Latest / Health with Hashimoto’s - Thyroid or Immune Education for Autoimmune Thyroid Disease / Stop the Hashimoto's Hustle: What NOT to Do (and What to Try Instead) ⎸ Ep. 225

Transcript

Stop the Hashimoto's Hustle: What NOT to Do (and What to Try Instead) ⎸ Ep. 225 · Health with Hashimoto’s - Thyroid or Immune Education for Autoimmune Thyroid Disease

• 0:00
  A good do this, don't do that list can be super helpful, especially when you're overwhelmed.
• 0:06
  Like here are the things to focus on. Here are the things to avoid.
• 0:09
  That's just super helpful. And that is what this episode is about.
• 0:12
  Specifically, these are the things you should not do if you have Hashimoto's.
• 0:17
  I want to give a disclaimer right now, though. This is not the shoulds.
• 0:20
  Yes, I'm going to say should a lot, but I'm not telling you that you have to
• 0:24
  do anything or you have to not do anything.
• 0:27
  As with every single episode, I want you to listen to this information,
• 0:32
  customize it for you and for your season in life, for everything that's going on.
• 0:38
  Make the recommendations that I have in this episode work for you.
• 0:43
  My goal in giving you all of these what not to do's with Hashimoto's is that
• 0:49
  I will release a burden off of your back.
• 0:52
  The burden of thinking that you need to do, you know, X, Y, and Z.
• 0:56
  And I get it. When you're on social media, and when you're all over the internet
• 1:01
  and even reading books, it feels like the list of things that you need to do
• 1:06
  if you have Hashimoto's just grows and grows and grows.
• 1:09
  And this episode, hopefully, will release you from that list.
• 1:13
  It will help you figure out.
• 1:14
  All right, I don't have to do everything at once. I can focus on just one step.
• 1:19
  So let's dive in to the things that you should not do if you have Hashimoto's.
• 1:25
  Maybe you got a prescription and a follow-up appointment for six weeks later,
• 1:29
  or maybe you got told that your
• 1:30
  numbers are fine for now and we're just going to keep an eye on things.
• 1:34
  Either way, your provider probably did not tell you that Hashimoto's is two things and not one.
• 1:39
  It's a thyroid that can't keep up because it's also an immune system that's attacking the thyroid.
• 1:45
  Medication can help handle the first, but the second one is all yours to work
• 1:49
  on. You are the CEO of your own health.
• 1:51
  You can start working on that immune system side before your labs say that you have to.
• 1:56
  Hi, I'm Esther Yunkin. I am a registered nurse. I've been a nurse for 25 years,
• 2:00
  and I am the host of the Health with Hashimoto's podcast.
• 2:03
  I am the nurse who helps you sort your Hashimoto's into thyroid or immune.
• 2:08
  Let's sort. When you have Hashimoto's, the do's, do this, do this,
• 2:12
  do this, do everything, seems to add up and it just gets overwhelming.
• 2:18
  So today we're going over a list of what not to do with Hashimoto's.
• 2:22
  And the very first thing is I don't want you to stress.
• 2:27
  Just release the stress. You can't prevent all stress in your life, obviously.
• 2:32
  I've done so many episodes on stress because it's part of life.
• 2:36
  If you feel like this episode is going to stress you out, well,
• 2:39
  number one, I hope it doesn't. I hope it releases stress. I hope it takes things off of your to-do list.
• 2:44
  But if you feel like it's going to cause more stress, just turn it off.
• 2:48
  Just go back to last week's episode or another one where I'm walking you through
• 2:52
  something else because I never want to add more stress to your life.
• 2:56
  When you are stressed out, that increases your immune system going crazy.
• 3:03
  You know, stress is a trigger for autoimmune issues.
• 3:07
  So we do not want to stress out. So that's the first thing that what not to do.
• 3:12
  Don't stress out. Obviously, you still live in this world. You still will have
• 3:17
  stress. That's just part of life.
• 3:19
  But do what you can to release it.
• 3:22
  Take some deep breaths, hum, sing, do things to regulate your nervous system to lower the stress.
• 3:31
  The next couple of things are in the nutrition and the eating area.
• 3:36
  You know, when we're talking about anything health related, I am looking at
• 3:40
  you as a whole person, body, mind, spirit, diet, environment.
• 3:43
  So, and they all five interact with each other and they all impact your whole
• 3:49
  health, your holistic health, you as a whole person, not just a physical body.
• 3:54
  So for diet, what not to do with Hashimoto's is, yes, I understand that your
• 4:02
  metabolism might have tanked and your weight might have gone up and you feel
• 4:05
  like you're doing everything.
• 4:07
  Please don't chronically undereat.
• 4:10
  If you undereat because you're so desperate, you're trying to lose weight,
• 4:14
  you're doing everything you can to lose weight,
• 4:17
  if you restrict your calories too much, you actually cause the opposite effect
• 4:22
  because your body thinks that you're in starvation mode and it starts to store
• 4:26
  extra fat because it thinks you're in a famine.
• 4:29
  So don't chronically undereat.
• 4:32
  It can be hard when you are dealing with your weight I have a couple episodes on that.
• 4:37
  Just make sure you're getting enough protein. Make sure you're getting enough
• 4:40
  carbohydrates. I know some people villainize carbs.
• 4:43
  You do need some carbs. You need overall calories to support what your body's functions are.
• 4:50
  So number one, I guess number two, because stress was number one,
• 4:53
  don't chronically undereat.
• 4:55
  On kind of a similar note, don't keep Eliminating.
• 5:00
  And I understand. We've done episodes about elimination diets and cutting foods out.
• 5:07
  The problem is if you keep eliminating more and more foods, well,
• 5:11
  you cause more problems. And turn to episode 200.
• 5:15
  I interviewed Mickey Trescott. She is the author.
• 5:18
  She's actually one of the original people behind the AIP diet,
• 5:22
  so autoimmune protocol.
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  And in episode 200, I interviewed her about the new AIP and how to modify it.
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  So there's a lot about eliminating foods and how to add them back because you
• 5:35
  don't want to keep restricting and then stay off of them forever.
• 5:40
  Some foods you might have to stay off forever, but there's a way to go about
• 5:45
  it that's less stressful on your body.
• 5:48
  Next one, don't assume intermittent fasting is right for you.
• 5:53
  Intermittent fasting is all over. People who talk about intermittent fasting
• 5:56
  just believe that it's like a miracle cure-all, and there are absolutely fantastic
• 6:02
  benefits that come with fasting.
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  But if you have Hashimoto's and your body is already stressed out,
• 6:09
  then adding an additional stressor of intermittent fasting can cause a Hashimoto's flare.
• 6:15
  Episode 82 is about fasting and figuring out what will work for you.
• 6:20
  So don't assume that intermittent fasting is right for you just because everybody's
• 6:26
  doing it and everybody says that, you know, it's a good thing.
• 6:30
  All right, moving away from the diet category, let's talk about exercise.
• 6:35
  When you are struggling with your weight, as in the don't chronically under
• 6:40
  eat part, you know, I said you're doing everything you can to lose weight.
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  You might be exercising a lot too. And exercise is good.
• 6:48
  We want to exercise. We want to stay healthy, fit, in shape. We want to feel strong.
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  We want to have the endurance for life.
• 6:57
  We want to be healthy overall, which means exercise.
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  However, you can also have too much exercise. It might be too intense,
• 7:06
  too stressful for your body and for your immune system at this time.
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  You have to figure out what will work for you.
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  Balancing strength training, balancing walking, the slower exercises that are still effective.
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  That might be what you need instead of going and doing a whole bunch of HIIT
• 7:27
  workouts or running or something like that.
• 7:29
  You have to figure out what works for you and intense workouts might not be
• 7:34
  what fits in this season for you. And that's okay.
• 7:38
  In the same vein, don't assume that more is better. And that theme is going
• 7:42
  to come up through quite a few of these on the not to do list.
• 7:48
  Don't assume more exercise is better because it's not.
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  Exercise is a physical stressor and we're trying to lower stress.
• 7:57
  That doesn't mean be sedentary all day every day because your body needs both.
• 8:02
  And I wish there was like a simple like, you know, do this many minutes of this
• 8:08
  heart rate zone and that will be perfect for everybody with Hashimoto's.
• 8:11
  But there's not that formula.
• 8:13
  You are a bio individual and what works for your friend might not work for you.
• 8:18
  So you get to figure out how much exercise and what types of exercise work for you.
• 8:23
  But more is not always better. All right, next category, supplements.
• 8:29
  We've talked about supplements quite a bit on this podcast because I firmly
• 8:33
  believe that you need two categories of supplements or activators.
• 8:37
  Number one, you need activators to tell your body what to do.
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  So you have like an NRF2 pathway in your body.
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  That NRF2 pathway is responsible for telling your body to produce antioxidants,
• 8:51
  to clean up oxidative stress, to clean up your cells.
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  You have another pathway in your body, the NRF1 pathway that tells your mitochondria
• 8:58
  what to do, like make energy.
• 9:00
  It tells your mitochondria to be more abundant.
• 9:02
  The NRF1 pathway is super important.
• 9:06
  You've got, you know, peptides that are naturally created in your gut.
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  GLP-1, that's a peptide that your body creates.
• 9:14
  You don't have to have an injection of GLP-1 in order to have more GLP-1.
• 9:20
  So the first category of supplements that I feel is important for everybody
• 9:25
  is activators, things that tell your body to do what it's supposed to do.
• 9:30
  I think of it like if I tell one of my kids to go cook supper.
• 9:34
  It's me telling him to go do it. Well, yes, that's the first step.
• 9:39
  He needs to know that he should go do it.
• 9:41
  But the next thing he needs is the ingredients. If I go tell him to make,
• 9:46
  well right now as I'm recording, he's making pizza.
• 9:48
  If I go tell him to make pizza but I don't give him the ingredients to make
• 9:53
  the pizza, we're not going to have pizza at the end of when I'm done recording
• 9:57
  this, right? He has the instructions.
• 10:00
  He also needs the ingredients.
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  That's like your body. You need to tell your body what to do.
• 10:05
  So that's the activators.
• 10:06
  You also need to give your body the ingredients that it needs to do the job
• 10:10
  that you just asked it to do.
• 10:12
  So the next one on the not to do list is don't add a collection of random supplements.
• 10:19
  I know you see ads, you see targeted ads, you maybe read a book and they say
• 10:23
  these are the things that people with Hashimoto's absolutely need for supplements.
• 10:27
  And I agree. There are things that you need. You need things to tell your body
• 10:31
  what to do and ingredients in order to carry out those functions.
• 10:34
  But it's a lot more nuanced than, oh, I saw this ad and it said people with
• 10:38
  Hashimoto's struggle with this nutrient.
• 10:41
  And so I'm going to just add that to my cart and I'm going to start taking it.
• 10:45
  That's not the right approach. You need to have a thoughtful approach and look at the whole picture.
• 10:50
  Episode 83 is like the foundational episode I have on supplements.
• 10:55
  I actually have a quick little flow chart that shows you what is the most important and then what to add.
• 11:00
  Because another question people ask is what can I subtract from my supplement routine?
• 11:04
  I'm spending so much money every month on supplements. What can I get rid of?
• 11:09
  So episode 83 is where to turn for that one.
• 11:12
  And I believe all of these episodes that I'm listing off have blog posts.
• 11:16
  So if you prefer to read, you can head over to healthwithhashimoto's.com and
• 11:21
  up in the menu, I think it's under podcast.
• 11:25
  It says podcast. It's the blog as well. Every single episode that I have or
• 11:29
  every single blog post I have has the podcast episode embedded into it.
• 11:35
  That way you can just send that link to a friend and if that friend wants to
• 11:39
  read or listen it's all right there.
• 11:41
  If it's a video interview I often have that video also embedded so that everything's
• 11:47
  just one-stop shop. I want to make this easy for you.
• 11:50
  So supplements check out episode 83 for a guide to like what to prioritize.
• 11:58
  The next thing let's go with more is not always better.
• 12:02
  Same thing with supplements. More supplements does not necessarily mean better
• 12:06
  results. It just doesn't.
• 12:09
  Go big or go home does not work for the human body. You are Goldilocks.
• 12:14
  You don't always need a pop-a-bear amount of anything.
• 12:18
  Whether we're talking exercise or supplements or anything, you are Goldilocks.
• 12:22
  You need a precise range for you. More does not equal better.
• 12:27
  So don't just keep throwing supplements at it.
• 12:29
  Because that might not help. Another thing that people like to add more and
• 12:33
  more of? Caffeine. I'm sorry.
• 12:36
  Caffeine is an actual stressor.
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  Don't rely on caffeine to get you through your day. I completely understand.
• 12:45
  Brain fog and physical fatigue, mental fatigue, it's a real thing.
• 12:51
  Absolutely. And sometimes you need something to help you get through the day.
• 12:55
  You might have slept eight, nine hours last night, and you're still dragging.
• 13:00
  You have an important meeting or task to do for work or something.
• 13:04
  You're like, I need to think better today. I need something to help me.
• 13:09
  I get it. And so sometimes you need that little boost of caffeine.
• 13:13
  But just know that caffeine is an actual physical stressor. I have an episode about that.
• 13:18
  It is episode 67, all about coffee and thyroid medication
• 13:23
  and I do have an alternative that it still has caffeine in it so you still can't
• 13:27
  have it within 30 to 60 minutes ideally 60 of your thyroid medications if you take any because
• 13:35
  caffeine can mess with like the transit time it speeds things up as it's going
• 13:39
  through your gut so if you take thyroid medications every morning you want a
• 13:43
  consistent rate of transit as that thyroid medication is moving through
• 13:48
  caffeine messes with that that's just one of the things that caffeine does to
• 13:52
  mess with your thyroid medications.
• 13:54
  So I do take a nootropic. Sometimes nootropic just means brain food.
• 13:58
  It helps my brain work better. And the one that I use has caffeine in it.
• 14:02
  There's also a decaf one. It's called Axio, and I have talked about it before.
• 14:05
  In fact, I do talk about it on episode 67, where we're talking about caffeine
• 14:09
  and coffee and your thyroid meds.
• 14:11
  So supplements, caffeine, whatever, more is not always better.
• 14:16
  Next category, let's talk about labs. I talk about labs a lot,
• 14:20
  and you already know this one, so this is going to be super fast.
• 14:23
  Don't assume that TSH tells the whole story. If you listened to the last episode,
• 14:27
  224, you already know that.
• 14:30
  If you've listened to, you know, any of my episodes, you probably already know that.
• 14:33
  If you have ever gone to your doctor and heard your TSH is fine,
• 14:38
  that you feel not fine, you probably already know this. Your TSH does not tell the whole story.
• 14:44
  So the next thing, the next don't, don't assume that TSH tells the whole story.
• 14:49
  You need a whole thyroid panel. We've talked about this ad nauseum.
• 14:53
  But episode 224 is specifically about treatment for Hashimoto's when your TSH
• 14:57
  is, quote, normal. All right, next don't on the list of what not to do if you have Hashimoto's.
• 15:04
  This one is kind of related to caffeine in the fact that it's talking about feeling rested.
• 15:13
  You've been there, right? You've gone to bed, gotten a full eight,
• 15:16
  nine hours of sleep, and you still feel completely, utterly exhausted the next day.
• 15:22
  Well, let's talk about how to fix that. I have an episode, of course,
• 15:26
  about getting better sleep.
• 15:28
  But one of the things to do is to actually like shut down in the evening,
• 15:34
  to relax, and not relax scrolling at your phone.
• 15:38
  If you keep scrolling, it doesn't always feel stressful but your brain interprets
• 15:45
  the like every five ten seconds of,
• 15:50
  stimuli you know like you're scrolling and you see it real and you watch it
• 15:54
  for maybe the whole thing but maybe you swipe by.
• 15:57
  And you only watched it for two seconds and then you move on to the next thing
• 16:00
  all of that constant change is a stressor for your brain so even though you
• 16:05
  are just like sitting, you're still, you might be doing some deep breathing,
• 16:09
  and you feel relaxed in the evening as you're scrolling, it's still a stressor.
• 16:15
  Also, there's the blue light aspect of it. Your phone is constantly putting
• 16:19
  out blue light, your TV, your computer screen, all of these things are putting
• 16:22
  out the wavelength of light that tells your brain, hey, it's morning, wake up.
• 16:28
  It suppresses the melatonin so you don't get as good of sleep.
• 16:32
  That doesn't mean go out and buy some melatonin.
• 16:35
  We're not throwing more supplements at it. We're trying to help our body do
• 16:38
  what our body is designed to do.
• 16:40
  And so one of the things that you can do is implement.
• 16:44
  Evening routine? Just take some stuff off of your plate, right?
• 16:48
  Like what do you usually do in the evening and how can you make that more relaxing?
• 16:53
  How can you create an evening routine that helps facilitate a good night's sleep?
• 17:00
  The thoughts that you think before you're going to bed impact your overall sleep.
• 17:05
  I've shared before, I had to stop reading suspense books. I love a good suspense book.
• 17:10
  A good murder mystery or, you know, that whole genre of suspense. Love it.
• 17:15
  Does my body like it? No. Does it impact my sleep? Absolutely.
• 17:19
  Did I have to quit reading them? I did.
• 17:22
  Does that mean you have to quit reading them? I don't know. Look at your stress.
• 17:25
  Look at your sleep score. If you have a wearable or something that tells you
• 17:28
  about how well you're sleeping and figure out, is what I'm thinking about or
• 17:33
  what I'm watching, what I'm doing right before bed, like the hour or two before bed,
• 17:38
  is that impacting my quality of sleep?
• 17:41
  Can I get better quality of sleep by just changing the books that I read?
• 17:46
  I, right now, I love a good fairy tale retelling. Love them.
• 17:51
  And they're not stressful.
• 17:52
  And that's the big key. Like it can't stress out my nervous system.
• 17:56
  It's got to be fun, happy books.
• 17:59
  And don't worry, fun and happy can still mean really good.
• 18:03
  All right, we're down to the last couple. Don't live in constant go mode.
• 18:08
  We've talked about this so much because we talk about stress a lot.
• 18:12
  When you're constantly in fight and flight.
• 18:15
  It messes with things. And so the more you can do to get out of fight and flight
• 18:20
  of that go mode, the better it
• 18:22
  is for your overall health, for your immune system, for your Hashimoto's.
• 18:26
  You get into rest and digest. Do some deep breathing, some singing,
• 18:31
  some humming, some laughing, some smiling.
• 18:33
  Do the things that you need to do to shift your body into rest and digest.
• 18:38
  All right, these two kind of go together.
• 18:40
  Please don't piece together your Hashimoto's plan from social media.
• 18:47
  Just because it worked for somebody else does not mean it will work for you.
• 18:51
  And yep, I have an episode about this too. Because our friends,
• 18:55
  our family, they really want to help us.
• 18:58
  And when something works for you, you want to share it with others.
• 19:02
  And maybe you're going to use social media to share it with others.
• 19:04
  I believe that people who share their tips and their strategies and their stories
• 19:09
  on social media, I believe in my heart that most of them do it from a place
• 19:15
  of caring for others and they really want to help you.
• 19:19
  But that doesn't mean it's the appropriate advice for you.
• 19:23
  But another thing that comes into this is they're not looking at the whole picture.
• 19:29
  In one, you know, 20 second video, somebody is not teaching you how to think
• 19:34
  about your whole health, body, mind, spirit, diet, environment,
• 19:38
  how it all comes together, how your thyroid and your immune system
• 19:43
  both have to be addressed when you have Hashimoto's.
• 19:46
  There's a lot to think about and we can't get that into a 20-second video.
• 19:50
  So there are good things to learn on social media. It can be super helpful,
• 19:54
  but don't piece together your entire strategy from social media.
• 19:58
  Just because it worked for somebody else does not mean that it will work for
• 20:01
  you and it doesn't mean that it's looking at the whole picture and teaching
• 20:06
  you how to think about your own health.
• 20:09
  So I can sum up this entire list of things not to do with this one piece of advice for you.
• 20:16
  Stop doing more.
• 20:19
  And start focusing on what matters. That's really it.
• 20:24
  There's a whole ton of things that people will tell you to do if you have Hashimoto's.
• 20:29
  You don't have to keep adding more and more and more to your plate.
• 20:32
  Sometimes you have to release things and let go of them.
• 20:36
  Focus on what matters, and not what matters for somebody else,
• 20:39
  but what matters for you specifically.
• 20:42
  You're valuable, and your health is unique, your journey is unique,
• 20:46
  and I'm here to support you every step of the way.
• 20:49
  That's it for today. If you are ready to sort your Hashimoto's into thyroid
• 20:53
  or immune, start with Hashimoto's Decoded, and then come talk about it in the free community.
• 20:59
  Both links are in the show notes. I'll see you next week.
• 21:01
  This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only.
• 21:05
  Please discuss any questions or concerns with your trusted healthcare professional.