If you are tired of feeling sluggish, fatigued, and overweight, it could be related to your thyroid health. 

As a Holistic Health Practitioner, I take a functional and holistic approach to thyroid health while concentrating on natural treatments and remedies. Instead of solely looking at a patient’s health problems as a disease, I focus on maximizing the patient’s HEALTH, imbalances, and dysfunction. My team and I investigate the causes that lead to health issues, which finally show up as symptoms. By eliminating these causes, the symptoms should not return. My goal is to restore balance to the body’s physiological POWER so that my patients enjoy lifelong, optimal health. 

Through years of practice, I have found that focusing on the causes behind thyroid-related health issues, rather than symptoms, is a better approach to improving your overall health. Conventional medicine usually turns to prescription medicine to treat symptoms without looking for the root cause. The problem is that medications simply mask symptoms while doing nothing to address any underlying issues. Therefore, the symptoms tend to come back and often require medications for life.  

At the BodyPro Wellness Center, we investigate the cause of your thyroid dysfunction and maximize each step of the inner workings of your thyroid function in order to magnify your health and vitality. As a result, you’ll burn fuels to create energy to thrive and function.

Recommended Natural Hypothyroidism Treatment

1. Remove gluten from your diet. Food intolerances such that come from wheat, cause inflammation, and disrupt thyroid function. Follow a grain-free diet.
2. Avoid all dairy products, A1 casein protein (e.g., cow’s milk) as well as A2 beta-casein protein (cows, goat, or sheep milk). Milk products with these proteins also cause inflammation and disrupt thyroid function by mimicking gluten.
3. NO BPA (Bisphenol A). Use BPA-free plastic bottles, or drink out of a glass or stainless steel.
4. Restore cell health and detox your body of harmful metals. Take a combination of Milk Thistle, Turmeric, Chlorella, and Cilantro.
5. Eat kelp or organic liquid iodine to supplement your iodine levels. (Not recommended for patients with an autoimmune condition, as iodine can make the condition worse.)
6. Eat foods that are rich in Selenium, such as Brazil nuts, salmon, sunflower seeds, beef, mushrooms, and onions.
7. Lower your cortisol levels and take adaptogen supplements, such as Ashwagandha and Tulsi.
8. Decrease carbohydrates, sugars, and grains from your diet. Replace these foods with healthy fats, such as coconut oil, coconut milk, avocado oil, avocado, grass-fed beef, wild salmon, chia, flax seeds, and hemp seeds. These foods will help promote hormone balance.
9. Remove mercury amalgam fillings. Find a holistic dentist to remove amalgam fillings safely (http://holisticdental.org/find-a-holistic-dentist)

Thyroid Defined

The thyroid is a butterfly-shaped gland located in the front of the neck that makes thyroid hormones. Thyroid hormones regulate the way the body uses energy and is essential for metabolism and overall health.

Prevalence of Thyroid Disease in the U.S.

According to the American Thyroid Association, the prevalence and impact of thyroid disease are as follows:

More than 12 percent of the U.S. population will develop a thyroid condition during their lifetime.

• An estimated 20 million Americans have some form of thyroid disease.
• Up to 60 percent of those with thyroid disease are unaware of their condition.
• Women are five to eight times more likely than men to have thyroid problems.
• One woman in eight will develop a thyroid disorder during her lifetime.
• Most thyroid cancers respond to treatment, although a small percentage can be very aggressive.
• Undiagnosed thyroid disease may put patients at risk for certain serious conditions, such as cardiovascular diseases, osteoporosis, and infertility.
• Pregnant women with undiagnosed or inadequately treated hypothyroidism have an increased risk of miscarriage, preterm delivery, and severe developmental problems in their children.

Major Contributing Factors for Thyroid Disease

Toxicity: Radiation and Heavy Metal exposure
Deficiency: In Iodine and Selenium
Food Intolerance and Sensitivities: Gluten, Dairy, Whey, Yeast, Rice, Millet, and Corn
Hormone Imbalance: High Cortisol from Stress, Low Protein, and Low Fat Diets, Too Many Carbs
Infections: Viral and Bacterial

Thyroid Problems Undetected

Most often patients who have hypothyroidism (an underactive thyroid where the thyroid does not produce enough hormone) present with the following symptoms:

• Depression
• Extreme Fatigue
• Forgetfulness
• Weight Gain

These are pretty generic symptoms and often go undetected because either the symptoms mimic many other ailments or they are so slight that they go unnoticed. If you take a closer look at your symptoms, you may notice that they have been gradual and worsening over time. The more silent signs of hypothyroidism, include:  

• Sleep Changes (More Tired, Frequent Naps)
• Change in Bowel Habits (Constipation)
• High Cholesterol
• Thinning Hair (Eyebrows)
• Brain Fog (Mental Fatigue, Subtle Memory Loss)
• Weight Gain (Gradual, Clothes are Too Tight)

Generally, the symptoms of hyperthyroidism (an overactive thyroid where your body is producing too much hormone) include:

• Irritability
• Nervousness
• Muscle weakness
• Unexplainable weight loss
• Vision and eye issues
• Sleep disturbances and problems

And more specifically, when taking a closer look, you may notice these other gradual symptoms over a period of time:

• Anxiety (Hypervigilance)
• Random Sweating (Increased Body Temperature due to Increased Metabolism)
• Sleep Changes (Insomnia/Metabolism is Revved Up)
• Change in Bowel Habits (Not Diarrhea, Increase in Frequency)
• Increased Appetite (Weight Loss)

Diagnosing Thyroid Disease

The following tests should be performed for proper diagnosis.

• Spot Urinary Iodine Test – tests your morning urine to see how much iodine is present.
• Blood Tests, Including
  • TSH
  • Free T4
  • Free T3
  • Reverse T3
  • T3RU
  • Thyroid Peroxidase Antibodies (TP0Ab)
  • Thyroglobulin Antibodies (TgAb)
• These last two tests are thyroid antibody tests for autoimmune thyroid diseases, such as Hashimoto’s and Graves’ diseases.
• Thyroid Scan

Blood Sugar

Everywhere you look today, we seem to be inundated with carbs and sugars. From sugary sodas to corn syrup hidden in hamburger buns and even “healthy” morning cereal and breads, it can seem impossible to get away from. At BodyPro Wellness Center in Newport Beach, CA, we can help you keep your sugar intake under control while maintaining your health and wellness.

Understanding Blood Sugar And How Our Body Uses It

So if sugar is so bad for our health, why do our bodies need it? The greatest boon and bane of sugar is that it represents fast, high-potency fuel for our body. It’s used in almost everything we do, from powering our brain to ensuring our muscles and organs have the energy to function at peak performance. The main sugar in our blood, known as blood glucose, is the fuel behind countless chemical reactions involved in our day-to-day function. It’s measured in the blood, but what is most important but less measurable is – how well is it being BURNED or PROCESSED into usable energy WITHIN OUR CELLS? Unused glucose often gets stored in the muscles and liver in the form of glycogen or body fat, which serves as a stored energy reserve for when we need fast energy.

The hormone insulin also has an important role to play. Insulin informs our cells of when it’s time to take hold of sugar and make use of it. Insulin function generally happens in the following steps:

• Food is broken down, and its fuels – like glucose – are passed into the bloodstream
• Your pancreas is signaled to start releasing insulin in order to shuttle the sugar into the cells
• Insulin signals the cells to begin taking the sugar in, in order to make energy for that cell to function.  Unused sugar is stored as glycogen or fat by the body.
• When blood sugar drops to proper levels, your pancreas stops producing insulin.

Insulin resistance is the result of the body beginning to become unresponsive to frequent and outrageous amounts of insulin. This unresponsiveness causes the pancreas to produce yet more insulin in response to the still high levels of glucose in your bloodstream. This state is known as hyperinsulinemia.  Not only does this overwhelm the insulin receptors of the cells and tire the pancreas out, but it also makes it so that you’ll require more and more insulin for subsequent meals to be able to shuttle the fuels across the cell membranes and into the cells. It can even overwhelmingly drop your sugar and cause a condition called Reactive Hypoglycemia.  This is a condition in which the high insulin finally shuttles glucose into the cells, so that the levels in the bloodstream drop, radically.  Sadly, if you force the cells to take up more fuels than they need, you will notice that the liver cells will turn the residual into fat, making a fatty liver.

Eventually, your body may begin ceasing to respond to insulin altogether, resulting in high levels of blood sugar remaining in the bloodstream. This is one of the fundamental causes of diabetes Type 2.

Other conditions that can result from insulin dependency include:

• Obesity.
• Cardiovascular disease.
• Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.
• Metabolic syndrome.
• Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS).

Too much body sugar isn’t the only possible outcome, however. Too little sugar, a state known as hypoglycemia, can also be a potential risk. Hypoglycemia occurs when your body develops abnormally low amounts of blood sugar, anything less than 70mg per deciliter. This condition can cause coma, seizures, confusion, and even death in its worst cases.

It’s important that you run a comprehensive test to understand the imperfections in how your body uses fuels.  Specialized markers such as the Glycomark, Fructosamine, Homa-IR index, and Hemoglobin A1c (HBA1c) need to be assessed.  Oftentimes, insulin receptors need to be restored utilizing a principle of biochemistry called Le Chatielier’s Principle which essentially states that when a receptor isn’t working right, provide what it needs to be fully restored.  We do this with targeted  supplements and lifestyle changes.

Managing Blood Sugar at BodyPro Wellness Center

Imbalances occurring in your blood sugar levels can cause serious health concerns, especially when insulin resistance is involved. Call Dr. Tony Ganem,DC at BodyPro Wellness Center to start being proactive about controlling your blood sugar and preventing insulin resistance. We’ll get you arranged with a consultation that will involve a full accounting of your current and past medical history. With this knowledge in hand, we will devise a full plan to address your concerns and help you restore health.