Latest / Health with Hashimoto’s - Thyroid or Immune Education for Autoimmune Thyroid Disease / 181 // What to focus on first when you have Hashimoto’s

Transcript

181 // What to focus on first when you have Hashimoto’s · Health with Hashimoto’s - Thyroid or Immune Education for Autoimmune Thyroid Disease

• 0:00
  The one constant thing in this world of health is that things are always changing, recommendations
• 0:06
  are always changing.
• 0:07
  As I record this, the new dietary guidelines just came out and the food pyramid is totally
• 0:12
  flipped on its head, which I love.
• 0:15
  It's focused on eating real food, but things are mixed up all over the place and that happens
• 0:20
  all the time with health.
• 0:22
  So today's episode is all about what really matters if you want to make a difference in
• 0:26
  your health.
• 0:27
  Welcome to the Health with Hashimoto's podcast.
• 0:29
  This is where you will find clarity and simple, sustainable strategies to feel better.
• 0:34
  I want to help you figure out your root causes.
• 0:38
  My name is Esther Junkin.
• 0:39
  I am a registered nurse.
• 0:40
  I spent about 17 years in the emergency department and then I got sick and tired of putting Band-Aids
• 0:45
  on chronic things.
• 0:46
  I went back to school and now I have been in holistic health education for about 10
• 0:51
  years.
• 0:52
  I know how exhausting it is to live with fatigue, brain fog, and the ups and downs of Hashimoto's
• 0:57
  and that is why I'm here.
• 0:59
  I'm here to cut through the confusion and to give you practical steps that support your
• 1:04
  body and call me your immune system so that you can regain your energy and feel like yourself
• 1:09
  again.
• 1:10
  I remember looking at the food pyramid when I was younger and thinking, oh, awesome.
• 1:14
  I know for sure that I can hit the goal for the base because I absolutely can have 10
• 1:20
  to 11 servings of bread in a day.
• 1:23
  I mean, I love sandwiches and I love bread and cereal.
• 1:27
  That was the foundation of my diet and that's what the government said the foundation of
• 1:32
  your diet should be.
• 1:33
  So I was like, I'm absolutely winning on this.
• 1:36
  How about you?
• 1:38
  And then of course things changed.
• 1:39
  It was the healthy plate and as of today when I'm recording, there is a new dietary guideline
• 1:46
  and the pyramid is actually upside down.
• 1:50
  The foundation is the top.
• 1:51
  It's protein, dairy, and healthy fats along with fruits and vegetables.
• 1:56
  But the overall message is eat real food and that is emphasized many times in the new
• 2:03
  dietary guidelines and on their social media.
• 2:06
  And I love that.
• 2:07
  I love that they're going back to basics, but the thing is in the health world, guidelines
• 2:13
  are always changing.
• 2:14
  I'm sure you can think of different examples that you have witnessed in your own life.
• 2:19
  So the question for today is what actually matters?
• 2:24
  What matters for your health?
• 2:26
  And quick side note, if you are listening in real time, I am opening the Simple Habits
• 2:31
  program for the next 12 weeks.
• 2:34
  We start this weekend, which is January 10th and 11th.
• 2:38
  Last day to sign up is the 10th because I have to get my text messaging all set up so
• 2:42
  that I can send you the first text message on a Sunday, January 11th.
• 2:46
  And then we go for 12 weeks working on one simple thing every week because that is what
• 2:54
  works.
• 2:55
  Simple things, sustainable things, that's what works to change your health.
• 3:00
  And in the Simple Habits program and everything that I do for you is to emphasize the foundations,
• 3:07
  to emphasize the things that are necessary to help healing happen.
• 3:14
  For example, cellular health.
• 3:16
  You have to have healthy cells.
• 3:17
  They are the building blocks of your tissues, of your organs, of everything.
• 3:23
  If you don't have cellular health, individual cells that are healthy, then other things
• 3:29
  are going to break down.
• 3:30
  So prioritizing cellular health is important for whatever your health goals are.
• 3:36
  I saw a post, oh, maybe late fall, and it was talking about the microbiome, which I
• 3:43
  appreciate.
• 3:44
  I've been learning a lot about the microbiome, been really working on my own gut health and
• 3:49
  on my family.
• 3:50
  One of the posts I read said, if you haven't fixed the leaky gut, if you haven't fixed
• 3:56
  the barrier, then all of the efforts to work on the microbiome are for naught.
• 4:02
  You can work as much as you want on the microbiome, but if you don't fix the leaky gut, if you
• 4:08
  don't fix the actual, like the tennis court sized one cell thick layer in your body, if
• 4:18
  you don't fix that, then the rest of it doesn't really matter.
• 4:22
  You're wasting your time and your money.
• 4:24
  Are you going to make a difference?
• 4:25
  Yes.
• 4:26
  But is it going to be long-term and is it going to be as impactful as if you made the
• 4:30
  same changes after you worked on the gut lining?
• 4:33
  No, you have to work on that foundation first.
• 4:37
  So the gut lining is very interesting because when you eat something, it's obviously inside
• 4:43
  of you, right?
• 4:44
  It's part of your body.
• 4:46
  But at the same time, it's also still external to you.
• 4:51
  This passage from your mouth to your anus is technically still external.
• 5:00
  It doesn't get absorbed into the body until it passes through a barrier.
• 5:04
  And sometimes food and particles that shouldn't be passing through can get through that leaky
• 5:10
  gut.
• 5:11
  We want to make sure that that barrier is intact.
• 5:15
  So fixing that foundation is going to impact everything for gut health.
• 5:21
  And the thing about gut health is everything relates to gut health.
• 5:25
  Your mood, your hormones, your immune system, your energy, everything seems to be related
• 5:32
  to gut health.
• 5:33
  It's so impactful.
• 5:35
  So you start at broad and then you keep dialing down what matters, what matters, what matters.
• 5:42
  And it comes down to we have to fix that gut lining.
• 5:45
  And then we have to work on the microbiome.
• 5:47
  We have to work on our gut health because we want good health.
• 5:52
  There are a couple other things that are just as impactful.
• 5:56
  So I talked about cellular health and then fixing leaky gut.
• 6:01
  Another one is one that people don't think of often.
• 6:05
  I learned this from Dr. Troy Spurl.
• 6:08
  He is the founder and chiropractor at Synapse Center for Health and Healing.
• 6:14
  It is in Minnesota where I live.
• 6:17
  And he is one of the smartest men that I have ever met and that I have ever learned from.
• 6:23
  He started teaching me this, oh, probably like 20 years ago.
• 6:27
  He said that when you are living in a state of fear or hatred, your cells kind of fold
• 6:37
  over on each other and they cannot absorb the right nutrients.
• 6:42
  Your emotional state impacts your cells.
• 6:46
  And of course, then we're talking about cellular health again, but we're also talking about
• 6:50
  nutrients and absorption and what your body is capable of doing.
• 6:55
  So he wants everybody in order to focus on healing and ultimate health, you have to also
• 7:02
  focus on forgiveness and trust and love.
• 7:07
  And those are not things that we talk about a lot in the health world.
• 7:11
  I know that when I am talking to somebody on a one-on-one coaching call, I don't feel
• 7:19
  qualified to dig into their traumas and their emotional state and their relationships to
• 7:27
  everybody.
• 7:28
  That is not my role.
• 7:30
  I am an RN.
• 7:31
  I am an educator.
• 7:33
  I am here to help you move forward with your next step on your health journey.
• 7:37
  And I love doing that one-on-one coaching.
• 7:40
  I do have openings in that one-on-one coaching right now.
• 7:44
  And that coaching, it begins with listening to your symptoms.
• 7:50
  Symptoms are often signals.
• 7:52
  They're messages that something needs attention, not silencing, it needs attention.
• 7:58
  So I'm not diagnosing, I'm not treating, I'm not prescribing.
• 8:02
  I'm not even helping you chase symptoms or offer quick fixes.
• 8:05
  But in that one-on-one work together, I'm helping you understand what your body is communicating.
• 8:12
  I'm helping guide you to create the conditions that support your body to regulate, to have
• 8:19
  more resilience, to have better energy, to feel like yourself again.
• 8:24
  When we're working together one-on-one, I'm helping educate you and support you.
• 8:28
  Of course, one-on-one, everything is deeply individualized.
• 8:32
  We're going to look at patterns.
• 8:33
  We're going to look at your stress, your nourishment, your sleep, your environment,
• 8:37
  your mindset, and to identify where you can make small and sustainable shifts that create
• 8:43
  meaningful change over time.
• 8:45
  We're going to look at the foundations, what really matters, what is most impactful.
• 8:53
  And I have learned over time that I need to know that we're working together over multiple
• 9:01
  weeks, because if it's just one, and I used to do this all the time, and I still struggle,
• 9:07
  if somebody books just one one-on-one coaching session with me, my biggest struggle is not
• 9:14
  overwhelming you.
• 9:15
  Because I know that there are, like in this podcast episode, we're talking about three
• 9:20
  different things that are super foundational for health.
• 9:23
  Like if you're not working on cellular health, then everything else really doesn't matter.
• 9:27
  If you're not working on gut health, everything else really doesn't matter.
• 9:30
  If you're not working on your emotional or spiritual state of forgiveness and trust and
• 9:37
  living in that security, then everything else doesn't really matter.
• 9:41
  So if somebody books just one coaching call, sometimes I struggle with giving you too much.
• 9:48
  And then you get overwhelmed and you don't do anything.
• 9:50
  So for the best results, people book the six session package, because then it gives you
• 9:59
  time to implement.
• 10:00
  And it helps me know that, yes, we're going to get to it all.
• 10:03
  I don't have to overload you.
• 10:05
  We're going to get to it.
• 10:06
  We're good.
• 10:06
  We have the system.
• 10:08
  We're going to get to everything.
• 10:10
  There are some things that you have to implement.
• 10:13
  So obviously, thyroid is why you're listening to this podcast in the first place.
• 10:18
  Your thyroid produces T4, right?
• 10:21
  That is like the key blank.
• 10:23
  If you go to the hardware store to get some duplicate keys made, you get to pick out what
• 10:28
  you want that key to look like, the top of the key.
• 10:31
  I know when I went up to my grandma's cabin, we got some extra keys made at the local hardware
• 10:37
  store.
• 10:37
  They had different colors.
• 10:39
  So I picked purple.
• 10:40
  My sister picked blue.
• 10:41
  That was the key blank.
• 10:42
  We brought it up to the counter, and he put it in the machine to actually cut the key.
• 10:48
  So when your thyroid produces T4, that's the key blank.
• 10:52
  And then your body converts it to the active form, so the working key, that's T3.
• 10:57
  In order for that conversion to work, you have to have enough selenium.
• 11:03
  Selenium is something that we could get in our diet.
• 11:07
  Selenium is rich, or Brazil nuts are rich in selenium.
• 11:11
  That's the one thing that a lot of people mentioned.
• 11:14
  If you want enough selenium, make sure you're getting about two Brazil nuts every single day,
• 11:20
  because then you'll be getting that good amount of selenium, which is about 200.
• 11:26
  Is it micrograms or milligrams?
• 11:27
  It's 200.
• 11:29
  And of course, Brazil nuts range in size, so you're not guaranteed to get the exact precise
• 11:35
  amount, but that's the average.
• 11:38
  If you're not getting enough selenium in your diet every day, and if you're not getting it
• 11:42
  in your diet, then supplementation.
• 11:44
  If you're not getting enough selenium, then your thyroid cannot, or your T4 cannot convert to T3.
• 11:51
  And so if you're not getting enough of those active keys, the T3, then your cells aren't
• 11:58
  getting the thyroid they need, and things aren't working.
• 12:01
  That's one tiny little example of one thing you have to have in order for the thyroid to work.
• 12:08
  In order for your cells to get the active thyroid that each single cell needs to turn on,
• 12:17
  you have to have selenium.
• 12:19
  So that's one thing that we talk about in coaching.
• 12:23
  I have that flow sheet of nutrients and of supplements.
• 12:28
  What is important?
• 12:29
  In one of the Facebook groups that I am in, somebody posted a week or two ago,
• 12:35
  she said, I'm spending $700 a month on supplements.
• 12:40
  What do I need to prioritize?
• 12:42
  I feel like this is a lot.
• 12:43
  And that is a lot.
• 12:45
  $700 is a lot.
• 12:46
  And so I sent her my flow chart.
• 12:49
  This is how I help people prioritize what is important for your supplementation.
• 12:55
  And what's the extra?
• 12:56
  If you don't have a budget for $700 every month, that's completely understandable.
• 13:02
  And here's how to prioritize it.
• 13:04
  That's one thing that we work on in coaching.
• 13:07
  And selenium is important for thyroid function.
• 13:11
  So there are different things that matter.
• 13:14
  You're not going to get healthy.
• 13:16
  You're not going to heal without prioritizing them.
• 13:20
  We talked about cellular health.
• 13:21
  Talked about the gut lining.
• 13:24
  And then, of course, the microbiome within that gut lining.
• 13:28
  And then foundation of emotional or spiritual health.
• 13:33
  However you want to group that.
• 13:38
  Forgiveness, trust, and love.
• 13:40
  And that is not my specialty.
• 13:43
  If you need help with that stuff, I encourage you to find a counselor or a pastor,
• 13:50
  a biblical person who can walk you through that.
• 13:54
  I can point you to the Bible.
• 13:55
  We can talk about Jesus, and we can pray together.
• 13:57
  But really working on those deep issues of trust and love and forgiveness,
• 14:05
  I want you to be working with somebody who that is their specialty.
• 14:08
  And they can help you get to a place where your cells are open.
• 14:13
  Like Dr. Troy says, when you are living with fear and hatred and unforgiveness and bitterness,
• 14:20
  your cells kind of fold over.
• 14:23
  And they're resistant to nutrients coming in.
• 14:27
  We want to make sure that we have cellular health.
• 14:30
  And cellular health is impacted by that emotional and the spiritual state.
• 14:37
  So there are different things that create your foundation of health.
• 14:43
  Another one is movement.
• 14:46
  I talked about this last week in the things that are out and the things that are in.
• 14:50
  You know, having a really long cardio session, it feels good sometimes.
• 14:54
  But what we have learned from the research is that if you have 60 minutes of activity in the day,
• 15:03
  60 minutes all at once, or 60 minutes broken up into 10 different six-minute sessions,
• 15:11
  the one that's broken up throughout the day is going to have a better impact,
• 15:16
  a better result for your overall health than if you group that 60 minutes all together.
• 15:22
  So movement, especially movement scattered throughout the day,
• 15:26
  is foundational for our health.
• 15:27
  And some of that comes down to blood sugar, blood sugar regulation.
• 15:32
  And that, of course, goes back to cellular health.
• 15:36
  I think a lot of stuff goes back to cellular health.
• 15:40
  And I kind of love that because your cells are the basic building blocks.
• 15:45
  And we know that your cells need different things.
• 15:48
  But those different things are fairly standard.
• 15:52
  Like your cells need micronutrients.
• 15:55
  Your cells need energy.
• 15:57
  And of course, your cells need oxygen.
• 15:59
  They need to have the right things in the right amounts.
• 16:03
  And that's not as hard as we make it out to be.
• 16:07
  So let's focus this year on the simple things, on the foundational things,
• 16:12
  on the things that we can build on, on cellular health, on gut health,
• 16:17
  and on a living in a state of trust and love and working on gratitude.
• 16:24
  Something so simple.
• 16:26
  And we can implement that every single day, like a gratitude journal.
• 16:29
  That's just one simple thing.
• 16:31
  So I encourage you to work on the foundations.
• 16:35
  The rest is extra.
• 16:37
  The rest is fun.
• 16:39
  But the foundations really matter.
• 16:42
  And that is what the Simple Habits program is all about.
• 16:44
  If you are listening in real time on January 8th, you have a couple days to enroll.
• 16:50
  If you're listening later in the future,
• 16:52
  I typically run the Simple Habits program a couple times a year.
• 16:57
  And I run it in real time.
• 16:59
  I'm going to send you a text message on every Sunday
• 17:02
  telling you what the Simple Habit is for this coming week.
• 17:06
  And then I send you a couple texts throughout the week
• 17:10
  to give you some encouragement, some support to check in.
• 17:13
  And those text messages, it's actually me sending them,
• 17:19
  which is why I only run it a couple times a year.
• 17:22
  And also why I limit it to a certain number of people,
• 17:26
  because I need to be able to respond to everybody who texts back.
• 17:30
  Like I'm saying, how did you do today?
• 17:33
  And if 500 people reply to me, I'm not going to be able to
• 17:38
  personally send 500 messages out in the next reply, right?
• 17:44
  So the Simple Habits program, I love it.
• 17:47
  People get such good results with it because simple and sustainable.
• 17:51
  I think another reason that people get results,
• 17:54
  good results with this text-based program is because there's no pressure.
• 18:00
  I'm going to text you every week, but I'm not making huge goals.
• 18:04
  And I'm not, this is not 75 hard.
• 18:07
  This is gentle. This is filled with grace.
• 18:11
  If you don't do something, there's no shame.
• 18:15
  There's no condemnation.
• 18:17
  There's just grace. And then we pick up next week.
• 18:20
  It's totally fine.
• 18:22
  My goal is to encourage you, to encourage you to make one small step at a time,
• 18:28
  things that are simple and sustainable, things that are doable.
• 18:32
  And that is what the Simple Habits program is all about.
• 18:34
  That is what I work with for that one-on-one coaching.
• 18:39
  What is doable for you?
• 18:40
  What can I help you implement this next week?
• 18:44
  So head down to the show notes,
• 18:46
  click on the link for the Simple Habits program,
• 18:48
  or if you want that more intensive one-on-one coaching,
• 18:52
  the ideal, like I said, is that six session package.
• 18:56
  And you will book those about every other week,
• 19:00
  whatever works for your schedule.
• 19:02
  So head down to the show notes and click what is going to work best for you.
• 19:06
  I'll see you in the Simple Habits program or in coaching,
• 19:09
  or of course, next week on the Health with Hashimoto's podcast.
• 19:13
  This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only.
• 19:16
  Please discuss any changes with your trusted healthcare provider.
• 19:19
  To take your next step, join our school community
• 19:22
  and explore the courses available there.
• 19:24
  You do not have to figure your health out alone.
• 19:27
  So that is school, S-K-O-O-L.com,
• 19:30
  and it is the Health with Hashimoto's community.
• 19:33
  I'll see you next time on the Health with Hashimoto's podcast.