-Barr virus and its connection with thyroid disorders. Then there is Lyme disease. Then there are several parasites which live in our gut. Food poisoning. All of these things can actually lead to the triggering of Hashimoto's or your thyroid disorder. So, again, you know, we have a couple of research studies which I wanted to share with you guys, which is like, you know, this study showed that 80% of patients with Hashimoto's patients and 60% of Graves' disease patients had Epstein-Barr virus reactivation. What that means is that, you know, Epstein-Barr virus reactivation is different from acute infectious mononucleosis. This doesn't mean that you have actually an acute mono infection. So, if you go to your regular doctor, they will check for a mono test, which will be negative. You have to go for a much more in-depth evaluation of your body to look for specific Epstein-Barr virus antibodies to know whether you have reactivation or not. But look at the numbers, 80% and 60%, that's pretty high.
There was another study done which was looking at Blastocystis, which is actually a parasite, which is kind of the most common parasite which I see when I check my patients, you know, with special tests. And this parasite in the gut was again associated with thyroid disorders. So, people who had this Blastocystis in their gut had higher chances of developing thyroid disorders. And again, the issue is that this parasite doesn't even give symptoms. So, it might be living in your gut for maybe years, and you might not even have symptoms. A lot of people will think, "Well, I should have diarrhea or constipation or stomach pain or maybe blood in my stools." No, sometimes people have normal bowel movements and everything is normal, still they can have this parasite. So, until you check for it, you will not know about it. So, this is infections again are a very, very big cohort of triggers that people should be knowing about.
So, you see, these are the main five kind of, you know, um, categories of triggers that, you know, I showed the research that clearly shows that these are all associated, can be triggers of thyroid disorders, you know, whether it's infections, whether it is toxins, whether it is trauma or stress, or whether it is, you know, like food issues or nutritional deficiencies. All of these things are related to thyroid disorders and lead to it. Okay, okay.
So, now we spoke about, all right, you did figure out that you have a thyroid disorder. Maybe you got, you know, that you have Hashimoto's disease, maybe you don't. But maybe you can ask your doctor to check for Hashimoto's disease. And then you think that, okay, you might know that, you know, there are certain triggers, but what do you do about it? Okay? So, that's what I'm talking about here, the three-step process which I have developed over the course of years that will help you to develop actually and help you to reverse your thyroid disease.
So, the very first step is to identify the underlying triggers or the root causes of your thyroid disease, right? So, it's that's a very, very important step. Now, this is also the most difficult step, okay? Because we don't have very good testing available through conventional labs for each and every of these categories. Some of these things could be checked, but most of these cannot. But the good part is that, you know, in functional medicine field, we have developed specialized testing which we have the ability to check all of these underlying root causes and can figure out which is your root cause. Okay? So, for that, you know, like you might have to find a qualified functional medicine doctor who knows how to do these proper testing and how to interpret these tests, or maybe a naturopath or holistic doctor who can help you out with that. But, you know, over the course of research, what I've identified, I have identified certain patterns, certain patterns of clinical symptoms which can maybe point us towards these root causes. So, what I did was that I made this root cause quiz, you know, which is hosted on my website. You know, the address is going over here. So, you can just go to this website and take this quiz. It will take you hardly five or 10 minutes, ask you a bunch of questions about what kind of symptoms that you have, and in the end, it actually gives you a score, you know, all of these five categories of root causes that we discussed about. It's going to give you scores and all of those five categories, so you will know that, you know, um, which potential root causes you are dealing with. Obviously, this quiz doesn't replace any testing, but, you know, at least, you know, it's a good starting point for you to know what potential root causes might you be going through, so that you can take some actionable steps to get them better. So, this, as I said, the link is anshulguptamd.com/thyroid-quiz, and then that will take you to this web page. You can go on my website anshulguptamd.com and obviously, you know, like the quiz is also over there, and you will get the results. So, that's the very first step. Okay?
But what the common mistake that people make is that, you know, they think there is only one root cause, and they think that if they find that one root cause, everything will be okay. What I have identified again through my experience and research is that most people have a minimum of two or three root causes which are working together to cause this thyroid disease. People come to see me, "Oh, well, you know, my other doctor found out that, you know, I have this parasite in my gut, or I have candida in my gut, and I did a treatment for it, but still have thyroid problems." I said, "Okay, well, what about toxins? What about other issues?" And they said, "Well, he did not check for anything else. He found the parasite and he was happy that he found my root cause." And that is where we falter. We have to look at all the root causes, and unless all the root causes are identified and removed, the thyroid disorder does not get better. So, it's very important to know all the root causes that you are dealing with, so that you can reverse all of them, and then you are going to see great results. Okay? So, very important to know this step.
The step is the second step is basically like, in thyroid disorders, what is broken? The mito-thyroid connection. So, what we are going to fix is this mito-thyroid connection. Even though you address the root cause, we have to specifically fix the mito-thyroid connection, because which is something broken, it is going to take a long time for your body to fix it, right? So, but we have made ways, especially this mito-thyroid diet, which can help to fix this mito-thyroid connection very quickly. That's what we're going to talk about. Okay?
So, this diet has certain principles. The first principle is removing foods that are causing damage to the mito-thyroid connection, okay? So, that we can at least stop the, the destruction which is happening, you know, from happening anymore. So, as I mentioned, those are basically gluten, dairy, soy, corn, processed foods, sugary foods, trans fats. All of those foods, you know, are definitely very bad or detrimental for your thyroid. So, you should be definitely, first step is getting off all of those foods.
Now, the second principle of the second thing is that, you know, start adding foods which are going to be helpful for healing this mito-thyroid connection. And we are going to talk in a second more about it, you know, like good fats and high-quality nuts and proteins. And the third principle is adding antioxidant foods. So, again, what are antioxidants? Antioxidant foods are helpful for reducing inflammation in your body and also stops any further destruction of the mito-thyroid connection, which are like green leafy vegetables, some fruits like berries, especially blueberries, blackberries, and then some gluten-free grains like quinoa and brown rice. So, all of these things, you know, are good antioxidant foods that is going to start fixing your mito-thyroid connection and obviously make things better for you.
So, why do you need to remove these foods, right? So, we discussed a little bit about it because of all the processing which is happening to these foods and all the genetic modifications which is happening. The next question most people have is that, "Well, I am buying non-GMO organic gluten or wheat products. Is that okay?" Still, you know, our wheat has been modified so much that even the non-GMO varieties, our body rejects it. And gluten is the biggest trigger for Hashimoto's. Same thing with dairy. Our dairy industry is heavily polluted and heavily processed. Even though, you know, you are drinking the best dairy products which are organic, still that can harm your thyroid. And we know sugar is definitely bad, and processed food and processed meats. So, all of these foods need to be given up because their industry is so heavily processed, and these foods are damaging to your thyroid gland day in and day out, that I don't recommend doing it because it is just going to lead to more destruction and not help in fixing it.
The good foods. Let's talk about the food that you need to eat, right? So, good fats. So, again, the food industry has kind of created this, um, this fad about every fat is bad. Now, every fat is not bad. We need fat to survive. If we don't have fat in our body, we will not survive. All of the cells in your body have a lining around them, and that lining is made with fats. 70 to 80% of your brain is made with fat. So, we need fat, but we need to include good fats. That's the most important thing. So, good fats are olive oil, coconut oil, ghee, which is the Indian clarified butter or Indian ghee, which is good, which is very, which is very different from butter. So, people should be knowing about it. Avocados and fatty fishes. These are all good fats that people should be adding to their diet on a regular basis, that is going to help improve your thyroid functioning.
The second is good quality proteins, you know, like chicken, fish, turkey. Those are all good quality proteins. Now, if you're a vegan or a vegetarian, then, you know, you can choose like nuts and seeds, like which will be almonds, walnuts, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, chia seeds, flax seeds. All of those things are great quality proteins. And obviously, you can also do beans like kidney beans, red beans, garbanzo beans. Those are all good sources of protein. Now, with the nuts and seeds and beans, there is some concern about lectins, and that's the reason a lot of people shy away from them. But we don't have great research to suggest that lectins play a very, very big role. And second of all, there are ways to reduce lectins. One of the ways is you overnight soak them, and the second way is that when you're cooking them, you do pressure cooking, you know. So, if you pressure cook them and if you soak them overnight, you reduce the amount of lectins. So, I think those are perfectly fine then to use. And the third thing, as I said, nuts and seeds like chia seeds, like flax seeds, almonds, walnuts. These are again very good sources that we should be eating. Good quality fats, good quality protein, lot of antioxidants, lot of benefits of nuts and seeds that, you know, for thyroid patients.
Some more good foods, you know. Um, some more good foods are like non-starchy vegetables, as we discussed. So, any kind of vegetables, non-starchy vegetables are perfectly fine, whether it is green leafy vegetables, whether it's like cucumber salads, even cruciferous vegetables. That's again a bigger myth that, you know, goes around is that cruciferous vegetables, any thyroid patient should not consume it. Again, the research is very old on it because the cruciferous vegetables sometimes interfere with iodine absorption and utilization in thyroid. But as I said, most, most people now these days are not deficient in iodine. The problem now these days is autoimmune inflammation which is leading to destruction of the thyroid gland. And cruciferous vegetables have great antioxidants, they have sulforaphanes, they help with detoxification. All of these things now show that they help the thyroid patients. So, again, please consume a lot of these non-starchy vegetables. They are going to help your thyroid, you know, to get better.
Certain fruits. Again, fruits do have sugar. So, I don't recommend eating a lot of fruits, but certain fruits can be helpful, like blueberries, blackberries, very limited amount of strawberries or apples can be useful. Gluten-free grains like quinoa, oats, or brown rice is also fine to do. They will also kind of help you with improving your thyroid functioning. Okay?
So, the message in the mito-thyroid diet is very simple, okay? Remove foods which are bad for you. Include foods which are good for you. In this diet, we don't focus on the calories, and instead of focusing on the quality of the foods. And this is again very important for most of the thyroid patients to know because most of the thyroid patients have always been thinking about calories, "Well, I should be just eating very limited amount of calories, 1000 calories or 1200 calories or that's it." No, that doesn't work, okay? Because your thyroid needs quality ingredients. So, it is not about the calories, it's about the quality of the food. So, if you eat good quality food, your thyroid is going to get better. Okay?
All right. There are certain supplements which can support thyroid and mitochondria and helps support this mito-thyroid connection, helps improve your thyroid in a whole bunch of things. Okay? Again, obviously, before taking any supplements, always recommend discussing it with your healthcare provider, just to be sure it is fine with you.
So, number one is zinc. Okay? Um, zinc is a great supplement. It's wonderful for immunity, but it is also great for thyroid gland also because it is actually it helps with the thyroid hormone production. It also helps with converting your thyroid inactive thyroid hormone, which is the T4 to T3. Okay? And which is a major actually player, you know, because a lot of people, you know, when they're taking this medicine called levothyroxine, they don't even know that is only T4. Okay? So, your thyroid hormone produces this hormone called T4, which is inactive thyroid hormone, and it needs to go to the cells of your body, and then needs to be converted to T3, so your body can actually utilize the thyroid hormone. And some people are just not able to do it. Okay? This conversion of T4 to T3, and the major reason can be zinc deficiency. Okay? So, zinc actually helps out with conversion of T4 to T3, and there actually people feel much better on it. Different forms of zinc, you know, but the best forms of zinc, you know, so again, when you're buying a zinc supplement, just look at what kind of zinc it has. So, zinc glycinate or zinc picolinate are the best forms of zinc which are best absorbed. So, those are the ones that I would recommend to you. And, you know, the dosage varies between 30 to 50 milligrams, but, you know, that depends on person to person.
The next supplement is selenium. Selenium again is great. It reduces inflammation. Selenium has at least a dozen studies which shows that taking selenium can reduce the thyroid antibodies. It improves Hashimoto's, it improves thyroid levels, it again safeguards your thyroid gland, it improves thyroid hormone production. So, very great supplement. The best form again, selenium comes in a whole bunch of different forms. Selenium methionin is the best form of selenium that you should be utilizing.
Magnesium is again a great supplement. Comes in different forms, you know, depending on person to person. Now, the way magnesium helps with thyroid patients, it actually helps with the iodine uptake. You know, your thyroid gland needs iodine, so it helps your thyroid gland to uptake the iodine into it. It helps with thyroid hormone production, also helps in reducing inflammation. So, all different benefits, you know, which magnesium provides. The different forms of magnesium available in the market, you know, like the magnesium glycinate is the one that I like the most because it has a very calming effect and doesn't have much side effects. So, magnesium glycinate is the one that I like. And then the dosage varies from person to person.
Vitamin B12. Again, a very, very important vitamin to use. There was actually a couple of research studies which shows that a lot of people who have thyroid disorders are also low in vitamin B12 because, you know, again, as I shared with you, that the thyroid disorders are mainly autoimmune in nature, and there is a condition where your gut is not, which is called pernicious anemia, where your actually gut doesn't produce an intrinsic factor which is responsible for absorbing B12 into your body. So, that condition can be there, and you will not know about it, you know, and your B12 levels might be on the lower side. So, that's the reason, you know, I recommend taking B12 supplements. And again, as your gut is not able to absorb B12, then taking sublingual way of B12 or maybe injectable is better because that way you are absorbing it directly into your body.
Vitamin D. At least 50 research studies shows that vitamin D is good for thyroid patients. You know, whole bunch of benefits, you know, from vitamin D. It regulates inflammation, reduces inflammation, helps thyroid hormone production, supports the thyroid gland, whole bunch of things. The dosage varies anywhere from 1000 units to 5000 units for people depending on where they are.
Coenzyme Q10. This is a great supplement which supports the mitochondria as well as the thyroid. Okay? It is a great antioxidant, reduces inflammation in mitochondria, it provides more energy, it helps with fatigue, tiredness, brain fog, mitochondrial functioning. So, great supplement that I recommend to my thyroid patients, so they can see the benefit from it.
These are some supplements. Obviously, these are some basic supplements which I think almost a lot of the thyroid patients would benefit from. But obviously, there are advanced supplements that could be useful.
Now, that's step two, which was fixing the mito-thyroid connection, mitochondria and thyroid. That's where you talked about the mito-thyroid diet and some supplements.
The step three is removing the toxicities which are not letting your thyroid heal, which is stress or trauma, toxins, and infections. So, stress is very important. Most people do not take this step very seriously. And I tell each and every person that stress management is very important, especially the world we are living in. Or even though you're living in an offbeat place, or you think that there is not much stress in your body, when you do have a thyroid disorder, at least you have thyroid stress. Your thyroid is stressed out, that's the bottom line. And any of these things that you do, whether it's rebreathing or any other stress management techniques, directly affects each and every part of your body, including thyroid, and improves the functioning. So, various ways of doing it, you know, deep breathing exercises which helps to reduce stress or activates the parasympathetic system in your body. Um, there is the 4-7-8 method. If you will Google it up, you will see very easy, anybody can do it. There are several videos where people show exactly how you can do it. Takes hardly five or six minutes to do it. So, again, you can do it anytime, even in your
office, even in your workplace at home, in your breaks. Nice way of doing it.
Nature. Spend some time in nature. Go for a walk, go for a hike, go for a picnic. Right? Nature is very, very calming to your thyroid.
Meditation. Again, if you want to go a step further from deep breathing, then you can start doing a meditation practice. You know, which again, can help to rebalance your parasympathetic system, rebalance your thyroid hormones, and other hormones.
Also, acupuncture. Again, if you want to take it one notch up and you want to do acupuncture, acupuncture definitely helps to rebalance your energy in your system. Definitely is very helpful for stress management.
Detox. Now, this is a step which I don't recommend anybody doing it on their own. You know, like there are some basic things people can do. But, you know, a lot of people are going online and buying detox products and a lot of different supplements or detox regimens. I don't recommend doing it because that backfires because detox is very complicated. First, we need to know what kind of toxins we're dealing with. And second of all, we need to make a stepwise plan. Fix it. Okay?
But some basic things like, you know, we detoxify through a glut. Okay? So these are like, you know, we detoxify through basically five different channels. So these are the channels that you can optimize.
The first channel is is through our gut. So drink lots of water, eat lots of vegetables, eat a lot of fiber. Make sure you're having regular bowel movements. Having a bowel movement every two or three days is not regular. Okay? So you need at least one bowel movement every day. That is the regular bowel movement.
That you're dealing with through your kidneys. So drink lots and lots of plain water. Okay? Caffeinated beverages or sodas and other things do not count. You need to drink plain water.
To help with your detox through sweating. So again, doing a workout, you know, like walking, jogging, running, or doing saunas. Those are great ways through sweating which can help with detox.
Through our lymphatic system. This thing again helps with a detox. So again, doing dry brushing or regular workout would help with your lymph flow and will help you with your lymphatic system.
And through your liver. And again, the liver detox mainly helps with your diet. Right? So make sure you're eating foods which support your liver health. Okay? Which are like, you know, turmeric, ginger, cruciferous vegetables, artichokes, all of those foods. You know, like which have a lot of colors in them, they all support your liver. Okay? So that'll be wonderful to help with your detox. So this is the the second thing that you can do.
The boosting your immunity. Okay? Now, we definitely want to improve our immunity. And that is where the anti-inflammatory diet, which is the MIT thyroid diet. So MIT thyroid diet, you know, when you're removing those foods which reduce your immunity and then including the foods which improves your immunity. So MIT thyroid diet not only improves your mitochondria and thyroid, but also boosts your immunity. So you can certainly do that.
Now, again, another benefit of stress management techniques like meditation. People don't know is that actually improves your immunity. Again, this is research which shows that, you know, like meditation can improve your immunity. Okay?
Again, sleep is very important. Make sure you're optimizing your sleep. Sleep. Okay? Because that helps with your immunity. And obviously, we know certain supplements like probiotics, vitamin C, vitamin D, Omega-3s. These supplements can also support your immunity. Okay? So this is again, how you can fix your immunity. Okay?
So this is kind of the three steps, you know, like, you know, uh, which, you know, easily can help you reverse your thyroid. Now, I want to share this kind of, you know, a case, you know, of or a story of one of my clients who worked with me to kind of get an idea of how this can be life-changing for you.
So this is Wendy. You know, um, she came to see me a couple of years ago, actually now. So she was a 37-year-old female who had thyroid issues, low thyroid or hypothyroidism for more than five years. She was taking Lexin. Each year, her slowly and slowly her Lexin dosage, which started at 50 micrograms, now was already up to 100 micrograms. Even though she was taking this medicine, still she had symptoms. She was unable to lose weight. She was doing crazy diets with like just 900 calories. She even hired a personal trainer to do exercising and still was not able to lose weight. She was having these anxiety episodes, she was having low mood issues, she was just not feeling good. She was feeling tired all the time. Even she was so tired that she had to take couple of naps or even one nap, a minimum one nap, just so that she can go through the whole day. She was so tired. And she had gut-related symptoms. She was feeling bloated, constipated, and sometimes diarrhea alternating with constipation, stomach cramps. All of these symptoms are there. And just minded that she was taking Lexin and her numbers were in range according to a regular doctor.
So when she saw us, obviously she has tried everything. You know, she tried all these different diets, she tried supplements on her own, but nothing was working. Okay?
So the first thing we told her that we need to find the root causes. So what we identified after doing a complete evaluation on her was that she had food sensitivities to gluten and dairy. She had a lot of bad bacteria in her gut and she had no idea about it. She had mold toxins in her system and she was also low in a lot of vitamins and minerals, especially she was low in zinc and she was low in magnesium and she had no idea about it.
So then what we did, we actually made a very simple step-wise plan to address all of these root causes. And which were done very easily through diet changes and through through adding some supplements. And within four months, phenomenal results. 15 pounds is what she lost. You know, while she was struggling to lose a single pound in five years. Just these changes, 15 pounds she lost in four months. Her energy levels improved dramatically to the point that she had to do not have to take a nap. You know, like she was so good in energy. You know, uh, brain was working better. Her bloating was gone. She was having regular bowel movements. And even her thyroid numbers improved dramatically. And her thyroid antibodies went low. And a doctor had never seen antibodies going low like her. Antibodies, I think was somewhere in the 600 ranges and they came down to like 50 ranges. And the doctor was totally perplexed of what was going on.
So this was her, right? You know, like coming with all these symptoms or going through a lot of things for five years. And with the three-step plan, she was able to lead her life very, very quickly and easily.
So I just want you to have this message. Don't let anyone tell you that there is no hope for you to get better. There is hope for you to get better with thyroid disorders. Through this three-step process, you can take control of your thyroid back again. There is light at the end of the tunnel. So please take these steps. Please take an action. And you will see great results.
I hope this makes sense to you. I hope you like this video and the presentations. If you want to connect with us, I have lots of information on my website, analguptmd.com. Several blogs, several videos. Follow us on our YouTube channel. I share new research and new things which are coming up for thyroids that can be life-changing for people. You can always get my bestseller book, Reversing Hashimoto's, you know, available on Amazon. Again, that will um help you to understand and again, give you much more details about things that we discussed about. And if you do decide that you want to take it to the next level, you want to work with us, then, you know, we offer online consultations from anywhere in the world. You can easily work with us. Again, go on our website and all the information is over there.
I hope you like this video and it makes sense to you. If you have any questions, again, please feel free to email us or reach us back. Go on our website and you can contact us from there. All right guys, thank you so much. Bye-bye.