Overcoming Hyperthyroidism Without Radiation or Surgery with Dr. Eric Osansky: Rational Wellness Podcast 438

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Dr. Eric Osansky discusses Overcoming Hyperthyroidism without Radiation or Surgery with Dr. Ben Weitz.  

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Podcast Highlights

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Dr. Eric Osansky is a chiropractor and one of the leading experts on a natural approach to hyperthyroidism. He was personally diagnosed with autoimmune hyperthyroidism, also known as Graves’ disease, and he was able to overcome it using a natural, Functional Medicine approach.  He avoided both the prescription antithyroid medications and the radioactive iodine treatment, as well as thyroid surgery.  He has a Masters of Science degree in Human Nutrition and Functional Medicine, is a Certified Clinical Nutritionist, is a certified nutrition specialist and a certified functional medicine practitioner for IFM.  Dr. Osansky has published 3 books, Natural Treatment Solutions for Hyperthyroidism and Grave’s Disease, currently in its third edition,  Hashimoto’s Triggers, and The Hyperthyroid Healing Diet. His website is SaveMyThyroid.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 I’m excited to be having a discussion on hyperthyroidism with Dr. Eric Osansky. We have had a number of discussions on this podcast about hypothyroidism or Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, which is an underactive sluggish thyroid, the most common thyroid disorder, the most common autoimmune disorder.  But some patients have an overactive thyroid. We referred to as hyperthyroidism and like hypothyroid. Most patients, it’s an autoimmune condition, but unlike hypothyroidism, when the body doesn’t make enough thyroid hormone in hyperthyroidism or Graves disease, which is the autoimmune version of it, the thyroid makes too much thyroid hormone, which means it’s speeding up the metabolism.  And there’s a series of symptoms that are related to having too much thyroid. Patients sometimes lose weight, though. Interesting. Not there’s patients who have trouble losing weight, who have hyperthyroid. I find that interesting. Sometimes they have tremors or rapid heart rate anxiety, a bunch of symptoms.

And not many functional medicine practitioners really talk about hyperthyroid. So Dr. Eric Osansky is really the go-to guy about this topic. Dr. Osansky is a chiropractor and one of the leading experts on hyperthyroid. He was personally diagnosed with autoimmune hyperthyroid, also known as Graves Disease, and he was able to overcome it using a natural functional medicine approach.  He avoided both the prescription antithyroid medications and the radioactive iodine treatment as well as thyroid surgery. Dr. Osansky has a Master’s of Science degree in Human Nutrition and Functional Medicine. He’s a certified clinical nutritionist, a certified functional medicine practitioner, and Dr. Osansky has published three books, Natural Treatment Solutions for Hyperthyroidism and Graves Disease, which is currently in its third edition, Hashimoto’s Triggers, and the Hyperthyroid Healing Diet. [00:03:00] Dr. Osansky, thank you so much for joining us today,

Dr. Osansky: Dr. Ben. Thanks for having me. Really excited to talk about hyperthyroidism and Graves Disease.

Dr. Weitz: So let’s get right into it. What is hyperthyroidism? What is Graves Disease, you know, and what are some of the consequences of having this condition?

Dr. Osansky: Yeah, well, you gave a little bit of an overview. So hyperthyroidism is when you have too much thyroid hormone. And the main thyroid hormones are T4 and T3, at least the ones that can be measured on the blood test.  So you have too much T4, T3, you also have what’s called thyroid stimulating hormone or TSH. So like you said, hypothyroidism is a lot more common. And when you see hypothyroidism, usually the first SI signs that doctors at least look at is that, that first marker is that TSH and they see that TSH on elevated and then that’s when they might do other tests like a T4, T3, then maybe [00:04:00] antibodies.  What hyperthyroidism it’s the opposite. So thyroid stimulating hormone stimulates the thyroid gland to produce more thyroid hormone in the case of hypothyroidism. But with hyperthyroidism, since you have too much thyroid hormone, it. Does you wanna have low levels of TSH. The pituitary gland does not want to tell the thyroid gland to produce more thyroid hormone and wants to do the opposite.

So usually you have not only low levels of TSH, but undetectable levels of TSH. So you have that low TSH elevated thyroid hormones, and you mentioned some of the symptoms. When you have too much thyroid hormone, you could have rapid heart rate, you could have heart palpitations, tremors, anxiety, and which can cause insomnia.  You mentioned weight loss. You are right that not everybody would hyperthyroid and lose weight. But when I dealt with Graves, I lost 42 pounds and I wasn’t trying to lose that much. I was 180 2 at the time, and Dr. One, one down to one 40. So my normal’s like [00:05:00] 1 65, 1 70. And so, yeah, I definitely lost a good amount of weight.  And some people also have what’s called thyroid eye disease which is also as it’s associated with graves, the same autoimmune component that causes grave. 

Dr. Weitz:  So what is this Thyroid eye disease?  Maybe you can talk about that for a minute. ’cause that’s, that can be a very serious condition, correct?

Dr. Osansky: Yeah. Oh yeah. So, so with Graves, so Graves, you have what’s called thyroid stimulating immunoglobulins, which is a type of TSH receptor antibody. And those. Tsi, the thyroid stimulating immunoglobulins attack the TSH receptors of the thyroid gland or bind to the TTSH receptors, and that’s what causes the excess production of thyroid hormone.  But those same antibodies could also attack the tissues of the eyes, and that could cause bulging of the eyes swelling. In some cases it could cause double vision. And you’re right, it could be serious in some cases, I mean, thankfully, only about three to 5% of cases of thyroid eye [00:06:00] disease is severe.  Usually it’s, I mean, it’s, even when it’s not severe, it could be pretty. Like if someone has bulging of the eyes, it’s you know, very distressing. But then also it could be very uncomfortable as well. So. Yeah, like, we gotta, what the same with Graves is of course more of an immune system condition than a thyroid condition.  And so thyroid eye disease is similar.  It’s more of an immune system condition and it involves the eyes, but you need to address the immune system ultimately when addressing the cause of a problem. When you go to conventional medical doctors, they’ll try to address it in other ways. They’ll suppress the immune system with things like prednisone.  You know, sometimes they’ll have to do surgery with thyroid eye disease. And there’s a, there’s also, I don’t know if you’re familiar with the medication Tepezza, there’s a Yes, I’ve heard of that. With infusions, they give infusions like three weeks apart every eight weeks. And and that, I mean, it’s effective, but the pro, especially with bulging the problem with tep eza.  [00:07:00] It could also sometimes cause hearing loss or tinnitus which obviously is not fun. So, yeah, so anyway, I’m not saying there’s not a time and place for the, for if you want

Dr. Weitz: to see better, you can hear.

Dr. Osansky: Yeah, exactly. So, yeah, and you know, I mean, to be fair, I’ve had, I can’t say I have a lot of people who’ve taken the Tepezza, but I’ve had a few probably like maybe at this point, maybe five or so.  And one person, a male patient did lose his hearing. It was temporary for a few, but still kind of scary when you lose your hearing for, ’cause you don’t know if and when it’ll come back. And then right. And then but I’ve had a and that same person where he lost the hearing, it did help with the bulging and then a few other people have taken it, it also helped with the bulging doesn’t seem like it helps much with double vision, but for bulging it could be life changing for some people it’s just a matter.  Are you willing to take the risks with not just the hearing loss? So the tinnitus, but it is fairly new, so we don’t know, like side effects like 10, 15, 20 years down the road. [00:08:00] Right.

Dr. Weitz: So when it comes to labs for hyperthyroidism, what level TSH do you think is definitive? I’ve seen 0.5, 0.4. You mentioned that maybe you should be undetectable.  What do you, what’s your take on that?

Dr. Osansky: definitive? You meaning what’s considered hyperthyroid?

Dr. Weitz: Hyperthyroid. Yeah.

Dr. Osansky: Yeah it’s a good question. I mean, obviously if it’s undetectable and that thyroid hormones are elevated, then that’s clearly hyperthyroidism. When you see TSH, let’s say of like 0.3 or 0.4 like below the range, or again, maybe 0.5, 0.6, maybe like on the lower side, like on, not like within the range sometimes, but on the lower side, but Right.  Many times that’s more subclinical. Like many times when we see that TSH, like 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, we’ll still see the thyroid hormones [00:09:00] within the lab range. And so, yeah, I mean, if it’s below the range, it’s considered to be. Subclinical hyperthyroidism. If the thyroid, assuming the thyroid hormone levels are normal, and if someone has low TSH, even if it’s not undetectable and thyroid hormones are normal, you could also have subclinical Graves disease where you still have those antibodies.  And and not common. I’ve had a few patients with that. Typically when you have the Graves antibodies, usually it’s overt hyperthyroidism, not subclinical. But yeah, I mean, I don’t know. I guess with me, if it’s, I mean if it’s 0.3, 0.4, I mean, I still consider it hyperthyroidism. I mean it’s, but it also depends.

I mean, there could be, I mean, maybe there’s something else underlying, I mean, you know, but it’s not normal, let’s put it that way. Someone comes in with. You know, at TSH 0.3 0.4, especially if it’s been like that for many months or many [00:10:00] years, and doctors just kind of dismiss it and say, oh, you know, don’t worry about it.  Your thyroid hormones are looking good. And maybe they test it for the antibodies for graves and everything looks good there. You know, it’s, to me, there’s still an underlying cause. But it is it is a little bit more challenging, honestly, like you would think graves is more challenging ’cause it’s autoimmune, but at least we know it’s graves and there’s that autoimmune component.  And when it’s subclinical hyperthyroidism it’s sometimes it can be more challenging to get that TSH up naturally, you know, if you take Antithyroid medication, that’ll drive it up, but that’s not addressing the cause. So as soon as you stop the antithyroid medication, like methimazole, it’s gonna go back to where it was.

Usually. Right

Dr. Weitz: now, during pregnancy, a lower level of TSH is considered acceptable. Right.

Dr. Osansky: Yeah, I mean if you’re pregnant I mean if someone’s pregnant, then yeah having that, if the TSH is, I mean, again, it’s typically shouldn’t be like undetectable. But it depends. Sometimes we’ll see TSH a [00:11:00] little bit higher ’cause there’s more demand for thyroid hormone from the baby too.  So it really depends. Yeah.

Dr. Weitz: And what about level of free T3 and free T4 for being able to diagnose hyperthyroidism?

Dr. Osansky: Yeah. Well, I mean, according to like United States values I consider an optimal T four, free T four to be between one and 1.5, an optimal free T three to be like between three and 3.5.  Now that being said, if someone has like a free T four of like. Yeah, 1.6 and a free T three of like 3.7. That’s usually still within the lab reference range, depending on the, because as you know, different labs use a different reference range. Of course, most of the time it’ll be within the range. But but then again, that sometimes that’s high enough to put the TSH lower or even undetectable.  But yeah, I mean, again, to me, I, it’s, I still would consider it more subclinical at those [00:12:00] levels. But again, still it’s worth looking at. ’cause I mean, what gr everybody’s different. Some people it happens really quick where they might, their thyroid hormone shoot up, TSH you know, gets depressed pretty quickly.  Other times it might start out as subclinical and then maybe a few months it kind of turns into full blown grave. So, unlike medical doctors, we don’t wanna play the waiting game and just say, I mean, we wanna look at antibodies. In that situation, just make sure that they don’t have thyroid antibodies and that we don’t have to start working on the autoimmune component.

Right. So

Dr. Weitz: That’s where you’re looking at TSI and sometimes patients with Graves also have elevated TPO antibodies as well.

Dr. Osansky: Pretty common. The research shows between 60 and 80% of people with Graves have elevated TPO antibodies. And I think Hashimoto’s, it’s like 90%. And then, yeah.

Dr. Weitz: Why would they have some of the same antibodies as [00:13:00] patients with Hashimoto’s?

Dr. Osansky: Yeah, I mean, it’s a good question. I mean, some people have all three antibodies.

Dr. Weitz:  So why is that?

Dr. Osansky:  Why does, like, when I dealt with Graves, I just had TSI, I didn’t have t TPO antibodies or th globulin antibodies. Some people have, a lot of people have TSI. And TPO, and then I’d say probably like 20 to 30% have all three antibodies.  So why is that? Why do some people have one, others have two, other have all three. I mean, there’s, as you know, there’s, if you have one autoimmune condition, you’re more likely to have multiple autoimmune conditions. And even though all three of those are thyroid antibodies, they’re different thyroid, you know, they’re attacking different parts.  Like the immune system is attacking different parts of the thyroid gland in all three situations. So similar where you could have those thyroid antibodies and then you could have other autoantibodies associated with other autoimmune conditions. So there are different, and there, there could [00:14:00] be overlap of triggers, but there could also be different triggers.  And I, I think that’s why sometimes let’s say if we have someone who has all three antibodies and in a perfect world. When trying to address the root cause of the condition, we’ll want to see the antibodies decrease and normalize, which is easier said than done. Sometimes it could drive you crazy trying to normalize them but it’s not uncommon to see, like, let’s say TSI eventually normalize, but then maybe TPO and ortho th globulins still remain elevated.  And so there might be, and usually there are multiple triggers. So, and like I said, the same thing with other autoimmune conditions. So if you have other autoantibodies, it’s just that, again, it could be one, potentially one trigger causing all the different autoimmune conditions. It could be multiple triggers and usually is multiple triggers.  And then according to that, tried of autoimmunity or three-legged stool of autoimmunity. You also have that leaky gut component that’s also playing a role. But then also there’s [00:15:00] genetics too. So like really do as wide as someone develop celiac disease instead of Hashimoto’s or someone develops both Hashimoto’s and celiac disease or a Graves disease.  Hashimoto’s and celiac disease, again, it’s a combination of genetics, environmental factors that increase in intestinal permeability. So that’s that triad of autoimmunity.

Dr. Weitz: Oh. So when a patient goes to see a conventional endocrinologist for Graves disease, what are the most common treatments?

Dr. Osansky: Yeah, it’s pretty much three treatments.  For the most part. One is medication antithyroid medication, methimazole. Is the MO or tapazole the most common antithyroid medication given? Sometimes there’s also what’s called propal thiol or PTU. That’s something, especially if someone is pregnant, like the first trimester of pregnancy, they’re usually given PTU or they can’t tolerate the metrazole.  They, many times they can’t tolerate the PTU either, but [00:16:00] sometimes they’ll, they can so usually the antithyroid medication, some people also on beta blockers certain beta blockers like propanolol affect that t like the, it inhibits the T4 to T3 conversion. So, and then number two, radioactive iodine, which pretty much using radiation to destroy the cells of the thyroid gland.

And usually making someone hypo. Not all the time though. Some people need multiple. Treatments with, if they get like one treatment, radioactive iodine, they might still remain hyper if the doctor used a lower dose. And then the third option, thyroid surgery, it’s usually complete thyroidectomy.  And I mean the great thing about that, it does cure the hyperthyroidism, but the bad thing is that two bad things. One, and I, well, one it, you do need to take thyroid hormone the rest of your life. Which again, that’s, I mean, some people do need to do that, but the probably the worst thing is that you’re not doing anything for the autoimmune component of graves.  ’cause again, it’s more, as [00:17:00] we discussed, more of an immune system condition. So you’re still at risk of developing other autoimmune conditions in the future with really any of those three methods. But unfortunately with radioactive on surgery, the most medical doctors just say that’s the cure. And you know, now you’re good to go.

Just take thyroid hormone the rest of your life. All is well. And and yeah, unfortunately that’s not always the case. Some people do well, you know, with surgery, some people do okay with radioactive iodine, but many people don’t do well and you just don’t know if you’ll be, if you with any procedure, obviously with that, you just don’t know.  So, of course I’m gonna be biased and say always try to address the cause of the problem. You could always get surgery, you could always get radioactive iodine, but once you get either one of those, you can’t undo that. You can’t turn back time.

Dr. Weitz: Yeah. Interestingly, the second of those, the second and third treatments you mentioned, the radioactive iodine in the removal of the thyroid gland, or it would be the same treatment as if you had [00:18:00] thyroid cancer.  Mm-hmm. So in no way is it really fixing anything, it’s just correcting some of the symptoms. Now from a functional medicine perspective, we want to ask. What has gone wrong now? Your immune system now is attacking yourself, whereas your immune system is supposed to just attack foreign invaders like bacteria and viruses and things like that help with wound healing.  But somehow the immune system now is attacking your thyroid gland and what, what’s gone wrong That your body is not doing the right thing.

Dr. Osansky: Yeah, another great question. And I mean, we’re still obviously learning about autoimmunity. You know, we have a lot of answers, but we still don’t have all the answers.  But, you know, there’s a lot of things that can cause the immune system to go haywire. I mean, we, you know, we definitely live in a more toxic world than we do, than we have you know, for [00:19:00] in the last like 10, 15, 20 years. Compared to 50 years ago. I mean, just it’s, and it’s getting worse and worse.  All these chemicals the xenoestrogens, the microplastics, the glyphosate just yeah, I mean they, they could, some of these can affect the thyroid directly and like as endocrine disrupting chemicals. But as far as the autoimmune component, they also could affect the immune system. And many of these, we know glyphosate affects, disrupts the gut microbiome.

We know that microplastics also affect the gut microbiome and nanoplastics and even heavy metals affect the gut microbiome. Which again, I didn’t know until a few years ago. I knew that they have negative effects on the immune system and mercury could affect the thyroid. But a lot of these things affect the gut and we’re just learning a lot more.  I mean, you really. Really didn’t hear a lot about gut microbiome like 10 years ago, you know, compared to today. Like there’s so much research if you just go on PubMed, it’s just amazing how much [00:20:00] research, and now they’re really, I mean, even I guess 10 years ago, I mean, I went through the, my, the Institute of Functional Medicine training.  I mean, I started that in 2014. And even back then, they were talking about the gut. But again, it’s just exploded compared to then. And so a lot of these chemicals affect the gut. The foods which relate to like the, again, a lot of chemicals in the food, the glyphosate, you know, and the pesticide. Other like, pesticides and just you know, and then of course a lot of controversy with the gluten.  And then there’s talks about molecular mimicry when it comes to

Dr. Weitz: yeah, that was the main mechanism that we currently understand as the reason why the immune system now starts attacking yourself because. It recognizes yourself as foreign. Exactly. Like you said, it’s a, you, the antibodies say to a virus and then there’s protein structures in the body saying the thyroid gland [00:21:00] are somewhere else that are similar to what they what the antibodies are attacking.

Exactly.

Dr. Osansky: Yeah. But you know, again, I think. I mean, I think about infections like viruses bacteria. I mean, they’ve been around for a long time, at least things like Epstein Barr, you know, and h pylori, which have been associated with graves. But like I said, the toxins are something different.  Even the gluten now is like different compared to many years ago. So. So, yeah I think that’s the big difference, like the, yeah. The infections are definitely a factor. I mean, when during the pandemic we definitely had an influx of people who got COVID. Yeah, no, there’s no doubt

Dr. Weitz: that, you know, one of the things that C did is help reactivate other viruses like Epstein Barr and Dr. Vojdani has published a study showing that the COVID virus is one of the most autoimmune, reactive viruses we have ever had, or [00:22:00] perhaps the most. So unfortunately, this virus infection that affected the whole world is liable to lead to an increase in autoimmunity.

Dr. Osansky: Yeah. Yep.

Dr. Weitz: I agree. And definitely have seen that.  Yeah. So, among the possible triggers. One of the triggers for hypothyroid is I is iodine. And we saw when, so across the United States, there used to be high rates of a thyroid condition known as goer, where the thyroid would become enlarged. And that was because of a lack of iodine. So in order to address that, the United States and a lot of other countries started adding salt to the diet in the United States, we did it particularly with w we added not salt.  We added iodine to the diet. And in the United States, we did it by adding iodine to the salt. I salt. Yeah. And we still have iod eye salt. And what [00:23:00] happened is rates of goiter went way down, but rates of autoimmune thyroid went way up. And we see that excess iodine induces an inflammatory response in the thyroid which is critical for the development of thyroid autoantibodies.  Does this also play a role in hyperthyroid?

Dr. Osansky: It can. Yeah. It, I mean, I definitely have people that start working with me and that was supposedly the trigger, or at least like the straw that broke the camel’s back where, you know, that’s where it changed, where they started. Taking, let’s say high dose iodine supplements that they, that maybe they’ve read a book somewhere or watch ’em videos and heard that it’s actually good for beneficial for thyroid health because yeah, it’s their like 10, 15 years.  I forgot when Dr. David Brownstein came out with his book, you know, iodine, why you need It, why you Can’t live without it. Right. [00:24:00] But, you know, that was, I know it was before I, you know, I was diagnosed with Graves in 2008 and I’m pretty sure it was before then. I mean, I interviewed Bro Brownstein on, not the podcast, but on, just before I had a podcast, the blog, and that was, came out in 2010.  So anyway, so his book’s been out for a long time and prior to my Graves Disease diagnosis, they were encouraging not only people with Hashimoto’s, but with hyperthyroidism graves. To supplement with iodine or maybe do a urinary iodine test. And again, based on brownstein’s findings. 

Dr. Weitz:  And this is very high dosages of iodine.

Dr. Osansky: Exactly, yeah, exactly. Like, like 25, 50, not micrograms, but milligrams. Right. Of potassium iodide. And I’ll be honest, when I, you know, years ago when I was dealing with graves. I took, I, you know, again I just, ’cause that’s what they were teaching, you know, when going through like standard process seminars for example and you know, they’re well known and just like, and the, and it wasn’t just [00:25:00] the companies, but the people who were teaching were, you know, it wasn’t until, if you’re familiar with Dr.  Diz, Ian yeah. And he came out with his book in 2010 or 2011. And then, you know, he was more, more talking about the the problem, the iodine controversy. And up until then, not up until then, but, and it’s not like I was taking high-dose iodine for years, but I took it for a few months. Not 50 milligrams, but about 25 milligrams.  And honestly I did fine. Like, it is not like it was this was after dealing with graves, so it’s not like it triggered the graves and it didn’t seem to make things worse in my situation. I was doing a lot of other things too. But for a year, for probably like a couple of years. I was recommending iodine, like do to my patients also.

Like, just ’cause that’s what I was taught and that’s what I, sure. So, so let’s do an iodine loading test. Let’s and then most people would show up deficient with that. And so let’s put ’em on an iodine protocol. And then, you know, I realized, oh, you know, I did start realizing that some people didn’t [00:26:00] do well with iodine.  And sometimes it, it could be a potential trigger. And and again, it could be, not obvious until you look at the antibodies and you see the antibodies shooting up. But then there are some cases, I mean, I remember and thankfully this person wasn’t my patient. Not that it made me feel any better, but I remember a person emailing me and just like saying just like she randomly took iodine and it really like flared up her thyroid eye disease like symptoms and, you know, just, I would’ve felt really bad if it was my, like, if I recommended that to a patient right.  And they did it based on my recommendations. I still felt bad for this person. But, you know, yeah. I mean I’ve, I have seen people get worse. What? Iodine?

Dr. Weitz: Yeah. I have Hashimoto’s and my TSH was like. Around seven, and it went up to nine. So I thought, let me try this high do iodine, and I took the 12 and a half milligrams and it shot up to 25.  So I, yeah. So I’d get [00:27:00] off.

Dr. Osansky: And they’ll say, I mean, if you read like the Brownstein’s book and dive into, I guess, you know, their research, they’ll say that the increased TSH is common when you supplement iodine. But the, I think the big concern is, you know, a, like how is it affecting the autoimmune component?  ’cause that’s what Dr. Kian talks about. Not necessarily just the impact on the thyroid, but is it actually like you said, a trigger, like an autoimmune trigger. And then with hyperthyroidism, when you think about it, you know, like you need iodine to produce more thyroid hormone. Now if you take it in high doses, sometimes it could have the opposite effect.  It could have like a suppressive effect. But it could also, in some cases, exacerbate the hyperthyroidism, or in some cases where people were taking it and they weren’t hyper to begin with, and then they see me because they were, you know, that’s what they were doing. They were taking the high dose iodine and became hyper upon, you know, the high dose supplementation.

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Dr. Weitz:  So let’s get into your natural treatment. Should we start with DIA first? What do you wanna start with?

Dr. Osansky: Yeah, that’s fine. Let’s, yeah, let’s go. I mean, it’s, I always like starting with the foundation, so like diet, stress management, sleep.  So yeah, we definitely could start there.

Dr. Weitz: So what are the foundations of a good therapeutic diet for somebody with hyperthyroid?

Dr. Osansky: Yeah, great question. You know, so the hyperthyroid healing diet, it’s a little bit misleading because it, when someone looks at the title, it might, they might get the impression there’s like a single [00:30:00] diet for hyperthyroidism, but I actually talk about three different diets because there’s really not.  One diet for everyone. And I mean, one, one could argue there’s not just three diets either that’s in the book, but but so the first, so you’re familiar, I’m sure with autoimmune paleo, like autoimmune protocol. Yeah. And you know, so in my book I talk about, I have like level three, which is like a modified a IP diet level two, which is a modified paleo diet.  And then level one, which, I dunno if you’re familiar with Dr. Steven Gundry’s work, which the Plant Paradox, right? So it’s like, kind of like a modified plant paradox diet. Okay. And so, yeah. So if like for Graves. I do recommend either like a level two LE or a level three diet, like e If not, if someone finds an a IP diet too challenging because it is pretty restrictive, then I recommend just at the very least like a paleo diet while healing, it doesn’t mean like a permanent diet.  And just and the, [00:31:00] I mean, the purpose behind these diets is, you know, obviously with any diet you want to avoid. Refined foods and sugars you want to avoid fast food, but with a IP also. And then I mean, the common allergen like gluten, dairy with both paleo and a IP you avoid grains because they could be harsh on the gut.  Even like the none like even the gluten-free grains nightshades oar are excluded. It’s almost like an elimination diet. I mean, you could say, well, not there, there are health benefits and nightshades. Eggs are excluded. And there’s definitely, I mean, I eat eggs, like there’s health benefits to eggs, but just like even a lot of regular elimination diets will avoid, maybe not so much the nightshades, but eggs is considered like a common allergen.

So, so it’s really just avoiding common allergens as well as foods that could potentially affect the healing of the gut since you have that leaky gut component. And and then like I said, with any healthy diet, you’re gonna want to avoid [00:32:00] the refined foods, the sugars unhealthy oils and all that stuff.  But yeah, so I usually lead people more towards the level three or like a IP type diet. But again, if they’re not for those are graves. If they find it too restrictive, then like a paleo diet. But if someone’s a vegan vegetarian, they might find even a paleo diet to be really difficult to follow, especially if they’re vegan and they’re, I mean, with paleo it allows eggs, but if you’re vegan, you can’t even eat eggs.  So with level one or a modified plant paradox diet, that does allow, like pressure cooked legumes as like a source of protein and just it does allow some more flexibility.

Dr. Weitz: Do you purposely have patients consume goiterogenic foods like broccoli that some people feel inhibit thyroid production?

Dr. Osansky: I have in the past I didn’t find it to work. It’s like years ago I’ve had pregnant, like, ’cause women who are pregnant who see me, [00:33:00] usually if they’re looking to take a natural approach, they don’t wanna take the medication during pregnancy, which I don’t tell ’em not to take it, but if they refuse to take it, it’s not good to have unmanaged hyperthyroidism.  So, you know, years ago what I did is I intend, I had like pregnant women eat large amounts of cruciferous vegetables, like broccoli for example. Seeing if that would suppress thyroid hormone and I really didn’t see that. Yeah, I mean unfortunately ’cause it would be great just take the bro eat a lot of broccoli and kale and cabbage, brussel sprouts and don’t have to worry about taking the antithyroid medication.  But I just didn’t see it really being effective.

Dr. Weitz: So what are some of the other components of your integrative functional medicine approach to hyperthyroidism?

Dr. Osansky: Yeah. So, well, stress management. So again, diet and lifestyle. We spoke about diet. Stress. Stress. Okay. Stress, huge. Not just emotional stressors, but [00:34:00] physical stressors over training, which I was guilty of when I was prior to my grave disease diagnosis.  So, most people I work with, they have a chronic stress components. So yeah.

Dr. Weitz: How do you address that?

Dr. Osansky: Yeah. Well, I, like, first of all, I like to test for adrenals. And the reason I like to test for adrenals. Is what my story. I knew stress was a factor, but I was in denial that I was I thought I was doing a good job of handling it.  So I was like, yeah, I know stress is a factor, I just could handle it good. But then I did my adrenals and I saw that was my adrenals were shot, my cortisol was low. My DHEA was low secretary IGA was low. Pretty much everything was low. And that convinced me that, okay, now I see my adrenals are a mess and I need to improve it.  And then I could also retest, which I did a few months later to see them improvement. So I know not every practitioner likes doing adrenal testing, but I do like, either doing an adrenal [00:35:00] saliva test or like a Dutch test that also looks at the adrenals as well as the sex hormones. 

Dr. Weitz: And which company are you using for your adrenal testing most of the time? 

Dr. Osansky:  Usually I use diagnostics. Okay. I mean, if someone, if I’m working with someone internationally, I might use Genova their adrenal saliva test. Like if someone’s in the uk, they don’t have access to Right. Like diagnostics. So, I mean, but I mean there’s other ZRT is really good. I mean, there’s a lot of a number of good saliva tests.

Dr. Weitz:  What are some of your favorite go-to supplements for patients who have decreased adrenal function?  Like you said, your adrenals were in the toilet.

Dr. Osansky: Yeah. Licorice root which you gotta be careful if you have high blood pressure, licorice root might increase blood pressure. I do like, 

Dr. Weitz: and for this purpose, you don’t want to use deglycerized licorice. 

Dr. Osansky:  Exactly. Yeah. The DGL licorice is good for a gut mucosa for the gut lining, but yeah, you want to use just a regular licorice [00:36:00] root for low cortisol. So yeah. I’m glad you brought that up. And then, b vitamins b like a B complex typically, right? Sometimes an adrenal glandular for support as well.  And I mean, there’s some really good herbs. One, one thing you might find, I mean you pro probably already know, but if not, or your audience doesn’t know aswa Ganza, which is commonly used for adrenal function there’s some controversy with ashwaganda and hyperthyroidism because it could also.  Stimulate not only the HPA access, but the HPT access, the hypothalamic pituitary thyroid access. And in some people it cause mild hyperthyroidism. So people gotta be careful. I love ashwagandha and I’m not saying I never give it, but but if you take like a separate ashwagandha supplement that has like 500 milligrams of ganza, you’re at a greater risk of developing hyperthyroid.  Now the thing is with ashwagandha, like if you, we spoke about, because it

Dr. Weitz: stimulates so much thyroid production.

Dr. Osansky: Well, it’s, [00:37:00] yeah. I mean, it stimulates the HPT access, but. So, which yeah, like the hypothalamus pituitary, which communicates that a thyroid and Yes. So essentially you’re getting some ex extra production of thyroid hormone, but once you stop it, it does seem like it stops.  And I bring that up. ’cause with iodine, sometimes it doesn’t stop. Like someone will, might take like high dose iodine and it might induce hyperthyroidism and then, okay, I’m gonna stop the high dose iodine. But they the hyperthyroidism persists with, so it’s definitely not the same mechanism as that.  But then also astro is a member of the nitrate family. So if someone is following a IP right, they probably want to also avoid it if they’re trying to strictly avoid a IP. But I, yeah, so Ash so I usually don’t give Ashra ganza specifically, but but there are other herbs. Rhodiola is really a good herb.  For adrenal support. Romania, you don’t hear as much about that, but that’s also. A good herb. Holy basil. So, yeah, so those are some of the support I would [00:38:00] give for blood cortisol. Okay. And then we have gut health. Yep. So gut health, we spoke a little bit earlier about the problems with everything destructing, the gut microbiome.

So probably the number one thing is to try to avoid those factors. The, there’s that five, the five R protocol. So remove, replace, repair remove, replace, re inoculate, repair, rebalance. So that remove component, you wanna remove gluten, it can, since it could cause the leaky gut, right? We spoke about glyphosate, which I’m trying to minimize glyphosate since it, it can cause gut dysbiosis.  And, you know, if you have gut infections which again, a lot of controversy with h pylori, some don’t even consider it a gut infection. Some say, well, you know, HB is, you know, normal. Same thing with parasites. A lot of controversy with parasites. But you wanna, you want to remove the factor or factors that’s disrupting the gut.

And then, you know, Reno replace things like digestive enzymes. If someone has low stomach acid address that, [00:39:00] like whether it’s petain, HCL or bitter herbs re inoculate, prebiotics, probiotics, repair, drinking things like bone broth or cabbage juice if you’re a vegan, vegetarian. And then of course, L-glutamine, aloe vera, zinc, carine, things that could support the gut.  DGL licorice, which you mentioned earlier. And then and then the last are rebalance. So rebalance the adrenals, the nervous system, the parasympathetic nervous system. So in a nutshell it’s not as easy as it sounds, but but yeah, just the biggest thing is like there’s so many things that are disrupting the gut.  So we obviously wanna do things to help repair it, but we can’t repair it if we’re constantly being exposed to these factors.

Dr. Weitz:  So you mentioned toxins. How do we address toxins?

Dr. Osansky: Yeah, that’s a big challenge. I mean, in our homes is where we could do the most like once we step outside of our house, we can’t really.  Do too [00:40:00] much. But in our home, we could again, buy organic food. We could use natural cleaners and cosmetics. We could get a water purifier, we could get an air purifier. So really just, I would say try to do as much as you can in your own home. And then you could do things to support detoxification. Eating.  We mentioned cruciferous vegetables are actually good for supporting the detox pathways. Obviously staying hydrated as well. And then there’s time and place for supplementation. Things like n-acetylcysteine or liposomal glutathione even milk thistle and then sauna. I do so now sauna, I’ll say this, I do sauna like two or three times a week.  If you’re hyper, you wanna be careful because if you’re in the sauna, it’s gonna raise your heart rate. And so if you have unmanaged hyperthyroidism, especially like if you’re in the process of trying to get those thyroid hormone levels down and you have a heart rate of. A hundred beats per minute or higher.  You probably wanna not go in the [00:41:00] sauna. Yeah. So, but sauna is really good for detoxification. Supporting lymphatics as well. Just which even just exercise, like, just re which again, you wanna be careful, so, but why

Dr. Weitz: wouldn’t you want to go into sauna there? Sauna gonna relax you?

Dr. Osansky: I don’t know.  I mean, I don’t find I honestly can’t say I fi I maybe find the first 10 minutes relaxing, but then when I’m like, heat it up, you know, after like 25, 30 minutes, I’m ready to get out of the sauna. So, okay. So some people might relax, but again it’s because it’s heating, it’s increasing that heart rate too.  So that’s the main reason for that.

Dr. Weitz: So, let’s get into nutritional supplements and herbs that can help manage thyroid conditions like hyperthyroid. So, I’ve heard you talk a lot about Bugleweed, which is a natural antithyroid

Dr. Osansky: herb. Yes. So, bugleweed is, that’s what I took when I dealt with graves.  I mean, I would’ve considered the Antithyroid [00:42:00] medication if the Bugleweed didn’t work, but when I attended some functional endocrinology seminars prior to being diagnosed, that’s when I learned about Bugleweed as well as the mother wart, which is kind of like a natural beta blocker. So I took the bugleweed to help lower the thyroid hormones.  And yeah, in my case, it did a wonderful job. I’d say probably like 70, 75% of people that take it, it helps some people, it just doesn’t work. But there’s bugleweed, there’s mother War, like I said, which focuses more on the heart rate. The cardiovascular system, l-carnitine in higher doses helps to, that seems like it blocks the entry of thyroid hormone into the cell.  And just a recent study came out on L-Carnitine and Selenium combined. August 2025, a study came out showing that not even a lot of. Of each, like there, there’s earliest studies showing that you need two to four grams of l-carnitine to help to block the entry of [00:43:00] thyroid hormone to the cell. And a common dose of Selenium given by practitioners is like 200 micrograms.

’cause Selenium, there’s a lot of research showing that could help with lowering antibodies, by reducing oxidative stress. Right. But there’s a 2025 study showing that 500 milligrams of alcarnitine combined with 80, I think it’s 83 micrograms of selenium, helped to not only allow people with graves, it was specific for Graves disease.  They were able to take less antithyroid medication, but then also in addition to that, they it led to their thyroid hormone not, I’m sorry, the thyroid antibodies lowering quicker com compared to the control group. So the combination of L-carnitine and Selenium. Something to maybe consider also for a symptom manage from a symptom management’s perspective.

Dr. Weitz: It’s interesting ’cause I’ve always found Selenium to be really helpful for high both thyroid.

Dr. Osansky: Yeah. Well, well it’s for both. ’cause again, it’s it’s more [00:44:00] bo you have oxidative stress with both Hashimoto’s and Graves. So it does make sense that for really either of those conditions, it could be beneficial.

Right.

Dr. Weitz: And what is the specific dosage of bugleweed? I, one of the things I’ve noticed with a lot these herbal products is they don’t always list a specific dosage and there’s often a combination and they’ll say proprietary blend of bugleweed, mother ward, lemon balm, you know?

Dr. Osansky: Yeah, that’s a great question because there are formulas like thyroid calming formula from Herb Pharm that has the bugleweed, the mother ward, the lemon balm, and then it just says like, I forget the dosing.  It has some kind of cactus as well. Take a drop.

Dr. Weitz: Yeah. Is cactus beneficial?

Dr. Osansky: I don’t know. I haven’t learned, again, I don’t know why that’s in there because again, we know that the bugleweed, the benefits of Bugleweed mother war, and then we didn’t speak about lemon balm that has some mild antithyroid properties.  But [00:45:00] yeah, the cactus I’ve seen that’s I think specific to the thyroid calming formula from Herb Pharma. I think that’s the one that has it. There’s also, there’s, yeah, it’s

Dr. Weitz: Herb Farm.

Dr. Osansky: Yep. Yeah. ’cause there’s a few others that have a combination of the Bugleweed mother war lemon balm. But you’re right, a lot of times their proprietary blends and what I tell people is the bugleweed is the most important.  So if you’re trying to lower thyroid hormones, you probably wanna just take it separately. I mean, if someone’s taking a combo and they’re getting, and they’re doing it seems like it’s helping, I’m not gonna tell ’em to stop doing it. But if they’re not taking anything, I’ll say, just take we separately, you know, what the exact

Dr. Weitz: dosage of of Bugleweed is supposed to be.

Dr. Osansky: I, so it depends on the person and it depends on the extract. So, okay. I took Medi Herb Bugleweed, which is a one to two extract, and I took. A one teaspoon twice per day, which is five milliliters, twice per day. That’s a common dose. Okay. Some people will take, maybe some people only need maybe like half a teaspoon of that if someone’s taking [00:46:00] Herb Pharma, like Herb Pharma is a one to five extract, so it’s not as potent.  So they might need to take more than a tea. They might have to take like two or two and a half teaspoons multiple times per day. So really depends on the potency. But that’s what I took. Well, and that’s usually I recommend the midyear bugleweed. It’s I mean, there’s other ones, or Herb Farm actually is good quality.  I think it’s just the potency is lower. But that’s also an option too. I mean there’s as you can imagine, it’s not as popular as like Vitamin z Bugleweed, where, you know, if you go to a health food store, you might struggle to find Bugleweed. ‘Cause it’s, again, it’s really more

Dr. Weitz: How many people have hyperthyroid?  Do we know how many people in the population?

Dr. Osansky: Well, Hashimoto’s is like eight times more prevalent, I believe. And that’s, I think the known causes, right? There’s a lot of people who are misdiagnosed. And so, I think every year there’s around maybe a million new cases of hyperthyroidism, which might sound like a lot, but when you look at how big the [00:47:00] population is, it’s not a huge number.  Maybe like one, 1.2 million the last that I saw. Okay. Okay. But yeah, so it’s I mean, again, so there, I mean, definitely enough, enough to keep me busy, but compared to Hashimoto’s it’s yeah not nearly as common.

Dr. Weitz: Are there any other supplements that could be helpful?

Dr. Osansky: I mean vitamin Z, you know, we mentioned vi vitamin D for modulating immune system.  Yeah. And that, well, I mean, you also mentioned from a symptom management standpoint, I think we covered it. There’s also lithium orate you’re probably familiar. Lithium carbonate is a medication that right. Used for depression. Not as commonly these days, but they realize it makes people hypo.  Right. But yeah. And then there’s lithium orate, which you can get over the counter and that Yeah. 

Dr. Weitz:  Which is also referred to as like nutritional lithium, and mm-hmm. We use that a lot for mood disorders.

Dr. Osansky: Yeah. So it could help us certainly with that as well. 

Dr. Weitz:  It’s even been shown to help with brain function.

Okay. Oh, cool. Yeah. Decreased risk of dementia.

Dr. Osansky: [00:48:00] Yeah. No that’s awesome. Yeah. So, yeah. But yeah, like other supplements vitamin DI mean, omegas, if someone’s not eating fish. You know, they probably are deficient in Omega-3 fatty acids, so they probably need to take an omega. I mean, I usually recommend probiotics to help support the gut microbiome.

And then depends on the testing. I do like to do functional me. So we mentioned like adrenals, for example, right? If we do an adrenal saliva test or Dutch test and you know, if someone’s showing issues with the adrenals, we’ll give usually, I mean, of course we’re gonna say also block out time for stress management, which is arguably even more important than taking the supplements.

Make sure he get sufficient sleep and which could be a work in progress in itself. And then yeah, if we do a GI map or another comprehensive stool test and we see h pylori clearly positive, I’ll put some on an antimicrobial protocol for that. Right. So, so some of it depends on the testing.

There’s definitely a general recommendations. And then there’s what do we see with the testing that we do,

Dr. Weitz: especially when we’re [00:49:00] looking for the underlying triggers. Exactly. Yep. You got it. If you’re doing hormone testing, do you find other hormones are affected by hyperthyroid?

Dr. Osansky: Yeah, I mean, it is pretty common for hyperthyroidism to affect the other hormones.  And I mean, some women will even stop cycling, like when they’re dealing with hyperthyroidism graves sometimes. I mean, not, I won’t say most people, most women but it’s not uncommon where, you know, we’ll see someone with graves and or even sometimes a non autoimmune hyperthyroid condition and, you know, they’ll stop cycling for a few months until the thyroid hormones are under control.  So, yeah, it does affect the hormones and I mean. Yeah, just like if you look at a Dutch test, it also affects, you could see which makes sense. Like the Dutch test not only looks at hormones but metabolites. And one of the things they’ll look at is cortisol metabolites. And so you usually see elevated cortisol metabolites ’cause it’s like increasing the metabolism of [00:50:00] cortisol.  So, so yeah, there’s cer there’s definitely some patterns you’ll see meaning it’s getting processed quicker. Exactly, yes. And like with hypo it’s the opposite. So if you do a Dutch test and you’re have overtly low thyroid hormones usually see like low cortisol metabolism. So, so yeah. It’s interesting.

Dr. Weitz: Another medication I’ve heard you mention is low dose naltrexone. Yep. LDN. Yep. LDN. What do you think about that?

Dr. Osansky: I mean, I’m okay with it. It’s you know, I can’t say I love it or I hate it. It’s just another tool. Like it’s so l low dose naltrexone modulates the immune system and it’s kind of hit or miss.  It doesn’t always work. And it could take time for it to work. They usually start out with a lower dose and then gradually increase it. I mean, if it works I mean the benefit is that it’s actually focusing on the immune system and we mentioned numerous times, graves is autoimmune. Same thing with Hashimoto.  So, [00:51:00] it’s it’s not just focusing on the thyroid. The downside is just like everything else, like the medication and other things. We, some of the other things we discussed, it’s not just in a cause that a problem. So if someone’s on LDN, it might actually normalize the thyroid antibodies, which sounds great, but if you’re trying to address the cost of the problem.

You might not know if what you’re, if other things you’re doing are working. ’cause you’re taking the LDN. So it’s kind of like with the methimazole, the antithyroid medication, it’s lowering the thyroid hormones, but it’s not normalizing the antibodies. So at least if someone’s on Methimazole, you could still look at that TSI and if they have other antibodies.

But if it’s on the L, if they’re on the LDN, then the antibodies are normal. You don’t know, is it due to the LDN or is it due to some of the other things that you’re doing? And yeah, so that’s where it could get challenging. Right. Great.

Dr. Weitz: So I think those are the questions that I had prepared.  Anything else you want to tell our listeners and viewers about, [00:52:00]

Dr. Osansky: I mean, you cover, you know, we, you asked a lot of good questions. We covered a lot. I mean, just I mean, the biggest thing is. There’s a few big things. I mean, you wanna be safe with managing the symptoms

Dr. Weitz: while, so you have a lot of patients are having seen an endocrinologist who’s telling them that maybe they need to go on medication or they need to, you know, have some of these other treatments.  It must be tricky managing some of these patients who are worried, do I need to do radioactive iodine? Do I need to get surgery?

Dr. Osansky: Yeah, I mean, definitely they’re, I mean, it’s it is challenging because there endocrinologists have this strong belief that they need this and could be very convincing.  And can make it very scary for the patients. And it is, and it could be scary. I mean, you hear things like thyroid storm, which does happen, where you know it’s a medical emergency and most people have a thyroid storm. They do. Okay. But still, [00:53:00] you know, is it possible that, I mean, people can die. I mean, bad things can happen, but that’s why.

I was saying you want to be safe, that’s the number one thing is being safe. And if it means taking the antithyroid medication, so be it again, like I’m not opposed to the medication. There’s a time and place for that. Again, if someone’s not taking it and they’re trying the herbs or they’re trying the natural agents like l-carnitine and if that’s helping grape, but if not and he needs to take the medication while addressing the cause, that’s fine.

So my goal is not to fight with the endocrinologist. Obviously we have different goals. Their goal is just to, you know, give the meds I mean on a con on the conservative side, give anep our medication for a year and a half, two years and pray that the person goes into remission, which is usually temporary ’cause they never did anything to address the cause of the problem.

On the aggressive side or radioactive I on thyroid surgery, you know, on, on my, you know, so when they work with an endocrinologist, it’s not, I wouldn’t say it’s real. I mean, sometimes it’s challenging because they’re anxious and they’re [00:54:00] scared initially. But most people who are working with me, they’ve read my books, at least one of my books, they’re familiar with my podcast.

So they kind of, it makes sense that, hey, this is more of a thyroid condition. Why? I mean, more of an immune system condition. So why am I going to remove my thyroid or, you know, nuke my thyroid? You know, it makes sense. Yeah. Let’s focus on the immune system. And like I said, you could always get radioactive iodine.

You could always get thyroid surgery, but if so many people over the years have expressed regret because they jumped into it and they didn’t even know that there was a possibility. Right.

Dr. Weitz: Once you remove your thyroid, there’s no possibility of doing anything else. No natural treatment or anything else.  So, and what you’re saying is, try a natural approach. If you’re so inclined, if you’re on a medication, you can still try the natural approach to get to some of the underlying root causes and get the condition under control. And if that’s the case, then over time you may be [00:55:00] able to wean yourself off with the help of your endocrinologist from the medication and like yourself, continue to lead a healthy life without taking medication, without having surgery or radiation.  Just by paying attention to diet and lifestyle and all the natural things that help balance out our bodies and our physiology and our immune system.

Dr. Osansky: Yeah, I could have said it better. So, yeah. And not

Dr. Weitz: only do you overcome your hyperthyroid or manage your hyperthyroid, how do you like to look at it?  Do you feel like you’ve overcome hyperthyroid or you feel like you’re managing it?

Dr. Osansky: Oh, no, I definitely overcame it. And I don’t like to use the word cure because there are genetics involved, but to me, managing would be like, if I was still taking bugleweed, which I haven’t taken since 2009, right? So if I was taking that to keep my hyperthyroid in checked, then to me that’s managing it.  But once you’re not relying on any medication or supplements Right. To keep the thyroid hormones in [00:56:00] check, to me it’s reverse. The goal is really to reverse the autoimmune component and to reverse the hundred thyroid. So

Dr. Weitz: What is your, what kind of TSH do you typically run? Say? Typically like,

Dr. Osansky: 1.1, 1.2.

Okay. Yeah. So on the lower end, but not hyperthyroid. Correct. Yeah. And yeah, I mean, if someone’s TSH is like 0.9 or 0.8, I mean, again, I like to see it above one, but if that everybody’s normal is different, just like, you know, I like to see it between one and 1.5. If someone’s like 1.7 and that’s where it is, like all the time, like 1.7, 1.8, but it’s not getting higher, not getting lower, and they’re not on anything, I mean, I’m not gonna try to force it and say, oh, we need to get it within that, you know, one to 1.5.

So yeah mine runs like lower, like above one typically, but on the lower side. And yeah, that mean if it was a little bit lower, I wouldn’t get too, you know, if it kept on decreasing. Now that’s not, [00:57:00] that’s a problem, right? But but that’s why also monitor it at least once a year. If not multiple times per year.

And that includes the antibodies, because the antibodies will typically change before the thyroid. So, you know, that’s the backward, backwards thinking of most medical doctors. They just look at TSH and then if that’s at range, then they’ll start looking at other things and including maybe the antibodies.

But some talk about predictive antibody testing, which would be great to look at antibodies first. Since, again, especially Hashimotos, you could have elevated TPO and ortho globulin antibodies for like 5, 10, 15 years and have a normal TSH or at least normal within the lab range. It might be higher than optimal, but Right.  The doctors are still ignoring it.

Dr. Weitz: Right. And this is where functional medicine can really potentially shine in preventing a lot of these conditions by picking out some of these patients who have these [00:58:00] autoimmune conditions. And it’s sort of like an iceberg under the water. And we don’t really need to wait until it rises way above to try to take corrective action and bring some balance to our system.  Yeah. But we have to be able to recognize it. Agreed. Yeah. A hundred percent agree. So, I mean, great. So how can listeners and practitioner and listeners and viewers find out about getting in contact with you and getting your books?

Dr. Osansky: Yeah. Thank you. Thanks Dr. Ben. So, save my thyroid.com is my, I have actually a few websites.  I came out, natural endocrine solutions.com. Is my original website from 2010, and then when I came out with the Save My Thyroid podcast which of course you’ve been on a couple of times now. And save my thyroid.com save My Thyroid, came out in. 2021, the podcast. Yeah. Two 2021. And so I’m like, you know, save my thyroid.com is a lot easier to remember than [00:59:00] natural endocrine solutions.com.  So I still have, both websites are pretty active, but save my thyroid.com is where we could find like the podcast episodes, natural endocrine solutions.com. More love the blog post and articles that I’ve written in the past and on my books. You could find all three on Amazon. That’s probably the easiest way.  Just search Eric Osansky. If you search hyperthyroidism, you’d probably find the two since there’s not a lot of books on hyperthyroidism. And and yeah, those, I mean. Work with dr eric.com if you wanna if anybody’s interested in working with me. But I guess those are the main oh, actually one other thing I just came out with too that I’ll plug here.  I have a healing Graves naturally school group, school community. I dunno if you’ve been with school, the platform school. SKOL? No it’s out off of Facebook. It’s, yeah, right now we have about 330 something people. Huh. In there. And it’s pretty engaged. I mean, yeah. Like, just hyper. 

Dr. Weitz:  Is this like a group on Facebook or [01:00:00] what is it?

Dr. Osansky: It’s not, it’s off ofs kind like similar to a Facebook group, but it’s not also, it’s not part of Facebook, but it’s not on Facebook. It’s off of Facebook. So you don’t have to deal with, you know, the rules of Facebook and Right. And again, it’s smaller. I do have a few, like, I have a hyperthyroid group on Facebook that’s 25,000 people, which is really, you know, I kid around, I say it’s great for my ego, but it’s really too big.  Like where, you know, like, you know how Facebook works if you post something, only a small percentage of those people are going to see it in the first place. But yeah school school is cool. So, save my thyroid.com/heal Graves disease. And and that’s to join the free school group.  And yeah, so that’s, those are the best ways to to find me. 

Dr. Weitz:  Is that an educational thing? The school group?

Dr. Osansky: Yeah, I mean, it’s a few things. You actually, once you join there you, there is a training, the Graves Survival Roadmap Training. Okay. Where just I talk about you know, [01:01:00] my process and kind of a lot of things we spoke about here, but in greater detail.  So that’s a free training. So they do get education. Once a month there’s a free group call with my, one of my nutritional health coaches. We call it the Hyperthyroid Healing Diet calls. And then of course, there’s the community aspect, you know, I try to encourage engagement and so far we, we had a challenge, a Find Your Graves Disease Triggers Challenge not too long ago.  And that went really well. We had I mean that’s how I grew the school group. We had initially, like over 700 people join the challenge. Not all those people joined the school group. Only like 200 plus join the school group. But whenever I have future live events, it’ll be in that group, in that community.  So, so yeah, if you have graves or even a different type of hyperthyroidism, there are people in there with like toxic, multi nodule goiter, subclinical hyperthyroidism. And still it’s, but that’s what it focuses on is just hyperthyroidism. And so far it’s been going well. Great. [01:02:00] Excellent. Thank you so much, Eric.

Yeah.

Dr. Weitz: Thanks. Thanks Ben. Great chatting with you.

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As usual, 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.