Latest / Health with Hashimoto’s - Thyroid or Immune Education for Autoimmune Thyroid Disease / 189 // How to Identify Your Hashimoto’s Root Causes So You Know Exactly What to Do Next

Transcript

189 // How to Identify Your Hashimoto’s Root Causes So You Know Exactly What to Do Next · Health with Hashimoto’s - Thyroid or Immune Education for Autoimmune Thyroid Disease

• 0:00
  In the functional medicine world, or functional nursing, as I am a functional
• 0:03
  nurse, there is a concept of upstream and downstream.
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  Upstream is what causes the problems or effects, and downstream is obviously the effects.
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  I'm going to explain this in more detail over this episode, and to start out,
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  we're going to go back to 2010 with a huge oil spill.
• 0:21
  Welcome to the Health with Hashimoto's podcast. This is where you will find
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  clarity and simple, sustainable strategies to feel better. I want to help you
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  figure out your root causes.
• 0:31
  My name is Esther Yunkin. I am a registered nurse.
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  I know how exhausting it is to live with fatigue, brain fog,
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  and the ups and downs of Hashimoto's. And that is why I'm here.
• 0:42
  I'm here to cut through the confusion and to give you practical steps to...
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  Support your body, and calm your immune system so that you can regain your energy
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  and feel like yourself again.
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  All right, so we are going back to April 10th of 2010, and that is when the
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  Deep Water Horizon rig exploded in the Gulf of America.
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  I'm still not used to saying that.
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  And it resulted in almost 5 million barrels of oil spilling into the ocean.
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  That's 210 million gallons. I can't picture that, it's a ton.
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  It is a massive amount of oil.
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  And then so many things happened as a result of that.
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  So the big one, the big single upstream event was that oil rig exploding and the oil spill.
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  And then it resulted in so many things.
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  One thing was on purpose, which was the nearly 2 million gallons of chemicals
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  that they put into the ocean to help clean it up.
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  Well, those also caused their own downstream effect.
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  There's a specific chemical. It was like a dispersant agent.
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  I don't know if I'm saying that right. And it also causes health problems,
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  even though it is approved by the EPA.
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  And like there's so many different downstream effects. But we're going to talk
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  about just one specific family.
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  So a hard-working shrimper named William and his wife, Nicole.
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  They were living down in the Gulf.
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  They had two girls. One of them was six and one of them was nine.
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  William, obviously, like I said, a shrimper. And so what are the downstream
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  effects of this oil spill that impacted that family?
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  So if you make your living on the water and you're a shrimper,
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  obviously the very first downstream effect of this oil spill is that you're going to lose your job.
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  There is no work that
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  in the water if there is a huge oil spill. He could not go to work as a shrimper.
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  So loss of income was the number one immediate effect.
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  And again, we're talking just about William's family.
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  We're not talking about the environment. We're not talking about the mass mortality of marine life.
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  We're not talking about the massive plankton die-off.
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  We're not talking about all of these things. We're talking about William and his family.
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  So his immediate downstream effect of this oil spill was his loss of income.
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  He did get a job for a while working on cleaning up the oil spill.
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  They hired thousands of people to help clean up.
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  Well, that also caused its own problems. So not only were you working with these
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  chemicals and working with the oil and you're getting it on yourself.
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  Yes, they were supposed to wear protective equipment, but a lot of the fishermen,
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  a lot of the hands-on workers didn't have access to it or didn't wear it.
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  And so he would come home covered in oil every day and possibly the cleaning chemicals.
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  So I'm going to talk about the health consequences next that he suffered and the family suffered.
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  But of course, there is the caveat that if you look in all of the court records
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  and the lawsuits and everything.
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  BP, which is the company that owned this oil rig and who had the oil,
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  they fought over and over saying in court that you cannot prove causation.
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  You cannot say that this oil spill and everything that happened was directly
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  causing all of these health conditions.
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  Now, you and I know that if you are exposed to this much junk,
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  something's going to happen.
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  You listen to this podcast and probably other podcasts and audiobooks and things
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  in this holistic wellness space because you know that different things are connected.
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  You know that when A, B, and C happen, probably X, Y, and Z are going to result.
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  Well, BP fought this, I believe they're still fighting it in court.
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  We're, what, 15 years later, and they're still saying you cannot prove causation.
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  Whatever they want to say that you
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  can't prove causation I can tell you
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  that different things happen as
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  far as Williams health goes his
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  symptoms started out with coughing and then he had headaches he had skin rashes
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  he had vomiting and diarrhea and then after about three to six months after
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  working with the cleanup he started bleeding from his ears and his nose and
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  he had an even heavier cough.
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  William said he didn't have money for a doctor.
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  Their family was on Medicaid for the kids, but Nicole and William do not have health insurance.
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  So he was so stressed. And then you add that stress on top of everything.
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  Of course, you know from listening to this podcast that stress is a root cause.
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  Now upstream and root cause, same thing.
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  We are talking about the same thing. It's just two different ways to describe what's happening.
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  If I say root cause, you're thinking maybe of a tree or of a plant and what
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  they're digging their roots into.
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  You know, it feeds the tree. And then the symptoms are the leaves.
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  Well, upstream, downstream, you know, we're talking about upstream cause and
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  then the downstream is the symptoms.
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  So as William is dealing with these physical symptoms that are downstream of
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  the cause of the oil spill,
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  now he's also having another upstream and downstream thing of stress.
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  The stress was resulting from his loss of income and his physical symptoms.
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  But then the stress also contributes to the symptoms.
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  He said, basically, now I get sick and I stay sick. I don't sleep.
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  I stay stressed out more than anything.
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  As far as the kids, this did not just affect William, of course.
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  Their daughters were six and eight when the oil spill happened.
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  The six-year-old, Brooklyn, she had asthma prior to this environmental disaster,
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  and her mom said the asthma just got worse.
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  Now she has constant upper respiratory infections.
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  She said once it goes away, it comes right back.
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  And before the oil spill, Elizabeth, she was nine, was the healthy kid.
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  But now Elizabeth constantly suffers from rashes, allergies.
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  Inflamed sinuses, sore throat, and an upset stomach.
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  And this oil spill was huge. Growing up, I was alive when the Exxon Valdez oil
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  spill happened, but I was pretty young.
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  And all I remember is the images of little ducks covered in oil.
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  And it's probably because of the Dawn commercials, honestly,
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  not because of the actual oil spill.
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  This oil spill that we're talking about, it released one Exxon Valdez-sized
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  oil spill every three to four days for the 87 days it took to cap this well.
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  It's ginormous. We could cover, we could spend, you know, dozens of episodes
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  just on the downstream effects.
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  But I'm using it just to show you what is upstream, what is downstream.
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  Because it's so simple to see, obviously, there was one explosion and there was an oil spill.
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  That is the initial upstream event. And then we can talk about all of the downstream effects.
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  With your health, it's a little different. Yes, there is upstream and there is downstream.
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  And I love to help people figure out their root causes, these upstream things.
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  That is your first task when you are diagnosed with Hashimoto's, is figuring out why.
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  Looking at all of the different things in your life and figuring out,
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  you know, what are your upstream events?
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  What is contributing to the current state of your health.
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  And it's not going to be just one thing.
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  When I do a full intake on somebody, so let's say you go to my website,
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  you go to the coaching tab, and you hire me as your Hashimoto's coach or nurse.
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  And we're going to go through, if you just hire me for a one session,
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  we're just going to talk about what you can do next.
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  But if you hire me for one of the packages, we're going to sit down and you're
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  going to tell me your life story.
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  We're going to go through all of the root causes.
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  And then I get to do one of my favorite things.
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  It's a lot of work. But in between our first session together,
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  when you tell me your story, and our next session, I actually get out a worksheet.
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  It's called a functional health matrix.
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  And I can't say there's just one upstream event in your life.
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  We can't say there's only one root cause. So we want to look at the whole you.
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  The official name of my business is the whole you because you are a whole person.
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  Body, mind, spirit, diet, environment.
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  And after asking you questions and hearing your whole story in that initial session together.
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  Then I put all of these things together in a worksheet and I look at what are
• 10:08
  the structural components of your body that could be contributing.
• 10:12
  What about the immune and inflammatory balance of the physical aspect of your health history?
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  What about your mind? What are you experiencing for mental clarity and memory?
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  What about your emotions?
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  How is your community? Do you have support? Are you dealing with loneliness?
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  That's part of the environment. It's also part of your spiritual health and
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  your mental health. It kind of all goes together.
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  We look at the detoxification, your general environment. Like,
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  are you exposed to a lot of chemicals?
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  I'm filling in things from your diet and we're looking at your gut.
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  We're looking at so many different things. And I put soup, you're not just tasting one herb.
• 11:02
  You are tasting a blend.
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  And then as that soup simmers, all of the flavors come together and pretty soon
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  it tastes more like soup than individual flavors, right?
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  And so that is what we're looking at for you because we want to identify all
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  the different things that come together to form your current health.
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  And then the next thing that you get to do is say, okay, now that I know this.
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  Let's look at what I can do simply. What can I do next?
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  And maybe for you, that's going to be a really big thing. Or maybe for you, like, you know what?
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  All I have right now, all I have bandwidth for is something small.
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  When I first got my Hashimoto's diagnosis, the first thing that I did,
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  well, the first thing I did was learn what are the root causes.
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  I didn't have anybody to explain it to me. I asked for help. I listened to podcasts.
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  I went through books.
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  I learned so much because I didn't have the Hashimoto's Decoded mini course,
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  which is available for you in the Health with Hashimoto's school community.
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  So head over there and in the classroom tab in about an hour,
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  you are going to learn all of this stuff that it took me so long to learn.
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  I'm going to teach you the most common root causes so that you can figure out what to do next.
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  Well, when we're working together one-on-one, you also get to do that.
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  Oh, I was telling you what I did first.
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  The very first thing that I did after figuring out what the root causes are
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  and then figuring out which ones are probably, you know, I'm dealing with, I bought an aura ring.
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  That was the first thing I did. That was really all I had bandwidth for because
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  I didn't know for sure what was contributing to what.
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  And so I looked at the root causes and I said, well, I probably have stress as an issue.
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  You I was working full time, I was going back to school, I had four kids.
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  I was homeschooling at least one or two. I don't remember. I think maybe I was
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  homeschooling three of them at the time, maybe four.
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  I was homeschooling. I was also volunteering. I was also doing all of these different things.
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  And so I knew, yeah, stress is probably an issue in my root causes.
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  And then also I knew I was tired all of the time. So I figured sleep was probably an issue too.
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  I didn't know if it was a symptom of the Hashimoto's or if it was a root cause
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  because when you're not sleeping you're not healing and if your body can't heal
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  it can't restore it can't do what it's supposed to while you're sleeping then
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  that causes more problems.
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  So I didn't know if my fatigue was a root cause or symptom or both.
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  So my initial step was to get an aura ring to help me learn more about my stress and my sleep.
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  That's all I had bandwidth for at that time. And maybe that's all you have bandwidth
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  for, just one simple thing.
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  But it is my job when I'm working one-on-one with somebody to help them figure
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  out what are the most likely root causes. Do you need more testing?
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  Because for some of the root causes, you can guess, but you don't know for sure.
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  Like, you grew up in a northern climate, you didn't have a vitamin D supplement
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  every day, and you didn't eat a whole ton of sardines, well,
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  you probably have low vitamin D.
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  But without testing, I can't tell you what your number is. So that's one where,
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  yes, we can absolutely guess, and we can absolutely say, yep, you're probably low.
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  But for adequate fixing of that one, of that root cause, you're going to need
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  some lab tests, and you want to know your actual number so that you can supplement appropriately.
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  I test my vitamin D at least once a year to make sure that I am getting the
• 14:51
  right dose for a daily or weekly supplement, and I've talked about that quite a bit.
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  So William, Nicole, Brooklyn, and Elizabeth, they had a very simple job of figuring
• 15:02
  out what their cause was. It was the oil spill.
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  For you, when you're dealing with fatigue, weight gain, brain fog,
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  depression, joint and muscle pain,
• 15:13
  skin and hair issues, all these different things that go together with hypothyroidism
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  or Hashimoto's, you can't say, oh, it was this one thing.
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  So your first job is to figure out, well, what are the root causes?
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  Thankfully, you have the Hashimoto's Decoded mini course that will make that super simple for you.
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  And then your next job is to figure out which ones apply to you and your health history.
• 15:39
  And then your next job is to figure out, well, what can I do next?
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  Which thing or things can I tackle right now? Can I.
• 15:49
  Look at my leaky gut. Can I, I mean, we're assuming that everybody with an autoimmune
• 15:55
  issue has a gut component because that's what we've been told.
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  That's what different experts in the autoimmune world have figured out,
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  that that is one of the three root causes that everybody has.
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  You have a genetic component, you have a gut component, and you have one or more triggers.
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  So we know that there's a gut component. So are you going to,
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  you know, are you going to work on that right now.
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  And if you're going to work on it, are you going to work on it with something
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  like the Healthy Edge stack that I talked about last week?
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  Or are you going to work on it with, you know, a little supplement of seed,
• 16:30
  which I've also done and talked about?
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  Are you going to work on your gut health by going to an autoimmune paleo diet?
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  Are you going to work on it by incorporating fermented foods?
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  Are you going to work on your gut health by abandoning the triple G.
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  The gobble, gulp, and go. Are you going to transform your eating patterns so
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  that you're not gobbling?
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  You're actually slowing down. You're savoring the flavors.
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  You're chewing your food well. You're not gulping huge, massive bites.
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  You're actually chewing until it's like a smoothier applesauce consistency.
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  And you're not just getting up and running.
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  You're taking some deep breaths, allowing your body to shift from fight and
• 17:12
  flight into rest and digest so that you can better absorb your food.
• 17:17
  There's so many different things you can do just for that gut health component.
• 17:23
  And we're looking at all of it. And that is one of the things that I love the
• 17:28
  most when I get to work one-on-one with somebody.
• 17:31
  When you book that Hashimoto's health session package, and we get to work every
• 17:36
  other week together, or approximately every other week, whatever fits into your
• 17:40
  schedule, then we're figuring out, okay, what can you work on right now?
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  And then in two weeks, we're figuring out, okay, how did that work for you?
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  What happened? Do we need to adjust?
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  Can we add something else on now? Or are we going to go back to the drawing
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  board and figure something out?
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  I'm in your corner and it is so rewarding to see the health changes that happen
• 18:04
  in somebody's life when they get to work on it at their pace and they know they're
• 18:08
  supported and they know that I've got the education that if they have a question,
• 18:13
  that either I already know it because I've already learned it,
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  or I'm going to dig into it and I'm going to find reliable, credible answers
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  for them. Because that's what I do.
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  I don't give you hype. I don't give you media.
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  I'm not giving you testimonials. I might give you some testimonials,
• 18:29
  but what I'm really looking at is, is there credible current research behind those testimonials?
• 18:37
  Is this going to work for the average person, because we want to know,
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  is this going to work for you?
• 18:42
  How can you address the root causes? How can you go upstream?
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  And clean up the toxic soup. So I invite you to go to my website,
• 18:54
  healthwithhashimoto's.com.
• 18:55
  Yes, of course, there is a link down in the show notes to make it easy peasy for you.
• 19:00
  And you're going to go to the coaching tab and book Hashimoto's Root Cause Reset.
• 19:06
  Yep, root cause. That's the same thing as upstream.
• 19:10
  If you want more energy, better focus, steadier emotions, lasting confidence.
• 19:16
  If you want all of these things, if you want to feel like yourself again,
• 19:20
  go ahead and book the Hashimoto's Root Cause Reset.
• 19:24
  It is six different sessions, one-on-one, because you are the priority.
• 19:30
  Your story matters. Your goals matter. And we get to tailor all of this directly
• 19:35
  to you so you can feel like yourself again.
• 19:38
  I'll see you in the next episode or inside the Hashimoto's Root Cause Reset.
• 19:45
  This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only.
• 19:49
  Please discuss any changes with your trusted healthcare provider.
• 19:52
  To take your next step, join our school community and explore the courses available there.
• 19:56
  You do not have to figure your health out alone.
• 19:59
  So that is school, S-K-O-O-L.com, and it is the Health with Hashimoto's community.
• 20:05
  I'll see you next time on the Health with.