Transcription
Millions of people take thyroid medication but still feel terrible. Tired, cold, gaining weight because the medication replaces the hormone but doesn't fix why the thyroid stopped working in the first place. And in most cases, the reason it stopped working is something you're doing every single day without realizing it.
Hello, health champions. Today we're going to cover 10 daily habits that block thyroid healing. And when we talk about thyroid function, we're not just talking about the gland itself. We're talking about every system in the body that contributes to thyroid function. So first we have the thyroid axis which is the hypothalamus which produces TRH thyroid releasing hormone and the pituitary which produces TSH thyroid stimulating hormone. And then of course the thyroid gland itself it needs to be healthy and have a certain capacity to produce its output the thyroid hormones. But then that in turn depends on the substrates. It has to have enough raw materials. And here we're talking about iodine, the amino acid tyrosine, but also some minerals that participate that facilitate the production, which is selenium, iron, and zinc.
But then there's something that also affects function called the reverse T3 pathway. So when the thyroid makes the hormone T3, it makes one that's kind of like a left hand and one that's kind of like a right hand. And it's only one of them that's functioning. The other one is reversed. It's a mirror image. And here's the thing that the body produces that if it wants to slow down the thyroid function because the reverse T3 fits in the receptor, but it doesn't do anything. So it blocks the receptor from the active T3.
Thyroid function also depends on transport because hormones rarely travel by themselves. They're carried by a globulin, thyroid binding globulin and most of the thyroid hormone is bound and a small amount is free. But it can only do its job if it's free. And we also need a proper conversion of the T4 which is most of the thyroid produced by far the most is T4 but it's inactive. It doesn't do hardly anything. It needs to be converted into T3 before it can be potent. And also the active version T3 has to fit into a receptor that has to have a certain sensitivity and a certain function. And now we can activate that cell. So most of the time when people talk about thyroid, they just talk about the gland itself. But we need to realize that all of these steps have to work properly for us to have thyroid function.
So we're going to do these in reverse order like a countdown. And number 10 is if you don't eat enough fat. So what happens now is your body senses starvation. And this is also and or if you have a calorie restriction or a severe calorie restriction. But fat is the most potent nutrient. And if you cut back on fat, very often the body interprets that as a lack or starvation. And if it has a lack of fuel, then it doesn't want to spend it. Then it turns down the thermostat and tries to save. And if you don't eat enough fat or if you restrict calories, then the body is going to convert less of the T4 into T3. So you may have a good amount of thyroid hormone, but it's not the active form. Also, what the body will do, it will produce certain enzymes to upregulate to produce more of this reverse T3 that doesn't do anything. This is completely inactive, but it still blocks the receptor and prevents the active hormone from doing its thing.
Habit number nine that a lot of people do is they drink tap water. So, what's the problem here? Tap water contains two things that are added on purpose. Fluoride and chlorine. And fluoride and chlorine and iodine are in the same group in the periodic table. So fluoride and chlorine will compete with iodine for uptake. So the more of the others we have, the less of the iodine we can actually use. And this becomes very toxic for the thyroid also. And this is not a theory. It's not a suspicion that maybe fluoride will compete and inhibit because from about 1850 through the 1950s, fluoride was used as a treatment for hyperyroid. When people's thyroid were running too fast, they used fluoride as a toxin to block the thyroid to dampen the function and slow it down. And even in cases of significant hyperyroid, not like full-blown Graves necessarily, but hyper thyroid, two to five milligrams of fluoride was enough for most cases to slow down the thyroid. And as a comparison, 2 liters of tap water is about 1.4 milligrams. So you're getting up almost in the range of an effective dose. And then of course a lot of people will use fluoride toothpaste and this will add to that fluoride load. And if you haven't looked at it, a lot of people never read the fine print on their toothpaste. But if you check the back of it, then there is a little text there that says if toothpaste is accidentally swallowed, then you need to contact poison control immediately. They know that this is a poison. And if you don't believe me, read the back of that toothpaste and then let me know in the comments.
So, here's what we want to do about this. Chlorine is pretty easy to get out of the water because carbon filter, active carbon filter will effectively take out about 95 to 99% of the chlorine. And that's important because it's not just the water that you drink for chlorine. It is also about shower water. A 10-minute shower is the same as drinking several glasses of water in terms of how much chlorine you absorb. Now, fluoride is different because fluoride, fortunately, you don't absorb through the shower, but it's very difficult to get out of the drinking water. So, what you want to do for chlorine, you want to get a carbon house filter that can take out all the chlorine in the house. And then you get a reverse osmosis filter for your drinking water. And of course, if you are fortunate enough to have a well, then you're not getting that fluoride or chlorine in your drinking water.
Habit number eight that a lot of people do without really realizing it is to eat unfermented soy. It contains isoflavones called genistine and day and what these do is they inhibit the thyroid peroxidase the TPO and this is the enzyme that actually makes thyroid hormone in the gland. In addition to that these isoflavones also block iodine uptake. So it hits you in two different ways. And now fermentation matters because it almost completely mostly neutralizes this effect. So most of the soy or a lot of the soy eaten in Japan is miso tempe and natto which is fermented. And they've learned over the centuries that this is the way to do it. However, in the rest of the world, what we consume the most is called soy protein isolate and it does not neutralize this. It is full of these isoflavones. So, we get all of these negative effects. And the reason most people don't realize how much they eat of this is that it is the primary protein used in protein supplements, in protein powders, in protein bars, and in soy milk.
Habit number seven is to do cardio training or overtraining. If you do a lot of this now, you're going to produce sustained high cortisol and the body is going to respond with increasing the production of reverse T3. This version of T3 that doesn't do anything. It blocks the receptors but does zero. And what happens is the body perceives excess exercise. It's so much stress, it sort of feels like it's starvation because you're using so much energy that it creates a lack. So now the body tries to conserve resources. Now here's the interesting part and I talk a lot about what type of exercise to do and I always talk about you should do long periods, long duration gentle exercise and short duration intense exercise. And here's one more reason why that matters. Because brief intense exercise will actually stimulate and help the thyroid heal. Whereas what we're talking about in on this slide, long grinding duration cardio where you get your heart rate up in the huff and puff zone, which is anobic training. Your heart rate might be like 140 to 170. Now, this stresses the body, produces a lot of cortisol, and we're going to interfere with the thyroid. We're going to prevent the thyroid from healing. But an interesting point is also that a sedentary lifestyle also hurts the thyroid. So, we want to place a demand on the body, not an excess demand, but also not no demand. So if there is virt virtually no demand like in a sedentary lifestyle now we're going to decrease T4 and into T3 conversion and we're going to also increase this reverse T3 even more.
Habit number six is to eat a diet that is low in these three critical elements that we talked about the selenium the zinc and the iodine. And in other words, that is a diet just like the standard American diet, which is not uniquely American anymore. It is pretty much the prevalent diet in most of the western world because selenium is critical for the process for the enzyme deiodinase which converts T4 into T3. Diodinase means it takes off one iodine molecule and that's basically what it is. T4 has four iodines and T3 has three and that's what's required to activate the thyroid hormone. But selenium is also necessary for making something called glutathione peroxidase. And this is the body's defense mechanism to clear out all of the hydrogen peroxide that is produced in the thyroid as a result of making these hormones. So whenever the thyroid is active making hormone, a necessary component of that to activate it, it's called thyroid peroxidase. Okay, that's what it does. And hydrogen peroxide is involved in that. But hydrogen peroxide is very very active. It's abrasive. It's what the body uses to kill off toxins as part of our immune system. So therefore, it's very abrasive and very damaging inside the thyroid tissue. And that's why we need this glutathione peroxidase. If we have enough of the selenium and enough glutathione peroxidase, now we can quickly clean out this H2O2 and it doesn't do any damage. And then zinc is required in a number of places among others. It's required for THR for hypothalamus signaling to get this whole process started. It's necessary for T4 to T3 conversion, but it's also necessary for the receptor binding for the receptor, the last step to actually function and activate the cell.
Number five is excess omega6, also known as the seed oils or vegetable oils that most of the oils sold in stores are those vegetable oils. And what happens is with that excess omega6, we're going to get high levels of arachidonic acid. And this is going to drive increased inflammation. And this inflammation in general damages tissues, but it's going to damage thyroid just a little bit more because the thyroid is such a sensitive tissue. And then this increased inflammation which is going to be systemic. It's not just the thyroid. uh it's going to worsen the autoimmune disease and a lot of thyroid disease is autoimmune. Now the reason this matters so much is that we have strayed so far from what our DNA is used to. Our ancestors ate a diet where they kept the omega 6 to omega-3 ratio at about 1:1 about equal amounts. Whereas a modern diet is about 20 to one, 20 times more omega-6. And that's why it drives this inflammation so much.
Habit number four is poor sleep and exposure to a lot of blue light like artificial devices, cell phones, tablets, computers. So what happens now? TSH, thyroid stimulating hormone. The hormone from the pituitary to the thyroid that tells the thyroid to go to work and make hormone. It follows circadian rhythms. Okay? It's released during certain time during the night. More specifically, it peaks between 11 p.m. and 4:00 a.m. But it requires that you are asleep during this period. And if we have disrupted sleep during this period now, that's going to reduce that TSH surge. So, we have less thyroid stimulation than we're supposed to. And if we have sound sleep, then we're going to produce a lot of melatonin or appropriate amounts of melatonin. But if we're stressed or if we wake up a lot, then we're going to make more cortisol, which inhibits melatonin. And the reason we want this melatonin is that it's directly protective of thyroid tissue. And the reason there's so much talk about this artificial light and the blue light is that the blue light directly suppresses melatonin. So again, we need these balances, these natural balances and our modern lifestyle really upsets and interferes with that balance. And in fact, they have found that shift workers have significantly more thyroid problems. And I almost hesitate bringing this up because if you're a shift worker, then it's like what can you do about it, but I still want to mention it because we need to know about these things. And maybe you don't have a choice to do something about it right this second, but if you know about it, then maybe in a few years time, then you can shift around and and get some other alternative options.
Habit number three is chronic stress. And so many people have high levels of chronic stress. And whenever we're stressed, the body is looking for more resources. Because if you're running from a bear, if you're running from something, chasing something, now you need lots of energy. So chronic stress is the same thing as lack because the body is looking for more resources. So a lot of the things that we talked about are going to apply to stress also. So chronically high levels of stress is going to be chronically high levels of cortisol. And now we're going to release less of the thyroid stimulating hormone from the pituitary. So even if the thyroid is functioning, it's getting less of a message to do what it's supposed to do. Also, the body is going to reduce the conversion of T4 to T3. So we have less active hormone. It's going to upregulate the deiodinase type three which again makes more of the reverse type three the inactive. It blocks the receptors and keeps the receptor from doing anything. And chronic stress is also going to upregulate or increase the thyroid binding globulin. So we said before that most hormone doesn't travel freely. It travels with a carrier and it can only do something when it's free. So when the body wants to reduce thyroid function, tries to save now, it makes more of this binding globulin that holds on to the thyroid hormone. And of course then there is less free active hormone available.
Habit number two is eating gluten, especially modern gluten, and especially if you have Hashimoto's, which a lot of people do without knowing it because it's one of those things that are hardly ever measured. At my clinic, we always test thyroid antibodies because it's such a critical part of health that we need to understand if we have that. And it's about molecular mimicry. And here's why. Because the gluten molecule is shaped very similar to the thyroid peroxidase enzyme, the one that makes thyroid. So if you eat gluten and you activate your immune system, now it's going to attack the glyadine in the gluten, that little molecule we want to get rid of. But at the same time there's a cross reaction because the thyroid tissue looks so similar that the immune system goes after both. And then gluten also attacks something called zulin which is an protein that holds together the gut lining. There's little spaces between cells in the gut and if they break down now we get what's called leaky gut. And that is one of the primary mechanisms for autoimmunity. And once we get that autoimmunity, that overactive immune system, now it's going to go after that thyroid even more. And this is a very established mechanism. And this is why as much as 90% of hypothyroid function in the western world is autoimmune and Hashimoto's. Another reason why gut health matters and gluten matters is gluten is not the only thing that will create disbiosis. But gluten as part of a modern diet and part of sugar and seed oils and all of these different things. Once we create an unhealthy environment in the gut, what happens is the gut bacteria are less able to convert because healthy gut bacteria will convert T4 to T3. They're responsible for about 20% of the conversion in your body. It actually happens by the gut bacteria.
Now, here's a very controversial and misunderstood topic. So the thyroid needs iodine. It's the critical, it's the single most important ingredient in and unique ingredient in making thyroid hormone. And the thyroid has the highest concentration of iodine in the body because it makes thyroid hormone. But now most people, most standard recommendations say if you have a thyroid problem, take more iodine. Well, is that a good idea? So the thyroid needs iodine and without iodine if we live in a place where we don't supplement the salt if we have poor levels of iodine in the soil now we get deficient in iodine and we're going to develop what's called a goer. So the thyroid grows because there is a lack of iodine. So the thyroid grows to be more efficient at grabbing every little molecule of iodine it can get its hands on. But most of those people are still going to be hypothyroid. So they get a huge thyroid gland and their hypothyroid. And that's a very straightforward scenario. However, with autoimmunity, with Hashimoto's, it gets much more complicated and we need to be a little careful with what we do. So if you have Hashimoto's and you take more iodine, you supplement with iodine, now you're going to give your thyroid more raw material. It's going to increase the activity of the TPO, the thyroid peroxidase, the enzyme that makes the hormone, is going to increase its activity. And now, as a result, it's going to make more of this hydrogen peroxide like we talked about before. That's just a byproduct. It's a necessary component of what the TPO does. And if we have plenty of selenium, it's going to gobble up. It's going to make this glutathione peroxidase and gobble up the hydrogen peroxide. But if we're in a position where we're deficient in iodine, chances are we're also deficient in selenium. So now we're not going to be able to gobble up the hydrogen peroxide and we're going to increase the oxidative damage. We're going to get more of this abrasive action. It's kind of like rusting inside the thyroid. So we do more damage. So with oxidative damage, we're also going to drive increased inflammation. But here's the key. When we are increasing the activity of the TPO, of the enzyme that makes the hormone, we're also going to increase the activity of the antibodies. So remember, with autoimmunity, we have an overactive immune system. These antibodies, you can run them on a test and they're supposed to be like single digits, but oftentimes if you have Hashimoto's, they could run in the hundreds. But if you activate your thyroid more, the thyroid is more visible to these antibodies and you're going to drive up those antibody counts. You're going to drive up the thyroid destruction even more. So that's what makes this so tricky. We know that the thyroid needs iodine to perform its work, but if we give it iodine, then it's going to be more of a visible target. So this is why with Hashimoto's, we need to know if we have it, we need to run these antibody tests as part of our blood work. And if they're there now, it's not a thyroid problem anymore. It's an autoimmune problem. And we need to calm down that autoimmunity first. We need to fix our gut. We need to reduce inflammation. we need to take some supplements perhaps that are not iodine but that can support the thyroid. So over a period we will try to bring down this TPO antibody count and then once the autoimmunity is a little bit more under control now we bring in the iodine and during this process it might be necessary to take some thyroid medication to take some thyroxine to support the thyroid because we don't necessarily want the thyroid to do all this work while we are addressing ing this. And then once we have it more under control, you start with a low dose of iodine, but also make sure that you add in selenium so that it can gobble up this hydrogen peroxide.
And the number one habit that interferes with thyroid healing is if you're insulin resistant and you have a blood sugar roller coaster. So now what happens is with insulin resistance, it's going to reduce that conversion, the T4 to T3. Again, we can have lots of thyroid hormone, but if it's inactive, it doesn't do us any good. Now, here's the key for insulin resistance. Insulin resistance clogs up the liver and it's going to hurt this conversion because the liver, normal healthy liver, converts 60% of all the thyroid hormone in your body. The gut does about 20, the liver does about 60. So if we miss this part now, that's a huge chunk out of your thyroid function. And if you're insulin resistant now, you're going to have excess levels of insulin which is going to drive systemic inflammation, higher levels of systemic inflammation. And we already mentioned that that is going to feed that autoimmune loop. It's going to make that autoimmune loop stronger and harder to get out of. And when your blood sugar crashes, now you get a spike of cortisol. And we already talked about that with the stress that now you get this triple whammy. You get reduced thyroid stimulating hormone. You get an increase in reverse T3 and you get a worse lessened conversion of T4 to T3.
So because thyroid function involves so many different systems, it's a bodywide function. What we're really looking for is something called homeostasis. And that simply means balance. We need to restore balance in the body. And that's why I do my videos like this so we can understand all the different components and we can understand how the body works and how to master health. And if we provide the body what it needs and we remove the interference, that means we eat better, move better, and think better. Now the body will take care of the rest. The problem is that the more complicated our world gets, the more they're trying to push junk food on us, the harder it is to stay the course. But realize that all we really have to do is provide the body what it needs and remove the interference. And for a lot of people, it's more about what you need to remove the junk food and the stress and the artificial stuff and the artificial light than it is to try to find a magic pill to fix it.
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