Latest / Health with Hashimoto’s - Thyroid or Immune Education for Autoimmune Thyroid Disease / 178 // The Gut-Thyroid Connection in Hashimoto's: Simple Steps from Super Gut

Transcript

178 // The Gut-Thyroid Connection in Hashimoto's: Simple Steps from Super Gut · Health with Hashimoto’s - Thyroid or Immune Education for Autoimmune Thyroid Disease

• 0:00
  When you're listening to a podcast or an audiobook, how do you like take bookmarks?
• 0:04
  How do you make sure that you know where to come back to?
• 0:07
  And then specifically like while you're driving, because a lot of at least audiobook.
• 0:12
  I mean, there's a way to bookmark.
• 0:13
  When I am driving and listening, I do that triple tap on the back of my phone,
• 0:18
  which I have set up to take a screenshot.
• 0:21
  You can do that on Apple. I'm not sure about Android. You can set up those shortcuts.
• 0:25
  And there was one book where I was taking so many bookmark screenshots and I
• 0:29
  was like, I just need to get this book.
• 0:31
  I need to get this book in like paper so that I can take notes and so that I
• 0:35
  can go back to all of these important points. And that is the book that we're talking about today.
• 0:38
  We're talking about Supergut. Welcome to the Health with Hashimoto's podcast.
• 0:41
  This is where you will find clarity and simple, sustainable strategies to feel
• 0:47
  better. I want to help you figure out your
• 0:49
  causes. My name is Esther Yunkin. I am a registered nurse. I spent about 17
• 0:54
  years in the emergency department and then got sick and tired of putting band-aids on chronic things.
• 0:59
  I went back to school and now I have been in holistic health education for about 10 years.
• 1:04
  I know how exhausting it is to live with fatigue, brain fog,
• 1:08
  and the ups and downs of Hashimoto's, and that is why I'm here.
• 1:12
  I'm here to cut through the confusion and to give you practical steps that support
• 1:16
  your body, calm your immune system so that you can regain your energy and feel like yourself again.
• 1:22
  So like I said last week, these two episodes before Christmas are going to be
• 1:26
  about the two most impactful nonfiction books that I read in 2025.
• 1:32
  Every single year, I read a ton, and my goal is that about a quarter of what
• 1:37
  I read will be nonfiction.
• 1:38
  So I read about 130 books total.
• 1:41
  I did hit my goal of one quarter being nonfiction, and my top two books are
• 1:47
  Super Gut, which we're talking about today, and Good Energy,
• 1:51
  which was last week's episode.
• 1:53
  Before, though, I talk about Super Gut, I do want to mention the Holistic Hashimoto's program.
• 1:59
  As you might have heard on the pre-roll, the little ad before the episode,
• 2:04
  I am closing it at the beginning or at the end of this year.
• 2:09
  So the Holistic Hashimoto's program is going away at the end of December.
• 2:14
  Yes, in 2026, I will be launching something new, something different.
• 2:18
  I'm not going to leave you hanging because I know that women with Hashimoto's,
• 2:23
  they're sick and tired of guessing, of trying everything, of still not feeling like themselves.
• 2:28
  I know that there's so much conflicting advice out there.
• 2:33
  And it's confusing. It's discouraging. It's overwhelming.
• 2:37
  So I created the program so that people would have an exact plan so that in
• 2:44
  the first part, in the hour, in the first hour, you will figure out your root causes.
• 2:49
  This is so it's common sense based.
• 2:53
  And I will explain that in the course. You can get just the first hour.
• 2:58
  That is the Holistic Hashimoto's mini course, and it is the root causes revealed.
• 3:03
  You can get just that first hour. But the full course, the full program is only
• 3:09
  $197 right now. Like I said, closing at the end of December.
• 3:12
  And I actually take you by the hand and we walk through resolving or addressing
• 3:17
  each one of the root causes that you are struggling with.
• 3:21
  Because I know that addressing your Hashimoto's, addressing your brain fog, your metabolism,
• 3:30
  your feeling cold all of the time, your lack of motivation, your flat mood,
• 3:34
  I know that addressing that, it's not a lack of effort. It's not a lack of willpower.
• 3:39
  You just feel stuck and you've tried so many things.
• 3:43
  So I created the program actually out of my own need. I feel like a lot of creators,
• 3:49
  that's where the things come from.
• 3:51
  And that's exactly where this podcast and my program came out of.
• 3:56
  When I was trying to figure out what was going on in my life, I was confused.
• 4:01
  I was overwhelmed. I went to the chiropractor, and thankfully,
• 4:04
  I have a really good chiropractor, and she figured it out right away.
• 4:08
  Like, let's do some thyroid labs, including...
• 4:12
  The antibodies. And so within, you know, a week of meeting with her,
• 4:16
  I knew my diagnosis. I knew my hypothyroid.
• 4:19
  I knew my Hashimoto's. Those are two different things that you need to know.
• 4:23
  A lot of women know that they're hypothyroid, but their doctor never goes deeper
• 4:28
  to say, why are you hypothyroid?
• 4:30
  Oh, you actually have an autoimmune condition.
• 4:32
  Your immune system is attacking your thyroid. So you have Hashimoto's,
• 4:37
  not just hypothyroidism. So that is one step that is missing.
• 4:41
  So, you know, number one question, can women with hypothyroidism take this program?
• 4:46
  Can you go through this program?
• 4:48
  Absolutely, yes, you can. I do talk about labs.
• 4:52
  And in 2026, one of the things that I'm going to integrate into the new offer
• 4:57
  that I have will be actually doing the lab work.
• 5:00
  And I'll explain more in the new year. I'm still trying to get all of that settled
• 5:05
  and in place so that it is super, like the goal is drop dead easy for you.
• 5:10
  We need to have things super simple when you're dealing with brain fog.
• 5:13
  But anyway, when I was going through all of this, then I got my diagnosis and
• 5:17
  I had nowhere, like I didn't know what to do. I was so confused.
• 5:21
  And then, like I said, everything online, that people are directly contradicting each other in what to do.
• 5:29
  So I went through everything with my lens of being trained for two years as
• 5:35
  a nurse holistic educator.
• 5:37
  It is a program that I went through specifically for nurses.
• 5:41
  So they're trusting that you have four years of school behind you and that you've
• 5:46
  already been practicing as a nurse.
• 5:47
  And then they teach you to apply that to holistic education and looking at research
• 5:52
  and figuring out body, mind, spirit,
• 5:55
  diet, environment, how everything is connected, and how to apply all of that
• 5:59
  to the specific situation that somebody is in.
• 6:03
  So I did that, and that is how I came up with the Holistic Hashimoto's program.
• 6:09
  Um, so Hashimoto's, it's not just about the thyroid, not just about the labs,
• 6:14
  is everything working together.
• 6:17
  So if you have been curious, if you're looking at this program,
• 6:21
  if you've thought in the past year, oh, I really should do this,
• 6:24
  this is your time because it is going away at the end of December.
• 6:28
  Obviously it will stay open for everybody who enrolls through December 31st,
• 6:34
  but enrollment will end on December 31st.
• 6:37
  So if you've been curious, head over there right now. Link is down in the show notes, of course.
• 6:44
  If you're already in the school community, you can click on the classroom tab
• 6:47
  and you can enroll right there.
• 6:49
  If you want to use your FSA or HSA money for people in the United States who
• 6:54
  have an account like that, you can.
• 6:56
  If you're going to use that money, you have to go through my website.
• 7:00
  Not through the school payment.
• 7:03
  S-K-O-O-L, our Health with Hashimoto's group is in there and you can just purchase
• 7:09
  the program right through that classroom tab, but not if you're going to use your HSA or FSA money,
• 7:15
  then you need to go to my website and purchase that way.
• 7:21
  So I want to invite every single person listening.
• 7:25
  Your time is valuable. I absolutely know that.
• 7:29
  And that is another reason why I created this program because sorting through
• 7:33
  everything and then the trial and error when you have more error than actual
• 7:38
  success, that's just, it feels like a waste of your time and it feels like lost hope.
• 7:43
  At least that's what it felt like for me. Like, oh, I get my hopes up.
• 7:46
  I'm going to do this thing and it's going to work.
• 7:48
  And then I do the thing and it doesn't work. And I was like,
• 7:50
  oh, you know, there went my hope.
• 7:52
  So the program is designed to save you time, is designed to save you hope so
• 7:57
  that what you do actually works.
• 8:00
  All right, link down in the show notes or if you're already in our school community.
• 8:03
  Head to the classroom tab and you can get started today.
• 8:07
  All right, let's talk about Supergut. I have to share a funny story.
• 8:10
  So I was taking all of these screenshot bookmarks and then I requested the book
• 8:14
  from the library because I'd already paid for it on audiobooks.com.
• 8:18
  So I wanted to not pay for it twice.
• 8:20
  I know some people do, but it was available for my library. So I put it on request,
• 8:25
  went to pick it up when it was there.
• 8:27
  And as I was driving from my house out in the country to the library,
• 8:31
  I could hear this weird noise coming from the hood, under the hood of the truck I was driving.
• 8:39
  And I was kind of freaked out. I was like, okay, it sounds like,
• 8:41
  at first I thought it sounded like a mouse.
• 8:43
  And then as I got closer to town, I was like, this sounds bigger than a mouse.
• 8:47
  I've had a mouse under the hood before and it sounds bigger. So I got to the.
• 8:53
  Went in, by then I'd forgotten about it. Went in, got my book,
• 8:57
  came out, put the book in the cab of the truck.
• 9:01
  And then I was like, oh, that noise. I hear it again.
• 9:04
  So I opened up the hood. I popped the hood and I was really nervous going over
• 9:08
  there because I didn't know what I was going to find.
• 9:10
  We have had rats in the past in our chicken coop and I thought we had gotten
• 9:15
  rid of them, but you know, that sound, it was bigger than a mouse.
• 9:17
  So I really wasn't sure what I was going to find. I opened the hood of the pickup
• 9:21
  truck and there was a chicken. There was a chicken sitting on the engine of
• 9:26
  the truck. She was fine. She hadn't been injured.
• 9:28
  She just found a nice place to perch, I guess, on top of the engine under the hood.
• 9:34
  So it was just so funny.
• 9:37
  You drive into town and there's a chicken under the hood of the truck.
• 9:42
  That has nothing to do with super gut with the book other than the fact that
• 9:46
  it will always remind me of that chicken because when I went to the library
• 9:50
  to get the book, I had a chicken under the hood of the truck.
• 9:55
  And if you follow me on Instagram, I am pretty active in my stories.
• 9:59
  I try to post at least a couple stories every day and that was in my stories.
• 10:04
  It actually might have made it to my regular Instagram feed because it It was just, it was just funny.
• 10:11
  All right, so finally, to the book Super Gut. In the next couple months,
• 10:14
  I will be having an interview about every third week, and you will hear a lot
• 10:20
  of the experts coming onto the show talk about the importance of healing the gut.
• 10:25
  I did not know that this was going to be the theme before I started recording
• 10:30
  all of these interviews.
• 10:31
  I think I've recorded six or seven so far, and no matter what their specialty,
• 10:36
  whether it's teens and kids with Hashimoto's, or fertility and pregnancy and
• 10:41
  Hashimoto's, or whatever it is, they all talk about the gut.
• 10:46
  So when I read Super Gut, I was like, yes, this absolutely applies.
• 10:51
  And one thing that caught my attention, I highly recommend getting the book,
• 10:55
  whether it's an audiobook or the physical copy.
• 10:58
  Get the book. It's so good. One thing that caught my attention was the mention of SIBO and SIFO.
• 11:05
  Because he said both SIBO and SIFO are very, very prevalent in people with autoimmune
• 11:12
  conditions, which of course Hashimoto's is an autoimmune condition.
• 11:15
  Let me tell you what SIBO and SIFO are.
• 11:18
  S-I-B-O is SIBO. It stands for small intestinal bacterial overgrowth.
• 11:24
  So this is bacteria that should live in your colon, in your large intestine,
• 11:29
  way down towards the bottom, but they have migrated up and now they're in your
• 11:34
  small intestine and they should not be there.
• 11:37
  And when they're in the wrong spot, they cause problems.
• 11:40
  SIFO is very, very similar, except instead of the B for bacteria,
• 11:44
  you have the F for fungus.
• 11:47
  So it is small intestinal fungal overgrowth.
• 11:51
  Again, things that properly are in your colon, your large intestine,
• 11:56
  and they have migrated up and now there is too many of them in the small intestine.
• 12:01
  So it's not good. These are some of the things that it causes.
• 12:07
  Aches and pains, bowel urgency, or constipation.
• 12:12
  And just like that's a result, it can also be a cause. So you have this chicken and egg thing going on.
• 12:19
  Food intolerances and allergies, also chicken and egg thing.
• 12:23
  It can be a result of SIBO and SIFO, or it can cause SIBO and SIFO.
• 12:28
  One symptom is skin rashes.
• 12:31
  One result, if you have SIBO or SIFO, is a lot of brain stuff.
• 12:36
  You can feel socially isolated. You can feel hatred, which is so mind-blowing, right?
• 12:44
  Your gut microbes are responsible for some of your emotions.
• 12:50
  One specifically, when you have this in SIBO or SIFO, it can cause feelings
• 12:56
  of hatred towards others.
• 12:57
  When you fix it, and specifically with one.
• 13:02
  With one probiotic, it reverses that
• 13:05
  and it increases feelings of love and connection, which just blew my mind.
• 13:10
  I'm sure I took two or three screenshot bookmarks when he was talking about that section.
• 13:15
  It can also cause insomnia, and it can cause anxiety and depression,
• 13:20
  and it can alter or cause failure for nutrient absorption.
• 13:26
  All of that as a result of the microbes being in the wrong spot.
• 13:31
  And that's not even talking about the leaky gut issue.
• 13:34
  Everybody with an autoimmune condition is assumed to have some leaky gut until proven otherwise.
• 13:40
  And leaky gut means, think of a mesh, like a screen on your window.
• 13:48
  The screen on your window is supposed to keep the mosquitoes and the flies and the wasps out, right?
• 13:55
  Well, some things, like the little no-see-ums and the nots can still get in
• 14:00
  because they're small enough to go through that screen.
• 14:03
  That's like your gut. Your gut is supposed to keep the food particles and a
• 14:08
  lot of the bigger stuff out of the rest of your body, but it's supposed to allow
• 14:14
  the nutrients to pass through.
• 14:16
  Well, sometimes the little holes in your screen or the gaps in your gut,
• 14:22
  they get too big and they let in or out the wrong things.
• 14:27
  So for a while, we had a cat who would push out on the screen and she jumped
• 14:32
  from the second floor a couple of times. We screwed it in, but we got some holes in the screen.
• 14:37
  Well, then the wasps were getting in. Well, I don't want that.
• 14:40
  I don't want wasp stings. That's a danger.
• 14:43
  Same thing with leaky gut. If you have leaky gut, the holes get too big and
• 14:48
  food particles can go from your gut into the rest of your body.
• 14:52
  It can go into your bloodstream and then your immune system so wisely says,
• 14:58
  this is not supposed to be here.
• 15:00
  We need to attack it Just like we would attack a virus or a bacteria,
• 15:04
  we're going to recognize it.
• 15:06
  We're going to mount a defense and we're going to try to destroy it.
• 15:09
  What is that called? An allergy or an appropriate response to a bacteria or virus.
• 15:15
  Your body recognizes it and then gets rid of it. When that happens as a food,
• 15:20
  now your body is trying to destroy that food every time it enters,
• 15:25
  which means now you have a food allergy or intolerance. That can be one.
• 15:30
  So leaky gut can be a cause of food allergies or food intolerances.
• 15:36
  It also has a lot of other effects. So we want to heal and repair leaky gut.
• 15:42
  We want to make sure those gaps are tightened up, just like a screen on your window.
• 15:48
  We want to make sure all of the holes are repaired.
• 15:50
  So yes, leaky gut is one issue, But all of that SIBO and SIFO stuff,
• 15:55
  that's not even related to leaky gut.
• 15:57
  There's so much gut-related stuff that is just impactful everywhere in your health.
• 16:04
  Your gut is responsible for your immune system.
• 16:07
  70 to 80% of your immune system resides in and around your gut.
• 16:12
  We have to look at healing and repairing the gut as part of any autoimmune protocol.
• 16:19
  Your gut is also responsible for a lot of your hormones. And what is one thing
• 16:25
  that people with Hashimoto's experience?
• 16:28
  Hormone problems. I mean, your thyroid produces thyroid hormone.
• 16:32
  And also, a lot of women dealing with Hashimoto's and hypothyroidism are also
• 16:38
  trying to figure out menopause or perimenopause and a whole bunch of hormonal stuff.
• 16:43
  What's really common in hypothyroidism?
• 16:46
  Depression and anxiety. and what are those related to? The gut.
• 16:50
  There's so many things that your gut is responsible for.
• 16:54
  So the book Supergut doesn't just tell you about gut function and what's there.
• 16:59
  And it doesn't just talk about SIBO and SIFO.
• 17:02
  It talks about a ton of stuff, but also he gives you very simple and doable remedies.
• 17:11
  So when he's talking about like
• 17:14
  helping SIBO and SIBO. He's like, here are even specific products,
• 17:18
  not just, yes, he talks about how in general, but then he said,
• 17:22
  you know, here are specific products.
• 17:24
  And then he doesn't just talk about products. He teaches you how to make your own.
• 17:28
  So one thing that I had on my Christmas list was a yogurt maker,
• 17:32
  because he says that when you're incubating, when you're fermenting these yogurts,
• 17:38
  the dairy products or non-dairy,
• 17:40
  if you let it go for 12 hours, it produces, you
• 17:43
  know x number of bacteria but if
• 17:46
  you let it go for 36 hours it's going to double
• 17:49
  twice in that time so if you want to get the most
• 17:52
  of these beneficial bacteria so that you can repair the microbiome of your gut
• 17:57
  and that you can help even seal heal and seal the gut lining for from leaky
• 18:03
  gut like this is how you do it these are the exact things the exact microbes
• 18:08
  that you want to look for as far as probiotics.
• 18:10
  And then he gives you the exact step-by-step on how to make those in an instant
• 18:14
  pot or yogurt maker or on the stovetop and then incubating in your oven.
• 18:20
  He teaches you how to do it. I love both Good Energy, the book I talked about
• 18:25
  last week, and Super Gut.
• 18:27
  I feel like if you put these two books on your pile, your wish list or whatever
• 18:34
  for next year, for next year's reading, you're going to learn so much.
• 18:38
  You're going to be able to turn your health around.
• 18:40
  And of course, before the end of the year, you want to get into the Holistic
• 18:45
  Hashimoto's program so that I can take you by the hand, shortcut all of the
• 18:50
  learning, all of the work, all of the research, all of the trial and error.
• 18:54
  I can take you by the hand and help you do what's going to work for you,
• 18:58
  for your specific root causes, so that you can feel like yourself again so that
• 19:02
  you can get better energy. You can banish your brain fog.
• 19:06
  You can help your hormones balance out. We're going to tackle.
• 19:10
  All of it. And that's inside the Holistic Hashimoto's program,
• 19:13
  which closes on December 31st.
• 19:17
  Next week, I have a guest for you. It'll be Christmas Day.
• 19:20
  And our guest is going to talk about kids and Hashimoto's because those three
• 19:26
  P's where people typically develop Hashimoto's is puberty, pregnancy, and perimenopause.
• 19:33
  I have not talked about that puberty spot very much on the podcast.
• 19:37
  So the guest next week is going to talk all about kids and teens and what you can do.
• 19:43
  And yes, he absolutely talks about gut health. I'll see you next week.
• 19:47
  This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only.
• 19:51
  Please discuss any changes with your trusted healthcare provider.
• 19:54
  To take your next step, join our school community and explore the courses available there.
• 19:58
  You do not have to figure your health out alone. So that is school,
• 20:03
  S-K-O-O-L.com, and it is the Health with Hashimoto's community.
• 20:07
  I'll see you next time on the Health with Hashimoto's podcast.