Hello, my vibrant friend. Thanks for joining me today. I'm super pleased to have a special guest today Dr. Anshul Gupta. And we're talking about Hashimoto's thyroid disease today. Why would we do this on a weight loss and menopause podcast? Well, some of the symptoms are really similar to what people notice around menopause time with weight gain, fatigue, some brain fog. So this is a disease to know about. So Dr. Gupta has written a book called Reversing Hashimoto’s, and he'll tell us more about that. He's a bestselling author, speaker, researcher, and the world expert in Hashimoto's disease. He educates people worldwide on reversing Hashimoto's disease. He's a board certified family medicine physician with advanced certification in functional medicine, peptide therapy, and also he's fellowship trained at integrative medicine and on the podcast. I tell people all the time that they need an integrative medicine doctor on their team. He has worked at the Cleveland Clinic Department of Functional Medicine alongside Dr. Mark Hyman. And he's helped thousands of patients to reverse their health issues by using the concepts of functional medicine. He does actually help people online with Hashimoto's disease. So, welcome to the podcast today.
Thank you so much for having me on the show. It's really a pleasure sharing all this important information with your audience. And I want to again say thank you for all the great work that you are doing, sharing great information with females who absolutely need it.
Great. Well, what else do we need to know about you? And tell us a little bit about your story, how you got into this.
Yeah, I think so. You know, as we were discussing just before we started the podcast was that, you know, like I was a very hard liner, conventional medicine doctor and I was trained as a family medicine doctor. I started doing my own private practice. And when patients will come to see me and say that, okay, well, I want to try this supplement or this diet and things. And I will say, well, give it a try, but I'm not going to be helpful for you. You are going to do it on your own on these things. So it was a very traditional doctor in that sense. But then suddenly my health actually took a downward trend. Just a couple of years into the practice. I started noticing that, you know, started gaining weight, even though I did not change anything in my lifestyle. You know, I was feeling very tired to the point that, you know, even during the day, during my lunch hour, I had to take a nap just to function at the end of the day. You know, I was feeling kind of brain foggy that, you know, I could not concentrate for long hours or do like, you know, long hour works on the computer. And then I was having this horrible stomach pain and the stomach pain will just hit me randomly throughout the day or throughout the night. It doesn't matter what I eat. It doesn't matter what I do. It will just come and hit me and I had no idea what to do with it. So I had no idea what to, what was going on in my life. You know, obviously I was only 32 years of age at the time. So it was not that, you know, I was going through a lot of health struggles. I had no medications on board, but then I thought maybe it's just a stomach pain, which was bothering me the most. Let me start on a PPI, you know, the acid reflux medicine, see that helps me out. I tried that. It was not getting better. Then I went, I thought, well, maybe I'm not a smart doctor. Let me take help of the specialist doctor. So I went to specialists like a GI specialist and other specialists. They did a bunch of testing endoscopies, ultrasounds, you know, blood work everything came back normal, and they had no idea what was going on with me. So I saw specialists after specialists, and they kept on saying me the same thing that, you know, everything was normal. Everything was okay with me. And I was like, okay, well, I'm 32 years of age and they keep on adding more medicines. To kind of say, well, let's try this.
Let's try that. So I was already on five different medications for my stomach and other things, and nothing was helping. So like 30 years of age with all these problems, taking all these medicines, nothing was helping what to do. Where do I find answers? Because literally nobody had any answers. So then somebody referred me saying that, well, this is where functional medicine helps.
You know, people like you who have not found any answers, they might help you out. So I looked into functional medicine, got certified over there, and then applied the same philosophy into my life. I found the root cause of my problems, you know, like made a stepwise plan of changing my lifestyle, including some supplements and bingo.
Within one month, my stomach pain was gone. Within six months, I already lost 40 pounds. And brain fog was on completely. I also had fatty liver disease, which was gone. And plus on top of that, my energy levels were so high that I even participated in a five K rugged maniac. And I was a never athletic person.
So for me to do that was a really big thing. So that was an aha moment for me. Just simple lifestyle changes could turn my life around. So I was like, this is powerful. I need to share this with people because if a person like me, who was very conventional, and now, you know, I can see this power of lifestyle and things, I need to help other people.
So that's where, you know, I was able to work at the Cleveland Clinic because I wanted to do research into functional medicine because most people, when you know, they are Introduced to functional medicine or integrative medicine. The first question is that do you have any research studies? Right? And unfortunately, obviously we don't have many.
So that was my goal to kind of look into research and see, and that's where I found my passion into Hashimoto's and thyroid disease because they had very similar symptoms as mine. You know, they were all brain fog, they were all gaining weight, they were all tired and they had stomach problems and they were all following what their doctor wanted them to do, but still not getting better.
So that's where, you know, I researched the Ayurveda and Hashimoto's disease and made a three step process to kind of help, you know, these females in a more natural manner and see that, you know, will yield results. And we got phenomenal results, not only their life got better, like the quality of life improved significantly, all of their symptoms got better, plus their thyroid numbers got better.
They were able to reduce their antibodies. They were able to reduce certain medications and their have the hormones stabilize much more than before. So that's where have my mission has been to kind of give all of these females, because, you know, obviously thyroid disorders affect mainly females of middle aged from 30 to 60 years of age to give them hope.
Thank you. That they can get better and they can improve their life. And I want everybody to know that you should not stop at anybody telling you that you just have to live this life You know governed by these symptoms Yeah, you know, there's two things that I really glad that you shared about your story.
One is that stomach pain is like sometimes a tough thing to take care of. But oftentimes a really troubling symptom that people get, right? Absolutely. I mean, you know, like, you know, because if you have these random pains, you know, like, what do you do? How do you live your life? And this is not a one day deal, right?
It is so scary that happens, you know, like, Anytime in your life, a lot of people, they're so scared to eat or even drink water because they said, okay, well, as soon as I start eating in the morning, that's where my stomach pain starts happening. So literally they have aversion to food and obviously we all need food for nutrition and you know, how we were discussing that, you know, we both have this passion of treating or helping people in using the food as a medicine.
So definitely we want, don't want to create that aversion. We want to create a friendly relationship with our food. Right. And I love that you said that you you know, you had tried all these avenues and when they didn't work, someone told you, you know, when you've got something mysterious, that possibly a functional that possibly functional medicine can help you.
And I will tell you that I did have to laugh that as a hyper achieving doctor. So your next. The idea was to go get certified in functional medicine, but people who are not doctors can also go see doctors who are already certified in functional medicine to get help. Right? Absolutely. I mean, certification is, I think just kind of, you know, you know, your passion, my passion suddenly like, you know, because there was a vested interest of my own to get me healthy.
So that kind of, you know, once you do the modules and you want to, okay, well, let's me do the certification. And then that was not enough. I said, well, now we can do fellowship also in integrative medicine. So why not do that? So it's that thirst, you know, like once you get the taste of like, you know, these things, then you want to know more because then you say, okay, there is a whole world out there and maybe you just don't know everything.
You think you know everything, but you don't. Right, right. That's wonderful. So since your specialty is Hashimoto's, can you tell us kind of explain what it is and how it affects the thyroid gland, please? Absolutely. Yeah. So Hashimoto's disease is an autoimmune condition of your thyroid gland where your body's producing antibodies.
which starts a very slow destruction of the thyroid gland. And it might take days to weeks to years to finally show up on the blood test because most people will get diagnosed with hypothyroidism or low thyroid. And in fact, the reality is that they have underlying Hashimoto's disease. which is the cause of this hypothyroidism.
Now, what most people don't know is that 90 percent of people who have hypothyroid or low thyroid currently, the reason is Hashimoto's disease. But because the conventional way is not doing complete testing for the thyroid. That's the reason most of the people have not even been checked for Hashimoto's disease.
They just have been told, well, you have low thyroid. And most people ask this question. How do we get low thyroid? Well, we don't know. It just happens one day, you know, like, you know, it happens. Your body thinks that, okay, it doesn't have to produce thyroid hormone. And that's the reason you get it. And then obviously people are started on these medicines.
Research again is very clear. 60 to 70 percent of people who are on thyroid medicines.
So if someone has been put on thyroid medicine by their primary care doctor if they're feeling fine, should they still kind of ask more questions about something like Hashimoto's or if they're doing okay, they can stop there. I mean, obviously it sounds like if they're having, if they're still having symptoms that they should ask that question.
Absolutely. In both the situations, whether they have symptoms or not, they should ask more questions. The reason is this. The reason is Hashimoto's disease is an autoimmune condition in this. The underlying antibodies or the underlying inflammation is causing a big chaos in the body. It is not only going to stop at destroying your thyroid gland, it's actually going to start destroying other parts of the body also.
Research again shows that once you get one autoimmune conditions like Hashimoto's disease, your chances of getting other autoimmune conditions increases exponentially. So not only you have to safeguard your thyroid gland, you have to safeguard your other body parts also. You know, from getting more destruction.
Now what people don't know is that, you know, like this thyroid medicine that they have put on is only helping their body to supplement the external thyroid hormone. It is not doing anything to take care of Hashimoto's disease or lowering inflammation or lowering these antibodies. And most people think that actually the medicine, which is a levothyroxine is doing something for Hashimoto's but in reality it is not.
So there are two components which is happening in Hashimoto's. One is that the thyroid is not able to produce enough thyroid hormone. And the second is this underlying inflammation, which is destroying the thyroid gland. And levothyroxine or any natural thyroid medicine also is taking care of only one component, which is the external thyroid hormone.
They're not doing anything for that inflammation or the antibody levels. So it is very important whether you have symptoms or not to work on the inflammation so you can stop this destruction. Okay, so I live in a big metro, and I can go see integrative medicine doctors. I have my choice of functional medicine doctors who could help me with something like this.
If you live in a smaller city and don't have those people, would your endocrinologist be able to help you with this, or who? Who would you seek out? So that's a tough question because again, a lot of doctors are not open to even checking for Hashimoto's disease because according to them, their management doesn't change because conventional medicine doesn't have medicines to take care.
of the antibodies or lowering inflammation. They only have medicines to supplement the thyroid hormone. So they say, well, you know, like the only lab test you're going to get is a TSH. If the TSH is within normal limits, you don't need any further testing. So they might not be very open to doing it. But as the new research is coming, they realize that the levothyroxine is not enough.
for these Hashimoto's patients. So a lot of endocrine doctors are open into checking people for Hashimoto's disease and they might even be open to kind of talking about the diet or lifestyle changes that might help out. But that's the extent, you know, like of what an endocrine doctor or a, like, you know, PCP can do for you.
Checking for thyroid antibodies, giving your diagnosis of Hashimoto's, but beyond that, what you can do to improve your Hashimoto's, they might be limited because literally there is no medicine for it. So that's where, you know, like looking for other functional medicine or integrative medicine doctors who work online because, you know, since COVID we, a lot of our doctors have, you know, providing consultation through online or telemedicine.
So I think people can easily find those practices and work with them and they can certainly be very helpful. Wonderful. And I, and we will put dr. Gupta's information in the show notes. And he is one of these people that is working online now to help coach through these issues with Hashimoto's. So if you're not, you know, if you're not able to get help with your doctors, he is available online, which is wonderful.
Like you said, since COVID that. You know, the availability of help out there is just amazing. It has really exploded. So what is, you know, What are people thinking about next? You know, like what are, when you're looking at an integrative medicine approach to Hashimoto's you know, what comes up what are you going to offer people or what are you going to think about?
Absolutely. So first of all, we need to understand why people are getting Hashimoto's disease, right? Because again, it's. That's the why. Why of thing is very important. I feel in integrative medicine or functional medicine, because that's where conventional medicine stops. They don't ask that. Why question?
Well, we are asking for why question, why people are developing Hashimoto's. Your body doesn't just one day decide, okay, well, today I'm going to develop Hashimoto's disease or I'm going to stop thyroid hormone production, right? So research says that Hashimoto's disease happens because of an interplay between the genetics of a person and the environment around it.
Now, whenever people listen to this, they feel that, oh, well, you know, it is in my genes. Well, it's not a reality because, you know, a couple of decades ago, Hashimoto's disease or even thyroid disorders were not so common. And now they are very common. And it is not because we are checking them more. It is because more people are developing it.
So it is definitely has something to relate it to our environment. So what we have noticed is that if we can look into the environmental factor of that particular person and fix those environmental factors, then we can, you know, improve Hashimoto's disease, lower antibodies, sometimes also reverse, you know, in certain situations.
So what I've identified is that there are five major category of environmental factors or root causes, which are leading to Hashimoto's disease. So those five main categories, you know, are where people need to work on. So they, these five main categories, our first one is food sensitivities. Now food sensitivity is basically kind of terminology that, you know, your body is becoming sensitive to certain foods and again, producing these antibodies, which can also destroy your thyroid Hashimoto's.
Most people are sensitive to foods like gluten, dairy, soy, corn. So those are the most people. Now, the food sensitivity is very different from food allergies. Food allergy is where, let's say, most people are allergic to peanuts. They will eat peanuts, they blow up like a balloon, or have difficulty in breathing, and they land up in the emergency room.
This is food allergy. What we're talking about food sensitivity, let's say you eat gluten. You have very small amount of antibodies that are produced and you might not get a full blown allergic reaction. So unless you know, like you are doing specific tests for it, or you are eliminating those food for four to six weeks, you don't know whether you're sensitive to those foods or not.
But food sensitivities again, more and more people are getting sensitive to foods. So that's number one kind of, you know, root cause the second was nutritional deficiencies. Now your thyroid gland needs a lot of vitamins and minerals to produce thyroid hormone, like zinc, like selenium, like magnesium, B vitamins, iodine, all those things.
And what we are noticing is that, you know, like our food that we are eating currently is low in nutritional content. So it doesn't matter. Even if you're eating the healthiest diet, sometimes your body's either not able to absorb nutrients or your food is low in nutrients. So that's the reason your body gets low into them.
And that's the reason again, you know, it's very important to look at them. Unfortunately, again, the regular labs that we are getting are not checking for these advanced nutrients like selenium, like zinc and things. And those are the main ingredients need by thyroid. So that's the second root cause. The third one is stress.
This is where, you know, like the menopause and, you know, other external factors comes into place. Because again, middle aged females or any females, you know, unfortunately, they go through more stressful situations. And this stress can be anything. It can be emotional. It can be physical. It can be mental.
Or it can be hormonal also. So females, you know, like they have these big hormonal shifts, which happens, you know, either they enter menopause and we see that when they enter menopause, there is a high risk for getting Hashimoto's disease or females, you know, like, if they're going through any other stressful moments in their life or like, you know, personal stress that again can trigger Hashimoto's.
So very important reason that a lot of people do not realize that can also trigger it. So that's the third like root cause. Then the fourth root cause is toxins. We are living in a world which is toxic and more and more toxins are being poured. And I think there's a research is very clear that these toxins can trigger Hashimoto's.
These toxins can be heavy metals like lead and mercury. Or it can be mold toxins, which are in our environment, or it can be environmental toxins, which is the organophosphates, you know, or other chemicals that we get exposed to. So that's the fifth cause. That's the fourth cause. And the last cause is infections.
These infections can be can be again, we know that Epstein Barr virus infection has been known with research to have caused Hashimoto's disease. Then even we have seen case report or case series where after COVID 19 infections, people have been diagnosed with Hashimoto's disease and other like, you know, gut related infection like parasite, like blastocystis and other parasites can also trigger Hashimoto's.
So these are the big root causes, you know, like that we know, you know, which are environmental related which causes Hashimoto's disease. Okay. So literally if someone feels like, well, I had this illness and I sort of got better, but I just have never been the same. And I have this kind of brain fog fatigue.
So they should look into that. It's. Right. That's something that they should pay attention to. Absolutely. Again, you know, like a very important question that, you know, initially that you kind of made the statement that the menopausal symptoms overlap with Hashimoto's symptoms, right. And which is what, it is very difficult to differentiate.
So the best thing is to, you know, if you have these symptoms. Yes, it can definitely menopause, but it is also important to check for Hashimoto's because you might have both. Because all the hormones in our body are kind of connected with each other. I call this whole hormonal system as symphony. Like, you know, how in symphony there are different instruments playing a role and if one instrument is not working the whole system symphony doesn't sound good.
So similar thing with our hormones. Let's say if our female hormones are not working good, that can have impact on thyroid hormones also. So it's very important to do a complete profile and also check for Hashimoto's disease, not only thyroid hormones to know whether you are in early stages of Hashimoto's and that's the reason it is not showing up on your thyroid profile, but you still might have thyroid condition.
Okay. So that's important to ask for people to check thyroid, but also ask to be checked for Hashimoto's because that will be. not necessarily in the panel of blood work that their doctor ordered, right? Absolutely. It'll never be in the panel. So again, like a lot of people might have this question, well, what does the panel look like?
What kind of tests should we ask for? So a complete thyroid panel will include thyroid hormones, which will include TSH. Free T3 and free T4. Now this is checking your thyroid profile in terms of how much thyroid hormone your body's producing. Now to check for Hashimoto's, you have to do thyroid antibodies.
The two thyroid antibodies, one of them is called TPO called thyroid peroxidase antibody, and the other one is thyroglobulin antibodies. Now, if any of these antibodies are higher than the reference range. given by that particular lab. That is diagnostic of Hashimoto's. You don't need ultrasounds, biopsies, or any other fancy test to confirm it.
Just presence of antibodies is diagnostic of Hashimoto's disease. Great. Thank you. So you gave us these five root causes and it's a, you know, listening to this, it may be a little overwhelming because we are trying to make things healthier, but we can't get rid of all the toxins and all these things.
But you know, there are, you know, you've got this book, there are definitely actionable items on this. So you know, what kind of, or, you know, what kind of diet and lifestyle modifications can be helpful? Thank you. Absolutely. I always under the belief that, you know, things starts with basics. So first you have to work on your lifestyle that will give you the heavy lifting and give you the maximum benefit and then move on to the more advanced things about looking at toxins or infections and things.
That's not the place to start first. The place to start first is obviously lifestyle. So diet definitely plays a big role. And the simple things about the diet that I want to create for people is that obviously there are very fancy diets out there very restrictive diets. I'm not of the opinion that very restrictive diets are good for people.
Obviously, I differ over there in my colleagues sometimes, you know, but I believe that a healthy balanced diet is very important. And the two components is that remove food, which is bad for you and include food, which is good for you. That's a simple thing. So again, the food which are bad for us, you know, especially for Hashimoto's people, you know, or any processed food, you know, sugary foods, then give it a try of removing gluten, dairy, soy, corn, you know, for at least four to six weeks and see how you feel in your body.
And that might give you the clues that whether you are sensitive to these things or not. Right. So I think that these are the food, you know, removing them for at least four to six weeks will be good. And then include foods which are healthy or healing for your thyroid. In that aspect, vegetables are great, non starchy, colorful vegetables.
The more color you have in your diet, the more phytonutrients you're getting. The more phytonutrients you get, these are antioxidants, which help your body to fight off inflammation, lower these antibodies. So green leafy vegetables, any colorful vegetables. Now in this aspect, a lot of the people have been told that cruciferous vegetables are really bad or green leafy vegetables are bad, don't eat them.
It's a myth. It was a research study done, which was a long time ago in 1960s on rabbits. They were fed too much of cabbages and carrots over there, more than what they should be eating. And they realized that, okay, that can interfere with iodine absorption. Okay. Now, at that time in 1940s and 60s, the number one reason of thyroid disorder was iodine deficiency, but it is totally opposite.
Now we are living in this world and the, and now the number one reason is Hashimoto's the season is very clear. All of these colorful vegetables are very helpful for Hashimoto's. So please don't get afraid, you know, like of eating these vegetables. They are very important for Hashimoto's and your body.
So eat them. Good quality protein is very important because obviously that gives your body is a boost in the immunity, rebalance your immune system. So very important to eat that whether you are a vegan or a vegetarian or a meat eater, it doesn't matter. You know, you can eat your chicken, fish or turkey.
If you're a vegan or vegetarian, you can always have your beans, your lentils, your seeds and nuts. All those are great options. Good fats, very important for your thyroid and your body. Again, we have shammed fat in the last decade a lot. Everybody's afraid of eating fats. What we fail to educate people is that there is good fat and there is bad fat.
Yes, we need to stay away from bad fat, but we need good fat. A lot of people, why they're having the brain fog? Because they don't have good fats in their diet. Our brain cells, 60 70 percent of our brain is made with fat. So if you don't have that good fat, obviously your brain doesn't work. Mitochondria, which is a powerhouse of the cell, which gives us energy again, needs good fat to function.
And again, if you don't, that our mitochondria is not in good shape. So no wonder people are getting more tired or brain foggy for that.
That's really important because I always on the podcast over and over, I say protein fiber, which is fruits and vegetables and whole grains and healthy fats. And this audience that listening to this. Podcast went through the 80s when we really decided that fat was bad. And that, and even though intellectually people know that was debunked, that's not true.
Still putting, you know, choosing some healthy fats to get back in your, into your eating life is it's a struggle for people, I think, because of that time. Absolutely. I mean, it's the media, right? You know, it's like everywhere around you, whenever you enter like a grocery store, the first thing, you know, you see is that, Oh, you know, no fat in this particular thing or low fat, everything has been labeled with that.
So obviously you think, well, maybe I'm not smart enough. Maybe it's good to eat. No fat, you know, everything is labeled with that. So, so people need like, you know, definitely to come out of that, you know, notion, definitely. I'm not saying obviously start eating, you know, going to. Eating your fast food joints and eating those, you know, Big Macs and you know, like, you know, KFCs and things but good fats like avocados, olive oils, coconut oils, you know, like your nuts, your seeds, those are good fats, definitely include them.
So, what role do supplements and natural therapies play in reversing Hashimoto's disease? So again, you know, like we have had good research that certain supplements can improve Hashimoto's disease. The number one is selenium. We have tons of research studies, at least 20 plus research studies, which show that selenium supplementation can improve thyroid antibodies, can improve thyroid numbers, and also sometimes even lower the dosage of thyroid medicine.
So very important. You know, a lot of people need selenium supplementations. The second one is zinc. Now, zinc, you know, like has becoming popular again for immune purposes, but zinc also plays an important role in thyroid in conversion of your inactive thyroid hormone, which is a T4 to the active version T3.
So very important zinc is very important for that. The third one is magnesium. Magnesium takes part in more than 600 enzymatic processes in your body, including, you know, like your thyroid hormone production. So very important. Again, that's a third mineral over there. A lot of females are deficient into iron.
If they have heavy menstrual periods or they used to have it before, or the diet was poor in iron and iron again is very important mineral, which is needed for thyroid hormone production. So again, if they're low in iron, then they should be looking into that. And vitamin D. Again, several research studies, 50 plus research studies, which have shown that vitamin D is beneficial for thyroid hormone production, as well as regulating the immunity, which again improves in Hashimoto's disease.
So these are definitely the basic supplements that I think has good amount of research. regarding thyroid and Hashimoto's. Then beyond that, obviously there are other supplements like B vitamins, which can be helpful in certain situations, you know, adaptogens, which we call as Ashwagandha, rhodiola, ginseng, which can be really good for.
Fatigue and brain fog and stuff. But those, I think, you know, like you should be more utilized on individual basis. Not everybody should be taking those supplements because obviously they can backfire in some people, but the other ones, which I discussed initially, you know, have good amount of research that, you know, that can help majority of the people with Hashimoto's or thyroid disorders.
Right. Now my integrative medicine doctor recommended a quality multivitamin with a mineral supplement and including vitamin D in it and that's it. Is that something that if people are just looking for somewhere to start, would you recommend that for most people in the modern era with our food supply or should they ask?
Right. So I think, you know, depending on the situation, because again, a lot of these multis, you know, like can have these fats, fat soluble vitamins, like vitamin A, E in huge quantities. And we have seen that, you know, some people, you know, like are already consuming. Too much of these food can, you know, like carrots and other things, which are high in vitamin A and E and these multivitamins can actually overload their system.
So I'm not a big fan of multis, you know, to be very frank, I'll actually be more specific in things. So if people do not have any problems, then I think, you know, like just taking the vitamin D supplementations, you know, is good. Then beyond that food does the job. But obviously if you do have issues, let's say if you do have a thyroid disorder or Hashimoto's, then I think adding the other ones like maybe selenium, zinc, you know, magnesium, those are definitely good choices.
Omega 3s, especially if you're a vegan or a vegetarian, or if you don't eat fish, then yes, omega 3s will be important to include. So then I think we have to kind of look at individual, like, you know, lifestyle choices and where they are and what is happening to add these vitamins and minerals. I, you know, I, over and over on the podcast as well recommend that if you have an integrative doctor available to you, that you see them every couple of years to go over what supplements are helpful, even if you're not, you know, experiencing these Hashimoto's symptoms.
So, so what advice would you give to patients who are struggling to manage their Hashimoto's disease despite following conventional medical treatments? I think the advice will be very simple. Like just start with lifestyle changes. So we already discussed about the diet. So make those changes in the diet, work on your stress.
Doesn't matter even if you feel stressed out because a lot of people, when I talk to them, well, I don't think, you know, stress is playing a role. I don't feel stressed out. Well, if you do have harsh emotional disease, if you do have symptoms. Then your body is telling you that the body is stressed out.
Maybe you might not be stressed out mentally, but physically your body is stressed out. So working on a de stressing regimen, whether it is meditation, yoga, deep breathing, you know, or you know, cultivating a hobby, you know, or prayer, anything, you know, that kind of centers your body will be very important.
10 to 15 minutes in a day. That's it. Your body needs that kind of break. So that's stress management. The third thing is obviously sleeping. Prioritizing your sleep, having good quality sleep of eight hours is very important. Again, a lot of menopausal women suffer from hot flashes, which makes it difficult for them to get that good quality sleep.
So again, work with your integrative or a functional doctor to kind of see what they can do to help you out, improve the quality of sleep. That will definitely be very rejuvenating and useful for your body. And the last thing is body movement. I call it body movement and not exercising because obviously like depending on where people are, our total exercise regimen might not be you know, possible for them.
So start with body movement, you know, like, you know, every hour, just go for a five minute of a walk, you know, walking, jogging, running, anything. So as more body movement happens again, that helps your body to, you know, like get in a better shape. So I think these are great lifestyle changes. These are basically pillars of your health.
Of any disease, you know, like these pillars will be important. So start with these pillars and then build on top of it. So these are the things that people should, or, you know, be able to do like, you know, from today itself. And I think these are going to be helpful for majority of the people. And if these doesn't fix, then that's where you go into looking for other root causes or advanced protocols.
Okay. Can you tell us a story about someone with Hashimoto's since you work with these people all the time? Absolutely. Yeah. So, obviously we have a lot of stories but the story that kind of resonates with me is again, a 52 year old female who came to see us four months ago was diagnosed with Hashimoto's Three years before, and she was having symptoms even before that.
So she was, you know, slowly and slowly getting tired. So she was told, well, you know, you're hitting that perimenopausal period. So it is very normal to feel tired or gain a little bit of a weight, but she was a very busy professional. That was a problem that she would not have time. And she was running a very high end business.
So he said, well, it is affecting my business. So finally, like after a couple of years with these symptoms, you know, her TSH caught up and it was abnormal. So she was started on the medicine. Medicine did not do anything for her. She said, well, something else is going on. She started looking online. That's where she came to know whether it might be Hashimoto's.
She asked her doctor to order those tests, and yes, it was Hashimoto's disease, but her doctor said, well, your thyroid numbers are within normal range, so I cannot do anything more than that. So she was like, okay. Totally bummed. So that's where she started looking. Functional medicine. She found me. I said, okay, well can you help me?
Because by this time, she was not only tired. She not only was gaining weight, but she was brain foggy. So to the point that, you know, she was forgetting things, you know, business transactions, she was always with a writing pad in the meetings, taking notes to make sure she doesn't forget anything. And that was scary for her.
The worst part was that her mom got diagnosed with dementia just a year prior. So that was a scary point. Okay. Well, am I going towards dementia with this brain fog or not? That was a main concern that she came with. And I was like, well, this dementia, the brain fog is a very common symptom with Hashimoto.
So don't worry, we'll figure it out. So we started like, you know, our intake process, we realized that, you know, a lot of the root causes was that, you know, her diet was not the best. You know, like obviously she was exposed to like mold toxins. She moved into a new house, which had mold and she had no idea about it.
Plus, obviously she was overworking herself. So stress was playing a role. And plus, you know, her gut was not in good shape. So she was not absorbing those nutrients. So we kind of made a very stepwise plan for her, made how she was eating, what she was eating. We kind of started supplementing things that she was low into.
And then, you know, we also kind of help with a detox program for her at the end of the third month is where the magic happened. She said, Dr. Gupta, I don't know what is happening, but I have so much energy that I don't have to kind of take a nap during the day. You know, my gut is doing so great.
Finally, I'm able to remember things. And she said, like, finally, actually it happened that, you know, just last week I forgot my notepad. And I was perfectly fine with it. He said, initially I freaked out, but during the meeting, I was totally fine. He said, but a year ago, if I have done that, my whole day would have been ruined because I will not remember anything from the meeting and I will be so stressed out.
But now finally, I think, you know, like my brain fog is gone. I'm feeling so great. So you're finally, I can feel that my health is getting back. You know, obviously thyroid numbers got better to her thyroid antibodies, you know, like improved significantly. So that was another added advantage for her. But yes, her lifestyle completely changed, you know, quality of life was so much better.
So that was the biggest, you know, like, you know, a thing for her. Nice. And so that was a, you said in about three months, so that's.
Yeah. Three to four months, you know, like that's what, you know, it takes obviously in three to four months, we are not getting all the antibodies back to zero. That takes a little bit longer, but we definitely see a downward trend happening that the thyroid antibody starts getting better. But most importantly is that people get their life back, you know, because they, these are the females who have been suffering for a long time and they have lost hope, you know, because they have been to so many doctors.
I've tried so many different things. A lot of actually people who work with us have worked with other doctors, like integrative or functional doctors or things, and they're still not getting better. So what I realized was that a lot of people are actually stopping that one root cause. They'll say, Oh, well, you know, we did this tool test and we found this bad bacteria, let's treat it and everything will be okay.
It might give them some relief, but do not take care of the overall health. So Hashimoto's or thyroid disorders, most females will have two plus root causes. Not just one. And it's very important to look at all the root causes and address them. Great. Well, thank you so much. This is really terrific. Tell us where we can find your book and where our listeners can find you online.
Absolutely. So book is called reversing Hashimoto's available on Amazon. So either in a Kindle version or like in a physical copy. So please, you know, you can order from them. The book has been written again, a very simple language for people to understand, first of all, why they're not feeling better. And then obviously giving a step by process of what they can do today to kind of get better from there.
The goal was to write a book where people can understand, but at the same time also have science behind it and research behind it. So at least we have more than 160 references of research articles so that I want to know people that I'm just not talking in thin air. There is research behind whatever we are talking about it.
It's a very easy read. So people get, you know, like good understanding of how to find their root causes and things. Beyond that, you know, we like to share information in all different forms and fashions because everybody learns differently. So we have a very active blog on our website, which is unsure.
Gupta md. com. People who want to read, they can do that. Our YouTube channel is very getting very popular. We share regular bite sized videos, what people can do like in the, on the daily basis, our handle is unsure. Gupta MD that is our YouTube channel. People can follow us over there and again, get a lot of information.
Nice. Great. I will make sure we have all the links in the show notes so that people want to just pop in there and find you even more easily. They can do that. Thank you so much for being here. It's a, it's an important topic and these symptoms of weight gain and brain fog and fatigue are very common at menopause.
And so we should look at all the things that are going on. And I appreciate you talking about this today. Absolutely. You know, like the goal is to make a difference and give hope to each and every person to kind of live their life to the fullest. So that's the goal over here. So obviously, you know, all this information hopefully will help people to understand what else they should be looking to kind of, know what lies underneath their health.
So I hope it was useful, but again, thank you so much for having me on the show. It was really a pleasure. Terrific. And thanks everyone for spending time with us today.
