Thyroid Transformation with Dr. Heather Stone: Rational Wellness Podcast 413

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Dr. Heather Stone discusses the Thyroid Transformation with Dr. Ben Weitz.

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Podcast Highlights

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Dr. Heather Stone is one of the top Functional Medicine practitioners in the world. She has over 20 years experience and she has helped thousands of women overcome the symptoms of hypothyroidism and Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. She published a book, Thyroid Transformation Blueprint, available through Amazon. Her website is ReverseMyCondition.com.

Dr. Ben Weitz is available for Functional Nutrition consultations specializing in Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders like IBS/SIBO and Reflux and also Cardiometabolic Risk Factors like elevated lipids, high blood sugar, and high blood pressure.  Dr. Weitz has also successfully helped many patients with managing their weight and improving their athletic performance, as well as sports chiropractic work by calling his Santa Monica office 310-395-3111.

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Podcast Transcript

Dr. Weitz:  Hey, this is Dr. Ben Weitz, host of the Rational Wellness Podcast. I talk to the leading health and nutrition experts and researchers in the field to bring you the latest in cutting edge health information. Subscribe to the Rational Wellness Podcast for weekly updates and to learn more, check out my website, drweitz.com.  Thanks for joining me, and let’s jump into the podcast.

Hello, rational Wellness podcasters today. Our topic is Thyroid Transformation with Dr. Heather Stone. Dr. Heather, 

Dr. Stone:  Thanks for having me. Yeah, go ahead.

Dr. Weitz: Welcome. Thank you. Uh, let me give a little intro. Dr. Heather Stone is one of the top functional medicine practitioners.  She has over 20 years clinical experience in private practice, and during that time, she has successfully helped thousands of women overcome the symptoms of hypothyroidism and Hashimoto’s thyroiditis.  Her thyroid transformation blueprint has been used by hundreds of doctors. And does this help countless women return to healthy, happy, healthy and, has helped countless women return to happy, healthy, and lean.  Her mission is to change the face of healthcare through her private practice. Books, master classes, webinars, education programs, and retreats on a ranch in Texas. So welcome, Heather.

Dr. Stone: Yeah, thanks for having me.

Dr. Weitz: Great. So why is autoimmune hypothyroidism seemingly so common today?

Dr. Stone: Yeah, I don’t think that there’s any, you know, studies that are showing exactly why it’s so on the rise and so many women are struggling with it.  But what, from what I can see in my clinical practice and, and how I see this really growing is because we deal with, we are  dealing with such a ever-growing load of toxins.  I think if you really look at autoimmunity in general and this relates to all thyroid, what you have to really understand what are the underlying triggers and huge triggers are underlying, underlying infection.  So like bacteria, yiruses, mold, other toxins as well, like heavy metals and environmental toxins. And I think our bodies are like, are just way overloaded with what we are meant to handle.

Dr. Weitz: We’re certainly constantly hearing reports about toxins. We’ve just heard a number of reports about microplastics occurring in different parts of the body, including in the brain.  So we certainly live in a toxic world.

Dr. Stone: Yeah, exactly. And I think the other thing that’s a big contributing factor is not only the toxins, because those cause stress on the body, but also the stress that we live in in our environment, right? Like our bodies aren’t meant to necessarily be in fight or flight for long periods of time.  But I think in our world, that’s kind of how we set our world up.  So we are always in this state of sympathetic overdrive and the body. We are constantly pulling from our reserves but never really replenishing that. So if you think about it, the body’s always in a state of fight or flight or under a lot of stress.  Plus we have all this toxic load on top of all of that, creating even more stress. And it, it is just more than what the body is meant to and capable of handling on a long-term basis.

Dr. Weitz: Everybody’s bringing toxins onto our food. We create food as a bunch of toxins too with pesticides and glyphosate and et cetera, et cetera.

Dr. Stone: Yeah, exactly. And I think, you know, it’s. You just have to have some kind of awareness of, you know, I think sometimes we get crazy and we say, oh my gosh, I gotta get all the toxins out. But it’s really about having an awareness of what you can do. ’cause we’re, we can’t eliminate all toxins, but you want to look at your food and, you know, eat as little toxic food as possible. 

Dr. Weitz:  Right.

Dr. Stone:  You can start with, you know, organic and thinking about how you know the protein that you’re eating, what it’s eating, and what it’s being fed and how it’s treated. But, big scheme of things, if you just started with getting out processed food, you would be making huge changes.

Dr. Weitz: Right? So when you first see a patient who presents with hypothyroid, what are some of the more important questions that you like to ask to figure out what might be going on underlying.

Dr. Stone: Yeah. So for me, I, when I first see a patient, I really like to understand, what it is that they’ve been through, what are the things that they’re currently struggling with, so what are their current symptoms, and what are the things that have tried in the past that might have worked that may be not working now, or, and what are the things that they’ve tried that completely didn’t work so that I can assess kind of the landscape?  Like where, where has this patient been? Where are they currently sitting? And then that gives me an idea to understand what has been missed, what do we need to do to move forward? And I think after you really understand who the patient is in front of you, I think getting comprehensive testing is probably one of the most important things because when you’re dealing with someone who has low thyroid.  Most of the time they’re dealing with symptoms of fatigue. They can’t lose weight. They have, they can’t sleep very well. They’ve got anxiety and depression, they’ve got brain fog. And those symptoms are very commonly kind of pigeonholed into low thyroid.  And once you get the diagnosis of low thyroid, it’s like that’s all they would associate those symptoms with is low thyroid.  And so then, you know, patients get prescribed, okay, here’s your thyroid medication. Go home and take this medication, everything’s goning to be fine. And they go home and they take their medication and they may feel good temporarily, but usually all of those symptoms come back. And so then they go back and medications get adjusted and they take their, and it, so they just constantly are on this roller coaster.

But it’s really important to understand that when you’re dealing with low thyroid. The body doesn’t work in systems, right? It doesn’t, the thyroid doesn’t work alone. The thyroid and all other systems in the body communicate together, and they work together. And so I think one of the biggest, downfalls is that when someone gets diagnosed with low thyroid, that’s all they look at.  But in reality, every single one of those symptoms could also be attributed to, dysglycemia, which means their blood sugar is out of balance. It could be an adrenal issue. It could be autoimmunity, it could be gut, it can be a high toxic load. And so really understanding and getting down to the root cause of where these symptoms are coming from is the the biggest difference that we see in patient’s care and outcomes.

Dr. Weitz: We pretty much know that 95%, there’s going to be some autoimmune component.

Dr. Stone: Yeah, so most of the time, 90 to 98%, so you just kind of divide it in the middle. 95% of us who have low thyroid actually have an underlying autoimmune condition, and in traditional medicine there is no difference between Hashimoto’s and low thyroid in respect to the care or the treatment.  It’s low thyroid hormones. But if you, if you really understand autoimmunity. The biggest, you don’t have a primary thyroid issue. You have an immune issue, and so you have to understand that the goal is now to stabilize the immune system. This is really important because once you have one autoimmune disease, you’re at risk for developing multiple autoimmune diseases, and when you have Hashimoto’s, you’re at risk for developing thyroid cancer.  And so if we just took the only focus off of thyroid hormones and we said, okay, we’ve got an immune issue. Now what do we need to do to stabilize the immune system? So now you’ve gotta take a step back and say, okay, what are the triggers that this, specific individual patient is dealing with? You know, is it a blood sugar issue?  Is it an adrenal issue?  Is it hormonal? Like are they having estrogen and testosterone surges? Is it an underlying infection, underlying toxins, food sensitivities? So you’re looking at all of those things in a person to understand. How do we get their immune system stable? And that that is why so many women are still struggling with low thyroid symptoms is because they’re just focusing on thyroid hormones, but not taking a deeper look and understanding how the body is, where are the triggers that are truly impacting the immune system?

Dr. Weitz: So we have these underlying immune triggers, which means that the immune system is, for example, attacking a toxin and then creates antibodies, and then those antibodies cross-react and attack the thyroid, and therefore lead to destruction of the thyroid.

Dr. Stone: Yeah, so essentially the immune system is actually making antibodies to the thyroid, right?  That’s how we diagnose Hashimoto’s, is that they’re making antibodies either to the TPO antibodies, which is thyroid peroxidase, or to the thyroid globulin. So that is a component of the thyroid. But it’s really important to what you said. There’s a thing in the body called molecular mimicry. So for example, like if people with Hashimoto’s eat gluten.  The gluten molecule looks very similar to thyroid tissue and to the cerebellum. And so the immune system will get, you know, it’ll, it will start making antibodies not only to the gluten, but to thyroid and cerebellum. And so, you know, you can have all kinds of different pathogens that might do that with molecular mimicry and toxins, and even food sensitivities.  So it’s very important to understand, you know, what are those triggers and, and what do you need to do to create stability.

Dr. Weitz: So let’s get into testing. After you consult with your patient, initially, you’re going to figure out what kinds of detailed labs you want to do. So what is some of your favorite panels that you like to run, depending upon each person’s history?

Dr. Stone: Yeah. So first of all, on every patient, we run very extensive blood work. So, of course we’re going to look at the classic things that most people get, like, a CBC and a Chem panel, except we’re going to do more of an expanded chem panel or metabolic panel essentially, so that we can fully look at liver function, kidney function, those types of things.  Then you want to do a thorough evaluation of your blood sugar. And so when you, I have created a Dysglycemia panel that has 12 different markers where we can truly evaluate your blood sugar. One of the things that’s important for people to know who are dealing with a weight issue is that every time you have a weight issue, you’re, you’re always going to have a blood sugar issue somewhere.  It doesn’t mean you’ve got pre-diabetes or diabetes, but it means that you might have some insulin resistance, you might have some blood sugar variability, which means your blood sugar goes up and down all throughout the day. You may have hypoglycemia. So it’s very important to understand anytime there’s a weight issue, there’s going to be a blood sugar issue, and that blood sugar issue also contributes to the autoimmunity.  So we do a very thorough evaluation of blood sugar. 

Dr. Weitz: What, what labs, what lab companies do you like to use?

Dr. Stone: Yeah, so typically for blood work, we’re using LabCorp. And then the other companies that we like to use, I do Dutch testing, we use salivary hormone panels from diagnostics. We use stool testing from Genova.  We use the total tox test from Vibrant America. So we use a lot of the, you know, a lot of the lab companies that most functional medicine practitioners use.

Dr. Weitz: Right, okay.

Dr. Stone: And I think it’s important to understand that when you’re truly evaluating the thyroid, there’s actually 12 different markers that make up a thyroid panel.  And most women who have been diagnosed with low thyroid, they’re just consistently measuring TSH and TSH is just a very small piece of the puzzle. And so to really look and understand how thyroid is, is functioning, it is really important.

Dr. Weitz: Do you run any of the detailed, tests on, food sensitivities like Cyrex or, the gut, the wheat zoomer from vibrant?

Dr. Stone: Yeah, so we do on some patients run a lot of the Cyrex testing. Okay. We’ll say that most people who are dealing with autoimmunity and most people in, in general, we take all patients off of gluten, dairy, soy, and corn. And the reason we don’t really test that is because the research shows that 100% of women with low thyroid or Hashimoto’s have a gluten sensitivity regardless of what any test is saying.  Because of that molecular mimicry issue that we were talking about earlier. But so we take most people off of all of those. We take them off of grains. Then we work on all the other things to try to get their immune system more stable. Now, if a patient is still really struggling, like they’ve got gas and bloating and we can’t really find an underlying infection, then we will do more of that Cyrex testing, the Cyrex food sensitivity testing so that we can fine tune what it is that we’re dealing with.  Now, I’ll tell you. Several decades ago, we used to do that Cyrex food sensitivity test on every patient in the beginning. And um, what we realized is that some of them would come back with like, they could barely eat anything. And I called Cyrex and I’m like, okay, what is going on? Why are so many of these people allergic or sensitive to everything?  And they said, oh, it’s probably because they have an underlying infection. And I’m like. Oh, okay. So now I take them off of the main allergens that most people have and the things that also raise their blood sugar. All those things raise blood sugar. And then if, and we handle any underlying pathogens, then if [00:15:00] necessary we do the Cyrex test.  And I have not had another one come back where it was like all lit up or they couldn’t eat anything. And so I just changed the approach a bit and it’s been, um, you know, it’s been a big game changer.

Dr. Weitz: Okay. And before you have your patients get their thyroid tests, do you have them restrict biotin supplements?

Dr. Stone: Yeah, I think, the biotin supplement can impact TSH on a test, and so we have them restrict biotin, for a few days before they get their labs done.

Dr. Weitz: Right.

Dr. Stone: And it’s important to understand the biotin doesn’t necessarily impact TSH. It impacts how the lab reads the TSH, so it, it doesn’t necessarily like it, it’s not a true representation of what the TSH is doing.  When you, when you have your labs checked while on biotin, it just messes up with the reagents that they’re using to test it.

Dr. Weitz: Really? What I, I’m confused. What does that mean?

Dr. Stone: So like, you know, whenever they are testing your blood and they use different reagents to pull out these numbers, right? The biotin messes with one of those agents, so, oh, okay.  If you, if you are taking biotin, it’s not necessarily directly impacting your TSH level, but when you get your labs done, it impacts the results.

Dr. Weitz: Okay. Okay. So when it comes to treatments. Do you prefer Synthroid or Armor or do you what? What’s your position on that? Or do you just leave that up to the MDs?

Dr. Stone: Yeah, I think it’s important to understand for, first of all, I leave that up to the MDs and my nurse practitioners to prescribe because I don’t prescribe. However, I think it’s important to understand, some women get really frustrated because… 

Dr. Weitz:  You have nurse practitioners that work in your office who prescribe? Okay.

Dr. Stone: Yes, I do. So, essentially a lot of times women get put on these thyroid hormones and they have an unrealistic expectation of what’s supposed to happen with those thyroid hormones. They’re told that everything’s gonna be great, and so they take these medications and usually everything isn’t great.  They might feel, you know, a little bit better, but they think that the medication isn’t working. So it’s important to understand that. The purpose of the medication is to get the thyroid hormones balanced in the body or to up to a normal level. That is the purpose. Now, once those hormones are level and you still have symptoms, it means that you just haven’t fixed the underlying root cause of where those symptoms are coming from.  Now it’s important to understand that if you do have low thyroid hormones, it can be a trigger for the immune system. So making sure that your thyroid hormones are normal is very, very important. So, if somebody has to take those [00:18:00] medications to get their thyroid hormones level, then it’s imperative that they do.

So now for me, looking at these labs and, and looking at thousands and working with thousands of patients, I don’t necessarily see one particular medication working better than another. Now, some people will have sensitivities to Levothyroxine and Synthroid, so they need to go on tyrosine, which doesn’t have any fillers or anything like that.  I see, many women who have an under conversion problem, so they don’t convert T4 to T3. Now, there’s many ways that we can fix that from a functional perspective, but just from a medication perspective, they load them up on T4, but the active form of thyroid hormone, which is T3, is still really low and they still feel crummy.  So in that scenario, maybe an armor thyroid might be better. I see. Other women who are taking armor, thyroid, or maybe even only a T3, and now their T4 is super, super low and their TSH is high. So with all that being said, it doesn’t necessarily matter which hormones they’re taking. It just, we just need to make sure that the thyroid hormones are adequate and at a, a good level so that we can maintain, we can make sure that that’s not a trigger to the immune system, but it is important. And I know that so many women are frustrated with their thyroid hormones, and I think it’s because they just have an unrealistic expectation of the purpose of the thyroid hormone. And all it is, is to get your thyroid hormones up to an acceptable level.  And now we gotta fix all the underlying issues if the symptoms still persist.

Dr. Weitz: That may be why I see some patients who come in the office and they have a TSH of like 0.1 that their prac, there’s certain practitioners that just seem to really push the level of the thyroid supplement.

Dr. Stone: It is like it is, I think it’s the number one over-prescribed medication [00:20:00] and meaning like doctors will tend to over-prescribe it because the patient is still having symptoms of low thyroid.  So instead of going off of the lab ranges, they will just continue to push thyroid hormones, hoping that the symptoms go away. There’s many issues with that, right? You further suppress your own thyroid production of thyroid hormone, so essentially you’re shutting down the thyroid. Secondly, you start to create thyroid resistance.  Just like people have insulin resistance, the more hormone that your cells are exposed. Two, if they’re overexposed to the hormone, you actually decrease the amount of receptor sites on the cell, so you can’t get as much thyroid hormone in the cell. So we definitely don’t want to overmedicate patients, um, with thyroid hormones.  We just want to make sure the thyroid hormones are at an adequate, acceptable level.

Dr. Weitz: Do you ever look at halides like fluoride, chlorine, bromine that can interfere with iodine? 

Dr. Stone: Absolutely. So these compete with iodine for the thyroid. And so, you know, we are always talking about making sure that you absolutely do not drink tap water.  You really work to filter the water that you’re drinking and using. But the other thing that’s important is the water that you’re showering with and maybe even sitting in a bathtub because now you add heat to that and it just creates a bigger issue. So we have to understand that. Fluoride and chlorine and all of those halogen, they have the same chemical structure as iodine and they will bind to the thyroid and you won’t have enough iodine for the thyroid to function.  So, you know, for us, instead of overdoing it with iodine, because that can have negative implications with Hashimoto’s, you wanna just make sure you’re cleaning up your water sources.

Dr. Weitz: Have you ever tried the high dose iodine that there’s certain practitioners recommend like 12 or 25 milligrams?

Dr. Stone: No, because the research that I’ve seen [00:22:00] and the mentors that I’ve learned from it really shows that iodine supplementation over 125 micrograms actually increases the immune attack on the thyroid.  So for me, I just don’t go down that route.

Dr. Weitz: I, I tried it for myself ’cause I have Hashimoto’s and my TSH went from nine to 25. 

Dr. Stone: So yeah, 

Dr. Weitz: that obviously wasn’t the right strategy for me, but I figured I’d give it a shot.

Dr. Stone: Well, yeah, so yeah, for me, that’s not something that we put into clinical practice and I, I think that, you know, I have Hashimoto’s as well, and so I always try everything on myself first before I put it into clinical practice.

Can I do it? Was it effective? And, you know, and then looking at the research.

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Dr. Weitz:  What are some things that doctors get wrong when they’re managing women with thyroid?

Dr. Stone: Yeah. I think for the most part what they really get wrong is thinking that the, that most women who have a thyroid issue actually have a primary thyroid issue.

Um, they don’t look at a bigger picture and say, oh, they. Likely have an autoimmune condition. And so because they just focus on these numbers, they’re just focusing on the TSH, most of them, um, they’re literally just chasing that number up and down, up and down, and they never get to stabilize the immune system and [00:25:00] actually help the patient feel better.  And not only just help the patient feel better, but prevent other autoimmune diseases, um, in the future.

Dr. Weitz: Yeah. Unfortunately, conventional medical doctors have no way to address the autoimmune component unless they’re gonna put patients on immunosuppressive drugs.

Dr. Stone: Right. And then the immunosuppressant drugs, the side effects of those are worse than what the patient’s dealing with right now.

Right? So that’s why it’s not like that, that that is why we are in this position. Like the doctors look in their, the traditional doctors look in their toolbox, and it’s like the only thing that I have in here. Thyroid medication, that is the standard of care. That is what is expected and taught. And so that’s why so many of us with Hashimoto’s are kind of falling through the crack in that system.

But if you, um, really look to say, okay, how do we restore body function? That’s what leads most people to functional medicine because there’s a different approach, a wider like. Like, I, I [00:26:00] say wider scope, but a, a, a wider focus, meaning like we’re not so myopic on the thyroid, but really looking at immune function and balance.

So essentially with pharmaceuticals, and of course there’s a time and place, but it’s usually to override the body’s physiology, right? And if you’re gonna override the body’s physiology with an autoimmune disease, the, the most logical thing to do would be to shut down the immune system. So that’s kind of the approach with all autoimmune diseases in traditional medicine, and it’s just a completely different approach to say, okay, instead of just shutting down the immune system and overriding the body’s physiology, let’s figure out what we need to do to create balance in the body again and create function.

Dr. Weitz: Now that millions of Americans are taking, GLP-1 agonist drugs to lose weight, I’m wondering are you seeing an effect on the thyroid? 

Dr. Stone: I think it’s too early to tell, to be honest with you. But I know that the research coming back right now, I mean, I think in the last week I’ve seen a hun like. An in a significant increase, and I don’t remember the exact percentage, but a significant increase in 100, percent of all thyroid cancer.  And so, you know, it’s, for me, I think the, the verdict is still out and it’s always, every time you take a medication to override the body’s physiology, there is gonna be side effects. There are, and you have to weigh, you know, what are the possible side effects and consequences versus the benefits. And I think unfortunately, most people don’t do enough research.

Their doctors don’t give them the information about what the possible side effects are, and they’re only looking at the benefits. And so, you know, we’re coming out with. You know, all kinds of, uh, side effects and, and issues with these things, [00:28:00] but that is to be expected.  This is a new medication and it’s really only sold in America for weight loss.  And so, you know, I think the, the verdict is still out, but there will always be side effects.

Dr. Weitz: Yeah. And there’s just gonna be a huge number of people in the future who are gonna be on these drugs.

Dr. Stone: Yeah. Like

Dr. Weitz: everybody I talk to,

Dr. Stone: it’s frightening. And I think the, the most frightening thing to me is that we’re gonna start putting our children on these medications instead of.

Really look at how do we optimize their diet, their nutrition, their exercise and activity, right? Uh, instead of teaching them how they can, uh, preserve and improve health as they age, we are just pushing them down this, this path, which is pretty scary. And I will say almost all people that I’ve seen on GLP ones, um, their insulin is high, their insulin is sky high, and so.

This is a diabetic medication and it [00:29:00] increases the secretion of insulin from the pancreas. And when our cells are exposed to more insulin, with a more insulin resistant, we become, which is why you have to continue to increase dosage. This is like every other diabetic medication. Eventually it’s gonna stop, and the end of the road is you’re just gonna have to take insulin.

And so I think it’s really important to understand that because most people that are on this, they don’t understand. This is a diabetic medication. I’ve had patients say like, oh my God, I would never take Metformin, but they’re on Ozempic. I’m like, do you, do you realize that you’re on a diabetic medication that’s literally increasing your insulin?

And insulin is the hormone that stores fat. Right. And so the only reasons that they’re losing weight is because they are significantly decreasing their caloric intake, right? Essentially the drug is, um, a allowing them to starve themselves and so they’re gonna get an initial weight loss, but they’re, most people are [00:30:00] not learning how to eat.

They’re not ma doing what they need to to maintain muscle mass. They are. Increasing insulin resistance. So they’re gonna have to keep increasing it. And then when they get off of it, all the weight’s coming back because now they’re more insulin resistant than before. And so I think that, you know, for me, some people may benefit from the short term, like to help them with this weight loss process.

But I think in the long term, if they don’t really understand why they’re gaining weight in the first place and they’re not, uh, getting down to the underlying root cause, it’s, it’s not, it’s going to be a short term fix, just like everything else. Expensive, short term fix.

Dr. Weitz: Now you mentioned T4 to T3 conversion issues.  So if everybody’s not familiar, your body makes T four or you take a T4 supplement like Synthroid, and then the T4 has to get converted into the active form T3, and not everybody converts T4 to T3 so well. So what are some of the strategies you use to promote that?

Dr. Stone: Yeah, we look at it from two different perspectives.

So first of all, the body converts T four to T three 70% of the time in the liver, okay? And honestly, most people who have Hashimoto’s and thyroid issues, they, they need support. They need to support their detoxification pathways, which is mostly in the liver, right? So most of us need liver support. Now, another 20% of the time that gets converted in the gut.

Most of us need to support and improve our gut health, and then 10% of the time it happens other places in the body. So you have to think about, okay, where this gets converted, is it functioning? Secondly, you also need like selenium and other enzymes and nutrients to help convert T4 to T3. So are your minerals and nutrients and all the IV vitamins that you need are, are any of those deficient?  Are [00:32:00] they at good levels? Now, the third thing, 

Dr. Weitz: So what are the key nutrients that you tend to find? You mentioned selenium. Do you find zinc? Do you, what other nutrients do you find are really helpful or tend to be helpful?

Dr. Stone: Yeah. Like zinc for sure, selenium. Um, and, and a lot of antioxidants. Most women who have issues with their thyroid, we mostly need methylated B vitamins.  So many of us are deficient in those B vitamins. So the, those are the really the big ones. Um, zinc, selenium, and one of the supplements that I use to help for conversion also has a little bit of copper in there as well.

Dr. Weitz: Okay.

Dr. Stone: Alright. Now the other thing, which is really big. Is that a lot of times we will have an overload of free radicals and toxins in the body and that in and of itself, so what happens is when you eat sugar, well, anything right that turns into glucose, your, your cells take that glucose into the cell.

[00:33:00] By insulin and your mitochondria, little powerhouses inside the cell, they make energy or what we call a TP. Now, when you make energy or a TP, a free radical also comes off of that, and you can think of a free radical as garbage or a waste product. It speeds up the aging process, and so the body has to be able to clear out those free radicals Now.

If your free radicals are building up in the body because you can’t clear ’em out as fast as you’re making energy, the body’s like, whoa. I am in a place where I, I can’t keep making this much energy because all these free radicals are creating too much inflammation and it can actually kill the cell. So.

What happens is a cell becomes insulin resistant, so it stops taking in so much glucose, then it signals over to the thyroid and says, Hey, I need you to slow down the metabolic rate because I can’t keep up with the production of a TP and energy at this rate. And so then the way that the body, uh, helps to regulate the metabolic [00:34:00] rate is it slows down that conversion of T four to T three.

So we could. Theoretically just put in T three and override the body’s physiology. Or we could say, all right. Let’s make sure you have enough antioxidants. Do you have enough glutathione, vitamin C, resveratrol? Let’s make sure that we look at your toxic load. Are you loaded with mold, heavy metals, um, environmental toxins like you mentioned before, glyphosate and all those organ phosphates.

Um, and so start clearing out these toxins. Support all of the detoxification pathways. And then s guess what, you become more, uh, your, your blood sugar gets more regulated. You start to reverse insulin resistance. Your conversion of T four to T three starts to improve. So you gotta really look at this as a, a big picture.

And the most amazing thing is the body is so. Cool because it’s always protecting you. And you would think, how could it be protecting me if I’m insulin resistant and I can’t make these things, but [00:35:00] it’s doing the most survival thing that it can at the time. And so, uh, down regulating your metabolic rate is what it needs to do right now for survival in its current condition.  And so continuing to work and figure out where that underlying root cause is, kind of allows the dominoes to start falling and that your health to really turn around.

Dr. Weitz: Um, have we gone through most of your seven pillars of thyroid transformation?

Dr. Stone: Yeah, but I can go through those in order so that it’s easy to understand.  Okay. So there, uh, there is a blueprint that I,

Dr. Weitz: that way it’ll help us put a little structure to this talk. 

Dr. Stone: Yes, that’s right. So I created a blueprint that I use on every patient every time, and it has, it has allowed me to focus, care and be the most efficient and get the best possible results in the shortest amount of time.

So, the first pillar is that you have to have a, um, a constant pursuit of your goals. So, first of all, [00:36:00] we gotta know what it is we’re trying to achieve. What’s important to you? Like, do you wanna have more energy? You know, do you wanna lose weight? Do you wanna sleep better? Like, what are your goals? And then tied to those goals, you have to have a deep meaning, meaningful motivation.

And this is where most people, they fail because they’ll, they’ll create new year’s res resolutions. Like, I wanna lose weight. But literally everybody has forgotten about. Their New Year’s resolution at six weeks. The gyms are empty in the middle of February, and so the, the, the goal of losing weight is not good enough because we talk ourselves out of it.

We say, we’ll start tomorrow, and, oh, this isn’t gonna be that big of a deal. You know, a little bit of this isn’t such a big deal. If you tie it to a motivation, like I don’t want more autoimmune diseases, like, um, I wanna be around for my children and my grandchildren, and I wanna be active and I wanna have a good quality of life and I wanna prevent diabetes.

That takes on a different meaning and a motivation. So it’s much easier to stick with [00:37:00] the regimen, uh, to achieve the goal. So that’s pillar number one. Pillar number two we touched on is to do comprehensive testing. You have to do comprehensive testing, otherwise you’re just guessing at a solution. And I, I will, uh, I wanna iterate that these have to be followed in order, because a lot of times we go from problem to solution without figuring out why we have the problem, and then, then we, the solution may or may not work.

So the third pillar is that you have to have comprehensive diagnosis and analysis. This is important because a lot of people will hear me talk and they’re like, okay, well what are the 12 markers for thyroid? So they go ask their doctor to run these, these markers, and the answer that they usually get is, well, we’re not gonna run those markers because I.

I don’t know how to analyze them. I don’t even know what half of them mean, or they’re gonna say, we could run all of those markers, but it’s not gonna change treatment, so we’re not gonna order those. And so what I really want, a lot of times the

Dr. Weitz: insurance doesn’t wanna cover [00:38:00] those markers still. 

Dr. Stone: That’s exactly right.  Yeah. And then the doctors get flacked for ordering those markers in the first place. Exactly. So, um, you have to understand and you have to, uh, and analyze these from a functional perspective. So not just going down the lab work and picking out the things that are outside of the lab ranges, but you have to understand patterns, how these things are working, evaluate them from a functional level and not just a disease state.

Because in functional medicine there’s actually optimal. Where, uh, a human being should be functioning optimally. We have to realize that these lab ranges are just to determine disease. And so we don’t have, we’re, we’re not necessarily looking for the disease, although we’ll find it, but we’re looking for the dysfunction.

We’re looking for the underlying imbalance. Then that brings us to pillar number four, which is customized care. So earlier I talked about a load of different triggers. Well, how do you know which trigger to treat? Well, you gotta do the testing and the analysis. Then you can kind of figure out, okay, what [00:39:00] are the highest priorities?

And now we’re gonna customize care based on the highest priorities that we see with your labs. And then the fifth pillar is that you need a coach. Um, because this is the body’s complicated. That is why we still research, right? That is, that is why doctors still practice because we don’t know everything about the human body.

Um, and it’s hard to do this on your own. And I think having someone guide you through the ups and the downs is very important because so many people think that health just goes up on an upward trajectory. Like if you implement something, then, then everything is supposed to just start working, right? But the body deals with so many different variables.

You’re gonna have ups and downs and so, so many people quit on the downs right before they were about to experience the peak. And so you have to have someone that knows how to get you through that. And the other part of having a coach is also being coachable. A lot of US thyroid patients, [00:40:00] we have to, had to have been our own doctor for so long because you know, we aren’t getting answers and it’s.

Very difficult to sometimes get doctors to listen, but when you find somebody who has the experience and um, knows what to do, you have to be able to trust that they are gonna help you find the solutions and, um, not just jump from one thing to the other, whatever fad is on Instagram. At the moment, right?

And then, um, pillar number six is continued testing. So I do find this as an issue. A lot of doctors, they will do initial testing, but they don’t do follow-up testing near enough to know, are you on the right track? Do we need to, um, reevaluate and readjust what your priorities are since your body has healed?  And then after you test again, you’ve gotta re customized care. And that’s pillar number seven.

Dr. Weitz: That’s the tricky part. Getting the patients sometimes to come back for the retesting. You have your great patients that will do whatever you want, and you have [00:41:00] the other patients who are like, okay, I got it.

See you.

Dr. Stone: Yeah, I mean, so, you know, for me, uh, I, um, really work with patients in a treatment plan and I try to say, okay, you gotta, you gotta stick with me for anywhere from five to nine months and we gotta work on this together as a team because it isn’t fun as a clinician, like you’re saying, for patients to do it for a month or two months and then.

They’re out. Like, and then, you know, really know did they get better? You know, they need to come back for testing. There’s, there’s things that have to be managed throughout this process. And so for me, I just am very particular about the patients that we accept into care because, uh, we have to see them through the whole thing.  Otherwise, it’s like, I don’t know, you just feel like you’re not making a big enough difference.

Dr. Weitz: Right. We didn’t cover diet, but you did mention a number of dietary parameters. You mentioned gluten-free, dairy free, uh, [00:42:00] soy-free, corn free, and no grains. So it’s kind of a, a sort of a paleo template. Is that right?

Dr. Stone: Yeah, that’s kind of the general guidelines that I use is more paleo, so protein, vegetables, a little bit of fruit and good healthy fats. That’s kind of like in general now. With that being said, depending on where someone is, we may move into more keto. We may do super low carb, like five to 10 grams of carbs a day, kind of more towards carnivore.

Um, we look at all d kinds of different things like. Are they having issues with nightshades or lectins and oxalates? So you can fine tune and customize, but if you’re just like, if, if most people would just do the basics with unprocessed foods and eat clean animal protein, um, vegetables, mostly focusing on the green vegetables versus the really starchy vegetables.

Have a little bit of fruit and good healthy fats, you’re gonna make a huge [00:43:00] difference in your health. Now I do a masterclass and I give, uh, people, not even patients, this information, and the women who implement this. They are literally dropping 10, 15, 20, 30 pounds before I ever even see them. And it’s just because they had the courage to implement from the recommendations after you know that.

And so it’s really important that if people are hearing this, just start with something. Just start with one thing and you’ll make, um, huge changes. Sometimes it seems overwhelming and because it seems overwhelming, they do nothing. But if you just started with one thing, then the next day you do better, you do 2% better the next day and 2% better the next day before you know it.

Um, you know, you’ve implemented so many things and your health is in a different place. I always talk about health stacking, right? Health or habit stacking. Um, you know, I’ve been doing this for like 25 years, and so my health [00:44:00] routine would be completely overwhelming to me 25 years ago. But because I’ve kind of implemented and added all along the way, now these things are not a challenge to me whatsoever.

And it’s like my whole day is set up to improve and support my health. But when you’re just getting started, you can hear all these things like sauna and cold plunge and carnivore and keto and like all the things and. You start doing one thing and then you turn around and that’s the wrong thing to do, and so then people give up and they get frustrated.  But literally, if they would just start with one thing at a time and continue to stack those habits, before you know it, they’re, they have a completely different life.

Dr. Weitz: And these foods that you take out, like gluten and dairy, they’re out permanently or do you ever try to bring them back over time?

Dr. Stone: For gluten, it’s out permanently.  And it is important to understand that when you have Hashimoto’s, every time you eat gluten, it causes the immune system to attack your thyroid. [00:45:00] So you have to be gluten-free and a lot of times it’s kind of like being pregnant. You kind of, you can’t kind of be. Pregnant, just like you can’t kind of be gluten-free because these antibodies stay circulating in the system for up to 90 days.

And so a little bit here, a little bit there. The antibodies never go out of the body, and so you can’t ever actually feel what it feels like to be gluten-free. Now, we were talking about a lab called Cyrex, and Cyrex has a. Cross reactivity panel, which I find very helpful. So dairy is very inflammatory for the body, first of all.

Secondly, it can be a cross reactor to gluten, meaning many of us when we eat dairy, the body acts just like you just ate gluten. So you have the exact same, uh, response and that goes with a lot of the gluten-free grains. That’s why I just take all grains out because not only can it be a cross reactor to gluten, it raises your blood sugar.  And so, um, gluten is really out for good.

Dr. Weitz: Um, legumes also.

Dr. Stone: Well, legumes, you have to think about. I, I, I wouldn’t say that it’s a hard and fast rule like gluten because the body doesn’t really have the same, uh, autoimmune reaction. But what you have to think about with legumes is they tend to be high in lectins.  Right? That’s the poison around the, the plant or around the, the bean. 

Dr. Weitz: So that which Dr. Gundry made famous…

Dr. Stone: Yes, he did make that famous. But the biggest thing, and I have always been a, a proponent of, you could have some legumes, but it should be very sparingly because of the carbohydrate protein ratio.  Every time you eat legumes, you’re gonna see that your blood sugar’s gonna go up. And so you’ve got to regulate your blood sugar in order to stabilize your immune system. So for me, when people are asking me dietary questions, the first thing I think about is how does it impact your blood sugar? Because controlling insulin is the number one key, you know?  Insulin resistance is at the heart of every single chronic degenerative disease. It is why people are overweight. And if we don’t have that understanding about how it, the, the food impacts your insulin levels, um, then it, it becomes a, a big, you’re like, well, why do I have to limit this too, and why I have to limit this too?

And it just seems to be like overwhelming. But like for me, I am here, teaching a seminar in Mexico and we’re at an all-inclusive resort, and yesterday they served us some chips with a little bit of black beans with some chorizo, and so I took a bite or two of the bean and chorizo dip. I didn’t eat the chips, so I’m not gonna sweat it.

My blood sugar probably went up a little bit, but like. I, I follow my rules 90% of the time, and so if I eat a little bit of legumes, it’s not gonna throw me over. But if you do it every day, that’s why a lot of times vegetarians and vegans have completely, you know, wrecked their blood sugar is because [00:48:00] they use these high carbohydrate, um, uh, vegetable sources or vegetarian sources as their protein.  And so you can’t get around that whole blood sugar issue doing that.

Dr. Weitz: Well, you know, to, to play devil’s advocate, there are those vegans who argue that by following a low fat, vegan, high carb diet, you actually can regulate your, your blood sugar and your insulin and everything else. And so there are some people out there, we’ve had ’em on the podcast.

Dr. Stone: They do say that. They do say that. And I would wonder, um, you know, is that, is that sustainable long term? And have they truly worn a continuous glucose monitor and what are they looking for? 

Dr. Weitz: Yeah, there’s two guys that actually are type one diabetics and they claim that eating a high carb, low fat diet is the best way to regulate their blood sugar.

Dr. Stone: Well, I, I don’t know. I’ve never seen a person be [00:49:00] able to eat high carbs and regulate their blood sugar. So the question is, are they looking at glyco mark? Are they looking at their. Insulin Are they? I’m sure they’re looking at insulin ’cause they’re type one diabetics. Oh sure. And of course they’re probably looking at their A1C, but are they looking at the variability when they eat those?  Are they seeing a spike in their blood sugar? Because out of the thousands of people I’ve seen, I’ve never seen somebody eat high carbohydrate and have normal or even stay. Stable blood sugar.

Dr. Weitz: Right. I, I share your skepticism, but there, there is that concept out there.

Dr. Stone: Yeah, there is. And you know, blood sugar also depends not only on what you eat, it depends on muscle mass and activity level.  Right? So, you know, it looks at, you know, you and you wanna look at their composition as well. But my patient population is all women mostly. Who are 40 to 75 and we are fighting against sarcopenia or muscle loss. We all have weight issues and so [00:50:00] a high carbohydrate diet for, uh, these, my patient population is absolutely not the answer.

Dr. Weitz: Great. So how can our viewers and listeners contact you, find out about your programs? I know you have a very busy Facebook group that they could possibly join.

Dr. Stone: Yeah, we’re now over 80,000 members and it is just, 

Dr. Weitz:  Wow, that’s pretty amazing.

Dr. Stone: So they can find me on happy, healthy, and lean. So just go to Facebook and type in happy, healthy, and lean and join the group.  Now I do a masterclass pretty much every single month where I spend three evenings with these ladies, and we do deep dives on weight loss, blood sugar, all things thyroid, and then ways that they can. Things that they can implement into their life to really start changing it. So that’s the best place to, that’s the best place to get more information and to connect.

Dr. Weitz: Sounds good. Thank you so much.

 

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Thank you for making it all the way through this episode of the Rational Wellness Podcast. For those of you who enjoy listening to the Rational Wellness Podcast, I would very much appreciate it if you could go to Apple Podcast or Spotify and give us a five star ratings and review.  As you may know. I continue to accept a limited number of new patients per month for functional medicine. If you would like help overcoming a gut or other chronic health condition and want to prevent chronic problems and wanna promote longevity. Please call my Santa Monica Weitz Sports Chiropractic and Nutrition office at 310-395-3111 and we can set you up for a consultation for functional medicine and I will talk to everybody next week.