How to Boost Your Thyroid Function by 60%- PART II VIDEO
Dr Hagmeyer here and I want to Welcome you back to part II of this video series- titled, “How to Boost Your Thyroid Function by 60%”
If you are just joining us, in the first part of this video series, I covered “The Role of the Liver and Why the liver is so important to thyroid function and Hashimoto’s disease and I also talked about the “The 7 Signs that your Liver is Tired, Toxic and Overworked” and foods to start eating to support liver Health.
If you missed part I- How To Boost Your Thyroid function by 60%,, you can watch part one of the video here
In today’s video, Part 2, “How To Boost Your Thyroid function by 60%” we are going to unpack several other key areas for optimal Thyroid function.
Heres What You will Learn In Todays Video on Thyroid Health;
- How to best support your liver detoxification pathways for Thyroid Problems,
- Some of my favorite herbs that help support the liver
- 5 Toxins to start eliminating from your house today, where you find them and how they affect your Thyroid function
In order to understand how to best support your liver, we first need to gain a better appreciation and understanding how the liver gets rid of these toxins in the first place.
A few weeks ago, I had a patient who just starting to work with. She has a Thyroid problem and has suffered with cystic acne, heavy periods, irritability and depression during her period, stomach bloating and a really bad case of IBS-diarrhea. All common symptoms in people who suffer with Thyroid disease.
She has been to 4 different naturopathic doctors and each one prescribed hormones and had her on multiple 7- or 14-day detox programs.
In 12 months, her health continued to deteriorate. The reason I tell you this is that when it comes to truly supporting your liver, the support needed for liver detoxication is very specific and needs to be personalized from one person to the next.
Detoxing the Liver Involves More Than a 7, 14 or 28 Day Detox
While these can certainly get things moving in the right direction, to truly support your liver, requires a better understanding of the specific vitamins, minerals, amino acids, that are needed by the individual. You can’t fix what you don’t know.
When supporting the liver, you want to be as specific as possible in supporting the Phase 1 and phase 2 pathways needed for detoxification and improved thyroid function.
Every day, we come in contact with thousands of chemicals in the air we breathe, the foods we eat and the water we drink. In fact, in 2006, the Centers for Disease Control reported that the average American has 116 out of 148 synthetic compounds in their body!
This was also seen in a study done that looked at the umbilical cord blood of newborns, that found things like flame retardant, jet liner fuel, plastic, PCB’s, pesticides and various medications and up in umbilical cord blood of Newborns.
Understanding How To Best Support The Liver
So, how does the liver (despite all of these toxins) manage to keep some of us healthy and play a role in Thyroid function? Why are we all not dropping dead? Part of this answer, lies in the effectiveness of a two-step enzymatic process that takes place in the liver.
Now, I promise I won’t bore you with all the details, but if you understand this, you will see why a generic 7,14 or 28 day detox, does very little good long term for supporting liver health and ultimately Thyroid health and immunity. So, let’s take a quick peek at this illustration and hit the most important points.
Liver Detoxification Made Simple
If you look at this diagram- On the left side, you will see just under toxins, it says Phase I-
In the first phase of detoxification (phase 1) fat-soluble toxins undergo various chemical changes that are designed to get them ready and convert them from fat soluble toxins into water soluble toxins- This is very important because water soluble toxins can easily be eliminated through Bile, Urine and stool whereas fat soluble toxins can get reabsorbed and then deposited in our fat making us sicker. The important thing I want you to see here is the nutrients needed in order for this first phase of detoxification to work correctly.
Important Vitamins for Phase 1 and Phase II Detoxification
What you will notice is that these pathways require various B vitamins such as B2, B3, B6, B12, folate, glutathione, and flavonoids to work properly. Any deficiency in these vitamins can potentially affect just how efficiently this first phase of detoxification can work.
Phase I toxins are actually very toxic and it’s critical that they move into phase II conjugation pathways. Now, if you look at the diagram and just under waste, to the left you will see it says phase II and in parenthesis it says conjugation pathways.
In the second step these very toxic fat-soluble substances undergo more chemical changes. These chemical changes detoxify the substances and make them water-soluble so they again can be excreted via the bile, stool or urine.
Again, I want you to pay special note of how important vitamins, minerals, amino acids are to this 2nd step of detoxification. Things like Folate, magnesium, glutathione, vitamin C, B5, B12, and amino acids such as methionine, cysteine, glycine, taurine, glutamine, and choline are all needed in Phase II.
Hopefully what you realize is that in order to support both phase 1 and phase 2 detox pathways, the liver needs to be given vitamins, minerals, amino acids.
There is no way around this, and this is why one of the foundational steps to healing depends on your nutritional status, not a 7, 14 or 21-day detox per se.
It’s not as exciting or trendy to talk about vitamins and minerals when there is so much buzz about this detox or that detox, but again testing these areas of cellular health, will tell your doctor how to best support your foundation.
Why Testing Is Beneficial
We are all different, with different needs, different health challenges, stressors, etc, without testing we can’t be very specific to the needs of the liver and other glands and tissues of the body. Think about this, we test for vitamin D levels, B12 levels, calcium levels and iron levels. Why would we not test for things like amino acids, and all the other B vitamins and minerals and antioxidants that most people who have autoimmune disease, thyroid disease or gut issues are known to be struggling with..
You Simply Can’t Guess About Nutritional Requirements- You can’t fix what You Don’t Know!.
These Amino Acid Levels in the Red are All Very Low. So, now that we have a better understanding of some of the specific nutrients the liver needs in order to carry out proper phase 1 and phase 2 detoxification pathways.
What Can I do to Help myself?
Let’s jump into some of the more generalized support you can due on your own- things to support overall liver function if you don’t have the ability for Testing.
Whenever I think of Liver support, I think about
- Specific nutrients to facilitate Phase I and Phase II Liver Detoxification.
- Improve Bile flow and Bile Production
- Improve GI motility (if that’s an issue).
- Eliminating known or potential toxins in the foods we eat, the house we live in and or our surrounding environment.
Rule #1 when it comes to supporting detoxification pathways, we don’t want to be detoxing if we have sluggish motility.
One of the questions I’m often asked about is about having mercury filling removed- I never recommend having mercury fillings removed, without first addressing leaky gut, gut dysbiosis and motility. We need to have 1-2 bowel movements per day-minimum but I would suggest you strive for 2-3 bowel movements per day, for a few months.
So, what can we do to improve bile flow?
#1- Eat more green leafy vegetables both in salads but also in making your own juices.
Start juicing things like dandelion greens, kale, mustard greens, arugula, turnips, swiss chard- while those things by themselves don’t sound very appetizing, if you throw those in your juicer with 5-6 green apples, a lemon, and a thumb size of ginger- you will find yourself actually enjoying these and looking forward to making them.
This is something I do a few times per week for my family and with four kids something nobody ever complains about. Additionally, I recommend Herbal bitters before meals- Bitters, unlike digestive enzymes stimulate your body’s natural production of digestive enzymes. These can be great for people who can’t take digestive enzymes or find themselves super sensitive to enzyme therapy.
Herbal Bitters helps naturally Stimulate Digestion
These Herbal bitters will be things like Gentian, Burdock root, Yellow Dock, Dandelion root, Milk thistle, Myrrh, Goldenrod all of these can also help improve bile flow or bile production.
#2 Use Binders to Mop Up Toxins
Another strategy, I also often implement to help cleanse the GI system is GI Detox. This contains binders like Clay that help mop up and bind toxins-
Binders to consider include things like bentonite clay, activated charcoal and chitosan, Mastic gum, and fibers. One word of caution, because binders can be constipating in some individuals its important to keep an eye on this. You don’t want to be constipated when you are trying to eliminate toxins.
If you find yourself constipated, increase your water content, eat more berries and low glycemic fruit. If this doesn’t help improve after a few days. Consider adding in things like you see below.
#3 Support Bowel Motility
A 3rd strategy to consider when working with the liver is implementing a supplement that support bowel motility. Things like aloe vera, apple pectin, 5HTP, and ginger as a way of promoting and maintaining bowel to motility. One of my favorites is Motilpro–
For those individuals who have had their gall bladders removed– its essential that you support digestion of fats, proteins and starches by using a bile support supplement.
Ok, so far we talked about the importance of certain vitamins, minerals and amino acids to support phase 1 and 2 detoxification pathways,
We talked about ways to naturally stimulate bile flow through juicing and the use of bitters, we also talked about the importance of supplements that help “bind up” and mop up of toxins and finally we talked about supplements that help eliminate toxins through proper bile flow.
The last topic for this video series, we need to talk about are some of the actual Thyroid toxins lurking in your house, in your food, in your cosmetics and in your beauty products.
5 Thyroid Disruptors, Where You Find Them and How They Affect Your Thyroid.
These toxins are known as Thyroid disruptors and if you are someone who has been diagnosed with an autoimmune disease like hashimotos, Graves, Diabetes, MS, Lupus or any of the other autoimmune diseases- This information is going to be super important.
#1-BPA and Thyroid Function
The first Thyroid disruptor I want to warn you about is BPA. BPA is also known as Bisphenol A and BPA, found in plastic containers such as water bottles, baby bottles, children toys, its found in the epoxy lids on metal cans that are used to store canned vegetables, fruits and meats.
The 2nd Thyroid disruptor is Triclosan.
Triclosan is found in most of your antibacterial soaps, toothpaste, deodorants, and hair sprays, has a structure that resembles that of thyroid hormones.
FDA has issues its final rule on the safety and has recently been banned by the FDA.
The FDA states that triclosan and 23 other active ingredients aren’t generally recognized as safe and effective for use in OTC health care antiseptic products.
One of the problems was due to due to thyroid toxicity.
The 3rd Thyroid disruptor- Fluoride, Chloride and Bromide
The 3rd Thyroid Disruptor (and I am putting these together because chemically) they are very similar is Fluoride, Chloride and Bromide
Fluoride, Chloride and Bromide can be found in our local water supply, toothpaste, mouthwashes, bottled water, tea, canned foods, bread and even many medications.
While older studies state that fluoride does not affect Thyroid function- new studies continue to show just the opposite.
Here’s one study from 2018 that showed the higher the fluoride concentration in the drinking water the higher the TSH level meaning the greater the impairment to the thyroid gland.
4th Thyroid disruptor- Iodine
Yes you heard me right! Iodine can cause thyroid problems.
There are multiple studies that show Iodine can inhibit Thyroid hormones release from the thyroid gland.
In fact with individuals with Toxic nodular goiters, Graves disease or Hyperthyroidism- a treatment called radioactive Iodine or RAI is given to kill the thyroid and lower thyroid hormone levels.
We also know that large doses of iodine cause a decrease in blood concentrations of both T4 and T3 thyroid hormones and an increase in TSH levels.
Another consequence of Iodine is that it can cause thyroid cells to die- a process called apoptosis.
And we have also seen multiple studies showing the impact that iodine can have on individuals who are susceptible to autoimmune Thyroiditis or Hashimotos disease- the number one cause of hypothyroidism in the United States.
The 5th Thyroid disruptor- Aluminum
And the 5th Thyroid disruptor I want you to be aware of and one you should start eliminating is Aluminum – Aluminum can be found in vaccines, it’s found in deodorants and antiperspirants, it’s found in cooking pans especially the non-stick ones that have been used for some time and are all scratched up, it’s found in medications as well.
So those are 5 thyroid disruptors that you should be aware of- There are many others such as those found in Herbicides and pesticides- Those chemicals that your neighbors use to kill weeds and feed their lawns.
Additional Thyroid Disruptors You Should be Aware Of
The most well-known is herbicide known to cause Thyroid problems and so many other health problems including celiac disease is glyphosate. Atrazine is another common herbicide known to cause hormonal problems.
Unfortunately, many of these toxic chemicals are made by the big pharmaceutical companies who have infinite amount of political influence, money and power to publish studies that claim these chemicals are safe.
The best thing you can do when it comes to these hormone- thyroid disruptors is be your own health advocate.
Read labels, look at ingredients and start minimizing the chemical around your house and your exposure. Opt for natural methods of weed control and so on.
Every little bit counts and every you do, ultimately will help you, your family and our environment.
Testing for Thyroid Disruptors and Other Chemicals That Can be A Trigger in Autoimmune Disease
There are some very specialized testing that we offer in our clinic when we work with patients who have hormonal imbalances, and autoimmune disorders.
Cyrex labs and other labs that can evaluate your immune systems reaction to many of the toxins I spoke of today as well as the level of exposure. Here is a test we often run on those with chemical sensitivity and autoimmune diseases.
So, there you go! I hope you enjoyed todays video on the important of Liver function and how it relates to the Thyroid disease an autoimmunity-
People Who Found This Article Helpful Also Watched or read:
- Part I- The Role of the Liver and Why the liver is so important to thyroid function and those with Hashimoto’s disease.
- The 7 Signs that your Liver is toxic and or overworked
- How to best support your liver especially if you are one of those people who have an MTHFR mutation
- 5 Thyroid disruptors or Toxins to start eliminating from your house today, where you find them
Be Sure to Visit my Youtube Channel
If you liked todays video- Leave me a comment below! And remember when it comes to tackling the Root cause of poor thyroid function and autoimmunity, your doctor needs to be a good investigator.
The more clues you have about what’s wrong inside your body, the easier it will be to understand where your body needs help and how to best support it for the years to come.
If you need help getting to the root cause of why your thyroid is failing or why you are struggling with autoimmune thyroid disease and the triggers that cause it, visit my website and hit the start here button.
There is a questionnaire that you can complete and once we know a bit more about your health concerns, and goals, within about 10-15 minutes, we will send you out recommendations on how to get started and what we need to do in order to help you move in the right direction towards better health.
Whether it’s helping you with improving your diet or going beyond diet and digging deeper into the causes of autoimmunity with the various testing we offer – we can help.
I’m Dr Hagmeyer and I hope you liked todays video! Until next time. Take care.
