Latest / Health with Hashimoto’s - Thyroid or Immune Education for Autoimmune Thyroid Disease / 172 // How to stop Hashimoto's from progressing?

Transcript

172 // How to stop Hashimoto's from progressing? · Health with Hashimoto’s - Thyroid or Immune Education for Autoimmune Thyroid Disease

• 0:00
  Doctors say there is nothing you can do about Hashimoto's. I completely disagree.
• 0:05
  The real danger is not the diagnosis. It's doing nothing about it.
• 0:09
  When you don't address the root causes of your Hashimoto's, it keeps progressing,
• 0:13
  leading to more fatigue, brain fog, and symptoms that seem to come out of nowhere.
• 0:18
  But here is the good news. You can take steps to stop that progression.
• 0:23
  So if you have ever googled how to stop Hashimoto's from progressing.
• 0:27
  This is the episode for you. I'm going to share what is really going on inside
• 0:31
  your body and what you can do starting today to change the direction of your health.
• 0:36
  Welcome to the Health with Hashimoto's podcast. This is where you will find
• 0:39
  clarity and simple, sustainable strategies to feel better.
• 0:43
  I want to help you figure out your root causes.
• 0:46
  My name is Esther Yunkin. I am a registered nurse. I spent about 17 years in
• 0:51
  the emergency department and then got sick and tired of putting band-aids on chronic things.
• 0:55
  I went back to school and now I have been in holistic health education for about 10 years.
• 1:00
  I know how exhausting it is to live with fatigue, brain fog,
• 1:04
  and the ups and downs of Hashimoto's. And that is why I'm here.
• 1:08
  I'm here to cut through the confusion and to give you practical steps that support
• 1:12
  your body, calm your immune system, so that you can regain your energy and feel like yourself again.
• 1:18
  Do you remember when you first got your diagnosis, when your doctor or PA or
• 1:22
  nurse practitioner eventually said, you have hypothyroidism,
• 1:27
  and that hypothyroidism is caused by Hashimoto's?
• 1:31
  Probably it wasn't exactly that simple probably
• 1:34
  you got a hashi or you got a hypothyroid diagnosis and
• 1:38
  then eventually you figured out Hashimoto's that's how it happens
• 1:40
  for a lot of people and even before that they're
• 1:43
  searching for answers for about four different years seeing a bunch of different
• 1:47
  people to get that answer so finally you're sitting down and they say okay here's
• 1:51
  the issue like yes I finally have a name for what's going on now what and your
• 1:57
  doctor says so you're going to come in every three or six months.
• 2:01
  We're going to take your labs and you're going to be on this medication for
• 2:04
  the rest of your life. We'll just adjust the dose as you need it.
• 2:07
  Now there are two different common responses that I have seen.
• 2:12
  A is, oh great, I have a diagnosis and I have a plan.
• 2:18
  I'm happy. And those people are probably not listening to this episode.
• 2:23
  They're probably not listening to the Health with Hashimoto's podcast.
• 2:25
  Maybe you are. Maybe you're in that group. And I am so glad you are here to
• 2:30
  hear that there is a different answer.
• 2:32
  The other group of people are thinking, group B, they're thinking,
• 2:36
  wait, you just want me to be reliant on a pharmaceutical for the rest of my life?
• 2:41
  Like you're telling me there's nothing I can do? I am
• 2:44
  just a lifelong patient what you know
• 2:47
  you're set with that like relief of okay
• 2:50
  now I know what's going on and at the same time even more confusion of why am
• 2:55
  I a lifelong patient why are you not telling me more things that I can do for
• 2:59
  everything else that we have for a lot of diagnoses that we have there are things
• 3:05
  you could do you know if you have diabetes you know that you need to change your diet,
• 3:10
  you know that there are things that you can do.
• 3:13
  If you have knee pain, you know that there are things you can do.
• 3:17
  You know, for every single thing that comes to mind, at least,
• 3:21
  there are things that you can do.
• 3:23
  I just paused while I was recording and trying to think of if there are exceptions
• 3:27
  to that rule, and I don't think there are, because for every single thing that
• 3:32
  is going wrong with our body, there is something that you can do.
• 3:35
  It might not directly counteract the diagnosis.
• 3:40
  Like maybe you have a big scary one, but you know, at least you can reduce inflammation
• 3:44
  and reducing inflammation is going to have a cascade of effects that help your body heal better.
• 3:50
  So there are always things you can do, whether it's diet, whether it's stress,
• 3:54
  whether it's sleep, there are always some things that you can do.
• 3:57
  And in some diagnoses, it's more obvious.
• 4:00
  So why would we think that hypothyroidism and Hashimoto's is any different?
• 4:04
  Why are the medical people, the providers, so quick to say, there's nothing
• 4:11
  you can do, here's a prescription, you're a lifelong patient.
• 4:15
  I disagree with that so much. I want you to have agency in your health.
• 4:20
  I want you to know that there are things that you can do.
• 4:22
  So for Hashimoto's, can you do anything?
• 4:26
  Is there anything that you can do to stop Hashimoto's from progressing?
• 4:32
  And yes, I firmly assert, yes, there are things that you can do.
• 4:37
  And the very first thing that I want you to do is to take a deep breath.
• 4:42
  I want you to lower that stress response.
• 4:44
  I know this can be very overwhelming. I know that looking at a lifetime of being
• 4:52
  your own project can be a little intimidating.
• 4:56
  I want you to take a deep breath. It's okay. I am here for you.
• 5:00
  There are probably dozens of people in your life that you don't even realize
• 5:05
  that they have thyroid issues, but they do, and they would love to talk to you about it too.
• 5:10
  And maybe they don't have the answers. You can work on that together.
• 5:14
  Send them this episode. Say, hey, I have been learning about Hashimoto's and hypothyroidism.
• 5:20
  Take a listen and let's do this together.
• 5:22
  So yes, there is hope. There are things you can do.
• 5:25
  So after you take a deep breath and realize that this is okay,
• 5:28
  we're going to make it, we're going to get through this together,
• 5:31
  then you're going to look for your root causes.
• 5:35
  The root causes are what is obviously causing this hypothyroidism.
• 5:41
  It is what's causing your immune system to go haywire and start attacking things.
• 5:47
  We want to figure out those root causes.
• 5:51
  Now, I have 170 something episodes in the Health with Hashimoto's podcast.
• 5:56
  You can go back to the beginning and you can binge them. I have heard from people
• 6:01
  who have done that. Awesome.
• 6:03
  That is why I do this every single week. I get behind the microphone so that
• 6:07
  you can figure out simple and sustainable ways to help yourself feel better.
• 6:12
  I always want you to have agency.
• 6:14
  I want you to be able to figure out what is going on and what you can do about that.
• 6:19
  Always, always my goal. So 170 something episodes, you're like,
• 6:24
  okay, Esther, they're on average about 20 minutes each.
• 6:27
  I don't have whatever 20 minutes times 170 is. I don't have that available.
• 6:32
  How can I shortcut this? I'm so glad you asked because I do have a shortcut for you.
• 6:37
  And that is the Hashimoto's Decoded Root Causes Revealed mini course that I created.
• 6:44
  This is an excerpt of the full program, the full holistic Hashimoto's program.
• 6:50
  If you know that you want me to hold your hand and walk you through all of the
• 6:55
  steps, we're going to figure out your root causes together and then figure out
• 6:59
  what you can do about them.
• 7:01
  You want the Holistic Hashimoto's course. It is only $1.97 right now.
• 7:06
  Definitely jump in and do that. It's not going to take you that long.
• 7:11
  I try to make it as simple and non-overwhelming as I can because I know that
• 7:16
  you are probably dealing with brain fog.
• 7:18
  You're probably dealing with overwhelm. You're probably dealing with not enough
• 7:23
  time, not enough brain space.
• 7:25
  You need to figure out this as simply as you can.
• 7:30
  And that is what the Holistic Hashimoto's program is all about,
• 7:33
  helping you figure out as simply as you can.
• 7:36
  But for people who don't want to do the full program, I did take out that first
• 7:42
  little chunk of figuring out your root causes.
• 7:46
  So if you know you are going to want the full program, just get the full program.
• 7:49
  If you want to start out with just that first step of figuring out your root
• 7:54
  causes, then that is the mini program. That is the mini course.
• 7:57
  It is right now it's housed in our Health with Hashimoto's community over on
• 8:04
  the school.com platform.
• 8:05
  Now school, the platform is
• 8:08
  like the old Facebook back before ads and the algorithm took over things.
• 8:13
  It was when you just, you know, logged on and you saw your community and you saw the posts in order.
• 8:19
  Like that is what is on the school platform, which is why I moved our community over there.
• 8:25
  So you are going to head down to the show notes. You're going to click the link
• 8:28
  and you're going to find our school community, Health with Hashimoto's, in our classroom tab.
• 8:34
  So there's the discussion tab, you know, where everybody talks.
• 8:37
  And then there's the classroom tab. That is where you're going to find the whole
• 8:40
  program. It's also where you're going to find the.
• 8:43
  That mini course is super easy to go through. It's going to take you less than an hour.
• 8:48
  You're going to figure out what is Hashimoto's, like all about it,
• 8:52
  and then how it relates to you.
• 8:55
  What contributed to you getting Hashimoto's? You're going to be able to look
• 9:00
  at the most common root causes and figure out your unique plan.
• 9:04
  Now, disclaimer, obviously in less than an hour, you're not going to be doing lab testing.
• 9:10
  There's a lot of people who say test don't guess, And there is a huge,
• 9:15
  like, yes, that is definitely a thing.
• 9:17
  I have lots of guests come on to talk to you about that.
• 9:20
  I have a whole bunch of really cool guests coming up in the new year for you.
• 9:24
  So yes, definitely there is a test don't guess strategy.
• 9:29
  But in this initial period of time...
• 9:33
  We can look at the most common root causes and you're like, oh,
• 9:37
  yeah, that one, definitely an issue.
• 9:39
  I'm not guessing. We're saying, you know, stress.
• 9:43
  Stress is a huge issue and you don't need any testing to figure out, oh, you know what?
• 9:49
  I have been really stressed for the last decade and I'm quite sure that that
• 9:53
  had something to do with this diagnosis, with my immune system going haywire.
• 9:59
  Yep, that's probably one of them. Another thing is vitamin D.
• 10:03
  Now, vitamin D, you are going to test it because you want to know your exact number.
• 10:08
  But in this first hour, when you're going through the most common root causes,
• 10:12
  I'm going to talk to you about vitamin D.
• 10:14
  And if you live in the Northern Hemisphere, if you live above the latitude,
• 10:21
  longitude, whatever the horizontal one is, that line that goes through Chicago,
• 10:25
  if you live above that, Well, you could be outside, but naked all the daylight
• 10:32
  long in the winter, and you would not be able to make enough vitamin D with the sun exposure.
• 10:38
  We just don't get enough sun, and it's not at the right angle.
• 10:42
  So if you know that you've grown up in this northern latitude and that you haven't
• 10:48
  been supplementing with vitamin D and you know that you wear sunscreen faithfully
• 10:52
  and you know that you are inside most of the time,
• 10:55
  you can pretty safely assume that your vitamin D is depleted and it could be a root cause.
• 11:01
  Again, with that one, you're going to want to test. But you can start taking
• 11:04
  action right away. Because.
• 11:06
  It's common sense. This Hashimoto's Decoded Root Causes mini course is common sense led.
• 11:14
  You're going to listen to me teach you about the most common root causes,
• 11:18
  and you're going to identify the ones that fit the best with your life,
• 11:23
  and you're going to figure out a unique plan.
• 11:25
  Now, if you want more hand-holding, then yes, of course, the full holistic Hashimoto's course is or program.
• 11:33
  It is the perfect thing to walk you through that. So back to the beginning.
• 11:38
  Is there anything that you can do to stop Hashimoto's from progressing?
• 11:43
  Yes. Like I said, yes, there are things you can do. You want to figure out what's
• 11:48
  going on. You want to figure out the root causes.
• 11:51
  And then you want to take action. And then you get to repeat.
• 11:54
  Because you, I'm sorry to tell you this. This is a lifelong project now.
• 12:00
  You are always, and you know what, it was before I told you this too.
• 12:04
  It was even before you got your diagnosis. Your health is always a long-term
• 12:08
  project. I feel like it has been ever since at least we were teenagers.
• 12:12
  When you were a little kid, you didn't think about your health, most likely.
• 12:17
  You just, you know, played. You went to school. You slept.
• 12:21
  You did what your parents said. You just lived life. When you are entering puberty,
• 12:26
  then all of a sudden you're like, okay, why am I getting all this acne?
• 12:29
  What can I do for my skincare?
• 12:30
  What is going on with my hormones? When you're a teenager, you usually start
• 12:34
  to figure out that health is kind of a project. There are things that you can do.
• 12:39
  And now that you are listening to this, you have probably gotten to the point
• 12:43
  where you're always kind of investigating, like, what can I do for my health?
• 12:46
  Is there a better way to eat? how can I meal plan for the next day,
• 12:51
  the next week, the next month so that I have a healthier diet?
• 12:55
  There are always things that we're looking at. And that is just the nature of
• 12:58
  being human and being an adult and taking agency for your health.
• 13:03
  So yes, there are things that you can do.
• 13:06
  Figuring out your root causes is number one. If you follow me on Instagram,
• 13:10
  I posted my stories probably every day.
• 13:13
  I don't post on my feed that often. I'm trying to do better.
• 13:17
  But anyway, stories is where I show up. So this morning, I posted a selfie with
• 13:22
  me and my pile of books that I was skimming for research for this episode.
• 13:28
  I have read, I think, all of them before.
• 13:31
  I don't think I have finished one, but I have read them and I have lots of highlights.
• 13:35
  And I just wanted to go through them to make sure that I wasn't missing anything for this episode.
• 13:40
  Because when you are looking for a way to stop your Hashimoto's from progressing,
• 13:44
  when you are looking for a way for healing, and when you're coming to me for
• 13:48
  those answers, I take that responsibility very, very seriously.
• 13:52
  So yes, I skimmed five different books today, and I have a couple pages of notes,
• 13:57
  and it really came down to, you know what, I have all of this already in that
• 14:02
  root causes mini course because I've already read the books.
• 14:06
  I've already done so much reading and research and I put it in there as the
• 14:11
  most simple, streamlined, easy to digest, easy to implement way that I could
• 14:16
  possibly figure out for you.
• 14:19
  But maybe you're busy right now, you're multitasking, you're washing the dishes,
• 14:23
  making your food, going on a walk, whatever it is, and you're like,
• 14:27
  no Esther, I want something right now. I want to know what I can do right now.
• 14:31
  Okay, number one, reduce your stress. Take a deep breath. Take a deep breath
• 14:34
  from your diaphragm, belly breathing.
• 14:37
  Let's lower your stress response. You can't necessarily change the external
• 14:41
  things. You can change how you respond to stress.
• 14:45
  And sometimes you can stop putting yourself in stressful situations.
• 14:48
  For example, maybe you can't do a high intensity workout.
• 14:52
  I have learned that my body is
• 14:55
  does not want me to run. Every time I try running, I have a Hashimoto's flare-up
• 14:59
  this spring. I forgot about that.
• 15:02
  It's been a couple years, and all I was thinking about is, I haven't run in
• 15:05
  a really long time. I really miss it.
• 15:07
  I'm going to try it again because I feel like I'm out of shape.
• 15:10
  And I had a Hashimoto's flare-up, and I was like, why is this? Oh, right.
• 15:15
  It's because I was running, and my stress system has just decided that running
• 15:20
  is too much of a physical stressor. So you can change some of your stresses,
• 15:25
  but sometimes it's changing how you respond.
• 15:28
  So you're in a stressful situation and it's reminding yourself,
• 15:32
  take a deep breath, take a deep breath from my belly.
• 15:35
  I'm going to breathe for a minute. I'm going to relax my jaw.
• 15:39
  I'm going to relax my tongue. I'm going to relax my shoulders.
• 15:42
  I'm going to take another deep breath. And then I'm going to continue on with
• 15:46
  my day. because now I have lowered my stress a little bit.
• 15:49
  I have lowered that stress response in my body.
• 15:52
  So there are things that you can do. Let's start with stress.
• 15:56
  So the next thing is, does your thyroid have enough ingredients to be able to work?
• 16:01
  And that is also very baseline. And yes, we go over it in the mini course because
• 16:06
  that is one of the root causes.
• 16:08
  If your thyroid, it doesn't have the ingredients to do its job.
• 16:11
  Well, then it can't do its job very well, right? That's obvious, right?
• 16:14
  But we have to stop and think about it. And when you were at the doctor's office
• 16:18
  and they said, you have hypothyroidism, here's a medication.
• 16:21
  They probably didn't say, hey, by the way, are you making sure that you're getting
• 16:26
  at least 200, ooh, is it micrograms or milligrams?
• 16:30
  200 of selenium every day? Like, are you eating two Brazil nuts?
• 16:35
  Are you looking at your multivitamin and making sure that it has 200 of selenium?
• 16:40
  I'm sorry, I can't remember the units right now off the top of my head. I remember the 200.
• 16:45
  They probably didn't ask you about how much iron you're getting in your diet.
• 16:50
  Maybe they checked your iron when they did your labs, and that's awesome.
• 16:53
  If you don't have enough iron in your, you know, in your body and in your diet,
• 16:59
  your thyroid can't work well.
• 17:00
  If you're not getting enough selenium, it can't work well. Same with iodine.
• 17:04
  Now, iodine is very tricky, and you're going to feel, you're going to hear people
• 17:08
  very opinionated, some telling you that you need more iodine,
• 17:12
  some people telling you that you need less, and both camps have excellent science behind them.
• 17:18
  The thing is, if you just have hypothyroidism and no Hashimoto's,
• 17:23
  you probably, just probably, need more iodine.
• 17:27
  If you have Hashimoto's and that is why your thyroid is not producing enough, then Hashimoto's.
• 17:33
  More iodine might make your Hashimoto's worse.
• 17:37
  So you're going to want to figure out a happy medium and there is nobody that
• 17:41
  can figure that out for you.
• 17:43
  And I do go into that issue more in depth in the full holistic Hashimoto's program
• 17:49
  because it is nuanced and there is no 100% answer that goes across the board.
• 17:55
  And actually that is one of the red flags when I'm looking at somebody who is
• 17:59
  creating resources or education or program for Hashimoto's,
• 18:05
  if they have a 100% across the board recommendation for iodine, that's a red flag for me.
• 18:11
  Because I have read such credible information on both sides of the issue.
• 18:16
  And if one person is saying that everybody needs to be doing this, it's a red flag.
• 18:21
  I will probably not proceed with that provider or with that person because I know that it is nuanced.
• 18:28
  There is no 100% across the board.
• 18:31
  So anyway, back to the question, how can I stop Hashimoto's from progressing?
• 18:35
  You're going to want to go through just the basic steps. You want to understand what is happening.
• 18:41
  You want to understand what is the root cause. Figure out those root causes.
• 18:45
  Identify which ones are A, the most simple to take care of.
• 18:49
  For example, that vitamin D, you take a vitamin D supplement every morning. That is not hard, right?
• 18:55
  So simple. and then B you're also going
• 18:58
  to figure out which ones are going to make the biggest difference
• 19:01
  and maybe for you that's gut health maybe for
• 19:04
  you you say okay Esther you said in the mini course
• 19:07
  and you said on the podcast that everybody with an autoimmune problem has a
• 19:11
  gut issue I know that I have been you know having irregular bowel movements
• 19:16
  for the last forever I know I have gut issues so you're going to start working
• 19:21
  there because it's going to make such a huge difference your gut health does
• 19:24
  not just impact your immune system.
• 19:26
  Your gut health impacts your hormones. It impacts your mood.
• 19:30
  It impacts your mental health. It impacts your skin.
• 19:33
  It impacts your energy.
• 19:35
  It impacts so many different things. So maybe you say, okay,
• 19:40
  I know that gut health is ginormous in my overall health, including my thyroid and my immune system.
• 19:48
  I'm going to start there. So you're going to figure out the simplest things
• 19:51
  and the biggest impact things.
• 19:54
  You're going to acquire some tools to work on them.
• 19:57
  Some of them are going to be free, like deep breathing, lowering your stuff.
• 20:01
  Your stress. Some of them might be more of an investment.
• 20:04
  You're going to figure out which tools work for you and your budget in this
• 20:08
  season of your life. And then you're going to implement.
• 20:11
  And then you're going to repeat this whole cycle. Figure out what's going on,
• 20:16
  figure out the root causes, figure out what you can do today.
• 20:19
  Implement, and then reevaluate.
• 20:21
  I hope this really, really helped you. And most importantly, I hope it gives you hope.
• 20:26
  There are ways to stop your Hashimoto's from progressing.
• 20:29
  No matter what you have been told about you're a lifelong patient and you just
• 20:33
  have to stay on your pharmaceutical thyroid medication,
• 20:35
  there actually are things that you can do to help your body so that it can stop
• 20:41
  that progression, so that your immune system starts working better.
• 20:45
  You can achieve remission from Hashimoto's. There is hope.
• 20:50
  Please share this episode with a friend who also needs to hear that there is
• 20:53
  hope, who has maybe wondered, are there ways to stop my Hashimoto's from progressing?
• 20:58
  Because maybe they haven't heard yet. Yes, there are ways.
• 21:02
  This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only.
• 21:05
  Please discuss any changes with your trusted healthcare provider.
• 21:08
  To take your next step, join our school community and explore the courses available there.
• 21:13
  You do not have to figure your health out alone.
• 21:16
  So that is school, S-K-O-O-L.com, and it is the Health with Hashimoto's community.
• 21:22
  I'll see you next time on the Health with Hashimoto's podcast.