Latest / Health with Hashimoto’s - Thyroid or Immune Education for Autoimmune Thyroid Disease / Sorting Hashimoto's labs into thyroid or immune buckets ⎹ Ep. 214

Transcript

Sorting Hashimoto's labs into thyroid or immune buckets ⎹ Ep. 214 · Health with Hashimoto’s - Thyroid or Immune Education for Autoimmune Thyroid Disease

• 0:00
  The last couple episodes, we have been sorting. Are things thyroid or are they
• 0:04
  immune? We looked at root causes.
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  We looked at symptoms. And today we're going to sort labs. What is thyroid?
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  What is immune? How can you tell the difference? How do you sort your labs?
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  Hashimoto's is an autoimmune condition. That means your immune system is attacking
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  your thyroid. But knowing that is only the beginning.
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  This summer series is built in three phases. Phase one was understanding what's
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  happening in your body. Phase two is learning how to think about what you're learning.
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  And phase three is building your own personal discernment framework with support.
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  So most women with Hashimoto's have a lot of information.
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  But what they're missing is a filter, a way to evaluate what applies to them specifically.
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  That is what this series is now designed to give you.
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  If you want to start with a foundation, check with the show notes for Hashimoto's
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  Decoded, new name, Hashimoto's Decoded Thyroid or Immune.
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  In less than one hour, I will walk you through the most common root causes and
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  help you identify where to focus.
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  My name is Esther Yunkin. I'm a registered nurse, holistic health educator,
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  and the host of this podcast, Health with Hashimoto's.
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  I believe your health is a blend of five interconnected areas,
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  body, mind, spirit, diet, and environment. Let's work through this together.
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  Alright, for this episode, I am going to assume that you have a full panel of labs.
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  And when I reference a full panel, I am referring to everything I went over in episode 103.
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  That is the thyroid labs to ask for.
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  And I give this list. TSH, of course, every doctor orders TSH.
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  If you say, I think my thyroid is a funny, that's the one that they order.
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  Your TSH is not actually checking your thyroid, it's checking how much your
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  brain is asking for more thyroid hormone. It's like a light switch.
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  And when your lights are out, you just turn your light back on and you flip that switch.
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  It's like your brain flipping the switch over and over saying,
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  I want more, I want more, I want more, please give me more.
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  The higher the number is, it means the more your brain is asking for more.
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  So you're actually producing less.
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  That's the teeter-totter that really confused me. And you can listen to my own
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  story back in, I think it's episode two.
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  Anyway, you're going to get your TSH, your free T4, your free T3,
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  your reverse T3, your antibodies, and that's your TPO antibodies,
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  and your thyroglobulin antibodies, TG.
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  And then you're also going to get vitamin D. Those are the seven different labs
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  that I talked about in episode 103.
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  I have several different labs all talking about, I mean, sorry,
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  several different episodes all talking about labs.
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  Starting out in I think it was episode three. Let me look.
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  So episode three is how to read your thyroid labs. It's what each value means.
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  Episode 39, I talk about how to order your own labs, how to get labs independently.
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  This is not available in all 50 states of America.
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  And I don't know about other countries if you can or cannot order your own labs.
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  I very greatly value medical autonomy.
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  And I'm grateful to live in a state that allows for that. I think there's three
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  states in the US that do not allow you to use an independent lab to get what you want.
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  Episode 80 is how do you know if your T4 is not converting to T3 and then what to do about it?
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  Episode 94 is talking about T3, your free T3, and then your reverse T3.
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  What's the difference? What do they mean? What to do about it?
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  Episode 190 is your TSH is normal, but you still feel tired.
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  That's looking at the difference between symptoms and labs. And what do you
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  put priority on? How do you know what to do?
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  Episode 78, going back a little bit, is appointment prep. It's questions for
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  your doctor, thyroid questions.
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  And a lot of those questions have to do with labs.
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  I also have the 10 thyroid questions for your doctor. That is a free PDF.
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  If you haven't downloaded that, get that free down in the show notes.
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  And the last page is a printable page so that you can just print it out and
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  you take that page with you to the doctor.
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  So you have all of the questions there, you have space to write your notes,
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  and it just makes things easy for you.
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  All right, so let's sort. Thyroid or immune, you have two different buckets.
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  Hashimoto's is two buckets. It is your thyroid system and that is under attack
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  by your immune system. So you have to look at both things.
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  What is thyroid and what is immune and what can you do about it?
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  So this is how I break down those labs.
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  TSH is thyroid. Like I said, it's not specifically testing your thyroid,
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  but it's asking your brain, asking for more.
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  So it tells us a good idea of how your thyroid is doing, which is why it's the most common lab done.
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  But it doesn't tell us exactly the whole picture, which is why I want a full panel.
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  The free T4 and free T3 are also in the thyroid bucket.
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  Those two different labs are telling us how much your thyroid is producing. That's the free T4.
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  And it's also telling us about the conversion.
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  So the T4 is the hormone that your thyroid creates.
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  It is like a blank key. It's like the key that you get at the hardware store.
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  And it is the exact same for everybody. And then you take it to the counter and they cut it.
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  Your free T3 is the cut key. That's the one that works in the lock.
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  That is the active hormone.
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  And so your free T4 converts to free T3. Those are both thyroid buckets.
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  Obviously thyroid hormone your reverse t3 is also in the thyroid bucket your
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  reverse t3 is a little trickier though,
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  It is your thyroid bucket, for sure. It's a thyroid hormone.
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  But this one also has to do with your immune system and inflammation and how your liver is doing.
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  There's a lot of different things that can slow down the conversion.
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  So while the reverse T3 is absolutely thyroid bucket, we also use that as an
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  indicator to look at other things.
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  If you are feeling miserable, and your free T4 is great and your reverse T3 is really high, then,
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  we need to look at your stress, we need to look at your root causes,
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  we need to look at what else is going on because,
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  your body is saying no, it's saying we're not going to convert the free T4 into free T3 or T4 into T3.
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  We're not going to make that conversion because you need to prioritize rest.
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  So reverse T3 is still in the thyroid bucket, but it also tells us more.
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  Now, what about the immune bucket? That one is the antibodies.
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  Antibodies are absolutely immune.
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  They are created by your immune system. So TPO antibodies and your thyroglobulin
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  antibodies, those are the two different tests that are done typically for thyroid
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  if you're getting a full panel.
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  There are also other antibodies that you can check, like if you're worried about
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  Graves' disease or anything else, there are other antibodies to check,
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  which would be in the immune function.
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  Sometimes I also request a C-reactive protein.
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  That is a measure of how much inflammation is in the body.
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  And I want that one checked on myself about once a year, maybe once every other
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  year to make sure that I am keeping my inflammation in checked because that's a huge root cause.
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  The more inflamed you are, the more your immune system is acting up because
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  it's reacting to all of that inflammation. It's reacting to the stress happening in your body.
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  So sometimes that one is also going to be ordered, and that would be in the immune bucket as well.
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  Vitamin D is not strictly on the thyroid lab panel, but I always want it because
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  vitamin D has a lot to do with your thyroid working optimally,
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  and it has a ton to do with your immune system.
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  So vitamin D I also put in the immune bucket.
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  That is seven labs, eight if you count the C-reactive protein or CRP.
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  Most women come out of the office for that first visit with just one.
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  They just come out with the TSH.
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  I want you to have a full panel done because I want you to be able to know what's going on.
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  Even if somebody gets a lot of thyroid labs, sometimes that reverse T3 is missing
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  and the doctor's like, no, we don't order that here.
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  I had one client and she told me that.
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  She thought it was her entire state. They did not run the reverse T3.
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  And I was like, I know that's wrong because I've talked to and worked with people
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  in your state and they do run it.
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  It just might be your clinic or your specific doctor who doesn't run reverse
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  T3. It doesn't know how to ask or why to ask for it.
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  But when I'm working with somebody, I do want to know that reverse T3 because
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  it tells us so much about what's happening on the conversion level between T4 and T3.
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  So that is how I sort those primary thyroid labs. And again,
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  that episode was 103. If you want the list, I'll probably put the list of these
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  labs in this blog post too.
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  And then of course, drop down to the show notes and get the free PDF,
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  the 10 questions to ask your doctor.
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  And that will help you understand, you know, what else to ask.
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  If you're asking for these labs, then you also want to know why and what else to ask for.
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  So head down to the show notes, click the links, and I will see you next week.
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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.
• 9:55
  To take your next step, join our school community and explore the courses available
• 9:59
  there. You do not have to figure your health out alone.
• 10:02
  So that is school, S-K-O-O-L.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.