Latest / Health with Hashimoto’s - Thyroid or Immune Education for Autoimmune Thyroid Disease / 180 // Trends for Hashimoto's in 2026: Quick Fixes OUT, Sustainable Foundations IN

Transcript

180 // Trends for Hashimoto's in 2026: Quick Fixes OUT, Sustainable Foundations IN · Health with Hashimoto’s - Thyroid or Immune Education for Autoimmune Thyroid Disease

• 0:00
  Hey, happy new year. Welcome to the Health with Hashimoto's podcast.
• 0:03
  Today's episode is what's in and what's out for 2026.
• 0:08
  I've got my own list of about seven or eight things that are out.
• 0:13
  When you're done listening to the episode, I would love to know what you have
• 0:16
  to add in addition to things that I put on here like supplements and living
• 0:20
  in stress mode, endless scrolling, health insurance.
• 0:24
  What did I miss for what's out and what's Welcome to the Health with Hashimoto's
• 0:29
  podcast. This is where you will find clarity and simple, sustainable strategies to feel better.
• 0:35
  I want to help you figure out your goals.
• 0:37
  Causes. My name is Esther Yunkin. I am a registered nurse. I spent about 17
• 0:42
  years in the emergency department and then got sick and tired of putting band-aids on chronic things.
• 0:46
  I went back to school and now I have been in holistic health education for about 10 years.
• 0:52
  I know how exhausting it is to live with fatigue, brain fog,
• 0:56
  and the ups and downs of Hashimoto's 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
• 1:04
  your body, and calm your immune system so that you can regain your energy and
• 1:08
  feel like yourself again. Do you like to make New Year's resolutions?
• 1:12
  I sometimes do. I love this season of reflecting on what has been and what can
• 1:19
  I celebrate and then what can I do better.
• 1:22
  I love a fresh blank page.
• 1:25
  Just so much opportunity ahead.
• 1:29
  This year has not been written on yet. I love that feeling. And some years I
• 1:34
  make some resolutions and some goals. I probably will this year.
• 1:38
  But to start out, I'm more doing a like a no resolution solution.
• 1:44
  I want tiny things because that is sustainable.
• 1:48
  And of course, if you've listened to any amount of episodes,
• 1:52
  you know that I talk about things that are simple and sustainable.
• 1:55
  Because if something is not simple, then we're not going to keep doing it, right?
• 2:00
  It just gets too complicated. I can absolutely overcomplicate things.
• 2:05
  I can make 20,000 steps for something that should be very simple.
• 2:09
  So I know the importance of simplicity.
• 2:11
  I also know that if it's not sustainable, then you just kind of wasted your time and your effort.
• 2:17
  So I want to make sure that everything that I'm doing is sustainable.
• 2:21
  So it has to be simple and sustainable.
• 2:23
  And sometimes big New Year's resolutions are not those two things.
• 2:27
  So let's talk about what's in it.
• 2:30
  And what's out. These are not in any particular order.
• 2:34
  Like don't think that I'm going from, you know, zero to 10.
• 2:37
  No, these are just in random order. So number one, what is out? Long cardio sessions.
• 2:43
  I will still hop on a treadmill and I will walk in or read a book.
• 2:47
  That's absolutely fine.
• 2:49
  But I am instead prioritizing what are called movement snacks.
• 2:56
  Yes, I will still do like 30 minutes of walking every day because I want to
• 3:00
  get up to 10,000 or 7,000 steps. That's actually my goal.
• 3:04
  Yes, 10,000 would be great, but I know 7,000 is a doable goal for me.
• 3:09
  In 2025, my daily step count dropped. So I need to get back to prioritizing that.
• 3:17
  So a daily movement snack is something I saw on a guy who keeps popping up into
• 3:23
  my Facebook feed, and I don't even know who he is.
• 3:28
  I don't know if I'm following him. If you see him, he'll be,
• 3:32
  I think, a physical therapy from the UK or physical therapist.
• 3:35
  And he's usually standing with one foot on a block.
• 3:39
  And so everything is like a tilted movement because he's really focused on your
• 3:44
  pelvis and getting into different planes of movement.
• 3:48
  That is his thing. But he talks about these movement snacks where you can just
• 3:53
  get up from your desk or get up from the couch and just do this movement for 30 to 60 seconds.
• 3:59
  And that is what I am prioritizing this year. Not big long cardio sessions,
• 4:04
  but instead movement snacks.
• 4:07
  Have you heard it said that sitting is the new smoking?
• 4:11
  We are so sedentary and it's so easy to be sedentary.
• 4:16
  Everything is on our phone. We can just get things delivered to us.
• 4:19
  We don't have to get up and move as much as we used to, as our parents and grandparents did.
• 4:24
  So I am prioritizing movement snacks.
• 4:28
  Little small episodes of movement scattered throughout the day.
• 4:32
  I did read that somebody who gets up and walks in place or walks at all for
• 4:39
  one to two minutes every half hour
• 4:41
  versus 30 to 60 minutes is going to be healthier at the end of a year.
• 4:47
  The statistics were really kind of mind-blowing that just this change in how much you exercise.
• 4:56
  Scattered throughout the day instead of volume all at once, it makes a difference.
• 5:01
  I mean like drinking your water. You're not going to drink your two to three
• 5:04
  quarts of water all in the first like 30 minutes when you wake up, right?
• 5:09
  You're going to scatter it throughout your day. Same thing with movement.
• 5:12
  So what's out? Big long cardio sessions.
• 5:15
  What's in? Movement. Snacks.
• 5:17
  All right, the next thing that's out is actually easier to explain by telling
• 5:20
  you what's in. I didn't know how to describe this of what's out.
• 5:24
  I guess I would say every day the same. So what's in is honoring rhythms and routines and seasons.
• 5:32
  So this could look like for you a weekly rhythm.
• 5:36
  Do you have a Sabbath every week? Do you take a day off?
• 5:41
  Now, you don't have to be religious to have a Sabbath, although,
• 5:46
  technically, like a Sabbath, would have time to honor God, time to draw closer
• 5:50
  to God, go to church, worship, things like that.
• 5:53
  But other people who are not religious at all, they will still take a day off,
• 5:58
  take a day off from work, put their phone in a drawer,
• 6:01
  take 24 hours off of social media every week, have a weekly rhythm where you
• 6:07
  are having downtime once a week.
• 6:10
  Now, this also can be applied to seasons of the year.
• 6:14
  I have heard it said that we are not designed to make big New Year's resolutions
• 6:19
  because in the middle of winter.
• 6:22
  We are resting, we're hibernating, we're focusing on being more cozy,
• 6:26
  on having early bedtimes, of prioritizing rest in general.
• 6:32
  It is really in the spring when we start to want more growth and to plant new
• 6:38
  things and to dream and to grow.
• 6:41
  So maybe for you, you're looking at the seasons of the year.
• 6:45
  Maybe you're looking at the weekly rhythms and routines, but what's out is treating
• 6:51
  every single day the same.
• 6:52
  What's in is honoring the rhythms and the seasons and having routine in your life.
• 6:58
  All right, let's do a medical one. What is out is generic broken lab panels.
• 7:03
  When you go to the doctor and they say, let's check your thyroid,
• 7:07
  you can interpret that usually as we're going to run a TSH.
• 7:11
  And of course, as a listener to the Health with Hashimoto's podcast,
• 7:15
  you know that a TSH is not all of the information.
• 7:18
  At a minimum, I want you to be checking your thyroid antibody levels.
• 7:22
  I want people to start that when they are teenagers, especially the girls,
• 7:28
  because Hashimoto's can take 10 to 15 years to develop.
• 7:34
  Your antibodies can be high or starting to elevate before you get symptoms, and that
• 7:41
  10 to 15 years. So let's get the antibody levels checked.
• 7:45
  Also, TSHs are just one little tiny picture of what is going on.
• 7:50
  I want to know your free T4, your free T3, your reverse T3.
• 7:55
  I want to know your A1c, which is not thyroid at all. It is your blood sugar.
• 8:01
  But we know that one of the biggest root causes of autoimmune problems is stress.
• 8:08
  And one of the biggest stressors on the body is the highs and the lows of blood
• 8:13
  sugar, yes, even if you are not diabetic.
• 8:16
  I want to know your vitamin D level.
• 8:18
  So a generic lab panel or generic labs of the doctor just saying,
• 8:23
  let's check your TSH, that is out.
• 8:25
  What is in is understanding what you're looking for and why it matters and then ordering the labs.
• 8:34
  Now, one thing you might be seeing this on your social media feed,
• 8:38
  there are a couple different companies and they do tons and tons and tons of labs.
• 8:43
  And I have talked to people who have this, they get like 100 to 300 different
• 8:48
  labs, but they don't know what to do with all of that information.
• 8:53
  They need somebody to walk them through it. And some of the companies are better
• 8:56
  than others at doing that.
• 8:58
  So I'm not saying let's have the broken lab panels that's just out and let's
• 9:03
  switch to this, you know, huge, huge panel.
• 9:06
  No, I'm saying what's in is understanding what you're looking for and then why it matters.
• 9:14
  So if you are wondering about those thyroid labs, I do have a couple episodes on that.
• 9:20
  Another thing that is out is insurance so broken.
• 9:24
  We could go on a whole bunch of tangents. I'm sure you could go on a tangent
• 9:27
  about what insurance has done for you or has not done for you, has hurt you.
• 9:33
  Oh my goodness, just the stress of getting all of these different things in the mail.
• 9:38
  You know, one of my kids had just a sports physical, and that sports physical
• 9:43
  generated I don't know how much mail,
• 9:46
  and then it wasn't covered as it should have been because it was billed as like
• 9:52
  a general visit instead of as a well child check.
• 9:55
  I know as a nurse who has worked at a clinic, a sports physical,
• 10:00
  and also as a parent, a sports physical is a well child check just without the shots.
• 10:04
  I mean, that's all that they're doing. But because it's coded differently,
• 10:08
  the insurance company is like, yeah, no, we're not going to cover that.
• 10:11
  We're not going to pay for that as one of your wellness visits.
• 10:16
  You're going to have to pay, I think it was over $300 for it.
• 10:19
  I don't know. And that's just a simple, simple, the whole thing.
• 10:22
  Insurance is broken. So insurance is out this year, just totally out.
• 10:27
  I am switching to crowdfunded sharing. I did an entire episode,
• 10:32
  an interview with somebody from New Health, which is the company that I switched to.
• 10:37
  You can listen to that episode all about it.
• 10:40
  It is just going to work so much better for my family. What's out is insurance.
• 10:45
  What's in is crowdfunded health sharing.
• 10:49
  All right, Another thing that is out, endless scrolling. I don't know about
• 10:52
  you, but I have an addiction to my phone. I hate it. I try to break it.
• 10:57
  And one way that I am breaking it is by installing harder limits for myself.
• 11:03
  And I love them, actually.
• 11:05
  So I use the app ScreenZen. It is free.
• 11:09
  And you set up your own limits for yourself.
• 11:12
  So you could have a category, like I have a category for gaming.
• 11:16
  And I have these mindless games
• 11:19
  that I'll play while I'm listening to something or whether you
• 11:22
  know in the bathroom or whatever and so I'll
• 11:25
  set a game category so I can play for
• 11:28
  a certain length of time each time I open that app and then and then I get cut
• 11:34
  off and it's not like the apple like the the built-in stuff where you could
• 11:39
  just so easily just ignore it you have this pause where you choose how long it's going to pause.
• 11:46
  So even if it closes and you want to open it again right away,
• 11:50
  you can click that button, but it's still going to make you wait for 5, 10, 15 seconds.
• 11:55
  The time that you preset up
• 11:58
  I have another category that's social media, and it's a different length of time.
• 12:02
  I think I have it set for seven minutes, and I can open my social media apps
• 12:06
  multiple times a day, but only seven minutes at a time.
• 12:09
  And usually that is quite enough to see what my top favorites are doing,
• 12:14
  to scroll through a couple stories, to post something.
• 12:17
  Seven minutes is enough for me generally. And sometimes I open a new seven-minute
• 12:24
  episode or window, whatever you want to call it.
• 12:26
  So in my quest to have endless scrolling be out to help myself with this addiction
• 12:32
  to my phone, I have implemented the screen zen,
• 12:37
  harder limits, putting my phone in my underwear drawer when I get my pajamas
• 12:42
  on so that I can't even reach it from my bed.
• 12:44
  I did shift to an actual alarm clock a couple of years ago, which I appreciate.
• 12:49
  There's different things that I'm doing. I would love to hear what you are doing,
• 12:53
  because I know I am not alone in that addiction to the stupid little phone.
• 12:57
  Actually, it's really smart.
• 12:59
  All right, so the next thing that is out, living in stress mode.
• 13:04
  We are all surrounded, bombarded by so many different stressors,
• 13:08
  and I'm sick of it. How about you?
• 13:10
  We can't keep living in stress mode. It impacts our health. We cannot heal if
• 13:16
  we are constantly stressed.
• 13:18
  Our bodies and our minds and our souls need to shift into non-stress mode.
• 13:25
  So you've got your stress mode, that's a sympathetic nervous system,
• 13:28
  that's fight and flight.
• 13:29
  You also have your parasympathetic nervous system, that's your rest and digest.
• 13:34
  We want to switch into our rest and digest mode more?
• 13:40
  How can you do that more consistently throughout the day?
• 13:44
  What can you build into your life to trigger yourself to think,
• 13:49
  oh, I need to take a couple deep breaths, or I need more laughter,
• 13:54
  I need more singing, I need more humming in my life?
• 13:57
  Because all of those things shift your body into your parasympathetic nervous
• 14:03
  system, your rest and digest?
• 14:05
  What can you build into your day to shift you out of that stress mode into your
• 14:13
  parasympathetic nervous system? We cannot heal.
• 14:16
  Our immune system cannot regulate if we are constantly in stress mode.
• 14:23
  On January 10th of this year, 2026, I am opening the Simple Habits program.
• 14:30
  I run it a couple times a year, and every single year we start out with stress.
• 14:36
  We start out with how can we shift out of the stress mode into rest and digest.
• 14:41
  We always start with diaphragmatic breathing.
• 14:44
  You are welcome to join that Simple Habits program.
• 14:47
  I would love to have you. It is text-based because I don't want to overwhelm you.
• 14:53
  I know that I can share so much information and I know that I can overwhelm somebody.
• 14:59
  When I give them a voice memo that's like podcast length, it can be overwhelming. I get it.
• 15:05
  So this system or this program is text-based.
• 15:11
  A couple times a week, I will send you a text. Every Saturday or Sunday,
• 15:14
  I will send the text, this is what we're working on this week.
• 15:17
  How can you adapt this for you?
• 15:19
  So on week one, I'll tell you, you know, we're talking about,
• 15:23
  we're working on diaphragmatic breathing.
• 15:25
  We're working on shifting out of the stress mode into rest and digest.
• 15:28
  How can you make this work for you? What is going to be your trigger to remind
• 15:33
  yourself to take a deep breath, to relax your muscles, to smile?
• 15:38
  What is going to be your trigger? And then you text me back.
• 15:41
  Later on in the week, I'm going to send you another text with some encouragement
• 15:44
  or some fascinating fact about whatever we're talking about.
• 15:48
  And then on the weekend, I'll ask you how you did so that we can celebrate together.
• 15:52
  That is the Simple Habits Program, and it is starting on January 10th.
• 15:57
  I do not accept late enrollments because I have to put you into the text-based
• 16:03
  system, and they're set to go out on Sunday.
• 16:08
  So if you join late, then I can't get you in for Sunday and you're going to be off.
• 16:13
  It's just not going to work. So I do not accept latecomers to the Simple Habits
• 16:17
  program. You have to get in before it closes on January 10th.
• 16:22
  The first day is actually Sunday the 11th.
• 16:25
  I've got two more things that are out. The first one is a supplement treated as a medication.
• 16:32
  Is there a time and place for this? Yeah, there actually is.
• 16:35
  But in general, I'm saying supplements are out.
• 16:38
  At least the mindset of there's a pill for every ill.
• 16:42
  This is what the Western broken medical system is kind of built on.
• 16:48
  It is you have a symptom, so we're going to give you a medication. and
• 16:52
  a lot of people in trying to get into
• 16:55
  more holistic natural things they have
• 16:58
  taken that mindset with them and they're
• 17:01
  still trying to get a pill for every ill well that is out i'm saying that it's
• 17:05
  out with 2025 instead we are going to shift into cellular health your cells
• 17:12
  are the building block of your entire body your cells are the building blocks
• 17:16
  of your organs of your tissues We need health at a cellular level.
• 17:21
  We need to work at helping the body do what the body is designed to do,
• 17:26
  activating the body's own pathways.
• 17:30
  And so that is in for 2026.
• 17:33
  I would love to tell you more about cellular health and activating your own
• 17:39
  pathways, but I'm already almost at 18 minutes for this episode and we don't want to go over 20.
• 17:45
  So I'm going to refer you to a couple episodes that I have about cellular health and activation.
• 17:51
  Episode 37 is all about I need more energy, and I'm talking to you about how
• 17:57
  to help your cells produce more energy,
• 18:00
  how to help your cells clean up, how to have cellular health and activate the
• 18:04
  pathways that God gave you so that your body can do what your body is supposed to do.
• 18:09
  So what's out? Supplements treated as a medication. So a pill for every ill.
• 18:14
  What's in? Cellular health and activation.
• 18:16
  The final one is what's out? That hustle and girl boss energy.
• 18:21
  That kind of goes back to the stress. We don't need that stress.
• 18:24
  But at the same time, I understand the economy sucks right now.
• 18:28
  And everything is expensive.
• 18:30
  So there's a lot of people looking for ways to have more income coming in,
• 18:34
  to have a side gig or a side business, whatever you want to call it.
• 18:38
  I absolutely understand that.
• 18:40
  I have my podcast. I have my coaching programs.
• 18:44
  I have the one-on-one program. I have the Simple Habits program.
• 18:47
  I have a lot of ways that personally I am, you know, creating content for you
• 18:53
  so that you can improve your health.
• 18:55
  I also partner with a company that provides products and I make commission for sharing them with you.
• 19:01
  So the activation stuff, I will make commission when you join as a customer
• 19:07
  or even as a consultant if you want to work on my team and learn more closely with me.
• 19:13
  So absolutely, I'm not saying more income is out.
• 19:18
  No, what I'm saying is that hustle energy, the stress energy,
• 19:22
  that girl boss energy where you feel like you always have to be on every time you're on social media.
• 19:27
  You need to be proving something to everybody. You need to be,
• 19:30
  I don't know, just always on. That's out.
• 19:32
  That's out. What's in is creating systems and boundaries.
• 19:36
  Because perhaps you've noticed that this theme throughout what's out and in
• 19:40
  in this episode is the always on.
• 19:43
  I don't want to be endless scrolling. I want limits. I don't want constant stress.
• 19:49
  I want to shift into rest and digest. I don't want to have every single day the same.
• 19:54
  I want to have routines and honor these rhythms of life.
• 19:58
  I don't want to do long cardio sessions for my only thing. I want to have movement snacks.
• 20:03
  It is the same thing with business. If you have a side gig, if you have anything
• 20:09
  that you're bringing in money on the side, I don't want you to devote your entire day to it.
• 20:14
  I don't want every waking hour to be thinking about it or every hour that you're
• 20:18
  away from your nine to five job. I want you to have systems that work.
• 20:22
  I want you to have routines because I want you to have downtime.
• 20:25
  I want you to be able to reset your nervous system because stress is out.
• 20:31
  Creating systems that make things work in your life, creating boundaries,
• 20:35
  creating rhythms and routines, that is all in because your health matters.
• 20:41
  Your physical health matters. Your mental health matters. Your spiritual health matters. you matter.
• 20:47
  All right so that is my list of what's out for 2025 and what's in for 2026.
• 20:52
  I would love to hear your versions.
• 20:54
  Tag me on Instagram if you're going to do this. I am health.with.hashimoto's
• 21:00
  on Instagram or even better come to the Health with Hashimoto's community.
• 21:05
  We are hosted on the school platform skool.com Health with Hashimoto's and let's
• 21:12
  talk about it over there so we can come together as a community because what
• 21:15
  we also need in 2026 is friendships, is community.
• 21:20
  We need to be supporting each other. All right, I'll see you next week.
• 21:24
  This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only.
• 21:28
  Please discuss any changes with your trusted healthcare provider.
• 21:30
  To take your next step, join our school community and explore the courses available there.
• 21:35
  You do not have to figure your health out alone.
• 21:38
  So that is school, S-K-O-O-L dot com, and it is the Health with Hashimoto's community.
• 21:44
  I'll see you next time on the Health with Hashimoto's podcast.