Recently I interviewed Dr. Anshul Gupta, as we chatted about some of the common triggers of Graves’ disease and Hashimoto’s, and he also discussed peptides, and how they can benefit people with these and other conditions (i.e. chronic Lyme disease). If you would prefer to listen the interview you can access it by Clicking Here.
Dr. Eric Osansky:
With me, I have Dr. Anshul Gupta. We are going to be talking about triggers of thyroid autoimmunity, meaning Graves’ and Hashimoto’s. We are also going to be talking about how to address those triggers. Dr. Gupta is going to get into peptides as well. This is the first time I’ll be covering peptides. Excited to learn a little bit more about those.
Dr. Gupta is a best-selling author, speaker, researcher, and a world expert in Hashimoto’s. He treats people worldwide in reversing Hashimoto’s. He is a board-certified family medicine physician with advance certification in functional medicine, peptide therapy, and fellowship training in integrative medicine. He has worked at the prestigious Cleveland Clinic Centerfor Functional Medicine alongside Dr. Mark Hyman. He has helped thousands of patients to reverse their health issues by using the concepts of functional medicine. Lot of credentials here.
Also, he is on a mission to help one million people reverse their health conditions. To achieve this mission, he has written a bestselling book called Reversing Hashimoto’s. He has also started a virtual functional medicine practice, a blog, and a YouTube channel so he can reach people all over the world. Through his innovative approach to Hashimoto’s, he has helped several patients to reverse their unresolved symptoms and live their life to the fullest.
He loves to spend time with his wife and two kids. In his free time, he enjoys traveling, hiking in the woods, and meditating in a quiet spot. Welcome. Thanks for joining us, Dr. Gupta.
Dr. Anshul Gupta:
Thank you so much for having me on the show. It is a privilege to be here.
Dr. Eric:
Definitely a privilege to have you. Look forward to talking about both Graves’ and Hashimoto’s. Your book is on reversing Hashimoto’s. Of course, a lot of information applies to both Graves’ and Hashimoto’s as well as other autoimmune conditions. Like I said, I am very excited also to learn more about peptides, which can apply to both conditions too.
Let’s start out with your backstory. Why did you decide to write your book?
Dr. Anshul:
This all started off with my own health journey. After doing my family medicine residency, I was working in a very small private family medicine primary care job. Just a couple of years into my work, I had my own health issues. I was having this horrible stomach pain that often caused me to double over because of the pain. Sometimes, the pain was so severe that I thought about going to the emergency room. Being a doctor myself, I knew that the emergency room doctors could not do anything except give me pain medications, so I bore through it.
Being a doctor, I started taking some medications to fix it. They were not working. I thought, Maybe I’m not smart enough. Let me see if a specialist who is smarter than me can fix my problem. I saw specialist after specialist, gastroenterologist, allergy specialist, you name it. We did tons of testing: lab testing, endoscopies, ultrasounds. Everything came back normal. There are no medications that would be helpful. They had no idea what was going on with me. I kept on taking more medications, but I was still miserable. I was having more symptoms. I was feeling so tired and fatigued that I had to take a nap during the day just to function during the day. After my day was done, I was so tired that I would literally not be able to function. I was gaining weight like crazy even though I had not changed my diet. At the time, I had no idea what to do. I was totally helpless and hopeless. Nobody could help me out.
Then somebody introduced me to functional medicine. These guys actually fix people who are not fixable by anybody. That is when I started training in functional medicine. The first thing I did was figure out my triggers. I figured that my trigger was some food sensitivities along with a lot of inflammation in my system. I addressed those things. Within one month, my pain was gone. Within six months, I was off all medications. I lost 40 pounds. I had more energy in my system than I ever had before. I even did a 5K like a maniac, which was totally unusual for me. After having phenomenal results with myself, I decided I wanted to help people with this functional medicine model of care. I worked at the Cleveland Clinic.
At the time, I was seeing these Hashimoto’s patients or thyroid disorder patients, and they were exactly like me. They were all going to doctors, taking medications, labs normal, but they were miserable. They all had brain fog issues, fatigue issues, weight gain problems, gut problems. Nobody knew how to fix them. They wanted answers because nobody was giving them answers. I needed to help these people.
I started a research journey into why these people were not feeling well. After a couple of years, I developed a three-step protocol that helped a lot of Hashimoto’s and thyroid disorder patients to get their life back. That is where I decided I now need to write a book because I wanted to share this message with the whole world. That is when I started writing the book, and finally the book came into being and is out now.
Dr. Eric:
As we chatted a little bit before starting the recording, I did go through your book. Excellent book. You talk about triggers, which play a big role when it comes to all different autoimmune conditions. Even though the triggers apply to Hashimoto’s, they can apply to people for Graves’ or other conditions, too. I’d like to dive into some of the different triggers. If you could talk about the main triggers that you discussed in your book that can affect people with Hashimoto’sand other conditions.
Dr. Anshul:
Through my research, I found there are five main categories of triggers that are responsible for the majority of chronic conditions, whether it’s thyroid or something else. The first one is food sensitivities. We all know that food is medicine, but food can also be an important reason for causing problems. What you’re seeing is more and more people are sensitive to certain foods, and those are the reason they are getting triggered for autoimmune conditions. These food sensitivity triggers could be gluten, dairy, soy, corn, processed meat, other processed foods, and sugars. That is the first category of triggers.
The second category of triggers is toxins. Our world is laden with toxins. Each and every day, we have more and more toxins poured into our environment. We now know that toxins are a big trigger for autoimmune conditions. They can be heavy metals like lead or mercury. There can be mold. There can be environmental toxins like pesticides.
The third category is nutritional deficiencies. Our body needs certain vitamins and minerals to function properly, especially the thyroid gland. If it doesn’t get those vitamins and minerals, it leads to the triggering of an autoimmune condition, be it deficiency of selenium or zinc or Vitamin D or Vitamin B12. They can all trigger a condition. It’s very important for us to know about that.
The next set of triggers is stress and trauma. In our world today, we are exposed to stress all the time, especially in the current scenario of the COVID pandemic. Everybody is so stressed out. Stress is a major reason, be it physical, emotional, mental, spiritual. Any kind of stress our body goes through can trigger an autoimmune reaction and lead to these conditions. A big stressor for women is post-delivery. Within a few months of delivering a child, a woman can often develop a condition like Hashimoto’s. That is a big trigger we see.
The last set of triggers is infections. Several infections have shown to lead to thyroid conditions, be they infections like Epstein-Barr, parasites in your gut, or chronic infections like Lyme or other co-infections. Candida, too. All of those infections can lead to autoimmune conditions.
These big five sets of triggers can lead to several autoimmune conditions. Every person who has an autoimmune condition should be assessed for all of them.
Dr. Eric:
Certain foods like gluten can potentially trigger autoimmunity directly. Would you also agree that the problem with some foods, too, is not that it is a direct trigger of autoimmunity, but it can also increase intestinal permeability, cause a leaky gut, which is a factor in autoimmune conditions?
Dr. Anshul:
Absolutely. Leaky gut, in the recent years of research, starts in the autoimmune process. Several foods that we are eating definitely causes that leaky gut. Not only the bigger ones like gluten and dairy, but if you are eating any processed meat or white flours or too much sugary foods or high glycemic index foods, those can all lead to leaky gut issues.
It also depends on how we are cooking our food. If you are charring your food or frying your food or overcooking, that can lead to increased intestinal permeability and cause leaky gut. It has an effect on the intestinal permeability, which can lead to leaky gut and autoimmunity.
Dr. Eric:
Do you test for food sensitivities? Do you put people through an elimination diet? How do you usually detect food sensitivities?
Dr. Anshul:
I do both. There is no foolproof way of knowing if a person is sensitive to food or not. We have several food sensitivity tests. All of them are great, but none of them are perfect. I have tried all of them, but they lack something. The foods that I know are not good for a person, I definitely do an elimination diet of five or six foods with them. At the same time, I order the food sensitivity panel, which gives us a better idea of whether they are certainly very sensitive to certain foods. We can eliminate those also in the later phases.
Dr. Eric:
Interesting. You have everybody avoid the common allergens, the foods that you mentioned, gluten, dairy, corn, soy, refined sugars, processed meats. Everybody has to avoid those when they are under your care. That’s what you recommend anyway. On top of that, you do food sensitivity testing. Correct?
Dr. Anshul:
Right. The timing works out pretty good. When the person sees me for the first time, by the time we order the food sensitivity panel and get the results, it’s three to four weeks. During this time, I take this opportunity to basically clean their whole system and wait for the test results. I do this elimination diet, which cleans up their system. It’s a brand-new function now. The food sensitivity panel gives us a better fine-tuned direction of which way we need to go. It’s a win-win situation for both sides.
Dr. Eric:
Is it IgG food sensitivity testing that you’re doing?
Dr. Anshul:
Yeah, mainly IgG testing. We have different versions of things now. We have this MRT test, which is good. We have the IgG testing also available. The MRT and newer tests are really expensive, so it also depends on affordability. If people can afford it, then I go with the more expensive ones, which not only look at IgG but also some of the other intermediate cytokines and histamine readers. It increases the sensitivity of the test. Now we are using not just a plain IgG.
Dr. Eric:
If you were given a choice, because you don’t have people who do both types, you would say #1 would be MRT testing if they can afford it. If not, then you would go toward the IgG test.
Dr. Anshul:
That’s correct.
Dr. Eric:
Both of theseare blood tests. Do you have them do the blood test first before giving up those foods? Or right away, do you have them give those foods up? At least with food sensitivity testing, you need to be eating the food for the test to be accurate. I’m wondering if you tell them to keep eating the same foods, and try to get the test as soon as possible. As soon as you get the blood draw, stop eating those allergens.
Dr. Anshul:
Exactly. I tell them, “If you want to do a food sensitivity test, this is the right time to do it. I don’t want you to eliminate the foods for four or six weeks and then order a panel.” As you rightly pointed out, then it would be useless. If you do decide to do the testing, get the bloodwork done, and within a few days, get the testing done. Then start the elimination diet. That is typically the work we do with them.
Dr. Eric:
Wonderful. Talk a little bit about toxins. There are so many toxins. I don’t know if you do testing for some toxins. Obviously, we can’t test for all of them. We could do some testing for heavy metals. There are other tests as well for certain environmental toxins. Tell me what you do in your practice.
Dr. Anshul:
I start with an in-depth questionnaire, asking about their potential risks for exposures. The big three categories of toxins are heavy metals, be it lead, mercury, arsenic, aluminum, etc.; mold; and environmental toxins. There are some clues that we can get by a patient’s history that point us toward where we might need to go. Once we get that, then I order tests.
What I’m seeing is more and more of my patients have more toxins. Previously, I was relying on heavy metals as the main reason. I think in the last couple of years, the shift has been more toward mold toxins. That is the triggering factor for a lot of my patients.
I have a 33-year-old female patient who came to see me for Hashimoto’s. She was diagnosed five years ago. She was having horrible symptoms. Feeling so tired that she has to take two naps during the day just to be functional. Along with that, she was having brain fog, gaining weight, and on the right medications. She kept on going to her doctor, and her doctor said, “You’re perfectly normal. Nothing else can be done for you.” She was definitely disappointed. She wanted to do something else. That’s when she came to see me.
The first evaluation, I am asking about different toxin exposures. I asked her to tell me more about her house. She said, “It’s a nice house. I have been living there for the past 10 years.” I asked her how old the house was. She said it was really old, from the 1960s. I asked her about mold. She said no. I asked, “But can you smell mold in your basement?” She said, “Yeah, my basement is moldy. But I don’t see any mold.” Bingo. Mold can be a trigger. “Since you moved into the house, did you notice in the couple of years after that is when you got diagnosed with Hashimoto’s?” She said yes. I said, “Let’s check you for mold.”
We ordered the test. The mold toxin was super high for her. She had no idea that mold was the trigger of her Hashimoto’s. Her house had mold toxins. She did the remediation for her house. We got her on a mold protocol. Within four to five months, she was phenomenal. Her fatigue was gone. She was able to function during the whole day. Her brain fog was gone. She lost 18 pounds during that time. Her life was totally back, and she had no idea because nobody had ever asked her about mold before.
These toxins are so important. A missing piece of the puzzle very often. We should have a very high index of suspicion. Again, as you pointed out, there is no perfect test for toxins. There are so many. Each and every day, we are producing new toxins in the market. Like with the careful history, a lot of the symptoms can point toward a person being toxic or not. Then I order a test to confirm things for us.
Dr. Eric:
I’m sure you have your patients incorporate the basics, like making sure they are eating organic foods to minimize pesticides and herbicide exposure. Drink purified water or some type of filtered water to avoid the tap water and water out of plastic bottles. Correct?
Dr. Anshul:
Absolutely. Before we go into a hard detox, we open up and help them out to clean up their environment as well as start working on the detox channels. As you said, cleaning up their water, cleaning up their foods, cleaning up their cosmetics because a lot of females are using a lot of cosmetic products which are heavy in a lot of chemicals. Working on that is important.
Working on air filters. A lot of us live in houses with poor air ventilation systems. That can lead to these problems. Working on proper air filters for that purpose. Working on basic things like dry brushing can be useful for detox. Working on saunas. Those are the basic things. Drinking lots of water.
Having bowel movements. That is the perfect way to detox your body. A lot of our patients are not having bowel movements. Incorporating those simple things. We start with those. Then we work on the hard detox.
The way people falter is without optimizing their detoxing, they just start with the hard detox. They get so many reactions. That is where people get worse. Let’s make sure that we are doing it step by step where we know how to do it gently and how to do it safely. That is the key about detox.
Dr. Eric:
Makes sense. I incorporate sauna. It’s not something everybody can do because they either need to have a sauna or go somewhere for a sauna. I don’t necessarily start out everybody where I recommend sauna therapy, but you brought up some great points.
When it comes to the next trigger, nutrient deficiencies. Can you also talk about some of the more common nutrient deficiencies? All nutrients are important. All vitamins and minerals are important. But the ones that relate more to autoimmunity, like selenium. If you could also jump into if you test for nutrient deficiencies, or do you just have everybody take a high potency multivitamin?
Dr. Anshul:
Yes, nutrient deficiency is a big one. Lots of patients who come to see me don’t think they are deficient in any nutrients because they eat a healthy diet. Research suggests that our food itself is deficient in minerals and vitamins. This research compared food from the 1990s to food in 2020. They saw that there was considerably lower amounts of vitamins and minerals in the food today. Even though you are eating the best quality food, we might not be getting the nutrients that our body needs. That is a very shocking revelation that I had when I looked at the research.
Several vitamins and minerals are associated with autoimmunity. Vitamin D is a common vitamin that almost everybody is deficient in. Very easy to check. That is one thing everybody should get checked.
The second one is selenium, especially for thyroid patients. Selenium is such an important mineral. We are very low. Unfortunately, there are not many good sources of food for selenium, so that’s why it’s important to make sure we are checking for selenium deficiency.
Vitamin B12 is very common. A lot of people are deficient in Vitamin B12, especially those who are vegan or vegetarian. We are checking those things for them. It’s very important. We need to check it out. Very common trigger of autoimmunity that we should be looking into.
Iron deficiency is another thing, especially in females. Very common. Often missed.
Those are the most common minerals that are associated with Hashimoto’s and Graves’. There are other things like Vitamin C, which a lot of people can be low in, zinc, and magnesium. But those are the foundation.
In terms of checking them or putting them on a multivitamin, I believe in being more specific with my supplements. I don’t put everyone on a multivitamin. I test for them first. Normal labs do not check for all the vitamins and minerals. We do use specialized lab testing, like Genova or SpectraCell. This gives us a better in-depth analysis of these vitamins and minerals. Then we curate a personalized plan, supplementing only what the body needs.
Dr. Eric:
You use either the NutrEval or micronutrient testing through SpectraCell. Is there one that you prefer over the other, just out of curiosity?
Dr. Anshul:
I like Genova. They have been in the market for forever. I believe in quality that way. I like Genova testing better than the SpectraCell.
Dr. Eric:
You also mentioned in your book when it comes to B12, you don’t want to rely on serum B12, which I’m glad you mentioned methylmalonic acid. The NutrEval is both blood and urine, right? That looks at the methylmalonic acid. From what I understand, urinary methylmalonic acid is supposed to be a little more accurate than the blood. I don’t know if you’ve heard the same thing.
Dr. Anshul:
I rely on these two or three different ways. You are looking at B12 levels, the MMA levels, and the homocysteine levels. That gives me a complete picture of where the B12 levels are, and what’s going on with the B12? Supplementing in the right form.
A lot of my Hashimoto’s clients have pernicious anemia. They are not absorbing B12 from their gut. They have this autoimmune condition. Then we have to rely on injections or sublingual B12 so they can absorb it and do better. B12 is such a complicated affair. It’s not simple. It’s much more complicated. Let’s make sure that you’re getting the right form of B12, and your body is converting and absorbing it.
Dr. Eric:
When it comes to selenium, if you determine through testing that someone has a selenium deficiency, do you usually try to correct that through supplementation, or do you have them eat foods? There are not a lot of foods high in selenium, but a lot of people bring up Brazil nuts. Can I just eat a few Brazil nuts instead of taking a supplement? What response do you have when someone brings that up to you?
Dr. Anshul:
Selenium is one of the minerals that has the most research studies backing for thyroid disorder. Whether that is Graves’ or Hashimoto’s or hypothyroidism, selenium is helpful for each of these things. There is not much toxicity of selenium unless you are taking huge doses. Whenever someone comes in with a thyroid disorder, I put them on selenium supplements to help them out. I don’t want to rely on food just to get the selenium. Supplementation, I know they are getting the required quantity so we can help them.
Dr. Eric:
I agree with everything you just said. When you eat Brazil nuts, you don’t know exactly how much selenium you’re getting. A Brazil nut might have 10-20mcg per nut, or sometimes it could have a lot higher, but you just don’t know. Even if it’s organic, it still might not have 70-80mcg per Brazil nut, so you might not be getting enough just by having a few. With the supplement, at least you know exactly how much you’re getting. Obviously, you want to try to do as much through food. Selenium is so important for overall health, but those with thyroid conditions, there is a lot of research there.
Let’s talk about stress. In your book, you did mention that you test cortisol in everybody, which I do, too. I recommend adrenal testing. Can you talk more about the effects of stress on the body as a trigger? I don’t remember if you do saliva testing or if you mentioned what type of testing. If you could get into that, too.
Dr. Anshul:
As you mentioned, stress is such an important trigger. Many of us discount stress as being nothing major. We know that research suggests every autoimmune disease can be triggered by stress. Stress can affect negatively our body in many ways. The major reason is about putting pressure on our adrenal glands. Cortisol is a great hormone. It is very protective of the body. When chronically the cortisol levels are high in our body, it starts burdening our body from the inside out.
There is a special connection between thyroid and adrenal glands. The thyroid gland actually helps with the adrenal functioning of the gland. The cortisol helps with the thyroid functioning. Chronically, cortisol causes negative feedback to the thyroid gland, to the point where it stops producing the thyroid hormone. It creates a scenario of hypothyroidism while in reality there is not.
The second thing cortisol does is play around with our immunity. Cortisol can actually change the inflammatory processes in our body and increase inflammatory markers. This can trigger an autoimmune process and cause a thyroid disorder. That is the reason adrenals are so important and limiting cortisol is important.
The easiest testing is the saliva cortisol testing. The problem is that the cortisol levels change during the day. If you just check cortisol levels one time a day, then it’s not accurate. You have to check it at least during four points throughout the day.
Dr. Eric:
I do use saliva testing in my practice, too. But in the last few years, for some patients, I started using the Dutch testing, dried urine testing.
Dr. Anshul:
That is awesome. If I am checking for all the hormones, that is great because it gives me a complete picture of their hormones: cortisol, progesterone, estrogen, metabolites, everything. Obviously, it’s an expensive test. If I am just looking at cortisol, and my patient cannot afford the Dutch test, we will go with the cheaper saliva testing. But if you ask me, the gold standard test right now to check for hormones, whether male or female, is the Dutch testing. It’s very accurate and gives us a very nice picture about the complete hormonal system. I love it.
Dr. Eric:
I think you’d also agree that you need healthy adrenals to have healthy sex hormones. Even if someone can’t afford a Dutch test, they could get a lot of value from doing the adrenal testing and supporting adrenals. Some people might decide to test the hormones in the blood. Maybe do total and free testosterone, progesterone, estrogen in the blood. It sounds like we’re on the same page when it comes to looking at adrenals and the sex hormones.
That leaves us with infections. That is the fifth and final category of triggers. You mentioned viruses, Lyme disease, parasites. Do you test for infections in your patients? Do you run blood testing for Epstein-Barr? Do you run a comprehensive stool panel? Does it depend on the person?
Dr. Anshul:
It depends on the person. It becomes overwhelming for our clients to do so many tests. Based on the questionnaire and the history, we decide where we need to go. Most of my clients end up doing the stool test because we know that leaky gut issues and SIBO, there are so many other things in the gut that can lead to an autoimmune condition. Stool testing is very common. That does cover the parasites.
The Lyme testing, I do not order the tests from the get-go because Lyme is so difficult to treat. It’s so way down the lane. Unless someone comes to me and they have already done everything, and the only thing left is Lyme, that is the last thing I will check for my patients. There is so much more we need to do beforehand.
Then comes Epstein-Barr virus. Depends on the person. If I get clear indications that they do have Epstein-Barr, if they have a history of it, we know that the virus is living in their body. Reactivation is very common. Most of our protocols is building their immunity back. That is where the peptides are useful. They do help immunity. We address Epstein-Barr by building their immunity and working on it through peptides anyway.
Dr. Eric:
How about H-pylori? Do you find that to be a problem with some people with thyroid autoimmunity?
Dr. Anshul:
Absolutely. That is a good test from a stool test. A lot of folks who have autoimmune conditions will be positive for H-pylori, too. Working on that is very important and improves a lot of my folks’ health.
Dr. Eric:
Let’s dive into peptides. You briefly mentioned peptides when talking about Epstein-Barr. Before you get into greater detail with peptides, can you explain for those who are unfamiliar with peptides what they are?
Dr. Anshul:
Peptides are basically a collection of small chain amino acids which are naturally produced by our body. We have proteins in our body, which are long chain amino acids. Similarly, we have these peptide molecules that are very small chain. The most common peptide that everyone knows about is insulin. We have been using insulin for a decade;that was the first peptide we were able to harvest and use as a medicine. With the recent advancement in technology, we were able to harvest more and more peptides and make them. The problem we are having with peptides is they were not being stable, so as soon as we would harvest them, and people used them, they would become inactive. Now we are able to combine them with different compounds and have better technology so we canuse them as medicines.
A couple of new peptides which are also approved for diabetes have come to the market. Several of them are in the pipeline of getting final FDA approval for various diseases.
The good part about peptides is they are natural. Your body is already producing them, so we are not using any external medications. We are using them in your body for specific therapeutic potentials. There is not much downside to peptides. Most of them have had research behind them that shows how safe they are.
Some of them are useful in this situation, especially for Graves’ and Hashimoto’s and other autoimmune conditions. We have at least 30 peptides in the market that we can get. Not all of them are good for autoimmune patients. Let’s talk about the fewof them that are useful for autoimmune patients.
The very first peptide which is useful is called BPC-157. It is naturally produced by our gut. It helps with healing and keeping our gut in good shape. When we were able to harvest BPC, there has been research to show its therapeutic potential. Leaky gut is a potential trigger of a lot of Hashimoto’s. BPC has shown improvement for leaky gut and gut permeability. That is one benefit of BPC. It definitely helps with leaky gut.
The second thing is H-pylori, which can be a trigger of Hashimoto’s or Graves’ patients. BPC can be helpful for removing or fighting the H-pylori. That is the second benefit of BPC.
The third benefit is healing. A lot of people come with a lot of issues with muscle injuries or joint pain or inflammation in their body with fibromyalgia-like symptoms. BPC has shown to improve those symptoms, especially for healing purposes for muscle injuries, ligament injuries, or joint issues. BPC is great for all of that.
It’s a wonderful peptide. It covers a bunch of things. It also supports a good gut microbiome. Most people have dysbiosis, an imbalance between the good and the bad bacteria. More bad bacteria than good. Because of the killing off of the bad bacteria that BPC does, it promotes good bacteria, which shifts the gut microbiome toward the healthier side. Helpful for a lot of autoimmune patients.
No downside to BPC. No side effects. Anybody can use it. That is one of the first peptides that a lot of my clients get started on to get the healing process going.
The second peptide is thymosin alpha 1. Thymosin is a peptide which is produced by our thymus glands. We have these thymus glands in our body when we are born. In the teenage years, these thymus glands produce all this good thymus stuff, which trains our immune system and helps us tackle all the infections when we get them. As our age advances, this thymus gland basically goes away, and we don’t have the thymosin compounds that our body produces.
This peptide has wonderful properties. Coming back to thyroid disorders, what is happening is that our immune system goes toward a more TH1 response. It’s a more inflammatory condition that is present in the majority of autoimmune conditions. We have different kind of immune cells like T cells and B cells. Those triggers retrain our immune system to cause inflammation. Thymosin retrains the system to do the opposite. From an inflammatory state, it reduces inflammation and retrains the T cells to start behaving and doing the right thing. Thymosin is good for a lot of infections, whether that’s Epstein-Barr or Lyme. It helps with the immunity purposes.
The second benefit of thymosin alpha 1 is it removes the reactive oxygen species. What happens with a lot of toxins, especially mold toxins, is they cause mitochondrial destruction, which leads to reactive oxygen species formation. These reactive oxygen species cause a lot of inflammation, destroying your body, producing more reactive oxygen species. You go in a loop. It breaks that loop. It removes a lot of reactive oxygen species, helps to reduce inflammation in the body.
That helps a lot of my clients with toxin issues. Some of my clients are so sensitive that they can eat like two foods and have random reactions all over their body. Those are the people we are using thymosin alpha 1 for. They can tolerate supplements and food and vitamins again. That is the beauty of thymosin alpha 1. It’s useful for immunity and fighting infections and mold toxins and reducing inflammation. Wonderful peptide.
No downside to thymosin alpha 1. It’s safe to use. Not many side effects we have seen.
The third peptide is thymosin beta. Thymosin beta is also an immunological peptide that helps with immunity. This one is important for repair. If people have chronic issues with leaky gut problems or problems with joints or muscle injuries, then thymosin beta is wonderful. It helps with immunity, meaning fighting chronic infections, especially Lyme. People who have been on antibiotics for Lyme for a long time and it doesn’t go away, thymosin beta can be useful. It goes inside the cells, which is where the Lyme hides. Lyme is not outside the cell; it’s inside the cell and causes reactivation. This goes inside the cells, too, and helps kill the Lyme. It’s potent for that.
The fourth peptide, a bit of a double-edged sword, is called LL-37. It’s an anti-microbial peptide. It helps to boost immunity as well as kill a lot of pathogens our body may be exposed to. It’s wonderful for Lyme. It’s wonderful for mold patients, for parasites. People in general who have very poor immunity, this is a good peptide to use for them.
The caution with LL-37 is that if somebody is having an acute flare-up of an autoimmune reaction, this is not the best peptide. It’s anti-microbial and can worsen the flare-up. We don’t want to use it during an acute flare-up. For chronic patients who have been without flare-ups but have been chronically infected and are not getting better, LL-37 can be useful.
Dr. Eric:
Why is that? Does it increase the TH1 response?
Dr. Anshul:
Not exactly. We don’t know that. But we have seen triggers. It’s improving the immunity of the body. It’s helping to fight off infection. Because a person is in a flare-up, it further feeds the fire into a flare-up and can sometimes lead to worsening things. We don’t see it very often. My first motto is do no harm. That’s the reason I’m always on the cautious side. If it can do harm, let’s not use it. That’s how I feel about it.
Dr. Eric:
As far as the administration, are they all administered the same way? How are they administered? Via injection? Can you take some of them orally?
Dr. Anshul:
The majority of them are through injections unfortunately. They are not very stable; once they go into the gut, they can get destroyed. That is a problem. The injections are very simple, like how people give insulin shots to themselves in their stomach every day. That’s the way we do it. Most of our patients are able to do it on their own. That’s how the majority of peptides are being used.
We have a couple of peptides, especially the BPC, that are capsules. People with leaky gut issues or people who are going through gastritis or GERD issues or H-pylori issues, we use the oral formof BPC because that works in the gut better and helps them more. BPC is the only one which is in the capsule form right now. All the others are in the injectable form unfortunately.
Dr. Eric:
Good to know. Very interesting. I’ve found all of this interesting, but especially with Lyme disease, you said that peptide could help in eradication of Lyme. It actually kills the Borrelia intracellularly?
Dr. Anshul:
Yeah. Obviously, there are no human trials, but the lab trials, animal trials they have done, very promising results. Again, it doesn’t work in the acute infection, but it works with more chronic Lyme. That is lying dormant, like in our cells, and making very subtle changes to our immune system. Then this actually goes intracellularly.
Not all these peptides actually work at the cellular level but in the nucleus of the cells. That is where a lot of these good organelles are present. These chronic infections like Lyme, they are working directly on our DNA and RNA and changing the messages from there, which changes our whole immune system. By changing the whole immune system, they are creating an inflammatory process. They are not active infections, as we know about them. These are subtle changes to the inside machinery of the body. The downstream effect of that is creating inflammation and autoimmunity. These peptides can directly enter the cell into the nucleus, which takes care of these Lyme and chronic infections.
Dr. Eric:
Wonderful. Thank you so much for sharing a lot of interesting information overall with the triggers and diving into the peptides. Before we wrap this up, are there any questions that I didn’t ask about triggers and peptides that I should have asked, or anything else that you want to say? Any last words?
Dr. Anshul:
No, I think we covered almost everything. There is so much more information that people can have, but I think what people should know is a high-level idea of what the triggers are that they should be looking for. What are the options of getting rid of those triggers? That is the most important thing people should know about.
There is hope for you to get better. Do not give up. Do not let anybody tell you that this is the life that you will be leading for the rest of your life. There is hope for you to get better. You just need to find the right person and the right trigger and work on it.
Dr. Eric:
Definitely agree with that, Dr. Gupta. Thanks again for sharing this information. Where can people find out more about you?
Dr. Anshul:
I have a virtual functional medicine practice. People can work with me from wherever they are in the country. My website is AnshulGuptaMD.com. I have tons of information over there. Right now, I am actually offering a limited number of free evaluation calls to my clients so they can get to know more about how I work with them and how my protocols can be helpful for them. They can go to my website and click on “Free Evaluation Calls.” I do have an active YouTube channel, so I share a lot of videos over there. I am on Instagram. I am also on Facebook. People can find me on social media channels to get more information about Hashimoto’s, thyroid, and all that stuff.
Dr. Eric:
Don’t forget your book. Amazon or ReversingHashimotosBook.com.
Dr. Anshul:
Correct. People can go to the website and buy the book. My book is also available on Amazon. My personal website also has information about the book.
Dr. Eric:
Thank you so much for agreeing to discuss triggers and peptides. Check out Dr. Gupta’s book as well as his website and YouTube channel. Appreciate the time and information you shared with everyone.
Dr. Anshul:
Thank you so much. It was really a pleasure talking with you. You’re doing so much great work. I keep listening to your podcast and learning new things.
Dr. Eric:
I’m sure everyone who listened found the information to be valuable. Take care.
Dr. Anshul:
You, too. Take care.
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