Latest / Health with Hashimoto’s - Thyroid or Immune Education for Autoimmune Thyroid Disease / What Hashimoto's Really Is and Why Most Doctors Miss Half the Thyroid Picture ⎸ Ep. 201

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What Hashimoto's Really Is and Why Most Doctors Miss Half the Thyroid Picture ⎸ Ep. 201 · Health with Hashimoto’s - Thyroid or Immune Education for Autoimmune Thyroid Disease

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In honor of World Thyroid Day, which happens every year on May 25th,
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let's talk today about what your thyroid actually does and why it matters more than you think.
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This episode is foundational.
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You have to understand what your thyroid does in order to understand how it
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goes wonky when you have Hashimoto's or when you have hypothyroidism.
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You know, just like the finance people, the counterfeit people.
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They have to study real dollar bills before they can identify the counterfeits.
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Well, let's talk about what your thyroid actually does so we can say,
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oh, right, this is not normal when you're struggling with symptoms of hypothyroidism.
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My goal for this episode is to give you a resource that you can share with family
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and friends as you're trying to explain this is what Hashimoto's is,
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this is what I'm feeling, this is what I'm experiencing, and most importantly,
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these are the things that I'm trying to do in order to feel better because we
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all want to have the very best health possible, even with Hashimoto's.
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Welcome to the Health with Hashimoto's podcast. This is where you will find
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clarity and simple, sustainable strategies to feel better.
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I want to help you figure out your root causes.
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My name is Esther Yunkin. I am a registered nurse. I know how exhausting it
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is to live with fatigue, brain fog, and the ups and downs of Hashimoto's. And that is why I'm here.
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I'm here to cut through the confusion and to give you practical steps.
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Support your body, calm your immune system so that you can regain your energy
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and feel like yourself again.
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Your thyroid is kind of like a butterfly. It's butterfly shaped and it is at
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the base on the front of your neck.
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It's rather small. It can get bigger. So if you've ever seen a picture of somebody
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with a goiter, you know, that really large swelling at the base of their neck, that's their thyroid.
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So the Cleveland Clinic describes it like this. They say the thyroid is part
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of your endocrine system.
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It controls many of your body's important functions by producing and releasing certain hormones.
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Your thyroid's main job is to control the speed of your metabolism.
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Which is the process of how your body transforms food that you consume into energy.
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All of the cells in your body need energy to function. And when your thyroid
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isn't working properly, it can impact your entire body. Absolutely.
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So your thyroid, like the Cleveland Clinic says, it produces hormones.
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And the main one that it makes is T4. So T4 is like a key blank.
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If you have ever gone to the hardware store to get a new key made,
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you bring in your key and then you pick out the key that you want.
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Like you get to pick, you know, the color and the look of the top and then you
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give that key blank to the person behind the counter at the hardware store.
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They're going to take your key, and they're going to take the key blank,
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and they're going to turn the key blank into a new key for you.
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So T4 is like that key blank. It needs to turn into something in order to work.
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T4 is the key blank. It doesn't work in your cells yet.
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Your thyroid makes it, but it's not functional yet. So your body needs to convert that to T3.
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T3 is like the working key. So T3 is going to go to every single cell in your
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body, and it's going to be like the ignition switch. It's going to turn on your cell.
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So every single cell in your body requires a little bit of thyroid in order
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to turn on, in order to function.
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So you can see here, the thyroid, it might just be a small little gland right
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at the front of your neck, but it impacts every single cell in your body.
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And if you have ever played with Legos, if you have kids who have ever played
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with Legos, You can think of it as every single little Lego is like a little cell in your body.
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You have to build, you know, a bunch of Legos together to make a structure.
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Same thing with your body. You need healthy cells.
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Your cells are going to come together to make organs, to make tissues,
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to make your entire body, to make your body systems.
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Everything has at the base, the building block is the cell.
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And you have to have healthy functioning cells. And those cells need to have
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enough energy. They need to be able to turn on.
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Your thyroid is very, very important for your daily life.
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So then, what is Hashimoto's? The name of this podcast is Health with Hashimoto's.
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Hashimoto's is two things. It is an autoimmune condition. That means your immune
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system is attacking your own body.
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It's auto, you know, your body.
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And Hashimoto's is also a problem with the thyroid because your immune system
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is specifically attacking your thyroid.
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For most people, they experience hypothyroid symptoms.
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That means their thyroid is not producing enough thyroid hormone,
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or it means that the T4 is not converting to T3 like it should be.
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So hypothyroid symptoms, just think of how every single cell needs that little ignition key.
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And if it doesn't have that ignition key, what's going to happen?
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It's not going to turn on.
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And if the cells are not turning on, then everything is working slower.
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So you can think of hypothyroidism as things are slowing down.
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And depending on where in your body the main slowing down is happening,
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that's going to be what impacts your symptoms.
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Everybody might have slightly different symptoms because you are a bio-individual.
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You are unique and your symptoms might not be the same as your best friends,
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even as your mom's, they might not be the same because you are unique.
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So let's talk about what it means and what it can feel like when different places
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slow down, when they experience these hypothyroid symptoms.
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The number one complaint that I hear is fatigue.
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And this might be physical or it might be in your brain.
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Just this extreme fatigue and exhaustion.
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Not just like you're tired, but like you are, well, let me tell you what other people have said.
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Somebody said, I could sleep for 20 hours. Another person said,
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it's like sitting in a chair knowing you're hungry, but not being able to get your body to move.
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Another person said, you're really hung over every single day.
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Another person said, have you ever gone without sleep for over 24 hours?
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That's what it feels like. No energy to do anything but the bare minimum.
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And that's the physical energy, the physical fatigue.
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You're just exhausted every single day.
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It doesn't matter how much you slept, absolutely, utterly exhausted.
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But this is also on a brain level. People feel brain fog and fatigue in their brain.
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It's like, you know, you have your computer doing 500 different things and all
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of a sudden everything slows down and you get the little spinning wheel of death
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icon. It means that nothing's working.
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It's trying. It's working really hard to work.
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But it's not happening. Nothing is happening on the surface.
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You're not getting any results.
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That's what's happening in your brain when you're experiencing this brain fog.
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It's like slow processing.
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You're really trying to do something, but you can only focus on one thing.
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And that one thing is you're only feeling like you're getting like 10% out instead
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of 100%. Super frustrating.
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Somebody said, it'd be like a deep, thick fog was surrounding every single task.
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Another person said extreme boredom and numbness that made it hard to focus.
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Somebody else said loss of words, slow processing, confused easily.
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Like trying to think through molasses.
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Other things that can slow down or get tired would be your metabolism.
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Like I said from the beginning, the Cleveland Clinic said your thyroid,
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the main job is metabolism, giving every single cell their energy.
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So if things are slowing down, your metabolism is slowing down,
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which means what's going to go up? Your weight.
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People complain that they're doing all the same things and all of a sudden they're gaining weight.
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And then you throw perimenopause or menopause into the mix and you get even
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more frustrating symptoms.
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So things are slowing down, including your metabolism. As far as the weight
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gain, these are different quotes that I found online.
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Somebody said, rapid weight gain that won't budge with any exercise,
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any diet. Gaining weight like crazy.
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Severe and sudden weight gain, 20 pounds. One thing that so many women tell
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me is that they've cut back on their calories.
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They're trying to eat less. And even though they're eating less,
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then they're gaining even more weight. And how frustrating is that?
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You're doing the things that used to work. You're doing the things that all
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the gurus on the internet say to do in order to lose weight. And nothing is working.
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It's because your thyroid is not working.
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Other things that slow down in response to your thyroid not producing or converting
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enough thyroid hormone would be your digestion. And this looks like constipation
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and bloating for a lot of people.
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Also, depression, mood changes, and anxiety.
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I know depression and anxiety feel like two completely different things,
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but both of them can be related to your thyroid, especially hypothyroidism or Hashimoto's.
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Do a quick search for episode 38 or click the link down in the show notes.
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It is the standard of care. Standard of care means it's supposed to happen that
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if you are struggling with depression if you have depressive symptoms you are
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supposed to get your thyroid tested.
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Anybody who's helping you treat your depression is supposed to run a thyroid
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panel because if your brain is not having enough energy it can't function well
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and for a lot of people, that looks like depression.
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So you could be on all of the antidepressant medications in the world,
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but if your thyroid is not doing what it's supposed to, then your brain doesn't
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have enough energy and your brain can't function.
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And on a lot of people, that looks like depression.
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In episode 103, it's a short episode, like 10 minutes, I go through all of those thyroid labs to check.
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So head over or head down to the show notes and click that link or do a search
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for episode 103, and we'll talk about Thyroid Labs.
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Other common symptoms of a thyroid not functioning optimally,
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so hypothyroid, would be problems with your hair.
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So hair loss or hair thinning. People say they're losing hair to the point that
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she had a patch of hair missing.
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Eyebrows thinning, that's really common, especially the outer third of the eyebrows.
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If that's missing, get a thyroid panel, a full thyroid panel, ASAP.
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Along with hair, skin and nails. So people are having skin issues,
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dry and cracked skin, skin feeling weird, thinning skin, a puffy face,
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random rashes and hives.
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There's a lot of skin related stuff that can be related to your thyroid not working well.
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And then nails, nails brittle, peeling, not growing well, hair,
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skin and nails are very common hypothyroid complaint.
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So in my analogy of the ignition keys, every single cell, and if your cells
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don't have enough ignition keys, then they slow down.
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That's my analogy. It helps explain the physical fatigue, the brain fog,
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the depression, the constipation, the hair, skin, and nails.
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Those are all things slowing down.
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But other things don't really fall into that analogy very well.
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For example, joint pain and muscle pain.
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Very common with hypothyroid symptoms, or they can be symptoms of hypothyroidism,
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but it's not really explained by that ignition key.
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But just know that if you're having a lot of joint pain or muscle pain,
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this can be related to your thyroid.
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Some people describe it as very arthritis-like, but it's not arthritis. It's actually thyroid.
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Another thing that is not easily explained by that ignition key is shortness
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of breath or heart palpitations.
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Sometimes this can be related to hyperthyroidism,
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Now, when your immune system is attacking your thyroid, sometimes your thyroid,
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when it's attacked, it releases extra hormone.
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And then you have too much thyroid in your body. That's hyperthyroid.
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So while you're dealing with ongoing hypothyroid symptoms, you also can have
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bursts of hyperthyroid symptoms.
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Why wouldn't it all just balance out? That is a great question.
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I'm just telling you what actually happens.
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So hyperthyroid symptoms would be things speeding up so that anxiety,
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you know, when your brain is slower, you think depression, faster anxiety,
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but other things speed up too, like your heart.
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You can have heart palpitations. That's one of the most common symptoms of hyperthyroidism,
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but you can have that symptom without any lab values that are saying hyperthyroidism.
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You can have heart palpitations.
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You can also have shortness of breath.
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And then one more weird symptom, you know how I said?
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Just overwhelming fatigue.
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Fatigue, bone-weary tiredness, well, let's throw a little insomnia in there too.
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Why? If you're so completely exhausted, you'd think that you would just be able
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to go to bed and sleep for 24 hours.
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But no, some people with thyroid issues are discovering that they go to bed
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and they might sleep for an hour or two, maybe four hours, and then they wake
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up and this insomnia steals their sleep.
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So while they're so bone weary, while they're so tired, they're unable to sleep.
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That is super frustrating.
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If you are dealing with any of these symptoms, or if you're listening to this
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episode because your friend or your family member, somebody sent this episode
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to you to explain what they're going through, it's real.
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I want you to know that it is real. You are not imagining these symptoms and
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it is not your fault. You are not lazy.
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You're not, this is not your fault. You're not bringing it upon yourself by
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different things that you are thinking or doing.
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There are always things that you can do to improve.
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I go over those in a super simple format in Hashimoto's Decoded where I'm walking
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you through the root causes so you can know exactly what to do because nobody
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wants to be stuck with all these symptoms.
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Having better health with Hashimoto's is the goal.
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Now because Hashimoto's is an autoimmune condition, it is said that we will
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never be completely disease-free, but we can be 100% symptom-free.
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You can have all of your labs returned to normal.
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You can have your life back and understanding your root causes and what to do about those is key.
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And that is why I made Hashimoto's decoded because I want every single person
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to have that available to them.
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So you know what's going on, you know what's causing it, you know what your
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triggers are, and you know what to do about it, most importantly.
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So autoimmune condition, what does that mean, Esther? Let me tell you. Your immune system
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fights off the bad guys, right? Well, sometimes your immune system gets a little
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overzealous and starts attacking yourself.
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Every single autoimmune condition
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is that. It is your immune system attacking one or more parts of you.
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But we don't just throw them all together and say autoimmune disease.
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We name it differently depending on what your body is attacking.
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So in this case, the immune system is attacking the thyroid and it got the name
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Hashimoto's thyroiditis.
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The thyroiditis means itis, means inflammation of the thyroid.
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The autoimmune part means it's because your immune system is attacking your thyroid.
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So the autoimmune portion is crucial.
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You can address the symptoms of the hypothyroidism.
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You can be on medications and you should be on medications. If your body does
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not have enough ignition keys, you need those.
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Your cells need to be able to turn on.
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Your cells need to be able to work. You need a healthy functioning body.
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And so getting on a medication might be what your thyroid and what every single cell in your body needs.
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That is only one half of the issue though.
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The other half is your immune system that's attacking your thyroid.
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And we want to stop that attack.
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We want to allow your body to heal. We want to stop the attack on the thyroid.
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Because if you go to a regular doctor, it is so common for them to say,
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oh, you have hypothyroidism.
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Side note, they're not even checking for Hashimoto's. They don't even care about
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that autoimmune portion.
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They're only looking at the actual thyroid and your labs, maybe just one lab.
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So they're like, oh yeah, your thyroid's not working well. Here's some medication.
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Levothyroxine, usually Synthroid, whatever, and just come back in six months.
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Yes, you'll probably have to go up on your medications over time.
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That's just how this works.
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Well, what they're not telling you is that yes, it's common because people aren't
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taught how to address the autoimmunity portion.
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So if you're never stopping the attack on your thyroid, then of course the attack
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is going to continue and your symptoms are going to get worse and you're going
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to need more medications over time to account for your thyroid not working as well.
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It is super frustrating to hear people talk about having hypothyroidism for
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15-20 years and they just now found out that they have Hashimoto's.
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They just now found out that there is an autoimmune component to this overwhelming
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fatigue and the weight gain and all of these symptoms that they've been dealing with for 15 years.
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Their doctor's like, yeah, here's your medication. But what their doctor needs
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to do is say, oh, you know what?
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We ran a full thyroid lab panel this time, including antibodies,
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and you have elevated antibody levels showing that your immune system is attacking your thyroid.
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Wouldn't it be nice if every doctor did that evaluation? It's just,
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you know, a couple clicks on the computer to add that to the lab results and
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you can find out if your body is attacking your thyroid.
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And then finally, you can take action. Instead of being reactive and saying,
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these are my symptoms and I need more thyroid hormone in my body,
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now we can be proactive and we can say, okay, let me figure out my root causes.
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There is something that's telling my immune system to attack my thyroid?
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Why is my immune system attacking my thyroid? Thankfully, there are eight common
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things and I go through them in Hashimoto's Decoded.
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In less than an hour, I'm going to talk you through all eight so that you can
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make yourself a roadmap.
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You're going to be able to like, oh yeah, I know for sure that this one or two
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or three are absolutely part of my life.
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And so yes, of course, they're going to be root causes.
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Now in this Hashimoto's Decoded, In one hour, just you and me on your computer...
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Via video. This is not live. It's video, so you can do it anytime.
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You can do it when you have brain energy, and you'll be able to figure out your root causes.
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Now, of course, in this one hour, we're not going to run a whole bunch of labs.
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There are people who say test, don't guess, and I absolutely agree with them.
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You want testing. You want to know exactly what's going on, but there's a lot
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of things that common sense can tell you.
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You know if your stress levels are high. You know what's going on in your gut, a little bit at least.
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There's a lot of things that we can figure out with common sense in less than
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an hour so you can figure out that roadmap.
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Because with the autoimmune portion of Hashimoto's, we need to know what's going on.
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We need to know why is the immune system attacking the thyroid.
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And that's what I want to help every single person figure out.
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Your doctor is not helping you figure that out.
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As an RN and as somebody who went back to school for health education and to
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understand the whole person, body, mind, spirit, diet, environment,
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how it all works together in health, that is what I have been trained to do
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to help you figure out those root causes, to help you figure out a path forward
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to better health with Hashimoto's.
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So now that you know what your thyroid does and what happens when it goes haywire,
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now you can take your next step.
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If you don't yet know your root causes, your personal root causes,
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your next step is Hashimoto's Decoded.
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Head down to the show notes. You'll find the link right there in the show notes.
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If you want more basics, I also have a Hashimoto's 101 PDF that I can email to you.
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Kind of goes over what we just talked about in the last 20 minutes.
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Helps you understand what the thyroid is, what Hashimoto's is,
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and what you can do about it.
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But the next thing that I want every single person to do is figure out their root causes.
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I want you to be able to feel like yourself again. I want you to know exactly
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what you can do to help yourself feel like yourself again.
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There is hope. You can feel better. You can have better health, even with Hashimoto's.
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This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only.
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Please discuss any changes with your trusted healthcare provider.
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To take your next step, join our school community and explore the courses available there.
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You do not have to figure your health out alone.
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So that is school, S-K-O-O-L dot com, and it is the Health with Hashimoto's community.
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I'll see you next time on the Health with Hashimoto's podcast.