In the last few lectures, we talked about medications for low thyroid and the fact that almost all the people with low thyroid will need a medication. We also talked about supplements like vitamins, iodine, selenium, zinc and other minerals and herbs that make thyroid gland healthier.
Since most people with low thyroid have Hashimoto's, when their own immune system makes antibodies against the thyroid gland, the best thing is to quiet down the immune system. That does not mean suppressing the immune system with drugs. You want to have a strong immune system, what you don’t want is the immune system that is overwhelmed because of overstimulation and goes crazy, making antibodies against everything, bad and good.
We know that the main reason for this is leaky gut syndrome, where the intestine becomes porous and permeable to all kinds of bacteria, parasites, viruses, yeasts, toxins, and undigested food particles. This makes the immune system exposed to 10-20-50 times more things than it was designed to handle, which makes it overstimulated, overexcited, and crazy.
This means that if you want to treat low thyroid, you need to get rid of leaky gut. Because just taking thyroid medications will not stop the immune assault on the thyroid gland. Plus you need to take the right supplements and the right herbs for the thyroid.
In one of the previous lectures, I told you about the things that contribute to leaky gut. It’s everything that irritates the intestine and makes it inflamed. Most people in developed countries have leaky gut to some extent, because they are all exposed to the same risk factors that make the intestine inflamed.
Let’s briefly review what makes intestine inflamed. First the diet. When I say “diet” I don’t mean trying to lose weight. I mean things that you normally eat. Standard American diet (SAD diet) is full of processed foods filled with preservatives, coloring agents, flavor enhancers and many other chemicals, so that an average person consumes about 160 pounds of these chemicals per year.
An average person uses over 60 pounds of sugar per year. This not only irritates the intestine but also favors the growth of Candida, other yeasts and bad bacteria, because they love sugar.
We use so called vegetable oils that people never used in the past. Canola, corn oil, sunflower oil, cottonseed oil, soybean oil and many others. These oils are extracted using chemicals and heat. They are not designed for human consumption, and they irritate the intestine. Add to that “partially hydrogenated vegetable oils”, totally unnatural and harmful.
Medications such as pain killers, acid blockers, antibiotics, synthetic hormones, birth control pills and many others irritate the intestine.
Many people have food allergies and sensitivities.
All of that contributes to dysbiosis, when the proportion of the bad bacteria is higher than is good for you.
There are many other factors, but that’s enough for now. So, what do we do to fix the leaky gut?
We try to eliminate as many of the factors I just mentioned as possible, and we use some nutritional supplements.
First, you need to clean up your diet. SAD diet includes many processed and packaged foods with thousands of FDA approved chemicals. Don’t eat any food that has ingredients which you cannot pronounce.
Second, you need to cut down on sugar. By that I mean any product containing sugar, whether obviously, like a cake or ice-cream or added to food under the names like glucose, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, and so on. There are over two dozen different ways to describe sugar, you can download a special report on LowThyroidDoctor.com. Just remember, all the bad bugs in your stomach love sugar.
I don’t mean that you should never eat an ice cream or a piece of cake or a doughnut. But do it as a treat, not a daily part of the diet.
Don’t use so called “vegetable oils”, don’t use partially hydrogenated oils. Use natural products, like olive oil, butter, lard, coconut oil.
See if you can eliminate some medications you take on a regular basis. If you take a pill for a headache occasionally, that’s OK. But if you take a daily pain killer for chronic arthritis, see if you can use natural pain killers instead, such as Boswellia and Turmeric, which by the way are also good for intestinal inflammation. Plus, there are other natural things that help arthritis. Consider not using birth control pills, use another method instead. Don’t take an antibiotic when you don’t need it. Antibiotics are not effective against viruses, so there is no point taking them if you have a cold or a flu. But they can cause a lot of inflammation in the intestine, making leaky gut worse.
Look into food allergies. If you have discomfort after eating a particular food, like cramps, pain, bloating or gas, you may be allergic. You can exclude this food from your diet for a few weeks and see how you feel.
You definitely have to exclude gluten. This is a protein found in wheat, rye and barley. Some people have a severe gluten allergy which is called celiac disease. Most people do not have celiac disease, but they may still have gluten sensitivity. If you have Hashimoto's you almost certainly have gluten allergy and eating even a small amount of gluten worsens leaky gut. Plus, remember that antibodies made against gluten can attack the thyroid. On the other hand, if you go gluten-free you will definitely notice improvement in your Hashimoto's.
This applies to dairy products as well.
Ideally, your diet should be as close to natural as possible, without added sugar or chemicals or unnatural oils.
And don’t listen to people who tell you to avoid meat, eggs, butter and other animal foods because they are high in cholesterol. Cholesterol does not cause heart disease or hardening of the arteries. You can eat meat, whether it’s beef or lamb or chicken or any other kind, eat your eggs, fish, everything that’s natural. But don’t eat hot dogs and cold cuts, because they are full of chemicals. Same with fruits and vegetables, the closer to natural the better. Cooked oatmeal is fine, but a cereal made from oats that looks like little colored doughnuts is highly processed and is full of chemicals, so don’t eat it.
It's also important to drink enough water. Enough does not mean 8 glasses a day. Enough means drinking when you are thirsty and making sure that your urine is light yellow or clear, not dark.
Now let’s talk about supplements that you can take to help leaky gut.
I mentioned that antibiotics promote yeast, Candida and bad bacteria because they kill a lot of good bacteria. The solution is to bring in more good bacteria which are also called probiotics. Normally we get probiotics from food, especially fermented foods like kefir, plain yogurt, sauerkraut, sourdough bread, fermented vegetables like pickles. Any vegetable can be fermented and in many countries people eat fermented tomatoes, fermented garlic and any other vegetable you can imagine. There are also many supplements that provide probiotics. I’ll talk about probiotic supplements in a moment.
Digestive enzymes are very important. They break the food down into small units from which the food is made. Pancreas is the organ that makes digestive enzymes. When you are young, you make lots of enzymes, not only enough to digest the food you eat but much more, so extra enzymes go into the blood and digest/break down the waste products that are always produced by the cells. But as we get older, the pancreas makes less and less digestive enzymes, so many people over 50 do not have enough enzymes to digest the food they eat.
Food that is not fully digested is not absorbed. It stays in the intestine and provides food for the bad bacteria, yeasts and parasites. If you notice bloating, gas, discomfort after eating, you probably need digestive enzymes. If you are 50 or older, you definitely need enzyme supplements. When you start taking digestive enzymes you will notice an improvement in bloating, gas, belching, indigestion and other digestive symptoms.
Anti-inflammatory supplements like Boswellia and Turmeric are good for any kind of inflammation, including intestinal.
An amino acid L-glutamine also has anti-inflammatory effect on the lining of the gut and is a very good supplement to take.
Omega 3 fatty acids are also good anti-inflammatory agents, besides being good for circulation, heart health and brain health. You can get it from eating fatty fish or from taking supplements.
There are certain plants and supplements that help kill bad bacteria, like Artemisia or Wormwood, Olive leaf extract, garlic, and many others.
You know that there are about 100 trillion microbes living in our intestine. They are known as intestinal microbiome. Some of these microbes are bad for us, especially in large amounts, and especially if there aren’t enough good bacteria to protect us. These good bacteria or probiotics do many good things for us. They digest certain things that we can’t, they produce certain vitamins, they activate Thyroid hormone, turning T4 into T3.
Probiotics are important for the immune system, they produce substances that bad bugs do not like. One of them is lactic acid. Bad bugs do not like acidity, but good ones do. There are over 400 types of good bacteria. One of the most numerous is called Lactobacillus acidophilus. Acidophilus means acid loving. Good intestinal bacteria protect us from leaky gut, from traveler’s diarrhea, from IBS and other intestinal conditions. Probiotics even have an effect on cardiovascular and mental issues.
When looking for a good supplement, make sure that it contains many billions of probiotics, like 40 to 50 per capsule, many types of Lactobacillus and many types of another important probiotic called Bifidobacterium.
There is something called pre-biotic. This is the food for probiotics. There are several kinds. They are what we also call “fiber.” We cannot digest it, but probiotics can and do. Pre-biotics are found in fruits, vegetables, legumes, root vegetables and everywhere else where you expect to find fiber.
When it comes to supplements, I tell you what works and it’s up to you to get them and use them, or not – it’s your choice. You just need to be aware that, like with everything else, some products are better than others. I do not make any supplements, but I do make supplements available to my patients if they choose to get them from me. I use products made by reputable companies that have been in business for decades and are known for high quality. They all have 3rd party testing, in other words they send their products to another independent lab to be tested for quality and content. These companies usually do not sell directly to consumers, only to health professionals.
To summarize, proper treatment of low thyroid is not just about taking the right dose of the right medication. It is also about healing the thyroid, supporting thyroid, providing it with the things it needs to stay healthy and repairing the leaky gut syndrome, reducing gut inflammation, help digestion and balance the intestinal microbiome.
If you know someone who might be interested in low thyroid, please refer them to LowThyroidDoctor.com so they can download this ebook. Also, if you have questions or comments, please email to DrTeplisky@gmail.com.
As an additional bonus, while available, you can get a free, no obligation 30 min phone consultation with me to see if I can help you figure out if you have low thyroid and what I can do to help you. Just book it online or call my office at 718-769-0997.