Of course there are many factors involved in thyroid disease, but a big player that is often overlooked is thyroid hormone conversion. Read on to learn what thyroid hormone conversion is, why it's such an overlooked problem, and what you can do to better support it!
Top 5 Essential Oils for Your Thyroid
Root Causes of Hashimoto's with Dr. Eric Osansky
Dr. Eric Osansky is a chiropractic physician, clinical nutritionist, and Functional medicine practitioner. He is back on the show in the event of his new book coming out called "Hashimoto's Triggers". In this episode we talk about Hashimoto's disease & its triggers, the connection between thyroid & SIBO, and essential oils.
Here's what you'll hear:
Min 01:05 Introducing Dr. Eric Osansky's new book
Min 02:55 What are Hashimoto's triggers?
Min 04:25 Food triggers
Min 08:00 Estrogen dominance
Min 12:10 The connection between thyroid & SIBO
Min 18:10 Blood sugar as a trigger for Hashimoto's
Min 21:55 Blue light exposure
Min 23:45 Dr. Osansky's book
Min 24:05 Using essential oils
To learn more about Dr. Osansky, visit his website here and follow him on social media:
Facebook
Resources:
Hashimoto's Triggers book
Addressing Hashimoto's and Graves' Disease with Dr. Eric Osansky
Receive a FREE CHAPTER from Dr. Osansky's book "Hashimoto's Triggers"
Here's a video version of the interview with Dr. Eric Osansky:
Ready to Support Your Thyroid?
Check out my free guide on simple hacks for thyroid support!
You want help for your thyroid symptoms ASAP! Cut to the chase with this straight-forward guide, outlining the exact techniques I use to help keep my Hashimoto’s in remission.
Let me help you start addressing your symptoms now!
Why You're at Risk for Thyroid Disease After 40
Peri-menopause - the 5-10 years leading up to menopause - is a common time to be diagnosed with a thyroid condition.
In this article, I’d like to address these questions:
• Why then?
• Why more in women?
• What can be done?
Peri-menopause may begin in your late 30s or early or mid 40s. You may notice that your PMS is worse. You may have spotting between periods. Over time, your periods will likely get more dramatic, with missed periods and heavy periods.
Other symptoms may be popping up too, like anxiety, brain fog and weight gain. You may be thinking, “these sound like thyroid symptoms,” and you could be right!
But before we explore the thyroid connection, let’s cover what is normally happening during peri-menopause.
What is Peri-menopause?
Peri-menopause is, in short, the opposite of puberty. In puberty your ovaries are waking up to start your reproductive years. Your brain and ovaries are learning to work together to coordinate a monthly cycle, and often the first few reproductive years are hormonally unstable.
In peri-menopause, the brain-ovary relationship is starting to shut down. The ovaries are closing up shop, but the brain keeps knocking at the door, trying to get the shopkeeper working again.
The sex hormone that needs to rise sufficiently in the first half of the month is estrogen. It is produced by the ovaries as they also grow eggs. If you produce enough estrogen and release an egg, you’ll ovulate. And if that egg is healthy and hearty, you’ll produce a good amount of progesterone in the second half of your cycle. (The egg sac, or corpus luteum, makes progesterone after ovulation.)
How Your Thyroid Could Be Impacted in Peri-menopause
Even though both estrogen and progesterone are declining in peri-menopause, progesterone declines more dramatically in this stage. This leads to a condition called ‘estrogen dominance.’
Too much estrogen can prevent the thyroid hormone from getting to where it needs to go and can prevent it from converting to its active form. For some women, their thyroid symptoms are simply a result of this high estrogen interfering with thyroid hormone activity. We’ll talk about how to address estrogen dominance shortly.
Another thing estrogen effects is the immune system. Estrogen is associated with stimulating the TH2 branch of the immune system (1). TH2 is short for T Helper cell type 2, a lymphocyte (immune cell). TH2 is part of the adaptive immune system, which mounts a specific attack against pathogens.+ Adaptive immunity is usually a good thing, but it can also lead to autoimmunity if the antigen activity is directed towards itself.
As estrogen is the dominant sex hormone in women, this helps to explain why autoimmunity and thyroid disease is more common in women.
As we age, we also experience decreased immunity, and a tendency towards TH2 response.
“In the aged, however, naive cells are less likely to become effectors. In those that do, there is a documented shift towards a Th2 cytokine response.
The elderly have impaired ability to achieve immunization but much higher levels of circulating autoantibodies, (due to the lack of naive effectors) impaired response to viral infections, increased risk of bacterial infections, and increased risk of both neoplastic and autoimmune disease.” (3)
However, there is hope and action we can take to keep estrogen in check!
What To Do
1. Improve Gut Health
If you’ve studied the thyroid, you know that gut health is key to prevent an autoimmune response and to convert thyroid hormone effectively. Did you know it’s also important to clear estrogen dominance? One way your gut helps clear estrogen is through the estrobolome, “the aggregate of enteric bacterial genes whose products are capable of metabolizing estrogens.” (4)
You can be friendly to your gut by avoiding:
• Genetically modified foods (GMO) - These kill off friendly bacteria
• Sugars - These feed troublesome bacteria
• Unnecessary antibiotic use - This kills everything, with bacterial imbalance often resulting in its wake
You can be friendly to your gut by including:
• Small amounts of fermented foods like sauerkraut or kimchi
• A wide variety of fibers from salad greens, fresh spices, berries, etc.
• A long period from an early dinner to breakfast - lets your gut bacteria grow in peace!
2. Boost Progesterone
Progesterone helps keep estrogen in check, so boost it by giving your body ingredients to make hormones.
• Hemp Oil - I’ve been very impressed with how 1 T of hemp oil a day helps my own peri-menopausal hormones
• Borage Oil - This oil, usually in pill form, has gamma linoleic acid (GLA) to spark hormone production
• Maca- This adaptogenic root herb helps boosts hormone production and can benefit your energy levels and sex drive
3. Help Out Your Immune System
If aberrant immunity could be a problem in your case, add some components that can balance your TH2 activity:
• Omega 3 - Omega fatty acids have a balancing effect on the immune system and decreases inflammation. (5) Quality matters with omega 3, so do research to find a good brand.
• Vitamin D- Vitamin D deficiency is found at higher levels in people with autoimmune thyroid disease. (6) Talk to your doctor about getting your vitamin D tested and restoring it to a level around 60-80 NG/DL through sunshine and vitamin D3 supplementation.
Learn more about the thyroid at perimenopause from experts like Dana Trentini, Dr. Tom O’Bryan and Heather Dubé at the free, online Hormone Balance After 40 Summit!
The summit happens live June 5-11, 2017, but recordings will live on after the live summit.
Hormone Balance After 40 Summit
BUY the Hormone Balance After 40 Summit package here!
References:
1. http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/ben/cdtia/2004/00000003/00000001/art00010
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptive_immune_system#T_lymphocytes
3. http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/775536_2
4. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3264051/
Cooking Up Love for Your Thyroid with Chef and Health Coach Andrea Beaman
Andrea Beaman did not always eat so well. Microwave dinners and toaster pizzas were on the menu. Eventually she was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis.
Also her dear mom had breast cancer that had spread, and she was given not long to live. In looking for solutions for her mom, she turned to whole foods and healthy mindset.
Andrea later went on to be on the first season of Top Chef, after being encouraged by one of her cooking students. Andrea did not own a TV, and had no idea what she was getting into, so it turned into quite an adventure!
Some of Andrea's many get quotes:
"Autoimmunity can be healed."
"Don’t wait till you’re in the grave to make a change."
"Cooking at home and feeding others is so valuable."
On pesticides..."the difference between the bug and us is size."
"This century is about thyroid. 50 years of women not eating fat, not getting minerals carried by fat got us here."
"I value the doctors. If I go outside and get hit by a bus, please take me to the doctor, don't take me to the health food store."
"Fad diets are always missing some food group."
Vegans- Get adrenal exhaustion.
Paleo- Missing starches needed for microbiome, which backs up liver. Starches feed the mitochondria.
Nourishing Thyroid Health is Andrea's online educational program on the thyroid. Learn about:
Preparing foods
How the endocrine system works
Environmental toxicants
How to heal the digestive system
How to heal the adrenals
The emotional and spiritual aspect of thyroid health
Includes:
Guest expert modules
Live coaching calls
Please check out the program here: https://tinyurl.com/thyroid123
Andrea's Top Five Take-aways:
Eat clean- get toxins out
Support your energetic body with exercise of some sort, inc. tai chi, yoga
Destress- set boundaries
Get some sun- get outdoors
You’re worth it!
Andrea and I also recorded a short video on youtube that is super fun. You can access it below, for your own mini-cooking lesson with Andrea.
The two books that inspired Andrea in those early days are:
Physician Heal Thyself by Hugh Faulkner
The Biology of Belief by Bruce Lipton
Listen below.
If you enjoyed this episode, please support us by rating and reviewing us on iTunes!
You can also get subscribed to this weekly show on iTunes and many Android podcast players.
The Thyroid Brain Connection with Dr. Peter Kan, DC
Autoimmune Thyroid from Fertility to Post-Partum
I had a great conversation on the podcast with Dr. Jolene Brighten, ND about thyroid conditions, and how they effect our fertility, our baby's health and our own post-partum health.
One thing I think is important to understand deeply is that our reproductive stages are linked, and minding this continuum is critical to our health as we try to conceive, carry a child, and then support a new baby.