I’m thrilled to inform you that I have finally launched my podcast! It’s called “Save My Thyroid”, and as the name implies, the goal of the podcast is to help people save their thyroid from radioactive iodine and thyroid surgery.  I’ve been wanting to have a podcast for quite awhile, and actually planned on releasing it in 2020.  But when the pandemic hit I switched gears and decided to focus on live events, specifically online challenges, and I also spent more time on Facebook live giving support and answering questions related to thyroid-health.

Why Did I Decide To Put Together This Podcast?

Even though the podcast will focus on helping people with hyperthyroidism save their thyroid, some of the podcast episodes will benefit both people with hyperthyroidism/Graves’ disease and hypothyroidism/Hashimoto’s.  But I decided to have a podcast that focuses on hyperthyroidism for a few reasons.  First of all, while there are multiple thyroid-related podcasts out there, I’m pretty sure that there aren’t any podcasts that focus on hyperthyroidism.  And so it’s an honor to be the first.

A second reason why I decided to have a podcast that focuses on hyperthyroidism is because overall there simply isn’t enough support or resources for people with hyperthyroid conditions.  There are many natural healthcare practitioners that work with hypothyroidism/Hashimoto’s, but unfortunately there is a much smaller number of practitioners who work with patients who have hyperthyroidism.  There are also a lot more websites dedicated to helping people with hypothyroidism/Hashimoto’s, as well as books.

A third reason why I decided to have a hyperthyroid-related podcast is because arguably, hyperthyroidism is more urgent of a condition that hypothyroidism/Hashimoto’s.  And what I mean by this is that when someone has Hashimoto’s thyroiditis and sees an endocrinologist, they are frequently told to take thyroid hormone replacement.  And while it’s frustrating that most medical doctors don’t do anything to address the cause of Hashimoto’s, with hyperthyroidism it’s even worse, as not only don’t they try to address the underlying cause of the condition, but many endocrinologists will pressure their patients to receive radioactive iodine or thyroid surgery.

What Can You Expect With Future Podcast Episodes?

I discuss this during episode #1, and so I definitely would check this out.  But I will say that initially I plan on releasing 10 to 12 solo interviews where I alone will be discussing topics related to hyperthyroidism.  After this there will be a combination of solo episodes and guest interviews.  I also plan on having some “mini” podcast episodes where I spend a few minutes answering a question or two related to hyperthyroidism.  By the way, the “main” episodes will be released on Tuesday, and I think that whenever I have a “mini” episode it will be released on Thursday or Friday…I’m still not sure as of writing this blog post!

Check Out The Save My Thyroid Website

Not only do I have a new podcast, but there is a new website to go along with it.  If you’d like to check it out visit SaveMyThyroid.com. This website is where the podcast episodes and show notes will be hosted.  If you’re wondering about this website (www.NaturalEndocrineSolutions), this won’t be going anywhere, as I will continue to post content to it on a regular basis.

Well, I think that’s all I have to say for now.  I hope you watch one or more of the new episodes, as well as future episodes.  Of course I’d also love for you to show your support by subscribing!  Once again, you can find the podcast episodes on the new website, or if you Click Here you can access it on Apple podcasts.  If you have an android phone you can Click Here to access Google podcasts. It’s also available on other platforms (i.e. Spotify), but I don’t think you can subscribe from all of the platforms.

On Friday August 6th I interviewed Sarah Phillipe, as we chatted about overcoming breast implant illness, and below is the written transcript. If you would prefer to watch the interview you can access it by clicking here:

Here is the transcript:

Dr. Eric:

Happy Friday, everyone. I hope everyone is having a wonderful day and is looking forward to the weekend ahead. With me, I have Sarah Phillipe, and we’re going to be discussing breast implants illness, and of course tying it into thyroid health and thyroid autoimmunity. Welcome. Thank you so much for joining me, Sarah.

Sarah:

Yeah, of course. Thanks for having me here. It’s a pleasure.

Dr. Eric:

Just to share Sarah’s background, again, she’s a registered nurse and she became a functional diagnostic nutrition practitioner, true cellular detox practitioner, as well as a breast implant illness expert. Sarah believes that the solution to reversing breast implants illness is about more than just the explants, and that we all need to take personal responsibility for restoring our health by addressing all of the root causes that contribute to chronic illness. It’s also Sarah’s belief that the body has an innate desire to heal, if given what it needs, and she focuses on teaching women how to unlock that innate intelligence and heal themselves. Why don’t we start off by just telling people your story and how you started helping others with breast implant illness?

Sarah:

Yeah. I always tell people that my story goes back to childhood really, and to a time where I think I was very impressionable. Kids are impressionable, right? They’re just like little sponges absorbing the world and making meaning out of everything. My desire for breast implants came from much earlier on in my life when my grandmother told me that I was going to be four foot 11, just like her, but not to worry because I will have the Johnson boobs. That just made me … It really gave what it means to be a woman and sexy and desirable an entirely different meaning, right?

I started to learn the world view of that at a really early age, and that is where my desire for bigger breasts started. I saw my mom, growing up, teased a little bit by our family members for having a flat chest and maybe not fitting into certain clothes a certain way and things like that, and she took it, she tolerated it fine. It didn’t bug her too much. But I didn’t want that. I didn’t want to be teased, and I wanted to be in the Johnson boob club. I wanted to be that side of the family. Fast forward… as I got into middle school, I started stuffing my bra to make myself look a certain way because I just wanted what my grandma had said.

She told me don’t worry, as if I didn’t get that, the Johnson boobs, I had something to worry about. Stuffing my bra in middle school, and then getting … once I was an adult, becoming really, really into the fitness lifestyle and taking up bodybuilding. Never with the intention of performing on a stage, but just with the intention of wanting to achieve a certain physical goal. When I was about 30, that fitness lifestyle led me to finally making the choice to have the breast implants placed, to just have the look that I had always wanted since I could remember.

And I would say within about six months, I started developing some unusual symptoms that I did Google searching on and just thought that it was probably a thyroid issue. I had hair loss, I was fatigued, I would sleep a lot, I needed to sleep a lot later than usual, I had some skin issues, I had dry skin, I had some constipation, some anxiety, just different things like that. Nothing terribly alarming, but just some symptoms that I wasn’t used to. I started gaining some weight, despite what I ate and despite exercise, I just started feeling and looking bloated and puffy.

Like I said, I did my own research and I was at the time working as a nurse on the night shift, and I had been working as a nurse on the night shift for five years. Part of me thought that maybe that was a part of the problem as well, which obviously, was a huge stress on the body shift work. We’re just not designed to live that way as beings, right? Compounding effects there. But I searched out doctors who said my labs look normal, and maybe I needed to spice up my sex life or therapy or something like that, because my sex drive was also lower, and that wasn’t sufficient for me.

I wasn’t willing to accept that. I knew there was something deeper, I knew there was something more to understand about what was going on in my body. Then I looked into functional medicine and naturopathic doctors, and finally found someone who was willing to see me and acknowledge that I had Hashimoto’s and treat me for it, and I thought that would be my solution, the treatment, because I was still living and working in this conventional allopathic medical model. I hadn’t even really transitioned into a different way of thinking at that point yet.

But the further I got into just seeing her and being treated, I realized that it was really just a pill for every ill even though it was a little bit more natural of an approach rather than a medical approach. I started developing lots more symptoms, gas, bloating, alternating diarrhea and constipation, food intolerances, cystic acne, severe anxiety to the point where I could barely even stand to be in public. Any kind of stimulation, sound, loud noise, chemical smells, different light, so bright lights, even being around a lot of people, just that extra stimulation of any kind just threw me over the edge.

It was just like my nervous system was so irritated that anything else layered on top would just tip me over. I remember not being able to cope with working out anymore. It was too much of a stress on my body, and I didn’t want to believe that. I continued to push through and push through and push through even though I struggled so much, and to the point where my husband … My poor husband, he’s been through so much. But when we were working out together, I would just be so irritated if I could even hear him breathing, because the sound, just even sound, was so irritating to me.

It just progressively got worse and worse and worse, and I experienced a whole wide range of symptoms that were “unexplainable.” There was a point at which I had the intuition of thinking, I wonder if this is breast implants, I wonder if my breast implants could be causing this because I didn’t have any symptoms to speak of, even though my diet and lifestyle were not healthy before my breast augmentation. I started doing some Google searches. All I came across was this one lady on realself.com, which is just a place where people communicate with each other and ask questions and get responses from the community as a whole, right?

She was saying how she had developed an autoimmune condition after having a breast augmentation. But that was one person. It wasn’t enough for me to just go off of a hunch or a gut instinct, and take action and get the breast implants out. There was nobody talking about it back then. There were no Facebook groups, there were no websites, there were no doctors that had any real clue about it, and so I put that on the back burner, even though it was this deep instinct within me. I kept going down this rabbit hole of chasing conditions like SIBO and chronic Lyme disease and parasites and fungal overgrowth, and neurotransmitter imbalances and hormone imbalances, and at that time, what we call stage three adrenal fatigue.

It really didn’t get me very far because I was just swimming upstream with the source still in place. Right? I was doing all the right things, but just not getting as far as I wanted to go. I saw lots of really well known doctors in the functional medicine world who, when I point blank asked if my breast implants could be causing this, would tell me, “No, I don’t think it’s your breast implants. I think we just need to address this infection or that infection or this hormone imbalance, and you’re going to feel better, and your breast implants, even if they are an issue now, won’t be an issue then.”

Dr. Eric:

Oh, wow.

Sarah:

Yeah. A lot of misinformation, a lot of misguidance. But at the end of the day, for me, fast forward many years down the road, I finally decided to explant really based on the fact that I had been trying to conceive for several years without success, and there’s just this deep knowing inside of me that my breast implants were a part of this picture. I finally decided to listen to that gut instinct. When it became no longer about just me, I started to think about how might this affect a growing baby inside me even if I did get pregnant.

I knew I had done some research over the years and I discovered that breast implants caused a lot of problems and that there’s a lot of chemicals and toxins within them, and thinking about … I’ll go into some more reasons why they’re not healthy for you after this, but just for keeping things concise, I’ll say that thinking about how problematic they are for me and then wondering what that might do for an unborn child or a breastfeeding child, and feeling personally responsible for that, if that were the case. That is what finally led me to the decision to explant.

It was a long six-year road of getting there, and I think women now … There’s so much information available now and so many support groups now that it’s a lot easier to make that choice, and be confident in that choice. But for me, just because of the timing of everything and the lack of information out there, it was a long road.

Dr. Eric:

How long ago was the explant procedure?

Sarah:

We’re coming up on four years.

Dr. Eric:

Okay. Great.

Sarah:

Yeah, four years in October.

Dr. Eric:

When it comes to symptoms of breast implant illness, are there common symptoms that women experience, or is it completely different depending on the person?

Sarah:

I would say, and I think this is the case with most chronic illness, that it tends to be very vague, right? The symptoms tend to cross a lot of different lines of different diagnoses. It can be really mysterious, it can be really hard too, especially if you’re seeing a doctor who really doesn’t know anything about breast implants and breast implant illness and specific, they’ve never heard of it or they don’t believe in it, things like that. It can be really challenging. I try to not focus too much on getting someone to tell you, “Yes, you have breast implant illness.”

If you have breast implants and you have a lot of symptoms that you’re not getting an explanation for from your doctor, then the implants are a part of the problem. People will generally experience a wide range of different symptoms, and it really depends on all the different additional stressors they have in their lives too. They’ll experience things like chronic fatigue, cognitive dysfunction, so things like brain fog, difficulty concentrating, poor word retrieval, and memory loss. I will personally say that I had the worst time with brain fog and difficulty learning new information and retaining it. I would have to read something 20 times just for it to sink in and process what it was that I was reading. Muscle aches and pains, joint pain, hair loss, weight gain or weight loss, temperature intolerance, low libido, heart palpitations, ringing in the ears, shortness of breath, metallic taste in the mouth, night sweats, skin rashes, insomnia, which is another one that I suffered with horrendously, hormone dysregulation, swollen and tender lymph nodes, that’s also a big one. Numbness and tingling in the extremities, cold discolored hands and feet, foul body odor, muscle twitching, vertigo, frequent urination, sensitivity to light and sound and chemical smells.

Feeling like you’re aging really fast, visual disturbances, liver and kidney dysfunction, GI issues like gas, bloating and diarrhea, constipation, GERD, heartburn, food intolerances, persistent chronic infections that don’t resolve, a chronic cough, difficulty swallowing, feeling like you’re choking, chronic inflammation, feeling like you’re dying, headaches, dizziness, migraines, mood swings, emotional instability, anxiety, depression, panic attacks, suicidal thoughts. That’s a huge list.

Dr. Eric:

Yeah, definitely.

Sarah:

Even if you had just a few of those, I’m sure you’d be questioning whether or not it’s the breast implants or something else. But I’m telling you, if you have breast implants and you have chronic symptoms of any kind, regardless of how many or how intense they are, if you want to truly heal the body, the first step is removing the source, and there can be more than one source, but the breast implants certainly should be considered as at least one of those sources.

Dr. Eric:

There are different types of breast implants. Does it make a difference which ones you have? Are some safer than others?

Sarah:

Yeah. I would not say that any breast implants are … I would not consider any of them safe. But there are different types. You have silicone and saline. The new-ish, I would say, I think they were really, really on the market around 2007 are the cohesive gel silicone implants which were deemed to be safe by the FDA, but really truly, they’re just as harmful, if not more harmful than the old silicone implants back from the ’80s and ’90s. I think we all remember the Dow Corning lawsuits, right? They cause problems in different ways.

Sarah:

The silicone breast implants are full of cytotoxic, carcinogenic neuroendocrine-disrupting chemicals. These are things like methyl ethyl ketone, cyclohexane, acetone, xylene, phenol, dichloromethane, toluene, benzene, talcum powder, formaldehyde, lacquer thinner printing ink, metal cleaning acid, all kinds of different heavy metals like aluminum and tin and lead and platinum. Then silicone, of course. Silicone is, in some cases and some schools of thought, considered an adjuvant connected to certain autoimmune conditions. You have this chemical soup, so to speak, that it’s just living in the body.

The silicone gel implants do start bleeding into the lymphatic system at body temperature. They’ve never been studied long term. They’ve never had clinical trials proving their safety long term. Sure, if you set them on a shelf, they’re going to last forever, but when you put them in a body, that the temperature is 98.6, or give or take a little bit, and you’re also not stationary, you’re not just sitting there doing nothing, you’re living your life, you’re active, you may have injuries, you may have falls, you may have trauma, you may have car accidents, something like that, and all of these things produce wear and tear, in addition to the fact that they can bleed at body temperature and leach their contents out into the surrounding lymphatic tissue.

The lymph is a highway, right? It can mobilize all kinds of different things throughout the entire body. Then you end up with not only congested lymph nodes, but also congested liver and kidneys, and some people find that they’re actually removing silicone out of the bowels. There’s anecdotal evidence that it mobilizes. Then the saline implants, of course, they’re made with a silicone shell. You don’t have quite the array of chemicals in the saline implant. From the toxicity standpoint, they could be considered by some maybe a smidge safer. But the silicone itself is a neurotoxin, and it is incredibly pervasive in the environment, not just in the breast implants. Right?

We see silicone, if you look at labels, you’ll see it in your beauty care products, your skincare products, your makeup, your haircare products, you use it in replacement of plastic in the kitchen and with even cooking utensils, and here we are heating those utensils up when we’re cooking, and that makes its way into the food. It’s not a safe alternative to plastic by any means. But you’ve got that in the saline implants, and then the salient itself can act as a Petri dish for different microbes to get in and thrive and wreak havoc on the immune system.

It’s because the saline implants have this valve that’s used to fill the implant with saline when it’s placed in the body, and that valve can either be defective upon implantation or it can become damaged over time just from wear and tear or some kind of trauma to the chest wall. At that point, you have fluid that can go both ways. Bodily fluids can get in and the saline can get out, and whatever’s in that implant growing in that medium can also make its way through the body and cause the widespread of chronic systemic infections. We have seen, when certain surgeons are doing cultures upon explantation, there are like 10 different types of bacteria being found between the implant and the capsule.

We know this is not a sterile environment. This is a place where bugs are growing and thriving. That, all by itself, creates immune problems, and then you add the fact that implants are a foreign object, they don’t belong there, and your body is responding by creating scar tissue to basically wall them off, that’s the capsule, to protect you basically, and that’s your body during its job, what it’s supposed to do, but it knows they don’t belong there. There’s that also chronic immune stimulation.

Dr. Eric:

From what I understand, there’s a few different ways that potentially they can trigger autoimmunity or at least be a factor in different autoimmune conditions such as Graves’ disease, Hashimoto’s, multiple sclerosis, and pretty much any autoimmune condition, not just the toxicity of the implants, the silicone as well as other toxins, but also making you more susceptible to infections, which also can be a trigger as well. Is that correct?

Sarah:

Yeah, absolutely. The clients that I’ve worked with, typically… I would say I can’t think of a single person who has not come to me with at least one autoimmune condition. It doesn’t have to be this raging out of control autoimmune condition. It can be at a level of antibody activity that can still be problematic. It certainly is, I would say in the majority of the cases, reversible. What damage is done is not necessarily reversible, but the process can be stopped usually. That’s where getting the source out is really important as well.

Dr. Eric:

If someone has breast implants and they’re watching this, and if they think it might possibly be an issue, what would you recommend? Would you recommend for them to, I guess, maybe find a doctor or an explant doctor or someone like you just to chat with/

Sarah:

I would, I think, really helpful resource because my work tends to focus on women who either, A) know they want to explant, already have a date scheduled, and they want to do whatever they can to start prepping their body for that surgery for a good outcome, or B) would be the other type of person is someone who’s already explanted and who still doesn’t feel well, and that’s really where I start teaching that a healing is about more than the explant, right?

Dr. Eric:

Yep.

Sarah:

Those tend to be the two types of women that I work with. For those of you who are just hearing about this for the first time or maybe you’ve been thinking about it and wondering and are not sure and want to just start doing some research, a really great resource that I would highly recommend is a website called breastimplantillness.com. That website actually has excellent surgeons listed by country and state, so people who are recommended, who either have been recommended by other patients, or the people who manage that website have done their due diligence and their own research to put together a part of that list as well.

You can look at who’s in your area and start having communication with those people, start a conversation with those surgeons. Then there’s really helpful people in the different Facebook groups too. There’s a lot of Facebook groups out there for breast implant illness, mine being one of them. But you can get a lot of good support there if you’re just starting out, and this is the beginning of your journey. [crosstalk]

Dr. Eric:

What’s the name of your Facebook group?

Sarah:

Reversing Breast Implant Illness. Let’s see here. The things you want to look for in a surgeon, once you are starting to have conversation with surgeons, and I think it’s important to interview different surgeons so that you can get a feel for who feels like the right fit to you. Who do you connect with? Who do you have confidence in and trust? Right? Things you want to look for are a surgeon who ideally doesn’t put implants in anymore, who only does explant surgeries because they’re going to, I think, believe in what they’re doing a lot more and I think that’s really important.

I think it’s important that the surgeon believes in breast implant illness, believes that what you’re telling them is true, understands breast implant illness, understands the thought process behind it all and why they’re problematic, and because of that has made a decision to no longer put them in. Then secondly, you want to find someone who will remove your implants en bloc, and also do a complete capsulectomy. That’s the ideal scenario for an explant procedure. En bloc just means that the implant and the capsule that surrounds them are coming out together as one unit rather than the alternative which is cutting the capsule open and then taking the implant out separately, and then either just leaving the capsule and closing you up, or maybe if you’re lucky, pulling the capsule out.

Most surgeons who don’t believe in breast implant illness are just going to pull the implant out and leave the capsule, and they’re not going to take the capsule out. I’ve actually spoken with many women who have three and four capsules in their body because they’ve had lots of replacements, and each time the surgeon just leaves the capsule there. But if you just think about the fact that the capsule is like this matrix, and it is … A lot of people think of it as the protection, right? But it’s actually not as protective as you would hope, because when you look at it under a microscope, the capsule is actually a lot more lace like.

It has holes in it. A lot of things become ingrained within that capsule, microbes, biofilms, toxins, silicone, things like that. That can continue to be an immune stimulant, and so you want to get that out. The other thing, the reason why I am a strong believer in en bloc is that if you’re cutting the capsule open and there’s a rupture, and nine times out of 10, especially if it’s silicone implants, you can’t tell until you get in there if there’s a rupture. Lots of false negatives on MRIs. Then you’ve got silicone just spilling out into the body and into the lymphatic system, and you’re in a far worse condition than you were before you went in for that surgery.

We want to minimize that risk, right? And have the best outcome possible. That’s why I strongly advocate for finding someone who can guarantee you an en bloc explant, and then also going in and removing any speck of capsule that’s left behind after that en bloc explant. Sometimes that means scraping ribs and cutting some tissue out and things like that. You just really want someone who’s going to do the best job for you so that you can have the best outcome and best healing possible afterward.

Dr. Eric:

If someone chooses the right surgeon, there’s a pretty good chance to only need one explant, whereas if they choose the wrong one, there’s a chance they might need multiple explants, correct?

Sarah:

Absolutely. I’m a believer in getting it right the first time and not going with someone who maybe quoted you a lower price, for instance, because they’re not spending as much time in there being really meticulous about it. That’s not saving you any money, because you’re likely going to need to go back for another surgery. In the end, that results in far more money spent than if you just had one surgery.

Dr. Eric:

Yeah, that makes sense. You’ve mentioned you saw a number of different functional medicine practitioners, some of the top doctors and there were different diagnoses, or they suspected different things, maybe chronic Lyme, which I actually dealt with a few years ago. If a scenario presented where someone with breast implants went to a functional medicine practitioner, let’s say they were experiencing a lot of the symptoms you mentioned, and they were diagnosed with chronic Lyme, but they also had the breast implants… my perspective is that the Lyme might not be as big of a problem with the toxicities.

Again, I’d love, of course, to get your opinion on it, but a lot of people have Lyme and don’t know it. I had Lyme for who knows how long and didn’t know as well. But I guess what would be your opinion if someone went somewhere else, and if they were told they have chronic Lyme or toxic mold, some type of chronic condition, and they also had the breast implants, would you recommend for them to look into getting an explant first or to address the chronic Lyme problem or the mold toxicity problem?

Sarah:

Yeah, that’s a really tricky question because the way I think about it is the Lyme isn’t typically the problem. Of course, mold toxicity, different story. The Lyme, the bugs within us that have just started to come alive and become more active and wreak havoc in the body, they’re a downstream result of a toxic terrain. When we clean up the body and we work on repairing the immune system, yes, oftentimes antimicrobials are still warranted in that case, but the outcome is going to be so much better, and the journey, the time it takes, is going to be so much shorter, and you’re not going to feel like you’re just chronically swimming upstream. It’s an uphill battle.

That’s what it was like for me when I was trying to overcome these things. Yes, I did get better. I got a lot better actually. I think I probably got about 50% better. But there was this block in the road, I couldn’t make any more progress. A lot of money and time was wasted on that, on trying to achieve a certain goal by going after a pathogen or something like that when I would have probably had a lot better success with that approach that I was taking had I removed that chronic source of immune dysfunction, immune stimulation, and toxic exposure, just bleeding and within my body day in and day out.

A lot of these toxins that are in breast implants that are bleeding into the body are not only toxic to us and creating a toxic overload, this overflowing toxic bucket, but they’re also feeding pathogens. Certain pathogens use these toxins to create their biofilm around themselves to protect themselves from being killed, and they feed on them as well. Just feeding a bigger problem. What I typically see is that, yes, the breast implants are a big problem, one of the biggest problems, but things don’t typically happen in isolation. It’s never one thing. It’s usually a multitude of stressors that have come together to create this perfect storm situation.

Oftentimes, it breaks my heart for people to think that with the breast implants just the explant is all that’s needed and they’re just magically better. Sometimes there is what I call honeymoon period after explant where people are just like, “Oh, my gosh, I feel so much better. This symptom is gone, this symptom is gone, I no longer have this, all of a sudden my skin looks amazing,” and it’s this period of time where they do feel better because they’ve had a significant stressor relieved, right? But then what happens if they do nothing else? Three, four, five, six months later, a year later, even two years later maybe, symptoms start creeping back up.

It’s because there was more going on than what met the eye. I always encourage people to work with someone, a practitioner, who understands all of these different factors and what kinds of stressors impact function so that you can address them all, not just one, and really truly get the body back into balance and clean up the terrain. It’s a little bit long-winded, but to answer your question, I think that step one should be explant, versus going down this rabbit hole of chasing pathogens when the thing upstream that’s feeding them all is still there. Before explant, there’s still work you can do while you’re waiting, but the deeper work I think should be reserved for once you’re explanted.

Dr. Eric:

All right, great. Can you talk a little bit about that, how someone would do a detox? Should they take supplements, take a dietary approach, do infrared sauna? I’m sure there’s not just one approach. But what do you recommend once someone does get the explant procedure?

Sarah:

Yeah. Either before explant or the first step in addressing what needs to be addressed, healing after explant, are fairly the same in my opinion. The first step is always opening drainage pathways, opening detox pathways. You can’t move things out of the body, you can’t detox the body, you can’t go on a bug killing spree if all your drainage pathways, your drainage organs, your detox organs, whatever you want to call them, are clogged up or they’re not moving well. First thing is the bowels have to be moving. You’ve got to be pooping regularly, two to three times a day.

Then things like liver and kidneys and gallbladder and lymph and the gut microbiome, all of those things need to be dialed in before you can go deeper into detox work or addressing certain pathogens, and things need to be done in the right order. I often see people thinking all they need to do is detox, and so they’re just Google searching detox after explant, silicone detox, BII detox, things like that, and that’s not always the solution for most people. Most people need to focus on some gut work first, and start reducing the load of pathogenic overgrowth in the gut and balancing the gut microbiome and healing the gut lining a bit.

Then you can go deeper with detox work and detoxing things like heavy metals and chemicals and environmental toxins and silicone and things like that. If you try to do it in the wrong order, oftentimes you’re going to feel a lot worse, and that’s just … It’s something that we can avoid, and it doesn’t have to be a miserable experience. Detox I think gets thrown around a lot all over the place, and different people have different meanings behind it when they say detox. What I mean by detox is really actively pulling, chelating heavy metals and toxins out of the body. Yes, I think diet is very important, the lifestyle choices are very important, but food isn’t going to pull those chemicals and heavy metals out of your tissues. They’ve been stored there for years, since before birth even.

When you were in utero, you were accumulating toxins from your mother and from your grandmother and your great-grandmother. They’re passed down generation to generation, and that happens because as a woman when you’re creating a baby inside of you, a new body, you’re remodeling your own body. You’re remodeling bone and fatty tissue, and you’re sending it to that growing child in your uterus, and with that comes toxins that have been stored in your bones and fatty tissue. We enter this world already toxic, okay? It’s not just about the breast implants and the silicone and things like that. We’re detoxing from a wide range of different toxins that we’re exposed to from utero and beyond. I think that’s important to remember, that it’s just not like a breast implant illness detox. It’s a detox from the life that we live, right?

Dr. Eric:

Yep.

Sarah:

That is not a short process. Since you’ve been accumulating it your whole life, it doesn’t happen in 30 days or 90 days. It takes many, I would say, years to pull all of that out. You’re chronically exposed to more and more and more, so it has to be a lifestyle. You really have to incorporate detox as a lifestyle and learn how to do that. Then I think going after deeper, more stealthy pathogens becomes a little bit easier because you’ve cleaned up that terrain, and you can work on repairing the immune function and going after stealth pathogens.

Dr. Eric:

You said it’s been about four years since you’ve got your explant procedure. How long after that did you start feeling like yourself?

Sarah:

Goodness. My journey was a little bit different, I would say, because I had done a lot of the stuff that people in functional medicine often do to address what are considered root causes. I had gotten about 50% better, and so I wasn’t miserable by the time I explanted, but I still had some GI issues, I still had gas and bloating and just a real hard time with bowel movements and some skin issues and anxiety and irritability and still feeling like my nervous system was very overwhelmed. And fertility issues, of course, and hormone imbalances, and my menstrual cycles were very abnormal still.

After explant, I don’t know that I would say that I just felt amazing or even a significant change, but what I will say is that other people noticed a difference in me. People that I maybe hadn’t seen in a little while or even people who are close to me noticed and they would tell me that I just looked lighter and softer and just not as aggressive and tense, that I just had a different feel to the energy coming across. That was really interesting. I did need to still do a lot of work. I still had detox work to do. I still had endometriosis. Actually, I didn’t say this in part of my story, but I discovered that I had stage four endometriosis and I had bowel involvement, and one fallopian tube was completely blocked.

I ended up, about six months after my explant surgery, deciding to go ahead and have excision surgery for that endometriosis, and part of that involved the bowel section. Very unfortunate story. But there’s definitely an upside. There’s always things to be learned from our struggles, right? I don’t regret anything. I think that if I hadn’t gone through this experience, I would not be who I am or where I am in life today. But after that second surgery, about another six months later, so about a year after explant is when I really started to feel more like myself again.

But the interesting fact is, and I’ll just say this because there are so many other sources, it’s almost like we have to be health detectives for ourselves all the time, right? Every winter, I noticed, even after that year of two surgeries and lots of detox work and dealing with pathogens and immune system and all of that, I had started noticing that every winter I was feeling terrible. I wasn’t sleeping well, I was puffy, I was very tired, irritable, just down and depressed, and it wasn’t just because of a lack of sunlight. It was every winter and it was new.

The one thing that I connected the dots with is that the only thing that was different is that I had purchased this artificial Christmas tree that was … It came from China. It’s made with PVC piping that came from China, and I learned that PVC coming from China is coated in LED.

Dr. Eric:

Wow.

Sarah:

That led off-gases into the air, and here I am breathing this in for months at a time because I like to leave my tree up for a quarter. Breathing it in, day in and day out, and no wonder I felt terrible. There’s always little things that we just don’t know about that once we finally do that detective work and discover it, then it’s like you realize you get this whole new level of how you could feel in health, right? There’s always new things that I’m discovering, there’s always refining, there’s always more detox work. But I would say it is about that year point where I started to feel quite a bit better.

Dr. Eric:

So based on what you said, if someone let’s say with thyroid autoimmunity or any health condition, but if they get their breast implants removed, then a few weeks go by and they’re still not feeling much of a difference, you would say not to get discouraged? In some people, maybe after a few weeks, they’ll feel a lot better. But for others, it could be a much longer process.

Sarah:

Yeah. I would say for a lot of women, it’s a longer process. What I usually say about that is that you didn’t get here overnight. It’s been usually years, if not decades, of your body dealing with chronic sources of stress and toxic exposures, and the breast implants are just part of that. It’s not going to be an overnight fix. You’re not going to just miraculously heal from a surgery. It takes patience and dedication and just faith in your own body’s ability to self heal, and it will if you give it what it needs in order to do so, and you remove enough of the stressors on the body to where it can get out of survival mode and back into getting back to balance to homeostasis. It always wants to do that. Your body’s constantly trying to get to homeostasis.

Dr. Eric:

One thing I heard which I brought up earlier, sauna, and if someone is suspecting breast implant illness, from what I’ve heard, they probably shouldn’t do sauna?

Sarah:

Yeah, I definitely recommend to avoid a sauna until explant … Probably a good month after explant is when most surgeons will give you the green light to go ahead and start using a sauna. It’s a great detox tool. There’s been lots of studies done on far infrared light for stimulating the release of certain toxins and metals from your tissues, and then you’re sweating that out. Right? That’s a really great tool to utilize. It doesn’t have to all be about supplements, and I think that’s a great adjunctive therapy in addition to using oral chelators, things that will go into the tissues and pull out toxins and bind them up and hold on real tight until they’re out of the body. But yeah, before explant, you’re heating those implants up even more.

Imagine the rate at which they may start bleeding if you’re heating them up even more than body temperature. I think that’s definitely a good idea to avoid, and I would say some people do it anyway and they either say they feel worse or they feel better. I think either case is not great because if you feel better, you’re probably releasing a lot of toxins, but at the same time retoxifying yourself with heating those implants up and then bleeding more. If you feel worse, then you’re definitely not ready for that kind of detox yet and your drainage pathways are likely too sluggish to really actually get those toxins out. Rather than just mobilizing them and having them circulate around, you want them to get out. Right? Feeling worse is not a good sign.

Dr. Eric:

Yeah. Okay. Makes sense. Before we wrap this up, anything else that people should know, maybe besides the detoxifying, do you recommend mind body medicine? I assume you recommend what an average functional medicine practitioner would do besides the detox process, which is quite complex.

Sarah:

Yeah, my approach really is about the whole person, about the whole body, and that includes mindset and emotional health, and I think we’re more than physical beings. We’re spiritual beings as well. A lot of people enter into this journey trying to get their health back through explant, and just not really necessarily having their mindset right going into it, and not maybe being prepared for the emotional aspect of healing, and what that might look like and feel like to them as they see a huge change in their physical appearance that they’re not used to seeing.

There are many different pieces to that emotional well-being that needs to be addressed. Beyond breast implants, it’s important to take a good look at your entire life from birth until now, and pinpoint any significant stressors along your life, whether they be physical, chemical, structural, or some kind of mental emotional trauma, right? We have to address all those things, even the things we don’t want to look back at, in order to heal because all of them produce the same stress response in the body. Relieving enough stress on the body is really important, and so we have to look at all the different types of stress.

That is really my approach, is looking at addressing toxicity, addressing different types of stealth or chronic infections, and then addressing different types of trauma. That’s all really important. No one piece is more important than the other, so you can’t just focus on detox. You can’t just go on a bug killing spree or a candida diet or anti-candida diet or something like that, and expect to get true and lasting healing. It needs to be a very comprehensive whole person kind of approach. I think a big part of the mindset piece is coming into this journey knowing that it’s not going to be a straight line to healing. There will be ups and downs, you probably will feel worse at times, and to get out of that sick mindset, right?

People are always talking about how sick they are. “I’m so sick, I can’t do this, I can’t do that. I’m never going to get well. I’ve tried all the things and I’m still sick.” But I think it’s important to reframe that and stop talking about yourself that way. Because regardless of what is true, whatever you think about yourself, even if you’re not speaking it out loud, your body responds as if it is true. Having that kind of mindset where you’re constantly telling yourself about how sick you are and all the symptoms you’re experiencing day to day just keeps you in that place, and it’s hard to overcome that, even with doing all the right things physically. Yes, mindset is huge. It’s equally as important as anything else, and we have to include that in any healing journey.

Dr. Eric:

All right. Well said. Well, thank you so much for sharing everything.

Sarah:

Of course.

Dr. Eric:

Yeah. You mentioned earlier your Facebook group, Reversing Breast Implant Illness, and also a website that people could find you…

Sarah:

Yeah, my website is the same. It’s reversingbreastimplantillness.com. I’m on Instagram, it’s all the same name. Pretty easy to find me. YouTube as well, same thing. Actually, you can find me on YouTube by searching Sarah Philippe. Yeah. There’s information about my explant reset program, which really addresses all the things that I just talked about on my website.

Dr. Eric:

All right, awesome. Well, thanks again, Sarah. I appreciate you sharing everything you know about reversing breast implant illness.

Sarah:

Of course, thank you so much for having me.

Dr. Eric:

All right. It looks like we have a bunch of questions. We’ll try to get to as many as we can. All right. Teisha asked, “Could this be the same with tooth implants?”

Sarah:

Very good question, Teisha. This is another one of those root causes that I’m often looking for with my clients, is what else is going on here? The mouth can be such a source of hidden stress on the body that most people just don’t know to think about. It’s not that all implants are evil. There are certain implants that are considered safe. I did an interview with Dr. Curatola who’s a world-renowned biological dentist. I’ll post it on my YouTube channel, but he is my go-to for all things oral health. I hate to say he knows it all because nobody knows at all, but I trust him wholeheartedly, and there is a specific type of implant that he uses. I want to say it’s…

Dr. Eric:

Probably zirconia. Most will use titanium. Titanium is well-tolerated for most people, but there still is a certain percentage that will react to the titanium. But zirconium is what most biological dentists will use.

Sarah:

Yeah, I believe that’s what he says as well. But it really depends also on how the implant was placed, why the implant was placed. Was it a root canal tooth that was pulled? Was it infected tooth that was pulled? If so, was the entire periodontal ligament pulled, removed? Because that’s also … It’s like removing the implants but not removing the capsule. Right? There’s still a source of infection there and toxic exposure there. It has to be done a certain way. With any kind of surgery that’s needed, there’s a right and a wrong way. There’s a best practice and there is a practice that may lead you down the road of staying ill.

You definitely want to make sure you have the right person doing these types of procedures, and that just takes a lot of research and knowing what to look for. If you have health issues, if you’re someone who … I don’t know if you have breast implants or not, Teisha, but if you did and you had them removed and you’re still having issues and you’re wondering if the tooth implant could be an issue, yes, you could still have an infection around that implant. In that case, I would find a place where you can get a cone beam scan, which is a 3D image of your entire skull, and I would find a biological dentist who is really, really experienced at interpreting those, and believes that they’re valuable and understands how to use that as a tool for diagnosing infections.

Dr. Eric:

Besides a cone beam scan, which I think is great also for looking at infections, there’s testing available to see if you’re reacting to the titanium, so if you have a titanium implants. There used to be Clifford testing, which is biocompatibility testing. Unfortunately, they went out of business, unless if they’re back in business. But last I heard they’re no longer in business. But then there’s MELISA testing, something else to look into. Let’s see. This next question here is a long question. “I had my implants in for over 30 years. I was just diagnosed with Hashimoto’s in June and didn’t connect my symptoms that possibly all or part is from my implants of sailing.”

“I have saline thinking they were safe. My symptoms started on/off in my 40s. I also had radiation as an infant on my throat, had two silver fillings that were just removed in March of 2021, then the COVID shots, Mono as a child, two back surgeries, and always thought my pain and stomach issues was from my back surgeries,” and I think the rest got cut off. But I guess as you mentioned, there could be … Again, the implants definitely could have been a factor. But again, it sounds like there could have been other things as well.

Sarah:

Yeah. An answer to this question, I think it is definitely helpful that you touch on all of those different points because it just goes to my point originally that it’s not always just about the implants. It sounds like there are multiple things going on here, and I definitely think the implants should come out. I can’t promise you that that’s going to resolve all of your problems of course, but it is a huge step in the right direction that will make the rest of what’s needed a lot easier.

It will make it possible so that you can actually heal. Implants coming out. Radiation on my throat, I’m wondering if there was some kind of throat issue or thyroid issue? I don’t know. Fillings, and if the fillings weren’t removed safely, then that’s another huge source of mercury exposure. COVID shots, yeah. I keep my own opinions about COVID shots to myself, but another source of toxic exposure.

Dr. Eric:

She had them for 30 years, I would imagine that the longer you have it… Everybody’s different. Again, someone could have them for five years and it could still leak, or even I guess, one or two years, but especially like you said, with all the issues she’s having and having them in for so long, probably is a good idea to consult with an explant doctor.

Sarah:

Yeah. They’re not lifetime devices. I would say that, I can’t tell you how many people I come across whose surgeons have never told them. That they need to be replaced every five to 10 years. Yeah, they’re due to come out.

Dr. Eric:

All right. Let’s see. “What is the website for the explant doctors? And can breast implant illness cause Hashimoto’s?”

Sarah:

I see a lot of women who have had breast implants who also have Hashimoto’s, and there’s no research connecting the two, and that’s because there’s really not much research out there on breast implants and breast implant illness in general. First of all, we need more studies. But I tend to rely more on your gut instinct, your intuition about this. For me, I didn’t have Hashimoto’s before I had breast implants, and we know they’re a chronic source of immune stimulation and they can lead to all kinds of different chronic infections, and we know that autoimmune conditions, especially that of the thyroid are connected to different infections and different sources of toxicity. I think there certainly could very well be a connection there.

Dr. Eric:

What’s that website again, for the explant doctor?

Sarah:

Breastimplantillness.com. They actually have an explant surgeon tab on their website.

Dr. Eric:

Okay. Cool. Thank you. Can you go a few more minutes?

Sarah:

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Dr. Eric:

Okay. Thank you. This is another question, which I’m sure the answer to this is yes, as well. “Can 30-year-old breast implants cause Hashimoto’s?” Really, we’re discussing maybe even more likely to be a factor with autoimmunity than breast implants. Again, the thinking might be, well, but I’ve had them for so long, why all of a sudden would they cause an autoimmune condition? First of all, it takes a number of years for autoimmunity to develop. There’s that silent autoimmunity phase. It could have taken years for the antibodies for Hashimoto’s to show up on the testing or even just the thyroid panel itself to become imbalanced. But then getting back to the duration of having the implants. If someone has them, like you said, five to 10 years is the average life of an implant. 30 years is well past that.

Sarah:

Yeah. What I would say about chronic conditions, including autoimmunity and things like Hashimoto’s, is that there’s typically some level of genetic component here. With autoimmunity, we tend to think of it as there is a genetic component. However, there’s usually some kind of trigger, and also gut involvement. Usually there’s some leaky gut going on. Something like breast implants can be a trigger for autoimmunity to develop, especially if you’ve already got some genetic weakness. I have a family history of Hashimoto’s. My mom has Hashimoto’s.

She also has a mouthful of amalgams in her mouth. For her, the trigger, probably … She doesn’t have breast implants, so it wasn’t breast implants. For her, it’s likely her amalgams, and they need to come out. You got to think about the different types of toxic exposures and infections and things like that that could be triggering that for you. It sounds like, if you have breast implants, that that could be the trigger, and so it’s important to start removing those things.

Dr. Eric:

Yeah. Next she mentioned, “No wonder why can’t get rid of H. pylori.

Sarah:

Exactly. Exactly, you’re absolutely right.

Dr. Eric:

All right. Then Kim asks, “I blame breast implants on most of my health issues, including Graves’ without a doubt.” “When I get my implants removed, will my Hashimoto’s get worse? I finally have it on the control?”

Sarah:

That’s really tough to say because not everyone feels the same or better after explant surgery. I have worked with women who have explanted and then felt much worse, and whether that is an autoimmune condition that’s getting worse or whether it’s just something else going on is hard to say. But I will say that I think that sometimes the stress of the surgery for certain people also can be a trigger. It’s not this easy in and out surgery. It’s an aggressive surgery, and it’s a huge stress on the body, but it needs to happen, right? We can’t just ignore this. We have to go forward and remove those sources. For some people, that stress of the surgery is enough to trigger more things or trigger worsening health conditions short term, because we can always turn that around.

Dr. Eric:

All right. Daniela asked, “Could kidney stones be related?”

Sarah:

Possibly. I would say just about anything could be related, because it’s not that there’s this direct cause and effect, but it’s all the downstream dysregulation happening in the body that leads to widespread inflammation and stagnant lymph and stagnant detox pathways and immune dysregulation, and all of those things that can cause something like, in your case, maybe kidney stones to be an issue. But there’s usually more at play. It’s not just like, well, the breast implants are the cause of the kidney stones. It’s a bigger picture of what’s going on in the body.

Dr. Eric:

All right. This is actually a good question because you mentioned a sauna, you probably shouldn’t do sauna. Maria said, “So enjoying myself on the beach is no bueno?” So no good. “Can I lay out in the sun with having implants?”

Sarah:

Good question. I think there are some people who would say … And these aren’t necessarily practitioners. I’ve heard a lot of people say, “Don’t heat up your body at all. Don’t take hot showers, don’t bathe in a bathtub full of hot water, keep our body as close to body temperature as you can.” But I think that there’s also a lot of benefit to getting that sun exposure. Benefit to a vitamin D status, first of all, benefit to our emotional, mental well-being, benefit to our immune system. The sun in the right dose is very healing. I’m often telling people they need to stop …

Well, ask your doctor, but in my experience, personally, I’ll tell you what I do, let’s just say that. I like to get lots of good sun exposure with no sunscreen, and then when I’m done in the sun, I will put clothing on or get in the shade. I think we’ve been lied to, we’ve been led to believe that the sun is always harmful, and that you should avoid it at all costs, so you don’t let yourself be exposed without sunscreen. But I think in some cases, like what you’re saying here, the benefit may outweigh the risk.

Dr. Eric:

Yes, I agree with that. Actually, Maria was also kind to share your … I believe this is your website here.

Sarah:

It is. Thanks, Maria.

Dr. Eric:

Yeah. Then let’s see. We’re going to finish up in a minute or two here. “I blame my C-section for Hashimoto’s and postpartum.”

Sarah:

Yeah. Again, C-section is a very aggressive surgery. I actually used to work in OB, so I’ve been a part of a lot of C-sections. Yeah, they’re incredibly aggressive, very stressful on the body, and it certainly could be a trigger.

Dr. Eric:

Maria, I will say here just because again we’re going over time here and I don’t want to keep Sarah here too much longer, but H. pylori, there are certain protocols. Maybe I could discuss this in a future call just for the sake of time here. But yeah, there are natural protocols for H. pylori. It’s not always easy. A lot of times it can be challenging, and even antibiotics aren’t perfect. There are people that take the triple therapy of two antibiotics and a proton pump inhibitor for a couple of weeks, and it still sometimes doesn’t get rid of H. pylori, and natural agents can be effective, but it does take time to do that.

Sarah:

It’s a tricky bug, and then you have to also consider why it’s a problem. Right? Why is that bug there and overgrowing and causing problems? It’s not just about treating the bug, it’s about addressing the upstream, right? What’s triggering that to be a problem? There’s a lot more that goes into protocol creation for something like this. But I have seen it time and time again resolve. It just needs the right approach. Yeah, that’s all I’ll say about that because we could get into a rabbit hole here.

Dr. Eric:

Yep. All right. Just a few quick comments. I think we’re done with questions. Just, “I never knew that implants needs to be changed. None of doctors ever said that.” Thank you, and thank you for tuning in. Kim, “Just to continue with my previous statement, I did have my implants removed two years ago, but still struggling with health. I’ll look Sarah up on YouTube.” All right, awesome. You might have a future client. Then Maria, I think this is the last comment, “Thank you, Sarah. Excited to learn more about your program so I can thrive as I was created to be.”

Sarah:

Oh, good. Good for you, Maria. I love your outlook and your attitude.

Dr. Eric:

Yeah, this was great. I’m surprised. I shouldn’t be surprised. I usually get a good amount of questions. I honestly just wasn’t sure just because it’s such a specific topic with breast implant illness how many questions we got. We will see, but again, it was a pleasure having you on, and it sounds like people learned a lot. Yeah, definitely check out Sarah’s website. Again, I’ll highlight Maria’s comment again. Visit that website, her YouTube channel as well. Then again, she has a Facebook group, and you said also Instagram, the same handle. Well, thank you. Thanks again, Sarah.

Sarah:

Of course.

Dr. Eric:

I appreciate you taking the time and sharing your insight on breast implant illness.

Sarah:

Yeah. I was happy to do it, and I’m glad we got a chance to do this. I’m glad enough people were on to ask the questions they wanted to ask. Yeah, it’s been a pleasure, and thank you so much.

Dr. Eric:

Yeah. All right. Well, everyone, thank you so much for tuning in. Hope you have a good rest of your Friday and a wonderful weekend ahead, and I will be live next week at 2:00. Hopefully I’ll see all of you or at least some of you on again. Again, thanks again. Sarah. I hope you have also a wonderful Friday and weekend ahead.

Sarah:

Thanks. You as well.

Dr. Eric:

All right. Thanks, everyone.

Sarah:

Bye-bye. Take care.

Dr. Eric:

Goodbye.

 

www.ThyroidChallenge2021.com

Although I chose not to take antithyroid medication when I was diagnosed with Graves’ disease back in 2008, over the years many of my patients have taken methimazole, PTU, carbimazole, etc.  Everything comes down to risks vs. benefits, and while many people want to avoid taking medication, sometimes this is the best option for managing the symptoms of hyperthyroidism.  One of the reasons why many prefer not taking antithyroid medication is because side effects are common.

While some people do perfectly fine taking antithyroid medication, others experience symptoms such as itching, nausea, skin rashes, joint and muscle pain, dizziness, and hair loss.  In addition, antithyroid medication can sometimes cause elevated liver enzymes and/or depressed white blood cells.  But how does antithyroid medication affect the gut microbiome?  I came across a very interesting journal article discussing this, and felt that it was important to write a post on this topic, which very well might deter even more people from taking the medication.

I do want to mention that in this blog post I’ll be using the term “dysbiosis” multiple times.  Dysbiosis is simply an imbalance of the gut flora.  So for example, taking antibiotics for a bacterial infection (i.e. H. pylori) will not only kill the harmful bacteria, but it will also have a negative effect on some of the beneficial bacteria, which in turn will result in “intestinal dysbiosis”.

Numerous Drugs Disrupt the Gut Microbiome

Most people know that antibiotics can disrupt the gut microbiome.  But there are other drugs that can also have a negative impact on the gut microbiota, and this includes proton-pump inhibitors, metformin, and antipsychotics (1) (2). There of course is a time and place for these and other drugs, and earlier I mentioned how everything comes down to risks vs. benefits.

For example, if you have a bad bacterial infection then you might need to take an antibiotic.  But you probably don’t need to take an antibiotic every time you have a mild infection.  I realize that sometimes it’s not easy to determine whether someone should take antibiotics, or a different medication, but my point is that sometimes taking medication is necessary…even if it disrupts the gut microbiome.  On a side note, before doing this research on antithyroid medication I didn’t realize the impact that metformin had on the gut microbiome.  And I’m sure there are many other drugs that have a similar impact that most practitioners don’t know about.

What is the Intestinal Endotoxemia Hypothesis?

During my research I came across something called the “intestinal endotoxemia hypothesis”, which states that a drug can cause gut microbiota dysbiosis, intestinal barrier injury and increased intestinal permeability (leaky gut).  This in turn can cause microbiota-derived products such as lipopolysaccharides (LPS) to get into the circulation and liver, which can either directly cause liver damage, or the disrupted gut microbiome can potentially cause liver damage.  In other words, taking antithyroid medication might not directly damage the liver, but it might cause the disruption of the gut microbiome, which in turn causes an increase in LPS, which causes liver damage, which on a blood test will show up as elevated liver enzymes (i.e. ALT and/or AST).

In 2014 I wrote a blog post on lipopolysaccharides, although at the time I didn’t realize the impact they had on the liver.  But numerous studies demonstrate that gut-derived bacterial lipopolysaccharides can cause liver injury (3) (4). LPS also might play a role in causing liver damage in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (5).

intestinal endotoxemia hypothesis: a drug may give rise to gut microbiota dysbiosis, intestinal barrier injury and increased intestinal permeability, thus permitting gut microbiota or microbiota-derived product, such as lipopolysaccharide (LPS), translocation into the portal circulation and then transit to the liver. Then intestinal-derived LPS binds to toll-like receptor-4 (TLR-4) on hepatic sinusoidal endothelial cells and Kupffer cells, which can directly or indirectly lead to liver damage; and the gut microbiota transported to the liver can also activate a large number of hepatic inflammatory cells, which synthesize and release many proinflammatory factors in response to membrane antigens or toxic metabolites (such as LPS), causing further liver damage

How Does Methimazole and PTU Affect The Gut?

I’m not going to dive into the research too much here, but instead I’ll give the highlights of the research.  The first thing I learned is that both methimazole and PTU can cause dysbiosis.  However, they don’t have the same effects on the gut microbiome.  For example, even though PTU is associated with causing greater damage to the liver, methimazole was shown to cause greater dysbiosis.

Here are some of the other things I learned by doing my research:

• Intestinal barrier structure and function were destroyed.  In other words, both methimazole and PTU can cause a leaky gut.  According to the triad of autoimmunity, the three factors necessary for autoimmunity to develop includes 1) a genetic predisposition, 2) exposure to one or more environmental triggers, and 3) an increase in intestinal permeability (leaky gut).  Since a leaky gut is necessary for the development of autoimmune conditions such as Graves’ disease and Hashimoto’s, you of course would want to minimize your exposure to anything that can disrupt the intestinal barrier.  This also may mean that the gut won’t fully heal while taking antithyroid medication.
• The  fecal and serum LPS levels in both the clinical and animal antithyroid drug groups were higher than those in the control group, and the increase in LPS content was correlated with the change in blood indicators.  LPS stands for lipopolysaccharides, and earlier I mentioned how I discussed LPS in a past blog post entitled “What Are Lipopolysaccharides, And How Can They Affect Thyroid Health?”  LPS are large molecules found in gram-negative bacteria, and multiple studies show that they can cause a leaky gut (6) (7). This is one mechanism as to how people taking antithyroid medication develop a leaky gut.
• SCFAs-producing microbiota constituents, such as Faecalibacterium, Ruminococcaceae, Lactobacillus and Blautia, decreased after ATDs administration.  I briefly discussed short chain fatty acids (SCFA) in a past article I wrote entitled “What Thyroid Sufferers Need To Know About Fiber, Resistant Starch, and SCFA“.  SCFAs are a subset of fatty acids that are produced by the gut microbiota during the fermentation of partially and nondigestible polysaccharides, and they play a big role in the maintenance of gut and immune homeostasis (8).  Butyrate is the most important SCFA, and it has been shown to increase regulatory T cells (Tregs) while decreasing Th17 cells (9).  Tregs help to suppress autoimmunity, while Th17 cells promote autoimmunity.  As a result, you want to have an abundance of SCFAs.

Should Antithyroid Medication Be Avoided?

I already mentioned how “everything comes down to risks vs. benefits”, and how it’s important to safely manage the hyperthyroid symptoms, but the fact that antithyroid medication can disrupt the gut microbiome can’t be taken lightly. That being said, while taking natural agents such as bugleweed and L-carnitine are options to consider to address elevated thyroid hormone levels, these aren’t effective in everyone.  And so if someone is currently taking antithyroid medication and if they are tolerating it well, there is a risk if they stop taking the medication and switch to the bugleweed.

Will Lower Doses of Methimazole (or PTU) Cause a Leaky Gut?

For those who choose to take antithyroid medication, while the goal is to be on the medication temporarily, some people take a lower dose for a prolonged period of time.  For example, their endocrinologist might start them on 40mg of methimazole, eventually wean them down to 5mg, and perhaps even half a tablet per day.  But when the person stops taking the methimazole they eventually relapse, and so the endocrinologist agrees to allow the person to remain on a lower dose of methimazole.

Quite frankly, many endocrinologists aren’t open to this approach, and of course the reason why many people relapse is because the underlying cause of the condition was never addressed.  But to answer the question, I’m not sure if a low dose of antithyroid medication will cause a leaky gut, but you need to keep in mind that many people who choose to take the medication will need to be on a higher dose until they reach the point where they’re on a “maintenance” dose. It’s worth mentioning that lower doses of antibiotics don’t always cause dysbiosis.  For example, low dose erythromycin is used as a prokinetic for some cases of small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO).  And low dose erythromycin supposedly doesn’t have the same effect on the gut microbiome when compared to higher doses.

If I had to guess I would say that a lower dose of antithyroid medication wouldn’t cause as much gut disruption as a higher dose.  But the only way to know for certain would be to have another study that compared the impact of lower doses of antithyroid medication to those taking higher doses.

Can The Gut Be Healed After Stopping Antithyroid Medication?

If someone takes antibiotics and then stops taking them, it is possible to heal the gut.  And so the same should be true with any other medication that disrupts the gut microbiome and gut barrier.  So I think it’s safe to say that you can heal the gut once stopping antithyroid medication.

Is It Possible To Get Into Remission While Taking Antithyroid Medication?

Even though antithyroid medication can cause disruption of the gut, over the years I’ve had many patients take it while addressing the cause of the problem.  And many of these people eventually got into remission.  For those people who don’t get into remission, it is possible that taking the antithyroid medication was the reason for this.  It’s a bit of a catch-22, as those with hyperthyroidism want to be safe while addressing the cause of their condition, but it might be more challenging for some people to get into remission while still on antithyroid medication…especially when taking higher doses.

What Alternatives Are There To Taking Antithyroid Medication?

There are other symptom management options for hyperthyroidism that most medical doctors won’t bring up.  These include low dose naltrexone (LDN) and cholestyramine, and I have written articles on both of these.  LDN modulates the immune system, which can potentially help people with Graves’ disease.  Besides needing a prescription for LDN, it doesn’t work in everyone.  Cholestyramine can directly lower thyroid hormone levels, and also requires a prescription. I wasn’t able to find any research showing that LDN or cholestyramine has a negative effect on the gut microbiome. That being said, cholestyramine comes in powder form and needs to be taken on an empty stomach, and so patient compliance can be a challenge.

In summary, both methimazole and PTU can have a negative effect on the gut.  In addition, other side effects are common with antithyroid medication.  On the other hand, natural agents such as bugleweed aren’t always effective in managing the symptoms of hyperthyroidism.  As a result, it can be a challenge deciding whether or not to take antithyroid medication.  Just remember that everything comes down to risks vs. benefits, and you want to do what’s necessary to be safe while managing your symptoms.

**Click Here to access the main journal article related to the research in this blog post

COMING SOON: FREE 5-day Hyperthyroid Symptom Management Challenge: The week of August 16^th I’ll be conducting this free challenge, and so stay tuned for more details!

On Friday July 16th I interviewed Dr. Lisa Merritt, as we chatted about getting quality sleep and avoiding the anti-aging traps, and below is the written transcript. If you would prefer to watch the interview you can access it by clicking here:

Here is the transcript:

Dr. Eric:

Happy Friday everyone. Hope everyone is having an awesome day. And with me, I have my chiropractor, Dr. Lisa Merritt. So we’re not going to talk about  chiropractic… well, it’s up to Dr. Merritt, if she wants to talk about chiropractic she could. Maybe that’s part of anti aging traps to avoid, not see a chiropractor. We’ll talk about the anti aging traps, and we’re going to talk about getting quality sleep. But let me first give a brief intro of Dr. Merritt.

So Dr. Lisa Merritt, she is an educator, mentor and founder of the Merritt Wellness Method and Weddington Chiropractic Wellness Center, which is in Charlotte, North Carolina. Since 1980, Dr. Merritt’s diverse fields of disciplines as a functional medicine physician has offered numerous healing protocols using holistic, integrative healing methods. She has over 40 plus years of experience, has many impressive credentials as she is a licensed chiropractor, board certified naturopath and board certified in acupuncture. She’s a certified HeartMath Biofeedback practitioner, certified in physical therapeutic rehabilitation and has received other trainings as well. Welcome, Dr. Merritt, thank you so much for joining us.

Dr. Lisa:               

Well, thank you for inviting me, Eric. We always enjoy our time together and I’m happy to be here to share the things that you and I love to do.

Dr. Eric:                

Yeah, same here, Lisa. Great to chat with you. I figured we’d start out by talking about sleep, just showing those with hypothyroidism, hyperthyroidism, and anyone else joining us on how to get better quality sleep. And then we could talk about anti aging and I know sleep plays a big role also when it comes to anti aging. And also, is there anything else you’d like to share about your background, how you got into anti aging?

Dr. Lisa:               

Well, the first thing is, is that this has been my blood, sweat and tears my whole life. I will be 65 in November, but I was raised under holistic wellness and I was fortunate to have my dad as a role model, and my mother, but he was also a chiropractor, but we had a health food store and probably my calling was very early in life. My senior year was when I worked in a nursing home, they didn’t call them senior living centers. But it really motivated me and created my calling that I had passion for what made people age gracefully, what was the attitude, what were the things that would make me see how people can age, have longevity. And at a young age of 16, I just said there’s something about this that speaks to me and I really wanted to make a difference, and not only on my life. But I think that’s when I started to know I wanted to be a doctor.

The aging has been as I’m also gradually aging, hopefully gracefully, that as a chiropractor I saw people needing the structural health, but I knew there was more going on physically and physiologically, that they needed the psychological help, the inflammatory help, that people were not healing as well, and what were the problems with their repair and that’s what led me to be more in the naturopathy, do acupuncture, study mindset with biofeedback work from HeartMath.

And it just progresses that you have to look at what I call my triangle of health approach, there’s the structural, the chemical or nutritional, and the emotional wellbeing and you can’t leave any one of those sides out. And when we see people lost on one side and not looking and troubleshooting the other, you’re not going to have that total health. We know sleep is when your body repairs. If we don’t sleep well, we’re going to be in trouble for how we function in the day, so that’s why we’re going to go into it a little more with you and everyone here today.

Dr. Eric:

That sounds great.

Dr. Lisa:               

So I’ll go into it a little bit more, that we know … your rhythm of your day. We talk about adrenal health, we talk about what happens with the hormones in our body. This is a hyperthyroid group and hypothyroid. We know that the body is racing and there’s irritability and there’s heart rate that’s just out of control with a lot of hyperthyroid and the system that doesn’t know how to slow down can’t sleep and can’t digest and can’t let the rest of the functions go because the body’s revved up all day long.

And as you have taught them so much about dietary and those habits, we know that we have to think about what our minds are doing and how we can regulate our day, our sleep schedule, even like a baby. I’ve had six babies and knowing how to help a baby go to sleep is what we need to practice too, because you want to have the end of the day start to slow down and a lot of us don’t. We’re watching TV, we are on our computers, we may have stress that we haven’t resolved in the day, the concepts of what are we talking about at the end of the day. We do that even as a baby, slow down, get music going, get the environment to settle down, dim the lights, create a setting that slows us, get a nice bath at nighttime, practice your breathing, don’t do heavy exercises at night, gentle yoga, stretching, just settle your day.

That’s something a lot of people just … They go, “Yeah, I guess I need to do that,” but it is part of our practice to then stay away from caffeine, excess alcohol. You won’t sleep well and your body won’t repair well if you’re not thinking about what are you eating at night, eating too late at night, don’t have a heavy meal at night, but include your proteins. Those are all things that gradually get us to sleep, but most people will say, “But I can’t turn my mind off.” And there’s breathing exercises, there are meditations. Counting sheep help you sleep, but that doesn’t always work if our chemistry’s off too, right?

Dr. Eric:                

Yep. Being that you’re HeartMath certified, a certified HeartMath Biofeedback practitioner, can you talk a little bit about HeartMath and how that also might be beneficial when it comes to sleep?

Dr. Lisa:               

Yes. Well, I’m not sure if you’ve talked to your group about the vagal nerve. It is the tenth cranial nerve and it’s called the vagal nerve because it’s a vagrant, it’s the longest nerve from our brain going into our body. And the vagal nerve works with digestion, it works with our thought patterns, it works with our visceral, or hits the organs in our bodies and HeartMath works with the regulation of your heart rate. And our emotions change our heart rate and the demands of our body regulate our heart rate. So blood pressure, the fast and the slow of the body, like if you have that adrenaline rush, your heart rate picks up.

So what HeartMath actually does is it’s a breathing technique, but it’s also a visual connection of watching your heart rate in a baseline, and then also what happens when we have thoughts that get out of control. So say it could be trauma or post traumatic stress or we even say sometimes you can have road rage and you know what that does to you, but with HeartMath, it is a program of learning what is your base and do you have control of just the base of what your heart rate is doing. So you regulate it by your fingertip or it can go on your ear and it’s a software that shows how your heart rate is doing.

And the thing I love about it the most is it actually makes you connect with your emotions that you might not always want to talk about and then you learn to say, “Oh yeah, look at what my heart rate does when I talk about my mother-in-law or something like that, or something like how somebody can hate their job and then what does that do, “I hate my boss,” and then you see your heart rate do that. So you learn to say, “Okay, I know how to lower my heart rate by breathing. I know how to lower my heart rate by relaxing my body. I know how to lower my heart rate by these techniques of my mindset control.” And you realistically can say, “Okay, I get stressed about this,” so you don’t get in a panic attack, you learn to settle yourself.

Maybe some of the women out there went through natural child birth and one of the greatest things in natural childbirth is you learn to control that intense labor pain by breathing and settling your body. So it’s an incredible experience to learn. I’ve had all my children via natural childbirth and you’re learning to control your breath, you’re learning to control the physical pain, but then the fear and the overwhelming experience and that’s what we learn in life. COVID, I have seen so many patients just have incredible anxiety, incredible fear, and now they’re overwhelmed with obsessive thoughts, and learning to meditate and do this breathing with the regulation of heart rate monitoring is just an incredible tool.

Dr. Eric:                

Yeah. So not only can it help with sleep, but just overall health. And again, if someone’s anxious, again, which also could prevent someone from falling asleep…

Dr. Lisa:               

Absolutely.

Dr. Eric:                

Yeah, so again … I’m very familiar with HeartMath as well, so I’m also an advocate. I have the Inner Balance and the EmWave too. I use the Inner Balance more frequently.

Dr. Lisa:               

Yeah, the cool thing about it is we could practice yoga, or Tai chi, or our prayer time, people have prayer time, and these applications are all tools that we incorporate. When I even do acupuncture with my patients, I teach them a breathing technique. I teach them some physical breathing techniques that people breathe like this and you’re supposed to belly breathe and not over use these muscles. And an interesting point about that, especially with thyroid and going back to vagal nerve tone … I know I can talk in a lot of different directions and you know that’s the way I talk, but my mind has always got a lot of exciting things to share.

But when we breathe too much with our upper body, and when we have a lot of thyroid issues and we’re shutting down a flow, our lymph system gets blocked, our muscular system is viced, our vagal nerve connection is actually on the carotid arteries, it also is blocked. Chiropractically and even therapeutically, our necks may be tight, our vertebrae are also … range of motion is resisted and so all of that connects. And so if we just think about thyroid, thyroid, thyroid, without breathing, without the vagal nerve massage … And I’ll talk about that more if you would like me to share that.

Dr. Eric:                

Sure.

Dr. Lisa:               

Belly breathing, all these things are part of what we need to just look at that segment of our body. You know what I mean? And that’s where it always comes together with people who can’t swallow, that’s also part of this tension. So there’s that structural, chemical, emotional connection for just settling your body at night. A lot of people, they stay in the fetal position for sleep, learning to relax the neck muscles with a good pillow, practicing the breathing, you’ll start to sleep better. And then learning to just have the mindset with the thought patterns.

Dr. Eric:                

All right. Thank you for sharing that. You said you were going to possibly share some vagal exercises.

Dr. Lisa:               

Well, I know you know a lot about the vagal nerve tone and vagal nerve tone exercises are really fascinating. They said that even the monks had very good vagal nerve tone, it helps with cognitive functions and peace of mind, and it’s because they chant and sing and breathe and meditate, those are all vagal nerve tone exercises.

But the vagal nerve tone exercise that’s actually on your throat, you have to do it laying down because you can make yourself pass out, so remember this. And so while I show you, I am not going to really do it on myself because I don’t want to pass out. But we do want to think that each side of your throat, you want to find that deeper area where you will feel your pulse, which is your artery. And as you’re laying down, you want to keep your fingers like three, level, don’t have your finger nails go in too deep. So that’s why I keep my nails short.

But on each side, you will either … Some people like to massage, some people like to really apply just deep pressure for 10 seconds, about 30 seconds. I like to do maybe 10 seconds. Some people have a different thought. But you do it on each side, 10 seconds, three times, and you then will feel the massage, and then you go to the other side. And you’ll do that three times, but don’t do it together, okay? And that’ll start to … just sensory nerve pickup for that vagal nerve to wake up.

Dr. Eric:                

And is there a better time of day to do it if someone’s trying to kick in that parasympathetic nervous system and try to get better sleep? Should they do it right before they go to sleep, or should they do it multiple times throughout the day?

Dr. Lisa:               

Yes. Well, of course if you’re doing it laying down, it’s great to do it maybe twice a day, if not even three times a day. The twice a day would be when you’re going to sleep and then when you’re waking up in the morning. And I like people to even practice the breathing meditation techniques, or even HeartMath, say you’re going out at night or you’re going to have dinner and it could be three, four O’clock, it’ll give you that extra pickup to tone that vagal nerve by doing that exercise.

Another crazy one that I do every morning, and I don’t know how many people out there would raise their hand, is the cold shower, is to do that. I brace myself every morning. I get my hot shower, I’m doing it, and then I’m like, “Okay, got to turn off the hot.”

Dr. Eric:                

Yep, same here. I’ve been doing that too.

Dr. Lisa:               

And you let that cold water go all over you and I count it and then brace myself to turn around and get my back. When I wash my hair, I really get that cold water.

Dr. Eric:                

Yeah, it sounds like we have the same routine.

Dr. Lisa:               

But I know that’s why those … what do they call them? The Polar Bear Club people who jump in the ice water. I mean, there’s a lot of studies about that just brain function, energy function … I mean, it tones that vagal nerve and it’s a form of discipline that you just say, “Okay, it’s in my regimen.” So I do it and I go, “Okay, I’m ready for my day.” I’m certainly woken up by that.

Dr. Eric:                

Thanks for sharing that. How about supplements, because I know people tend to go to the supplements when it comes to sleeping, melatonin and GABA, so what are your thoughts? Is there a time and place for supplementation and even medication when it comes to getting better sleep?

Dr. Lisa:               

Well, that’s a really good question because a lot of people think melatonin is always the answer and it is not always the answer. In my opinion, we need to check that cortisol level, which has an inverse relationship with melatonin. There’s some people who do not respond well with melatonin, it actually does the opposite and a lot of the autoimmune people could have that opposite.

I am also not always a person who believes in an end product of a hormone, I like to get the body to create as much of it as it can before I say to take a melatonin or other kind of hormones. So to get that cortisol and inflammation down … We know with our thyroid patients, the inflammation is just always an issue for them and you won’t have the melatonin respond because at nighttime cortisol should go down and melatonin should go up and if you’re not in that regulation, then your body’s fighting, using melatonin. Do you agree with that?

Dr. Eric:                

Yeah, I would agree. And what you mentioned earlier about your environment, dimming the lights at night, just make sure your room’s completely dark when going to sleep, those things could help greatly with your body’s own production of melatonin.

Dr. Lisa:               

Yes. And we know at nighttime our body is in the major detoxification and repair time, so taking the wrong supplements or having the wrong diet and you’re not detoxifying at night. And if your blood sugar is not balanced, then you’re also not sleeping well at night. And we know our thyroid patients are not detoxifying and synthesizing their hormones the same, so doing the antiinflammatory and detoxification is going to actually help you sleep better at night and you won’t awaken so much.

The worst thing that I … It’s so hard to get people off of those sleep medications because Ambien is just so dependent and the body has gotten so used to it. And the more your body gets used to something on a chemical, synthetic level, it doesn’t know how to respond and work on its own, because you keep on switching and demand it to go to sleep and it doesn’t know how to reset. But the Ambien patients are never getting REM and REM sleep is when we are still and calm and our body is in deeper time to repair and our body is in deeper time to also help the brain heal and allows the memory and cognitive functions to occur.

So I like magnesium, I test magnesium. If your magnesium levels … and Dr. Osansky knows that when it goes below 2.0 of your blood chemistry for magnesium it’s been like that a while then. So we want that magnesium to be in the system. And I like valerian, I like chamomile teas if you’re not allergic to chamomile. I do think CBD has helped many people sleep better. And those calming teas are very helpful, and hydration.

Dr. Eric:                

How about essential oils?

Dr. Lisa:               

Yes, I love essential oils. The valerian oils, the calming oils-

Dr. Eric:                

Lavender?

Dr. Lisa:               

I use Young Living, I like the Stress Away. Frankincense has helped, which is also Boswellia. The proper B vitamins. Our adaptogenic process is very good to get the body to know how to help that, that time to get the adrenals to shut down and give you the cortisol for the nighttime balance.

Blood sugar is super important. People who can’t go to sleep and have hard time going to sleep, we know that that could be more on the hyperglycemic side, on insulin resistance. Having a little protein will help you keep those carbs lower, no sugar, no synthetic sugar. People say, “Well, it’s no sugar.” I’m like, “No, your brain thinks it got sugar, not a good idea.” People who wake up in the night, it can be a hypoadrenal response, you may need a little protein before bedtime to help you not wake up in the night, that brain needs fuel. So I don’t know if any of your people tried even the glass of water with a little grade B maple syrup sometimes helps them go back to sleep. Those are some things just to pick up the blood sugar a little bit in the middle of the night.

Dr. Eric:                

Okay, great tips. Thank you again for sharing. And I want to make sure we have time to dive into those anti aging traps that I told everybody that we’re going to have you discuss. So what are some of the anti aging traps that people could avoid, so when they turn 64 or 65 they can look just as great as you do?

Dr. Lisa:               

Thank you. My biggest thing, I have been writing my courses and building my vision of how I’m going to speak to people more and more about anti aging and I really … Like I said, that’s structural, chemical, emotional, but the fear of aging is the biggest thing I want people to battle. If you’re so afraid of aging, then you’re not living and you need to be smart. People start to freak out with aging when it starts to get to be too late. We need to think about how our body is at 30. I love teaching the young people, don’t wait till your body starts to shut down, learn the signs it’s giving you.

And so I also just really want people to embrace living and balance their living. Live and love and laugh and humor, and try not to stay so much that you can’t focus on the special things, don’t wait for bucket lists to be too late. My grandmother wrote once that we work so hard and we fail and save and we’re not thinking about what are we doing today to enjoy and embrace it. And you don’t want to be foolish and say, “Well, I’m living for today,” but you do want to savor each moment and think of your day on the good things, even 10 minutes of gratitude and little sharing in moments and laughter. I just think that we know laughter and peace of mind, it heals our immune system, it makes our bodies healthier, it helps our white blood cells just invigorate.

I love hearing older people talk about the things that they tell you is to resolve your issues, tell people you love them. Don’t wait so late in life with grudges, and let go of things and resolve it and share your thoughts today.

But aging is not just hiding and being an ostrich. What am I doing today? Do I have good instincts? We’re always trying to teach our patients about healthy diet and eating vegetables and getting exercise, but if we don’t keep that in check … You want good instincts. Am I moving my body? Am I sitting too long? Am I eating the colors of the rainbow? Am I eating healthy? Or do I have apathy that I don’t want to cook, I don’t have energy to cook? There’s so many people who don’t know how to cook. It’s not that hard, you don’t have to be that fancy. It’s just basically start getting it all … get your pantry full of good groceries.

And I think you learn from your ancestries. I have patients that … The American diet is sad, the standard American diet. What are people eating that their ancestries ate? Go back even to the Mediterranean diet or the Asian diet or the Middle-Eastern diet. What was it that they ate that kept them healthy? And there was a reason, it’s because it was fresh, there was a healthy oil, there was the healthier grains, it wasn’t processed. So those chemicals that are in it, the preservatives that are in it, we need to try to get back to those roots.

Dr. Eric:                

So it sounds like a lot of the basics need to be incorporated. So for those expecting you to talk about taking DHEA and resveratrol and other anti aging agents … I’m not saying there’s not a time and place for these, but I think there’s also a lot of hype with some of the natural agents to promote anti aging, but you could take all the resveratrol you want, all the DHEA… well, you don’t want to take a lot of DHEA since it’s a hormone. But point is you want to eat well, manage your stress, get proper sleep as we were talking about, or Dr. Lisa was talking about earlier. And you had some great tips, even the gratitude journal. Just the attitude someone has on life can play a big role when it comes to slowing down the aging process, just your outlook.

Dr. Lisa: 

Well, I take supplements, but that’s what we want to remember, they are called supplements. The nutraceuticals that are given to us now are not just vitamins, they’re not just minerals, they’re not just herbals. The research that I have seen over the last 40 years is now have so many wonderful co-factors of adding these herbs or putting this together, or adding hydrochloric acid so you absorb iron better, or adding something that works together so that you absorb it better is so much better than just one little thing at a time, so you don’t have to take a multitude list of tons of bottles.

I have a shake every morning, I add turmeric to it, I add vitamin D. We’re not going to get everything from the food we eat because our environment has ruined the quality. We know that broccoli doesn’t have the same amount of vitamin C as it used to 20 years ago unfortunately because of pollutants. If we all grew organic and we all had our own garden we probably … Of course, shop local, it’s better. We all know how great something freshly picked off your tree or picked off your own garden is just amazingly different, a tomato or a peach. My sister would bring mangoes. We know how delicious they are when they’re just so ripe, of course there’s so many more vitamins and minerals in them. But we do have to supplement.

It used to be the conventional doctors … Excuse me … they used to say, “Oh, you don’t need to take vitamins, just eat your diet.” But now we know, people get tested for vitamin D, people want extra B12. We need our probiotics, we’re not getting it like we used to. But we have to listen to the signs of our body, we have to look how the health of our skin is, looking at our nails, looking at our tongue, looking at how well are we digesting food, do we have heartburn, do we have bloating, do we have gas, do we move our bowels every day. Those are signs that hey, I’m not doing it.

If you’re not going to the bathroom every day, your body’s holding toxins. If you’re getting heartburn, you’re not absorbing nutrients. If you get sinus issues all the time, your body’s not flowing. If you get headaches every day, we know the body is telling you a message. So listening and not hiding it and masking it with medicines is so, so important.

Dr. Eric:

Great. So this all relates to that triangle that you mentioned. So for example you mentioned headaches and that could be chemical, that could be structural, it really could relate to any of the three aspects of the triangle. Correct?

Dr. Lisa:    

That’s right. As far as anti aging, I love when I have a patient who comes in and they could be 80 years old and they’re not on any medications, and I’m like, “Tell me.” And they’re not hiding their symptoms, it’s because you listen to their lifestyle, you listen to some of their habits and they have good instincts and they tell you what they eat. Even if they’re home alone, they cook and they eat fresh and they make sure that they are planning their meals. And they get out and they walk and they still stimulate their brains. The people that are aging gracefully are the ones who are still so proactive. And they’ve been proactive, it’s just natural in their … It’s not just genetics.

Our genetics will help us live longer, but our lifestyle is what keeps us living longer, so healthy lifestyle is that triangle approach. And the ones that are on so many medications, where they’re on one medication and then they’re on another because they may have a side effect, and then they’re on another because of the side effect, and then they’re on eight different medications. And then you can just tell, they don’t have energy, they don’t feel good, they don’t sleep good, they have body aches and pains and they’re not moving and they’re overweight, or they’re not sharp and they’re not happy either.

The ones that are aging gracefully … When I told you I was a young girl going to this nursing home, I had the job of going into … This is what they titled me was I was an assistant recreational director. So when they didn’t want to play bingo or go watch movies, I had to go talk to the people who didn’t want to leave their room, or they couldn’t leave their room, and I saw attitude, not just illness, the ones who were lonely, the ones who had no one come visit them.

And I saw the ones that everybody wanted to visit them, and maybe they were sicker but they wanted to visit them, they still told jokes. It was just amazing to just say, “I want to be like that,” and I hope I will. I want to be that cute little old lady who’s still dancing, right? And you want to be around those kind of people, you don’t want to be around negative people, you want to be around people … That’s why you and I like to get together, you want to be around people that are magnifying and who stimulate your brain, and who are positive and not toxic in your life.

Dr. Eric:

Yep. I definitely agree with that. Exercise, I wanted to talk a little bit about exercise. Does it make a difference what type of exercise? These days a lot of people are promoting high intensity interval training, then there’s just regular cardiovascular exercise such as general walking, weight-bearing exercises. Do you recommend a combination of everything?

Dr. Lisa:   

Well, that’s great a question too, but of course, it all depends on the person. The problem is, is things get to be a fad and we know the fad diets, there’s fad exercises, there’s fad activities that people just … The media and good advertising will just make you feel like you’ve got to be like this, the hottest thing that’s out there. We have to be careful, you have to listen to your body.

There are times that I’ll have patients who I can’t tell they’re the slower movers and I need to get them to move a little more. They tell me … This is a whole other topic, but there could be the person who’s the go, go, go and they would be my marathon, triathlon, they just get on that treadmill and they just don’t stop. And guess what I ask them? “So tell me, do you ever just stretch and would you ever consider yoga?” I could already see them go, “I knew you were going to ask me that.”

And then I talk to the people that do … They’ll say, “No, I hate yoga,” or, “I can’t stand people who do Tai chi, it’s too slow,” and I know they need that. And then there are those that go too slow and I’ll say, “Do you ever try to push that slow walk into a faster walk and move your body?” “Oh no, I never do that and that’s too much to me.” But then you know you’ve got to pump it a little bit more. So those are just different people that have to learn the balance and pacing.

And then we have muscular skeletal issues that maybe people will say, “I can’t do it because of my knees,” right? Well, that’s an excuse, because you could swim, you could do other things. So there’s no excuse for not getting movement. And then there are those that would tell me, “I don’t want to exercise because I work too much, I don’t have time.” So setting time for exercise is very important. And then if you have a lot of muscle aches…why are you getting muscle spasms? Could it be some of the thyroid problems? Could it be some of the issues of posture? So the dos and why’s of people’s lives are so important. Does that answer your question?

Dr. Eric: 

Yes, it does, thank you. What are your thoughts on fasting because again there has been research, more so on animal studies on caloric restriction. Intermittent fasting, a lot of people, including myself, I do intermittent fasting too. When you’re eating, you want to eat whole, healthy foods, try to eat organic whenever possible, but how about going longer periods of time, like 14, 16, 18 hours without eating?

Dr. Lisa:  

There’s times we instinctively may go through … We may not feel like we’re hungry and the body is telling you it doesn’t have to eat as much, so we do want to listen to that. And Eric, you and I probably haven’t talked about it enough, but there are debates about if the adrenal glands can handle intermittent fasting.

Dr. Eric:   

That is a good point, yeah.

Dr. Lisa: 

Some people just can’t do that. It’s too much.

Dr. Eric: 

Agreed.

Dr. Lisa: 

Their body’s not ready. It’s just like any other kind of fasting, you don’t just want to shut your body down if it doesn’t have the ability to have that resource to provide that repair time because it’s a shock. People do lose weight with intermittent fasting just because they knock out calories, they have to do it the right way.

I think not eating dinner too late and having a little bit of a breakfast, I think it’s still important, we do call it break fast. I like the Mediterranean diet of having the bigger lunch is healthier on our body and easier breakfast and easier dinner. But I don’t think everybody it’s always the greatest for intermittent fasting in my opinion.

Dr. Eric:  

Yeah, and I agree. Most of my patients I don’t recommend intermittent fasting for the reason you mentioned, because a lot of people have compromised adrenals. And of course, if someone has hypoglycemia or even for my hyperthyroid patients, when I dealt with Graves’ I lost 42 pounds, so definitely at that time I was not looking into intermittent fasting. But I always bring it up, because again, when it comes to anti aging, in the literature there is some evidence with caloric restriction, fasting and aging. But if you’re in a healthier state, maybe. If you’re still trying to restore the health of your adrenals, have blood sugar imbalances, probably not.

Dr. Lisa: 

Well, I think it’s just like any other kind of fasting. We talk about putting our patients on a cleanse or a detox, but I have found that it’s very important to educate about the pre fasting and the post fasting, because you don’t want to get your body to all of a sudden say, “Well, I’m fasting tomorrow, so let me have this giant spaghetti meal,” or, “Let’s go to the ice cream store tonight because I’m fasting tomorrow,” or vice versa, “I’m ending my fast and I can’t wait to do everything I hadn’t done all month.” It’s that prep before and that prep after that I think really just …

If you’re just always really balanced, you don’t have to do a lot of crazy stuff. You should know that you can enjoy a great thanksgiving dinner, you can enjoy a birthday party, but it’s that moderation and knowing when you should or shouldn’t and not get overwhelmed with it. A lot of patients who are trying to lose weight, they go through that time of like, “Well, I blew my diet, I might as well forget it,” and they just don’t forgive themselves and get back on track. And it goes through that mindset thing I was talking about again. We can’t do a detox properly if you don’t prep right and you can’t undetox if you don’t just really learn in the long run what you should be doing all the time.

I had a patient who told me, “I do your detox every year that you bring it up,” and then when we review what they’ve normally been eating he goes, “I’m always a little better than the year before.” And my encouragement is to try to say, “But why can’t you just keep it balanced all the time and 90%, 95% just be healthy? What is it that you want or what is it that makes you want the junk food so bad? What is it that makes you slide that you can’t …”

We want to have a balanced diet. I don’t get it because my instinct is I want to have a healthy meal, even if I’m quick grabbing something. My healthy meal would be I’m going to take a piece of turkey and carrot and celery, that’s what I’ll have, it won’t be chips, it won’t be a cookie. And my leftovers are a healthy meal, I’ll eat some leftover green beans and things like that. It’s just what are we reaching for? A handful of pecans, something like that holds me over instead of saying, “Oh, I haven’t eaten, let me grab a Coke, Coca-Cola.” It’s not my instinct.

Dr. Eric:  

Yeah, I get it. I agree. Before we answer some questions, because it looks like there’s a bunch of questions, is there anything else you’d like to mention when it comes to either sleep or anti aging, or both?

Dr. Lisa: 

I think that we know that sleep is something … I was doing a lot of sleep study and I was involved in a group for a while. Before I said my niche was about anti aging, I realized that sleep problems is very dark, it’s a very dismal world, and the people that suffer from sleep hide it and they don’t tell people all day. And so I saw the madness of it and I felt really … I had such compassion about that world of people not talking about why they’ll do anything to sleep better. It’s almost like the addiction of I’ve got to sleep because you know people who are a deficit of sleep, they do go crazy. You can’t think anymore, your moods won’t be balanced.

And I think it’s very important to keep a journal about your day and journaling is to think about the why’s of why you’re not sleeping, your troubleshooting, did I exercise? What happened in my thought process? What did I eat? And if you’re not going to sleep, you’re going to age. And if you don’t give your body the patterns of sleeping, a regular sleep schedule … I work my hours, but I basically wake up the same time every day. We want the same sleep schedule. Everybody, once in a while, stays up real late, but sleeping in and getting your clock off …

It’s just like I said, with a baby, if you want to teach a baby good sleep, you have to have a good schedule for them, because they’ll get off kilter and our bodies are the same way at no matter what age, if you’re 30, 50, 80, if you’re not sleeping like you would on a regular basis. So you want to try to have that same schedule. There are people who say, “I don’t even try to start thinking about going to sleep until 11 O’clock at night,” and you’re keeping that TV on for that favorite show or whatever routine you’re doing, I really advise you to try to shut down your life around that time and get your schedule regular as best you can.

Dr. Eric:  

All right, great advice. And again, thank you for sharing everything with everyone attending. Before we jump to the questions again, people could find you at … Is it weddingtonwellness.com as far as your practice website?

Dr. Lisa: 

Yes, weddingtonwellness.com.

Dr. Eric:   

Of course, I know the name of the practice, just not the website… I just drive there because I’m in Charlotte too, I don’t go to the website… But yeah, weddingtonwellness.com, and if you need an awesome chiropractor, again, see Dr. Lisa.

Dr. Lisa:

And we do acupuncture. Dr. Osansky does the chemical side of things, so let him work with you on your blood chemistry, on your testing, let him keep on teaching you because I totally … We meet up as colleagues and as friends and we have very like-minded thoughts and protocols. My brick and mortar setting is there for you if you want to come and see me in Charlotte.

Dr. Eric:

All right, wonderful. And then also your group is Fearless Aging, right? You have a Facebook group and the name is Fearless Aging?

Dr. Lisa:  

Yes. It is primarily a women’s group. I am letting women who are 30 in my group because I don’t want them to freak out with the first wrinkle or the first gray hair and I don’t want them to start thinking they need to do Botox and all this crazy expense on their skin. I wash my face with soap and I use a very mild soap that’s got olive oil and clay and natural things, I don’t use fancy lotions. I hydrate, I eat a lot of olive oil, I love my fish, I take fish oils. So your skin and your eyes and your hearing and your teeth … There’s times I think, “Oh, I need to get rid of the wrinkles,” but those things are … I want the smile wrinkles, right?

Dr. Eric:

All right, yes.

Dr. Lisa: 

People just need to get back to some of the basics again.

Dr. Eric:

Mm-hmm (affirmative). I definitely agree with that. All right. Well, thanks again and let’s see what questions we have … I think this first one relates to sleep. We have Darrell who has Graves’ disease. Blood tests are normal. Can’t sleep all night. I guess racing heart. What should we do? Also, my digestive system going, diarrhea every day. It doesn’t make any sense. I’d like to hear your thought. It sounds like digestion is … Maybe a comprehensive stool panel, there could be other things going on, even SIBO. Sometimes small intestinal bacteria overgrowth can present with diarrhea, but I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Dr. Lisa: 

Well, like we talked about, the diarrhea, it could definitely be a gut infection. It could be that Graves’ just making your sympathetic system on go. It could be that you may need to have those gut repairs to get the stool to see if you do have any dysbiosis, which is an imbalance of your good bacteria versus the bad bacteria. You might have a need for the probiotics and repair the gut. Diarrhea is a very … I don’t know if you are looking at your diet of what you’re eating, are you consuming caffeine, looking if you’re having any help with your Graves’ disease.

Talking to Dr. Osansky is very important for you to get some ideas of how your body … I don’t know if any of the pointers I gave you on what you’re doing at night and your breathing practices, but definitely get your digestive system checked, definitely see if your nervous system … acupuncture helps with that, the vagal nerve tone exercises, the meditations. I don’t know what else you’re doing. You certainly don’t want to keep on taking stuff that would be a … the brain health, your brain motility may just be overactive as well.

Dr. Eric:  

Yeah. I agree with Dr. Lisa. But I’ve only got one thing to mention because you say even though you have Graves’ your blood test is normal, so I assume your thyroid hormone levels are looking good, so that’s probably not what’s keeping you up at night. But also parasites, potentially. There’s a lot of things as Dr. Lisa said that could cause diarrhea, but when you mention the racing at night, sometimes infections also could cause problems with sleep, can cause heart racing. I dealt with chronic Lyme disease so I had some of those symptoms, not the diarrhea but some of the other symptoms. I’m not saying you have Lyme, Darrell, but again, parasites, or it could be another type of infection, possibly…just something to consider.

Dr. Lisa: 

And honestly, Darrell, a lot of people think their blood tests are normal. We talk about the functional ranges versus the conventional lab ranges. It’s amazing how many people say, “They said I’m normal,” and then when a functional medicine doctor, like Dr. Osansky and I, review the blood work, we look at so many more things that could be part of a pattern or a warning sign that is on those ranges that are not quite viewed as what we would say as normal. So you really do need a functional medicine doctor to look at the ranges that are normal and outside of even just the thyroid being normal. We want to look at these other lab tests that might give us more indications of what’s happening, like even your adrenal functions, because that, having Graves’ disease or auto-immunities, we could be seeing this as part of it for you.

Dr. Eric: 

Yep, I agree. Thanks for sharing that. And this is just a thank you for having Dr. Lisa here. And yes, I’m thrilled that we’re able to get her on as well. So Darrell asked another question, “Will this all go away or will we have this forever?”

Dr. Lisa:  

Darrell, I know, you feel very dismal about it and losing … Your diarrhea, you are not getting nutrients and you’re malabsorbing, so we have to look and see about that gut infection, because the whole thing with digestion is either are you absorbing nutrients or are you holding toxins. And if you are not absorbing nutrients, all your body is going to just fight you and degenerate. So getting the control of the diarrhea is very, very important.

Dr. Eric:  

Yeah, I agree, that’s definitely important.

Dr. Lisa:

So many things to check.

Dr. Eric:

All right. And then Ramin asks, “How do we learn more about all this?” With anti aging, again, well, I was going to say your website, but it’s for women, you said it’s mainly for women. Do you have anything on your website or any other resources if there are men who are looking for anti-aging tips

Dr. Lisa: 

Well, they can certainly work with you. I am building my website for my virtual course, but that still is building for that. But my weddingtonwellness.com is the avenue for those who want my nutritional and structural, chemical, emotional approach. So I do see people virtually and I’d be happy to do that. But as respect to my friend, Dr. Osansky, he does all these things that can give you even more insight about your chemical needs and nutritional needs.

Dr. Eric:  

All right, great. Thank you. What was the name of the vagal exercise around the neck?

Dr. Lisa: 

You could even just Google vagal nerve tone exercises and it will talk about the vagal nerve massage. It’s funny because in my vagal nerve tone courses that we’ve gone to, Eric, they will talk about different pressures. And then when I was taking it in other courses, because I do some primitive reflex work with the MNRI program, they talk about vagal nerve tone and everybody’s got a couple different nuance of how you do vagal nerve tone.

But like I said, do not do it standing up. The massage can either be a total pressure and you do it three times. It can also be a massage itself. And I found many times with my thyroid patients that they do have a blockage on one side more, definitely sensitivity on one side more, and that’s almost the side that needs more stimulus because that nerve itself is more deadened and needs stimulus. I had an article that I wrote about vagal nerve tone exercises. I could share that and Dr. Osansky can give that to the group, if you want, Eric.

Dr. Eric: 

Yeah, that would be wonderful. You could post it, you’re a member of the group too.

Dr. Lisa:

Okay.

Dr. Eric:

I’m probably going to be looking at it as well.

Dr. Lisa: 

I don’t know, have you ever done a blog on it, because maybe you can share that too?

Dr. Eric:

Yeah. Different types of vagal nerve exercises, not the one you described. But I do have an article that I wrote on the vagus nerve and yeah, I could definitely include that as well.

Dr. Lisa: 

I even like Stephen Porges’s work. He did the Polyvagal Theory, which is more than just vagal nerve tone. It was a very impressive book about how much learning disabilities and autism and cognitive and Alzheimer’s are tied together with this disconnect of brain to the rest of the body. So the Polyvagal Theory is a book by Stephen Porges that I would recommend.

Dr. Eric:

All right, great. Thank you for that as well. Anita asks, “I heard that humming can stimulate the vagus nerve?”

Dr. Lisa:

Yeah, humming’s another one. That’s why I was saying that about chanting and humming, and those are all fun and happy things to do. They say when you go driving down in your car, you should be singing really loud. There is vibrational music that also increases more vagal nerve tone. These are all things that connect to our brain, brain exercises. I could go in so many directions, color therapies, those are all frequencies in our body.

Dr. Eric:   

Yeah, and singing loud, not just humming, but singing loud stimulates the vagus nerve, vigorous gargling, coffee enemas, things like that.

Dr. Lisa:

So singing in the shower really loud and cold water, you could accomplish a lot at that whole time.

Dr. Eric: 

Yeah. All right, I think this is a response to Darrell, just another user mentioning with the diarrhea, could it be SIBO or SIFO, small intestinal fungal overgrowth, and it’s possible. Again, that’s where it gets challenging, with diarrhea, it could be a number of different factors.

Dr. Lisa:  

Yes. And Darrell, SIBO is a very difficult diet, it is. It does require sometimes a medication. It does not always remedy just with a herbal therapy. I don’t know if Dr. Osansky agrees with that, sometimes you’ve really got to get that. SIBO is the small intestine bacteria overgrowth. You want to get those patients back to a normal diet as much as possible because it eliminates so many healthy foods that SIBO, it’s a bear to work on, but you need to be tested for it. And one of the big SIBO signs is after you eat, your stomach blows up like a big beach ball. It’s not just a little bloating, it’s like a helium balloon blow up. Right, Eric, that’s what you would say as one of the given signs?

Dr. Eric:

Well, everybody’s different, not everybody will present with that. I do agree some people do need to take Rifaximin or Xifaxan, it really depends. With diarrhea, it’s usually more hydrogen dominant. There’s methane dominant SIBO, hydrogen dominant SIBO. So usually when it’s diarrhea, it’s more hydrogen dominant, which is easier to treat. It’s not easy to treat, but when compared to methane dominant. Methane dominant SIBO, if someone were to take an antibiotic approach, usually they’d need to take two antibiotics, usually they’d take Rifaximin and then maybe something like Neomycin, but it really depends.

I do like to start people with an herbal approach, and one reason also is because if they can’t get the Rifaximin covered by insurance it is very expensive. But besides that also, I guess with my background, I just try to go natural whenever possible. But sometimes, you’re right, sometimes the herbs don’t work, they’re not effective and then they’ll need to take a look at antibiotics.

Dr. Lisa:

The biggest thing is get tested. Get tested and do that breath test. It’s not just found so easy. Even H. pylori is not always just found by blood, you have to get a good stool test. I like the three day sample, I don’t know about you, Dr. Osansky, if you do stool testing and you get a three day sample. What do you like to do?

Dr. Eric:

I used to. When I was using Genova Diagnostics and Doctor’s Data, I used to have patients do the three day samples compared to the one day sample. More recently over the last few years, I’ve been using the GI-MAP from Diagnostic Solutions because it’s DNA-based.

Dr. Lisa:

I’ve done both.

Dr. Eric: 

But yeah, if there’s the option of doing one day versus three day I’d go with the three day… and I think with Genova and Doctor’s Data, I’m not sure, but I think it’s the same price if you do three samples compared to one. And even if you have to pay a little bit more, it probably is more worth it, because again, that’s the downside of stool testing is false negatives are common.

Dr. Lisa:

Right. And then even some blood testing can be false negatives. But the SIBO test, it is something that the breath is a good test to get that will define it.

Dr. Eric: 

Yeah. It’s not perfect either, but there’s no perfect test. So I agree, I do like the SIBO breath test as well, because again, otherwise you’re just guessing. If it’s negative and …someone mentioned SIFO and that can get challenging because that won’t present as being positive if someone’s doing a SIBO test, because with SIFO, there’s really no great diagnostic test. But I agree, if you’re suspecting SIBO, it’s a good idea to do a breath test, then, if it’s positive, then of course treat, if not, you might have to dig a little bit deeper.

And a few people (in the comments) mentioning Graves’ don’t need to fast, nobody with Graves’ needs to fast. So I agree, even though I will say the majority of people with Graves’ and hyperthyroidism Graves’ are losing weight, but some people do gain weight. Now, with that being said, I still wouldn’t say to fast, even if they’re gaining weight with Graves’. And even if someone has Hashimoto’s, as Dr. Lisa was saying, a lot of people have compromised adrenals and really if you’re going to consider intermittent fasting at all, you would want to restore the health of the adrenals. And if they have blood sugar issues, especially more so hypoglycemia than hyperglycemia, then that’s another reason why you wouldn’t consider intermittent fasting or any type of fasting really.

Dr. Lisa:   

Right.

Dr. Eric: 

Okay. Another question from Darrell, when I go to the bathroom and have a bowel movement, every morning my nose runs like a faucet. Any idea?

Dr. Lisa:   

In Chinese medicine, the large intestine and your mucous membranes are in their mind the same, and so you want to help large intestine, you help sinuses. And so this could be a little connection for you, but it is the body trying to … This mucous is trying to release from your body. I don’t want to get into too much detail with you about your diarrhea, but if there’s mucous and maybe the mucous here, and it could be that sympathetic response of the body trying to rid and letting the poisons out of your body. If you haven’t got a good functional medicine doctor helping you, Darrell, I highly recommend one … A lot our questions sounds like you need somebody to dive in a little deeper for you particularly.

Dr. Eric:

Yeah. We’re both going to be biased because we’re functional medicine practitioners, but yeah … I mean, there’s a lot you could do on your own with diet and stress management and some of the vagus nerve exercises and just keeping active, but there’s definitely a time and a place for working with someone one on one, so I agree it’s something to consider. Let’s make this the last question because we’ve been going well over an hour here. “I’m wondering about Graves’ and sports. My heart rates are very high when in activity. It takes time to go back to normal, so I stopped exercising since I’m not sure if it’s good. Any cure for that? We need more of this types of discussions.”

So yeah, that’s one thing with Graves’, I would be cautious when it comes to … I mean, really anybody. Like Dr. Lisa was also mentioning, there are people who go too slow, but then there’s definitely people who over train. But with Graves’, when you have an elevated heart rate, you want to be especially cautious when it comes to doing any type of cardiovascular exercise. I would say most people could do light walking, some light weight-bearing exercise, but a lot of people, even just jogging, that’s not high intensity interval training, but still, for some people it’s probably a good idea just to take a break if you do a run every morning and you have Graves’.

Dr. Lisa: 

And it’s the time of day. I mean, what time of day are you … This Facebook question is if you’re that person who’s exercising late at night, especially with Graves’, I wouldn’t have, the body can’t shut down that fast. And I know it’s hard to think about a better time of day for you to exercise, but maybe that might make a difference for you to feel like your body settles at night to heal and rest and get into a better rhythm for your sleep and for your body to heal. But the same thing goes with you’ve got to know maybe some of those vagal nerve tone things and learning heart rate might be an exercise that is part of the practice that you may need.

Dr. Eric:

Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yeah.

Dr. Lisa: 

There’s never one answer to everything and we all want to have one answer and we all wish there could be that miracle answer. And sometimes that one answer is the answer and one time … I know that and Dr. Osansky probably agrees. I had a patient with pancreatic cancer and had part of her pancreas removed and I was a young doctor and I thought, “Oh my gosh, this is going to be a really, really hard case for me.” This was 35 years ago or something and I thought, “Wow. Okay, I’m going to do my best.” And I was thinking I might not do very well, but I gave this patient a protocol and thought it was going to be one of my hardest, it turned out to be one of the best. I gave her some pancreatic enzymes. She didn’t need my help for many, many years later until she went into menopause. And I always thought to myself, “Wow, that was an easy one. She responded differently.”

And then sometimes we may have a migraine patient that is very detailed, very involved and a lot of things that you wish you could just snap it and help them and there’s more layers to unravel. We are doctors that have to find a protocol, sometimes we nip it and we find it and we’ve got the nail on the head for that patient and definitely have our priorities of what we decide is the first step, second step, what phase is best for that person. And just like any kind of thing, we have an educated trial and error. We know what we want to do, but there are different nuances that are involved that have to have us know what step to take. Like with the gentleman about the diarrhea, there’s a lot of little things that we were already thinking, but we don’t know this, we don’t that, we haven’t met you, we haven’t seen other things. You want a doctor who is passionate with their work, dedicated to their work, who is a curious doctor.

And I would definitely say Dr. Osansky and hopefully I would say that I’m a humble doctor. I am always looking at finding the answers. I want to say that I don’t always get to help everybody, but my integrity and my passion and my just finding the answers … and functional medicine definitely gives you a lot more avenues, so many more avenues. It’s not like well, we’re just going to do surgery, or well, we’re just going to do this medicine. There are so many little tangents that people are hungry for, people are wanting more answers.

We as doctors in our field of natural medicine, drugs and surgery are last and that’s just … You want to get to it before it gets so bad. And all of you out there, we want to inspire you to listen to your body. Get somebody who’s an extra brain. Obviously this patient or this person, Darrell, you have great knowledge, get an extra brain from somebody like Dr. Osansky and I. You need that extra brain. We all need that extra brain, all of us do. And get the answers for yourself.

Dr. Eric:

This is just a followup from that other person who’s saying they’re doing meditation, they’re actually doing acupuncture which is helping.

Dr. Lisa: 

Yes.

Dr. Eric: 

Which is great. You are very welcome, Darrell. We appreciate you. We appreciate everyone asking questions and showing up on this Friday. Thank you so much. Thanks for attending. And thank you Dr. Lisa for sharing-

Dr. Lisa: 

Thank you.

Dr. Eric: 

… and going over time. I appreciate you sticking around to answer questions, I know you have a busy schedule and we all appreciate it.

Dr. Lisa:

Well, I’ll be happy to come back on any time you want. You know you and I love to talk. Dr. Osansky and I will have lunch together and he keeps me on my watch, he goes, “What time do you have to get back?” because we’ve gone over before and I’m like, “Oh my gosh.” So we always eat close by and he gets me back to my office because I like to chit-chat quite a bit with him.

Dr. Eric:

Yeah, we have a good time when we talk. Yeah, all right. Well, I’m going to wrap this up and let everybody enjoy the rest of their Friday and I hope everyone has a great weekend ahead. And same with you, I hope you, Dr. Lisa, have a great Friday, a great Saturday and Sunday.

Dr. Lisa:

Thank you.

Dr. Eric: 

And yeah, look forward to doing lunch with you again.

Dr. Lisa: 

All right. Take care everyone. Bye-bye.

Dr. Eric: 

Bye. Take care everyone.

Note: I mentioned a blog post on the vagus nerve I previously wrote, and you can access it by Clicking Here