Latest / Health with Hashimoto’s - Thyroid or Immune Education for Autoimmune Thyroid Disease / 079 // Hashimoto's and weight loss drugs like Semaglutide, Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro, Tirzepatide, and Zepbound

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079 // Hashimoto's and weight loss drugs like Semaglutide, Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro, Tirzepatide, and Zepbound · Health with Hashimoto’s - Thyroid or Immune Education for Autoimmune Thyroid Disease

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Welcome back to another episode of Health with Hashimoto's. This is the podcast
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where I help you dig into the root causes of your Hashimoto's and I give you
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simple and practical solutions that are sustainable so that you can improve your health over time.
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My name is Esther. I am a registered nurse. I do have Hashimoto's and my podcast
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here came out of my need to understand what was is going on,
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figure out my root causes, and then get to the bottom of it.
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I always found Hashimoto's and thyroid stuff in general to be very confusing.
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And so I figured if me with all of my medical training, you know,
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I had four years of nursing school, and then about 17 years in Western medicine
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went back to school for holistic education and holistic nursing.
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If I was still confused about thyroid stuff, after all of that,
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I figured I needed to get the word out because there's probably other people
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who are confused as well.
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Well, today's episode comes out of another struggle to want to understand something.
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And I have been studying for this podcast episode for about a month.
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I have been reading and listening to other podcast episodes,
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reading the research, reading the drug books.
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Today, we're going to talk about the weight loss drugs.
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You might have heard them by brand name. You might have heard of them by their generic name.
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Some of the names that might ring a bell, semaglutide, ozempic,
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wagovi, monjoro, terzepatide, and zepbound.
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I don't know if I'm saying those last couple correctly, but they are the medications
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that were originally designed to help people with type 2 diabetes.
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And in the trials, they discovered, oh, when we help people with type 2 diabetes
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with these medications, people
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lose weight. And so some of them have been rebranded for weight loss.
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And we're going to talk about all of this in regards to Hashimoto's and hypothyroid,
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because when your thyroid is not working optimally, when it is hypo,
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that means things are generally slowing down in the body, whether that's your hair growth,
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whether that's your energy overall,
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whether it's your metabolism, things slow down.
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And when your metabolism slows down it means you
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tend to gain weight and it's very hard to
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get it off and this is what drives people to look
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to weight loss medications i am specifically talking
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about people who have tried doing things
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the quote right way adjusting your diet making sure that you're exercising making
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sure that your strength training like doing all the quote right things i I am
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not talking about the people who turn to these weight loss drugs because they
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want to continue eating and living their normal lifestyle,
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not make any changes. They just want something to lose weight.
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I'm not talking about those like Hollywood people.
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I'm talking about you. I am talking about the average woman who is trying so
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hard and not seeing success.
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Somebody like Chris, she says, no matter how little I ate and following the
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right diet for over 10 years, exercising, no matter what I did,
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the harder I tried, I never lost.
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And I began gaining weight. I could not shed even a pound. I could not get below 200 pounds.
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So she did turn to weight loss medications and she has seen success.
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Now there's other people who have have turned to the weight loss medications,
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and they have seen side effects.
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So let's go over all of it so that you know what you need to know to make at
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least the start of an informed decision.
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Now, in a 20-ish minute podcast, I am not going to be able to give you all of
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the information possible for you to make a completely informed decision.
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But what I hope to do is to get you you started and to help you see,
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is this something that I want to pursue or not?
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So I already gave you the very basics of what are the names of the medications.
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Let's talk about how they work. All of these different medications, they work by,
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in essence, stabilizing your blood sugar and slowing down your stomach.
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That's kind of what they do. They increase your insulin release.
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They decrease how much sugar that you create. If you listened to the coffee
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episode, I think it's episode 67.
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I talk about when you're under stress, your body actually makes sugar. It releases sugar.
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So you can wake up in the morning and your blood sugar, the actual sugar in
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your bloodstream can go up even if you don't eat anything just due to the stressors of life.
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That is one thing that these medications control. They decrease how much sugar your body is making.
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The medications also delay gastric emptying.
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That's just a fancy way to say that your stomach doesn't allow food to go through
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as quickly and and they decrease appetite.
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There's other research that says that they increase your specific hormone that
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indicates that you're full.
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Ghrelin and leptin are the two different things that you need in your body to
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feel full and to feel not hungry. So it works on those.
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These medications work with peptides, and I am a fan of using what's natural in the body.
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You know that I talk about activators, like activating your body's own ability
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to produce more antioxidants.
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Side note, I need to do an episode soon about COVID.
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I just heard there's one really good study that said when you have more glutathione
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production endogenous, like make your body making its own, that decreased everything,
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all of your risks for COVID.
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And when you create your own antioxidants, glutathione is one of the the biggest ones.
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And so I'm a really big fan of activating your own body's responses and your
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own body's ability to do different things.
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And using peptides really ties into that.
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However, these medications are not asking your body to look around,
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evaluate what's going on, and get back to how you were earlier.
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Instead, these medications are asking your body to change things.
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And when you mess around with the whole digestive system, there are going to be consequences.
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And it is the consequences that really have people talking.
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For one thing, what it does in the body is it can mimic food poisoning.
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So think of all of the side effects or how you feel when you have food poisoning.
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Those are the side effects that a lot of people have when they're on these weight loss medications.
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So, you know, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, things like that.
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Stomach cramping, increased bloating, lots of gas, whether it's burping or farting.
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These are some of the side effects. effects.
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Also, because of that delayed stomach emptying, some people actually have gastric paralysis.
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So, gastric paresis means it's slowing the stomach emptying.
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Paralysis means that your stomach actually isn't working. And that one's a really bad side effect.
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So, if you're taking these medications, you do need to be aware of the side effects.
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Other side effects would be people feeling tired, headaches, dizzy.
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And then also when you are messing with the whole digestive system,
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you have to remember that our gut is our, it's called our second brain.
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We have so many neurotransmitters that are created in our gut and also receptors in our gut.
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So when you're working with these medications, you really have to be aware of
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how it's affecting you emotionally and spiritually, because it could have an effect.
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In fact, one other person said, she was talking about a friend,
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she said her friend had major mood swings.
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She became violently angry. It was a nightmare, and she didn't believe anyone
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until she almost hit somebody that she loved.
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So do be aware and help have somebody else.
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Like to help you track your symptoms so that you're not having any of these dangerous ones.
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The most common thing though is that people feel really full and then they don't
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want to eat, which is one of the things that it's supposed to do,
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but it's also a side effect because it can be too much.
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This is especially true for protein.
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So let's talk quick about what burns calories, what burns energy in our body.
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We have muscles, we have white fat, and we have brown fat.
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Those are like basically it, right? So our muscles are obviously the biggest burners of calories.
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They need the most energy to be able to work every single second of every single
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day. Your heart is working.
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It's a really hard working muscle. It needs calories, right?
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So our muscles are always burning calories.
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And as you lose muscle, then you're losing the biggest calorie burners.
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As you you lose muscle, then your metabolism is going to slow down.
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Whether or not we're talking about these medications, I'm just talking about muscle right now.
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You need muscle in order to burn calories.
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You need muscle in order to drive your metabolism.
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Now the different types of fat, there's white fat and there's brown fat.
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White fat is kind of the storage fat and then brown fat is a little bit different.
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It's more energy dense and it's easier for your body to burn.
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So when when you're looking at those things, you really want muscles and you
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want more brown fat than white fat.
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And when you're losing weight, you want it to go in reverse order.
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You want to lose the white fat and you still want to like have a lot of brown
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fat because that's constantly burning and you really want to save your muscles.
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What they have found with these weight loss medications is that people do lose
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weight. It is very effective.
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People lose weight. Sometimes they they lose weight too quickly.
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The people who have more long-term lasting weight loss lose weight slower.
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So they'll have like very small medication amounts so that it's gradual.
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Also, you want small medication amounts so that you don't have as severe side
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effects because who wants to have all that nausea, vomiting, and all of those?
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Yeah, not me, not you either. So we want to lose the the white fat.
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We don't really want to lose the brown fat. We want to continue burning that.
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We want to convert our white fat to brown fat, and we really don't want to lose our muscle mass.
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But in this weight loss from the medications, people are generally losing more muscle than.
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Than fat. And we don't want that because then when you stop the weight loss
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medications, then what's left to burn your energy, you don't have as much muscle.
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If you are going to use these medications, and I'm not villainizing them overall,
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I'm not going to give you, you know, a slap answer on everything.
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I want you to look at the facts and figure out what's going to work for you.
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But you do need to know that if you're taking these medications,
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then you really need to prioritize eating protein and doing strength training
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because you need to maintain your muscle mass.
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These medications are not lifelong medications. I know some doctors will say
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that maybe they are, but for one thing, they're a thousand dollars a month and
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that is not sustainable for anybody whose insurance is not paying.
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And then another reason is because you need your body to work naturally and
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you don't want to interfere with things and slow your whole whole gut down for the rest of your life.
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This is a tool in your weight loss.
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It is a tool to supplement changing your diet, having a healthy diet,
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implementing those things, and then also having an active lifestyle,
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making sure that you're walking, getting your steps in. I'm not saying you have to do like a HIIT class.
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I'm saying do the gentle walking and do some strength training to maintain the muscle mass.
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Once you do stop the weight loss medications, the research says that most people
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gain it all back and they're getting it back as fat, not muscle.
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So we really want to make sure that you're maintaining your muscle mass while
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you're taking these medications.
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And then when you do stop them, that you're stopping them number one,
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gradually so that your body can remember like how it has to function when it's not on the medications,
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and then that you can implement or continue to strengthen your healthy eating
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lifestyle and your maintain like your exercise and your strength.
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Because I don't want you to go through all of this work of weekly injections,
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and all the side effects if you had any, and then at the end,
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have, you know, less muscle and just the same amount of weight as you you did before.
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That is just not what the outcome that anybody wants.
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So that is one caution is make sure that you are maintaining your muscle mass.
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Another caution is in the animal studies for these medications,
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they found an increase of thyroid cancer.
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So if you have a history of thyroid cancer, this is not indicated for you.
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And it's just something that people need to be aware of that they're watching.
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They have not seen it in any humans yet, at least not that I found.
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However, However, you know, we're just early on into these medications.
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They've only been out in use really for a couple years. And...
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Humans are the biggest guinea pig. We did it on animals and now it's out in
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public and we're going to start seeing other things down the road.
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That's just how pharmaceuticals work.
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They do a little bit of study and then they put it out to the masses.
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And then a couple of years later, they'll be like, oh yeah, we're not going
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to do that one because the side effects outweigh the benefits.
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But anyway, thyroid stuff. You need to be watching out for cancer.
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We don't think that's a risk for humans, but it should be noted.
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However, monitoring your labs and monitoring your energy and all of that is very important.
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Because again, as I talked about in the coffee episode, one reason you don't
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have coffee with your thyroid medications is because it changes how quickly
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your medications go through your gut.
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And so it changes how they absorb.
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Well, it's the same thing with this weight weight loss medication,
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except it's going to slow it down.
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It's going to change how quickly your medications are absorbed,
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which means it's going to change how much is getting into your blood stream.
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And that means that you need to be really on top of things,
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especially with your doctor, to monitor how much levothyroxine or other thyroid
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medications you're taking to make sure that you're on the right dose for you at this right time.
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And then if you are losing weight, which you probably will on these medications,
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then that can change how much medication you need as well.
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So yes, I did say that some people might need an increase in their dose and
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some people might need a decrease in their dose.
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Really being aware of what's working for you and what's going on for you is key in everything.
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The biggest caution I have about these medications though is not any of those physical side effects.
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The biggest caution I have about them is the mindset.
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It is the mindset that that if I take this medication, I'm going to lose weight
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and I don't have to do anything else.
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And I was telling my husband yesterday, I was like, if there is a medication
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that I could take that would just give me muscles and I didn't have to strength
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train, I can see how tempting that would be because I don't like to do strength training.
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I would much prefer to walk or run. I don't like to do strength training,
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even though I know it's important.
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So I get it. I get the the appeal of just taking a medication, even a shot.
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People are willing to do that if they can lose weight.
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And that's where you see the like celebrities and the Hollywood type people
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taking this medication so they can lose weight.
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Now, I'm not saying that they're not doing the healthy diet because I don't
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know, but I'm saying that that's the vibe I get from them is they just want
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to do the quick fixes, not necessarily the lifestyle stuff.
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And you know my thoughts on that. I talk talk about it almost every single week
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because we need to be looking long-term.
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We can't just put band-aids on chronic problems and we need to be looking for real fixes.
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So I see these weight loss medications as a possible tool that can help some
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people. Can it help you? I don't know.
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That is up to you to look at with your doctor. But here are some things that
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you might want to look at before you turn to weight loss medications.
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Obviously, looking at a healthy diet, diet that is full of real foods,
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fruits and vegetables and proteins.
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I am not gonna tell you to do like one specific diet, paleo or keto or anything.
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Do what is right for you. Look at what works for your lifestyle.
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Style. You can go back to the diet episodes I have done.
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I will link them below in the show notes, but you have to do what's right for
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you. And what's right for most everybody is real food.
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Decrease the processed foods, decrease the sugars, and increase your veggies and your protein.
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That is going to help pretty much everybody.
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The other thing is making sure that you're building muscle. muscle.
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If you are eating a healthy diet and you're already building muscle,
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then maybe look into berberine.
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Now berberine is an herb and it helps control blood sugar.
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It's really useful for, according to the research that I read, up to about 90 days.
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So you can try berberine for about three months and see if that helps.
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People say that they do lose weight because it helps balance their blood sugar.
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And I have used berberine before. I did not notice anything in myself.
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Again, this is for you to evaluate what's working for you.
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And there's some other products on the market that are really intriguing.
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And I tend to look at the products from the companies who have long been in the health space.
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They're not in the fads. They're not trying to make money off of how you look.
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They are deep into the health and wellness first.
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They didn't start because of losing weight.
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They started based on long-term wellness.
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Those are the companies that intrigue me the most when they come out with a
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product that is geared toward fat.
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You have heard me talk about the company LifeVantage before.
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That's where I get those activators to activate my own antioxidant production
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and the mitochondria, which are the energy production of the cell.
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I've talked about those two in depth before.
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They have another product, and it is called FatBurn. And what it does,
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again, is working with your own body to do what your body can do best.
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And it converts some of that white fat into beige fat or brown fat.
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And like I said before, it's easier for your body to burn that fat.
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With this fat burn supplement, it is supp-
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your body's natural fat burning process. So it's not changing things.
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It's supporting you. It's supporting your healthy weight management and it increases
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your energy expenditure by 181 calories per day.
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And so that's like your metabolism going up a little bit.
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And over a 16 week study that they did, people lost about 5.2% of their fat.
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So that was about four pounds over 16 weeks. and they didn't change anything else.
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This was just their body being supported in their metabolism.
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But the thing about that is those four pounds, over half of that was in their waist and hips.
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So when I was talking about the weight loss medications, people tended to lose
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more muscle than fat, and then that's detrimental.
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Well, with this fat burn, they tend to lose it in their waist and hips and they
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lose the fat, not the muscle.
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So that is really key. I would look look for something like that.
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And there are other companies that have it. I have looked at at least four different
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metabolism or fat burning products over the last month while I've been doing this research.
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And like I said, I look at the companies who value health first,
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who have always valued your health first.
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And this is the one that I settled on. This is the one that I bought for my husband.
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I am not using anything related to metabolism right now, but my husband has
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been been working on losing weight.
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He has cleaned up his diet. He has been working out really faithfully.
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He's been building his muscle.
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He's been doing all the right things, and yet he's having a hard time.
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So this is the one that I purchased for him after looking at all of the options.
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Look at the options out there. I am not, you know, diagnosing,
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treating, recommending, prescribing, anything like that.
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What I am doing is I am sharing what I have been learning and hoping that it
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will help you on your journey to better wellness as well.
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Down in the show notes, I will put a link to this fat burn. I'm going to put
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a link to it where it's stacked with the other activators so that you're producing
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more antioxidants and you're increasing the energy of the cells, the mitochondria.
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I do not personally feel like it is beneficial to add the fat loss products
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if you're not supporting the basics.
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You have to be supporting your antioxidant production, increasing that,
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and you have to be supporting your mitochondria.
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Those two things are foundational. So the stack, like they're bundled together
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so that you save a little money.
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The stack is called the Metabolism Essentials Stack.
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It's got a really nice name, right? I will put that link down in the show notes.
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Obviously, if you're on subscription, you're going to save and it is an affiliate
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link. And I thank you in advance for using my affiliate link.
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And if you do order anything, you will get a text from me.
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At least if I'm staying on top of of things you'll get a text from
21:49
me and it says this is Esther it actually is me it's not
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a robot I don't have like an automatic automatic texting
21:56
thing it's actually me texting you asking
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how I can help and thanking you for purchasing something through my affiliate
22:03
link overall though I would love to know your experience I would love to know
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your experience with what you're doing to lose weight or to improve your health
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with Hashimoto's drop me a comment in Instagram you can send me a message or
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you can comment on a post.
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I am at esthery.rn and I want to share one thing that one of my personal friends
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said when I asked about these weight loss medications.
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She is taking them and for one thing she says that she's not embarrassed about it.
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Some people are embarrassed to admit that they're taking it and she's not.
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She says this, I've noticed increased energy and better sleep.
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I don't really feel like I've lost a lot of muscle but maybe that's because
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I've lost lost weight slowly.
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The weight has not fallen off as I see advertised or posted on social media.
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I really have been trying to get more protein in and that's also what my body
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craves. For me, it's been a great tool.
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And really that's what I want to leave you with. You are an individual.
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What works for somebody else might not be right for you. And what works for
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you might not be what somebody else needs.
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We are each unique and we each get to look at the whole picture.
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Body, mind, spirit, diet, environment.
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I hope that by listening to this podcast, the many different episodes that I
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have been able to help you view your health and your journey forward in a different way.
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And if you have found it to be helpful, will you share this podcast with a friend
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or post it on your social media, on your stories or whatever?
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It would mean the world to me and it means so much to those who I hear from,
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who have heard about this podcast, who have listened and their life is impacted.
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You never know how that little ripple effect is going to impact others.
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So I thank you so much for the ratings and reviews and sharing this.
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You are helping me help others change their health. I'll see you next week on
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the Health with Hashimoto's podcast.
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This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only.
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Please be sure to discuss any concerns and plans with your trusted healthcare provider.
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Music.