Latest / Health with Hashimoto’s - Thyroid or Immune Education for Autoimmune Thyroid Disease / 190 // Hashimoto's FAQ: Why You're Still Tired on Thyroid Medication + Top Root Causes Revealed

Transcript

190 // Hashimoto's FAQ: Why You're Still Tired on Thyroid Medication + Top Root Causes Revealed · Health with Hashimoto’s - Thyroid or Immune Education for Autoimmune Thyroid Disease

• 0:00
  Today is episode 190, and I'm going to answer some frequently asked questions,
• 0:05
  some common questions based on the most popular episodes.
• 0:09
  And I also have a question for you. What do you want to see for episode 200?
• 0:13
  I feel like episode 200 is a big one, and so we should do something special,
• 0:17
  but I don't know what it is yet.
• 0:18
  Welcome to the Health with Hashimoto's podcast. This is where you will find
• 0:22
  clarity and simple, sustainable strategies to feel better.
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  I want to help you figure out your root causes.
• 0:29
  My name is Esther Yunkin. I am a registered nurse. I know how exhausting it
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  is to live with fatigue, brain fog, and the ups and downs of Hashimoto's. And that is why I'm here.
• 0:39
  I'm here to cut through the confusion and to give you practical steps that support
• 0:44
  your body, calm your immune system so that you can regain your energy and feel like yourself again.
• 0:49
  How are you using AI in regular everyday life?
• 0:53
  I feel like I don't use it a ton in my regular life, but in my business,
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  I use AI fairly frequently.
• 1:01
  So here is my episode flow. Like I figure out what I'm going to talk about.
• 1:05
  I do the research, I get the questions, all of that, and then I record my episode.
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  And then I take the transcript of the episode, the transcript,
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  which is generated by the AI of my podcast platform.
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  I take that transcript and I put it into one of the AIs.
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  I've used ChatGPT, I've used Grok, I've used Claude, and then it takes my transcript
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  and maintaining my voice and my words, my phrasing, my stories, everything.
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  It transforms it into a blog so that it's easier to read.
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  Because back when I used to just post the transcript, it was like a block of text.
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  It would take me a couple hours to transform that block of text into something
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  that was even kind of legible, or I mean, it was legible.
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  Enticing to read because who wants to sit down and stare at a huge block of
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  text unless you're reading a book and then it's totally different.
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  But when you're reading a blog, you just don't want to.
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  So or at least most people don't want to. So anyway, it used to take me a ton
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  of time to do this manually.
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  And now I have AI do it in literally minutes.
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  So that's typically how I use AI. But one of my business friends and I were
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  talking about AI and business.
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  And she asked, I was also complaining that, you know, I just,
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  I fall behind on social media.
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  I don't enjoy making posts. I love the podcast.
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  I love sitting here at my computer and talking to you and then getting feedback
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  from various listeners.
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  I love helping people learn. That's my passion,
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  helping people figure out how to be the CEO of their own health,
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  to take their health in their hands, and to make the best decisions possible
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  with all of the information they have available,
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  knowing their situation and their time and their budget.
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  Like you personally know all of the different pieces that play a role in the decisions you make.
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  Like your doctor, me, AI.
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  Nobody knows all of those pieces except for you. That is why you get to be the CEO.
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  Nobody else can dictate your health decisions. You make those choices.
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  And that is one thing I absolutely love doing sitting here behind the microphone
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  is helping you learn so that you can make those decisions.
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  I don't love creating social media posts, especially videos.
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  So you will notice if you follow me on Instagram or on Facebook,
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  on the Facebook page, I will be more active because I took my friend's tip to
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  heart. And this is what she told me.
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  She said, open up the AI, whatever AI you use and put it on voice mode and then
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  tell it to interview you with the goal of making some social media posts.
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  I was like, well, okay, I've never done that before. So I went to my podcast,
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  like the feed, and I took a screenshot of the 25 most popular episodes.
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  That way I know what people are most interested in.
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  I gave that screenshot to the AI and I said, you know, I want you to interview
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  me so that we can make some social media posts. And here are the topics that
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  my listeners care about.
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  And just in case you're wondering, the top downloads of all time are pretty consistent.
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  I think back in maybe episode the 100s, or I think it was around there,
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  I did the most popular episodes and it's still there.
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  Number one, two, three, and four, in random order, are the top downloaded of all time for my podcast.
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  Episode one is my story.
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  Episode two is if you were just diagnosed, three things to do today.
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  Episode three is all about labs. And number four is natural remedies.
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  I also looked at the last 30 days. What are the most popular episodes?
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  And these are a lot of people who are staying up to date.
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  So it's, you know, episode 186, 87, 88, 89, because those are all recent within the last 30 days.
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  So anyway, AI has this information about what my listeners care about based on download numbers.
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  And then AI interviewed me and it was, it was so weird.
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  Like, honestly, so weird hearing this voice, knowing that it was a computer.
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  I actually had to leave the.
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  What was I using? I think I was using ChatGPT at first, and they gave the AI voice breath.
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  And so in between different words, the AI would take a breath.
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  And I was like, that's just too weird. AI does not breathe.
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  Why did you put that in? I cannot do this. So I quit that AI and I did it in
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  a different one because I'm talking to a computer.
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  The computer does not need to breathe. Anyway, so the AI took my top downloaded
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  episode titles. It created questions based on what my listeners are clearly interested in.
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  And then I gave the AI answers.
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  And now it took my answers, my words,
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  my teaching, all of the things that I say,
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  and it put it into social media format, which
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  is just so helpful like I did the work I
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  sat with I mean I sat with AI for quite a
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  while and answered all these questions and now I get
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  to edit them I am making quick pictures
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  to go with it because I am posting on Instagram I still don't have Instagram
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  back on my phone I talked about that a couple episodes ago and I don't know
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  that I will ever put it back I did find that I can do stories from the meta
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  app and so I have been in my stories a little bit more after Lent I'll probably get back to that.
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  All right, so AI asked me over 30 questions. I went through those questions
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  and I pulled out some that I thought might be most educational,
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  helpful as you listen to this episode.
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  The number one question, which I love this question, it is when a woman is first
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  diagnosed with Hashimoto's, what is the one thing she gets told that you wish
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  she had never been told? And.
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  I love this question because it is so common. First of all, women are looking
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  for answers. They're feeling miserable.
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  They're feeling tired, brain fog, like they can't lose weight,
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  like they're doing everything right and they're still sick.
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  Like they're feeling that way for years, seeking answers.
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  And they finally get a doctor or a provider to do the labs, to do all the labs,
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  including the antibodies. And they finally find out, yes, you have hypothyroidism.
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  You also have antibodies, which means you have Hashimoto's.
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  And then what? Well, then most providers will say, here's some levothyroxine,
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  some Synthroid, whatever they give you.
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  Come back in a while, recheck your labs. And this is our plan for the rest of
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  your life. That is the most common thing that is said.
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  And what I want to tell you instead, if that is the message that you heard,
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  and this is something that you have probably heard over and over,
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  is that there is hope. There is more you can do.
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  That is old advice. What that doctor told you is that you just need the prescription
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  and then check your labs and come back.
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  Like there's nothing else you can do. That is absolutely wrong.
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  Yes, if your thyroid is not producing enough hormone, you do need more of that hormone.
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  Every single cell in your body requires T3 to be that ignition key to turn on
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  the cell, to activate the cell.
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  Every single cell in your body needs some thyroid hormone.
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  However, it does not mean that you are just a pharmaceutical patient for the rest of your life.
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  There are things you can do. We can look at your root causes.
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  Last week was all about root causes or going upstream to clean things up,
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  to figure out what is impacting your health today so that you can make the changes
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  so that you can feel like yourself again.
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  So what I wish that every single person diagnosed with Hashimoto's knew,
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  and it's men, it's women, it's kids,
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  both genders, I wish that every single person knew that there is hope,
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  that you have agency, there are things you can do, and take this seriously.
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  Because it will continue to progress.
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  The nature of an autoimmune condition is that your immune system will continue
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  to attack whatever it's attacking.
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  And then, just like low-hanging fruit, when the low-hanging fruit is gone,
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  then you go up to the higher branches to get the, you know, the apples or the
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  fruit that are a little harder to reach.
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  But in the fall, when I'm heading down to my apple tree, I, of course,
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  I just reach out and grab the easiest one.
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  That's your immune system. It's reaching out and it's attacking the easiest thing.
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  And then when that's no longer the easiest one, or it's, you know,
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  completely destroyed, or your immune system is like, yeah, no,
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  I'm bored, I want to do more, then it will move on to another body system.
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  And that is why, or another organ, or something else, That is why most people,
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  when they have an autoimmune condition, over the next five to seven years,
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  they will develop another one, two, or three.
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  They will develop more. Because it's an immune system problem,
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  not just a thyroid problem.
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  And that is what I want you to know. You have agency, and you have to look at
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  the immune system, not just the thyroid. All right, so the next question,
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  or one of the other questions, is the three root causes I talk about frequently. What are they?
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  So there are three, and those are the genetic factor, and it is a gut issue,
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  and also one or more triggers.
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  Now, a couple of weeks ago, I had on the doctor and he was talking about why
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  do good doctors give bad advice.
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  And he mentioned four root causes.
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  He said the genetic factor, the gut factor, infections of any kind,
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  and I think he said a trigger.
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  So I have infections of any kind as one of the triggers.
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  So the next question would be, what is the difference between a root cause and a trigger?
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  They are all upstream, or they are all root causes, however you want to look at that picture.
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  It's just that everybody has the genetic factor, everybody has a gut issue,
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  and everybody has at least one trigger, but your triggers are specific to you.
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  So stress is one of them, pretty much everybody, or I could say 100% of everybody,
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  is dealing with some sort of stress.
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  I have an episode, and it goes through the five different aspects of the whole
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  you, body, mind, spirit, diet, environment, and I talk about different stressors
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  within each of those areas.
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  I'm pretty sure that is episode 7, episode 7, and 8 are all about stress.
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  If you are curious about spiritual stress.
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  Like, what is that, Esther? That is episode 40.
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  So I've got a lot of episodes about stress, but I think it's seven and eight
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  where I talk about the five different aspects of the whole you and stress in
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  each one of those aspects.
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  Body, mind, spirit, diet, environment.
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  The other triggers, and I go through all of this in the mini course.
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  So if you have not gone through the mini course yet. You want to do that. You want to do that ASAP.
• 12:20
  Head over to the Health with Hashimoto's community. It is on the school platform.
• 12:24
  It is not in Facebook. I like the school platform more.
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  You don't get the ads. You don't get the junk. It's not run by an algorithm.
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  It's actually just, you know, whatever is in the community, you see.
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  However, it is another platform. And I understand that it's hard to remember
• 12:39
  to go to another platform.
• 12:41
  Your habit is probably opening Facebook until you see your Facebook groups.
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  So I understand that, but my courses live on the school platform in our Health
• 12:51
  with Hashimoto's community. So head over there. It is a free community.
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  Go to school.com, S-K-O-O-L.com. It's down in the show notes if you want to
• 12:59
  clickable link. And then it's the Health with Hashimoto's community.
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  In the classroom tab, you will find that mini course.
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  And in that mini course, I am going to help you figure out your root causes in less than an hour.
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  I make it as easy as I can because when I was first diagnosed,
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  that is what I wanted somebody to do for me. And it was not available.
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  I looked all over and I ended up going to the research, I listened to podcasts,
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  and I compiled this list based on what really smart people were saying,
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  but nobody had it in a super easy to digest format where I could print out the
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  little pages that went along with it that you'll get in the mini course and say, oh,
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  okay, this is what I'm dealing with. This is what I can do.
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  I have that for you to make your life easier because we all need our lives to be a little easier.
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  So I'm just going to give you a quick overview. If you want the details,
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  if you want to figure out, you know, is this an issue for me?
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  I go through it all in that mini course.
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  So head over to the school platform, go to the classroom tab,
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  and enroll in the Hashimoto's Decoded Root Causes Revealed mini course. All right.
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  Top triggers. Stress. Low vitamin D levels.
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  Hormone changes. We've talked about those before. The three Ps.
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  That's puberty, pregnancy, and perimenopause. Food reactions.
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  Environmental chemicals, blood sugar issues. That is for everybody.
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  It's not just diabetics.
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  Iodine, which is a really tricky one, and infections of any kind.
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  So those are the top triggers.
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  So three root causes, genetics, gut, and triggers, and then about eight-ish top triggers.
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  So I hope that is helpful for you. Again, I explain all of these in a very easy
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  to understand format in that mini course.
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  And if there's another name that would be more appealing than a mini course,
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  somebody told me that they didn't want to buy because it says course in it. Well, I don't know.
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  If there's another title, let me know. It works in my brain.
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  If I can help that course be more accessible to other people by changing the
• 15:06
  title? Let me know if you have an idea.
• 15:09
  All right, so another question. A woman might be on thyroid medications and
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  her TSH looks good, but she still feels awful.
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  How do you help her understand that her numbers might look fine,
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  but her conversion might be struggling?
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  And this is so true, because how many times have you or a friend gone to the
• 15:27
  doctor and the doctor says, your labs are all normal, come back later,
• 15:31
  and you're like, wait, how can this be?
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  I feel not like myself. I'm tired. My brain is foggy.
• 15:39
  There's so many things going on. What do you mean my labs are normal? Are you sure?
• 15:44
  I'm like, yeah, it's within normal limits. There's a couple of different things going on here.
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  Number one, the quote normal limits are common, not normal.
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  Common because they were created, these lab norms were created from a sick population.
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  So if you test the labs, the blood of a hundred different people,
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  and 20 of those people are dealing with hypothyroidism, they just might not know it yet,
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  and then you take that group of a hundred and you say, okay,
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  this is average, this is good,
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  but 20 of them were dealing with hypothyroidism, then clearly your lab norms
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  are not created from a healthy well population.
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  So They are common, but they are not normal things.
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  Per se. So I, number one, I go by the functional medicine norms,
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  not the conventional medicine norms.
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  The functional medicine norms are, they're a narrower range so that we can base
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  it on a healthy population.
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  The other thing is your TSH is not the whole picture, which you know.
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  You've been listening to this podcast for enough time that you've heard me say that.
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  Your T4 and your T3 are different.
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  Your thyroid creates T4.
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  Synthroid, levothyroxine, those are T4. And then your body needs to convert that to T3.
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  If you are under a lot of stress or if there's other triggers going on,
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  then your body is like, oh yeah, no, nope.
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  You do not need more ignition switches. You need to rest actually.
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  You know what? Let's take a break. Let's take a nap. I'm going to make you more
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  fatigued because you need to sleep.
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  You need to heal. You need to chill out. You need to clear your calendar. Let's be tired.
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  That's what your body is saying. And so it puts the brakes on.
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  It makes more reverse T3 instead of actual T3.
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  The reverse T3 is the brakes. And so your TSH might be okay.
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  Your brain might be saying, yeah, there's enough T4 going around.
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  And then your cells are like, wait a minute, I need an ignition key.
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  All I've got is the brakes.
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  So there are more things that we need to look at when we look at labs.
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  Most doctors do not run a reverse T3 and not all of them use functional medicine ranges.
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  All right, we're almost at 20 minutes. So I am going to give you,
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  let's do two more questions.
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  One question I felt was pertinent.
• 18:09
  This AI bot kept hearing me say, feeling like yourself again,
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  or talking about you feeling like herself again.
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  And I said, what does that actually mean? And so I answered and I said.
• 18:21
  I have to say feeling like yourself again, because that's what so many people
• 18:25
  have told me. I just want to feel like myself again.
• 18:28
  And what that means is a little bit different for everybody.
• 18:31
  Perhaps you used to be so outgoing, so energetic. You were the life of the party.
• 18:37
  If there was a party, you were there. And now you're on the couch.
• 18:41
  You're in bed like at seven o'clock. You're taking naps because your energy is completely drained.
• 18:47
  Maybe that's it for you. maybe it's more mental health
• 18:50
  stuff you're struggling with depression you're struggling with
• 18:53
  like a flat mood i don't know what it
• 18:56
  is for you i just know that one thing
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  my clients and the people who come to me say over and
• 19:02
  over and over is i just want to feel like myself again that is my goal is to
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  help you feel like yourself again and every single person is going to have a
• 19:10
  little bit different path to get there because you are unique you are an individual
• 19:14
  all right the final question from my AI bot so I could create social media posts
• 19:19
  is about the root cause reset.
• 19:21
  It asked me what's holding women back from taking the step to book the root cause reset.
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  And here is where I would love for you to come into our school community and tell me about it.
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  You can either send me a message in the community or you can make a post.
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  What I said, because this is what I have heard, is there's two main reasons.
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  One of them is money, of course. It is eligible for the HSA and FSA if you have
• 19:45
  that money available to you.
• 19:46
  And you just might need a note for your doctor.
• 19:49
  I have the note for you. But the biggest one is hope.
• 19:53
  It is people have lost hope. They have invested time.
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  They have invested money. They have invested energy into so many different things.
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  And they're not getting the solutions. They're not getting the results that they were hoping for.
• 20:08
  And a lot of women are just out of hope.
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  Like, yeah, I've already tried so many things. I'm not gonna do that.
• 20:16
  I just don't think anything's gonna work. But I want you to know.
• 20:21
  Is that there is a path to health for you.
• 20:24
  And it might not be the same as your best friend.
• 20:27
  It might not be the same as what that person, that guru marketing things to
• 20:33
  you on Facebook or Instagram or TikTok, it might not be what they are selling.
• 20:38
  But there is hope. And when you go through that Hashimoto's Root Cause Reset
• 20:43
  with me, we dig into the root causes, your root causes. We dig into what's upstream.
• 20:49
  What can you do? what do you realize
• 20:53
  that you have time energy and
• 20:56
  the budget to do right now maybe it's completely free
• 20:59
  like deep diaphragmatic breathing maybe it's
• 21:02
  something brand new to you that you haven't ever looked at and that is what
• 21:05
  we get to do together in the Hashimoto's root cause reset so I will see you
• 21:09
  over in our health with Hashimoto's community over on the school platform don't
• 21:14
  forget to head over to the classroom tab and enroll today in that Hashimoto's Decoded mini course.
• 21:21
  Like I said, less than an hour, and you are going to be able to figure out your
• 21:25
  most likely root causes, and then you'll be able to take steps on how to feel like yourself again.
• 21:32
  This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only.
• 21:35
  Please discuss any changes with your trusted healthcare provider.
• 21:38
  To take your next step, join our school community and explore the courses available there.
• 21:43
  You do not have to figure your health out alone.
• 21:46
  So that is school, S-K-O-O-L.com, and it is the Health with Hashimoto's community.
• 21:52
  I'll see you next time on the Health.